Wilson - needs a good off-season of health and strength training. I don’t think he has to become a deadeye shooter to play the 4 spot.
Dawkins - I like his game. Some work on the ball-handling would be good but he’s been able to come in and contribute right away.
MAAR - needs work on his shot and strength. I think he’s a project/safety net.
Doyle - He’ll improve with time but he’s already shown that he can contribute. I don’t know how you develop a rebounding streak but he needs to get more aggressive on the boards.
Chatman - confidence. IMO an off-season of strength training could do a lot for him too.
Dawkins need more arch on his shot, he extends forward rather than getting proper verticality. His shot is usually dead on, but off the back iron.
Wilson - same shooting problem as Dawkins, although he is nowhere near as accurate at this point in his development. Needs to get tougher mentally and play with authority from a physical standpoint - I think his softness is a bigger issue than any lack of strength
MAAR - love his speed and lateral agility. Needs to tighten up his handle but he needs a LOT of work on his shot, as his wrist follows through diagonally rather than straight. Needs to really work on his shooting mechanics. Strength will aid him greatly in drawing found and balance on defense
Kam - he is already big enough to compete at this level, and his lateral movement is better than anticipated. His biggest problem by far is the softness - he doesn’t use his body to his advantage when attempting to finish, he seeks to avoid contact and generally flips up garbage near the rim. Being a reliable finisher is the difference between Kam being absolutely awful and an impact player
The only guys who have shown any real potential IMO are Dawkins and Doyle. Wilson and MAAR haven’t played enough to form much of an opinion on.
Chatman, on the other hand, has played a lot and shown nothing positive at all, other than height and an occasional assist. The dude cannot shoot at all, and it does not look like he ever will get to average in that department. Even worse, he looks slow and soft, so going to the rim or scoring down low don’t appear to be real options.
Sure, there is camp Sanderson and all but that can only do so much for a player. Most of it has to come from within and I don’t even see glimpses of that with Chatman, like you did with other guys in their freshman year (Darius, Tim, Nik, Caris etc. )
By this point, I think softness is to be expected in a number of Beilein players. Just the way it is IMO and why we're not a great rebounding team.
We have to get around that deficiency by being proficient in other areas.
JB - I think that is the problem, by turning a blind eye, we (meaning coaching staff, fans, players) are accepting and even fostering poor performance in that regard. At some point, the problem has to be addressed.
I know many think we have a ‘winning culture’, but in my opinion, to allow the players to be soft, and not put forth 100% effort, is anything but a winning culture. I could understand with the Novak, Douglass, McLimans era…that wasn’t about effort, we simply didn’t have the size, athleticism, or talent to compete. This is different, we now have the size, and improved athelticism and talent…but the softness persists. It’s a problem that needs to be adddressed
Novak, Douglass, Morgan, Trey, THJ, Nik, Mitch, Doyle, Derrick, those guys were not soft. I’m not sure how you can say that a team with B1G titles two of the last three seasons (and a put back away from a third) and an NCAA final and elite 8 in back to back years doesn’t have a “winning culture.” This year’s team is struggling; outside of Spike, Derrick and Doyle, they are not mentally tough - just a lot of lapses in focus. The coaches are not “allowing players to be soft.” It’s been addressed more than once this season. You can’t bench your best players for very long when you don’t have options.
Sane - I’m essentially agreeing with you, softness wasn’t an issue with Stu, Novak, Dmo etc. we just didn’t have the size or necessary talent (see my comments above). Although I have to disagree with Nik, he was very soft on D. Softness is a Huge issue with guys like Zak, Donnal, Kam, Wilson, Caris. 3 of those players are not freshman - so that leads me to believe they shouldn’t have these issues to the degree they do.
The notion that just because you are winning games you can’t be soft is a bit silly though. The Phoenix Suns are the poster child in that regard - win tons of games in the regular season but at the end of the day it’s meaningless because everyone knew they were never going to win a championship playing that style of basketball
Novak, Douglass, Morgan, Trey, THJ, Nik, Mitch, Doyle, Derrick, those guys were not soft. I'm not sure how you can say that a team with B1G titles two of the last three seasons (and a put back away from a third) and an NCAA final and elite 8 in back to back years doesn't have a "winning culture." This year's team is struggling; outside of Spike, Derrick and Doyle, they are not mentally tough - just a lot of lapses in focus. The coaches are not "allowing players to be soft." It's been addressed more than once this season. You can't bench your best players for very long when you don't have options.
