Boy, I’ve actually found Livers to be so much more than what I was expecting. Much more athletic than I realized. I’ve been bullish on him for some time now. That’s a very college ready, live body and that is a very good thing.
The lineup of Z, MAAR, CM, Livers and Teske was impressive.
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Sounds like Simpson may have one starting job today. That’s what I think Coach Beilein said to Matt Shepherd
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If livers continues to progress he may force his way into the starting line up, because Duncan is going to get abused by the four position on most teams in the BIG. Livers really has nice skills and athleticism. I was encouraged by his shot fake and drive for a score. He will need that ability as his shot becomes more proficient. And most of all the team needs that body to help out Wagner and Teske on defense and rebounding.
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Hit on this in the recap, but if this is a lightbulb type of game for Isaiah Livers – sort of like Simpson vs UCLA – the ceiling for this team elevates a couple of levels. Michigan has desperately needed this kind of production at the four spot and he finally brought it.
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Saw it weeks ago and he finally got a real opportunity and showed it. His upside is incredible and does so many more things better than Duncan. I hope we see Duncan for 10-15 minutes a game going forward.
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Dammit Dylan, if you keep enticing me with links to intriguing Athletic articles in umhoops columns I’m gonna have to subscribe.
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I was gifted a 6-month subscription for Christmas and will be a regular subscriber beyond that. Dylan and crew are doing great stuff over there
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He can do a lot of things better than Duncan in terms of raw physical talent. He hasn’t been doing a lot of things better than Duncan until tonight.
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I’ve been watching Poole’s defense pretty closely over the past couple games and I definitely see why he isn’t eating into anyone’s minutes more than he has been. There’s a lot to fix there, luckily his physical tools give him solid potential on that end.
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He has great timing to pick up deflections and things like that, but he plays like a high school kid on defense and probably tries to go after too many deflections. He’s also playing behind MAAR and Matthews and they are two of Michigan’s best, most consistent and most important players.
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You should subscribe. Brendan and Dylan are far and away the two best writers covering Michigan basketball.
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Yeah I really like Poole’s potential and I know there has been a clamoring for him to play more but he’s playing behind Rahk and Matthews. There’s no doubt in my mind Beilein is going to play those guys 35 minutes a game. So I don’t see Poole getting a ton of minutes regardless.
Next year, I think he will be playing a lot. He can clearly be a scorer but he will need to improve his all around game.
He has been doing them. What games are you watching? Rebounds better, passes better, defends better. What else does he need to do? Because he does them in shorter amounts of time and gets pulled for mistakes, doesn’t mean he doesn’t do them better. Must I reference back to the Donnel vs Wagner discussion? Same exact situation. One guy plays incredibly soft and sluggish and one is constantly hustling and shows much more upside and just needs the time on the floor for the game to slow down. It happened tonight and hopefully it continues. Duncan needs to come off the bench and play between 10-15 minutes if needed.
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And Duncan does some things better than Livers. Crean couldn’t stop talking about Robinson’s help defense. That it was really good and how he (Crean) used to game plan for it.
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I thought Crean was putting euphemistic spin on the fact that Indiana always attacked Robinson. He seemed to be saying that Indiana tried to avoid having him be an off the ball helper by making sure Indiana always attacked him.
I was impressed that Crean was able to communicate how bad Robinson is at defense in such a clever and classy way.
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Exactly what I thought was happening.
I am 100 percent with you on your assessment of Livers. The only thing Livers really did differently tonight is a few shots went down. Big deal. He has been not too far behind Robinson all year, sometimes just as good, sometimes better…Handicapping for age, it has been pretty obvious from day 1 that he is going to start taking over Robinson’s minutes.
Livers didn’t do anything too surprising tonight, imo…
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Livers was 3-of-12 from the floor with 3 turnovers in games against IU, OSU, UCLA, Texas. He’s played one good game against a high-major team (at UNC) and it was a blowout loss and a lot came in garbage time.
Making shots is very important. He hit huge run-stopping threes tonight from the corner. Those are massive shots. When a guy makes as many shots in one game as he has made in the last 6 games combined then you can’t just say “big deal”. He had 3 assists today which is 1 less than he had in Michigan’s first 12 games combined.
Thought Beilein’s quotes in the postgame about Livers were very interesting and worth a listen. He’s learning how to play, where to go, how hard he has to play, etc.
There’s never been any doubt that he has a higher ceiling and more physical ability to play the four than Duncan Robinson. The doubts were: can he consistently be in the right spot in an important game? Can he knock down open shots?
I think as much as anyone he really benefited from the 3-game stretch vs. Detroit/AM/Jacksonville because he got some minutes, reps, hit shots, made more plays, etc.
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