Michigan-Southern Miss Post Game Thoughts

Man, I’m not sure. Brooks, Watson, and Livers (and Poole) haven’t done a lot to prove they are rotation guys IMO. Michigan needs more out of that group.

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I can’t give much of a hot take; didn’t see or listen to game.
Positive spin for me: Coach Beilein will get the offense going and this is probably best defensive team he’s had.

I’ll be in Maui and hope to go to all the games, though I don’t have tix at the moment.

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last night Ibi showed that his minutes are well earned. Not sure if Robison should play more than 25 minutes. At this point, I think that Teske/Wagner lineup is worth trying.

Speaking of Mo’s enthusiasm and team chemistry, this was funny to see after last night:

Wait for it .... Wait for it ....@JonTeske#DoubleDouble #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/FoUnLC9C2u

— Michigan Men's Basketball (@umichbball) November 17, 2017
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I was there last night. My takeaways:

  1. Teske! Teske! That was awesome. Like many others I salivate at the idea of Teske in the 5 while Wagner plays 4.

  2. Matthews, a dud. 3 point shot is ugly and I am continually surprised at how incompetent he looks in fast breaks. I would have gone with Ibi to start the 2nd half.

  3. Duncan was very solid. He’s the only one that can hit 3’s from 5 ft behind the line. Defense is improved. Sure, he missed that layup but that was a nice move when the defender overplayed him.

  4. Score one for Simmons over Z.

  5. Ibi did look good in his minutes, Eli less so.

I honestly think Matthews is going to be fine. I don’t have any worry there at all right now.

I see someone who was hunting for his shot in the exhibition and first game. Once he started piling up some misses, he lost his assertiveness and confidence to shoot (shots he should take).

He’s pretty dang good when he gets into the paint. If he can just try to master the jab step three, he’d be pretty good. He’s been doing that a few times and has been getting pretty good looks because teams sag off. If that starts to fall, he’s going to get some more room to take it to the rack and play to his strength.

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It has been 3 games.

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Didn’t see the game, so I don’t know how Teske was getting his points. But, when a guy is going 5 for 5 and the rest of the team is only shooting 43%, you would think that they would try to get that guy more shots. It shouldn’t be that hard to get the ball to a guy who is 7’1".

Oh I agree, not really speaking on their long term prospects but they need to prove they belong in the rotation sooner than later or Beilein has shown that he won’t hesitate to trim the rotation.

IIRC Teske only had one self initiated basket which was a face up 12 footer. He had a putback or two and a couple of assisted lay ins. He didn’t score in a throw it down to Nick Ward and watch him do his thing sort of way. Teske seems to be a distribute first center. He seems very good at passing out the low post and high post but yeah if he balances his good passing with an offensive game in the low and high post then he will be very valuable for us. Apparently Teske is a good shooter. Would love to see him take a lot of shots. I don’t remember feeling frustrated that we were failing to get Teske the ball, fwiw, but that was just my impression.

It seemed like Teske is very good at setting good screens and he can set several screens in rapid succession. thought that was a good sign but the only guard who seemed good at using his screens very well was MAAR. Something i need to track more because i assumed Simmons was going to be great at using screens.

Count me in the group that is still skeptical of a Teske-Wagner combo. Southern Miss was very small and Teske had a good game, I’m not sure anything else can be extrapolated from that. Sure I guess it’s worth a shot just so everyone’s curiosity can be satisfied, but I assume they’ve tried it in practice.

Like Dylan mentioned (I think it was in the comments of the game recap article) when Purdue had Haas and Hammons they still only used 1 at a time because having an effective backup Center is still very valuable and something a lot of teams don’t have.

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Random thought - might we see the return of the JB classic 1-3-1 defense with this roster? Matthews, MAAR, Simpson seem like they could be a good trio to try this with. Maybe with Teske/Livers?

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Especially when you see teams like us and MSU struggle against zones. If nothing else, it is a good change of pace.

To be fair, Wagner is a decent amount quicker than both Haas and Hammons. I think the bigger issue would be Wagner playing the wing in Beilein’s offense. Also, one of the main reasons to play two bigs in today’s environment is the offensive rebounding advantage and I’m not sure Wagner can provide enough of that to justify the shortcomings.

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Thank you. Duncan is a better defender than he gets credit for. He’s not a great defender by a long stretch, but he’s certainly adequate because he’s smart. When he plays appropriate position defense he can be decent, but he occasionally over helps and gets in trouble, e.g. when he fouled the three point shooter last night… Teske WAS very outstanding, really in all aspects. Ibi definitely has improved, and looks to be a rotation player, but I’d also like to see Isaiah become more aggressive and involved offensively. I think he’s important to a 3/4 rotation with Mathews and Robinson. I also found Charles’ play to be disappointing last night, and I’m quite certain he’s pretty disappointed, too. I’m really waiting for everything to start clicking for him, and I think it will. While he hasn’t always shown it yet, he is a talented young man. Jaaron made a bit of a move last night. He’s another talented young man who just has to have the the “light” come on in terms of the Beilein offense. If both he and Coach B stay patient and keep plugging, which I’m sure they will, I think he’ll help us a lot during B1G season.

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Poole has gotten no minutes so far. I feel like he can contribute a big part especially with our three point shooting being down so far this year and him being an absolute sniper from out there, possibly not being able to pick up the system of the offense yet or his defense has not looked good in practice. but nonetheless feel like he can be a fill it up volume shooter like he was in high school which could go a long way in spacing the floor even more.

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The focus is probably on getting the existing lineups working more smoothly before adding new ones. But if Teske keeps breaking out, maybe they’ll try a lineup with Wagner at the 4 down the line. Could also depend on whether Watson and Livers seem deserving of minutes.

After this game I have a few lineup thoughts. With Teske proven capable, do we give Mo a chance at the 4. He has outside ability and can guard bigger 4s. Austin Davis has some reason for hope and can back up. Also seeing some 2 pg looks. It is becoming more and more popular in college. Brooks can definitely play the two and I think simmons wouldnt be too bad. Just some thoughts.

We also havent shown any propensity to run the high-low post (something I pined for, with DJ feeding Mo).

Im just not sure that Mo is a better option than Duncan on Defense, at the 4, other than teams that play a true power forward (maybe Jaren Jackson?). And even then, we would need to see an offensive package that we havent seen before, to not be totally wasting Mo on offense. Im not really confident that he can fill the DJ role.