we are in good hands
Still insanely frustrated from the game.. but feeling like i need to try and look on the bright side.
Michigan had an awesome run with 5 freshmen in the first half.. Stauskis, Spike, GR3, LeVert and McGary. They have all grown leaps and bounds from the beginning of the season.. and I think it is safe to say we are in good hands going forward.
I am proud of this team for making it as far as they did, and playing as hard as they did. They had heart and fought to the very end. We will be back.
In the last ten minutes of the first half, without Burke, against the best team in the country:
- each team turned it over twice
- we outrebounded them 9-8
- they outscored us 20-18
All year I've heard how completely dependent this team is on him. They showed tonight they're ready to stand on their own.
the first time all 5 freshman were on the floor at the same time this year? I don't recall it happening all year and tonight they did great together on the floor.
I know it's incredibly tough, but I could see this team (if all 5 freshman stay and THJ), making another run. Scan the country, and the best teams heading into next year are who? North Carolina, Duke, Arizona? We look like a top 5 team. Certainly top 10, and we won't be the third youngest team in the country.
I think Siva was their only sr that started. UK will be ranked pretty high too. OSU will probably be up there. They have most of their players coming back and a couple of the younger guys really started stepping up towards the end of the year.
ohio does lose their best player tho. UK will be almost unbeatable next year unless something really bad happens.
about Ca$hipari's NBAD-Leauge squad. Easy considering how bad they were this year. They'll be the pre-season #1. Speaking of the southern mid-major, Florida could be good again too.
OSU is a good call, but I'm not sure who they're go to guy is for points.
Regardless, we now have a legit reason to look forward to October 15 for something other than a football game week.
I think there's some question if Dieng bails due to weak draft year issues, but yeah, wow, Siva's the only senior.
Espn didnt have us in there early top 25
...and it is perhaps the dumbest look ahead I've ever read.
So, we lose one player and bring in #12 recruiting class and are...not top 25. Sparty loses one player, brings in a nothing recruiting class and are...#3?!? Kentucky loses in the first round...of the NIT, and is preseason #1? Until those freshmen show up and play, not buying it. Their freshmen this year were supposed to reload, as they were preseason #3.
Okay, Burke was POY, but Spike + Walton only < Burke, not <<<< Burke. And when you factor in our current freshmen making their biggest improvement, plus the overall effect of replacing the value of Burke, Vogrich, McLimans, Akunne, Person, and Bartlestein with Walton, Irvin, and Donnal, I just don't get how you drop from the 2nd best team in the nation to around #30.
Stauskas, GRIII, McGary, LeVert, Albrecht. If any of the rest of them make the leap like Mitch did in the Tourney, we might actually be, ahem, a BETTER team than this year...and I didn't even mention improvements by Horford and Morgan. Biggest thing possible - toughness and strength. Levert and Robinson especially need a year in the weight room.
We should still be pretty damned good next year.
Problem is McGary feeds off of Trey Burke, and with him sitting out almost all of the first half he wasn't able to do much. That and foul trouble. At this point McGary isn't dominant enough to create his own points, that will come though...man am I excited for next year!
So we have 5 seniors gone and almost certainly 1-4 players leaving early yet our incoming class is 3 players? Shouldn't we have gotten more guys?
This season should be evidence of the fact that we are indeed in good hands now and for the future. There have been several threads around here in the past few weeks which have touched on aspects of this, but the overarching themes in all of them are the talent that has come to Michigan both to coach and play as well as the culture around this team.
John Beilein has built this program - through recruiting and being an advocate for it - into a program which has awesome new facilities and revamped its culture into one that consistently strives to be better. He has recruited talent which thrives in his system, and through program-building and with the help of runs like this run, will be doing so for a while. Despite the loss last night, the future hasn't been brighter for Michigan hoops in a long time.
There is now a culture around this program that everyone has a role and that role is essential to the team's success and they are all appreciative of one another. Last night, they played as a unit, and one of the most important players was not even a starter and no one hesitates to point that out in interviews. It's a small thing but it is a detail which will get this team farther - in many cases - than most would expect on paper.
I think we're set up as a program to be in many future "discussions" in March, if you will. It is not a bad place to be at all.
No shame in losing to a good team like Louisville
Michigan went a lot further than I'd thought they'd go and a lot of boys became men during the ride
Hopefully Burke stays but if he doesn't the program is in good hands with other prospects
the Wolverines. Sad to see Burke have to exaggerate the effects of the holding, grabbing, cross checking, etc., to urge a foul call. Every time downcourt there were Cardinals fouling the ballhandler. Dan Patrick and Doug (forgot his last name) were commenting today on the horrendous officiating, tilted heavily against Michigan. When the poor officiating could have arguably cost UM the game, I have good reason to be disgusted with them. This team did not deserve that sort of treatment by the refs. Go Blue