As there were last year. In November they turned it over a ton and gave up lots of points to bad teams.
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I think Devante’ is probably not going to be able to provide a huge impact on ball just bc most college teams have 1 dude who can really cook on the outside and Eli will prob end up on that guy most of the time. My hope is his off ball D gives us back some of the deflections and steals that Franz was able to provide.
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How long will it take for national pundits to figure out that Michigan is going to be one of the 5-10 best teams in the country every single season. That’s just not changing as long as Juwan is here.
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Yeah that’s another thing. I think Juwan tends toward a maximalist style which means there’s often a lot of moving parts that take some time to iron out.
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Did they? I get that the Oakland game happened but it isn’t like U-M looked bad or had a slow start to the season.
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I’m not sure how many of you here saw the picture Armando Bacot posted yesterday which (I’m fairly certain) exaggerated his gains this off-season. Well anyways, Hunter just posted this to one up him and it got an audible laugh out of me.
*heres Bacot’s picture for reference
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It’s a good year to have basically zero offensive star wings in the conference. Other than Ron Harper Jr., I’m not sure there’s anyone I’m afraid to stick Houstan on. Jonathan Davis or Justise Sueing?
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That’s definitely fair. I personally think there will be more offensive hiccups early than defensive ones. Not having an elite wing defender (but having a great defensive backcourt and a great defensive frontcourt), I don’t think will kill them. Not having a sure thing pick and roll ball handler will be the clunkiest thing early IMO.
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Donta Scott, Pete Nance, Seth Lundy and Keegan Murray are the other names that jump to mind. A guy like Max Christie too depending on how MSU ends up allocating roles. And I’m sure there will be a guy or two who emerges that we’re not expecting, or one of the names listed blows up as the season progresses. But I think that’s a good point that on the whole, none of these guys going into the year seem like they a guy who will play Houstan off the court.
I think the bigger Franz loss will be all of the awesome stuff he did off the ball. I have faith that Houstan will be a solid defender on his man, but obviously won’t come close to Franz as a help defender, jumping passing lanes, providing rim protection, etc.
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These guys are mostly fours IMO (including Harper), I’m referring more to who guards a Jaden Ivey or someone like that.
Isn’t that pretty easily Brooks?
Well, two teams scored at least 80 points on them. OSu, and Bowling Green in the first game of the season. Toledo scored 71, but only five Big ten teams did. Looks like they played 10 games in which they turned the ball over less than 10 times. Four of those games came in March. The fourth time they did it overall wasn’t until mid February.
None of that feels remarkable to me. You expect to get better as the season goes on and especially if you’re breaking in a new point guard.
I agree that teams get better as the year goes on. That’s true for basically every team but you are explaining it like Michigan was somehow sloppy or different defensively at the start of the year, or there was a pronounced shift.
The reality is the defensive numbers weren’t great against BGSU, but they were great in basically every other games. We were writing about how elite this team was defensively from a couple weeks into the season onward.
Turnover stats, especially outliers, are very dependent on opponent. There’s a reason Michigan’s low turnover games were against teams like OSU, Wisconsin, Iowa, Toledo, etc. They don’t try to force turnovers.
I wouldn’t really say that Michigan’s offense ever looked sloppy during the season other than that Oakland game. I feel like their ability to hit the ground running with a brand new grad transfer PG was one of the storylines of the year.
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I feel like Brooks pencils into the “chase Stefanovic around” role against Purdue. Who else are you asking to do that?
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I’d probably stick Jones on Ivey. Jones is strong and long. I think he’d probably be best equipped to defend him among the available options.
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Well then, I think in that situation Caleb Houstan would struggle to defend Eric Hunter 
My point is just that U-M doesn’t really have a big wing defender with good physical tools. Houstan is much more of a right spot right time guy, which is OK most of the time.
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I’m okay with that. If Eric Hunter beats you for Purdue, you tip your cap. I’d much rather take my chances on that over Ivey or Stefanovic getting hot.
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Sure, was trying to be much more hypothetical (i.e. a team with three guards) than literal in this sense. I guess a lot will depend on how DeVante fits in defensively but having two 6-footers and then combo forwards will be interesting when one of them isn’t Franz.
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The nice thing is Michigan will have a lot of available lineup options. If a 3 guard lineup is hurting you, slide Houstan to the 4 and play Bufkin. If a big lineup is causing trouble, you play Diabate and Johns at the 4.
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What has been missed in this thread is that 12-15 minutes of backup center minutes will be played by Diabate and not Austin Davis. That’s a couple points of Adjusted D Rating just right there, lol
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