U of M MEN'S BASKETBALL 2016-2017

[hack]

There is definitely a lot of progress on defense. Interesting comment on Wilson. I haven't seen him get punked, but he does sometimes disappear. That's perhaps why.

[WM Wolverine]

Agree on the improvement in effort on defense, it's noticeable yet still a glaring weakness...

Duncan Robinson & Zak Irvin are sieves defending their man and are never any help in team defense. The front court's defense is taken advantage of against any skilled big man (somewhat rare) and again, they aren't much help in team defense when the 'sieves' allow their man to the basket. They (Wagner & Wilson) might look worse than they are as if the sieves were keeping their man in front of them, they wouldn't be expected to help so much... Derrick Walton can't keep quicker point guards in front of him even when he does buckle down to play defense...

JB's teams suffer the same issue, season after season. They have too many guys who are the same player; too many guys that can shoot but do little else that helps you win basketball games. Basketball you need guys who can play defense, lots of them. You need 2-to-3 guys to be good rebounders. You need at least a couple guys who can penetrate, create opportunities for others and maybe, get to the basket.

JB does understand you need a few players who can stretch the floor by having range from distance, yet you don't need an entire roster of those types.

[hack]

IMO Irvin's fine at man-to-man defense. Switching, or any sort of decisionmaking, is a real adventure.

He's recruited poorly, no doubt. And might even know it. But he's known it for a while. After they got completely punked in '13 in EL, Beilein said at halftime that they need to go out and play tough and physical. Four years ago already, and he's still been recruiting guys that are soft and not physical, and until this year coaching them to play the opposite of physical. I love that he's a life-long learner as a coach, whereas so many are stubborn idiots that do whatever they learned from a particular mentor, but it's got to come with results.

[WM Wolverine]

Irvin isn't a good defender but not as bad as I [likely] made him look lumping him with Duncan Robinson who is one of the worst we'll see. Zak Irvin is closer to Walton, picks his spots on when he really presses down and plays defense yet still limited when faced against an opponent that can penetrate.

[hack]

Yeah -- the both of them have really improved in the last few weeks. Gone from not there at all to mostly there. They have lived the longest under the allergic-to-D regime. Old dogs/new tricks.

[Cody_Russell]

Damn, the M basketball team scored less points (68) at Rutgers than the football team (78 ).

W tonight. Beat... my Purdue? Hmmmm

[hack]

I couldn't get btn2go to load the login dialog, on 3 different computers. But, they won. Might have been closer than it needed to be, but, fine.

[Cody_Russell]

Spike Albrecht, who will get a respectable amount of playing time (10-15 min), is playing vs M tonight. So weird.
Big game! Either way, I win.

[Niffla]

Biggest game of the year for UM.

Y'all ready?

[Kstat]

Mo Wagner 17, Purdue 20.

Okay.

[Kstat]

Mo Wagner and Purdue are tied at 20 each.

[Whitley]

An excellent 1st half for Michigan. They are up 15 against the Boilermakers. This would be a HUGE win.

[Cody_Russell]

Irvin only 4 shots at this point. Keep that rate going, if not, decrease it.

[Kstat]

Donnall is so useless. He's good for 5 fouls. That's it.

[Kstat]

Sucks that it took 3 1/2 years to see this leap from Walton, but at least he got there. Irvin never did.