I agree one hundred percent and I guess that is why I was disappointed. I knew what they were capable of either way. The only way I saw us losing was to have one of those poor games and it reared it’s ugly head in the worst moment.
When forecasting games or teams I try and look at it like if both teams have their best game who wins? I firmly believe it would have been Michigan in this case. In a series we’d bounce back and win imo but this isn’t the nba. As others have pointed out we had a hard time all year in big moments when games were Teetering or when momentum shifted. It was pretty much feast or famine. If the offense was flowing and guys were playing smart and with confidence , every team in the country might be in trouble.
Someone posted it stung almost worse than nova last year and I agree. Mainly cause I felt nova had us beat talent wise and we had to be perfect or close too to win. Talent wise I’d take this roster over tech.
Amazing to me that people give so much power to twitter. Something that didn’t exist a couple years ago now shapes opinion for many. Incredible. It’s seems an acknowledged fact that much of twitter is garbage, but here we are… Maybe I should get a twitter account so I can waste more time reading worthless opinion
One thing that crossed my mind when watching the last two weekends. Even though he wouldn’t be here anymore ( transfer year ect) obviously but we could have really used Aubrey on this roster. He would have been perfect for our needs.
To add to my Aubrey love I will add this tidbit that will sound ridiculous now but I feel confident it could happen. Aubrey will find his way onto a summer league team in the next year or two and be a very old rookie for someone in the next year or two.
I was pumped for him. Still think the tacko foul call was horrendous despite the rest of the ucf collapse.
Agreed. I really hope he stays, his game has another level and I think he will reach it if he works hard and just makes some better choices. Early we saw some dishing and creating for others that kind of dropped off.
I think Castleton and johns will ball next year. With johns it’s all mental. With dejuliis he will have a hard time getting minutes unless Jordan leaves. I think Eli has figured it out and is going to be a real problem next year for other teams.
I really like Nunez but the minutes crunch will be tough. Then again he showed in aau and high school that he can shoot with anyone. Hard to keep a guy with that release and range off the floor if hes ready.
This way sound ridiculous but I’m not concerned about shooting next year. I think it’s going to be vintage coach b offense from deep. Teske will be more consistent, Jordan will hit at a much higher rate, iggy will be iggy. Just swapping Mathews for livers will drastically improve our spacing/ range with a down tick in d but not in a way that will matter overall imo as it’s already an elite d.
I’m convinced Eli has figured it out and will make people pay. Johns can shoot it , Wilson can shoot it, Ddj, and Colin have shown in high school they have range. Nunez and Cole are shooters ( not many minutes though). Z will be the only guy who can’t shoot and maybe he can become respectable. Im more concerned about our ability to create off the bounce.
It’s odd but the three ball imo will be a strength.
“Great job” doesn’t do you justice Dylan on the site & podcast this season. Keeping a clean, and intelligently focused approach to Michigan sports fandom is a high calling, and you exceed our expectations once again.
Going back to the Europe trip at the beginning of the season, Coach B’s main critique on Offensive problems was ‘ball is sticking’. When we ran roughshod through the first half of the season, we didn’t see that. Very rarely was an offensive player catching the ball and sitting in a 3-point stance. That ball was moving.
My opinion is that something about mid-season caused the ball to ‘stick’ again. Way too many iso situations on the outside. Guards facing up, holding the ball, with a jab step & shot fake before trying a 1-on-1 move. The offense stagnated when the ball stopped moving along the perimeter.
Watch last year’s team (and any team in past 6 years) - our offense has always relied on player movement with well-run set plays that have unlimited potential for improvisation within the flow of the offense. The 2nd half of the season, players were resisting Coach B’s offense. We’ve talked about execution, and that’s the biggest problem on Offense with this year’s (2nd half of season) team IMO.
Not saying the rest of you are wrong to call out the poor shooting, the lack of a post-game, reliance on ball-screens. Totally agree. I’m just adding that Coach B’s genius on offense is based on player & ball movement as executed to his offensive play system. Maybe due to young players trying to grasp the offense (part of it), X being such a strong personality & so ball-dependent, and/or other players wanted to play iso ball when it was ‘their turn’. I.e. showing their stuff for the pro scouts, usually an ego thang.
End of the day, totally proud of the team and their accomplishments this season. Coach B, staff & players will self-exam & analyze all summer, young men will hit Camp Sanderson hard, and I have no doubt we’ll see another quality team performance next year.
Don’t forget Bajema. Kid has as pure a stroke as anybody on the roster. He also has some ability to put it on the deck and shoot coming off screens. Dunno if he’s physically ready though, awfully skinny.
I wonder if what JB talks about changes his outlook on recruiting moving forward. Obviously has what he values in players but perhaps ability to create moves up the list, need more guys who can put it on the deck. How many triple threat guys are on the current roster?
Literally everyone else here knows this is a bad take, but I’ll go ahead and articulate why:
How can the team have failed if they were exactly what you expected?
Oh…you mean the team’s own successes raised your expectations, and that’s a reason why the team failed? I hope you see how, uh…inconsistent…that sounds.
After watching State whip LSU, I’m kind of stuck on this point…
Not only was X wide open, that’s actually his spot for 3s. If he hits that, we almost definitely win the BTT and raise a banner. AND…there’s a def non-zero chance the committee flips us and State in the bracket, and we’re the ones still dancing and MSU just got wrecked by TT.
I’m not complaining…X missed the shot, and we got our share of luck last year…but man, things would be so different. Sports.
This sums up my concern with the team when we started seeing cracks the second half of the season. One of the most frustrating/dissapointing things about this year was seeing how dominant they could be IF they played smart, confident, and under control, ie THEIR game. But, they couldnt seem to sustain that type of play, and just didnt play consistently smart enough…and you could really see when the wheels were starting to fall off at times, with not much hope of recovery (all 3 MSU games, and the TT games obviously). Oh well, this game is hard, and no team can win 'em all/play perfect, but damn, I think most fans can agree that it seems like this team could have done more. I wouldnt say “squandered” potential, because again, they did give their all…but the game between the ears is where they kind of fell short imo.
Interestingly, I just happened over this article from summer and this bit stood out:
“Moe (Wagner) was a big voice in here. Duncan (Robinson) was a big voice. Muhammad(-Ali Abdur-Rahkman) led by example,” Matthews said. “Having those guys gone, I naturally have to step up and be more of a leader.”
Matthews, though, is an interesting candidate as team leader. Publicly, he’s quiet, speaking under his breath, drawing you in to listen. In the locker room and on the court, his personality comes out — smack talk and smiles. The thing is, that demeanor is based on his individual play. When he’s on, he’s up. When he’s off, he’s down. As a disposition, that’s all well and good when you’re a redshirt sophomore on a team steered by upperclassmen, but that’s no longer the case. If Matthews is to play the part of the team patriarch, his evolution needs to expand beyond his game.