Game thread: Men’s hoops at Vandy, noon EDT on ESPN
Purdue’s loss to Fairleigh Dickinson has consumed a lot of the oxygen from the college hoops “room”.
Michigan returns to the floor in Nashville against the Commodores of Vanderbilt. It’s the second round of the NIT - win or go home / clean out your locker.
A victory today means the third round game will be at Crisler before the semifinals / finals in Vega$.
Go Blue!
TWill looked absolutely terrified to have the ball at the end.
And it’s Juwan’s job to see that.
The end? He looked that like the whole fucking game.
You know you suck when you let the opposing team come back from an 8 point deficit in the last minute of the game without UM even attempting one free throw
Literally handed them the victory.
I can’t decide what the worst thing was. Juwan allowing his son to get cooked and brick wide open shots in the second half, the lack of being able to draw up an out of bounds play that scores, or allowing TWill to eat an edible at halftime and do whatever the fuck he was doing the last 5 minutes of the game.
Fire Juwan. If he wasn’t a former Fab Five he would be gone. Take Warde with him. Time for Santa to make it happen.
The most mentally fragile Michigan sports team I have ever seen. And I've been watching since the '70s. I can't think of another team even in the ballpark.
TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE....Time to CLEAH HOUSE in this BB Dept
Honest question, is Juwan still a commodity for an NBA coaching gig?
I know you have a different roster situation there, but man oh man.... the on the floor product this year has to make anyone think......maybe not?
Maybe this is an anomaly season with bad luck, injury/roster holes, etc., but next season he is really going to need too show out and show some improvement.
No way.
Unbelievably bad finish to a woeful season. I’m sorry but you can’t blame luck in these games. It’s turnovers in crucial situations by players who just aren’t very good. TWill in the last minute made several mistakes which directly led to this loss. He can be an energy guy, or spell a starter guy, but shouldn’t be in during crunch time. We have scene this story before. Sadly
This string of comments is laughable. Everyone calm down, you all said this game didn't mean anything. Things need to be better next year, obviously, we'll see if they are. No way Howard gets fired right now.
Clearly didn't mean anything to the players and coaches either.
Then why even play, if it didn’t mean anything they would have opted out like UNC did. It was sheer incompetence from and X’s and O’s standpoint by the Coaches
To be clear - I cared, and am really disappointed we lost. And I think the players that played cared. And I think we all care about next year. But the people on here with the super vitriolic takes about who's a bum and who needs to be fired are the same ones who were saying we shouldn't even play the NIT because it doesn't matter. Just seems like some people are taking every chance to be negative about what we all knew was a bad situation, and we all knew wasn't going to fundamentally change this year. Just chill. or give me lots of downvotes, whatever. I'm looking forward to the hockey game tonight, next football season, and then next basketball season
The scary thing is, looking ahead to next year doesn't look any better. In fact, it could be worse.
This DEFINITIVELY proves that it hasn't just been bad luck. This team is mentally fragile, can't handle the ball, and Howard can't calm them down or plan around our weak guard play. Two things that DO change at the end of the game: 1) if you're up, the other team presses harder 2) if you're down, YOU have to pressure and move fast. The only ball handler we had today was Dug, and honestly Vandy should have been pressing the whole game. Our other 3 guys with a modicum of ball handling skills were out with injuries (well, at least one of them with an injury). I'm kind of convinced now that Llewellyn would have helped, even though he wasn't any better than Dug.
When the players keep making same mistakes over and over late in games , they aren’t getting any better period
Maybe this will finally relay the message that you need to recruit guards and potentially take some lumps while you play them early so they can develop.
Maybe we would be better prepared to handle a couple of injuries if Juwan didn’t insist on recruiting D-II level wing players (T-Will, Glenn, Jace, Tschetter, Barnes). I’m sorry, but none of those guys should be playing high major basketball.
Kenpom luck is a BS indicator. It’s not luck when your players shrink from the big stage. It’s not luck when your best 3 point shooter is also a 7 footer who should be posting up. I don’t envision a scenario where we get off this hamster wheel of kids like Houstan and Jett who were and not good college players going pro to be replaced by the same.
I just watched the 2nd half and TWill has no business ever having his ball in his hands offensively...a merciful ending to a diaper fire of a season
Heart-breakin teeth-gnashing self-berating why oh why didn't I calendar this game right? Thought it was later in the day / mixed it up with another game. Tuned in late.
Rationality be damned; I still believe if I'da joined in the collective rooting-for, things mighta turned out differently...
So damn close.
Bright future, tho, if we learn to handle the pressure.
Have done it before (remember 2013?), can do it again.