Big Ten Tournament Discussion Thread

I don’t remember how he phrased the question, something about “how does this compare to your expectations/goals/whatever” and then charles said stuff like that “stop asking him that man, he doesn’t care about that. You guys always ask him the same question. He just cares about winning. Couldn’t have done it without him”

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Yep you nailed it. I think he was just trying to ask how it felt for Simmons. No ill will at all just bad phrasing. Charles was standing up for him. No biggie overall on both ends it seemed like.

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We will miss MAAR and Duncan a LOT more than people will talk about. For as talented as he is, watching how chaotic and for lack of a better word, risk-tasking, Poole was this tournament made me think even more about how much we will miss Muhammad next season.

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Simpson’s leadership is also standing out in that transformation. I can’t recall the time of the game (2nd half), but after Poole celebrated his strip play, it sure seemed like Simpson yanked him to knock it off and concentrate. He got on him in a good way, unless I mis-saw the situation on TV.

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I thought it was just OUTSTANDING! I’m sure the young reporter didn’t mean any offense, but to see Charles jump in and have his teammate’s back was just special! He also said, “He’s not about that man, he’s about the team.” The reporter then asked Charles why he said the team wouldn’t be here without him and Charles said something like, “his great leadership, the way he practices, he’s tough, he’s a champion, we wouldn’t be here without him.” It was kind of hard to hear 'cause Charles is so soft spoken, but he sure spoke up for Jaaron. So proud of him for that, and so happy for Jaaron and all the guys!

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Love this.

That was exciting. I was loud as hell, all 40. Couldn’t speak above a whisper when I got home yesterday, so that took some serious sorcery. If it sounded loud when they were in the offensive half in the second half, that’s because it was. We were disruptive. What a game!

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Ha yeah I noticed that too.

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Honestly, it looked like they were both pumped and feeding off each other.

Sooooooo @umhoops, is it more fun blogging for a consistently successful team like these last couple seasons or for an upstart program full of lovable floppy haired scrappy guys like when you started?

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Some choice Teske tweets; u will like:

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An underrated aspect of this entire Big Ten season has to be the incredible ability of Livers to avoid dumb freshman mistakes and allow Robinson to have his bench microwave role. He’s barely dented the box score lately, but he’s still making an impact.

edit: Also, Beilein’s foul policy is very helpful when we have this kind of depth. I think it’s been great this season.

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This team is very good.

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Zavier Simpson is dope

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T-shirt!..

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Windsor: What’s the secret to Michigan basketball’s run? Start with John Beilein

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Teske is apparently in the top 1% of all of D1 with respect to offensive rebound rate. I would not have guessed that going into the season.

Still notable, I would say; makes Z’s accomplishment still more striking. Just read on RCMB that Jaren Jackson, Jr. is going pro. I’m curious how they’ll look next year, what Izzo’s incentives to retire now might be.

Might be optimistic but it felt like watching Mitch McGary during the 2013 run with Jon Teske out there. A guy who had shown flashes but really hadn’t been able to put it all together suddenly becomes a force in the pick and roll game. McGary really was very minimal factor throughout the season and then turned into an absolute monster in the tournament. I’m not expecting 20 and 10 every night from Teske but if he can compliment Mo the way he did yesterday that is a really nice change of pace we can throw at teams. Simpsons ability to find guys also feels like it’s much improved in just the last month or so. Maar stepping up, Duncan finding his shot and looking way better defensively, Matthews starting to gain confidence again… A lot to like right now with this team.