I’m not sure CM is a good enough ball handler for the 2
Either he or Poole is going to have to take over that spot next year, IMO.
Poole is a far superior ball handler. He will be able to do it once he learns the position
Poole is much better suited to the 2 than Matthews.
1 Like
I totally agree in principle but overall we’re led to believe that today JP doesn’t know the position. CM has been in the program now long enough that you’d think he’d know enough to get by at a position that should be his future position at the next level.
1 Like
I agree, and that’s why I wish Coach B had groomed him for that position right from the start. I think he’s trying to give him reps at the 2 spot in practice as we speak. In the meantime, he either has to play Ibi there, slide Charles down to the 2, or play Eli there a bit.
Speaking of that I think we may see some of the 2 small guard lineup this weekend. I also haven’t heard how Moe is progressing with the ankle, and have read no news of it on here, but if he is not 100% or very close I hope JB goes strictly with Teske and Davis this weekend. UD doesn’t have a whole lot of size other than a pretty good sized Kam Chatman at the position he plays, so I could even see some Z, Eli, Poole, Mathews, Teske. I could also see us go to a lineup of Eli (or Z), MAAR, Poole, Mathews (at the 4), and Teske. Finally, I could also see Isaiah Livers starting at the four with Duncan coming in off the bench. Lots of opportunities this weekend, I think. It just depends on how aggressive JB wants to get with his lineup tinkering. And of course, how the game is progressing. There were plenty of times I wanted to toy with my lineup back in the day, give some guys more playing time, etc, but we were in an unexpected dog fight and I felt I couldn’t do that.
Yep, I agree with THIS, too. CM is going to have to be a pretty adept ball handler if he expects to play at the next level, whether it be as a SG of a SF, and I think he’ll have to play SG so that makes it even more critical to his development that he’s able to play the two in our offense. These next three games should provide opportunities to learn some things.
1 Like
Quote from today’s mgoblog mailbag:
While Livers is still getting his bearings on defense, he’s a marked upgrade on Robinson as an on-ball defender, grading out in the 52nd percentile compared to the 19th percentile for Robinson, per Synergy.
edit: also this
Not a huge fan of using the raw Synergy defensive percentiles like that (they would say Jordan Poole and Jaaron Simmons are the best Michigan defenders). Things like post-up or isolation defense seem straight forward as 1-on-1 situations that are easy enough to comprehend, but I don’t trust something that tries to apply credit to all defensive possessions.
Not sure what to make of some of the HoopLens stats because it is the first time I’ve used the site this year. Looking at the numbers Ace pulled between games, it certainly seems like we might need a bigger sample size than 5,6,7,10 games.
There’s no argument that Livers is more equipped physically to defend better than Duncan (and do just about everything other than shoot), but they’ve been trying to get him to play well all season and hoping that he can consistently earn minutes and produce. Feels like these next three games are really key for him.
4 Likes
There’s fairly unedifying gripe session about M’s strength of schedule going on over there now; I think you or someone asked him about how he saw composing the schedule at one time and I would like to hear someone ask that again. In the meantime the next three games look like something of a godsend for experimentation. Or–at least–if they’ve got them they might as well take full advantage. (Realize that UD could give Michigan a game.)
That was due to a poster who used some RPI prediction site and said that with three wins over the upcoming cupcakes our RPI would fall form 21 to about 50 or so. I’m not sure how good whatever site he used was, so we’ll have to see for ourselves.
1 Like
So obviously the games coming up won’t help Michigan’s RPI, but the fuzzy logic here is that Michigan’s RPI now is higher than it would be because it played its harder non conference games earlier in the season.
I’ve been asking this for a while, but can someone find me a high-major team that a) plays preseason tournaments b) plays home-and-homes with other high-majors and c) doesn’t play buy games against a handful of SWAC/KenPom 250+ teams?
(@tarverine: I know this is kind of what you are saying as well)
2 Likes
UNC sorta does that. Two home and home road games this season (Stanford, Tennessee), the PK 80 tourney, a neutral site game vs Ohio State, and two scheduled games vs kenpom 200+ teams (Portland was part of that tourney). Other than those, the schedule has been three teams between 75 and 100 (Northern Iowa, Bucknell, Davidson) plus 141 Tulane.
Looking at the Big Ten I don’t see a single team playing the type of schedule that people seem to want us to play. The lowest amount was 4 200-351 teams. I guess Ohio State would be the closest thing to what is wanted?
Not to beat a dead horse but every time I watch cuse and marvel at how good battle is it makes me frustrated. Something shady happened and there is no doubt in my mind that all things being equal tyus wanted Michigan over cuse. He’d be much more valuable and effective in our system and there is no doubt in my mind beilein would have been better for his development. Battle in our on ball screen game with Wagner would have been something else…
He would have been huge in replacing Walton as our end of the shot clock go to guy for a bucket. I think we would have gone small this year with Brooks/z, maar, battle, Mathews and Wagner. Or maybe we would have let him get what he claimed he wanted and let him be the de facto “pg” but really just handle the ball a lot. Between him and maar I think we would have been fine with no true pg.
Either way I can help but get angry watching him. There is no doubt in my mind that we beat Oregon last year and then would have gone Final 4. Helm I think we would have been so good we my have beat unc I’m that game with him. Possible natuonsl champs.
This year his precsense would have been even more valuable. I think we’re sleepers right now and will make a nice run but with battle I think we would be final 4 contenders. Our weakness surprisingly this year is our offevse. Our offense and 3 point shooting are inconsistent. With battle that wouldn’t be the case. We’d be a good offensive team with him. Battle, Mathews, Wagner is a scary trio. I can’t think of to many trios id take over them besides duke. Hell I’d take those three over bridges, ward, Langford. His offensive game is exactly what we’re missing.
Long rant about a fantasy , I apologize but damn he would have changed our fortunes a lot.
1 Like
I suspect you’ve got a stable of fantasy dead horses.
Don’t know if intentional but you sound like Uncle Rico with the
4 Likes
A homer to the extreme for sure.
We beat Oregon if DJ blocks out on a free throw attempt that missed.
2 Likes
I’m really impressed with the way Simpson & Poole are improving this season…and how they — plus what we’ve seen from Brooks —set up for a strong backcourt rotation next season. With Ibi Watson as a “foul trouble fall-back” for time at the 2-guard.
I think they can set a quality “floor” for next season’s production from the guard slots. And if either DeJulius or Nunez are able to force his way in to regular minutes, then the ceiling for the group increases.
2 Likes
Future rotation is going to be good. I really like zaviers prospects. I feel really good about this team next year and the year after.
Honestly I feel good about this team this year. If you look at it we blew the Lsu game and Ohio st games. I think we were the better team in each match up. Then we hung with unc until Duncan blew the tying lay up and things changed on a dime. Overall I think if you look at it this team has looked promising. Two games we barely loss and a loss to a top ten team on the road
Nothing to be ashamed of there. I think Poole will keep it up so it’s essential they get him time. This years team could be a dark horse and sneak up on people. Let’s hope they can stay consistent.
I thought that this team could finish top 5 in the B1G and I think we are already there. Now, we have to keep getting better to stay there.
I don’t think we have hit our stride on offense yet. We have a lot of guys that are playing very well individually, but the flow is still a tad off. There could be a big jump coming.
1 Like