Don’t think it’s “supposed” to be a foul in college and the league… but it happens and is called at both levels.
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The one I was most curious about was the first call of the game; the foul on Matthews. He looked at the official and I think he said “He (McQuaid) kicked me”, and I was hoping we’d see a replay of it. Judging foul/no-foul on a 3-point attempt is one of the most difficult tasks for an official, as so much is angle dependent, as it is generally up to one, and only one, official to make the call (unless you’re Terry Wymer working with Bo Boroski).
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Agree, would have been nice to get a different view on that play. On the replay, it did look like it was mostly McQuaid who kicked his legs out as he went up for the shot.
About lost it, during the game, when X was telling Poole to pick up Winston for an entire court length in transition. My heart sunk when Winston pulled up for a rhythm, unguarded transition 3. Surely the epitome of what the defensive game-plan wanted to avoid
@eric_shap after watching the film, did you at all feel the X wasn’t quite as scrappy/strong on the high ball screens as usual? Or was it just that Winston was so good/their screens were so lateral that X couldn’t do more without fouling Tillman?
I thought X was about as good as usual… Winston is just incredibly talented in the ball screen game, both scoring and finding others. As with most parts of basketball, it isn’t just a one-on-one game; ball screen defense engages two defenders, minimum, and usually more.
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Hot takes: that’s a worse video for DJ Cartensen than Poole. Cartensen has been a ref for 3 of UM’s losses @Iowa, @Wiscy, and MSU, and many in the past few years. Fun fact/conspiracy theory about Cartensen - he played at Utica from '81-85, a conference rival of Nazareth, where Beilein coached '82-83.
Also, Poole’s defense was not the top of the list of reasons why UM lost. McQuaid’s 13 pts on 11+ shot equivalents + a TO was basically his average game. Above that were Goins getting open on 3s, Matthews having a terrible game (potentially due to a foul, which may have been partly his own fault, and then of course injury), and Cassius handling X. X didn’t play poorly offensively, but his limitations on offense also hurt the team.
Hopefully the team plays better in East Lansing in a couple weeks. Lots of basketball still to be played for a team that’s 24-4, one back in conference with 4 to go.
Michigan is 7-3 in games that Carstensen refs this year. Michigan was 5-1 in his games last year, 6-2 the year before. Don’t really think he’s out to get Michigan (but I guess we can throw him on the list with every other ref who is out to get Michigan). The weird thing just year is just that he’s done 10 Michigan games, more than any other ref I’m almost positive. Which again speaks to the phenomenon that the ref you see the most of is the one you think is the worst.
A lot of those Poole miscues didn’t necessarily lead directly to point for McQuaid, FWIW. So I don’t think you can measure Poole’s defense just by McQuaid’s stats.
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Yeah some of Poole’s defensive lapses resulted in missed shots. That’s more luck than anything
Yeah, I did say it was a conspiracy theory, but it’s a pretty good one, having the ref be a former player for an opposing team. Also, they’re 17-1 in games that Cartensen didn’t ref – that’s better than 7-3 right? But yeah, I don’t really think this is a thing.
Regarding Poole’s luck: (1) he was unlucky with two bad calls by Cartensen, (2) if McQuaid had a standard game for him, then maybe we should reassess the level of defense played on him, and (3) luck plays a role in life. If the plays proposed as defensive miscues on Poole’s part didn’t actually cause points against Michigan, maybe people should channel their anger and frustration on things that actually did.
I feel like this is looking at things completely backwards. When you are looking back at a game, you should focus on the process not what actually resulted in points.
Guys are going to make tough shots, miss easy shots, etc. That’s the “luck” factor you are talking about.
When you leave Thomas Kithier wide open for a layup, that’s the kind of possession that takes luck out of the equation. Basically these are a bunch of miscues in process where Michigan allowed shots that are far too easy that it doesn’t want to allow.
To evaluate someone’s defense, you should look at the level of shots that the allow and why (obvious mistakes, for example) not if the shots went in.
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A few things: (1) if you want to evaluate the defense of someone who played 35 minutes in a game, a highlight video that picks out the 7 worst plays (some of which include bad calls by refs or errors by others that the player compounded), isn’t the way to do it either. It’s like looking at the misses of a player and concluding that the player had a bad game offensively.
(2) we hear all the time that X or Teske held so and so to below his average game. If Poole’s defensive assignment had basically an average game for the player, maybe that tells us something.
(3) I’m not saying Poole had a great game, but in my view the level of blame is (a) scapegoating, looking for somewhere to place that anger, and (b) not commensurate with the level of causation that plays had on the outcome. Winston, Tillman, and Goins were bigger reasons MSU won than McQuaid, and Poole’s role in their domination was limited.
I do think Poole can play significantly better, and hopefully he will. He’s also still young, a point people forget, 3 years younger than McQuaid for instance. But a lot of folks are making these broad declarations about his game or play all year that I don’t think will age all that well. But I could be wrong.
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(1) I prefaced the video by saying that he had limited defensive involvement – a lot of possessions saw him just standing on the wing, or tagging the roller and recovering. There were also other borderline “bad” possessions I did not include because I didn’t want the video to be too long. Wasn’t just me cherry picking clips. He wasn’t good on that end.
(2) I completely agree with Dylan above. Have to focus on process, rather than what resulted in points. If McQuaid, a 44% 3pt shooter, has 5 wide open threes in a game and he misses all 5, was it good defense that led to his “below average game” or was it luck that he was missing shots due to small sample size?
(3) I didn’t opine about the ball screen defense, Cassius Winston being awesome, etc., etc. I also was not trying to imply that Poole was the reason Michigan lost nor imply that he should be benched, not play as many minutes moving forward, or many of the other things people wrote in response to the tweet. Was simply saying that Poole had a really rough night defensively, which I don’t even think has been a disturbing theme for him or anything. Others may have thought I was inferring that, but that isn’t the case.
Is tagging the roller and effectively recovering not part of good team defense? If he didn’t do that, wouldn’t that leave the roller open underneath or a man open at the 3pt line?
I agree with this. But (a) then you also have to take into account what I think are Cartensen’s calls and (b) you can’t judge the process of the game from a few clips. You say you didn’t cherry pick, but wasn’t this a video designed to highlight Poole’s bad defensive performance?
Yeah, I hear you, and again I’m not saying he played great, but I’ve read a lot of pretty hot takes about Poole.
Was just giving an example. Of course he had adequate defensive plays, but the bad outweighed the good by a reasonable amount. By my eye, it was his worst defensive game. I highlighted a lot of defensive miscues and it wasn’t like he was picked on frequently.
I didn’t think any of those were bad calls, to be honest, but reasonable minds can differ because subjective judgement is involved.
Fair enough, and I always enjoy the videos you do.
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By the way, in the first of the two deemed missed calls, it wouldn’t have been Carstensen’s to whistle anyways.
“He really had a tough game the other day,” Beilein on Poole vs MSU, FWIw.
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So, how’s that subscription coming? 
Ruining my conspiracy is totally uncalled for.
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