MBB vs Texas snowflakes

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

We have problems. A lot of them. It's nice to think about them after a win over a power conference team.

Moe Wagner is the best player on this team. 

The attendance was turrible again. The students showed up and did their job.

9pm games on weeknights can blow me.

Not in the face on Saturday, please

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uncle leo

December 7th, 2016 at 10:18 AM ^

Is not an intangible thing. If anything, it's a direct representation of the product.

And if you don't think a rowdy home court doesn't help the team, you are out of your mind. There is a reason it's damn near impossible to win at Cameron Indoor, the students are right on you and they scream basically the whole game. The other team freaks out, puts up shots too early or too late and have trouble getting in their sets. The road team that comes into Chrysler may as well send some busses from their home campus and buy up the tickets and turn it into their house; the attendance for this product is piss poor, and even when they were really good in 13-14, there were multiple games where the place did not fill. 

It goes hand in hand. Once the product becomes watchable, the fans show up and there's a great synergy between the two. 

"Attendance has no impact on the game." Well, may we well just play every game on the local gym. Come on man, have you watched sports before? Do you understand why the home field/ice/gym makes such a massive difference to that team when a large vocal crowd is there?

Joined: 07/29/2012

MGoPoints: 34636

Wolverine Devotee

December 7th, 2016 at 11:23 AM ^

Not surprised anymore by the takes. This is the same guy who thinks the Orange Bowl is a minor bowl game because the current system moved it to December 30th and it's not on NYD.

Even though.........um......the playoff bowls aren't in January either......guess those are minor....

 

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: 31528

Mr. Yost

December 6th, 2016 at 11:33 PM ^

I've said it before...I'll say it again. It's a borderline bubble team. May as well accept it now.

Not going to change until Beilein gets better talent.

Irvin and Walton are 4th and 5th options. It's just the fact of the matter.

If you want to be elite you need to have a McGary, GRIII and a Stauskas to pair with this team.

Wagner coming off the bench behind McGary would be perfect. DJ Wilson providing energy and toughness when GRIII is playing soft and uninspired - a great fit. Duncan Robinson playing the 3 behind Irvin where he should be now. You'll hit on one of the 2 each game.

MAAR would be 100 times better off the bench. Stauskas is the Alpha this team has lacked since he left. Then you'd also have MAAR coming off the bench behind Walton as well.

...This a a team of role players that's missing it's best 3 players if it wanted to be elite. The players aren't bad, they're just playing in far more important roles than they should be.

Beilein has to recruit better and hit on his recruits. You need lottery talent. Not all 5 starters, but you need 2-3 players who are going to make the guys on this team better. We don't have that and that's why we're a bubble team that will beat 1 team we shouldn't and lose to a team we shouldn't and then do it all over again.

Joined: 07/25/2011

MGoPoints: -9898220

ohheydude1

December 6th, 2016 at 11:51 PM ^

Great post.  

This team is built like a contender players 2-8.   If each player was one slot down on the totem with a dominant gaurd this team would be very good. Very unfortunate that Caris got hurt for 2 straight years, but as you mentioned JB's recruiting misses like Luke Kennard and others have contributed to the team lacking a go-to player for 3 straight years.  It needs a guard that can create (either his own shot or for others).  The best creator on the team is Mo Wagner.  Maar should be a 6th man, but he's actually the best 1 on 1 guard on the team, and he's a ball stopping guard.   Zak Irvin is misscast as a creator, he should be a spot up shooter who can take advantage when the defense is already scrambling.   All 3 of Walton, Irvin and Robinson are above average jump shooters and below average finishers contested at the rim. 

I was hopefuly that Simpson could come in and create, and hopefully he'll develop, but for now it looks like Michigan will rely on Mo Wagner to go 1-1 when they need offense.  

I do feel that every year JB's teams improve and compete.  Hopefully this team will be fun come March as Wagner develops.  

 

Joined: 09/04/2013

MGoPoints: 326

SpaceDad

December 7th, 2016 at 11:32 AM ^

This is a good assessment. I also thought the team was tentative against Texas, throwing passes away and settling for jump shots when it should take the ball to the hoop. I saw a team that is either not very good or simply not gelling together yet. The recipe for beating that Texas team is to take it to the basket and draw fouls with the occasional kick to the outside for a jumper. Indeed, some future NBA talent would help.

Joined: 05/15/2015

MGoPoints: 494

funkywolve

December 7th, 2016 at 1:05 PM ^

I'd also add that the reduction of the shot clock to 30 seconds really hurts a team like this.  If the shot clock was still at say 45 seconds, this team would probably be a little better.  All to often the shot clock gets to 10-12 seconds and they need someone to go one on one, and they just don't have anyone who can consistently beat their defender off the dribble.  With the longer shot clock, they'd be able to run through their offense for 30 seconds or so to try and free up an open look for someone.

Joined: 10/08/2008

MGoPoints: 20176

mbrummer

December 6th, 2016 at 11:32 PM ^

Every time he pulls up for a long 2 off the dribble, he should be benched.   If it's actually on the curl that's fine.

Walton and Irvin were supposed to be Keith Appling and Denzel Valentine at least as seniors, they aren't even close.

