MichiganMAN47

November 3rd, 2015 at 8:12 AM ^

1. DJ Wilson can shoot the three pretty well. Looks like he can handle the ball well too. I think he made a couple mental errors when passing though. He will get a lot of minutes this year. 2. MAAR may have been the best player on the court. He shot well and created for his teammates. 3. Wagner played great defense, and had a terrific spin move driving to the lane. He wasn't the most consistent player out there, but he will be good for us.

Joined: 02/24/2015

MGoPoints: 3216

SAMgO

November 3rd, 2015 at 8:19 AM ^

Man that elbow jumper from DJ Wilson could be such a big weapon. He was hitting it consistently in that video, adds a whole new dimension to the offense.

Joined: 07/15/2013

MGoPoints: 18745

ypsituckyboy

November 3rd, 2015 at 8:33 AM ^

I'm sure we'll see it, so it'll be fun to see a really big lineup out there with 6'3" MAAR at PG, 6'7" LeVert at 2, 6'6" Dawkins/Irvin at 3, 6'9" Wilson at 4, and 6'10" Doyle/Wagner at 5.

I just remeber playing OSU teams in the past that had that kinda height/athleticism and being extremely frustrated. It's very difficult to do anything offensively when the other team has a height advantage at almost every position. It's also hard onn the defensive end to prevent offensive rebounds.

Gonna be a fun year.

Joined: 06/22/2009

MGoPoints: 30512

Flying Dutchman

November 3rd, 2015 at 8:41 AM ^

Some quick takes from a lifelong hoops junkie:

My goodness these kids can shoot.  I know its a Beilein thing, but this should not be considered normal.   Most D1 players are more likely to be super athletic than great shooters, and M has a bunch of really, really strong shooters on this roster, in addition to good athletes.

Is Duncan Robinson #20?  It's going to be really hard to keep him off the court.   Same with MAAR, and DJ Wilson is starting to look really promising.

Take those 3, and if Spike and Dawkins aren't cracking the starting lineup, and I can't imagine there would be a better 2nd unit in college basketball.   We haven't even touched Kam Chatman yet.

Little doubt that this team will be significantly better than last year.   I'm really excited to watch them.   I know its practice, but the skill level with the mid-range and 3-ball shooting is the most exciting. 

Joined: 09/16/2009

MGoPoints: 11464

BigBlue02

November 3rd, 2015 at 12:54 PM ^

Is an opinion with no substance really that important to say? Thanks for the hot take that Chatman looks horrible! Any reason why? Or did he just say it because that is the popular opinion around here?

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: -1003

BigBlue02

November 3rd, 2015 at 1:42 PM ^

I didn't say you said anything about Chatman. If you think the poster you were replying to actually meant that we shouldn't be able to say anything bad about players then you I don't know what to tell you. And if you think "Chatman looks horrible" isn't a popular opinion on this board, you haven't been to many basketball threads. Most on this board wrote off Chatman last year so it doesn't really matter what he does, he will be a bust until he is averaging more than 10 a game. That is why the poster had a negative 20, because apparently he didn't watch the video as Chatman looked pretty damn good.

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: -1003

LSAClassOf2000

November 3rd, 2015 at 11:56 AM ^

Caris LeVert- Looked 100% back to form. Shot looked crisp and were dropping. Had his burst. Made good decisions out to the shooters on the wing when penetration wasn't there to score. Just looks like a more mature version of himself. Fits with what they were doing. Didn't over-dribble. - from Wolverine3 in the comments

No THAT is good to hear. He also seemed to indicate that Walton is still getting back into game form so hopefully he's not too far from that. To have both of them 100% and out there is one thing that should make this season pretty exciting. 

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130612

BursleysFinest

November 3rd, 2015 at 9:08 AM ^

Is it weird that M doesn't inbound the ball in this scrimmage?   Just curious since we have had inbounding issues, maybe as much live action practice as possible is needed.

Joined: 08/24/2011

MGoPoints: 6408

Soup89

November 3rd, 2015 at 9:24 AM ^

I can't believe how much offense is out there sans Irvin and Spike.  It's going to be a fun year as a fan.  Belien might be able to shuffle 10 guys consistently.  

This team needs to take pride in their defense.  They have the guns to hang with anyone in the country, the question is, can they get crucial stops against more physical teams?  

 

Joined: 07/01/2015

MGoPoints: 69

TheWolverine2

November 3rd, 2015 at 9:41 AM ^

DJ was knocking down some shots from long range. Can tell he's been working hard. Still like to see him scoring down low more. Hope he don't get trigger happy from outside we have of plenty of 3 point guys. Kam didn't look to bad. Duncan can shoot. Caris and Derrick look to be back. Not bad go blue

Joined: 10/07/2015

MGoPoints: 15

Generic MGoBlogger

November 3rd, 2015 at 10:35 AM ^

40-0 hype train is on the move... In all seriousness, this team has soooooo much potential. Healthy Walton and healthy Caris are huge for the offense and Irvin and Spike will look to grow on ridiculously strong finishes to last season.  All in all, I think we'll look on last season as a blessing in disguise.  Last season gave us the ability to give Dawkins and MAAR serious experience and allow them to adapt to the game much quicker... not to mention that they showed some serious ability in a few of the games in which they got serious minutes.  Also last season ended up being a blessing for Wilson in many ways.  Having him sit out (for whatever reason it ended up being) allowed him to take in the game's speed and how it's played, and look how that's turned out so far.  In the small sample size we saw last year, he looked absolutely clueless and had no idea what to do and where to go on the court.  From this video, he looked soooo much more comfortable.  All in all, I think last year, as painful as it was, can be looked upon very favorably right now.

