Jons, and it’s not close.
I don’t think it’s making hearts flutter but if we are to be honest Wisconsin has looked more together with a lot of new players compared to Michigan. Wisconsin can point to a huge win against a top 15 team in Houston. What can Michigan point to?? We will see how things go this year but they don’t look promising for Michigan I will be interested to see how people react to Howard as compared to Harbaugh. People started getting restless with Harbaugh after year 3, he brought people back for 10 games in 2018 (year 4) but until this year and lets hope it changes this year fans haven’t been happy.
What people were restless about Harbaugh after 3 years? 2017 was an injury plagued rebuilding year dud. Must’ve been the fringes of the fan base and MSU fans riling people. 2018 post OSU would have been the first anyone remotely reasonable would have started groaning. This is beyond the point that the football fan base is more likely to succumb to that than the basketball fan base.
Let’s please not even start this discussion please. We’re talking 5 games into the season after he’s far exceeded expectations thus far. No point in even giving it breath. Anyone that is seriously beginning to be upset on that level is delusional. I mean worst case is we aren’t great and Houstan continues to stink so he comes back and we have tons of talent again and this time a 5* sophomore
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We gonna act like Wisconsin didn’t lose to Ed Cooley last week? I’d take wins over TAMU and Houston compared to what Michigan has, but dang. The fact that anyone is even rolling out unhappiness or unease with Howard after a B1G championship and Elite 8 appearance last year because of 5 games is absolutely wild. Especially if you’re going to then mention Greg Gard and Wisconsin in the same breath.
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Let’s not act like people were already leaving Wisconsin for dead and ready to crown Michigan as the favorite of the B1G. I mean there were still people really questioning how Purdue would make things work. We aren’t making conclusions yet but I think the roles are reversed now. People are questioning how Michigan will make things work and we feel Purdue is fairly comfortable as figuring things out.
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If Houstan is that bad can we call him Jon Diebler???
Lol is this really conversation right now? Juwan hot seat and Wisconsin > Michigan? I know a large faction of the Michigan fanbase is overreactionary and dramatic after sports losses but it usually doesn’t seep onto this board.
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It’s a comedy. Just sit back and enjoy it.
Phew, everyone needs to take a deep breath around here.
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All it took was two games for people to abandon any good will for the direction of Michigan’s program and yearn for……Wisconsin Basketball.
Listen, I will not and have never envied Wisconsin Basketball. Have I ever watched a club play and thought, ‘Damn, I wish that was Michigan’? Sure. Has that team ever been Wisconsin? Absolutely not.
Not even during Frank the Tank’s and Ethan Happ’s years did I want to be Wisconsin. If we became Wisconsin basketball after all these years of success, I would flat out stop watching basketball and find a new hobby, something such as knitting or war correspondence.
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Nobody here is talking about a hot seat. I guess I am just surprised why people thought Wisvonsin would be so poor. Did Gard forget how to coach? Yes we all know that Wisconsin doesn’t play an esthetically pleasing brand of basketball. That doesn’t preclude them from beating good teams. Those players are D1 basketball players as well.
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Because they sucked last year and lost their best player. That’s simple. This one win - as good as it is - doesn’t mean that conclusion is wrong, either.
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It’s a long season. Johnny Davis has been terrific this year which is great news for Wisconsin. I think the baseline for Wisconsin would be that they would slog out especially miserable Wisconsin-style games this year and early returns are that they are going to do that.
Drawing a Maui field comprised entirely of slow-paced teams is an interesting subplot. Their schedule sts up nicely and they have a couple more chances for “good not great” wins against teams like GA Tech, Marquette coming up.
I think there are still some questions about what they look like over the course of the Big Ten season – for example, only Rutgers has a worse eFG% this year among B10 teams – but that’s the case with everyone right now.
Sit back and enjoy the hoops and don’t try to force everything into a sweeping conclusion on Nov. 24th!
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Is it too early to be on the opposite side of the argument, where not only won’t I be restless, but I’d prefer Juwan sign an even longer deal? Dude’s not only a dude, but he can coach, recruit, and I believe he’s building a culture that simply rocks; he could leave quite a legacy. (He also will never wear cleats inside of a recruit’s house.)
BTW, your point of “worst case is we aren’t great and Houstan continues to stink so he comes back and we have tons of talent again and this time a 5* sophomore” is spot on. Lots to look forward to. As for this season, the two losses were frustrating but a ton of hoops left to enjoy, starting tonight.
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I think Davis is capable of being better than Trice. I would also say Wahl is capable of having a larger impact than seemingly a checked out Reuvers last year. I can’t see Davison repeating last year either. I can still see them repeating last year a bit around 11 conference wins maybe a tourney win depending on the match up.
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Not ready for that Houstan discussion for obvious reasons. Eg… the same people saying Izzo turned a 1 and done Bridges into a 2 year guy. Does Howard get that same criticism in that case with Houstan?
It’s been 5 games. But that was also based around Izzo:
- Refusing to use his lottery pick C/PF (JJJ for large parts of the year, and again in an elimination game)
- Having not produced a first round pick between JJJ/Bridges and Gary frickin’ Harris despite routine top 15 recruiting classes
- Having served the draft interests of one of the best defensive players in the NBA’s modern era so well that he was a second round pick and an afterthought.
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The Bridges thing has nothing to do with holding Bridges back. It was that he some how convinced him to come back even though he was gonna be a lottery pick anyway.
FWIW I don’t hold OAD failures or success on the coach too often except under specific circumstances or if there is a trend. I don’t really have anything bad about Izzo there, he’s rarely dabbled in that arena. The Ben Carter thing was bad though.
If Houstan has to come back cause he shoots 30% from 3 or something then I don’t really see how that’s on Juwan tbh. I think coaches get too much credit for the positive side of that already so it’d be hypocritical of me to swing back the other way.
I don’t think Draymond being a second round pick is on Izzo either. I mean I don’t know how you can say Izzo didn’t get the most out of Draymond while he was there. That was a miss on NBA teams for passing on him because he was a tweener. But it still would have been impossible to predict he’d basically become one of the best defenders of a generation and would crush teams as a small ball point center.
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I wasn’t the one that brought up Draymond and that seems pretty low on the list of criticisms. I would say he found d the perfect team as well. I don’t think it’s a guarantee he’s doing what he currently does on another team.
I think the Jackson discussion is interesting. The Ben Carter thing has some validity. Of course through they year he played 21mpg averaging 3.2 fouls per game. We are witnessing Devante Jones play 27mpg averaging the same amount of fouls but having fouled out of 2 games and probably not having very efficient games. I could make the case Izzo got a lot of Jackson’s 21mpg B1G Frosh of year, DPOY etc…
I would agree you can’t always blame a coach for a OAD but if the best part of Houstan’s game coming in is all of a sudden not very good how do we explain it? If he struggles shooting where else does he help them? Is he going to be a very good rebounder? Can he facilitate the offense (I can buy that). Houstan right now is what Stauskas was as a frosh, except Stauskas hit shots. Both were liabilities defensively but Michigan needs more from Houstan as opposed Stauskas still could get away with it because he was the 3rd 4th option. We need to see Houstan play better but with anything he’s not going to be judged facing Tarleton he will be judged against UNC SDSU and in conference play.