Looking good Maize n’ Blue
Two things -
To everyone who told me not to worry about the layoff, feh. It was a big deal. Hope one bizarro, herky jerky game was enough to knock the rust off.
The other thing? It’s become painfully clear to me at this point that this team plays terribly in one situation and one situation only. When they think they have something to lose. It happened after the Breslin win. Suddenly, the team had a ranking, a resume, something not to fumble. They played worse until that damn Northwestern loss, which was coming for a few games before the L finally landed right on us.
When they play like they have a mission in front of them, instead of playing like they have a potential horrible shame in front of them, they play like lions.
So what is a round of 32 game against a #6 seed and a monster like Gray?
I sure hope it’s the former, not the latter.
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I can’t see Gray having that kind of success against Zavier. I like Michigan big on Saturday.
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I think this game falls directly on Zavier and MARR. If they can shut down Gray and Davis then we win if not we are in for a struggle. But Houston is definitely not going to go down easy. Free throws will be critical!
Hopefully Z and MAAR don’t pick up early fouls Saturday. I think we are going to need 32+ minutes from each of these guys to slow down Gray and the back court.
I think one of my buddies told me Houston had 5 assists as a team yesterday? I didn’t watch much of the SDSU/Houston game besides the last few minutes. Any others scare us besides Gray? Not sure how our wings/bigs match up.
SKnight
Finally got that Northwestern game out of the sample
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If Houston lost or if Gray wasn’t as nails as he was, we would be hearing a lot about Hero Ball with that team.
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Indeed. Props to the guy, and you can’t take anything away from his ballsy late-game performance, but he had some pretty bad looks down the stretch, too. And the failure to challenge him on that last shot. . . it was as if SDSU had read the script and accepted it.
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After watching Houston against Wichita State, Cincinnati, San Diego State, in the last week, I fairly confident that a good performance by M nets a victory.
I would say Houston is maybe a notch better than Maryland, and somewhat similar in terms of style. Limit the 3 pointers and we got this
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This does not seem logical.
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I refuse to believe this fantastic season is going to be ruined by a guy with a man bun.
5 Likes
Supposedly an article said Moe was under the weather last night. It would definitely explain his game if he was.
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He was a bit. Beilein said it was no big deal and Moe downplayed it, FWIW.
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Defensively, the key is to contain Corey Davis and Brooks from 3 and clean up the boards, including the guards. Gray is very good but the 3s from the other guys are by far their most efficient shots. Gray is also an up and down 3 point shooter. Make him work against two pretty good perimeter defenders. Devin Davis will get (and make) some mid-range 2s, but UM can live with that. Oh, and don’t take early fouls.
Offensively, I think UM will be able to get some 3s up, including in transition. Houston plays tough D but packs it in a bit. Hopefully not a cold shooting night. Wagner might have some good looks. MAAR and Simpson have improved tremendously, but they’re still not natural playmakers and can struggle when asked to step outside their comfort zone. I think we’ll be able to run our stuff against Houston, which is good.
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His internal clock just seemed slightly behind on plays last night, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it did impact him at least a little bit. Albeit I know they downplayed it.
Maybe, but I also think he struggles more against those kind of defenses. His positioning just seemed a little off all game which I think comes from not having been in the PNR game against this kind of team as often.
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Based off of Dylan’s first look and on yesterday’s game, it definitely seems like we should realize Gray is going to get his and focus on shutting down their two 3 point shooters. Based on previous gameplans, I have no doubt that is going to be the focus of Michigan’s D. Plus having X or MAAR keep Gray somwhat at bay will help to. I don’t hate this matchup, but they will not miss open shots if we give them to them.
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I hope we can take advantage when Gray gets his breathers, however minimal that may be. Which goes into Gray and foul trouble too, that team is not equipped for him to sit for long stretches. If he gets a cheap one or two, would love if they had MAAR or Z attack him.
Is it just me or has MAAR shown the ability to draw some offensive fouls lately? Not particularly charges but random push offs, the hip check last night, etc. Not saying he flops but he has done a good job exaggerating in a realistic way that the refs seem to blow the whistle. Would be nice if he’s able to do that to frustrate Gray a bit and get him into foul trouble.
SKnight