Yes slowing down Winston is key, but I thought Michigan was too focused on him in the first meeting to the point that they allowed other MSU players to get easy baskets. You canāt forget that heās a lethal passer, and I would be more focused on trying to limit his assists than his points. Michigan can win even if Winston scores 30. They canāt survive with McQuaid/Goins/Tillman going for 43(!) like they did in the first game.
When I say stop Winston, I donāt necessarily mean his scoring. I mean frustrating him with ball screen defense so that he canāt create those easy baskets that you are talking about.
If Michigan wins this game and somehow wins the big ten tourney, a number one seed should be Michiganās. It probably wonāt be but it should be.
The number of top 25 victories this year has been absurd.
I am still annoyed that Gonzaga was annointed a 1 seed for one winning one game in November and then playing chumps since.
Spot on analysis!
Michigan will win this game.
I second that.
This game is where JB should shine on preparation and adjustments. Weāve had almost a week to game plan. Letās sic āem now and WIN.
Will todayās presser be posted?
Sorry, we had a scheduling issue and werenāt able to make it. Hereās Beilein.
Iād like to see 4-5 minutes a half from DeJulius and have him pick up Winston full court. Keep X fresh and put pressure on Winston.
Ok, there you have it! JB, regrading Teske, āstep back threeās, thatās our planā!
Thereās certainly been a more sarcastic side of Beilein these last few years.
Yeah. That was his way of saying he isnāt saying the plan lol.
And have Winston torch DDJ for 8-10 minutes? We were outscored by 7 at Maryland when Simpson was on the bench. Iād hate to see the carnage against MSU. No thanks.
Iāll just say that attributing team +/- to a single player and then drawing conclusions on that from a three minute sample is pretty dicey.
That said, while I think DeJulius is not as destructive as that cherry-picking suggests, Iām not clear on why there is a perception that he defends on a level to dog the leagueās best player full-court.
To my eye our biggest problem - especially without Matthews who can sort of find his own shots - is that we cant really play offense without X.
Canāt tell if youāre referencing me, but thatās not what I did at all. The fact that DDJ has barely played at all is a pretty good indicator that heās not going to magically come in and harass Winston. In fact, why wouldnāt we expect the Big Ten POY to light up a seldom-used backup?
Agreed, no time to play around with player number 2. Z can play the whole game or take a break when CW is on the bench. We should have a few extra TV timeouts tonight. Every possession will be crucial to get the winā¦gotta make the threeās!