Observations from Carver Hawkeye Arena
You could say I was lucky to have seats behind the team this afternoon, but then your definition of lucky means that you enjoy pulling out your own hair and gnashing your teeth.
I think Novak played with a concussion
The guy got the hell beat out of him early on. Obviously he had no shot which is not my only concern, but Morris was continually moving him into position in the second half. The pained look on Morris’ face every time they went into their offensive set showed me that something was up when he had to constantly keeping moving Novak to the correct spot on the floor. He was simply not "present". A Hawkeye fan behind me exclaimed that “they finally got that guy to foul out” when Novak went to the bench in the overtime, I said they probably did him a favor.
Hardaway shoots threes from the same 10 feet on the floor
Again, not sure if this was evident, but the guy launched all his threes from the left side within about the same 10 feet on the arc (not that I am complaining he was awesome to watch up close). Not sure if that is by design or the guy just loves that spot on the floor. On the flip side, Devyn Marble always shoots his pull up jumper just shaded and forward from the right side of the free throw line. Maybe it is a way to keep young shooters in a groove.
Beilein the Mad Substitutor
I was surprised how quickly guys were getting gassed after little playing time in the first half. Maybe it is a conditioning issue or maybe it was the fact that it was a street fight near the basket. I was surprised at what was being allowed away from the ball and near the ball. I think Beilein was pulling out guys too early and we did not seem to have any flow in the first half. It seemed less due to our talent and more to do with chemistry. The 5 on the floor before halftime had no idea how to play together (no fault of theirs).
Smotrycz needs help to release his talent
During the second half warm ups, I watched that guy drain 9 of 10 three pointers. However, he looked lost away from the ball, did not work aggressively to set up his shot and the ball was not going off his hand correctly during the game. The guy will kill you at HORSE, but man, he needs to translate it on the court when it matters.
Officiating? Was there any? Maybe just the bizarro kind
When I watched the game last year at CHA, I had a similar question. I guess I really don’t know what traveling or behind the back actually is since it seemed like calling both were random walk occurrences. When Iowa fans talk about how bad of a call it was that went against a Michigan player, then what you saw on TV was worse in person. Beilein deserved that first technical and probably a second as well. He was beside himself early on and was correct in his actions.
February 19th, 2011 at 10:16 PM ^
We were higher up in the corner behind the Iowa bench.
IAWolve, your initials aren't MW, are they? I'm RK -- lost your phone number.
U-M was quite lucky that Iowa fell apart there in the second half. Iowa kicked our butts in the first half, but then Hardaway took over. He looked great driving at the basket, and God bless our FT shooting for once.
February 19th, 2011 at 10:17 PM ^
Forgot to mention, I met Matt Vogrich's parents before the game. His parents went to Wisconsin and Illinois (can't recall which one went to which school), but they were very friendly.
February 20th, 2011 at 12:50 AM ^
met them in belgium. they're really proud. feel good interactions for sure.
February 20th, 2011 at 2:38 PM ^
However, I wish there were more of us
February 19th, 2011 at 10:18 PM ^
And here I was really happy with the results today until now. Thanks for straightening me out. Now i know we actually sucked.
Sheesh dude....we freaking WON.
February 19th, 2011 at 10:18 PM ^
Read on your post. I got lost. Just glad UM won.
February 20th, 2011 at 12:28 AM ^
If that is too much reading for you then this site might not be up your alley. Like when Brian, Tim or Tom write on the front page, it's more than a couple paragraphs and it's usually very good content that requires a little bit of reading and reading comprehension. You and teamort2 would make a great couple.
Hope this helps! Good luck. xoxo
February 19th, 2011 at 10:22 PM ^
Beilein may have deserved his T, but I don't understand how the Iowa coach was allowed to walk well onto the court to complain (it happened at least twice). College basketball officiating is just weird. I've heard college refs have to work insane schedules - like being in five cities in one week. Maybe they're too jetlagged to call games well.
February 19th, 2011 at 10:36 PM ^
Really?
Why are u talking?
February 19th, 2011 at 11:02 PM ^
I look forward to the return of post voting that actually counts.
February 19th, 2011 at 11:37 PM ^
well stated...right now some of this is getting tough to take...they are flinging trash with impunity
February 20th, 2011 at 9:53 AM ^
No shit. There are a number of people around here who will be -200 within ten minutes after it returns.
February 19th, 2011 at 11:02 PM ^
Really? Why are YOU talking.
February 20th, 2011 at 10:48 AM ^
What exactly was the motivation behind your eloquently stated comment, teamort2? I'm actually curious about this. What was the thought process there?
In fact, why are you on this site at all?
February 19th, 2011 at 10:26 PM ^
I thought at the time that Beilen was pulling up the reserves because he wanted to shield the starters from more fouls and because the team was shooting poorly.
