I can't make a quantitative assessment of our D until we play a team with a post threat. This is not a good team ( UD ) and they were tied with us with 5 to go. They took horrible shots when the game was still in doubt, IMO they self destructed offensively by not being patient. I wonder how long it will be until an opponent starts face guarding Irvin all over the floor reminiscent of Duke and Nik last year. He's not gonna be allowed to stand in the corner unmolested by good teams. That's when we'll see if we have any counter.
I’m not even concerned about the D, because we all know we are going to be very weak on the interior. But if we don’t have a potent offense to compensate, things could get ugly in conference play. We will know much more about this team within the next 2 weeks between the Legends’ games and Syracuse.
These Frosh are a whole lot less equipped to contribute right now. The initial talent level impression is not flattering. It’s a significant drop off from previous years.
Wilson looked completely confused and out of place in his short stint in the second half. I wonder what it is about this year's freshman that isn't sitting right? When we had 5 frosh in 2013, all but LeVert made a major impact, and they definitely seemed to "get" the offensive system more, but this year's bunch looks just confused and flustered out there.
Not trying to be funny, but it’s rather simple, we simply didn’t recruit players that are as talented as those 5 freshman. Not saying that our current freshman won’t turn out to be good players, but as. I stated above, it’s pretty obvious that this years bunch simply doesn’t have the raw talent that our previous classes had. Raw talent can compensate for mental mistakes.
Wilson looked completely confused and out of place in his short stint in the second half. I wonder what it is about this year's freshman that isn't sitting right? When we had 5 frosh in 2013, all but LeVert made a major impact, and they definitely seemed to "get" the offensive system more, but this year's bunch looks just confused and flustered out there.
There is no question that the 2012 class has more talent than this one. But having Burke and Hardaway on the backcourt helped them too.
For this team to do well, Kam and Donnal have to step up. I will not be surprised if Beilein starts 5 veterans next game.
The 2016 class has the potential to be HUGE. We cannot afford to strikeout there again, and be forced to get low level recruits at the last second. I have to hand it to you Matt, you’ve been saying it all along. At some point this recruiting would come back to bite us, and it’s starting to look like it. I’m not saying that these players don’t have potential, as they clearly show signs of competence, but we did not get players that are ready to make an immediate impact in this cycle, at least in my opinion.
I can't make a quantitative assessment of our D until we play a team with a post threat. This is not a good team ( UD ) and they were tied with us with 5 to go. They took horrible shots when the game was still in doubt, IMO they self destructed offensively by not being patient. I wonder how long it will be until an opponent starts face guarding Irvin all over the floor reminiscent of Duke and Nik last year. He's not gonna be allowed to stand in the corner unmolested by good teams. That's when we'll see if we have any counter.
I’m not even concerned about the D, because we all know we are going to be very weak on the interior. But if we don’t have a potent offense to compensate, things could get ugly in conference play. We will know much more about this team within the next 2 weeks between the Legends’ games and Syracuse.
I think we all knew we were not going to approach the offensive efficiency of the last two years. That was a given for me. We lost two much talent. We don’t have the firepower to compete with last years production, and we don’t have Nik to create. Walton is to deferential in the half court, and Caris has to get into that attack mode more. If one of the “big three” is off, where do we go to compensate? There aren’t many options.
That is all I’ve been trying to say for the past 5-6 months. Listen JB is a damn good coach, but it’s hard to make sandwiches with no bread. If we don’t upgrade the talent in 16, and assuming Caris leaves, we’re essentially left with 2 upper tier B10 players, no great players, and a cast of role players (as it stands now anyway).
This is why recruiting is so imperative…projects take time, and if you’re roster is primarily composed of projects you become a team that is a middle of the pack B10 team most years, with a deep tourney run every 4-5 years, most likely when all the project recruits become juniors and seniors.
The 2016 class has the potential to be HUGE. We cannot afford to strikeout there again, and be forced to get low level recruits at the last second. I have to hand it to you Matt, you've been saying it all along. At some point this recruiting would come back to bite us, and it's starting to look like it. I'm not saying that these players don't have potential, as they clearly show signs of competence, but we did not get players that are ready to make an immediate impact in this cycle, at least in my opinion.
The MAAR and Dawkins schollys were and are completely mystifying to me. Neither will be RS, but they won’t play a combined 100 minutes this year barring a season ending injury. I don’t mean to overreact, but when Caris leaves if one of them gets PT next year, we are in deep trouble.
I can't make a quantitative assessment of our D until we play a team with a post threat. This is not a good team ( UD ) and they were tied with us with 5 to go. They took horrible shots when the game was still in doubt, IMO they self destructed offensively by not being patient. I wonder how long it will be until an opponent starts face guarding Irvin all over the floor reminiscent of Duke and Nik last year. He's not gonna be allowed to stand in the corner unmolested by good teams. That's when we'll see if we have any counter.
I’m not even concerned about the D, because we all know we are going to be very weak on the interior. But if we don’t have a potent offense to compensate, things could get ugly in conference play. We will know much more about this team within the next 2 weeks between the Legends’ games and Syracuse.
I think we all knew we were not going to approach the offensive efficiency of the last two years. That was a given for me. We lost two much talent. We don’t have the firepower to compete with last years production, and we don’t have Nik to create. Walton is to deferential in the half court, and Caris has to get into that attack mode more. If one of the “big three” is off, where do we go to compensate? There aren’t many options.
Remember when I suggested we would take a healthy dip in offensive efficiency and I was essentially labeled a fool that hates on JB…yeah, about that.
That is all I've been trying to say for the past 5-6 months. Listen JB is a damn good coach, but it's hard to make sandwiches with no bread. If we don't upgrade the talent in 16, and assuming Caris leaves, we're essentially left with 2 upper tier B10 players, no great players, and a cast of role players (as it stands now anyway).
