I agree with your first three paragraphs. Absolutely. You CAN’T get down 16 in the first half. You just can’t. You can’t shoot it as horrendously as we did. But we did. Don’t know why.
As to paragraph four. It would have been a great W, but it wasn’t. The last shot didn’t fall. The tip didn’t fall. The second tip didn’t fall. We lost the game. I’d much rather learn from a 1 point win than a 1 point loss, but there will be a lot to learn here. I hope the team and the coaches get together and learn everything they can. I believe they will.
That is kinda like asking Mrs Lincoln how the play was. Simpson got absolutely DESTROYED down the stretch. Why they didn’t give him some help I will never know.
I’m not going to comment on this but I’m sure that with Brandon starting to play like we think he can, and that we can now see that Franz will be a star, and that DDJ is a weapon,IF the staff can get CC to play better, and I’m sure Juwan will, then we’ll have a potent eight man rotation.
Simpson is a great player and leader who has some very serious deficiencies. Riding Simpson can generate some great results and as we have seen in the last 2 games it can generate some bad results. The problem is that we pretty much have to ride him because he can’t do much off the ball. I’d love for guys like Livers and Wagner to have more consistent opportunities to make plays off the dribble but with Simpson it makes it hard to do that. If I remember correctly, we looked arguably the most impressive in Atlantis when Simpson had some foul trouble. That is not to say he doesn’t make us better because he unquestionably does but our options are limited when he is out there. The bottom line is today he struggled not only on offense but got completely abused by Pritchard. When that happens winning becomes very tough.
I’d love to see Juwan find a way here, as I don’t think it’s Simpson’s fault. His decision making has been iffy lately, but he’s in a new offense and teams are learning to take away his primary options. Tweaks to make the P/R more effective, probably. I don’t know what else at this point. Not going to throw out the base offense.
I think there’s too much emphasis on this last play. Teske and Brooks played poorly today–two key cogs in our machine. We shot horribly in the first half–Pritchard went off down the stretch. Some inopportune missed FT’s. Just lost a close one. Regroup and get ready for the conference season.
The biggest change in Simpson’s game that I’ve noticed this year is that he’s throwing the ball away more frequently in situations that seem to have nothing to do with the type of offense being run. Perhaps Beilein kept some of that under wraps. But he’s also been shooting better and has a higher assist rate. Overall it’s been a wash as his offensive efficiency is about the same as last year.
Just looked up the stats (not including today’s game) and Simpson is 2nd on the team in both 2pt shots attempts and percentage (Teske is 1st in both). Since no one thinks of him as a shooter, my only explanation is that for the most part, his decision-making is just fine, especially since he’s averaging about 2 assists better than last year. He makes mistakes and should focus on cutting down on them, but it feels like the criticism is a little over the top.
If Wagner, Livers, and DDJ are going to be hitting from outside, and if Johns is going to become a reliable change-up from Teske, I’m good with today’s discoveries. Not too many guys are going to blow past X, ever. Just dug too big a hole, as Silverblue said. It’s true that this team looked competent at times without X in stretches at Atlantis, and that’s another critical ace in the hole. But you don’t yoink him down the stretch in a game like today’s.
Would it have been different if Johns tip in goes in? Michigan’s KenPom didn’t even change with this game, don’t really think it should impact any sort of big picture thinking.
I don’t know about anyone else, but my expectations were lowered coming into this season, having lost 80% of our scoring, having a new, untested coach, and having to rely on a lot of sophs who were mostly unproven. I’m disappointed with the loss, but really encouraged at the same time. Johns and Franz (has a nice ring to it) play today is a taste of what could be going forward, and DeJulius has been better than I had expected. Can’t wait to beat up on a couple of teams before the big ten grind begins in earnest. Still excited to see this team evolve.
In hindsight I would’ve preferred to have Livers come off a curl screen get the ball and either shoot or take one power dribble and shoot let everybody else crash the boards.
You can’t compare top 20 college basketball with HS girl’s basketball. Not the same game. There are no sure plays to get a specific player a specific shot at this level of competition. None.