February 19th, 2011 at 10:27 PM ^
That first half was Big Ten refereeing at its most botched and one-sided. Michigan was getting jobbed.
February 20th, 2011 at 12:37 AM ^
The OSU game was worse.
February 20th, 2011 at 1:52 AM ^
terrible. They're one of the bigger reason why the Big Ten as whole is a slow paced conference. They keep calling tacky fouls out in the premetier, but rarely call the same type of fouls down low. Eddie Hightower and Jim Burr are two of the worst officials that I've seen.
February 20th, 2011 at 10:14 AM ^
"Eddie Hightower and Jim Burr are two of the worst officials that I've seen."
Sorry, but this is stupid. There's a reason they've worked X NCAA finals and work full schedules.
Basketball officiating is highly regulated and evaluated. If you do poorly you don't get games. It's that simple. I got the chance to speak with the director of the ACC's officials once. He says his officials are required to be correct in 90+% of calls and no-calls and 100% in the last 4 minutes of the game. That's tough.
February 20th, 2011 at 12:43 PM ^
like Big East, ACC, Pac-10, etc. I still contend that Eddie Hightower and Jim Burr are terrible. The other officials at least let them play which is why other conferences are faster paced by a significant margin.
February 20th, 2011 at 4:00 PM ^
I could be mistaken, but I don't think there actually are conference officials in basketball. I think Hightower et al. call games for other conferences, too (which results in a crazy travel schedule for them).
February 20th, 2011 at 4:12 PM ^
Checked for you; you're correct. Hightower's page on a rating site said he was most commonly in the Big Ten though, followed by the Big East.
February 19th, 2011 at 10:30 PM ^
We played IOWa.
February 20th, 2011 at 12:29 AM ^
WHY THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING!?
February 20th, 2011 at 2:51 AM ^
Thats a big win. Playing Any big ten team on the road is a big win. Go blue!
February 20th, 2011 at 10:11 AM ^
Also,
February 19th, 2011 at 10:59 PM ^
This team has lots of reasons it shouldn't be all that good but they continue to play really hard and to execute well in tough spots. That speaks to good coaching and having kids with solid character.
Coach B is getting more out of these guys than could have possibly been expected three and a half months ago.
Kudos to the players and staff. Now let's get two of the last three.
February 20th, 2011 at 10:10 AM ^
February 20th, 2011 at 12:17 AM ^
This apparently was Iowa's first Saturday home conference game all year. How does that happen?
February 20th, 2011 at 12:25 AM ^
I like how the first post in the thread is a Darius Morris butterfly Photoshop. Real original, guys.
February 20th, 2011 at 12:51 AM ^
You expect original things from BHGP? They invented the "dude, already seen it" comment.
February 20th, 2011 at 5:17 PM ^
I liked their recap that stated they played harder because they had more rebounds. If that isn't proof of an intricate and unique knowledge of the game, I don't know what is.
February 20th, 2011 at 5:40 PM ^
I also liked his contention (offered without any support whatsoever), that they "played smarter."
http://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2011/2/20/2002988/fran-graphs-michigan#storyjump
February 21st, 2011 at 12:12 AM ^
It's sad how the quality of writing and general analysis has gone downhill lately at BHGP. It just seems like they haven't come up with anything funny and/or groundbreaking in terms of humor or stat analysis in a long time.
February 20th, 2011 at 2:41 PM ^
I can think of MSU, Minny, Wisc, NW and OSU off the top of my head for their home games this year.
February 20th, 2011 at 4:11 PM ^
This was, indeed, their first Saturday conference home game of the season. In fact, it was only the second Saturday home game of the season for Iowa. Truly weird scheduling.
