MICHIGAN MEN'S BASKETBALL- '23 -'24 Season.

[hack]

The conference is terrible this season, and Michigan is one of three teams considered a possible champion of it. If Indiana can score; if Illinoi can replace Kofi with a very different and lesser player in Coleman Hawkins; if Michigan can get some shooting around HD and get some stops. Agree with this:

Could see this squad coming together if 2 of Jett Howard, Kobe Bufkin, Terrance Williams are better than expected and are plus B1G players.

But especially on D. They have to get some stops. On O, last year's team was a collection of talented pieces that were an awkward fit. Juwan chased talent, got it, and learned the hard way. This year's team on paper should fit far better. Esp if Williams can make enough 3s and grab enough boards, because he otherwise is a great glue guy with the primadonna scorers.

I have high hopes for this year. There's always a November scare. It's a great sign that it took Emoni Bates and another talented penetrator over there to give us that scare, and not a team without standout players like that. Michigan should not spend any time on the bubble, even if it doesn't end up a serious conference contender. But from there it's about matchups. Teams extraordinarily good in the pick/roll and with extremely talented wing penetrators will give them trouble. If they so happen to avoid those kinds of players and schemes, or avoid getting burned badly by them, they can quite possibly get to the second weekend of the tournament, just like last year's flawed team did. That looks like about it to me, given the defense, but you never know.

[Hannibal]

So much instability in our sports nowadays. It feels like every year is a make or break year. I miss the old days when if we lost a big game you could be pissed off for 364 days but you didn’t have to worry about the long term viability of the coach or the effects on recruiting. With that said, if Juwan can get a tourney bid this year and at least win one game, I think that we’ll be there with the basketball program. Year 4 you pretty much know what you’ve got.

The football team might be there if they beat OSU this year.

[hack]

I think we'd know more but NIL and the transfer portal leave lingering questions. Juwan's a great tactician but roster construction is a concern. It would be less of a concern if the admissions/portal process was less haughty. Would be a prohibitive favorite for the conference if the school wasn't so difficult with Terrence Shannon's admissions process. Would have added the elite wing defender/shooter the team needs.

[WM Wolverine]

Forgot about that, he would've helped a ton. 23p, 7r, 4a would help anyone.

[Cody_Russell]

Should the thread title be updated to 22 - 23?

M blew out Pitt yesterday. Remember when Pitt used to be good at basketball? Oof. Wonder if they regret not handling the Jamie Dixon situation well.
Sets up an interesting matchup vs Arizona State tonight at 9:30pm Eastern. Frankie Collins vs his old M team.

[hack]

Hard not to get excited about last night's performance. Kobe Bufkin defended well and attacked the basket, making himself impactful despite the 3 not falling. Tarris Reed looked less sped up and oh wow Dug looked like he was settling in too. Dug's potential as a four-year guy is off the charts. Here's hoping Juwan loves him enough to stay four more years (and figures out roster construction a little better along the way).

Jett Howard's offense is as breathtakingly good as his defense is the exact opposite. I was hoping he'd be shelved for the rest of the night after falling asleep on an out-of-bounds play and foulding a 3-point shooter. At least Kobe's trying. Just want Jett to try hard on both ends. Support benching him until that happens. We have the offensive firepower to live without him in many scenarios. Put Dug in and slide Llewellyn and Kobe up a spot, or roll with Joey Baker, who also isn't a defender but isn't allergic either.

[hack]

Well, pretty disappointed in that. ASU threw in a lot of crap and Frankie Collins Spartied us. Sometimes shit happens, like HD missing a dunk and non-shooters unable to miss. More disappointing that they didn't really respond to that initial smack in the mouth, or better yet see it coming. The pieces are supposed to fit better this year, so we'll see. If this is a second year in a row of an utterly terrible defense though that'd be a real concern.

[JRB]

Disappointing end to an exciting game tonight. Michigan missed a real opportunity to score a valuable win. I have to question the final play call-- down 2, Michigan didn't need to settle for a three, and didn't have the time to run whatever set that was supposed to be. Still, that was a very good effort.

[AlabamAlum]

What was the final tally of the BigTen-ACC Challenge?

[Dr. Strangelove]

It's not over. Six more games tonight, but the ACC is up 5-3.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Or if you mean who won more years, the ACC is up 12-8-3

The ACC won the first 10 years straight but after that (since about 2010) the Big10 has usually won or tied.

[lineygoblue]

Michigan beat Minnesota on the road tonight 90-75.

Michigan shot 55% from downtown, and were led in scoring by Hunter Dickinson's 19 points.

Freshman Dug McDaniel, who started in place of injured Jaelin Llewellyn, scored 15 points on 5 for 6 from the field, and 3 of 3 from the arc.

Michigan will now have a 9 day break until they play Lipscomb at Crisler Center on December 17.

Road wins are good.

[lineygoblue]

Juwan Howard's seat just got hot tonight with Michigan's loss at home to 5-8 Central Michigan. Central has won one road game all season, .. tonight's game at Michigan.

No need to recap. This team is not good. In fact, they're downright bad.

John Beilein, where are you?

[WM Wolverine]

This season is the result of the '21 recruiting class of Caleb Houston, Moussa Diabate, Frankie Collins all leaving after their freshman seasons, probably an assist from M's NIL program.

[Whitley]

I still don't know what Houston was thinking jumping ship after an okay freshman season.