MICHIGAN'S MEN'S BASKETBALL: 2015-2016

[hack]

I don't care to have an absurdly reductionist argument with you so I won't, but food for thought is the number of future NBAers on MSU and on M. Beilein has some pretty serious talent on this team. This hasn't been his best coaching job. By far.

[The Oracle]

I agree on the talent. There's none of those guys that have any sort of "dog" or killer instinct in them though. They are all passive and soft. No leadership on this team.

[hack]

Walton plays hard and isn't shy. He was leading the team in The Victors pregame by early January last year. Problem with Walton is the toe, but also that he just doesn't yet own the offense. I think it was worth it last year when, all those times, Beilein sat Walton for Spike. But we're paying the price a bit now, because Walton isn't yet fully in command.

Otherwise, well, if you want a tough team you have to practice it. You can't just talk about it. Especially if you don't have a player or two that's gonna lead by example and raise everyone's game. I agree though. Since Beilein began reeling in NBA talent his teams has never been ones to go out and outhustle the other team, at least until it's clear that nobody's jumper is hitting and there's no option to win the game from the arc. That may not be ideal but at least in recent years there's been a resilience to the team that isn't there this year. To an extent you shrug your shoulders and accept that in some years the team's just 's going to be a bit off for whatever reason. But the coach has got to respond already. Stop sending them out there to run a big-boy offense when clearly they can't. Adjust. The EMU game was terrible for that. Beilein might as well have not even shown up. The next few practices should be nothing but pain. Don't even touch a basketball.

And, overall, stop ignoring the basics. You win basketball games with hustle, effort (if not excellence) on D and accepting that when the jumper isn't falling you go to the rack. Beilein wants to win without any of that. Maybe that makes sense when you're at Canisius and you'll never have the bigs to control the paint. This isn't Canisius.

Where's Novak? Novak's on a t-shirt that's a staple in Ann Arbor and Burke isn't. Bring him in for a talk maybe. Or do something.

[The Oracle]

They did drive to the hoop tonight from when I was watching. Just no one went up strong. Irvin went up softly with his left hand and bricked it off the backboard, Doyle went up a few time and was clearly intimidated by Williams. Levert had maybe the worst drive I've ever seen in a game when, instead of going right to the rim, he did a quadruple pump reverse layup attempt. Don't get it.

[hack]

I think I'd turned it off by then for that drive. I watched the first five minutes of the second half, which went exactly as expected, and turned it off. I was absolutely appalled at the steals in the first half, and you could see that start to the second half coming a mile away. At times, yes, in the first half they drove. LeVert and Walton will. Not always though. And with LeVert too often he'll put up a floater rather than draw contact. Walton's the only guy on the team that plays as if he understands the value of getting fouled.

[lineygoblue]

They ran into a buzz saw.

They were a Michigan team coming into Columbus with every bucknut in the land thumping their chests at record levels.

They'll be fine.

[iam416]

Ohio State is no buzzsaw. Michigan was just putrid last night.

[hack]

I didn't expect to win, but I did expect them to compete. Based on what I saw last night, OSU should be rounding into fine form come March.

[iam416]

OSU has no backbone. They're a more talented version of M. Or maybe it's just that they play awful defense. They rely on offense to win games. And when they play well, they're really good (ran Illinois out of the gym in the 2nd half!). But when they play good teams the offense HAS to be play really well because they concede points so easily.

It's Bizarro Matta.

[hack]

Well I didn't see that last night, mostly because I saw the same stupid Michigan offense, but if you're right that only makes our situtation even more ridiculous. Beilein's got to put his players in a position to succeed already. Plan A is to shoot well, and there's no Plan B. That has to stop. I don't care if they lose, but go out there and fucking hustle in the process. It was astounding how many times a mistake was repeated, like the casual inbounds plays after OSU scored, or leaving Loving wide open after he'd just scored.

Dakich was saying it too, in his strange basketball mystic persona -- something like ``I don't know why but it's true that the shots fall more often when you play harder''. Late in the first is when he said it.

[hack]

Does anyone have insight into Kenpom's methodology? Not that it isn't justified in some ways, but Kenpom HATES us. We didn't rise after a road win at PSU, a game it predicted we would lose. We were at 69 and Minnesota at 40 something. Now we're at 80something. Some of our key opponents aren't falling.

[Hannibal]

Didn't watch the game but the mgoblog writeup said that some guys got benched in what appeared to be some message sending.

[hack]

Do SOMETHING, Beilein. It's your ignore-the-fundamentals approach. Make it friggin' work.

[Hannibal]

Isn't Beilien, like, 64? He's not going to change.

But he is doing "something". He's brininging in a Division III transfer for next year. Wooooo!

[hack]

He's changed plenty. He's fairly responsive, and an objective look at who he was before compared to who he is now shows it. I think it's just a matter of understanding the scope of defense-over-offense compromise he needs to make. He's reluctant, becuase he loves his offense and to an extent, when it works, I can certainly see why. Another bit of basketball wisdom he ignores is that you need to feed the big man. Get your bigs some shots and they play harder in every other way. Maybe if he wasn't so dedicated to ignoring that one we'd be getting more from Doyle. Or, better, we'd still have Horford.

Don't get me wrong -- Beilein's a good coach, and maybe a great one. When he has the right mix, it's astonishing. Amongst offense-first coaches who ignore the paint, he's a ton smarter than most every other one I've had a close look at, But without question this year hasn't been his best coaching job.