It’s an interesting conversation… Dawkins saved Michigan’s bacon in a few games last year, but he also didn’t really do anything better as a sophomore than he did as a freshman.
The reason that he’s a topic here is obviously because Watson is one of the primary natural replacements for his minutes.
And it is fair to talk about Dawkins’ D because he entered the season as a starter with high expectation and ended up playing single digit minutes in many of his final Big Ten games. The primary reason for that was that he could never lock in defensively.
I think it’s pretty clear that Dawkins’ defense wasn’t the only problem. That doesn’t mean we can’t discuss it on a fan blog message board. You’re acting like by not talking about Robinson’s defense we’re somehow hurting the team. We discussed him ad naseum in his own thread too. Right now, the conversation swung to Ibi Watson and how he can replace Dawkins, therefor it is 100% fair to judge his defense individually and seperate from the rest of the team.
Aubrey’s minutes were so low BECAUSE his defense was unbearably bad. Aubrey was so bad at defense, that his great shooting couldnt get him consistent/more minutes, and it’s why Duncan continued to start/get heavy minutes even after his shooting slumped. Yes, Duncan was not good at defense, but he was obviously better than Dawkins, better enough to justify his minutes and justify the lack of Aubrey’s minutes.
Pointing out that the team had more faults than just Dawkins’ shooting is running from the argument. You decided to argue the magnitude of the effect that Dawkins’ terrible defense had on the team.
But, to move this subject back to topic: how do people feel about the philosophy shift that appears to be happening: Dawkins leaves (shooting and bad defense) and the staff might be looking at Bearden (good defense and slashing, but bad shooting)? I think the staff should still hold out for a grad transfer. I understand that there might not be an actual option, when all is said and done, but the roster could really use it. Using the two roster spots on 2 sign-n-stash transfers feels a little like not only giving up on a 2017 target, but also making 2016-2017 season less of a priority.
I don’t think he’s particularly good on defense but I am not willing to make the correlation that the team was poor on defense because Aubrey Dawkins was poor on defense. Dawkins was merely a symptom that has plagued this team for the past few years. Stauskas was an awful defender but great on offense but he might find himself out of the league because he can’t guard anybody. Robinson was put at a disadvantage at times because he was forced to guard 4s. It isn’t far fetched to say Beilein has trouble identifying guys that can play defense.
Yes he didn’t have a clue defensively much like 3 or 4 others on the team. Defense is geared from the top on down if your PG is inconsistent on defense, lacks agility it puts everybody else at a disadvantage. Far too many times this team was beaten by penetration.
Nah man. You literally went from saying he’d play more if he didn’t play matador defense to saying that we can’t paint him as a horrible defender because he didn’t play enough.
You still don’t get it and I am not surprised. Why try and blame a guy for being a poor defender when he had very little impact on the team? Yep he was a poor defender. Why didn’t he improve on defense? Who recruited him? Dawkins isn’t the only poor defender on this team and won’t be the last. I am sure this will be a lock down defensive team now that Dawkins isn’t around…
I think there’s a difference between a poor and horrible defender. I would say Robinson was a horrible defender. Do you think we would be better off talking about the merits of each player defensively or spend more time talking about a player that will have zero impact on the D this year.
There was some talk about Watson I don’t know how well he will do I would be surprised if he played much at all. Beilein loves his 7-8 man rotations and right now I don’t see him part of that.
Walton
Rahkman
Irvin
Robinson
Donnal
Wagner
Simpson
Wilson
maybe one of Teske or Davis and that would be 9. Maybe Beilein will look at his bench differently moving forwards but we don’t know that.
@AlbrechtShotFake What this conversation is about is flying so far over your head I’d think you were buried in the ground. Frankly, I can’t say I’m surprised given your history here. This debate is about Ibi Watson coming in to replace Dawkins, given that they play the same position and will see similar minutes. The gist of what people have said revolve around Ibi perhaps not being as good at shooting but making up for it by being a better defender than Dawkins, who you, as HTYV kindly proved with your quotes, think is a terrible defender. Anyone with a pair of eyes could see he was the worst on the team. Thus, that makes Ibi’s job of replacing him easier. This conversation has literally nothing to do with who’s responsible for why we as a team were bad. Not a fucking thing about specifically how bad Dawkins made it. Your lack of comprehension about what this is even about is utterly baffling. You are arguing a point that no one even made! It amazes me how you try and start these arguments out of nothing! Like I said earlier, very troll-like behavior.
Good, I’m glad it’s a mutual feeling. I’m glad you acknowledged the points in my comment too. That was good to see! Oh wait…
I personally have zero respect for people who come on here for what seems like the sole intent of starting things. At a certain point you have to wonder when you’re gonna understand that everyone here realizes you disapprove of our coach, and most disagree with you. That’s not gonna change any time soon.