I think there’s definitely a bit of truth to it, our rebounding has been very poor these past 4 years. I don’t know if the players are necessarily ‘soft’ but they seem to lack size on the court.
If you watch a Beilein practice, it’s very close to 75% offense and 25% defense. His theory is that they need to increase their possessions. His idea is that they can’t turn the ball over. It would make sense to me to focus on rebounding to increase possessions but he has never thought that way. Just his philosophy. That’s how he has done it for years and he has been extremely effective in his coaching wherever he has been.
This really explains why we are consistently a below average/bad defensive team if true. So coaching (or lack of) is a factor, as opposed to the exclusive “inexperience” argument
The one reason I could be wrong because there doesn’t seem to be as much focus on their offensive stuff because of all of the pick and roll at the end of the shot clock. He didn’t do that very much in his last spots. He was much more set oriented at the end of the shot clock and would change their “shot clock” play on a game to game basis.
Like I’ve said before, being a freshmen in Beilein’s system is very difficult with all the different lingo and philosophies. I believe it’ll all come around, just don’t know when. Still expect a few losses against teams that you wouldn’t think they would lose to as well as a few wins against teams that they probably shouldn’t beat.
The notion that just because you are winning games you can’t be soft is a bit silly though. The Phoenix Suns are the poster child in that regard - win tons of games in the regular season but at the end of the day it’s meaningless because everyone knew they were never going to win a championship playing that style of basketball
Once again you overstate your position. Under JB they’ve won 2 conference titles, appeared in a championship game and were a 25 foot bomb away from consecutive Final Fours. This is a ridiculous comparison.
By this point, I think softness is to be expected in a number of Beilein players. Just the way it is IMO and why we're not a great rebounding team.
We have to get around that deficiency by being proficient in other areas.
JB - I think that is the problem, by turning a blind eye, we (meaning coaching staff, fans, players) are accepting and even fostering poor performance in that regard. At some point, the problem has to be addressed.
I know many think we have a ‘winning culture’, but in my opinion, to allow the players to be soft, and not put forth 100% effort, is anything but a winning culture. I could understand with the Novak, Douglass, McLimans era…that wasn’t about effort, we simply didn’t have the size, athleticism, or talent to compete. This is different, we now have the size, and improved athelticism and talent…but the softness persists. It’s a problem that needs to be adddressed
As long as JB is the coach, it only needs to be addressed if he wants to address it.
I’d love to have a nasty rebounder on the floor at all times but it doesn’t jive with his strategy. And his strategy has gotten us 2 B10 Titles and 2 Elite 8’s recently so I see some value in what he’s trying to do.
The notion that just because you are winning games you can’t be soft is a bit silly though. The Phoenix Suns are the poster child in that regard - win tons of games in the regular season but at the end of the day it’s meaningless because everyone knew they were never going to win a championship playing that style of basketball
Once again you overstate your position. Under JB they’ve won 2 conference titles, appeared in a championship game and were a 25 foot bomb away from consecutive Final Fours. This is a ridiculous comparison.
93 - I didn’t overstate anything. I simply said you can games and still be soft, and that is true. I used the Suns as an NBA analogy to support it.
That being said - Phoenix experienced tremendous success both in the regular and post season for a longer duration utilizing a similar approach - but they never won a championship
By this point, I think softness is to be expected in a number of Beilein players. Just the way it is IMO and why we're not a great rebounding team.
We have to get around that deficiency by being proficient in other areas.
JB - I think that is the problem, by turning a blind eye, we (meaning coaching staff, fans, players) are accepting and even fostering poor performance in that regard. At some point, the problem has to be addressed.
