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I've railed on Beilein at times as hard (or harder) as any UM fan out there has, but credit where credit is due -- he has the team playing as well as just about anybody in the country right now.
Props.
Props.
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AAL: KhaDarel Hodges -
Been an incredibly drastic reversal since that Ohio State loss at home.AAL: KhaDarel HodgesComment
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Amazing how good the coach looks when Wagner's hitting those 3 pointers (c:
Beilein definitely deserves kudos, though, for the improvement from Wagner and Wilson this year.Comment
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Brian's Death Star thing is kinda what I've felt for a while: when it works, IT WORKS. When it doesn't it's awful. What makes it go is leadership from players. Beilein isn't the kind of coach that is going to get maximum effort from his guys. He's going to get the offensive Xs and Os right, that's for sure. And with the Donlon hire he's got a guy to do that on defense. Give me the Sweet 16 and I'll get off Beilein's back for now. I still worry about the recruiting, and who is going to be the team's leader next year, but Beilein has slowly found the pieces he was missing.
Let's hope Wagner doesn't attract too much NBA attention in the next month. Punking an elite big in the way that he did Saturday is going to draw the scouts in.Comment
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Is it Beilein's system or is it just recruiting? IMHO if recruiting was 2012 level most years we would be seeing Elite 8s on a regular basis.Comment
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I'd love to know what Beilein thinks about recruiting now. He knows he has a collection of nice kids that play soft. He knows he recruited them. Charles Matthews is a guy he might not have wanted in the past. Independent of the ability to recruit elite players, the question is can he get players who play hard? Wrapped up in that is whether he can find a leader year-in/year-out. His teams have responded to different forms of leadership -- Novak, Burke, Stauskas, now Walton -- but the two years when there was none were pretty damn dire.Comment
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Wow. More Fab Five games.
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I guess where I'm coming from is that a bigger issue with Beilein than his system, which I agree with you a lot on, is that he just doesn't bring in talent. I don't think that there is any system in which Duncan Robinson, for instance, would be a bona fide starter for a tourney caliber team.Comment
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Wagner was a hell of a find, but the Battle/Langford screwup was major and the whole idea that he doesn't call recruits often enough is well covered by now. He has to bring in more talent, there's no question about it. He loses almost all recruiting battles.Comment
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Talent isn't near what he was bringing in (Hardway, Burke, McGary, Stauskus, Levert and later GR3)
Results on the court show that. Duncan Robinson's defense means you can't put him on the floor if there is someone on the other team who can take advantage of his lack of defense. Unless he's making 3-pt attempts, he's useless...
Walton, MAAR, Irvin, Duncan, Wilson & Wagner might've had as good as recruiting profiles as those above (most were criminally underrated) but only Irvin and Wagner are similar in talent. We could see all of those on the first list as being NBA potentials in their freshman seasons. Walton is having a strong senior season, but the team still lacks a true PG that runs the offense, creates for others and makes his teammates better. Bit less of a concern when he's scoring 20+ in every game.Comment
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Battle/Langford was about as poor of a result as possible with those two. You need multiple players with NBA talent even if they are 3-stars like Burke, Hardaway, Levert.Comment
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Good news for next year.
John Beilein has seen enough of Austin Davis this year to know that he sure wishes he used Austin Davis this year.
Instead, the decision was made early on to redshirt the freshman center from Onsted, a tiny town 45 minutes south of Ann Arbor.
"He's really good, that's all I'm going to tell you," Beilein said today. "I wish, I knew what I know now."
Davis is a 6-foot-10, 240-pound center for Michigan's scout team. He could've played this season, but as one of two freshman centers on the roster, along with Jon Teske, he and Beilein opted for a redshirt.
The thought was that Davis wasn't quite ready for a year of college hoops.
Over the season, though, Davis has apparently proven otherwise.
"In the middle of January, it all started slowing down," Beilein said. "Guys just throw him the ball and he puts it in. There's no drama, there's no Kardashians. The ball is in. The ball goes in."
Beilein gestured, raising his hands, showing how easily the young big man scores.
"It's really been good for him to just throw it to him," Beilein said. "When the lights come on, we'll see. But he will be a major player for us next year." ...
In his last year as a full-time player, Davis averaged 25.3 points and 14.3 rebounds per game at Onsted Community High School, finishing as a runner-up for the Michigan Mr. Basketball.Comment
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Assuming Wagner sticks around Michigan really is just one good big man away from contending in the B1G next season. Wagner and Wilson are fantastic but when one of them has to sit down we struggle.
Simpson I have all the confidence in the world in. He won't be as good as Walton next season but the dropoff won't be huge.
Losing Irvin is a net positive, so no worries there.
It really all boils down to Wagner and whether or not he wants to improve his draft stock. Fortunately for us this is a really strong draft class so he has a lot to gain by staying another year and getting stronger.
I don't think there's any question he'd be the top center in the conference in 2018.Last edited by Kstat; March 1, 2017, 02:17 PM.Comment
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A second season under Donlon and Robinson's defense won't be such a massive problem. It seems like Matthews probably starts over him, so Robinson backing up both F spots is doable. Not as good as having those two bigs out there all the time, but doable.
Huge thing for next year is Wagner learning to avoid those stupid fouls. The refs definitely made the Purdue win possible. With other crews he might have been in for a 15-minute night against Swanigan.Comment
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Matthews replaces Irvin, potential upgrade even though very different skill set...
Biggest concern for '17-'18 is PG, Simpson seemed promising as a recruit but he's done very little as a true freshman.Comment
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