100% true. Will be a top 5 big ten defender from day 1.
Hopefully Charles will open JBās eyes to that type of player and we will that more of a focus moving forward with recruiting.
Isnāt Beilein the one who gave Charles the scholarship? Perhaps coach already knew that he needed/wanted this type of player.
Before Kentucky became involved with Matthews I can recall it was known Ohio State, who recruited him hard, viewed him as an āelite defenderā. I remember it was thought he was on par with David Lighty in that area and Thad hoped he would fill that same role for Ohio State. If Charles has similar skill as Lighty did, defensively, then the UM staff has a really nice piece to work with.
Iām curious to see Matthews on court next season for Michigan. Saw him a little when he wore Kentucky blue but not enough to comprehend his real talent on defense or offense.
Opponents are shooting 23% from three over the last 4 games.
What, if anything, have we changed on defense? Or is this just the part of good luck that we were missing previously?
Gotta be the effort, leading to forced TOs, because we still give up a crazy high eFG.
Better defense, but also the percentages teams were shooting were just highly unlikely to continue ā so, yes, bettter luck too. Just as we thought (or at last hoped with good reason).
Iād wager that most of it is this.
Interesting to see that thereās also not a big difference between our own 3 point % in wins and losses. 40/37. A lot of pundits and fans say we live and die by the three but Iāve never really felt that way under JB
Live and die by the opponentsā threes
Take away some of the ridiculous three point luck in the beginning of Big Ten play and thereās a good chance weāre 11-5 right now, which actually does fit our kenpom profile better.
Yeah, me neither. I remember looking into that closely one year. Our 2 or 3 biggest upset wins that year came when we shot well below our season average.
I think itās more ālive and die by the THREAT of the threeā. If teams are overplaying our shooters, we can still win.
Also may matter if we shoot well early. I have not looked into stats for that though.
Hit on these stats again today.
While that wasnāt exactly a sterling defensive performance yesterday, holding OSU to 16 attempts (two of which came in the last 20 seconds) probably was a factor helping us win. They had been averaging over 22 attempts and 9 makes prior to the game. Through 39 minutes, they made only five.