I don't know if there's an NBA player I've disliked more than Karl Malone. I absolutely love the fact that he never won a ring.

Awesome, isn't it? Didn't see it coming.

It's like Strap in Hoosiers

Bacari's intense pre-game speeches and coaching apparently all had a delayed effect on Donnal. 

 

this is a ridiculous post. 

To clarify: the negativity, the pessimism, the paranoia just exhausts me. 

The Purdue game is a nice opportunity for a big time win, but it's a difficult matchup and a tall order. 

It is incredibly far from a must win. That contention is what is ridiculous. The idea that we need a win like Purdue for "consideration" is ridiculous. If we maintain the current course, we will make the tournament. Not saying we will or will not maintain that course, but things are currently back on track. 

With the current trajectory there is no way they would keep us out of the tournament. 

 

 

 

could create their own shots. However, Donnal has more offensive moves than you seem to give him credit for. I have seen an up and under move and against Illinois he ducked under and then reversed pivoted and finished with a baby hook. He can also hit the outside shot. I don't expect a big game against Purdue, but I haven't seen any other bigs have big games against them either.

M doesn't need him to create on his own, Beilein's offense has never required that. He needs to finish when he's dished from the outside, and he needs to play competitive D without fouling out. Somewhere just below average rebounding wold be fine. That's all this team needs. We got crushed against Xavier/Uconn/SMU because we got none of that from the 5. Beilein's team is built around shooters first, that's the entire point. Then he can take advantage of that with plays that get the ball inside for easy finishes. When playing MSU/Purdue/Maryland, those finishes will be under more duress than they were against Illinois and PSU, but what you're talking about - hit or threaten from the outside and let that open up the inside - is exactly what they want to do. He has a team full of shooters that he's recruited to make sure if any one or two cool off, others can pick it up. Will everyone shoot poorly some nights? Of course, and they may lose to someone they shouldn't. The same thing will happen to Duke or Xavier or Maryland when their players are cold at executing whatever styles those teams practice. An effective Donnal, and backed up by serviceable Doyle or Wagner, and this team's ceiling goes from bubble (when 5 was a disaster weeks ago) to outside chance at B1G title.

of any Beilein offense I've seen. Donnal has become effective on the pick and roll and is a legitimate threat on the pick and pop. He sets good screens and has picked up a few ORebs. I don't think he'll be asked to do anything beyond that on offense. 

not a banger. Lucky for him though he's playing for a coach who is widely believed to be an offensive genius. Michigan runs a lot of stuff to open up shooters.

offensively, at least.  If today was the start of seeing the old Dawkins and Irvin, that gives us so many outside options that it will be the rare game that we don't have at least two guys hitting from 3 at least half of the time.

Have you looked at the schedule? I think you are overestimating 2 wins over poor teams. Right now UM has 2 wins over teams we should beat. Let's see what we do against the to teams before we start talking 12-6 or better.

Again with this? Michigan was up by 20+ most of the game. Guys will have off nights and it's ok as long as the rest of the team picks up the slack. Walton struggled a bit but I loved him fighting for the loose ball late in the game and forcing a jumpball. Try to enjoy the wins and not just look for the negatives.

Today we had an effective FG percentage of 73%. That's about as close as you can get to everyone playing well. Plus, the one guy who had a bad game offensively (Walton) played really good defense on their point guard.

Games where every player is playing well are exceedingly rare.  Even halves of basketball where everyone is "on" don't happen very often.  However, Michigan won this game in 8 minutes of game clock.  At the 13:00 mark of the first half, the score was 13-12 PSU (after about 12 possesions).  At the 5:00 mark, Michigan was leading 41-23, after about 24 possessions.  Michigan scored a ridiculous 29 points in 12 possessions.  That's approximately 2.4 points per possession, or basically "alternating between a made 2 and a made 3 each time down the court."  During those 8 minutes, it's safe to say that every player was playing well, and that's all they needed.  The rest of the game was academic at that point.

That happened to coincide with Dakich's playing time, but I don't think that's a knock on Walton so much as a credit to Dakich for playing within his limits, and a teaching moment for Beilein to remind Derrick that he should work within the offense rather than try to carry the whole team on his back.

All the coaches really need to do is sit the players who are operating inefficiently -- turning the ball over frequently or taking bad shots -- and the rest will come naturally.  As you suggest, that's the hidden bonus of depth (the obvious one being the ability to field a competitive team even after losing two key contributors to injury).

(As an aside: if Michigan could have replicated those eight minutes five times, to make a 40-minute game, you'd have a 145-50 final score on 60 possessions, and KenPom's site would explode. ;-)

It's Caris LeVert.  Not to be confused with Lavert Hill.