Thoughts On This Year And Next

Duncan Robinson in 4/23 Free Press article.
“Physically, I need to get a lot stronger and that’s going to be a focus of mine this off season and probably will be for the rest of my career. I’m far from a finished product both physically and skill-wise as I continue to develop.”

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Robinson said this in the post game locker room after the ND loss. He had a list of things he wanted to improve on over the course of his summer in Ann Arbor. When they asked MAAR if he would be staying in Ann Arbor for the summer he said he didn’t know. That really bothered me as I think if MAAR would work on his passing/recognition/pick and roll, he could be a force. Robinson, in contrast, seemed so much more hungry and determined.

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Link for the article on Duncan:

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Probably don’t want to be too judgemental based on a post-game interview; he might not have been in the best mood. I hope that we’re all doing as much to get better this summer as we want these kids to do.

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I think Beilein indicated that everyone is attending the first session of camp Sanderson and that some will be doing both.

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MAAR is sort of a tough read, he looks about the same win or lose. You are probably right that his emotion seeped out in the answer. It matters little except as a contrast with Robinson who you could tell had already invested some thought into his game and goals. I am bias though, I think Robinson is a cerebral player who will play above his measurables with a summer to adjust to the competition level. In college some guys have the pure talent to drag their brain and others have the brain to drag their talent.

I suppose this qualifies as “Thoughts on next year” … Myron Medcalf’s “Looking Ahead” piece which I don’t think is paywalled:

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/115140/looking-ahead-michigan-loses-key-pieces-but-still-stands-tall

Some encouraging thoughts (not that any of it is new). And he didn’t even mention Mo, who we all hope breaks out next year.

Looking toward this season I’m very optimistic. Still think they should have considered keeping spike. I think if spike knew he’d have a fair shake he would have stayed. I believe he would have played much more then we realize in a smaller lineup. Twenty minutes imo was possible minimum per game.

That said if Walton and Irvin can find s level of consistency scoring wide then this team will be very good. Same goes for Duncan. If Duncan can regain consistency from deep I think this is a dangerous group.

I think maar and Wagner will be very good. They need to feed Wagner more and make sure he gets his looks because I think he’s a very tough matchup for every center in the big ten.

The key imo is having faith in each other and spreading the rock. All five starters should average double digits if not more. Maybe Duncan around 9. I know Irvin had to shoot sometimes but as long as he takes good looks and concentrates on boards/d/ assist this roster will play out better. He needs to be a jack of all trades much like levert.

They need to work on screens and coming off them as well which will help us get open looks off our sets much like the Spartans do.

Donnall, x, Wilson and Ibi will be a decent bench. s much as people hated Aubrey I really wish we had him after the other transfers. I believed in him much more than you guys but I feel he could have won his job back or at very least been a huge scoring punch off the bench. I truly believe he could have been a great scorer for us which our bench is lacking now. I truly believe he’ll turn heads at ucf.

I like the optimism, but are you suggesting starters might average triple digits!?!?!

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I do not know about all starters should average double digits but should be solid. Maybe MAAR and Irvin and Duncan should if he shoots like he can. Walton plays best as the distributer I kind of want to see him play like he did when he had Stauskas-GRob-LeVert by him. Our bench is frightening right now IMO. X will hopefully back up MAAR and Walton well but is an unproven frosh. If Donnal plays like he did last year and Mo starts and plays like he did towards the end he should be a good backup. Ibi is a frosh who needs to fill in first I think he will be good year 2 or 3. Wilson has the shot selection of Kobe Bryant and definitely does not shoot as well as him. He could be a great spot player at the 4 if he gets smarter and uses his length/athleticism. In regards to aubrey I liked him but do not know why I did. He did not get to the hoop and was not a great ball handler and his D was horrific. He had hops and a shot. I hope for the best for him at UCF and wish we had him for maybe 1 more year.

I am not as optimistic about the offense, they took steps back last year, had trouble adjusting to the new 30 second clock. Beilein has never had 5 players average double figures not even his most talented teams (Burke/Hardaway/Stauskas/Robinson/McGary) didn’t reach that level. Right now they don’t have a recruit or transfer that’s coming in to average double figures this year either.

How many teams have five players average double figures? That is such a bizarre standard to hold. Plenty of good offenses don’t have five double digit scorers, I’m not sure there are many that do.

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Mich. will have an experienced starting 5 with a mixture of experience and young backups. The x factor is going to be Wilson. Unless we find a grad transfer to help out it may get interesting. It’s going to be important for Ibi to be able to take some minutes so that there is rest for the 2,3, and 4.

I think it’s fair to expect that this year’s team should have real success in the form of contending for a conference championship/B10 tournament championship/NCAA deep run. We don’t have a “young” team and even if we could have more depth of experience, the recent attrition has ultimately resulted from roster management decisions made deliberately by the staff (not NBA departures this time around). I agree that at least one freshman will likely need to be an instant impact guy – MSU projects to have at least two and possibly up to four, so it should be a fair expectation.

Until we show that we are at least competitive on the defensive end, we are a threat to lose to anyone we play in the B1G. Except Rutgers.

That to me is the season in a nutshell, how much can we improve on defense?

Interesting to see what Donlan can bring.

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We were 10-8 last year with same starters.

I don’t see how donnal is still starting with what we saw at the end of the year from Wagner. Donnal, Simpson, Watson and Wilson off the bench is good by me.

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I really think they could all average 10 or more if they spread the touches around the right way. If they don’t I’d expect it would be very close to.

If Wagner doesn’t for instance id be disappointed. I’d think it would be less him playing bad and more were not giving him a chance down low.

Walton if he shoots more consistently also could hit ten pretty easily with the amount of looks he gets.

Robinson would be all about shooting a high percentage again. Can he shoot fifty percent on 5-6 threes a game?

I’m confident Irvin and maar get there. Also more then ever I see the starting five playing huge minutes. For better or worse. I really believe if they move the ball well that all five of them are capable of ten or more. Or right there if they miss it. I think spreading the wealth would be our best style of play.

I think although we don’t have the top level stars per say although I like a lot of our guys, we have five guys who can all score and have to be accounted for. Not every team has that.