U of M MEN'S BASKETBALL: 2018-2019

[hack]

Beilein singled Poole out for praise for drawing that charge on Wesson. That was purely playing to the refs, and I'm surprised to hear Beilein make a point of praising it, since his approach typically ignores those types of tactics. But that was a good bit of fun. Last night's Michigan was a far distance from the white-collar past, and Poole was the instigator. And it was good, clean, non-thuggish instigating.

[hack]

If we ever get our transition offense to where it was last year, we'd really be cooking. Falls on Poole and Matthews. Gotta get better.

Are you listening to the Moving Screen podcast? There was a discussion about this, and how last year's guys sprinted down the court hunting transition opportunities whereas this year's does not. You'd think maybe Iggy as well, who can now be a bit bottled up off the dribble, would in particular be looking for those opportunities.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I don't know much about basketball and I tend to only watch the tournament games. But this article I linked to below is just icing on the cake. I know, it's not football and I think it has already been said in this thread that it would be nice if Harbaugh's football team played as fired up and as well prepared v. osu as Beilein's basketball team did last night. osu got buried, much like, in football osu buried M. The net result was an osu player's Mom complaining about the M student section's bad behavior and the bad officiating. Love it.

https://247sports.com/college/michigan/Article/Michigan-Ohio-State-basketball-2019-mother-student-section-128492300/

[WingsFan]

The football team and football fans are intimated by osu football. What Wesson's Mom didn't complain about (surprisingly) is the "Fuck Ohio!" chants all game.

[hack]

LOL @ Wesson's mommy. And too bad for any Michigan fan who isn't enjoying this. Missed opportunity. Obviously the rivalry is primarily a football one, but our players and theirs quite clearly think it's a rivalry, and they sure played like it. I certainly approached it with the stomach butterflies appropriate to a rivalry game after Michigan started slow as usual. Fooled myself into thinking it might be a close game.

[Jeff Buchanan]

The football team and football fans are intimated by osu football. What Wesson's Mom didn't complain about (surprisingly) is the "Fuck Ohio!" chants all game.

Maybe ..... my take is that Harbaugh treats the osu game like "just another game." That's not knocking him. It's how he wants his team to approach The Game just like they approach every game. Don't get over-hyped or intimidated by how another team might be playing at any given time.

The thing that pisses me off the most, and esp. in the 2018 match-up, was the comparison between how ufm/day prepared v. how Harbaugh and his staff prepared ..... night and day. JH was complacent. What seemed to work all season WAS NOT going to work against osu if the staff had been keeping an eye on what they could do instead of what they had been doing.

M had a chance to change the paradigm and I'm absolutely certain that the staff and the players talked about it, thought about it and then went back to the play-book they knew on both sides of the ball. Disaster struck and they were ill-prepared to deal with that. Same thing v. UF.

While I don't fault Harbaugh for trying to keep a lid on things by down-playing the game - which he probably did - or sticking with what they knew worked in the 9 wins M racked up, what I do fault him for is not imagining, imagining what could be done. His game plans v both osu and UF were unimaginative ..... boring. You don't win football games where emotions run high and the opponent is fundamentally very good by being unimaginative.

[hack]

I'd love to talk some Michigan football, given what most activity in the forum has been lately, but this is the basketball thread ok? The basketball team played a game last night. I know it's not football, but it's not friggin lacrosse or womens' volleball either ok?

[WingsFan]

Whats your take on Langford out for the year?

[hack]

Not sure myself. Froot?

Seems people are divided. I haven't seen him this year, but I think Izzo teams are truly at their best when there aren't low-efficiency guys out there who don't yet really know what role to play. So I get the less-is-more argument. It does leave them with a bench as shallow as ours, and puts a massive load on Winston's shoulders. We match up better with them as a result. We have an elite defender at each of the positions from which they get scoring -- Teske on Ward, Simpson on Winston and presumably Matthews on McQuaid. One could see Langford winning a matchup with the intermittently-focused Poole.

[hack]

Michigan really needs to start having its players lead with their off arms on drives. I'm rewatching the OSU game, and it's amazing what the players are getting away with with their off arms when they're dribble driving. Weston should have fouled out a lot earlier lowering the shoulder was still a call. Iggy especially. Perfect opportunity for him to make up for his lack of athleticism on drives.

[*JD*]

Well can you name one that doesn't do that? all I ask for is that they make interesting observations, which he definitely does. Would love to see Tom Crean flame out at Georgia and be back in the booth. Very awkward, but very insightful.

Raftery doesn't do that. He has fun with the game and still has insights. Steven Bardo doesn't either, though he might be too understated. I also don't like Dakich using words like "stupid" when talking about a college kid. He's probably just got too much Bobby Knight ingrained in his system to not be an asshole.

[*JD*]

Are you listening to the Moving Screen podcast? There was a discussion about this, and how last year's guys sprinted down the court hunting transition opportunities whereas this year's does not. You'd think maybe Iggy as well, who can now be a bit bottled up off the dribble, would in particular be looking for those opportunities.

What's strange is they certainly were running a lot more vs. Villanova and UNC.

[WM Wolverine]

Down 8 at Iowa with under 12 minutes to go.

[WM Wolverine]

Not sure there is an early entry for M, Matthews play has dropped off in B1G play and no one else was ready. I expect Matthews to leave but I don't see much of an NBA future for him.

[hack]

Didn't see this one. In retrospect, clearly a mistake for me to overlook @Iowa. Always a dumb idea to do that. So they need to finish 7-2 to meet my adjusted projection of 4 losses. Pencil in a loss in EL; assume a home/home split. Remaining tough games are Wisconsin at home, @ Maryland, maybe @Minny. Need to win 2 of those. Doable.

Just can't make their 3s, though. Just a massive difference when they make 39-40% from 3, like in 16-17 or 13-14, and these last two years at 35%. Surprised they're even at 35% this year. Beilein's offense generates clean looks from 3 better than it does good 2s. Would be nice to see him dialing up more good 2 shots, but maybe the easiest way is to establish Teske from the 3 line and play five out. Though even with Livers in there hasn't been that empty key like last year. Oracle is probably right that they need to get more transition looks.