Is this a team that doesn’t shoot well, or that isn’t shooting well yet? I ask because I’m really not sure, but imagine that some of you who follow more closely actually know. Clearly, they haven’t shot threes with the consistency of previous teams, but I have been contenting myself with the thought that when they finally started to drop the team would be lethal. Probably, Robinson coming around could contribute to the average. X’s average was marvelous until tonight. . .
HA, I’m just saying the way they lost. Any team and fans has to feel sick on that one, especially when they’re fighting to make the tournament.
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The crazy end will definitely make people forget that we missed a ridiculous amount of layups. The offense was working perfectly, with uncanny misses ending perfect action. Of course, a stretch of 8/10 3pt shooting helped even that out a bit. Cowan played out of his mind, that pull-up 3 before Z’s missed FTs was so cold.
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Such an unfamiliar feeling, but so true. Still think MAAR is a ‘good’ shooter who is shooting poorly. CM and Z will probably just be a mixed bag for the next 2.5 years. A bunch of those 24 combined misses were inexplicable missed layups, though.
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I said it in the game thread but repeating here. That second half is the sign of not a good, but great team.
Would’ve been sad to lose it at the end but luckily they came up clutch. Unbelievable grittiness to gut that one out today.
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I actually think Simmons did exactly what we need from our backup PG at this point, not f*** everything up.
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Simpson had 5 assists and zero turnovers, he’s seeing the court really well lately.
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True, today Simmons did just that (not “f*** everything up”). He even made the shot to close out the half. But my post was more so in regards to if Z is in foul trouble for extended period of time or worse, misses time due to injury. I don’t see Simmons or Brooks capable of carrying the load as Simpson has showed he can (both on offense and defense).
SKnight
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Ah yeah, absolutely agree at this point.
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Totally agree, The only bad decision I can remember was one of his missed 3s, when Matthews (maybe MAAR) and Moe forced a switch, Moe had good position, and CM had leverage if Z kicked to him. Instead, Z took a open-ish elbow 3 that rimmed out. With how he was shooting, both Moe and CM were better options there, with the defense scrambling and mismatched.
His decision making really wasnt any worse today, than against MSU, his shots just weren’t falling.
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We had about 15 minutes of brilliance nestled in 25 minutes of bad luck and lackadaisical play.
A few things:
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Obviously Simpson getting the ball in this free throw shooting situations is tough, but there’s not a great option. Sure, we want to get the ball to Rakh, but the opposition probably wants to sell out to avoid that. Who else can reliably handle and break a press if they get it? Duncan can’t. I don’t trust Poole now. Brooks?
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The four corners stall offense is driving me batty. It seems like we score about half a point per possession with it - I almost think Izzo did is a favor by fouling instead of allowing us to brick away a ten point lead running clock like we did tonight.
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Well, they’ve all worked very hard to make themselves decent spot up shooters, but none of them can shoot off the dribble, especially from any distance. Maybe Matthews from FT line area but even that seems to be dicey. MAAR is a 2G who’s a career 36% 3pt shooter who’s been allowed to shoot basically spot up 3s his whole career. And Simpson is shooting 50% from FT line. Sure, he’s shooting 41% from 3 this year, which is great, but it’s completely spot up 3s that he kind of chucks and needs a lot of time to get up, which in this day and age from a PG is a weakness. Even around the hoop, they all can make some tough shots but I don’t think they have great touch overall.
I mean, maybe that the team “doesn’t shoot well” is an overstatement. But they are not good enough that there is a decent chance that even when the team wins the Rb, TO, Assist, etc. battles, they may be in trouble. We can say they missed “easy shots,” but that’s also what happens sometimes when you’re not great shooters.
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Rahk is the one taking the ball out of bounds in those situations so he can’t pass to himself. Obviously, Beilein trusts him to take it out but he’s also the one we want to be shooting the free throws. They tried Z one time against MSU (which resulted in a bad pass and jump ball) and then they did the play where Rahk threw it to Z who was came out of bounds and then threw it back to Rahk. That’s a great play but you really can only use that out of a timeout.
They can try Z as the inbounder and hope he gets better or maybe someone like Duncan or they can switch it up and don’t just automatically throw the ball into Z every time. He’s the quickest player so he has the best chance of getting open but guys like Wagner and Duncan are tall enough to use their height to catch the ball too.
You can say don’t have Z in at the end of the game but you want him out there for defensive purposes and the clock doesn’t always allow you to play offense/defense in terms of subs.
As for the backup PG, I think Brooks has fallen off so much that Simmons deserves the backup minutes for now. Brooks hasn’t even scored a single point in 7 straight games. That’s hard to do.
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I agree. I think at this point, I do want to see what Simmons can provide. Physically he’s a strong guy and showed he can take contact (that bucket before the half he was able to use his body to guard the rock). He is in his 5th year and maybe his experience is something that can be leaned on to make a few plays a game. Brooks has become just another body out there the last few weeks. He doesn’t do much on the floor. Maybe sitting him and letting him get his head straight could help.
SKnight
I was unable to watch and wont be able to. Anyone have a link I could see it at?
Usually they pop up on mgoblog the next day. I think Fox has replay on their site too if you just put your TV provider info in.
I can’t find anything about replaying on Fox Sports Go, but this is the youtube account to keep an eye on: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBxKlmqWn0vi_UH7mGjLoIg
It’ll be posted here within the next 18ish hours or so. There’ll be a post on the MGoBoard about it when it’s posted there.
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