Big Ten Discussion

I think Davison is ready to achieve superhuman status in drawing charge calls this year.

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He’ll have a nice post-basketball career as a Marvel movie villain the way he’s perfected flying through the air at the slightest touch.

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Here is the things we know about Eli Brooks. He’s a good teammate and he knows how to play. The team just needs his upper class experience to kick in and take on more responsibility.

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By now everyone should know the drill: write a Beilein player off at your peril.

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2018-19 McQuaid/Goins or 2017-2018 McQuaid/Goins?

I could see 2017-18 McQuaid. 6 PPG and 39% from 3. I don’t think he gets to 39%, but I can see the max of 6 PPG. I don’t think there is any way we see Eli averaging 10 PPG and shooting 42% from 3 like McQuaid did this past season.

Goins shot 34% from 3 this past season, so I can see Eli accomplishing that. I still think the 8 PPG Goins put up is too high to expect from Eli.

What Beilein players got written off because they couldn’t get off the bench and then became a contributor as an upper classman? DJ is one I guess, but he he had huge measurables and I can’t speak for everyone but I saw him as a huge X-factor for us coming into 2017. And even then he wasn’t an upperclassman technically.

Really I’d say Brooks is kind of in uncharted territory. Can’t think of many players who did so little in their first two years and then finished out their eligibility at Michigan under Beilein. Don’t mean this as a knock against Brooks, just stating an observation.

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A bit different, but Max Bielfeldt spent 4 years at Michigan, 1 as a redshirt, played 639 minutes in total, scored 192 total points, shot 11-41 from 3 (just under 27%), then went to Indiana and shot 45.3% from 3 (29-64) while playing his way to the Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year Award and scoring vastly more points in one season than he scored at Michigan in 3.

Anyway, I’m done with examples. We’ll see how things work out for Eli and the rest of the team. We all hope they turn out well.

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Right, I thought of Beilfeldt. But he didn’t finish his eligibility at Michigan, and his breakout wasn’t until he left.

I’m not sure whether having a breakout after leaving Michigan vs having one while staying is meaningful. Both have happened before and will probably happen again.

In any case, we are already in uncharted territory with Howard replacing Beilein. If an element in a player making a leap is a change in circumstance, coaching or opportunities, they’re available right now in Ann Arbor.

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Great job making a case, @Jeffrey_E_Schiller. You’ve shown clearly that players can and do transform themselves even as upperclassmen. But what’s true for Brooks is also true for others, and moreso for the incoming sophs, and therefore we should be talking more about DDJ, the other pint-sized 2-guard candidate on the roster.

Reuvers could come back a lot better, but seems that’s about it, and I didn’t see much from him in terms of generating offense for others. He’s just a really nice player to have who can get his and can 3s. They have no replacement for the one irreplaceable guy, and a bunch of players that would fit well with him if he were still there. But he’s not.

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I think it’s pretty meaningful. If we want to include breakouts after transferring we’d have include Chatman, probably Ibi soon, etc. There’s something to be said for a change of scenery.

But yeah I totally agree with the last part of your post. Going from a very established coach with a reputation for doing things a particular way and having a certain system to someone that has never been a head coach before and we do not know what types of skills/attributes he is looking for is a big enough change to make any comparisons moot possibly.

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Agreed he passed on lots of open looks imo. He just had no confidence and wouldn’t let it rip.

Totally disagree about brooks not being a good athlete, I’d actually say athleticism is what he’s shown most thus far in his career. He can really jump and moves laterally extremely well.

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Yes, but you’re changing up the terms of the debate, as far as I see it. The question is whether Brooks can yet become a successful player/thrive this year. Examples of players who struggled then emerged, IMO, should all fit the bill.

I thought I was agreeing with that point.

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As noted, there are exceptions, but they are indeed exceptions. There are far more examples of the rule. If anyone is saying that it is 100 % certain that Brooks will never be significantly better, I wouldn’t agree. But you’ve made no case that it isn’t unlikely.

I would say we have learned to not write off a Beilein coached player by now. We know nothing of the offense Howard will run, his guard development ability (or any player for that matter) or how Brooks fits.

I’m optimistic about Howard and the future, but Beilein’s ability to develop players for his (JB) scheme is irrelevant to how a player will perform in Howard’s system.

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I’m not trying to make a case that it is likely. I have reacted to definitive statements across this and other boards that this will not occur because, after sophomore year, players are what they are. Often, that is the case. Sometimes it’s not, and the sometimes situations aren’t just 1 or 2 or even 5–there are enough that it can’t be called uncommon even if, overall, it’s a minority rather than a majority of the time. It’s one thing to say that it is a higher probability that he won’t become a good shooter than that he will–I would agree with that. It is quite another to say that we’ll be in deep trouble if he starts at the 2, or he can’t average over 6 points a game, or that he won’t shoot over 34% from 3, or that he’ll never be significantly better–those definitive statements are premature.

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so maybe a new coaching staff will work better for Eli too.

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