Of the players that are given a chance to play? Houstan and Brooks
4 Likes
Basketball team donāt know pump it up
3 Likes
I donāt disagree. Iām all for playing Kobe and Zeb. This team is going absolutely nowhere with the current rotation of players.
5 Likes
Losing Isaiah Livers just shockingly devastating. The clunkiness without him
1 Like
Is it? Who is our 2nd-best player after Hunter? Eli? Love the guy but heās ideally more like your 4th or 5th.
1 Like
Gotta imagine our 5-star Caleb would look a lot better if he was playing the position every scout said he would be best at (4). And Moussa is still playing pretty well even if not dominant. Probably better than expected
3 Likes
Neither of which have been consistent.
Moussa looks active, but the team as a whole does not look too good when he is playing.
2 Likes
Hunter + Moussa lineup was +2. All other lineups -12
2 Likes
Houstan gets wide-open 3s every game. He just isnāt knocking them down like we were hoping. I donāt think that has to do with him playing the 3. As for Moussa, heās raw but that was expected. The problem is that we apparently need more from him than we thought.
The scouting miss on Jones is crushing. Howard is going to have to make him a bit player and turn the guard positions over to Brooks and the freshmen. He clearly doesnāt want to, but I donāt think heās going to have much of a choice.
Itās fixable. Some basic things have to be addressed though and from our posts I think a lot of us see things differently about what the issues are besides the number 1 glaring issue.
The number one issue to me is Jones has teams playing us like they played us with Zavier in his senior year when we went ice cold mid big ten season ( I believe it was around then) which is they are going all the way under the screen and not even slightly respecting Jones from deep. They are just clogging the lane for hunters role and playing Jones drive/ feed down low.
The greater issue is he canāt even slightly make up with it with lights out d, crafty finishes/ hooks and pinpoint laser finds like Z could to counter this huge offensive imbalance.
I love Juwan but this has obviously been his weakest year. The lineups/ combos have been head scratchers to me. I believe there is a winning roster and team in there but there needs to be tinkering.
5 Likes
Eliās being asked to do EVERYTHING alongside a backcourt mate who plays 25 minutes who literally refuses to shoot wide open shots. Of course heās inconsistent (yet great)
Houstan is playing the three which isnāt the best position for him but because we have three power forwards that need 20 minutes a game each, oh well! And because three non-shooters are on the court at once he has to carry the shooting gravity for an entire team. Of course heās inconsistent, heās also shooting 38% from three on 5 attempts per game. Heās good.
8 Likes
Didnāt say he wasnāt good. It just doesnāt matter. The lineups we play always have at least 3 non-shooters. It makes everything inconsistent and weāre heading to the NIT bc of it.
Yeah, canāt have Moussa and Hunter play at the same time. Itās just not working out for now. Some of the lineups have been dire, that 3+ PF lineup was absolutely diabolical. Juwan needs to make some changes, really needs to step up here and emphasize 3 pt play by moving Houstan to the 4.
2 Likes
This team had zero energy tonight.
3 Likes
That was entirely from Hunter making jump shots.
We need a guard who can pull up and make a basket. Walton could, Trey absolutely couldā¦ In this day of basketball, you need shooters bottom line. Doesnt matter if you have Dickinson, Cockburnā¦ Whoever you want to put in the middle. You have to have MULTIPLE knock down shooters surrounding them to be an elite team. Even with X on this team, we would be strugglingā¦
1 Like
Iād like to see a rotation of
Frankie
Eli
Houstan
Johns
Hunter
With
Diabate , Kobe , T will and Zeb rotating in.
Like him or not Johns plays much better as the go to guy at four and the spacing and shooting looks much better with him out there. Between Eli, Caleb, Hunter, and Johns you have enough 3 point shooting as a group to be effective.
For whatever reason Johns canāt lead the second unit or be an effective go to offensive weapon off the bench.
He can though be a nice 3-4 option in an effective starting lineup imo and has shown it I. in the past and just last game. I would not have messed with that after last game if I was Juwan. You need Johns to give you 8-10 or more a night with this roster.
Diabate would thrive more too as the go to offensive weapon off the bench imo. You bring him in with Kobe and T will and run
Eli
Kobe
Houstan
T will
Diabate
At some point you get Zeb in too and he briefing plays the three in some three guard lineups like last game. You play combos of that nine man rotation, staggering Diabate and Hunter as much as possible.
When they are both on the floor together for 10-15 a night you play Eli with Kobe or Zeb and Houstan. Must have three guys who can all shoot. Jones or Frankie with those two destroys the spacing imo.
There is a way to make this work but imo it starts with the young guards at the second guard spot, Johns starting as face up four, and Diabate as the go to bench guy at center for 8-10 a night and when he swings to the 4 for 10 -12 a night with Hunter you make sure itās either Kobe or Zeb at guard with Eli and Caleb at the 1 and three.
1 Like
Zero minutes for Bufkin on a team that is so bad at outside shooting is mystifying.
Season is 1/3 in and the recipe for beating this team is simple. Drop on screens, pack the paint, and dare Michigan to do literally anything from the outside. On offense, attack them in the screen and roll cause theyāre slow.
Coaches need to start playing the younger guys more stat.
8 Likes