I see that as a leadership issue with the upper class men and the team still trying to figure out who is the go to player/play maker late in the clock, during crunch time and when thing aren’t going your way who settles everything down.
100% agree with this. I thought the UNC benching would be that wake-up call but it hasn’t taken into effect yet for the leaders of this team. I’m sure they’ll get there and I have confidence in them, but it wasn’t there last night.
I thought they were soft as hell. When your 4 best offensive players start putting up bad shots, playing hero ball and abandon the offense then they are simply not mentally tough. Nobody stepped up as a leader to right the ship and settle guys down. I read on mgoblog that this was merely really bad luck, a statistical outlier, small sample size and all that, but we know what we saw. It was not an accident that our best players collectively caught a cold and started playing like crap.
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Thanks for the feedback. I definitely remember guys making very bad decisions regarding taking on two or three players in the lane. Mostly I’m remembering Mo and Matthews doing the hero ball thing. So i’m Liking that you are calling them soft as hell mentally but iwasn’t getting the sense there was a lack of effort. In a way, the hero ball thing seemed sort of like a misguided desire to just get a damn hoop. Again, not trying to be that half-glass full guy…I’m just not too worried about anybody from this group a) not putting forth effort and b) trying to play hero ball on the regular.
Last year, before the team had a conversation with Jesus, or whatever it was, l definitely thought we had a couple of guys who played soft as hell in terms of playing almost “pretend basketball.”
Look forward to reassessing the game after watching the second half again.
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Was there any explanation given or guesses why Poole only got 8 min vs OSU?
None at all.
Perhaps the least surprising thing is that Jordan Poole has a high usage rate 
As Beilein said after the IU game, he needs to learn that the ball isn’t a grenade.
36% of shots when he’s on the floor LOL
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Poole wasn’t recruited to play D.
Should be interesting watching Jordan and Iggy on the floor at the same time.
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I get that he’s flashy and turnover prone but I don’t really get the “grenade” talk as it pertains to Poole. Right now he’s shooting 47% from the field (would be the 3rd best of the starters) and 40% from the floor (best on the team). Kid can flat out score and right now that’s arguably the team’s biggest flaw
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Anthony Wright had a thought:
Dont want to go down the road of off-court/practice speculation, but this kind of thing makes more sense than basketball stuff, considering Poole’s game against IU. If anything, it just lends hope that JB will otherwise be willing to play Poole more, in the future.
Isn’t it pretty simple. Watson came in for Rahk at the 2. Poole eventually came in for Matthews at the 3. The reason Poole played so much against IU was because Matthews got in immediate foul trouble and then picked up his 2nd pretty early in the 1st half and sat out the rest of the way. To his credit, he played outstanding.
I don’t recall Poole playing any minutes at the 2 while Watson pretty clearly is the backup at the 2. Now, it would be nice if Poole can play more than one spot but there is a big difference between the 2 and the 3 offensively.
Rahk and Matthews are probably going to play 35 minutes a game but Poole deserves to play too. I wouldn’t be opposed to playing small with Matthews at the 4 but Beilein hasn’t gone to that much so far. He may have no choice if Duncan doesn’t start making shots or Livers doesn’t step it up.
Yes, this is for sure what happened in the first half vs OSU. Poole seems to only know the 3 right now while Watson knows the 2.
I am sorry but Watson must be doing something in practice that he is not showing in the games because to me Watson at the two is ahead scratcher. Part of the issue to me with this team is that the point guard, two guard and the three wing needs to be able to create for themselves and others. Right now we have one (Matthews) who has shown an ability to do this and has been a welcome surprise but with consecutive bad games.
I certainly respect Anthony Wright’s knowledge of the system, but I almost guarantee his assertion that something off the court happened with Poole is unfounded.
Poole needs to start eating into Robinson’s minutes… especially if Duncan isn’t hitting threes… Poole is a more dynamic offensive player and can shoot the rock too… it’s not like Robinson brings a whole lot else to the table