Date | Opponent | Result | Tickets | Audio/Video | Video Highlights | |
Sun, Nov 14 | South Dakota St. | L 69-79 | -- | -- | -- | |
Tue, Nov 16 | LA Monroe | W 68-40 | -- | -- | -- | |
Fri, Nov 19 | at Xavier | L 73-86 | -- | -- | -- | |
Sat, Nov 20 | at Alabama | W 55-47 | -- | -- | -- | |
Mon, Nov 22 | at Long Beach St. | L 72-78 | -- | -- | -- | |
Fri, Nov 26 | SIU Edwardsville | W 111-50 | -- | -- | -- | |
Tue, Nov 30 | at Wake Forest | L 73-76 | -- | -- | -- | |
Sat, Dec 4 | Idaho St. | W 70-53 | -- | -- | -- | |
Tue, Dec 7 | Northern Iowa | W 51-39 | -- | -- | -- | |
Fri, Dec 10 | Iowa St. | L 72-75 | -- | -- | -- | |
Sat, Dec 18 | at Drake | W 59-52 | -- | -- | -- | |
Tue, Dec 21 | Louisiana Tech | W 77-58 | -- | -- | -- | |
Wed, Dec 29 | (23) Illinois | L 77-87 | -- | -- | -- | |
Tue, Jan 4 | (2) Ohio St. | L 68-73 | -- | -- | -- | |
Sun, Jan 9 | at (11) Purdue | L 52-75 | -- | -- | -- | |
Wed, Jan 12 | Northwestern | L 71-90 | -- | -- | -- | |
Sun, Jan 16 | at Minnesota | L 59-69 | -- | -- | -- | |
Wed, Jan 19 | at (1) Ohio St. | L 48-70 | -- | -- | -- | |
Sun, Jan 23 | Indiana | W 91-77 | -- | -- | -- | |
Wed, Jan 26 | at Penn St. | L 51-65 | -- | -- | -- | |
Sun, Jan 30 | at Michigan | L 73-87 | -- | -- | -- | |
Wed, Feb 2 | Michigan St. | W 72-52 | -- | -- | -- | |
Sat, Feb 5 | at Indiana | W 64-63 | -- | -- | -- | |
Wed, Feb 9 | (13) Wisconsin | L 59-62 | -- | -- | -- | |
Sun, Feb 13 | Minnesota | L 45-62 | -- | -- | -- | |
Thu, Feb 17 | at Northwestern | L 70-73 | -- | -- | -- | |
Sat, Feb 19 | Michigan | L 72-75 | -- | -- | -- | |
Date | Opponent | Time | Tickets | Audio/Video | Video Highlights | |
Sat, Feb 26 | at Illinois | 7:00 pm | Buy Tickets | -- | -- | |
Wed, Mar 2 | at Michigan St. | 6:30 pm | Buy Tickets | -- | -- | |
Sat, Mar 5 | (11) Purdue | TBA | Buy Tickets | -- | -- |
February 20th, 2011 at 12:33 AM ^
Were those of you at the game also surprised at how many fans Iowa was able to get at Carver? I was impressed. Given the fact that their team is certainly having a down year, I was expecting an empty building. Very fun game to be at. It was good to see Michigan finish a game well and make free throws when they were crucial. Away games in big ten basketball are not easy to come by, even against lousy teams like Iowa. Keep it up fellas.
February 20th, 2011 at 10:07 AM ^
The attendance was 13K+, which was great. The crowd was awfully quiet until Iowa made their huge first-half run, and then the rest of the game, the crowd was really into it. Fun atmosphere, though where I was sitting, when Michigan scored, I could only hear about 3 people clapping/cheering LOL.
February 20th, 2011 at 2:42 PM ^
The place was a church when Hardaway hit the last three in our run to start the game
February 20th, 2011 at 7:55 AM ^
late in the season, I think these guys do get worn out. The sked plays in M's favor in this, because they get three-four days before the next game each time out. MSU will be coming in on just a day's rest, which has to help.
February 20th, 2011 at 11:27 AM ^
a day's rest? or 3-days rest? I think MSU gets 3 days between its games against Iowa and us.
Your misstatement made me look at the schedule though, and it's nice to find out that Michigan has nearly a week to prepare for MSU at home.
MSU will be clawing for everything to keep its streak alive.
We have to take care of business though against Wisconsin first. Bo Ryan always has his squad ready.
Go Blue!
February 20th, 2011 at 8:04 AM ^
for both players and refs. Every away game is just like the next.
February 20th, 2011 at 9:58 AM ^
Going from your observations and what I noticed last game, it seems like conditioning is not good. I'm surprised by that at this point in the season. Could it be that they are practicing too hard or, more likely, there is a virus/cold making its rounds through the team.
Does anyone ahve any insight?
February 20th, 2011 at 10:05 AM ^
I just think the guys are ragged out from the season. They were very active in a prolonged warm-up session that started about an hour and a half before game time, and I'm sure they'll be ready for the last three games and the tournament. I remarked to the coaching staff at the beginning of the game that we had had no injuries this season to really speak of, and the S&C coach, Sanderson, jokingly said it was because of the quality of the S&C program. Then I immediately regreted making the comment because I thought I'd jinxed us.
February 20th, 2011 at 10:19 AM ^
......well, I call them "uncomfortable wins". Yes, we won, but not without having to delve into our generous stash of tension-relieving devices, or in my case, drinks.
Particularly this season, watching Michigan basketball has been an intriguing experience - we have no business winning even as often as we do, but we play hard and somehow manage to get critical moments to go in our favor. Either we are the luckiest team in the Big Ten or "the little team that could". Speaking to the latter option, if we could get into the Tournament, that would be a fitting cap to the season. It isn't mathematically possible to give more than 100%, but some of these guys make me wonder sometimes....
February 20th, 2011 at 3:23 PM ^
Iowa Elvis Hawkeye was really brutal watching on TV. Not a big fan of teletubby either. I guess anything that gets fans on their feet.