For anytime that Livers is out, it’s absolutely paramount that Franz shoots well. Like if he doesn’t, it’s hard to see where the points are efficiently coming from.
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@MSU, Purdue, @Minnesota, and @Iowa is a tough start to the year especially with your best scorer and wing defender on the bench. A 3-3 B1G start seemed likely with Livers in the lineup, without him not sure what to think but 3-3 would be a great start with out him. Hopefully he’s back in the next week or 2, I think Johns still has a ways to go before he can be relied upon.
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If Livers is out for something like 6 weeks, it seems like he will be less likely to enter the NBA draft after this season. If Johns does well as his replacement, will both of them being with us next year have any effect on Todd’s thinking about next year?
If todd can’t play with good players or accept competition - he’s not good for this team. He seems to be a high character kid , so personally I don’t think that affects him. At least I hope not. I can’t wait until that saga is over.
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I’m gonna upvote all Franz and johns references. Love it!
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Todd is a super stud. He should fear no competition. I could be wrong, but Bajema looks much more ready to contribute than Nunez to me. Bajema may just be better, but he’s got the confidence of a coveted recruit, and I think he’s got a higher belief that he belongs.
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3-1 even without livers is my prediction. We will beat Purdue at home. Then I think wins over Minnesota and Iowa without Bohannon are likely. Iowa just can’t defend. 2-2 is worst case scenario.
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Road wins are tough to come by, I just don’t think I personally can predict Ws at Minny or Iowa YET. I can be easily convinced if I see BJ, Franz, and DDJ hit shots in East Lansing (win or lose). Livers’ shooting is just such a key cog to this offense…really bummed for him (and us)!
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Sly with the ultimate homer takes as per usual!
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I agree the language looks a little ominous, but the theme here seems to be worst case scenario. I’m of the mind that this could be some gamesmanship for MSU coming up. I don’t think they are going to say “We aren’t going to play him in this buy game but he WILL be ready for Michigan State” hence the “indefinitely” time frame.
Of course if he is out against MSU then we could be looking the more 4-6 week time frame.
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Teams ranked 11th for a reason. 3-1 or 2-2 is the most likely scenario. Could they go 1-3 or 0-4? Sure, anything is possible but I wouldn’t bet on it based on what we’ve seen so far. The team would have to hit a major rut for us to lose all three away games. This is a program to be optimistic about.
They’ve shown the possibilities when everythings clicking. Many individuals have shown what their capable of so far this year and it’s down right scary if they can ever put it all together consistently.
The issue thus far is guys havent been consistent so who knows if they reach that ceiling, but the ceiling and potential of this roster is very high.
To be fair, what “we’ve seen so far” involves Livers playing 35 mpg. We have not seen what Michigan looks like minus Livers. Sure, Franz and Johns have shown flashes, but they have been incredibly inconsistent. We also haven’t seen Michigan go on the road and win yet so I don’t know what to expect there with 3 out of 4 on the road. I’d be very very surprised if Michigan goes 3-1 over this stretch. If they do, it means Franz and Johns have flipped the switch and this team will be scary when Livers is back. I certainly wouldn’t expect it though. I personally think 1-3 is more likely than 3-1, but 2-2 is the hope.
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Torvik’s numbers have Michigan going 1-3, then 7-1 and then 2-4. If they can get through that brutal start to January with more than one win, things will ease up a little and hopefully they can go on a run.
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They are going to win one of those road games either at minny or Iowa.
One thing is for sure, if they go 1-3 (which is possible bordering on the most likely outcome) people will be declaring the season over.
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So, I wonder where things go from here. More minutes for the three-guard lineup certainly. But seems unlikely that it’s back into the starting lineup for Nunez. I’m guessing they let Johns scale up, and hope Castleton rounds into form. Or we could see Castleton in the starting lineup in a Nunez-like role in which Johns gets the majority of minutes. Or maybe Bajema?
If Castleton starts at the 4 and is the primary backup at the 5, I don’t think the plan is to give Johns more minutes than him.
I expect Johns to start, then go with the 3 guard look and see how the opponent adjusts to it.
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It will be interesting on January 6th (after MSU game) to see how much of tomorrow’s game against an inferior opponent was actually used to test a rotation without Livers, versus Juwan just rolling out a game plan for only this game (which he seems to do typically).
Probably not a huge difference, but I guess if I’m Juwan…I know how I want my rotation to work sans Livers, but I’m not going to show Sparty that tomorrow.
They’ve already lost three games. I gave up on the season long ago; maybe next year.
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Zavier Simpson… let’s relax a little bit guys
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