If there’s a sense that he’s not been doing anything, I’d agree. I don’t know if that’s the case or not. I presume that first day in A2 isn’t necessarily first day on the job.
And given that he already retained Sanderson we know he’s not just sitting around.
I agree that Beilein could have attacked mismatches on the offensive end more often. One of my favorite examples of a case where the team did so was in Colin Castleton’s big game (especially because I loved to see Colin gain some confidence for the future):
As for your second point, I can’t tell you how many times I was frustrated last year by Poole settling for deep, contested, off-the-dribble threes, given how quick was his first step off the dribble, and how capable he was off getting to the rim and getting baskets when the team was shooting horrendously from outside. Beilein had some great set plays for 2s, but we didn’t see enough of them last year.
I’m guessing here more than normal, but to an extent I’m wondering if Beilein didn’t have confidence in this particular group’s ability to reach deep into the playbook in comparison with past teams, and so he reduced the number of sets and plays to the ones he felt they could execute properly.
That’s a possibility.
I am sure he’s been doing stuff down there (maybe he has been interviewing heat staff he wants to bring) but it’s just odd and I don’t really ever remember a new coach with this type of delay before getting to campus. For those that don’t remember harbaugh was literally on a plane to AA the day he was announced. I sort of figured he would have been on campus Thursday and already finished the in house interviews. I am just hoping things pick up soon because we are going on 2+ weeks of not having a fully operational program. Would be nice to get stuff in place enough to potentially try to bring in Cumberland this weekend to meet the new staff.
Sure, fair enough. It didn’t occur to me, but you are probably right that the new coach shows up in town pretty fast. I’m assuming there’s a good reason, and that he’s already hit the ground running, but that’s still just an assumption.
Well next year, Jordan Poole won’t be jacking 30 footers or dribbling into a defender’s chest in the paint every other trip, so that will help. Addition by subtraction.
If we get one of Wilson/Wagner and Brooks can finally make the jump to be a competent shooter (and/or we get Cumberland), the offense could be much better
Or Bajema is ready to go, or DDJ. It would be utterly fantastic to land one of Wilson or Wagner, or Cumberland. Or even Nunez, who generates plenty of skepticism but, still, that shooting stroke. The great thing is there’s a significant number of guys who have a path to a starting slot and a history that suggests they are capable, and the team needs a minority of them to hit in order to have a fully-fleshed out lineup. With Beilein I’d be fairly certain this team is elite next year. Now we have to wait and see what’s what, but it’s still clear to me that on paper there’s enough talent to field a ranked program that competes for the conference title and gets to the second weekend of the tournament.
Poole had the exact same TS% as Ignas. He was an above average B1G starter.
The addition by subtraction thing with Poole only works if the replacement isn’t an even more abysmal option. Anything Eli Brooks has done on offense in his career has been worse than the worst of worst Poole performances IMO.
Or if his usage is lower. Not unreasonable that he could put it together in his third year and be a 35-40% low volume 3 point shooter in Big Ten play. Or if not him, maybe Cumberland.
Wilson or Wagner also will force more floor spacing than Matthews did.
He did overall, but in BT games, that number was worse than that of Teske, Livers and Brazdeilis. JP was a terrific player for the first 15 games or so last season–the best offensive we had during that time period, and that includes Brazdeikis. After that, for whatever reason, not so much–when your shooter shoots .327 from 3 in Big Ten play, that’s not above average.
I thought this was the coaching staff rumors thread?
I thought this was my air traffic control job. Holy shit am I in trouble. Need to log out of here and log back in at Detroit Metro and land some planes.
Shooting is highly variable and slumps are common. There’s a reason the guy is gonna play pro ball. The discussion was re: replacing him. Let’s not pretend that’s so easy even if we somehow bring in a top 50 2019 prospect. The miss rate on those guys is still very high.
This team is going to be good again next year. Just look around the college landscape. Most teams don’t have a trio like z, teske, and livers. Add in a bunch of talented players that we got zero from last year and are too talented for that to be the case again and we will be just fine.
Barring major injury or mass transfers this team will be in the mix next year again and will certainly be a top twenty program. Only thing that burns is our ceiling was lowered a bit and it will be much tougher to be a final four contender/ big ten champion.
I can understand the angst regarding not knowing about the assistance and Howard not being in AA but I think it was stated last week he was in training for NCAA recruitment (being certified?) so I see that as already on the job. Just like some thought the hiring was taking to long so will those think the next phase is to lengthy.
Dot. Have you heard any potential assistant names?
That’s going to have to be an administrative push. And then have to convince Howard of the propriety in doing so. Going to require some finessing.
Oh well in that case your username is absolutely perfect.