Yeah, which made that all the more frustrating. He’s an amazing player and always plays well against Michigan, and somehow he managed to still outdo himself and have the best game of his career today. Brutal stuff. Can’t wait for him to graduate.
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I miss Nick Ward.
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not the outcome anyone wanted. if there is anything to take out of this it looks like johns had a nice offensive game. hopefully this jump starts him for the rest of the year. he’ll be needed to contribute from here on out.
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I’ve been skeptical over the past season and a half, but I am now a believer in Johns’ potential. He can be successful from the corner as both a shooter and an offensive rebounder. He has proven that he can hit the corner 3, but it seems like he hasn’t quite proven it to himself. I’d like to see him shoot the 3 when open, as opposed to shot faking, then putting the ball on the floor. I don’t mind the shot fake from 15 feet, then a dribble to the basket. I also think he’s proven that he can be an effective ballscreener and finisher. His panic factor within a few feet of the basket has decreased dramatically. Defensively, he can provide rim protection when he’s in proper position. That positioning is still a work in progress, but like his offensive game, I think I’ve seen progress. I’m excited to watch him the rest of the way, and I hope he continues to get significant minutes.
If the numbers/scholarships work out and Davis wants to spend another year at Michigan, I’d be happy to see him return as a backup big. I love the strength and activity he provides, and he’s actually developed some touch around the basket.
The only thing that truly frustrated me about the game was the handsy defence; really, the fouls overall. The one that sticks out most to me is the play where Franz had good position on the ballhandler (can’t recall who it was), was sliding with him pretty well with a bit of inside arm contact, then for some reason grabbed the ballhandler’s shoulder with his outside hand; completely unnecessary, and an easy call to make. The two Teske illegal screens bothered me, just because the rule is so clear on blind screens, and Teske did the exact same thing on both plays. An experienced screener should know better than that.
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Tough loss, they just didn’t miss and played great offense. Henry was great, Winston the whole bunch. Tip you hat and hopefully we can return the favor.
When we were wrecking the Atlantis field, people like @umhoops were pointing out that on offense, Michigan was an elite shooting team but not elite at any other major offensive factor. That always screamed regression, and foreshadowed cold-shooting nights as obvious recipes for losses.
The defense being pretty awful in conference play is possibly more concerning, considering most just assumed Michigan would be a top 10-20 defense because of Teske/Simpson/Livers returning. Granted, we have played 2 road conference games (one against the best team in the B1G on a night where their best player was lights out) and a home game against the best offense in the B1G
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I don’t recall that, but good point if so. Atlantis increasingly does feel like a week in which they shot the lights out.
They shot lights out, were playing much better defense, and had a big experience advantage over their opponents (starting 2 seniors who have played a billion games, and 2 juniors) which I think can make a big difference in the first 1/4 of the season
Not sure if this has been said but one of the things I think that’s hurt us against MSU is how ultra competitive Simpson. I know it sounds odd but I think more than any other team we play and in particular Winston that Zavier has such a strong will to prove something which leads to him trying to do too much offensively. Last year from February 1st on Simpson played 16 games. He shot 9 fga one time in that span, never more against any of the other 12 opponents. In the 3 games against MSU he had 9, 13 and 15 fga. Yesterday he took 18 shots, four more than in any game and nine more than his average. I know not having Livers hurt and leads to some of this, but when he tries to do too much against good teams the outcome usually isn’t good for us offensively. That said, if we can’t figure out a way to slow MSU down it won’t matter what we do offensively.
You can say Simpson has tried to do too much versus MSU (last year in EL) but I didn’t really see that at all yesterday given the circumstances.
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It is tough to cover him when they let him push off so much. He is a great player without it. Even tougher with it.
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These games against MSU are the most gut wrenching things to watch. I have to keep telling myself its young kids out there and not to get so worked up about it 
To me, the most glaring issue is mental toughness. I think the bad defense and poor shooting are the results. Idk, maybe I’m wrong, just feels that way. Maybe it’s also lack of experience for some of them, Eli, Johns, Franz, DDJ, who haven’t been in these situations much yet.
It’ll be interesting to see how Juwan handles the team moving forward, what changes he can get instilled in the guys. Hoping this loss fuels their fire.
Just tell yourself it’s only one, maybe two more times, and Cassius graduates. 
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