Maybe not as dumb as ``we agreed to go by winning percentage until we realized that was bad for us"?
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It’s good to know that the Tournament title didn’t soothe them at all like they pretended it did
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If any, it should’ve been a huge disadvantage for Michigan with the long layoff yet they won games. That’s pretty impressive.
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Vecenie’s doing a run down of probable draft picks playing college ball this year. Did bigs last week and talked about Hunter but there’s a ton of B1G players on the Wings/Forwards pod:
Also says he thinks that Purdue and Ohio State are a clear cut ahead of Michigan and Illinois.
Excuse me? Ohio State? Does he remember that Washington left? I think OSU is the clear 4th team among that group
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He said he worried Michigan lost too much defensively with Wagner, Chaundee and Livers. But also said he thinks Diabate could be the best defensive player in his class.
LOL good thing he’s paid to know about NBA draft stuff and not college hoops
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I was listening while cooking dinner and I interrupted my fiance’s ep of SVU bc I scoffed so loudly. He wasn’t super clear on why that was his take, but if I had to suss it out and be generous to a guy who watches a TON of basketball, it’s probably:
Michigan loses 3 high level college players and, while they’re bringing in talent, we don’t yet know how well it all fits together and there’s some downside risk there. Re: OSU, Sam went on to say that, basically, he knows some guys close to the OSU program (he’s an OSU grad and big fan) and that he thinks Liddell is gonna be an All American more or less. That plus they have a ton of veteran college players, he feels confident they’ll be good.
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I am confident OSU will be good. I am confident Michigan will be better. 
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The idea that Michigan lost a lot defensively is fair until you think about the replacements. Jones is a major defensive upgrade over Smith. Brooks is back. Franz of course is gone and that’s a big loss but likely lottery pick Caleb Houstan isn’t going to be a defensive liability in any way shape or form. I love Chaundee but him leaving isn’t going to hurt the defense at all. Replacing Livers with Johns isn’t a major downgrade and if Diabate plays the 4 I would argue that’s actually a big defensive improvement. And Dickinson is back.
The defense is going to be nasty
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Sam is also an OSU fan. He’s also a national writer for NBA so I don’t really expect him to be the best CBB preseason prognosticator. He was big on Florida last year for example, not to pick on him since we all have bad takes but just something I specifically remembering him talking about a lot last year. Also UK last year. Those were two of his top preseason teams
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All this is true but you forgot the primary improvement: no more Austin Davis minutes at the 5.
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I agree with you overall but I do think Franz is a bit bigger loss defensively than you’re making it out to be. I think Houstan will be fine but Franz was an absolute one-man wrecking crew on defense.
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Yeah, Franz is a big loss. Houstan is more of a like for like defensive replacement for Livers. I don’t think U-M really has a like-for-like replacement of Franz. Franz got the first wing on the scouting report every night. Who guards the first wing on the scouting report this year?
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Seems like it has to be Houstan by default unless Diabate can beat out Johns at the 4 spot right?
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Well yeah, it is Houstan by default but not necessarily because you want it to be.
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At the same time, you have to account for Devante Jones being a significant improvement defending opposing guards. I think that will at least come close to offsetting the Franz loss, notwithstanding the improvements elsewhere with Diabate and sophomore Dickinson (plus no Davis). Obviously it is a case by case basis though depending on the strengths of their opponents. Not sure how many dominant wings are on the schedule. If it’s a problem, I’d imagine you just play Diabate more in that matchup.
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Jones helps for sure but we already had a really good backcourt defender, to me your ideal defensive setup is one really good defender at each level and we may not have one on the wing. The defense in 2019 was so incredibly good because you had X in the backcourt, Matthews on the wing, and Teske in the middle.
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Yeah, I still think U-M is going to be really good defensively. I just think Franz to Houstan is a downgrade if Houstan is playing the three against good wing teams.
Jones over Smith should definitely be a defensive upgrade on paper.
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I think expecting the defense to immediately be very good is probably asking a lot. The team is well hedged to eventually be very good but I expect some significant hiccups along the way.