I was happy we won but thought we got extremely lucky they shot so bad and that shields bricked those ft. They played great except for turnovers. There was no reason for those high arching sloppy passes. With how we shot to start the second half we should have held that 18 point lead and destroyed these guys. I just fear against good teams this sloppiness and wasted possessions are going to finish us. Although donall finished it well second half with the way we go baseline and the way the teams fear the kick out there’s a ton of room for these drop offs inside if the big man moves to open spot. Donall does a lot but we need him to finish 9 out of ten. Their rarely contested. Just wish he could dunk them. I’m just praying we can clean this stuff up so we can make a run. Game should never have gotten close. It was just sloppy passes. It’s clear we are a far better team than them and would love to hAve destroyed them with the way we were playing. Props to Irvin too. These last two games are exactly what I meant by playing within himself.
Also I see a future for Robinson developing an all around game. Already a great passer. He’s had a few times this year he went to the rack and it rimmed out for him or when he pulled up/ turnaround in the lane. All were half way down. He’s s better athlete then we realize and with how guys play him he can get to the rack on most.
I miss the back door cuts too. I felt like we did more early in b’s tenure. Now we cut but without purpose and like we know we’re not.gonna throw the pass. The way they overplay our shooters this is a way to keep them honest. It’s there a lot if we cut hard and execute.i also see guys get a step or two on curls to the basket and we dont hit that’s pass often either. Going through the motion when really the look is there a lot. Just something’s I see.
The turnovers have been the most surprising thing to me. Beilein’s teams have always been phenomenal at avoiding turnovers, I think that even last year they were through the injuries (if I remember correctly), so all the bad turnovers in conference play have been weird. I’ve got to believe that Beilein will adjust and figure it out. Once that’s fixed, we’ll feel a lot safer and confident. Just imagine how much of a blowout that would have been if you cut our turnovers in half (basically like how Michigan usually plays).
I wouldn’t say that we were lucky, but the turnover situation has to improve. I expect that that will get worked on in practice.
You seem a little greedy expecting a big blowout on the road. We won by 13 on the road against a hot team that had won 4 straight including a road win against MSU. Teams make runs.
Maybe I missed it in prior games, but Donnal gets defenders to bite on his pump fake all the time, but doesn’t do anything with it. At least 3 times yesterday he could have gotten free throws if he took advantage of it. Presuming we end up with two more years of him, I’m guessing this can be worked into the arsenal.
Initially, it was frustrating that Max Bielfeldt was doing so well with Indiana when we could have just as easily extended him, but seeing Donnal grow into something serviceable would probably not have happened if Max stuck around.
I didn’t expect it but when we opened up that hot in the second half I felt we let them back in it with sloppy play as opposed to Nebraska really shooting well or something. If shields hits free throws lead is one. So 13 is deceiving. I just wish we could keep our boot on their throat and not be so streaky/ sloppy sometimes.
Michigan won by double digits on the road against a solid Nebraska team with a raucous crowd and you’re still complaining?
No team in the country plays perfect for 40 minutes. I suggest you watch some other teams once in a while. How do you think MSU fans felt after playing Nebraska or Maryland fans felt after playing Northwestern?
And wasted possessions? Michigan scored 1.27 points per possession. Spoiler alert: That is really good. Stop complaining just to complain.
To be fair, that’s padded a bit by our late game free throw shooting. Went from a 4-6 point lead to a 13 point lead because of that and Walton’s last second three. But yeah, we still played well offensively.
Many double digit wins are “padded” by late game free throw shooting. Those points still count. Michigan was in a position, on the road against a hot team, to force them to foul to have a chance. The team shot a cool 20 of 23 from the Free Throw line, including shooting 10 of 10 in the final three minutes. That is huge. You can call it padding, but I call it taking care of business.
Also, Michigan led for the final 37 minutes. It’s not like they got “lucky” and edged this one out. Teams go on runs in Division 1 basketball and Michigan did a good job of taking Nebraska’s best punches. Surely not worth complaining about.
