Well to be fair, he’d have to beat out Poole for minutes this year, who will be starting next season.
True, but this year he really just had Poole to compete with at the backup 2-3. Assuming Matthews is back, he’ll have sophomore Brooks, Iggy, Nunez, maybe Livers sliding down to get Johns minutes at the 4. I also struggle to think of any guards/wings who made an impact under JB after not playing at all their first two years. I guess DJ but (1) he was more of a 4/5, and (2) Chatman and Dawkins transferred, and (3) he was a first round draft pick. Ibi seems like a hard worker and a great guy with athleticism and some talent, so maybe…
Next year “Eli will thrive” and “Watson will be fine?” Based on what?
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Homerism to the extreme
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I look for Brooks to do well next year too. He is a really skilled player that is going through that freshman adjustment. Remember how bad Teske and Simpson were last year.
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He’s much better suited to the 2 than DeJulius. Watson will never be a serious contributor here, and if Matthews and Wagner both stay, he is a likely candidate (along with Davis) to be forced out.
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It’s good to see the time traveling machine to know a player’s entire career still works.
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This whole thread is full of people predicting the future, including you. Given that, your snark is really pathetic. But go ahead…keep making the discussion about your personal dislike of me, instead of about basketball. I’m sure everyone loves it.
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This is a legitimate prediction:
This is a low effort statement presented as fact with little thought put in:
You constantly complain about ad hominems while making comments like “your snark is really pathetic.” Not good.
Watson is facing an uphill battle. Writing off a guy who can shoot and who has a 45 inch vertical seems like quite an overreaction to him getting beaten out by Poole this year. I’m glad we didn’t decide not to go after Charles Matthews after he struggled while getting beaten by two talented guys for most of his PT. “Oh, that’s a totally different situation” you cry out! Yes, Matthews still got 25% of available minutes. However, he was expected to step in and be a high usage player. The highest expectation of Ibi is “backup 2.”
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I really don’t think it’s a hot take to say that Ibi will never be a contributor here… He was a head-scratching offer at the time and he has been very very bad at D1 basketball in all the minutes we’ve seen. Sure, his career isn’t over, but I mean c’mon. We can make educated likely guesses. It’s becoming late early for him particularly with the scholarship crunch coming.
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I’ll say it again.
I also don’t really get how he was a head scratching offer. We missed on our plan A’s and B’s so we got him. Yeah, he didn’t play much last year. So what if there’s an injury? Sean Lonergan is gonna be playing 20 minutes a game? Duncan Robinson was literally our only wing on the bench last year. If we didn’t grab Watson we’d have a depth crisis. He was in the exact same rankings clump as Spike and Caris, it’s not like he was going to Grand Valley State if Michigan didn’t scoop him.
Yes, if you’re going to continue to make personal attacks against me, you’re going to be called out on it. Cope. BTW, don’t think it wasn’t noticed that you had no answer to my point that this thread is full of people predicting the future course of player’s careers, and that you had done exactly what you got snarky at me about.
And when you try to make an argument by presuming what I think, and putting words in my mouth that I haven’t said anything resembling, that pretty much confirms that you have no facts on your side. But hey, prove me wrong. Show us an honest, side-by-side comparison of Matthews and Watson.
Watson has had two years on the court, and hasn’t risen above the level of a second tier bench player. He hasn’t shown any improvement over the course of this season, and we’re 24 games in. He’s played a total of 15 minutes in Big Ten games, despite all of our “comfortable” wins. Brazdeikis is coming in next season to compete for the same minutes, not to mention Nunez. I’ll repeat…Watson will never be a serious contributor here.
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Who cares if he can stand out on an empty court and hit 3s? College basketball is not a game of Horse. He’s made two baskets in the whole Big Ten season of actual games against real opponents, so that incredible shooting and jumping doesn’t seem to be translating to anything that matters in real life basketball.
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One thing I enjoyed most about D.J. Wilson is that he emerged during his junior year. Before that, I can’t recall a Michigan player that went from very low minutes to even a substantial contributor. Hopefully Ibi will be the second.
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Can’t believe I haven’t mentioned him yet… Good thing Beilein didn’t send Wilson to a SWAC team after his sophomore year like some posters here would prefer we do with another awkward looking while playing athletic guy.
If you think getting called out on shitty takes is a “personal attack” then the internet might not be for you.
See, this is what I mean. You’re just so wrong about so many objective things. Iggy is a combo forward, Ibi has been playing the 2 this season.
I mean… he’s shooting 37.5% from three on 24 attempts in-game, I don’t know what else you want him to do in the 11% of available minutes that he gets.
If you haven’t been watching for the past half-season, Jordan Poole is very good. We know Beilein likes a short bench. It’s not like Watson got passed by Jevohn Shepherd on a team that plays 3 backup wings consistently.
Some of your rhetoric has been used in the past and looked incredibly dumb in retrospect.
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I think Ibi was a decent guy to offer, and I think he’s got potential. But the problem I see is that he already doesn’t play much this year, and next year we’ll be adding Iggy and Johns to the 3/4 mix, both of whom are in all likelihood better players.
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But Ibi has been playing the 2/3 this year, at which Nunez will be literally his only competition for playing time. Iggy and Johns are both combo forwards.
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I’m not sure that Nunez will be Ibi’s only competition for backup minutes at the 2 next year. I would hope, and I stress “hope”, that if Poole is the starter next year he’d be alleviated at the 2 by Matthews moving over there and Ignas to the 3 with Livers/Johns at the 4. Other than that I could see Brooks beating Ibi out for backup minutes at the 2. It’s just speculation but I don’t see guaranteed minutes for Ibi just by attrition next season…
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Yeah, Nunez and/ or Ibi are not the only possibilities to backup the 2.
You’re free to disagree with my “takes” without calling me an asshole and a troll. Or is that expecting too much civility from you?
So you already know what position Brazdeikis is going to be filling next year in Beilein’s offense? Wow…YOU must be the one who’s time traveling. As more than one person (and not me) on this board has noted, he’s capable of playing anywhere from the 2 to the 4.
And seriously…could you do a lamer job of cherry-picking stats? You failed to answer any of the points I made about Watson’s contribution and progress this year. Whatever stats he has managed to post were mainly in blowouts, and mainly against very weak NC competition. In the Big Ten, he’s played a total of 21 minutes in 12 games, and scored a total of 3 baskets. He is not shooting 37.5% on threes against teams with a pulse, when it matters. He has not been a significant contributor in any game this year, and he has not improved as the season has gone on. Those are simply facts. If you’re going to let your personal animosity towards me motivate you to keep denying them, go ahead, but you won’t look good doing it.