Media Day 2016-2017

Anything big said during todays media day? What were the most surprising things said or was it what we expected from the most part?

@umhoops is the video of JB’s presser going to be on the blog later?

yep – still here, but we’ll have plenty of coverage

Read some notes and sounds like Beilein mentioned Donlon a lot and emphasizing defense much much more than in past seasons so far.

Definitely true.

Thanks for all the great content as always. Have you guys hired a beat writer yet this year, as you have in the past?

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We haven’t yet, it’s more likely to be a team of guys at this point that help out. If you know anyone interested don’t hesitate to give us a shout.

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It’s official we are being slept on. Not only were we not in goodmans top 25, we weren’t in the honorable mentions. I understand kinda… At the same time we were a tourney team who had nd on the ropes, and are completely healthy. I’m very confident we’re a top 25 team.

To be fair, we barely cracked the top 50 on kenpom last year. I think we’re somewhere in the 35-40 range this year.

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There is no argument for us to be preseason top 25, lol

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I disagree. I think we will finish in the top 25. I think there are plenty of reasons why we should and will. The first being we return all five starters. I think anyone who saw us late in year could see the potential is there. There’s no doubt in my mind we could veat Almost every team in the honorable mention as well as a few he had ranked in a series.

I’m not sure what late in the year that you saw:

Last 10 games:
Destroyed by OSU - L
Lose to Maryland - L
Soundly beat Northwestern - W
Destroyed by Wisconsin - L
Destroyed by Iowa - L
Barely beat Northwestern in OT - W
Last second gamewinner over Indiana - W
Destroyed by Purdue - L
Barely beat Tulsa - W
Choke a big half time lead to a just okay Notre Dame team, lose by a decent margin - L

Then a lot of our returnees are likely close to their peak and we only have a meh ranked recruiting class (with only one guy who ideally factors into the rotation). I’d be willing to bet that not a single person outside of the Michigan fanbase would be willing to put us in the top 25 lol.

Doesn’t mean we can’t be a top 25 team, but it will take A LOT of over achieving or unusual dramatic improvement. And you can’t assume that when ranking teams, lol.

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Where I disagree with you is with the statement that “a lot of our returnees are likely close to their peak…” I certainly don’t think that’s close to true for Wagner, Robinson (who needed a year of DI experience to learn the speed of the game), MAAR, who has steadily improved since he’s been here, and, if he can play, Wilson, who essentially hasn’t contributed at all until now, despite very good size and a pretty decent skill set. I also don’t think it’s true for Irvin, who played the entire year last year with a back injury, and I’m not convinced on Walton, who needs only to learn to finish better to make a huge jump, and should benefit from not having to play ridiculous minutes every game. Donnal, yeah, likely at or near his peak, but that’s 1 out of 7. I’m not suggesting that our returnees are all headed for massive improvement, but I think it’s more than a little pessimistic to suggest that most of them have little upside potential.

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Wagner is not near his peak definitely (although him getting outshined pretty badly by a variety of MSU freshmen in that summer league has somewhat soured me on how much he is gonna improve this year). But I can explain the others:

Donnal - duh

Robinson - Doesn’t have handle nor the athleticism to be much more than “just a shooter”. I think his D3 tape demonstrated the exact same skillset that he showed at Michigan last year. Can improve a little bit, but a large jump is unlikely.

Rahk - Already 22 years old, doesn’t have elite change of direction. Had a lot of opportunity last year to take the reins and would disappear for long stretches. He probably has the most upside of any player on the roster (sans Wagner) in terms of skillset, but the fact that he’s already old and is just okay changing direction makes me hestitant to predict dramatic improvement.

Wilson - He’s just not good, man. His athleticism is very overrated and he just doesn’t seem to understand how to play the game at all. I think the fact that there is serious talk about him being beat out by the 240th ranked freshman who is 6 inches shorter than him is telling. If he can give us any positive minutes against real teams, we should be happy.

Irvin - Been around for a long time, clearly a good passer and a solid jump-shooter but he is just so limited athletically and from a ball handling perspective as well. Even when he was healthy, he was never a great finisher and his handle is still super sloppy. I think he can improve a bit, but he’s not all of a sudden as a senior gonna be able to magically beat people off the bounce and finish.

Walton - Like I said with Irvin, you don’t just “learn” how to finish over night. It also sounds like his sophomore year foot injury is a permanent thing (which could explain his lack of vertical/finishing).

Everyone can theoretically improve, but most of them seem to have major flaws from a ball-handling/athleticism standpoint that isn’t just going away. They can all improve by understanding the game/offense better, making better decisions, making a few more jumpers,etc. But no one really seems to have a skillset that screams major jump to me (besides Mo).

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