In fairness to Zeb, it was possibly the best HS team of all time. But agree that he’s not ready and is not needed this year regardless. Which is fine.
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How are you making the claim that Zeb is the best ball handler without having seen him play more than a few minutes in the last two years? That’s a pretty bold statement. He looks good with the ball in his hands even when he’s not sure what to do with it, but I’m not ready to make that claim yet.
I think Smith is hands-down the best ball handler on the team and despite my concerns with Eli’s handle at times I don’t see how I could justify putting Zeb ahead of him.
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With Simpson, we’d be markedly better. And without the ceiling we likely have now.
Barely made it into the AP Top 25. 4 points ahead of the 26th Richmond Spiders who just got blasted by WVU. Duke and UNC remain ranked ahead of us.
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Torvik ranks Michigan 16, Richmond 43, Duke 48, and UNC 40.
AP ranks Michigan 25, Richmond 26, Duke 21, and UNC 22.
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Personally I don’t think Michigan warrants a top 25 ranking yet. I think they need to prove themselves against better competition still. I wasn’t convinced Michigan was legit after the Penn State game.
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Smith is very capable and is the teams best PR team member. But I saw many times when a defender was stronger and could force him away from the pick or there would be a hard hedge and he had no good counter. Some may disagree but that is how I saw it. Penn State did it to several of Mich. players.
The threshhold to be a top 25 team is not that high. And even in a strictly resume ranking Michigan is 20th in Torvik’s WAB metric. They should be ranked
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15th in WAB currently
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On hinder sight, not being able to play much last year hurts Zeb now
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I am high on Zeb but i agree he is not close to earning minutes over Smith or Eli. Eli and Smith are doing a pretty good job imo. Both will get better as the season goes on but especially Smith. I am impressed that he has been able to step in so quickly. It is not easy for 1’s and 5’s to step in like this and be effective—and yet Smith and Dickinson are doing it. We would be screwed if those two did not outpace the norm.
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Whoops looks like I looked at Iowa’s who is one spot above us
Hard to say this when someone like Duke, whose best victory so far is against Bellarmine, is ranked ahead of Michigan. Not to mention OSU, whose best victory is a ND team that’s 25+ spots lower on Kenpom than Penn State and has 2 close ones against bad low majors vs. Michigan’s one.
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Agree - rankings are pretty meaningless even at this point of the season. But if you’re going to put stock in them, maybe don’t rank teams that you WANT to be good (Duke, UNC, Kentucky) over teams that are at least undefeated.
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Go out and win your games this week and the rest will take care of itself.
Oh, wait… nevermind.
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I like Zeb a lot but Smith is a better ball handler imo at this point.
The one thing I think Zeb might be able to do and contribute at is creating looks for himself. He isn’t hitting the shots or finishing so it may sound crazy but imo you can see flashes of what made him a top 75 recruit and what he may be able to contribute at in 5-10 min a game down the stretch.
His height and amazing quickness along with plus handle and ability to just raise up leaves him with a ton of potential imo and his skill set is one of the primary concerns for this roster ie shot creation and getting to the rim.
He is really tough to stay in front of and if he can find his shot off the dribble he can get that pull up 10-15 consistently. That’s something he seemed to really do well I’m high school. I know it’s not analytically friendly but it’s really tough to guard as well if he finds the stroke.
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What’s the point of putting someone in to create a shot for themself if they can’t hit a shot?
I’m not really advocating that he should honestly. I didn’t think it read that way. In fact I don’t believe he should be getting minutes in less in a bind just yet. I was just saying it looks like the potential is there even with how badly he has shot on offense and played over aIl. I think eventually he will find his shot when he gets comfortable.
Not sure if that happens this year or not or if he could even be worth playing if he does because of defensive issues ect. It would be nice if he could settle in and we could count on him for 5-10 a night with a little offensive creation and have something for him to build off of going into next year.
I think he’s gonna end up a real nice guard who could be here all four years.
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