I echo your sentiments on Livers and Iggy, especially. Livers has looked less confident to me the past couple games. And this may be nothing, but he looked dispirited not to be on the court down the stretch. The rest of the bench was getting up after big plays and he was sitting and clapping; he looked to be a little unlike himself.
This should primarily be Iggy’s team offensively. He is our best option at this point. Once the scouting improves in Big Ten season and teams load up on his drives, he will need to develop counters and progress in kicking the ball out to shooters, but his ability to break down a defense is unbelievable for a freshman. His body control and ability to use both hands is rare. Ride the horse while you got him, Coach Beilein!
Very uncharacteristic performance by Z. His 2nd half was probably the worst he has played since he took back the starting job last season. I imagine that will be an anomaly and not a concern going forward. He has to learn to pass up those wide open 3’s though and play within the offense. A career 27% 3 point shooter shouldn’t have the green light.
I was surprised how well Pardon did tonight on Teske. Our post defense tonight left a lot to be desired and NW got a lot more shots at the rim than I was expecting. That could be something to watch going forward.
JB needs to have a better plan in case Teske gets in foul trouble and he goes with his auto bench strategy. No offense to Davis, but he’s not a high-major player. He should have never saw the floor in the 2nd half. Maybe Z-Brooks-Poole-Iggy-Livers would have worked better when both Matthews and Teske were out. Regardless, Davis can’t play in the Big Ten at this point and probably never.
It might be time to see if Poole can handle a higher usage role and see how he does with it. I’d rather Poole and Matthews essentially shift roles on offense and Iggy and Poole become our 2 highest usage players and go to options when the shot clock is winding down. Matthews is basically the exact same player as last year and is still too inefficient. If Poole is able to take that leap, our offense could really take off.
I’d be curious what Livers’ numbers look like when playing the 5 vs the 4. He looks more comfortable at the 5 this season.
Overall, a lot went wrong in this game that probably wouldn’t happen if we played them 7 times. NW also hit a lot of tough shots. The 13 point lead cut to a 2 point lead in 3 minutes when both Teske and Matthews were both benched really changed the game. It may have been a comfortable win if that stretch was handled differently and/or if the whistles were called differently. I’m mostly curious if our struggles with post defense was just a one off issue or could be a problem going forward. I also wonder if this was the end of the Davis era as the backup C.
Poole missed his 3s which I think caused him to be less assertive, until X was taken off. I think Poole is easily our 2nd best PNR player, behind X, and he probably misses out on some opportunities because his corner/rotation 3pt shooting is so much more valuable than X’s and CM’s. And his ceiling is easily the highest on the team, with his combination of vision and shooting. I really hope he gets more and more opportunities in the PNR.
Side note: I think this game just shows what our floor is when we arent making shots. Some especially costly turnovers and Pardon/Law hitting really tough shots feels more flukey than anything.
This is a really good point that some people forget. If Poole is executing the PNR, he’s driving and kicking to Matthews in the corner. He did that late and Matthews traveled.
This definitely true, even being ambidextrous. His TO on our last possession of the game was bad, but only because he should’ve known there wasnt time to make the pass and Teske 100% thought Iggy was going for the floater. But I liked the idea from Iggy. He is going to get so much heavy rotation that quick pocket passes would be a very effective counter, especially since the defense will have to account for him attacking from both elbows instead of keying in on just one hand (Collins literally said guard CM and X’s right hands, during a timeout)
Sorry, not particularly a comment in response to your comment. More of a general thought on Davis. He seems (IMO) to play “sloppy” for lack of a better word. I’d associate that with practice vs an actual game.
If he leaves him in, NW keeps sagging and playing 5 on 4. Either Simpson keeps shooting and making or you take him out. If you leave him in and he doesn’t shoot, they keep playing us 5 on 4.
The one shot of him I loved, I really did, was when he was on his knees imploring his team to play defense. It was late in the game, He was literally crawling on the floor, slapping the floor, so much emotion on his face, WAY out of the coaching box, almost to the scorers table. He wanted so much to be out there on that floor, playing defense, and rallying his troops. “Trying to will his players” is an apt way to put it.
I really like Chris Collins, wouldn’t have liked him so much if that last three had gone in, but I DO like him! I like his ability as a coach, and I like his style. In that press conference he was nothing but class and positivity.