My understanding is that this opponent was not an all star team but a lower division pro team.
I think that’s more of an indictment on that tier of basketball as opposed to anything positive we can take away from a UM perspective
Love the extra practice time and camaraderie building, but these games are meaningless up to now. An intra squad scrimmage would be 10 times more competitive. I wonder how Hillsdale College would have fared against these "all stars?"
haha +1
I guess the bright side is that we didn’t lose to any of them.
Bring on game 4 already
My understanding is that this opponent was not an all star team but a lower division pro team.
They are a fifth division team… It’s also the offseason. Michigan will play a 2nd division team on Friday – should be a difference.
Has all stats
The scoring is the most useless stat imo. Its the assist, steals, rebounds, blocks that show productivity, activity and athleticism imo.
My thoughts are as follows:
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Clearly, the results of these games are not indicative of how this team will perform against good competition. With that said, had these been close games for some odd reason, that could give us a reason to be concerned.
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I do think it’s always valuable for teammates to get some game experience with one another. That’s especially true when so many of the guys we may be relying upon are freshmen. It’s tougher to get that game experience in team scrimmages because the players are already very familiar with each other, and the sets the team runs, etc.
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I think these games are somewhat useful when it comes to determining who might be able to give meaningful minutes among the freshmen. It sounds like MAAR can indeed be part of the guard rotation, and it also sounds like Doyle and Dawkins have acquitted themselves quite well. It’s too bad for Wilson that he hasn’t been able to participate. Nothing really surprising with Chatman - I think we all expected him to be pretty good, and he’s shown that so far.
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While Doyle and Donnal are playing against smaller guys - and thus you can’t take too much away from their performances - it is at least encouraging they can score. It may take 2-3 years for them to develop, but it sounds like both of them (and especially Doyle) are way ahead of some of the “project” bigs we’ve had in the past as freshmen (guys like Asselin, Vignier, Chris Young, Graham Brown - though Brown could really rebound from the outset). It also seems like both guys will be well ahead of where Horford was as a true freshman - though again, not a high bar.
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It is definitely encouraging to me that Zak Irvin is lighting it up like he is. I know the competition is not good at all, but 9-10 from three is pretty outstanding even if I’m guarding him. I like seeing him get some steals and convert them into layups and dunks, too.
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On the whole, I’m feeling pretty good about this year, especially if Zak can keep shooting the ball well. I think Chatman is a high level player who, while he doesn’t come close to Glenn in terms of athleticism, may actually contribute more than Glenn on an all-around basis. He seems to be shooting the outside shot with confidence and success, and I really like his ballhandling and passing ability for a guy his size.
I am with you in regards to Chatman LAW. Not going to guarantee a better frosh year than GR3, but I think we will see a better soph year. I think he could be the team’s best player as a soph, assuming Caris leaves after this year.
So many things he does on the court and a legit 6’8" in shoes, atleast it looks that way to me. Would love to see him reach 6 boards a game at some point, and around 40 percent clip from 3. It is often times hard for guys his size in the space confined college game to get to the hole easily. I would love to see them go to him in the post. Has size, length, feel, and would think the ability to pass out of the post as well.
The thing about Chatman is he seems to only be scratching the surface. He has possibly more room to develop at this stage in his career than any other player on the team right now. And I mean that in a distinctly good way.
If Robinson starts next year (I’d bet MAAR or Dozier), put Chatman at the top of the key and Robinson on the wing.
The scoring is the most useless stat imo. Its the assist, steals, rebounds, blocks that show productivity, activity and athleticism imo.
Add FT attempts to this
The fact that Irvin is shooting the FIBA 3 so well is great, though.
Irvin is showing his Mr Indiana 5 star rating. Lets see how he does in B1G play this year with the 3 ball. If he brings similar results he will be gone next year…the JB system is tailor made for the three ball. Seems like the NBA cannot find enough three ball shooters IMO.
So is Irvin our go-to guy when we need a shot in the closing seconds of a game?
I doubt it. He is still a shooter who attacks closeouts. Not a guy who can break down an on-ball defender or come off a ball screen and make a play for others.
So is Irvin our go-to guy when we need a shot in the closing seconds of a game?
Figure the ball is in LeVert’s hands and he has Irvin as a kick out option.
Caris has all three other starters and Spike as kick out options. Should be another beautiful offense to watch this year. The boards and defense should determine how good the team can be.
Are there any highlights of specific plays from the 3rd game on vine, twitter, etc? From what I saw on Michigan Basketball’s twitter page we had some pretty awesome dunks, especially Dawkins.
A bit stiffer competition would have been nice, but there will still be plenty to learn from these games, both for the coaches and the players, which was really the purpose. The extra practice time and getting a jump on seeing who fits where will be invaluable with such a young team, come December.
New clips show Donnal may be ahead of Doyle in terms of passing, but it looks like Donnal is really struggling in half court sets in terms of finishing. Donnal looks much more comfortable in transition.
I can't believe people thought Doyle would redshirt.You sticking with your Donnal as a double digit scorer prediction?
I think it’s possible.
Regardless, there is a big difference between being a few points off in PPG predictions than predicting someone wouldn’t play at all. LOL.