Game 6: Tarleton State at Michigan Open Thread

I think we severely underrated Frankie’s brief minutes on the court vs Buffalo. He showed better point guard play that game than anything Jones has shown all season.

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This! Although I think I’d go with inability/apathy to handle it. Meaning some of the players didn’t even try to correct it in-game…the guys picking up the dribble in inexplicable spots is not ideal. Lofting passes. Lazy handoffs. Not paying attention to where your feet are. Correctable, but worrisome.

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I feel like I’m rarely one to get frustrated with this stuff, because usually the older player gets underrated by fans, and the younger player’s mistakes get forgotten. But like, I don’t know how you can watch that and think it should be a competition.

It’s even more frustrating when you have real games right on the horizon. You don’t have a big runway to screw around playing guys just because they’re older.

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Jones is so mechanical and robotic with his dribbling and handles, very painful to watch

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I’ve never seen a D1 player dribble off his foot so frequently

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I will admit that against Arizona, Collins did not, to me, look a solution to anything. His first half tonight was better than anything Jones has done, however. I’m surprised he didn’t at least earn some 2nd half burn. I understand why the theoretical version of Nunez - the one that makes shots - is appealing at this moment, but Nunez does not make shots, and his presence in the rotation is strange.

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I’m not taking a victory lap cuz 1) I’m really sad right now and 2) I really liked the Jones addition when it happened but my fear in the offseason about adding an “average” guard like Jacob Young to 35 minutes of Eli Brooks ending up hurting the team is coming true and it’s gross. Collins and Bufkin buried. We don’t even get to see what we have. And the net result is horrible regardless.

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As someone said earlier, maybe Juwan was trying to punish Jones by playing him lol?

6 points, 4 assists, and 1 turnover in ~7 mins vs 0 pts, 1 Ast, 5 TO in ~33

If you’re Juwan, I don’t know how you justify this to your young guys.

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While this is true, Michigan couldn’t buy a three against them, which demolished the spacing to a point that they couldn’t get anything going to the rim, which is Frankie’s game. Plus, Michigan just ran a bunch of plays wrong, which is another issue altogether.

I mean, I think it’s really hard to argue Young wouldn’t be a staggering improvement over the current situation.

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I think we have to accept transfer PGs are going to be a risk. One worth taking sure as we saw with Smith last year. But PG is such a critical position in college and these low major players have to come in, learn an offense and play likely a completely different role than they’re accustomed to. It can be done and it happens all the time but I think there’s added risk that the player does not fit the rest of the team.

Alas it’s still too early to make definitive judgements and lots of time to adapt but so far it’s not going great.

I definitely think he was giving him a “show me” test. Juwan knows Frankie played better the first half. I certainly hope Juwan had a motive for the 2nd half minutes (or entire game if extrapolating this to Kobe).

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Bad spacing is going to be a consequence of playing Collins until he shoots enough to stop it. Especially if he’s playing with some of the lineups they ran out against Arizona with 3 PFs in them. I also hardly see “failed to run the right plays” as exculpatory of Collins’ performance.

I mean, let’s not pretend Jones has been shooting better than Frankie.

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Prioritizing non shooting energy 4s over shooting and playmaking wings is a major flaw in juwans roster construction thus far

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That’s the weirdest punishment ever then

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Especially during their NBA showcase year

Have you seen what’s going on at Oregon?

But my point was - 75 minutes at the 1 & 2 doing to Brooks and a non-star at PG isn’t worth benching Collins and Bufkin entirely. Saw it at the time and now here we are.

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I’m not defending Jones’ performance, but his issue is not shoot enough, not missing them.

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Yeah, I agree dealing with pressure has been an issue for U-M mostly just because of the time it takes off the clock and bogging down the offense.

I wonder what U-M can run with JOnes or the floor vs. Frankie on the floor, though.