Grantland- Behind the Scenes with South Dakota State University

Submitted by Daniel on

Grantland has a write-up of Jordan Conn's time embedded with SDSU (Jackrabbits). It's primarily about their team, but it's also about Michigan. You can find it here.

The offense features continuous high-screen action, with quick passes around the perimeter and frequent handoffs near the top of the key. It's run best by a team with a tough, penetrating point guard and plenty of shooters who can stretch the court and punish help defenders. In other words, it's run best by the 2012-13 Michigan Wolverines.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

March 25th, 2013 at 3:52 PM ^

It's a nice article and all, but boy did the SDSU coaches badly blow their assessments of Michigan's players.  Stauskas never puts the ball on the floor?  McGary isn't skilled, just a lunk of a football player in a basketball jersey?  No wonder they lost.

MI Expat NY

March 25th, 2013 at 4:12 PM ^

Eh, what do you want them to say?  While, as we all know with Stauskas, "he's more than just a shooter," you'd rather have him beat you off the dribble than get a decent look at a spot-up three because your defenders didn't close out hard enough, fearing the drive.  And he didn't really say "never puts the ball on the floor," he simply told the scout-team version of him to look to shoot first.

With McGary, up until this weekend, I think most would have thought of him that way.  

MGoShoe

March 25th, 2013 at 3:58 PM ^

...my distinct impression is that Grantland sure was hoping for the upset so they'd have an inside account of Cinderella's triumph. Oh well.

Soulfire21

March 25th, 2013 at 4:16 PM ^

The ending was great, as they just lost to Michigan they could hear Akron in the adjacent locker room, whooping & hollering, full of hope, thoughts and fantasies of victory and advancing.  Just moments earlier, SDSU's were crushed, they were, earlier that evening, jumping up and down, excited, ready to win.

I also liked the nearly-morbid thought of, for 67 of 68 teams in the tournament, it ends the same.  You lose, you go home.  There's only one that makes it out.

Butterfield

March 25th, 2013 at 4:51 PM ^

Big project just wrapped up at work, getting a bigger tax refund than anticipated, and Michigan advanced to the Sweet 16 - Butterfield's swag is back, and consequently Roger will be back shortly. 

Butterfield

March 25th, 2013 at 4:33 PM ^

Fun read.  At first, SDSU's eagerness to face Michigan rather than St. Louis, MSU, or Florida caught me a little by surprise, but I'm sure that was directly related to the way Michigan limped into the tourney. 

This quote by the SDSU coach should be mandatory pre-game reading for Michigan's players so they come out in "slap the floor" mode:  "And offensively, you're going to get whatever you want."  "

It was a pretty damn accurate assessment going into the tourney, a fact that should piss every player off.  Fortunately the team D'd up much better in Auburn Hills and hopefully that carries over to Arlington this weekend!