I don’t know who should be more scared for Saturday. Us, because Maryland is surging, or Maryland, because we’ll be pissed.
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Sorry, but this whole narrative that X has to shoot 5 threes to keep them honest is tired and downright broken. Teams are more than happy to take that chance. The numbers don’t lie.
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Take away the Nebraska game, Michigan is really going to be in some rock fights going forward. Maryland will be a hard draw, facing two talented bigs in Smith and Fernando. That back court is also playing well. And of course MSU is MSU, and getting a win in the Barn is never easy.
Feels like a tall task for this team to do well when depth is lacking. Brooks and Johns are nervous puppies every game. Crossing my fingers for the squad.
The team is resembling the football team. Tough on defense, slow to move down the court, slow to score on offense.
Well, the thing about March is that both teams have to deal with a lack of rest. Not necessarily true in the regular season.
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We’re 7-2 in games on 2 days rest, and 1-0 on games with no days rest. In each of those 2 losses, we got boat raced in the first half, not the second where fatigue would normally show. This looks like a conclusion in search of factual support.
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If I’m not mistaken, the other team has had four or five days’ rest prior to both of those matchups for us. And while I would not say it’s the only contributing factor, I would say that PSU had a lot more apparent energy than we did tonight. Add to that that Z was working against the press in both of these recent losses and, while not definitive, I think the question of rest may have some bearing. Should be rested Saturday, and next Thursday for Minnesota. Then MSU will have had a day more rest than us–perhaps more if you include the Minnesota travel, for that key matchup. Hopefully adrenaline and the home court more than equalize.
EDIT: This was meant as a reply to Jeffrey Schiller, above.
Yes, but if one team plays a 6.5 man rotation and the other team plays a 8-9 man rotation on two days rest, one team will likely be more rested than the other
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Where do you get an upcoming ref schedule…and we don’t have 8 games left. I think you may mean that we’ve had him in 3 of our last 8 games.
The poster said he reffed an early-season game. You’re right that we have just seven games left; I’ll just remove it.
Not a good night for officials across the nation, as LSU beats Kentucky on an easy cylinder call that was missed by the crew. I don’t think there was a double dribble on the play, though.
But that’s also why you see Beilein get creative with his lineups in tournament games. In the round of 64 I bet we see more of Johns and Brooks than normal.
I would not expect that. Longer media timeouts = more playing time for starters.
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The TV timeouts help too, but in the first round against an overmatched team I could see him go deeper into the bench if we’re up, say, 10 points in the first half. In the second game, not so much.
Beilein is not going to get cute with his rotation in the NCAA Tournament if he didn’t get cute with it in Nov, Dec, Jan or Feb. Just my opinion.
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Agreed. We just don’t have the depth right now beyond Livers and a few minutes for Brooks to spell Z. Going to be critical we avoid foul trouble in order to make a deep push IMO.
I just think the tournament’s a different beast. But we’ll see.
In 2017, UM’s top 6 played 190 of 200 total minutes against Okie St in round 1. Donnal 8, Simpson 2, Teske 0.
In 2018, UM’s Top 6 played 165 of 200 total minutes against Montana in round 1. Simmons 14, Poole 8, Teske 8, Brooks 5. Much of that bench playing time was foul trouble related. Simpson, Wagner and Robinson all had 4 fouls.
My conclusion is bench usage will probably be dictated by the foul situation. Usually, NCAA tourney games are called a little more closely than B1G games. My thoughts.
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Like I said, I’m talking about a scenario where we’re up in the first half. I don’t mean a game like OKSU that is a total dogfight.
That scenario rarely happens and certainly you can’t plan for it. Last year in a 3 vs. 14 match up UM was up 3 at the half after trailing a good portion of the 1st half. Ask Virginia about UMBC last year.