The offense has really had its worst games when we have only one game per week. We donât have any more of those weeks for the remainder of the season. I think thatâs a big positive for us.
MSU game at Breslin is a similar stretch of a week off, FWIW. I donât really buy into the notion that having a week off has anything to do with Michiganâs struggles though. Wisconsin is the best defensive team that U-M has faced, that has a bigger impact.
I agree with the defense being the bigger impact as well. Wisconsin probably played their best defensive game of the year against us.
I just have noticed a trend of the long layoff. We didnât play our best against WMU, AF, and Binghamton during the week long âbreaksâ. I missed the 6 day break between Maryland and at MSU. Thanks for catching that and correcting me there.
@umhoops I really enjoyed this read. Iâd love to hear you go into this a little more in the comments, thoâ, if you have time:
I have a hard time following Beileinâs logic in fouling off the ball given that he implemented an inbound set last year to use late in games with Zavier Simpson as the inbounder so that he wouldnât have the ball in his hands to be intentionally fouled late in games.
Wouldnât having Simpson inbound potentially indicate that Beilein believed he was keeping an opponent from fouling him away from the ball? (Or am I missing something obvious?)
By throwing the ball inbounds, the logic is that he wonât have the ball (i.e. canât be fouled).That implies that you realize you canât foul someone without the ball.
But if he believed Simpson could be fouled while on the court even if he didnât have the ball, then having him in bound it makes sense.
Wouldnât a team just foul him immediately when he came onto the floor after passing it inbounds?
Maybe he was just taking the blame for it and he didnât call for them to foul off the ball, but Iâm not sure how he could not know that you canât foul a guy who doesnât have the ball who isnât even in the play.
I agree. It doesât mean Beilein doesnât think he can be fouled, it just makes it less likely that they would foul him while standing out of bounds. Usually, the defense first tries to steal the inbounds pass and failing that they foul the guy with the ball.
âI was taking him out if he missed them, the first two. We were going to go with Jordan ( Poole ),â Beilein said. âWe have a plan there. I had (Simpson) inbound the ball late and if you hear me yelling, âOhioâ it means heâs inbounding the ball.
âItâs like is he ever going to make them if I never have him in there? So, itâs like he made the first two, all right, letâs roll with him. He missed the next two, OK you had your chance. Get out of there and letâs get somebody else in there.â
Beilein said the team is still working at making adjustments when opponents start purposely fouling late.
âJordan Poole is an exceptional foul shooter as is Muhammad and Duncan ( Robinson ),â he said. âWeâre trying to get those three in there and have a different press breaker to _make sure our best three foul shooters always have the ball.â
Key quote: âmake sure our best three foul shooters always have the ballâ
Beilein just took responsibility for that screw up with the rules and admitted he was wrong, fwiw.
Winning this B1G this year is going to be a daunting task. Shaping up to look like weâre going to have to pop MSU twice.
I think some of folks have been far too dismissive of MSU. Much like the Kohl Center, Michigan has an awful history at the Breslin and I donât see them marching in and winning easily.
Not going to be that easy to beat them at Crisler, either.
Weâre 3-4 in the last 7 there. I donât think weâll go in there and easily win, but weâve done pretty well there since 2011.