In theory yes, but he’s extremely timid/weak when being pressured in a halfcort setting. While he’s probably the highest upside wing we’ve expressed legit interest in for 18, he’s also the least likely to be instant impact IMO.
Watching a game he played at Milton this year and he plays almost entirely out of the high pick and roll and makes some nice plays. Also great shooting the three off the catch and curl. Seems like he would be a perfect add to me and I think he’d play as a freshman. (Obviously still has to add more weight, but he’s got time.)
Definitely a great shooter with more athleticism than people realize, but you witnessed at the same thing I did at the UM camp - when he gets pressured he gets really shaky/loose with the ball. In other words, he’s soft.
Brandon Wade, who isn’t a great defender by any means, made him cough up the ball on several occasions. There was a pretty stark contrast between the way Dwayne Cohill handled defenders getting in his chest vs Ryan.
Honestly, how well a kid handles the ball against pressure defense as a 2018 kid in camp is just not something I’m going to worry about. The one thing that we know is that Michigan isn’t going to turn the ball over.
Nik Stauskas, Tim Hardaway Jr. all probably would have had issues with that sort of ball pressure in camps. Think the positives (length, vision, athleticism, shooting) far outweigh the negative that you are mentioning here.
Guess I just have to disagree here, as softness/lack of motor is the one issue that has seemed to perpetually translate for Michigan players from HS to college. Michigan under John Beilein simply isn’t going to fix softness/lack of motor in most cases
Also, if you want someone that is an athletic PnR handler with good vision and toughness…hello Kiyon Boyd. But yet crickets are heard
Because the way that you are IDing ‘soft’ or ‘lack of motor’ is by how he handled ball pressure.
If you are going to put a guy between X and Matthews, Ryan would be basically perfect.
Either way, Michigan should be a lot better with the pull-up jumper with DeJulius and Brooks. Both of them have that shot and Walton not having it hurts.
And we get that you like Kiyon Boyd, and he looks great on film, but does it really help anyone to bring him up in every thread? He also had to sit out most of his freshman year with academic issues which is at least something of a red flag.
2 Likes
I just don’t see anyone that is subpar defensively as the perfect fit. You consistently fail to account for the defensive side of the floor in your analysis, which is a pretty big factor IMO
Wait, Brooks has a pull-up jumper off the bounce? Could be, I just don’t remember seeing it. Bottom line for me is that we need an instant impact/high upside wing that can handle. In other words an NBA type
1 Like
While, I think Mack is a littttle shady, to be fair, Dez was falsely accused (he had sex with his RA, and when it was found out the RA lied to save her job) and exonerated. Myles Davis big offense also came down to him breaking some cellphones in anger (which while not good isn’t a particularly evil act). Jalen is a different story… but Jalen also hated Mack.
I’m not going to litigate a sexual assault allegation here, but I’ve never read that Wells’s accuser dropped her accusations – or that a court ever found in favor of Wells either. Myles Davis had a protective order against him – allegations "accused him of threatening her, breaking her cellphones, punching holes in her wall and trying “to punch through my windows.” Then there’s Reynolds, as well as the brawl. I’m not saying Xavier is the worst program out there, but when the defense is that there are potentially mitigating stories on a couple of the several incidents that immediately come to mind – well, it’s a far cry from gradating guys from the b school and engineering.
2 Likes
I totally understAnd you and everyone else’s doubt. I have a few things that lead me to believe this though. If x though isn’t ready to play though then obviously we could be in trouble.
I really think a lot of guys will flourish and step up once those two are gone, once it’s not " their" team anymore I expect a lot of guys to step up with their increased roles. I also really like Mathews addition with zaks subtraction.
I also still have a ton of faith in maar and I like Duncan still. I really think maars confidence was waning but I have my own theories on that. Once he’s asked to step into a bigger role and given more touched I expect him to step up. He’s more the player we saw late last year then who we saw early this year imo.
I also expect Wagner to be the focus and a monster on offense. I’m hoping they just start to realize this this year but he’s still not the go to and this puzzles me.
If we don’t land any other 2017 what are the odds they try and land a grad transfer point for insurance? Might be smart.