You guys are taking what I’m saying the wrong way. We know the score was deceiving. It was very close. If shields hits either of those free throw chances we are in trouble.I just want us to clean up wasted possessions and turnovers. You can hit me with points per all day. Those stats were due to our hot starts in both halves then free throws late. I’m talking about when we just gave the ball away on sloppy passes and that them come back from down eighteen. Those are self inflicted wounds which will get us bounced early.That press wasn’t even that great. We just were sloppy with the ball.
I’m talking about cleaning up things we can control. For us to become a contender we need to do these things. Were amazing shooters and we get a lot of easy looks because of this. Our rebounding from what I see is actually pretty good of late. We actually seemed to out work them yesterday and got a lot of tap outs/ o rebounds. I don’t think it’s wrong to expect great things out of these guys. I’ve felt since last year thAt we were sleeper contenders. If we clean up some of the decisions and careless play we could achieve that. A better team pulls off that comeback, so this young team needs to put Nebraska away. A win is a win but I have been hoping in this stretch to win four in a row while solidifying rotation/roles and cleaning some things up for when we play real contenders. It’s in times like this where I say imagine if we had spike. Imagine the offensive out put him Derrick caris and Zach put out. Or him Derrick caris and Duncan. This team is so deep it’s ridiculous. Duncan would be struggling for time. We’d rarely see Aubrey or maar.
I just hope caris is back and ready to play. Probably not gonna happen before Hoosiers. Also props to zach for his play these last two games. He is an example of what I’m talking about. He made the right passes/ didn’t force much and played d and rebounded. Got to the rack. That’s the play we need out of him to go next level.
No I’m not. You can watch any team and nitpick the small things like you are.
I’ll sit back and enjoy the fact that Michigan led the game for 37 minutes on the road and locked the game up by hitting 10 of 10 Free Throws down the stretch.
Keep complaining just to complain, though. I’m sure it’s fun.
I just took a quick peek. Nebraska has played 8 Big Ten games and this loss to Michigan has been their biggest point deficit and it came at home.
Good win. On to the next one.
You take things personal. Not sure why. I titled thread as what did you think? I stated where I thought they could improve to go next level and contend for big ten title. I was very happy and excited to win. Any win is good. If you felt they played great cool leave it at that. It’s your opinion. I felt they played great and then almost fell apart. So I stated that and I felt that nail biter could be avoided. I really feel they have talent to be a sleeper, so I’d like to see that materialize and see them get better game by game. I’m not sitting here unhappy at all. I’m just looking down the road when we meet bigger foes. Relax.
And apparently it needs to keep being repeated…we did it WITHOUT our best player.
Yeah, 1.27 points per possession without our scoring and assist leader. Sorry, but don’t talk to me about empty possessions.
And I’m answering what I think. I think that any team in the conference would be happy with a 13 point road win at Nebraska.
MSU lost to Nebraska at home
7-0 Indiana won by 10 at Nebraska
7-0 Iowa won by 11 at home Nebraska
Michigan won by 13 at Nebraska
All three of those teams would be happy with what Michigan did at Nebraska. Likewise, I’m happy with what Michigan did at Nebraska.
An the “the score is misleading” angle is pretty weak and only used to push an agenda. Michigan locked down on defense at the end and extended their lead by going 10 of 10 for the Free Throws in the final 3 minutes. I’ve seen plenty of teams blow games (even the 2012/2013 Michigan team) blow games down the stretch by not taking care of business at the FT line. Dismissing how great this team shot free throws yesterday by calling the score “padded” is something I’d expect from somebody over at RCMB.
The turnovers can be fixed the poor defense probably not. They were great offensively especially in the 2nd half but defense needs to get a lot better. At one point with 7 minutes left in the game Michigan had an eFG% of 94 yet they had only extended the lead by 4 points. The offense is good but they will need to be better defensively when they face better teams like Iowa, Indiana, Purdue, MSU, Maryland.