MICHIGAN MEN'S BASKETBALL- '19-'20: Hello Coach Nook!

[Kstat]

Last night was pretty impressive, and I expect them to take another step forward when Franz returns.

I will say that I was hoping Castleton would be further along in his development. At least he did have a nice pass after a scrum for a loose ball.

[*JD*]

He has put on muscle over the last 16 months but he's got a ways to go.

[hack]

Castleton will be fine. He's much more natural than Teske in turning from back to basket to front, and is better than Teske at going up with balanced feet. It's going to come. It was notable how damn lazy Teske was going for boards. I wonder if that's a remnant from three years of Beilein basketball, in which bigs are supposed to box out but guards ideally grab whatever rebounds they can. Teske was kinda swatting late at boards in his vicinity.

The great thing is that they passed this early test and now have a few games to grow into themselves. mgoblog post today on the double-high screen illustrates how the little things need to fall into place, and how they are doing so, but you're not going to go from bad execution to perfect in Game 2.

I liked that Brooks kept up that assertiveness -- he got the mentality infusion we talked all season about Johns needing. And that DDJ canned a few of those 3s that are the starting point for his game. I'm also encouraged by Howard's 3-guard lineup and the transition defense, which suggests to me that he's not too stubborn about how he wants to play.

[Niffla]

So Todd isn't going to sign during the early period? That's concerning to me. He was expected all along to sign during the early period, but now....for whatever reason isn't.

Is he having second thoughts?

[hack]

Hope not. Gotta keep recruiting him tho clearly.

[Whitley]

Whenever I hear a kid that is excited to go but doesn't sign his LOI. It makes me wonder if he is waiting for a bigger bag man to show up.

[lineygoblue]

Whenever I hear a kid that is excited to go but doesn't sign his LOI. It makes me wonder if he is waiting for a bigger bag man to show up.

Yep.

[*JD*]

There's a recruiting thread, fellas!

Michigan takes on Elon tonight. I'm curious to see if Cole Bajema plays or not. I'm expecting that we win comfortably. Elon is 2-1 with a blowout loss to Georgia Tech earlier this week. Their tallest player is 6'8" so I'm expecting Teske to have a game like the first half vs. Appy State.

While things can change, if Michigan is up big and we don't see Cole, I'm guessing he's headed for a redshirt.

[Niffla]

Dejulius with 8 pts and 8 boards (!!) in the first half. He's starting to look confident with his shot, too.

I like.

[*JD*]

There's a recruiting thread, fellas!

Michigan takes on Elon tonight. I'm curious to see if Cole Bajema plays or not. I'm expecting that we win comfortably. Elon is 2-1 with a blowout loss to Georgia Tech earlier this week. Their tallest player is 6'8" so I'm expecting Teske to have a game like the first half vs. Appy State.

While things can change, if Michigan is up big and we don't see Cole, I'm guessing he's headed for a redshirt.

Cole came in for the final 90 seconds. No redshirt. Teske, after a very slow start, wound up having a solid game. DDJ had a heck of a first half and we did enough to win comfortably, if not overwhelmingly impressive. It was very workmanlike. Elon had one very good player, a grad transfer, that kept them in the game for most of the first half.

I don't know if much can be learned from this game, except maybe we play down to our competition a bit. 3-0 and On to the next one!

[hack]

I liked seeing DDJ pass up a few looks late. Discretion. Need work against the zone.

[WM Wolverine]

Wagner is starting!

[Kstat]

[lineygoblue]

83-76 Michigan. Final.

Closer than it should have been.

[hack]

Disgusting. REVOLTING. AN INSULT TO ALL OF HUMANKIND.