I was really impressed last night. Thought Montana would be more competitive, but also had the feeling early on Montana was in way over their head.
Charles Barkley thinks Coach Beilein underrated and I concur. He puts his team in a position to succeed as well as anybody. The man is a basketball savant. I thought the triple he dialed up for Livers was brilliant.
When Matthews plays like that, we’re a pretty awesome team. Trouble is, well you know what the trouble is…
It is always good to get that opening game win to help get you into tournament mode.
Matthews looked as smooth as ever last night. Even his misses looked good.
The Poole 3 was perfect. He landed about where he started, instead of fading away and/or falling after not getting fouled.
He is very good when he does it that way, not so good as a step back shooter.
And that’s exactly what he (Poole) needs to do. Let the game come to him, and when he has an open shot out of the offense, shoot it with confidence and nail it! I also loved his “take” to the basket for the “and-one!” Let the game come to you, shoot it with confidence, be aggressive to the hole when the opportunity presents itself!
Well, that went about how I expected.
Good luck the rest of the way, gents.
Adopt Michigan and come along for the ride. Hopefully it last three weekends. Go Grizzlies!!!
Appreciate your post. But anyone who says Beilein is underrated at this stage is simply late getting on the bandwagon.
Enjoyed the compare and contrast with Izzo last night, that’s for sure. And–I may be alone in this–I would love to see MSU beat Duke and have a chance to play them one more time.
I’ve actually always rooted for Michigan. When I was like 12, so 20 years ago, my Dad and I were flying from Florida back to Missoula. We connected in Detroit but all flights were cancelled because of tornado warnings, which gave us a day to kill. We spent the whole day Ann Arbor. It was late June so campus was pretty quiet and we ended up walking right into the Crisler Center through the tunnel where teams would enter (I assume) and some guy happily showed us around, let us shoot a few shots, and then told us how to get into Michigan Stadium, which we did. It was a good day.
Only problem my wife is from Owosso and is a huge Spartan fan.
Anyway, definitely pullin for ya guys. Congrats on the dominant performance and win.
GO GRIZ. 
I’ve seen enough of MSU. I want to see a Michigan-Duke matchup. I’ve been curious all season to see how that would play out. I feel like I pretty much know how Michigan-MSU would play out.
That’s how I feel about Duke, tbh. And we were so close with MSU–just a matter of playing with poise down the stretch. They are not the better team!
I would rather Duke beat MSU and deny Sparty the final four and then we beat Duke.
My wife is a Spartan, too! We definitely have a “House Divided!” Fortunately she is the SWEETEST lady I know, in the…WHOLE…WIDE…WORLD! And believe me I needed her to be sweet and kind and supportive after those THREE games against the Sparties this year! 
So, yes, please come on aboard the MICHIGAN train! Everyone who loves MICHIGAN basketball is welcome!
I absolutely agree Mattski!