I don’t have a problem with a “hard performance” target, I just think it has to be realistic.
To me, again, there are two primary causes for the past three years (which includes this year): (1) guys like Walton, Irvin, Chatman, and Donnal did not develop into the players we anticipated they would be; and (2) we’ve had some serious injuries - Irvin, Walton, Caris (twice), Spike (twice), Wilson.
Aside from the few handful of schools that recruit multiple one-and-done players every year (Duke, UK, KU), every program experiences ups and downs. Villanova went from making the Final Four in 2009, to 13-18 in 2012, to winning it all last year. In Matt Painter’s first five seasons, Purdue was very good. He then missed the tourney in back-to-back years. Now he has things rolling again. As someone here pointed out, Matta is in jeopardy of missing the tourney two years in a row. Who would have predicted that three years ago, when he was doing a great job of coaching and was landing “highly rated” players? Mike Brey randomly had a 15-17 year at ND, then won 32 the next season.
This particular group of players isn’t going to get it done. We can debate at length about whether they are underachieving, or not that talented, or not giving great effort, or whatever. It won’t matter.
The hope is that with the new crop of guys - Mathews, Brooks, Poole, Livers - we will be better. It’s certainly promising that Wagner and Wilson are both improving, and likely to be back next year.
I’m not going to worry about our record next year, I want to see how we finish the year, and I want to see the 2018 and 2019 recruits we are able to land. If we are trending up by the end of the year, such that we seem to have the talent to contend for the Big Ten title and make say a Sweet Sixteen by 2018, then I’d keep JB. If not, sure, I’d consider a change.
9 Likes
You’re right–no coach has every said they weren’t leaving and then did.
Best comment on this thread. Agree that this year is basically bubble or bust, and the result probably doesn’t matter much, because this will be a new team next year. Can’t miss the tourney 2 years in a row and 3 out of 4, with the one year being a play in game. Next year needs to be a solid year.
I don’t get it. First you say you don’t care about next year’s record, then you say you want to make the 2018 Sweet Sixteen, also next year. Are they not correlated?
1 Like
I am starting to think enough is enough as well. Either our players are simply not smart enough to understand many of basketballs basics, they are void of any real talent of they are poorly coached both before and during the game? Or even worse its all of the above.
But since we are constantly told that coach does not use the educational exception as much as other programs and that many of our players are also on other Big Ten teams radar I have to assume its more about coaching.
From the use or lack of use of our length when anyone of them have a clear mis-match after a switch to far too little movement in an offense that is supposed to be based on it to not mixing it up on the defensive side of the ball such as changing the way we play the PNR each time down the floor to even trying different zone options and looks.
I am hopeful it gets better and I change my mind but…
I’m on this boat. Is the talent great? No, but imo it’s much better then they show. It’s between the ears to me. They don’t have high ball iqs imo and it holds us back. I put a lot of this on coach b. I’ve been more frustrated with that aspect of his job then recruiting.
Sorry, I meant 2018/19 Sweet Sixteen.
In a nutshell, next year will be a transition year. If everything goes well, sure, we could be a tourney team. But we may not be. What I want to evaluate is the trajectory. How do we look over the final 1/3 of the year? Are we competitive against the better teams in conference? Are there 1-2 players we can identify who have star potential? How does the 2018 recruiting class look?
Two years from now, I want to see a team with the talent capable of making a Sweet Sixteen run, and I want the 2019/2020 team to have as much or more upside. And if we’re not at that point, then sure, it’s absolutely fair to question whether JB is the right guy to lead the program. Heck, I would imagine HE would feel the same way if things aren’t back on track by then.
1 Like
The guys that handle the ball the most have sticky hands and are below average passers. That really hurts us.
The between the ears problems of this team is just stunning. It just begs for inconsistency.
Don’t forget that Zak’s shooting was not able to be fixed by Coach B. The struggles got to such an extent that Coach had to let Zak go back to his old, bad shooting habits just so he’d shoot with some confidence.
I’d never heard of that before in Beilein’s time here. If there was one skill he looked for, it was shooting. If there was one skill he could refine, it was shooting.
Once I read that Zak would be riding it out with his clunky shooting motion, I really felt that this whole group could be limited.