This is why recruiting is so imperative…projects take time, and if you’re roster is primarily composed of projects you become a team that is a middle of the pack B10 team most years, with a deep tourney run every 4-5 years, most likely when all the project recruits become juniors and seniors.
We have desperately been trying to lure top talent for 15 and 16. We’ve got offers out galore. But why doesn’t anything JB says seem to resonate with these kids? I can’t put my finger on it. If we strike out on all of our PG options for 16, there has to be a reason why.
Chez - believe me when I say this, im really not trying to hate on JB, but the guy simply isn’t a good salesman. As I’ve said before, I just think it’s hard for JB to connect with recruits considering his age, cultural background, and general demeanor. He is a 60+ year old white guy from upstate NY that seems very conservative on a social level, doesn’t strike you as a guy that’s going to “show the love” to recruits…all while trying to lure 14-18 year old youths, which tend to be urban if truly elite, and want to be shown “the love” on a constant basis. It’s pretty easy to see why we have difficulties recruiting. I think coach Jordan would be a much better recruiter than JB.
Chez - believe me when I say this, im really not trying to hate on JB, but the guy simply isn't a good salesman. As I've said before, I just think it's hard for JB to connect with recruits considering his age, cultural background, and general demeanor. He is a 60+ year old white guy from upstate NY that seems very conservative on a social level, doesn't strike you as a guy that's going to "show the love" to recruits...........all while trying to lure 14-18 year old youths, which tend to be urban if truly elite, and want to be shown "the love" on a constant basis. It's pretty easy to see why we have difficulties recruiting. I think coach Jordan would be a much better recruiter than JB.
I feel ya. I hope I’m a 100% wrong, but the MAARS, Dawkins, and Robinsons of the world are not going to keep you in the hunt for B1G titles in the future. You and G have expounded on this repeatedly over the last year, but talent trumps coaching almost every time, whether we want to admit it or not.
These last 2 posts pretty much some up my opinions over the past 6 months. I think a lot of people were so tantalized by our success the last 2 years to the extent that they were looking past our obvious flaws. This is why I cited the Hoke situation. I think basketball may experience the same, but not to the depths of the football team.
I think some of the recruiting swing and misses hurt more when you figure in the attrition. One or two players can make such a difference. Having McGary for this season would have done so much to ease the transition for these freshmen. Most of them are clearly not ready now, but probably will be pretty decent in a year or two. Success leads to early departures, and we just can’t recruit right now with the blue bloods to replenish our relative talent level. Somebody said it on here recently, maybe instead of trying to go after the top 50 players, maybe we should have prioritized and continued to go after more of the 50-150 type players and hoped they developed the way Burke, Stauskas, Hardaway, LeVert did. It’s just hard to compete with what Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, etc have to offer
This is the exact reason why I’ve always said recruiting>>>>>>>>coaching in college basketball. In football, you get at least 3 years to develop a player, in basketball you’re getting 1-2 years out of your elite players. You have to replenish elite talent on a yearly basis in order to compete on an elite level. Once your elite players leave for the league and your incoming recruits are supplementary guys, you are screwed for 2-3 years under the current system.
These last 2 posts pretty much some up my opinions over the past 6 months. I think a lot of people were so tantalized by our success the last 2 years to the extent that they were looking past our obvious flaws. This is why I cited the Hoke situation. I think basketball may experience the same, but not to the depths of the football team.
Yeah I called it. I told everyone we’d need talent and everyone was saying MAAR would bring us a national title. Time will tell, but 13 months ago I was telling everyone this is what would happen.
I think everyone’s overreacting just a tad. Yes, there are clear issues, but didn’t we think the same after Charlotte last year? If we get 3 games into the B1G season and are still having these issues, then I’ll be ready to say we’re a clear tier below.
And on a similar note, let’s not get too carried away with the talent strawman either. EVERYONE here realizes we need to strike big with the 2016 class if we want to keep having deep runs in March.
Jesus, the panic level is almost comical at times.
Last year, we dropped a road game against Iowa State, lost to Charlotte, came back from 18 down to barely and luckily beat FSU in OT, got handled by Duke, and barely survived Stanford in the non-conference. Oh, and then McGary went down. Maybe three games is a little early to draw any strong conclusions?
By the way, Nova barely beat Bucknell (a team we led at the half 48-19) tonight at home, and Syracuse got blown out by Cal. I’m fairly confident both will be pretty strong by the end of the year.
By the way, I hate the “salesman” argument. I’m glad Beilein is a straight shooter and doesn’t “show love” to players by acting like a cheap, used car salesman and making fake promises to get them to come. That’s part of the problem with college basketball, not a good thing. He recruits guys who want to be part of a great team, not guys who are all about themselves. The results speak for themselves. And Jordan is a very active recruiter for us anyway. Not sure why you would assume he isn’t.
This is what I don’t understand - why is there an implicit assumption by some that certain recruits are selfish just because they don’t come to UM? You can be elite, and still be unselfish. You can want to be shown “love” and still be a team oriented player. smh
The story will be told at the end of the season but I think JB and UM will do just fine. He’s a great coach and a decent recruiter. His standards are high for players and I think he avoids those fringe guys that could upset his culture. He knows how to get results and if you compare the last 15-20 years at Michigan he has certainly raised the bar for wins and quality teams.
Perspective from an early preseason last night:
Syracuse lost to CAL ranked upset
Nova beat Bucknell by 7
Indiana beat SMU ranked upset
UCON beat Charleston by 8
VCU pounded MD eastern shore by 40
What does this all mean?
Basketball season is in full swing and welcome to the greatest show on earth!