Zaxier? 
Iām sorry, I couldnāt resist being an annoying pedant!
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Too many Zs and Xs on my mind.
Sorry Dylan, for still talking about it.
not a fan of Eli Brooks so far, IMO he has been given several tries at this. Time to cut bait and develop DeJulius
Based on what? His shooting percentage, A/TO ratio, FT shooting or what you observe in practice everyday?
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Go look up his fg% career and report back pleaseā¦ could be Antoine Jobert II
Donāt get me wrong, I really like DD, heās going to be great and I think will have Simpsonās spot at some point. Itās silly to compare high school stats to D1 hoops. What we donāt see is the stat sheet from every minute of practice these guys play. The kid is going to be very good given he plays against Z everyday in practice. We canāt measure trust, only JB can.
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Coach Beilein the little he talks about backup pg, always seems to (long term) visualize DeJulius in the role. Personally I think Brooks is ideally a 2. Not a pg
Intelligent persons can disagree over the value of a long bench. JB, obviously, likes the short rotation. If your window is the last 3 years, it has worked out great. But there was a slump between the Burke/Staukas teams and the Mo/Z/X teams. A lot of the mediocrity was due to injuries (Caris, Walton). Injuries happen and you need to be ready.
If this team has a major injury to the top six, do we think that Brandon Johns playing 3 or 0 minutes is going to have an impact on the outcome?
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Agreed, well stated. I do think one benefit of a short bench is low turnover percentages but have no way of proving. Just my gut and eye test. DD will get his chance Iām sure and I bet heāll be prepared. The strategy against Illinois with theāread and reactā really takes experience and a cohesive unit. Iām not sure anyone but Z could manage that task.
Go Blue!
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Or that playing MAAR a few more minutes a game in his first few games as a freshman would have helped significantly? The reasons for the āslumpā were Walton and Levert getting injured and 4 NBA early entrants the previous two years, not a short rotation.
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Antoine Joubert did not live up to his high school ranking, but he was a legit starter on Michiganās team.
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Going all the way back to the Moe years, I remember fans clamoring for Moe to see the floor more as a freshman. I donāt doubt that you were among the many fans who felt the same way. More Moe and less Doyle and Donnal, amiright?
Reminder: this is what Beilein does.
For all the ways that Beilein has evolved, he is still very deliberate with his freshmen. Iggy is the exception, not the rule. He doesnāt just throw young players onto the court to āsee what happensā. The development happens off the court. That is where minutes are earned. He doesnāt dole out minutes like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. He makes those young players kick down the door. Weāve seen this movie before.
In Coach B I trust.
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Seems pretty simple to me. Thereās 3 possible outcomes:
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BJ plays two minutes or so and it goes poorly (turnovers and/or fouls). In this case Michigan still wins the game, but it doesnāt help BJās developement.
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BJ turns in a workmanlike 5-10 minutes. Michigan still wins by 10 points or so and Johns gets some experience. So this, in all small way, helps cushion Michigan for the future injury.
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BJ plays well, like he did against Indiana. He plays 15 minutes and Michigan wins by 15 points, instead of 10. This would definely have broadened the rotation, so a good thing.
Hey, in the end, the most likely outcome is #2. If I was the coach, I would have put him in, but different strokes for different folks. Thereās nothing controversial about any of this.
IMO, I would be in favor of throwing Johns out there as the backup center and simplifying the offensive system a bit for the few minutes heās out there. I donāt think JB wants to do that but IMO it would make sense when the alternative is Davis.
As far as Brooks, Iām not a huge fan but heās been fine enough. Based on what weāve seen of Dejulius I doubt he is close to being a consistent contributor right now in comparison to Brooks. The real priority is more of the Duncan Robinson problem. Make him be more willing to shoot when he has an open 3.
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Iām not sure our lull due to the Caris and Walton injuries that year were because we āfailed to develop depthā, but because the whole damn roster turned over outside of those two and Irvin (who spayed those precious 5 mpg as a freshman) and we were stuck with freshmen in their place.
I am not enamored, at all, with Brooks, but I trust the staff to see two guys play in practice and tab who is contributing more. Brooks is playing because heās the best option.
No, it wouldnātā¦unless it does. If he plays 3 minutes and makes one basket or gets one rebound that Davis wouldnāt have, and we win by 1, then it would.
Depends on how long ālongā is. I think 8 is an ideal rotation, at least what I would wish for talent to allow. You can go +/- 1 on that, but if I had to choose, Iād lean towards 7.
Show me a team that has a regular rotation of 10 or 11 guys, and Iāll predict that theyāll probably be solid, but almost certainly not top 10. If youāre finding meaningful minutes for that many guys in every game, it means youāve got a decent number of good players, but not enough higher level ones. On top of that, youāll be running too many different combinations of 5 out there, which doesnāt help with team cohesion. Maybe if youāre a Kentucky, and have more 5 star recruits than you can fit into one starting lineup, you can be an exception to that, but very few teams are going to be in that situation.
I 100% agree, chazer!
UNC won the National Championship in 2017 playing 11 guys 7+ minutes per game.