Joined: 07/29/2008

MGoPoints: 7872

RobM_24

December 6th, 2016 at 11:32 PM ^

We have nobody that.can create off the dribble. Opposing teams figure that out in the middle of the game, which is why we always start fast and then hit a wall.

Joined: 01/27/2014

MGoPoints: 62664

BlueRibbon

December 6th, 2016 at 11:41 PM ^

And pulled out the win. Obviously not what we'd like to see, but similar offensive performances the last couple years resulted in blowout losses. So there's that.

Joined: 06/26/2012

MGoPoints: 595

Pepto Bismol

December 6th, 2016 at 11:41 PM ^

I don't like this team. They don't seem to be very good at basketball and they are not enjoyable to watch. I refuse to believe this is the best roster we can manage at Michigan. If this staff doesn't want to act like a serious basketball program, then I will oblige and give no more than my minimum 2 shits about them.

Joined: 02/03/2015

MGoPoints: 7857

4yearsofhoke

December 7th, 2016 at 12:04 AM ^

Beilen always seems like he keeps his traditional bigs "in the doghouse." McGary's frosh season Beilen really refused to play him until the end of the year/ tournament (where he exploded).

Looks like the same is happening with Wagner. Maybe Beilen knows what he's doing, but maybe his mold for a good 5 is a little delusional (e.g. Donnal > Wagner)?  Wagner also had a pretty good tournament last year. Feed him minutes....

Also wish Beilen tried harder to keep Chatman. I think naturally the guy had a little apprehensive/timid personality, but with Donlon, I think he could have been a pretty damn good servicable defender/rebounder. 

Joined: 12/19/2015

MGoPoints: 2256

Picktown GoBlue

December 7th, 2016 at 12:25 AM ^

Will it get any better in conference?  Per Kenpom, the B1G and the Big East are tied for average rank of their conference members as 3 best conferences (so, right in the middle of the Power 6 conferences).

Kenpom Ranks (Michigan is 26):

Wins so far:

  • 292 Howard
  • 152 IUPUI
  • 35 Marquette
  • 49 SMU
  • 252 Mt. Saint Marys
  • 317 Kennesaw St.
  • 72 Texas

Losses:

  • 32 South Carolina
  • 31 Va. Tech

Lose against 32 and above, win against 33 and below

Remaining non-conference games - one of these things is not like the others:

  • 14 UCLA
  • 323 Central Arkansas
  • 336 Maryland Eastern Shore
  • 159 Furman

BTW, Florida Atlantic is 221...

So, we'll likely enter B1G season at 10-3.  B1G teams above 40:

  • 8 Wisconsin (home & away)
  • 12 Purdue (home)
  • 16 Indiana (home & away)
  • 33 OSU (home)
  • 38 MSU (home & away)

I'll assume 2-6 for those games

The lower B1G:

  • 43 Northwestern (away)
  • 55 Minnesota (away)
  • 63 Maryland (home)
  • 70 Illinois (home & away)
  • 75 Nebraska (home & away)
  • 87 Iowa (away)
  • 99 PSU (home)
  • 140 Rutgers (away)

I'll predict 9-1 on these games

11-7 conference, 21-10 overall.  Maybe 2 top-25 wins, and likely no losses against 100 and below.

Last year was 10-8, 20-11 in the regular season.  A 1 game improvement, so might avoid the play-in game but still be a low seed.  Anything beyond that will be a pleasant surprise.  Not making tourney would be sad but could certainly happen if team goes cold like the South Carolina game for any extended amount of time.

 

Joined: 01/21/2011

MGoPoints: 6180

ca_prophet

December 7th, 2016 at 2:38 AM ^

That definitely bodes well for us, or so the glass-half-full take goes.

The glass-half-empty take is that we just don't have elite talent and we squandered the recruiting advantage of the championship game and Elite 8 seasons.  That puts a cap on how good we can be - if most things breaks right, we'll be a 7-10 seed.

Given the way we've played the last two years, this seems like the right direction to me.  Improving our defense and giving the team a way to stay in games while they learn more of the intricacies of the offense and start getting easier shots will help a lot.  So yes, I'm more optimistic than I was before the season.

 

Joined: 09/07/2010

MGoPoints: 7016

rob f

December 7th, 2016 at 3:01 AM ^

this team is very unfun to watch. In fact, tonight they literally put me to sleep---I dozed off midway through the 2nd half and slept 3 1/2 hours on the couch. Woke up to find out here that we won and I didn't miss much.

Joined: 11/11/2010

MGoPoints: 193875

HarbaughorBust

December 7th, 2016 at 7:14 AM ^

Recruit better or step down JB. We are no where near a team capabale of making a tourney run... AGAIN. Thankful Nike will be involved in lobbying for our next coach which should happen sooner rather than later.

Joined: 11/30/2014

MGoPoints: 1807

LSAClassOf2000

December 7th, 2016 at 7:16 AM ^

Last night's performance does not give me a lot of confidence when you sit here and look at some of UCLA's metrics nine games into the season. Offensively, there is not much that says we're in a position to beat the Bruins. It's a slightly different story on defense, but can Michigan slow them down THAT much? I hate to say that it seems unlikely. 

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130561