You are right, let’s not panic. It was a bad day on the road against our chief rival.
I agree with you on this, but people are always analyzing this team on this site one way or another. A brand like Michigan always demands heavy attention compared to most others regardless of sports or academics.
The fan base has definitely enjoyed the season, but success also increases expectations, especially with a great record, great KenPom ratings, and having been a national finalist twice in the last 6 years.
This team played from the front most of the year in the top 10, as opposed to creeping up late season.
Fans are just thirsty and anxious for Championships, and many people feel that is within grasp, and that’s why there can be an over diagnosis. It’s not meant to be vehement or anything, fans probably just want to express their opinions in how to help the team and coaches from the outside in total support. Being a voice. Even though that’s not within our pay grade to be coaches or team analysts.
I have tended to forget that this team overachieved greatly this season, too. Overshadowed by Purdue, perhaps. . .
EDIT: I see that in the AP preseason poll, for example, MSU was ranked 10th, us 19th, and Purdue 24th. We are ranked 10th this morning. The AP poll is. . . what it is. But we lost Robinson, Rahkman, and Wagner. IIRC, most of the bright sparks here wondered where the points were coming from.
In a way this team was always hanging by a thread as far as injuries are concerned. If if if Charles is healthy maybe we now surprise some people, and actually have the beginnings of a bench. Including for next year when–I agree–the shooting will be better.
Oh yeah, analysis is good and this isn’t a perfect team by any stretch, plenty of places to improve and fun to talk about them. It’s just easy to forget that past teams had bumps in the road and problems too and that this team is pretty darn good and has had quite a season so far. Who knows, maybe there are championships still to come.
Thanks for the reply and stats. I’m actually surprised by that, I thought it was a little better. I was also really curious comparing to the team numbers so thank you again.
I think our offensive issues are pretty simple: as good a players as he is (I think he’s one of the four best in the conference), and as much as he’s developed on offense (again, substantially), is that MSU has been able to wall Simpson off from the lane, which takes a ton of his shot creation ability away - for himself and others. It makes him a shooter (which isn’t great for us), and without Matthews, means a ton of pressure falls on Poole to create offense.
Some good points in here. I’m surprised that Iggy and Z aren’t ranked higher in terms of that downhill thing, but Iggy’s development has come through the season, and Z tends to go for the hook rather than the contact. Some other things:
-Very good point from Dylan re passing this year.
-I think MAAR is being SLIGHTLY overrated as a run-stopper, and Z slightly underrated. He’s been great at it this year.
-I think in terms of losing focus out there against MSU, well, guilty as charged. It’s an interesting invitation to think about exactly the kind of leadership Z provides. One thing this team maybe needs and doesn’t have is a guy like Mo or TH2 to get FIRED UP and make big buckets and thump their chests afterward. I always think of how awesome TH2 was in '13 with that. The home game against OSU was such a him game.
Bingo. They don’t pass well, don’t always space or move well, and aren’t the greatest at making the right decisions. This team contrary to most beliefs could be good offensively skill set wise but they haven’t had it between the ears so far and have yet to find a groove or blend well. It could be scary if it somehow clicks in the next couple games,
Because of the early success, it’s been easy to overlook how young this team is - Teske and Simpson are the only current players that played on the 2017 team - Matthews and Davis are the only others who were on the plane. I was looking at the team on the floor late in the first half, saw that there were no upperclassmen out there, but none of the announcers even commented on it.
I agree they aren’t old. I think they are fairly well-seasoned though. Simpson is a returning starter in his third year; Livers and Teske have played big minutes on a Final Four team. Compared a lot of teams they are pretty old. Compared to MSU, however, they are pretty young. MSU’s led by 2 juniors in Winston, and, sort of, Ward, and relies very heavily on two seniors in McQuaid and Goins. That relative age gap could help explain Michigan’s lack of poise in the stretch in both games.