Eli’s defense is pretty close to elite statistically–though individual defense is a really hard stat to quantify, particularly at the college level given the smaller dimensions, poorer shooting, and more emphasis on help D.
I think the board keeps agreeing on Eli, but disagreeing at the same time. Wolverheel had some spot on analysis…
Some of us may seem too bullish, and some too critical. But, I think we actually have consensus. Solid D. Right now, inefficient on offense. If he can find some confidence/more consistency shooting on offense, he’s going to be a significant contributor. It’s just a big “If” at this point given past results. He showed enough flashes since arriving in Ann Arbor that JB gave him some serious run… for what that’s worth. I for one, am curious to see what kind of player he is this year…
I expect solid D from him and a max of 6 ppg even if he plays starter minutes. I believe he’s best served as a role player off the bench.
He’s scored over 6 points 6 times in his 2 years and has never hit double digits. I think expecting him to provide any significant scoring is an unfair expectation.
You’re omitting Franz, which is four of five starters. But while you are right that we don’t know how any of the underclassmen from last year’s squad will play, given their high school careers, ranking, and Beilein’s acumen in finding players, it’s pretty reasonable to assume that a few of them will emerge.
I don’t understand the notion that the outside shooting performance of Eli Brooks to date establishes that he will never improve his shooting. Everybody on this board watches Big Ten basketball, and thus watched Kenny Goins, who made 4 of 16 3 pointers in his first 3 seasons combined (over 1300 minutes played), and who couldn’t shoot from the line either (63% in those seasons) suddenly knock down 56 3s last year (at a 34.4% clip) while shooting 73% from the line. Everyone on this board is a Michigan fan, and watched Zack Novak go from 30.6% from 3 as a soph to almost 39% as a junior, and 41% as a senior, D.J. Wilson go from a guy who couldn’t get on the floor as a soph on a mediocre team, and couldn’t score or shoot when he did, to a junior season where he shot over 37% from 3 and vaulted to the #17 pick in the draft, etc. It is certainly possible that Eli will not shoot any better–some people never make a jump–and if he doesn’t, he will play limited minutes at best. However, I am surprised by the number and definitiveness of folks who have made up their minds about someone with limited attempts in a reserve role, especially in the face of a large number of examples (there are many more) of guys who made late career jumps.
Everyone you named does not have the physical and athletic limitations Eli has. Eli is a 6’ two guard who isn’t overly athletic. It’s more difficult for him to get off a clean shot. Probably why we saw him pump fake so many looks that other guys let fly last season.
Zack Novak didn’t have the athletic limitations that Eli did? I’ve seen more 6’ two guards than 6’3" power forwards. Kenny Goins didn’t have the same athletic limitations as Eli, and wasn’t small for a 4? And Eli’s problem has not come from lack of clean shots, it’s from his refusal to take clean shots that Beilein and everyone else were screaming for him to take. That has been about confidence, not about being too short to play the position.
In the vast majority of cases, if a player hasn’t shown much by the end of his second year on the floor, he isn’t going to. Wilson was a redshirt, and broke out in his second year on the floor. Sure, there are exceptions, but the balance of probability is that Brooks is basically what we’ve seen already. The fact that he couldn’t get more than limited attempts in a reserve role is exactly the point.
He shot an actual jumpshot and not some set shot where his feet barely get off the ground and he releases the ball well before his full elevation.
He showed any type of confidence whatsoever on offense. He looks completely lost out on offense and had numerous airballs on shots that a D1 guard should never airball. Seemed like he didn’t even want to shoot open shots a lot of the time.
With that being said not all hope is lost and he is more than a serviceable defender but his shooting has a longgggg way to go both from the mental aspect and the actual skill aspect of shooting a good shot.
Novak was 6’4 and we all know the 4 is a wing in JB’s system. Zack also won the team’s dunk contest, so he was far more athletic than Eli. I’m not even sure if Eli can dunk.
Would you like other examples from the Big 10 alone? Frank Kaminsky went from a low volume, 30% 3 point shooter as a freshman and sophomore to a much higher volume, 40% 3 point shooter as a junior and senior. In a more extreme example, Cuonzo Martin, while at Purdue, went 0-7 his first 2 years in over 1600 minutes of time, and then made 179 3s at a ridiculously good 46.9% rate over his junior and senior seasons at Purdue. I could go on for a while. The point is not that Eli will become a great, or even a good 3 point shooter–he may very well be nothing more than what he has been–but rather that definitively writing off a guy who was brought in by Beilein, in part, because of his shooting ability, seems premature to me. Many guys are what they are after 2 years, but a surprising number are not.
Eli has dunked in games, and he has a much better vertical than did Novak (who, according to Novak himself, is 6’ 2 1/2"). I watched Novak win the dunk contest live, and have seen them both show their athleticism in other ways. Novak was one of my all-time favorite Michigan basketball players, and I go back to the Cazzie Russell era. Eli hasn’t been in Novak’s class as an overall player, at least to date. All that said, if you think Novak was “far more athletic than Eli,” I don’t know what to say other than that it’s not close to being accurate.
Ok then. That’s fine. I forgot he’s had a couple dunks.
Either way, we desperately needed Eli to provide offense off the bench last year and he couldn’t provide any. We basically ended up with a 6 man rotation because of it.
The kid tries hard, but I think we are in trouble if he’s our starting 2.
Really good examples of breakout seasons above. Thing is, I don’t think we are looking for a Frank Kaminsky/DJ Wilson type breakout from Eli. I think a Going/McQuaid comparable is a good one. We need him to be somebody who you respect/have to guard from 3, while playing above average D and being a glue guy. I think that is something not unreasonable to expect from him this year.
I’ll basically echo @silverblue here. If Brooks starts at the 2, it means he’s the best option there. If it happens, it would likely speak highly of Eli’s development between the last two seasons and the coming one. It doesn’t necessarily mean the other options at that position will have disappointed in practice. Eli could make quite a leap. I understand that some of you think such a leap is highly unlikely, but I hope you realize it’s not impossible.
I think what this all comes down to, as @kellen.hayes essentially was saying, is some of us appear to be more optimistic regarding Brooks, others pessimistic…but none of us ultimately know what this year will bring for Eli, and we should all, at the very least, hope for the best, both for his sake and the fate of the team.
I completely understand why some here are highly skeptical about Brooks. What I would not understand is people writing him off with any degree of certainty.
