Neither Tre Demps or Alex Olah were Rivals top 150 recruits. Comparing Northwestern’s recruits to Michigan’s recruits like Simpson, Poole, etc. is illogical. Anything to prove a point, I guess.
Michigan won a conference championship starting Stu Douglass, Zack Novak, and three underclassmen. I’m not worried about Beilein being able to “seriously contend” for conference championships going forward. You feel free to worry, though.
Ok put the dish part aside for a second, MAAR has the ability to defend the perimeter and drive to the hoop that Irvin does not. Moreover, MAAR’s assist’s will go up as he now has a different role and will again next year.
Again, I think its hilarious that you continue to think Chatman has a role on this team but MAAR does not.
Yup, that is all I’m saying. To be able to compete for a National Championship, someone is going to have to become and NBA level talent. My point is, like you said, there is reason for optimism that someone takes that step. My further point is that if no one takes that step, Michigan can still have a really solid team built on depth and experience. Not every Sweet 16 or Elite 8 team has 1st round NBA picks on their roster.
JB hasn’t even made the sweet 16 at Michigan without Burke or Stauskus. You are nuts if you don’t think you need high end talent to do anything in tournament.
This is like the 3rd time you have randomly brought up Chatman in a MAAR discussion.
I don’t think Chatman has a role on this team. Since last season, he has never been more than a bench player with question marks for me.
I DO think MAAR has a role on this team and have stated so many times. I love his defense. Why lie about that? How can we have constructive discussion when one of us is lying about the other’s position?
My issue with the MAAR supporters is that none of you seem capable of admitting his offensive game has been entirely too inefficient. He is not creating for others the way we hope he can and he isn’t making enough of his shots.
Since I put the drive and dish thing aside for that post, can we touch on that now?
You said MAAR is the only drive and dish guy besides Walton. Meanwhile:
Abdur-Rahkamn: 5 assists in 137 minutes
Irvin: 20 assists in 181 minutes
Even last game when he started at PG, MAAR had 1 assist in 33 minutes while Irvin had 5 assists in 31 minutes.
Irvin has more assists per game, more assists per 40 minutes, a higher assist to turnover ratio, and a higher assist rate. There is literally nothing that says MAAR is bretting at creating shots for others besides your opinion. Would you at least concede that, to this point, Irvin has been better at creating shots for others?
JB made two Sweet 16s at West Virginia with less talent than Michigan will have next season. There are plenty of examples of teams without 1st round NBA talent making the Sweet 16. Good thing for Beilein at Michigan is that he has been good at identifying 1st round NBA talent so the years with Burke and Stauskas don’t count.
It’s funny that you have such faith in the future of the program while also taking pains to trash next year’s starting SG at every opportunity.
Seems contradictory, unless you think Michigan will be “rebuilding” while Watson and Poole add weight and learn the system. If so, that doesn’t look like success to me.
I like your posting, Windsor, so please don’t go the route of that other guy and make up lies about my stance. Go back and look. I have always liked and given props to MAAR’s defense and have only been critical of his struggles on offense. Pointing out very legitimate concerns about his offensive play last year and early this year are far from trashing him at every single opportunity.
That being said, MAAR has shown flashes of what he can offer on offense. I’m hopeful that he will be able to fix his offensive issues and be a plus player on both ends of the court next year. At the very least, he will be a more capable starter than Stu Douglass ever was and Michigan won a conference championship starting Stu Douglass at SG.
That’s a good point. I would also add usually to make a run in the tournament you need high level talent usually in the form of NBA talent, some luck, and it helps if you’re a highly ranked preseason team. People laugh but 75-80% of teams ranked in the preseason top 20 make the sweet 16 that isn’t by accident imo. For example in 2013 Michigan had to face a lot of highly seeded teams. In 2014 they got some good luck facing Tennessee, and Kentucky. When they were eliminated by Ohio that year their next game would have been against South Florida. When Wichita St made their run nobody mentions facing a 13 seed in the sweet sixteen, they beat some highly seeded teams but got some luck. Butler makes runs with NBA guys like Mack/Hayward.
It would be interesting if we were to have a discussion on who you think can play in the NBA from this current group. Levert is obviously one of them the next one in that group might actually be Wagner.
At the end of the day the bar should be higher with this program, amazing practice facility, recent tournament success but it isn’t really translating on the court.
Levert is likely a lottery pick. I have seen both Irvin and Dawkins in some of the internet mock draft sites. Irvin I could see on a bench somewhere. I think the Dawkins thing may have been a typo. I could see Wagner playing in the NBA at some point.
MAAR is our best penetrator and finisher around the rim, and that’s not debatable. He’s the only one with a skill set to go toe to toe with an SMU/MSU/Maryland/Purdue.
I’d like to see a Walton, MAAR, Levert, Irvin, Doyle starting lineup going forward. Robinson Dawkins and Wagner off the bench. Stick with those 8.
I don’t think it will matter though. We don’t have the overall talent to compete at a high level. I’m hoping this team can at least pull it together to play in the NIT or sneak into the NCAA.
I’m fine with you saying that, but you can’t get upset when I call out someone for calling MAAR a better drive-and-disher than Irvin when Irvin has been impressive in that aspect (if nothing else). I’m fine with that rotation, too.