Well we now have a secret weapon named dj Wilson. Although not a secret anymore lol.
So Iâm reading some South Carolina message boards, and there are some guys talking about how theyâll have to attack the 1-3-1 all night and that they should install a 2-3 matchup zone because Beilein struggles against Syracuse.
Lol.
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Well hey, weâve played 1-3-1 zone for one possession this year so maybe they should be prepared 
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I always love it when teams zone Michigan up. Please let it happen!
Looks like USC plays zone about 1 in 5 possessions â mostly out of BLOBs and sometimes with some token zone press.
Well, thatâs different, but nothing that should trip Michigan up. Theyâve already had to deal with some token 3/4 court press. I was talking about teams that zone up in half court defense. Looking forward to the game. Wish it were later in the evening.
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Point was just that after the 3/4 court trap, they fall back into a 2-3 zone. I think any zone defense that USC plays is a benefit to Michigan.
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Even game announcers usually talk about Beileinâs 1-3-1 zone even though that was 10 years ago at West Virginia.
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Haha. Hilarious.
South Carolina has message boards?
Mostly for football (every SEC fanbase has intense fans), but there are 4-5 threads on the internet discussing South Carolina basketball, haha.
They FILLED the arena for the game. Get back to us when Michigan half-fills Crisler for a game against USC.
SMU lost to Boise state tonight and is now 4-3. Not sure that win will mean much down the road for us.
They lost some really key players from last year. Not remotely the same team.
Oh I know, it just sucks because if they donât turn it around and Marquette keeps losing, we have no quality wins and Texas is awful this year too. Weâve lost to the only two good teams weâve played.
Here is how I see it. We can only afford one more conference loss at most. Texas we should and must beat, UCLA will be tough but I think if we play well winning isnât a crazy thought. The rest of the conference schedule is then âguarantee gamesâ. That gives us a 10-3 or 11-2 record heading into conference play with wins vs Texas Marquette SMU and if we can possibly beat UCLA. That is not a bad spot heading into a much weaker big ten then last season. The only teams I am scared of in the conference is Purdue and Wisconsin and I think both are very beatable. If we lose to Texas we must get hot during conference play and win 4 or more âtopâ conference teams. If we beat them and upset UCLA at home we are sitting very pretty heading into conference play. I am not ready to quit yet a lot is coming up. Also to mention all the top non conference teams we played or are playing except Texas are currently in the kenpom top 50 even though it is still very early. Next week should make for a good one.
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One last thought that just came to me is the nice start of conference season we have. @Iowa vs Penn St, Maryland @Illinois vsNebraska . Playing in Iowa has not been the best place for us but there team has been much better the past few years and are not too good this year and Maryland has little experience this year and has been exposed multiple times. I expect all of those 5 to be won to start the conference season.
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The key for Michigan is to make its money in the first month and the last month of the Big Ten season and survive the middle.
Michiganâs schedule is weighted with âwinnable gamesâ early and late.
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SMU dropped a couple, but seems like they should still be near the top of the American. Which admittedly isnât very good. Itâs not going to be a top 20, top 30 win, but when all is said and done I wouldnât be surprised to see SMU around the top-50 and in the top 2-3 of the American.
Marquette? Iâm not really even sure at this point. Big East is tough and I think it can eat you up in a hurry.
Those neutral site wins arenât enough to stake a whole resume on, but theyâll certainly help.
No doubt they help but they would have done more negative to our resume than winning helps IMO. I donât see either team making the tournament at this point and the two loses we have are to tournament teams. No way Iâm giving up but our ceiling isnât changing with playing our juniors and seniors a whole bunch, itâs changing by getting our younger guys playing better and contributing.
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