Who here said JB was going to field an elite defense?
Was that me? Is top 50 now considered elite? In that case, he must think we have an elite offense.
Oh, and why is he talking to himself on Twitter?
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Sports Illustrated did their āask coaches to anonymously criticize teamsā thing and the stuff on Michigan was pretty interesting:
āObviously theyāre not great defensively, but theyāre confident they can score against you. [Junior forward D.J.] Wilson and [sophomore forward Moritz] Wagner have emerged as premiere players. If [senior guard Duncan] Robinson is in the game you want to attack him defensively. Everybody knows that. Sometimes [senior guard Derrick] Walton just coasts on defense. The point of attack is where your defense has to be at its best. You have to keep Walton out of the paint. He can shoot it, but he does most of his damage when heās breaking your defense down. If theyāre not making shots, I donāt think they can beat good teams. Everybody that starts can make shots for them. [Senior guard] Zak Irvin is having a down year. Heās not shooting the ball as well. People have been keying on him a little more and making him take tough twos. I love Wilson, but heās not a tough kid. Iāve seen guys punk him and he didnāt fight back. Theyāre real soft defensively. I just think they have to spend so much time and energy getting that offense to work that they donāt have a lot of time to work on defense. Thereās nobody who runs better pick-and-roll offense than John Beilein. They get guys eight or 10 points who donāt deserve to score.ā
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My favorite portion of that is:
āIf theyāre not making shots, I donāt think they can beat good teams.ā followed immediately by āEverybody that starts can make shots for themā
That about sums it up
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This one was also interesting: āThereās nobody who runs better pick-and-roll offense than John Beilein. They get guys eight or 10 points who donāt deserve to score.ā
I wonder who those guys are?
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First let me say that few things are as consistantly lame as bets on an online forum. Everyone should let that go, please. Iāll look the other way and pretend it never happened.
Now Iāll go back to beating my own dead horse. Why are you here? Is this in any way fun for you?
Iām here because Iām a fan and like discussing the team and program that I follow. I expect the talk around here to be a little sunnier after a win than it is after a loss. I enjoy hearing other post game perspectives that come fromāwait for itāactually watching the games. I also enjoy the statistics that others bring to the table that I am far too lazy to research. At the same time I acknowledge that stats never tell the whole story. Also, if I wanted to eat Troll Chow on the regular I could always go to MLive.
Again, Iām a fan. Iām not here for tough love by those who know better and I have neither a financial stake nor a business interest at my opinions and evaluations proving correct.
ā¦and by better, you mean those that have been given the E.M. seal of approval. Your favorites rule, everyone else drools. Got it.
ā¦and all roads lead to this conclusion. Wash, rinse, repeat.
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Minus the wash and rinse. Itās just dirty laundry at this point.
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I donāt know if I agree with this but I find it very interesting
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Not sure I agree with this assessment of Walton either. Heās been better at this recently but is Walton good at breaking down defenses and getting into the paint. His best asset is definitely his 3 pt shot not his ability to beat his man off the dribble.
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They might be referring to Walton driving toward the baseline and kicking it out to a shooter in the corner rather than dropping a dime to a big on the help side.
Zakās ābread and butterā is our opponents ābread and butterā.
I love the guys weāve got coming in. Should rev up the level of practice as well. We COULD be very good next year.
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John Beilein on incoming Michigan basketball class: More ready to play
We say that every year man. Iāll believe it when I see it
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I am worried about replacing the scoring of Walton and Irvin. While neither have been consistent they have had the offense ran through them and have had the ball in there hands the majority of the time. There replacements really are not proven to be huge scorers. I do like the players coming in but the biggest question is who will dominate the ball and lead the offense. It will be tough for Mo or DJ since they are bigs.
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I have a ton of confidence the scoring from Matthews will be better than Irvinās. I love Irvin but his shooting is horrible and Matthews is going to be great at getting to and finishing at the rim. Replacing Walton should come from 4 guys. As our other 3 starters should score more than they are this year. Wagner should be a 15-17 a game guy. Simpson wonāt score 10 a game but our other 4 should. Plus our depth will be much better than this year. Before this year started, next year looked much better IMO.
Our lack of depth really hurt us vs Minnesota and many other games. Just look at overtime, our guys were really struggling late. SHOULDNāT happen next year.
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I wouldnāt worry too much about scoring. Even last year, despite Carisās and Spikeās injuries and playing Donnal and Doyle at center, we finished with the 30th best offense on kenpom. Wagner and Wilson are going to be a very good, if not elite, scoring 4 and 5 combo. Robinson is a three point shooting weapon. MAAR has solidified himself as quite a good secondary option. Simpson has looked better lately. Matthews will immediately improve the athleticism, offensive rebounding, and slashing ability. Poole and Brooks look like shot ready guards. I think you can be confident the John Beilein will put together, at the very least, a pretty good offense out of these parts.
Offensively:
X/BrooksJR MAAR
MAthews>Irvin
I think the improvement MAthews will bring will outweigh the fact that our young point guards are not ready to fill Waltonās shoes. I fully expect MAAR to take his game to the next level.
Also, donāt forget that Wagner is still 19 and that he and Wilson are playing significant minutes for the first time this year. They will be better next year than they are now and certainly than they have been at times this year.
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Oh yeah. Wagner and Wilsonās improvement is a given, in my mind. Those two are incredibly unique and incredibly talented.
Robinson is looking better everyday too.
Livers is going to be ready to play quality backup minutes too, I believe.
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