in case anyone needed a good laugh…
13 Likes
We sweat out Matthews’ NBA decision.
What’s next? They are going to land Blake Lund and he will be an All B1G player?
He sure goes to bat for his people. MattD does it too. Good for them I guess.
3 Likes
Based on how the 1 and the 2 positions are looking for Michigan, I feel like Zeb and Bajema are definitely looking at a lot more possible minutes as of today.
1 Like
I truly hope, for his sake, he works his tail off and improves greatly and we are all stunned at his contributions to the team. That would make for a great ending and some serious plate of crow here. Besides, being a part of a NCAA Final Four, even on the bench, is an outstanding experience for any young man.
Bajema getting more minutes? Howard to did everything he could to stop that this year lol. Auto bench is frustrating but seeing Nunez play ahead of Bajema was probably more frustrating.
4 Likes
Bajema was a freshman though. I don’t think its fair to assume that he hasn’t gotten any better and won’t make a jump in his sophomore season. He will almost certainly be more ready to contribute. That, and Bajema is projected to be more of a 2 than Nunez is I believe.
4 Likes
I mean it takes about two minutes of watching those two to know that Bajema is a flat out better player. Nunez played about as bad on a consistent basis as I’ve seen at Michigan in a long time. I could see if it was a “yeah, Nunez can’t hit the broad side of a barn from 3 pt range, but he understands the defense” but even on D he was like a traffic cone. Brutal. Don’t mean to be overly negative but it was bad.
8 Likes
Yep, better to take the two minutes Bajema played in garbage time than the thousands of minutes the coaches watched in practice
10 Likes
People say this instead of, you know, actually explaining how Nunez wasn’t bad. He’s not a B1G player and it was obvious. Coaches make mistakes. They’re not perfect. Do they have more information? Sure. Does that stop them from making wrong coaching decisions on a regular basis? Absolutely not.
Me: “Why did Izzo play Ben Carter down the stretch and not Jaren Jackson who is obviously better?”
kturnup: “Well, you obviously haven’t seen the thousands of minutes of practice that Izzo has to make that decision.”
9 Likes
Practice? You talking about Practice?!?
Allen Iverson would like a word with you. Also, we have seen more than enough of Nunez in game situations that actually matter to know that he should not be getting minutes next year.
3 Likes
yeah use Ben Carter to prove me wrong. BS. As if Jaren Jackson and Cole Bajema were in similar situations. Cole played literally 20 minutes all year in pointless situations primarily against bad teams and bench players. Absolutely nothing can be gleaned from those minutes. Nothing.
I never said Nunez wasn’t bad. He was not good. I’m also not saying a coach can’t make a mistake. In fact I’d say most of Nunez’s minutes were a mistake. I would have preferred his minutes had gone to a better player - someone already in the rotation like Dejulius.
3 Likes
You’ve seen Nunez play basketball next year?
I’m not a Nunez guy by any means btw. Just think the Bajema hive this year is a bit silly
5 Likes
I’m sorry but you can’t just objectively say who is a better player. Ceiling you can maybe speak to but “better player” absolutely not. You may think you can evaluate basketball players better than the staff but that’s why you’re commenting on a forum and they’re coaching. Juwan was not consistently making wrong coaching decisions by playing Nunez over Bajema.
And I know the anti Nunez circlejerk is pretty strong among Michigan fans but in his minutes in February/March Nunez wasn’t awful. He was lost on offense and still a net negative on the floor but he was at least a competent defender. We have no idea how Bajema defends but it’s quite possible his liability on the defensive end outweighs Nunez’s on the offensive end.
Also yeah, kinda whack to say we’ve seen enough to rule out Nunez getting playing time next year.
1 Like
Comparing playing Jaren Jackson (the #4 pick in the draft, and BT freshman of the year and defensive player of the year) vis-a-vis sixth year senior Ben Carter with playing Cole Bajema (20 minutes all year, every one in garbage time) vis-a-vis sophomore Adrien Nunez is not exactly a strong analogy. I personally like Bajema’s potential. Nunez didn’t play well. But without seeing Bajema play a single second of time played against anyone resembling a high major opponent, to conclude that it was a clear mistake to slot Nunez over Bajema, and to use the example you did, doesn’t add up.
4 Likes
No, what was more frustrating for me was seeing Baird play ahead of Bajema. And I don’t mean that as a slight to C.J. Baird who is a great kid, works hard in practice and deserves any playing opportunity he gets. But when he played ahead of Bajema it certainly said something to me, and it wasn’t that he’s better than Cole.
Everyday that I don’t see Cole Bajema’s name in the transfer portal is a good day for me because I think the young man is going to be a player, hopefully at Michigan. But, yeah, generally Cole Bajema not playing was a frustration for me. But, again it’s really not up to me. Coach’s decision. I just cheer for my (our) Wolverines! 
13 Likes
That “decision” struck me as very odd at the time. So odd that, while probably too much of a stretch to be true, I am willing to believe “conspiracy” theories that would at least explain it. So here’s the one:
That game happened two days after Kobe’s passing, the first time Michigan took the court following that seismic event. Baird is #24. He played 8 minutes that night.
Could have been Juwan’s / the team’s silent way of honoring Kobe and the game of basketball.
Or, more likely, it was completely unrelated.
7 Likes
I don’t think it’s a good thing that we failed to get anything out of a player who’s 6’7" and can dribble and shoot at that level. Especially if you’re playing Nunez and Baird in his minutes. But no staff is perfect. They may have been expecting Nunez or Baird to blow up.
2 Likes
The analogy makes the point that coaches, even Hall of Famer’s, can make mistakes even with plenty of information available.
Is their less info available to fans regarding Nunez and Bajema than Jackson and Carter? Of course. Regardless, saying “Howard has seen more of them in practice than you, therefore he made the right decision” is just a stupid comment.
1 Like
My theory at the time was that Bajema had come back from going home at Christmas and told Juwan he was transferring at the end of the year to a school closer to home. Or maybe Bajema had missed a practice and Baird had worked so hard in practice that Juwan decided to reward him. But I have no idea…at all. I just know Bajema has so many more skills as a player than a couple of guys who played ahead of him, at least to my eye, and nope, I’m not in practice, either. But again, I absolutely defer to coaches when it come to who plays, and when.
4 Likes