Duncan Robinson Quotes on our Roster of Unwanted Players
“Quite honestly, when you look at it, it’s a buncha guys that probably shouldn’t be here or weren’t wanted here and, you know, whatever,” he said. “A guy like Moe (Wagner), hardly recruited; Muhammad(-Ali Abdur-Rahkman), two-star whatever; everyone wanted X to be done at Michigan; myself, I had to beg for a freakin’ scholarship. Didn’t get one out of high school. Charles, in the SEC, Kentucky, he didn’t cut it. So it’s like, when you get these personalities and these guys who have kinda been overlooked, whatever, their whole careers and kinda come together and believe in something collectively, it’s pretty special.”
This is straight from Duncan Robinson's mouth. This is the archetypal Beilein team. He finds players that no one else knows about or wants, and he puts the pieces of the puzzle together like a fictional movie character playing chess 15 moves ahead of the competition. There is, and will be, all sorts of over the top praise for Beilein this week (not unlike mine here). He deserves all of it. This roster of players and their accomplishments represent one of the best coaching jobs in modern college basketball history:
32 wins (school record), B1G tournament champions (B2B), Final 4, dominators of rivals, win with flair (Poole), win with class (Wagner), win clean (Beilein/everyone), inspirational fans (Jude Stamper, Mo's mom), ridiculous in season improvement (Z), darkhorse regional MVP (Matthews), ice in veins (MAAR - Maryland free throws), losing starting role with class and becoming B1G 6th man of year (Duncan), transfer from program as possible conference POY to backup PG who stands by his decision and is thrilled to even be in the tournament (Simmons), True freshman starter who plays hard and rarely shows up in the box score (Livers), 7 footer who went from lost boy to incredible defender playing the perfect role off of the bench (Teske) best defensive assistant in the country (Yaklich), unheralded contributor to incredible guard improvement (Haynes), humble yet efective developer of big men and coach who only wins B1G tourney championships (Washington, 2 for 2)...
Those are just a few tidbits of what make this team special.
TELL ME WHY YOU LOVE THIS TEAM...
March 27th, 2018 at 10:08 PM ^
March 28th, 2018 at 11:10 AM ^
was our regional MVP. He carried us at times. I'm glad to have that Charles in the Box!!
March 27th, 2018 at 10:21 PM ^
deserves. outstanding. should be the blog's Christmas banner.
March 28th, 2018 at 12:17 AM ^
but this one stands out to me personally as one of its star players went to high school just a few blocks from where I used to live and my mom still lives. He's easily the best basketball prospect to come out of that little corner in a long time, quite possibly ever. I never would have thought that he'd somehow end up playing for Michigan and yet the stars aligned..
March 28th, 2018 at 12:34 AM ^
The show is over for Cinderella Saturday night. Let’s face it. It’s been a fairly favorable road to get to where we are. Our team will not be just another victim. Loyola is not playing in the finals. We are. From there the team has to go out and earn it against a higher seeded opponent. I’ll take Beilein versus whoever is on the sideline opposite coach on Monday night.
Go Blue!
March 28th, 2018 at 12:37 AM ^
Now I am curious. Would we be even better with DJ Wilson still on the squad or would that ruin the whole dynamic of the team?
except that they are 'our' team. A team only a mother can love? I will say when we went to East Lansing I wasn't expecting to come out of there with a win, and it didn't improve my confidence when moments before tip off I couldn't help but notice the Spartans looked the part of a national contender while we...did not. We looked gangly, like we were some division II squad. But we looked pretty good after the ball went up! I never thought of it the way Duncan described them but they are a 'Black Sheep' team of sorts.
Every team in the tourney looks like a group of 30 year olds compared to UM looking so young. At least Loyola looks like a college team.
Yeah, maybe a little harsh. But I'd bet it was more a case of poor word choice, rather than Duncan trying to rag on a teammate.
As Steve Martin once famously said, "Some people have a way with language; other people ... not have way."
It's amazing all that this team has accomplished, especially when they're not even trying to be tough!
damn, man, you said it. But take it easy - I'm gettin' too psyched up and proud of this team!
March 28th, 2018 at 11:18 AM ^
this was the "team we had to get through" to get to the real stars and big moves next year.. I think we can take one thing from this team is that under Beilein and Yaklich, EVERY season is the season for big moves. Beilein is a mad scientist that grabs every bottle in the lab and mixes until it's just right and Yaklich is the one that takes Frakenstien and makes him a monster. Just incredible
Two more wins men..... two more wins.
March 29th, 2018 at 10:23 AM ^
...I love the attention Beilein pays to fundamentals. See https://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/jeff-seidel/2018/03/27/michigan-basketball-charles-matthews-transformation-final-four/459896002/
That's related to us having players who are exceeding expectations. I think that some players who are just really, really good in high school skate through without anyone stopping them and teaching them the right way to pivot or execute a chest pass.