The thing with Baylor is that they play great pressure defense and have a bunch of great shooters on the floor almost all the time. Gonzaga really only has 1 good shooter on their roster (Kispert) and relies on scoring at the rim. I suspect we could defend them far better than we could defend Baylor. We also have not fared as well against teams that can really pressure the ball handler which Baylor is great at and Gonzaga doesn’t even really try much.
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Huh? We have one loss and it was to Minnesota who has the third worst defense in the Big Ten. What team haven’t we fared well against? I think the beauty of this year’s team is that they can win in a variety of ways. I haven’t seen a style of play so far that would scare me more than others.
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Not sure if there is a better place for this post… I’m curious to hear everyone’s take on who was/is better at Michigan: Irvin or Livers?
I’ve always slotted Livers in the same grouping as Irvin but Livers’ play as a senior makes me think I need to reconsider that. Maybe he belongs in a rung above?
Penn State was a narrow victory and we did not handle ball pressure well in the game. We also went to OT greatly struggling against Oakland’s garbage ball pressure defense.
We literally only play 2 guards in our rotation. Chaundee Brown and Isaiah Livers can both struggle against ball pressure on the perimeter and Franz is a little iffy against it at times.
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Livers. Irvin had some great shooting streaks, IIRC, but was never as dependable as Livers has been. Also, integral as Irvin was, I’d bet Livers has spent more per game minutes on the floor.
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They played very different roles through their careers, and I think Irvin got way more flak than he ever deserved. He took on a lot of usage for some not so great team. And the deterioration of his jump shot was sad to see. He even turned himself into a solid passer and shot creator. But the season Livers is putting up right now, on a great Michigan team, will put him well above Irvin.
He has not actually, not even close. Irvin averaged around 35 MPG his last 3 years
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Agree about the flak; fans can be. . . fill in blank.
EDIT: Thanks for the correction; recency bias, perhaps. Where does one go for a basic stat like that? I need a little seminar, to get better at tracking some of these things down.
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Zak Irvin was a true gamer, playing 89.1%, 81.6%, and 87.6% of available minutes his last three seasons (2015, 2016, 2017).
In traditional stats, he played 36.3, 32.8, and 35.4 minutes per game those years. [link]
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When I was a child Michigan had back-to-back runs in the NIT and nobody explained to me that it wasn’t the “real” tournament. I thought we were national champs 
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For basic stats I use Sports-Reference
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I think Livers, but their career arcs seem so different. Livers has been a far more consistent player throughout his career, although he didn’t have to shoulder as much of a load as Irvin. Irvin’s career arc was kinda flat heading into his senior year, then skyrocketed as he became a huge contributor at both ends of the floor, even effectively guarding 4s. Irvin will always be one of the players I’m most happy for, given the flatness of it all leading to a big senior breakout. I’m happy for Livers too, of course, but he’s always been really good.
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I was pretty convinced at the time that the '04 NIT run was the start of something special.
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The February 15th version of Michigan is a completely different team than the one that played Oakland and PSU. It might as well be two different seasons. Michigan was still figuring itself out back then. PSU was the first legitimate opponent that Michigan played and I think the game would look differently if it was played today. I also think Michigan would beat Oakland by 50 if they played again. I trust Mike Smith to handle ball pressure and Michigan has other players that are more than capable of helping him out despite the lack of players designated as “guards”
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The win over Hawaii was the loudest I had heard Crisler in my 4 years at UM (2000-2004).
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You are very much not alone in that regard! Still remember watching that title game against Rutgers in my tiny apartment bedroom instead of doing homework.
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I had the front page of the sports section from the NIT title hanging in my locker for a couple years in Jr high/early HS lol
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Livers. Irvin was a really good player, but I think Livers is scary good. I want Isaiah to shoot more, I sometimes wanted Irvin to shoot less, but he didn’t have the luxury to do that.
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I distinctly remember being simultaneously excited about the run, but confused at why my dad wasn’t excited 
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