Same here 
MAAR and Donnal played lame defense tonight. No energy.
Teske looked tremendous on defense when he was in there.
I know people were down on dj but he brought a lot of energy to the game. If DJ can play angry and smart simultaneously then he will be tremendous.
Irvinās shot selection and selfishness needs to be punished. When we had a lead he resorted to playing āpretend basketballā.
I thought Irvinās shot selection wasnāt an issue really all game until the final 4 minutes. And in those situations, not having an elite shot creator is going to kill us. Yes we could just run the offense as usual but thereās always going to be pressure possessions where you want to get the ball to your best player and go. Irvin does the best he can to be that guy for us, obviously the results arenāt what they could beā¦
but theyāre not going to be better with Walton or MAAR.
Michigan not the only team to play a double-digit lead. OSU was up 14 at Virginia and looks like UVA is gonna win down the stretch. Granted, Virginia is better and its on the road, but not a good showing by the Big Ten this week (and the ACC is just really good) ā other than Indiana I guess we could say.
Might have spoken too soonā¦ OSU ball down 2 with 6 seconds left on ESPN2.
Come on Virginia!
TERRIBLE showing for the Big Ten but it was somewhat redeemed by winning the marquee matchup of the week with Indiana.
Irvin did great in the first half. Second half was pretend basketball. Many shots he took were bad. Other shots were āgoodā within the context of the game but were bad insofar as he will never be able to get those kind of looks against a good defense. THis team which lacks elite creators needs to focus on plays that are sustainable against top competition. Run the offense sets please.
IF you DVRād the game and are interested I noted the shots that I consider bad shot selection for second half by Irvin:
10:44 with 18 seconds on shot clock.
9:42 with 13 on shot clock
6:42 with 11 seconds on shot clock
4:30 with 19 seconds on shot clock
:49 With 20 seconds on shot clock
:08
He made one of those shots. I donāt care. A bad shot is a bad shot.
With the lead, it seemed like Irvin feels entitled to take bad shots. It is not just the missing of the shot that hurts us so much but when Irvin decides to ātake overā the game it sucks the life out of the team. I find it hard to believe that any of our players enjoy playing alongside Irvin when he decides to try to act out his āalpha dogā fantasy.
What hurts the most is Walton shooting 6 times with 5 of those 3s. Dj in foul trouble hurt because he looked to have his energy tonight. Our bench scored 15, all from Duncan. We need to get Simpson and Watson on the floor. We are already running our guys into the ground and losing. So itās not helping playing them 40 minutes.
Iām not really a tempo free expert, so does anyone know if KenPomās predictions factor in eCHr (effective choke rate) or AdjSft (adjusted softness)?
4 Likes
Lmao I really hope not. Does anyone know why donnal(0 points 2 turnovers) played more than Wagner?
DJ had just made an excellent defensive play in a MUST HAVE Stop situation, and I think shortly after he got that 5th foul. Need him out there late in game no doubt.
I think heās our best defender and rebounder by a wide margin. Must have him out of foul trouble. Our freshman must play more. Simpson and teske played very well tonight Iād say. One player scorin off the bench isnāt going to do it. Maybe start Simpson and bring MAAR off the bench. I think itād be worth a try.
The starting guards need to be put in check. If they are not playing the right way with the right energy then JB should not hesitate to sub any of Walton, Irvin, or MAAR out. These guys need to be disciplined.
MAAR really looked lazy on defense tonight and it killed us.
Ditto for the bigs. Screw it. If Donnal canāt play with energy just go with Teske. I enjoyed watching his hustle out there.
Hopefully we are able to get these guys more minutes in the next game. Having the guys play the big minutes and then falling short is killer. We have to assimilate these guys into the flow of the game and get some relief for the starters.
MAAR got destroyed on defense all night. It was hard to watch it happen so much. Donnal has always been a bad defender just sometimes is in the right spot but tonight there is zero excuse for why he played 18 minutes and Wagner played 17, not a single one. Simpson comes in and plays well and never gets back in? Whatās that say to a young kid ?
I lov what Iāve seen from teske so far. Simpson has done good things and so has Watson. They both have a big step to take hit teske looked pretty good tonight Iād say.
I agree on Teske. Was impressed at his play and how big he is.
I remember a game awhile back where Amaker took out all the starters and put in the backups versus Army, (I think it was December 2006) because the starters came out with no energy.
This is not an identical situation, but sometimes, you have to have guys watch and give a new guy the chance to bring some energy and some contributions.
The start of the second half could tell you this was headed a bad direction. I strongly feel we need MAAR off the bench badly. Whether it be start Watson or Simpson I donāt care, but his attacking style can really change things for us if our offense goes to shit like it did in the second half. Starting one of the freshman would be risky but what we have now is what we saw all last year, it hasnāt changed. Also, starting Simpson could allow Walton to be in a scorers state of mind and him being a much better shooter than MAAR helps too. One person scoring off the bench is not going to get it done. Iāve never liked Donnal and probably never will because of nights like tonight, itās so frustrating. Another thing, Wagner was destroying his guy on offense and he played less than a guy who did absolutely nothign but hurt the team tonight. I donāt get it. If Wagner isnāt in foul trouble, he should be playing 30 minutes a night IMO.
What specifically do you like about Simpson so far? I think his on the ball defense is good but heās pretty much afraid to do anything on the offensive end of the court. Granted, heās played pretty sparingly but I have been very underwhelmed so far. I agree that Beilein needs to avoid running Walton into the ground by playing 37 mins a game so I would like to see more Simpson but itās not based on anything heās shown on the court so far.
If this team is going to be any good though, they have to shoot a lot better across the board. Take away the two 5ās in Wagner and Donnal, who are shooting mostly layups, the rest of the team combined is shooting 39.6% from the field. Thatās terrible. Walton and Rahk are both under 40% as is Duncan. Wilson who is 6ā10 is shooting 43%. They have been pretty good defensively outside of the 2nd half tonight, but shot making can cure a lot of ills.