I know many think we have a ‘winning culture’, but in my opinion, to allow the players to be soft, and not put forth 100% effort, is anything but a winning culture. I could understand with the Novak, Douglass, McLimans era…that wasn’t about effort, we simply didn’t have the size, athleticism, or talent to compete. This is different, we now have the size, and improved athelticism and talent…but the softness persists. It’s a problem that needs to be adddressed
As long as JB is the coach, it only needs to be addressed if he wants to address it.
I’d love to have a nasty rebounder on the floor at all times but it doesn’t jive with his strategy. And his strategy has gotten us 2 B10 Titles and 2 Elite 8’s recently so I see some value in what he’s trying to do.
This is quite simply a very illogical, and unreasonable statement. An area of weakness only needs to be addressed if the coach chooses to? That is mind boggling to say the least.
I think not…areas of weakness need to be addressed irrelevant and regardless of whether the coach feels the need to do his job. Whether the coach actually does address it is a different question, but the need to address those issues still remains.
There is no doubt JB’s offensive strategy can work, I don’t question that. Im simply saying that softness is a huge negative for the younger players and it is really hindering their production and development.
The one reason I could be wrong because there doesn't seem to be as much focus on their offensive stuff because of all of the pick and roll at the end of the shot clock. He didn't do that very much in his last spots. He was much more set oriented at the end of the shot clock and would change their "shot clock" play on a game to game basis.
Like I’ve said before, being a freshmen in Beilein’s system is very difficult with all the different lingo and philosophies. I believe it’ll all come around, just don’t know when. Still expect a few losses against teams that you wouldn’t think they would lose to as well as a few wins against teams that they probably shouldn’t beat.
JB has fallen in love with the high ball screen in concert with P/R action the last few years. When you have Burke and Stauskas ( yes Nik was an efficient “creator” ) along with JMO and Mitch to run that, you can be very effective. We obviously don’t have that high level talent this year to continue that action, with the youth compounding the process. The lack of open looks this year would seem to promote more “set orientated” options to get some better looks. Even without high level talent you can scheme your way to some positive offensive flow. This has been absent all year. Most notably no inside out action, zero back cuts, and limited open J looks. It seems at times we just continue to run ball screens at a nauseating continuance, with little if any resulting production, hoping individual talent will produce something. It rarely does. We are a schematic jump shooting team, that isn’t very good at hitting jump shots. It’s up to JB to find a way to get some open looks without solely depending on an individual to create. We are very EASY to defend at this stage. As far as lingo and philosophies go, if your system is to hard to grasp for college educated athletes, maybe you should simplify it accordingly. It’s numbing to watch this team go 8-10 minutes every game without a basket. Our talent isn’t great, but it’s better than that.
MattD who made you the logic and reason police? No team has 100% strengths. There’s more than one way to win the game. If JB wants to do it his way, then as long as he’s the coach that’s fine.
And there’s a perfect example of how you can be completely antagonistic.
Just because you disagree with something gives you no right to downgrade my comments.
MattD who made you the logic and reason police? No team has 100% strengths. There's more than one way to win the game. If JB wants to do it his way, then as long as he's the coach that's fine.
And there’s a perfect example of how you can be completely antagonistic.
Just because you disagree with something gives you no right to downgrade my comments.
Are you kidding me…you, of all people, are going to lecture me about ridicule over viewpoint? You are the current king in that department. You are probably the most antagonistic poster on this board. Whenever someone’s opinion differs from your own, you resort to name calling like a child. And you have the nerve to complain about downgrading your comments…get real
You are correct, there is more than one way to win a game, and it’s time we started winning in different ways in my view. it’s only fine if JB wants to do it “his way” if he is winning. That is not the case this year, so obviously adjustments need to be made.
Bottom line is that your comments are simply not true, and quite frankly, don’t make any sense. Any reasonable person, no matter what degree of bias, would concede that problems need to be addressed regardless of whether the coach has the inclination to attend to those issues.
You could also factor our youth and inexperience into the offensive struggles. We consider sophs as veterans. We’re trying to integrate 4-5 freshmen into the rotation. It’s clear that we don’t have the level of talent or experience that we had last season. There have been games where the offense has generated good shots, but our shooting was woeful. I recall one game where we must have missed a half dozen lay-ups. IMO, it’s not the system.