Bottom line is despite their issues and questionable officiating, the last 2 road games against good teams were very winnable without Livers and probably ones we win with him. With him coming back and the schedule becoming more favorable, now things can settle into place and hopefully move forward. Still have things to clean up but the personnel is better suited to do that with Livers back and everybody can slot into their more natural role.
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This is baaaaaaad
And from what I hear Livers is a GREAT COMMUNICATOR ON DEFENSE.
Caught the final 17 minutes on BTN this morning, and watched the 30 minute âhighlightsâ on youtube, so I saw 80+% of the gameâs possessions. If Garza was travelling and setting illegal screens, he didnât do it on any of the possessions I watched. If we were getting fouled on some drive attempts and not getting calls, I couldnât see it from distance on TV (Juwan had better looks than us, so maybe there were one or two). If there were any terrible calls, they must have happened on non-highlighted plays in the first 23 minutes of the game. The first couple of full-game Michigan defensive possessions I saw (ie.- under the 17 minute mark of 2H) involved great positioning and challenges, excellent no-calls, and the Iowa bench going crazy wanting fouls. (Later in the half, Davis clearly shoved Garza cutting from block to block, with no foul called.) If weâre dealing with biased officials, then these things donât happen. Then I saw Teske clearly chop down on Garzaâs arm on a double-team, a foul get rightly called, and Juwan, who had no angle to see the play, get a tech. I donât know. I am definitely not one of those fans who believes that officials should never be questioned, and I didnât see every possession of the game, but I just donât get the narrative that it was a poorly officiated game.
I thought that our inability to guard Wieskamp was a key to the outcome. He is a bad matchup for Wagner and Johns, as I think someone already mentioned. What I saw down the stretch (ie.- final 7-8 minutes) was Iowa hitting pure jumpers from everywhere, and possessions at the other end finishing with Teske airball, Dave airball, Johns charge, 2 open Wagner misses from 3, and a missed front end of a one-and-one. Iâm not blaming our guys, as players are going to miss shots; just saying that this was how the game was won and lost. It wasnât because the officials were biased or Terry Wymerâs a bad official, blah blah blah.
I generally like Juwanâs pressers. I was surprised at his defensiveness when asked about the decision to play Davis instead of going small. Iâm sure heâs tired of being asked about this, but I thought it was very unfair to the reporter to react that way to a legitimate question (âhave you played ball?â Come on now.). Having to face the press shortly after an emotional loss will do that, I guess. Iâm also sure I wouldnât handle post-loss pressers as well as Juwan.
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Terry Wymer is a nationally well-thought-of referee with a very strong Ohio background. A thorough review of his history officiating UM games, especially away from Crisler, would be a compelling read, but weâre all aware of his impact in the first half of the Championship game v. Nova, as well as his dust-ups with Beilein over the years. I always cringe a bit when Dylan announces Wymer as one of âtonightâs refs.â
Yes, Wymer had a terrible night in that Villanova game. I remember feeling really badly for him. Things went off the rails quickly for him, and he couldnât get it back together.
Iâm still infuriated. That was a complete joke of a game. I donât think itâs possible to ref a game that incompetently unless you come in with a bias. There were two completely different standards as to what was a foul, depending on the team. Disgraceful.
Michigan currently has played the 2nd strongest schedule in the country, according to Kenpom
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That one was pretty hard to swallow still. Pretty bitter
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Other than two missed âhook and holds,â I didnât really have a problem with the officiating. Iowaâs defense is bad enough that theyâre not in position to even foul.
Iowa is just a great offensive team. They made almost all their free throws. Shot great from the 3pt line. Made some really great entry passes in tight windows. Every crack Michiganâs defense gave them, they took advantage of.
DDJ plays great on-ball defense, lets up for a second⌠dagger 3.
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Feel like I say this every year, but Iowa could be really good next year. Return Garza (though you would have to think he would explore playing professionally even if its not the NBA), Wieskamp (could also be early entry), Frederick (he seems like he is going to be an annoying player for multiple years) and Bohanan if he is healthy could be a really good team if they could play at least average defense.
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I honestly cannot even imagine what game you were watching. Contact wasnât treated remotely similarly by that crew. By the standards of what was a foul in that game, there were possessions where Iowa committed two, three offensive fouls on a single possession. Teske went flying through the air right before the play where he still got the rebound, passed to Franz, whose layup hung on the rim for a while before dropping through. There is NO WAY that is not a foul by the standards of that game.
They took Franz out of the game. The 4th foul changed the entire game. We were robbed, that crew should be suspended. It was a complete GD farce.
And for the record, there have been multiple games where itâs our poor play that led to a loss and even some suspect officiating outcomes have, in my opinion, been explainable by specifics of play and who was and wasnât on the front foot. Not the case in last nightâs game. It was a joke.
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They wonât play average defense because 2 of those guys will be awful defenders no matter what, and the others average at best. But they could be a top 5 offense which would make them terrifying to play regardless
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4th foul on Franz was basically the difference between a freshman and a sophomore. Franz reaching his arm in for no reason rather than playing sound defense and Wieskamp being smart enough to create contact.
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Yeah I thought that, along with his âno $hit?â response to a question after the Minny game, were a little unfair to those asking legitimate questions. But itâs still a learning curve for Juwan in handling pressers.
Heâs obviously not media-averse, as he was well aware of the recent narratives against EliâŚand he probably is aware (or been informed) that there are many among the fan base who have always questioned Austin. So he was clearly on the defensive there
His answer to Orion last night struck me as him being defensive about himself, not defending Davis. (His answer about Eli was about defending Eli, although I donât really think anyone in the media has been all that critical of Eli or written about him. Seems like he was referring to social media as the media) Orion wasnât asking anything about Davis, he was asking about the decision to play Austin and not Dave. Thatâs a pretty legitimate question.
The âno shitâ response in Minnesota was triggered a bit by the question, I think it was something along the lines of âdo you rememberâ which is a good way to piss off a coach in a presser.
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Yeah I definitely should have said heâs not social media-averse, as youâre 100% correct that the writers havenât questioned Eli or Austin. And Orionâs question was perfectly legitimate to understand Juwans thought process at crunch time.
Come on, that kind of comment is pure fantasy. And weak. Letâs blame the officials!! Letâs not accept that we arenât really that good of a team!
Sure, itâs fantasy that shooting 45 less free throws in 2 games could have changed the results of single digit losses that were even going into the last couple minuets. Itâs true that this is a good, not great team that is missing a key player. Theyâve also played well enough to win the last two games. I guess itâs âweakâ though to point out that one team having an absurdly unbalanced number of free throw attempts may have impacted the game result. Much tougher to just say the team sucks. You go big fella.
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I really thought Wieskamp clamped down on it. I thought it was a really bad call - what did you think about Franzâ 3rd, the charging foul?
It was a huge call, and they never showed a replay, which irked.
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