From the video, it looks like everybody can shoot. The young guys, the older guys... they can all do it... With how strong Wilson looked, I'm not sure how much of Wagner we see this year.  I can see him at the five giving spells to Doyle, but he doesn't have the body to play serious minutes there yet.  Not to mention that he looks more like a stretch four guy in JB's system.  It's going to be hard to keep Duncan off the court with how well he shoots the ball... He'll likely play his time between the 3 and 4 spots depending on what the rest of the court looks like.  

I'm not going to hesitate in saying that this is easily JB's deepest team since he's been here.  It really is going to be hard to give a lot of these guys minutes considering how good the guys in front of them are.  I guess that's a good problem to have especially considering how we had to give serious minutes to Dakich and Lonergan at times last season.  Right now here's my minutes distribution/depth chart

Walton-25 / Spike-10 / MAAR-5

Caris-30 / Dawkins-10

Irvin-25 / Chatman-10 / Robinson-5

Wilson-20 / Dawkins/Chatman-10 / Robinson-5 / Wagner-5

Doyle-20 / Donnal-5-10 / Wagner/Wilson 5-10

That four spot has the most options and is probably the most open for minutes at this point, but our biggest question is the five spot right now... Doyle looked iffy in the video (small sample size though) and Donnal still seemed timid... I guess we'll see, but without Max B to save us, that could be a problem area again.  Likely JB will gravitate around the best 8ish players and we'll start to see some guys phased out of minutes, especially if this team is going to be really competitive in the Big Ten... Right now, I think this team looks like a 6-7 seed in the Tourney, but if this team can find consistent production on offense (much more than last season) and be tough underneath the basket when needed, I have no reason to think that we can't get as high as a 2-3 seed and compete for a Big Ten title

Joined: 09/02/2012

MGoPoints: 3546

alum96

November 3rd, 2015 at 1:08 PM ^

You have way too many guys playing.  Beilein said in one of those town hall things a few weeks ago he likes a 8 man rotation but due to depth he will probably go 9 this year.

Most games short of foul trouble some people you are mentioning wont be seen much.  I think Wagner sounded like a redshirt entirely from the description.   Unless Donnal takes a big jump and Wilson absolutely cannot handle the 5 I see him being a guy who only plays in case of foul trouble etc.  It also seems like Robinson is going to be squeezed out of playing time.

We have our big 3 + Dawkins + Doyle as the minutes leaders I assume.  Spike is going to get his for 6.  Then everyone else is fighting for basically 3 roles in the lineup.   I assume those 3 are going to be Wilson OR Donnal, Chatman, MAAR.  The loser of Donnal v Wilson, Robinson and Wagner I think get squeezed out (again I think Wagner RS from all that has been said)

Joined: 04/28/2012

MGoPoints: 82447

ypsituckyboy

November 3rd, 2015 at 10:59 AM ^

Well, Kennard and Thornton will at least get to see it first hand since they'll be there too.

Jaylen Brown? Lolz. Give Cuonzo Martin all the talent you want. He'll still flame out in the NCAAs. No idea how he got a good job like Cal. He totally underperformed at Tennessee with the amount of talent he had.

Joined: 06/22/2009

MGoPoints: 30512

defcow

November 3rd, 2015 at 11:00 AM ^

Feels good to see the guys in action, always love seeing a Beilein coached team. Moritz looks good. Gives great effort and can stretch it out too. Can't wait for the season!

Joined: 01/20/2014

MGoPoints: 243

Ronnie Kaye

November 3rd, 2015 at 11:26 AM ^

Wait, there was an open practice? I didn't even hear about it otherwise I would have tried to be there. Wish the turnout was a bit better for the team.

Joined: 05/09/2015

MGoPoints: 104

reanimator

November 3rd, 2015 at 11:23 AM ^

Wagner has tons of upside and is electric in transition. Think he will sit this year and learn the system and develop his half court offense.

I don't think Wilson is a 4. He looks awesome but I think JB will want more ball handling, shooting and I'm not sure Wilson can guard small ball 4s. I think Wilson starts over Doyle at the 5.

MAAR will push Spike for the backup PG role. If he can shoot the 3 at a reasonable rate, there is no way in hell that he isn't in the rotation.

I prefer Kam over DR, if he can hit his 3s. DR can knock down shots when he doesn't have to move but he had a few bad misses when he was forced to shoot on the fly. Kam gives you a rebounder, a transition and maybe PnR handler, passes just as well as DR and mid post game.

My 8 man rotation come March as of today: 

C: Wilson - 20, Doyle- 15, Donnal - 5
PF: Irvin - 20, Chatman - 20
SF: Dawkins - 30, Irvin - 10
SG: LeVert - 35, Walton - 5
PG: Walton - 25, Albrecht or MAAR - 15
 
Of course, these various videos are just practice. I'm sure some guys are more gamers than others and will emerge even further and change my views on the rotation. 

Joined: 02/01/2014

MGoPoints: 826