So who do you root for tonight in the Wisconsin at Northwestern game?
As much as it’d be nice for the Wisconsin win to stay in Quad 2, I think it’d be worse for Northwestern to fall into a Q3 loss. I’ll go with rooting for Northwestern here. (HIGHLY doubt Wisconsin upsets MSU but never know)
Gotta root for Wisconsin, to keep them a quad 2 win for us. NW isn’t close to climbing or dropping a quad for our win or loss.
If Northwestern loses tonight, they’re in big danger of falling below the RPI 135 cut-line. If that happens, that road loss turns into a Q3 loss. Tough game to pick a side to root for.
shoot, you’re right, misread that. Yeah, would rather keep the loss as a Q2
Haha trust me I’ve also had to look over the quadrants way too many times given some confusion. Yeah I’m in the same boat, rather see Northwestern loss stay in Q2.
Annnnnnd there’s the Quadrant 3 loss on the resume with Northwestern losing. That was a bad result for Michigan. Unless Wisconsin upsets MSU this weekend, their 8/9 game against Maryland is going to probably end up hurting Michigan either way.
Either Wisconsin drops out of Quadrant 2 or Maryland drops out of Quadrant 1.
That Northwestern loss could end up costing them a seed line now.
Friggin’ Northwestern. You had one job - don’t blow a 27-point lead to Sparty, and you’d stay in Quadrant 2…
As for Brooks, Beilein suggested he’s having trouble adjusting to the size of the Big Ten, adding, “He’s an outstanding shooter and for some reason he went three or four weeks where he didn’t make a shot in practice.”
Where could this team eventually get to if Simpson and Matthews could only shoot better from three?
B1G games only:
Simpson 11-40 .275
Matthews 10-38 .263
If this were a typical Beilein offense in general, we’d be a top 10 team, easily.
Their free throw shooting is probably indicative of their abilities as an overall shooter so I’m not surprised that these averages regressed as the competition got better. Neither guy has a pretty shot and as a result, the threes aren’t falling at a high clip. I wouldn’t expect them to become 37-38% 3pt shooters
If Matthews can’t improve his stroke his NBA aspirations are non existent.
Not much NBA demand for poor shooting, non handling, turnover prone 6’5”” guards.
He now has 39 turnovers in 17 B1G games. Ouch.
In terms of NBA potential Matthews checks some boxes but leaves quite a few boxes unchecked on the offensive end. I hope he continues to strive to achieve his goals.
For the purpose of this team, I think JB needs to tone down his ball handling role in the half court even more.
Everyone keeps saying this, but it isn’t like there are a lot of others guys on the floor with Matthews at any given time who are great ball handlers and going to make a play.
They’ve gone to Muhammad more often, but Duncan, Livers, Simpson are not really ball handling playmakers. Poole is usually on the bench when Matthews is in the game.
And let me add, there are still plays where Matthews tries to do too much by say forcing a shot over three players instead of making a more simple pass. But those are reads/decisions within a play. Different than just stand in the corner and rebound.
I was wondering if anyone would bring up who is usually on the court with Matthews as part of his problem. I personally think playing at the same time as Simpson is not opening up any lanes for Matthews to get to the rim and at the moment Livers is pretty much a non-factor in the half court offense as well.
Yeah, you would know better than I do, in terms of stats, but it does seem like MAAR and Poole have taken over a lot of Matthews playmaking burden. I guess I am reaffirming that decision and asking for more of that. One thing that Matthews might do is not be so committed to dribble drives—meaning it is ok to penetrate with one or two dribbles—and to decide to retreat or kick it out. I think a combination of those tweaks would hide some of his current shortcomings in a playmaker role.
I also don’t want to sound like I am “piling on”!Matthews. He plays a valuable role on a team I like very much.
The 3 point attempt against PSU looked very good, it just rattled out. He seemed confident and didn’t hesitate to shoot. I think he is going to be fine.
He obviously needs to improve his decision making. That ‘tape delay’ is really costing him and it is why he gets into trouble.
But in a game like at Penn State where Reaves can basically take Muhammad out of the game. Who else are you going to give the ball to and have them make a play from the starting lineup? That’s sort of the issue.
That is why MAAR-Poole lineups are a thing at times and that is why Poole started the second half. But just playing Poole for all of Matthews’ minutes has some drawbacks as well.
It is trying to find that balance that is the key. I just don’t think you can say, ah well don’t ever put Charles in ball screens when he’s on the floor. Have him sit in the corner like he is GR3. There are already other guys doing that.
He is 10-38 in the B1G. Fine?