MICHIGAN'S MEN'S BASKETBALL: 2015-2016

[WM Wolverine]

M needs Ben Wallace.

[lineygoblue]

If Ben Wallace is a rebounding machine, they need him.

They don't need another sporadic three point shooter.

[WM Wolverine]

Andre Drummond would fit well too.

[hack]

No injuries to obscure the problem this year, at least. And its still November. Lots of time for a rethinking of things. But given the continuity with last year, hard to imagine a this-year fix. Most other teams on the conference do not ignore the paint and went out and got elite bigs. Next thing I'm waiting for is evidence of a shift in recruiting.

[Cody_Russell]

Irvin isn't back to playing like himself yet.
That will take some time.

Not that it matters that much because the size/ rebounding will be an issue still.

[hack]

Yeah. I think there's room for some in-year improvement for sure, if their confidence isn't ground down to a pulp first like last year. But when you look at the bigs in conference this year, it's hard to imagine a ton of success. Ideally they could muddle through with enough wins to avoid playing a #1 or #2 seed on the first weekend of the tournament, and hope for a draw that includes a few other finesse teams or the type of press teams they match up well against. But it's hard to imagine enough conference wins to achieve that kind of draw.

And we're off to a much worse start this year. We haven't lost to NJIT and EMU yet, but last year we beat Syracuse and Oregon and the Villanova game was a tossup. This year, against two tournament-quality teams we haven't even been competitive.

Thus far it also doesn't look like anyone's poised for the sophmore leap.

[hack]

Seth Davis after the Xavier game:

Michigan

The good: Though Friday was a tough night, Wolverines fans can take heart that this is not the team they will (hopefully) be seeing come January. Junior guard Zak Irvin (back) and senior point guard Spike Albrecht (hips) are both still working their way back from off-season surgery. Irvin is now available after sitting out the season opener, but because he was totally dormant for three months, it will be some time before his body is back to prime condition. Albrecht, likewise, is only averaging 12 minutes per game as he rebuilds his muscles. Michigan coach John Beilein told me that he is hoping those two will be at full strength by the time Big Ten play begins.

Meanwhile, 6’7” senior forward Caris Levert, who missed the final two months of last season because of a broken foot, is primed to have an All-Big Ten-caliber season. If anything, Levert looked even quicker and more athletic than he did when I saw him a year ago. He did everything but refill the water bucket against Xavier en route to a 29-point, seven-rebound, three-assist, two-steal performance. He singlehandedly kept Michigan within striking distance.

Though junior point guard Derrick Walton Jr., who also missed the last half of last season with a foot injury, played miserably on Friday, I still think he’s headed for a solid season, especially now that he is playing alongside Levert again. (Walton had a career-high 24 points againt Elon on Nov. 16.) The Wolverines also got flashes of promise from two newcomers—Duncan Robinson, the 6’8” transfer from D-III Williams College (7-for-10 from three this season) and 6’10” freshman forward Moritz Wagner, a native of Germany who has the potential to become the team’s best scoring option in the post. I’m not sure how high this team’s ceiling is, but I know there is a lot of room between there and where they are now.

The bad: At the 11:17 mark of the second half, Reynolds committed a hard foul on Levert as he attempted a breakaway layup. Beilein was incensed—not only because there was no flagrant foul called (the refs didn’t even check the monitor), but also because none of Levert’s teammates stuck up for him. Beilein recognizes that this is a potential long-term problem. “The good news is we’ve got a bunch of nice kids off the court,” he told me. “The bad news is we’ve got a bunch of nice kids on the court.”

All night long, Xavier was quicker to the ball and more ferocious on the glass. But they also had more athletic personnel in the frontcourt. Michigan’s two big men, 6’9” sophomores Mark Donnal and Ricky Doyle, were not agile enough to keep Reynolds and company off the glass. Robinson is a slender, perimeter-oriented forward, and Wagner is too green to be effective down low just yet. As a result, Xavier outscored Michigan 34–14 in the paint.

I’m sure Beilein will find ways to get his team to improve in these areas, but as the saying goes, you can’t get blood from a stone. Michigan is going to have to beat quality opponents from the outside-in this season. That way of playing can be effective, but it comes with much less margin for error.

[Mike]

Unacceptable.

[hack]

@MSU in '13, another game in which Michigan was bullied quite severely, Beilein said at halftime that they need to go out there and get physical. It's not as if any of this is new. It's just getting worse. I don't expect him to go out and recruit like Bob Huggins or something, but a few guys like that would be nice. There also needs to be some leadership on the court. Novak>Burke>Stauskas>nothing. Seems like there's nobody out there now with the mojo to help everyone else shake it off and be resilient.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The conference is looking pretty weak so far, to be brutally honest

[Mike]

Sounds like we fit right in.

[hack]

We're lucky that we don't go to EL this year, and we face Indiana only once. The schedule is somewhat friendly in that sense.

[*JD*]

Outrebounded by 15...

Sometimes M can win despite that by hitting nearly half of their 3 pt attempts. Today UConn is hitting their 3's at that rate and M isn't making even but a quarter of their 20+ attempts.

The rebounding wasn't really the issue last night. They matched UConn on the offensive glass. The main problem was missing so many damn shots. You're likely to be behind in rebounding when you do that. It's obvious that Spike isn't near full health and Irvin is extremely rusty at best, if not playing hurt. If those guys round back into shape, that helps some of the issues. I don't expect Zak to have many 1-10 shooting games once he gets right.

The main concern for me with what I'm seeing is Walton was invisible against Xavier and only showed up when we were down 19 last night. That's not something I get. He needed to take control when LeVert picked up his 2nd foul in the first half and was nowhere to be found.

hack and I already chatted about this in the Pistons forum, so I'll just stop here. Plus, the turkey is almost ready.

happy Thanksgiving, fellas!

[hack]

Outrebounded 31-21. Significant. I think it was the defense last night though, if you go by e-FG%. But woe is us if they can't at least run a smooth offense and make shots. They put almost all of their recruiting resources and probably practice time into those two things. If they aren't good at their core-identity stuff, that's a real indictment.

I don't get Walton either. It's time. He can attack the basket. He's the one. I said it before the season -- beyond the bigs, it's on Walton blossoming.

Happy eating, JD. I know that once I get to the table I'm going to be doing some boxing out myself.

[WM Wolverine]

Walton, LeVert & Irvin need to show they are the best guard trio in the B1G or damn close with Dawkins keeping them fresh...

If those guys play to their ability, we can have Spike play center and be a top 15 team.