Good article with very good points made.
I would not be surprised to see Livers come off the bench some game this year and score 20 or Brooks get 15. Very valuable to the team. Now, if we could just develope one more rotation player by March.
I think this 8 day break comes at a good time for us. Mostly from an emotional and mental standpoint. Get away from basketball for a few days and spend some time with their families and come back fresh and ready to go.
As always, a great job Dylan. It was interesting to see that Beilein chose to highlight Brooks’s defense by stating that he was always in position and that he helped position other people so he could always put him out there. I had never thought about Brooks as a defensive player very much, but then he replaces one of the best defensive guards to ever play college ball or a much more physically gifted Poole. It also highlighted the evolution and continuity of John Beilein’s coaching philosophy. He’s still learning at 66 because he understands that the game has always been about helping players learn how to win and not about his system or him. Kudos to all!
It also sends a message to the bench players about the importance of defense if you want to see the floor.
Well done Aria! I love to watch the progression of John’s as he learns the game. He’ll get better as the season moves into B1G play but can he progress fast enough? Every team will attack the weakest link as JB mentioned…another teachable moment.
Last minute and a half of game time with a 20 point lead, X gets 2 steals and 3 deflections. At the same time DeJulius had a nice defensive sequence resulting in an offensive foul. Nice to see.
Best DeJulius has looked despite two missed foul shots.
Nunez looked comfortable to in limited action. Learning his role. Didn’t hesitate to fire up a couple 3’s. Missed but the shot is pretty.
Castleton too with the and one!
My thoughts on problems with the team are rustiness and complacency are the two biggest problems to date. It seems they play down to the level of the competition. Not consciously of course. I think complacency happens when beating some very good teams by 20 points or more. In the Air Force game rustiness seemed the problem in the first half. The second half, I like to think was the real Michigan basketball.I believe the key is peaking during the big ten tournament and maintaining that edge through the NCAA tournament. Beilein is a master of timing.Hopefully he can do that again.
Unfortunately, it often takes a loss to shock a team back to reality. I hope we don’t need that. Maybe the start of challenging Big Ten play will be enough.
The schedule is a little concerning, but definitely does ease M into B1G play. I think Thursday against Penn St. is a bit of a concern. I don’t think Penn St. is good enough to come into Crisler and win but M is going to have to play better than they have. Then things get a bit more competitive with a good Indiana team coming to town. But the first road trip being to Illinois is nice too.
What I am saying is that the not being rusty would be great, and they can get tripped up here in the early going, but its not like they are seeing MSU/OSU/NEB/WISC in the first few games back.
It might be better if we did have a higher rated team to start with. It would be more likely that we would be up for it. At least we are at home.