I know Zak isn’t the best ball handler but you can not create for Big that can’t catch the ball or do not have good basketball IQ. The Bigs ( Donnal/Doyle) are shaky on hand offs and passing at the top of the key. I almost expect the Ball to be taken from them every time. Hopefully the next two Bigs coming in have better hands and basketball awareness.
The team went as far as he brought them that is for sure. I am looking for him to have a full healthy offseason and make strides and hopefully him along with Walton can keep the theme of seniors running college basketball going.
You did. A lot early in the season
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Agreed…that’s a first!
He’s a solid passer with bad handles. Disagree?
To add to Hail’s thought on this, the lack of speed/explosion contribute a lot to his ballhandling issues. He’s far too slow to get separation off the first step…he needs multiple steps to gain space, and he runs out of real estate. Ideally, you want a wing to be able to get the ball between the FT line and the 3, but that’s just not enough space for him to gain an advantage. He needs the ball 25feet away in order to gain the space…but then you run the risk of him taking 4 dribbles.
If I were Zak Irvin, I would literally watch film of Kobe Bryant’s footwork/jabstep all summer long. Kobe was never the quickest guy around (although much quicker than Zak in his prime), but he probably has the best footwork in league history at the guard spot. He gained SO MUCH space off his first step it was unreal because he understood angles and how to turn a defender. Zak would benefit tremendously from that IMO.
The hardest part for most players is to not catch and hold. Just holding a little bit gives the defender time to recover. I think both Walton and Irvin catch and hold a bit too much. MAAR seems to go right away and that’s his advantage. Walton and Irvin always seem to wait and/or call for a ball screen.
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With Walton and Irvin, but especially with Walton, there is a strong tendency to reset the action. I wish he would embrace the chaos more like Ferrell.
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Dunno if this is just a Walton trait – seems JB’s system in general (especially with current personnel) couldn’t be further from “embrace the chaos” – he values a low risk-low reward approach. Hence no pressing, no crashing the offensive glass, little transition, little physical defense (avoid fouls at all costs), use as much clock as possible whenever you’re up to shorten the game.
Watching the MSU-MTSU game, I was impressed how MTSU – facing a tough MSU press – inbounded the ball with a risky baseball pass for an open dunk late in the game. Rather than do everything possible to hold the ball and run out the clock, they realized the refs weren’t going to hand them the upset and they just pushed the gas pedal to seize the win. That’s the kind of thing I’d like to see from Michigan. Relentless 40-minute aggression. Not conservative, risk-averse, tight play.
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You basically conveyed the exact same ideas that I did in the other thread, albeit in a more diplomatic manner. I agree with you 100%.
In a nutshell, JB plays a boring brand of basketball
Good points. I wonder if JB will need to change his philosophy with the 30 second shot clock. Because all too often we seemed to be forcing ourselves into bad shots because the clock is counting down. We simply don’t have time to reset.
I agree completely. The 30 second shot clock hurt Michigan this year. To many possessions with the ball in the hand of Irvin or Walton with 5-8 seconds on the shot clock. Conversely, it rarely happened when UM was on defense. Seemed like they had to be perfect to many times.