Wagner will have to become the 1 on 1 iso player when he gets his rhythm going. It’s tough sledding because he dribbles the ball off his knee or fumbles it away from time to time.
Castleton has habits he needs to correct with the ball. He brings it down too loo a lot as opposed to going straight up on rebounds. And he gets stripped on his post up moves occasionally.
Johns needs a breakthrough soon or it could become a frustrating year for him. His big thing is that he is botching passes and throwing the ball away wildly. Juwan has to find a way to get him playing within himself.
The loss isn’t troubling. However, the bad habits can become concerning, especially against top flight teams.
Johns getting rejected on the layup reminded me of freshman year DJ Wilson.
Wpb, do you think a few more games of experience will help Franz’s ability to control the ball driving to the basket or do you think his hands may be a longer term problem?
Tentative Eli Brooks returned this game. It was a flashback to previous years watching him. However, everyone struggled so I’m not going to read too much into it.
I think he will be fine. Looking at his European highlights, he can handle in traffic. He is just pressing hard. It would be cool to see him sell a shot fake like his brother before driving, or a jab step then dribble to create better spacing for himself.
I also think Franz could be similar to Moe in the sense that he needs to see his first shot go in, whether a lay up or jumper, to feel energized and engaged immediately.
That was what I woke up this morning remembering. Multiple times when he might have gone straight up but instead did a mild head fake, dribbled on, or looked to pass. I’d assume that a little bit of fatigue mixed with great D and the setting chewed up those milliseconds that make all the difference with confident shooting.
-Man did Teske battle last night. Looks like he found another gear and that is really exciting.
-X, can we retire the headband already?
Not the result I was hoping for. I’m sure Coach Howard and staff are going to use this for future reference. Gotta bounce back Friday against Iowa. A lose is a lose but hey we didnt get beat down on our own court like state lol
I think the biggest takeaway from this game was the hesitancy of Franz, Eli, DDJ, and sometimes Isaiah to fire away even in the face of a close-out. There were good, not wide-open, but solid 3-point looks to be had in the split second as a guy closes out hard coming out of help from the pack-line onto the ball.
Guys saw the hard closeout and instead of staying focused and taking the 50% contested jumper, all thought they should up-fake and try to go by, L’Ville’s defenders were good enough to stay in a stance and stop the dribble penetration. In the Bahamas everything was so spread out we had truly wide-open jumpers without a guy screaming towards you on a close-out. We’re gonna have to take and make those jumpers in the face of a close-out.
Dylan, maybe you can help answer this, but what is the hope for what Brandon Johns can look like at his peak at Michigan?
To me he seems like he isn’t a confident shooter, he isn’t the most explosive/athletic guy on the floor, he is a bit undersized to bang with big guys and often misses switches on defense, and as we saw today, he gets blocked a lot at the rim as well. Yes, the high school film is legit, and he seems like someone who has a lot of potential, but what kind of player can he look like as a finished product given what he’s shown so far?
1)Louisville was not really biting on any head fakes or jab steps anyway. Just shoot it! Brooks reverted to his old ways of pump fakes rather than just take the first open shot. Wagner lacks confidence as he has got off to a bumpy start.
2) our off the ball wings were stationary. There were opportunities for them to make small adjustments—like float baseline when X was drawing attention from their defender instead they stayed still and waited for 5 foot passes.
Correctable!
I was impressed with how we played generally just hated to see those two things.
Louisville played very disciplined defense. It was impressive. I am glad we played them so we can figure out what we did wrong.
I think we regressed on this from the Bahamas. We were taking and making lightly contested threes in those three games. Feels like the team got a bit shook from the early offensive failures and then became set on finding a perfect shot. Perfect shots weren’t there.
Also feel like Louisville did a good job hedging and tagging but there were still opportunities there to hit the short roll and then swing to shooters
I agree on the hesitancy. It makes me wonder if they were coached to be too patient, fearing that the misses would have led to a Louisville track meet in transition.
Like Brooks hesitancy last year, Johns needs to shoot his jumper. He has near perfect form and it is what he did best in high school. Once a jumper or two drops, hopefully the game will slow down for him. BTW, Johns is arguably the most “explosive” player on the team. And, to be clear, Johns currently looks lost out there more often than not.
Would love if this were true. He was the guy I found myself most worried about last night. Johns becomes effective another huge puzzle piece is in place.
I understand what you are saying about Johns being “explosive,” but when you actually watch him in the game that athleticism which is part of what made him such a tantalizing prospect in the first place really doesn’t come through, as he often has difficulty beating defenders and getting to the basket and rotating on defense. My hope is that the more he plays, the more the game slows down and things click for him, which is when we see the athletic abilities kick in.
Thinking way too much. It definitely hasn’t slowed down for him. He’s still not confident in the decisions he’s making.
At the quarter pole, Johns Jr is only disappointment on the roster. Hopefully he can pull things together, because tonight was a good example – he will be needed. I can easily give him a pass on his performance tonight (role player in huge road game), but he hasn’t shown much yet this year.
Most important thing to me is that this was a very forgivable loss. Much better to have this kind of game, where your shots just aren’t falling, against a legit Top 10, probably Top 5, team – as Louisville clearly is – than against some mid-tier ACC team. Scheduling was kind to give us UL and not a team like NC State.