Watching this game, that 1-3-1 zone killed us. We definitely do not have the players to play that right now. I don’t know what happened but Dawkins and chapman haven’t done a darn thing this year and that’s very discouraging. Beilein has his hands full with this bunch.
Dylan you are absolutely correct, they exploit our weaknesses ferfectly, by why do we have 3 guys on our roster that are 6’o9/6’10 weighing in at 240 that can’t even box out? For a big ten team that made the championship a few years back this is quite a drop in talent and more importantly a drop in will and desire. Defense is all effort and we can’t stay in front of anyone, scary combination.
Defense is not all effort. Rebounding is not all effort.
Yes they are factors and I agree, our effort needs to get better but what we lack in a major way on this roster is athleticism and strength.
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Maybe not all effort, but majority effort. There really is no athleticism or strength. Doyle us strong but he can barely get off the ground. Donnal is worthless in all aspects and dj is just raw. Since Doyle isn’t getting it done really, dj needs more run because I think with more confidence he could really contribute. Doyle and donnal are pretty large disappointments in my eyes.
Is it just me or does chapman look like one of those guys who needs to be on one of those “don’t skip leg day” memes ?
Beilein needs to start putting his players in position to succeed. It’s not Donnal, Chatman, and Wilson’s fault that Beilein continues to play them out of position. My starting five right now because of injuries would be:
PG: Levert
SG: Robinson
SF: Dawkins
PF: Wilson
C: Wagner
That is, ummmm, one heck of a starting 5.
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2 bigs playing together is something Beilein does very little of if at all, which I disagree with. I would like too see this lineup, but I would swamp Irvin for Dawkins. Irvin issues are stritcly because he was injured all summer, I think allowing him to play through this rough shooting patch he is going through will payoff later on this season and Irvin unlike Dawkins contributes in other aspects of the game. Wagner and Wilson should both be starting, their length and athleticism will at least provide some sort of rim protection. Donnal(Donnal is a stretch 4 not a 5 like Beilein plays him at),Chatman, and Doyle should be seeing the rest of the minutes at the 4 and 5 positions, this small ball stuff won’t work with this collection of players. Beilein has to adapt his philosophy and go bigger up front.
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I put Dawkins in the starting lineup because Irvin doesn’t look like he is 100% recovered from off season back surgery and also he would be the #1 scoring option coming off the bench which would help the second unit. Also I believe Irvin is a SG and not a PF where Beilein likes to play him. I totally agree with you on Donnal. He should never play center. Chatman is another guy who Beilein is playing out of position. He played some PG in high school so he will never be able to D up against college PF’s. He should D up against SF’s and slow SG’s. The reason I have two bigs starting is to help with rebounding.
That lineup makes zero sense. How in the world can you have one ball handler on the court in beilein’s offense? Donnal should just never play again. Dj at the 4 I would love to see
Robinson and Dawkins are plenty capable of handling the ball. They may not have the handle of Spike and Walton but they can get the job done. Also with Levert playing hero ball they don’t really have to handle the ball much other than shoot.
Dawkins has almost no handles.
He’s literally useless at the moment…
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I like it. We’re not winning with small ball right now anyway.
I do like MAAR coming in from the bench as a spark. I think Irvin needs less minutes until he’s able to get back into normal form.
What has Wilson really shown to make you think he deserves more minutes?
Not so much what Wilson has shown but more of how bad the team is at rebounding and playing defense inside. Also it would be nice to see him play at the 4. He is the most athletic big man we have might as well give him a look especially the next four games.
What have the players in front of him shown that they deserve to keep logging heavy minutes? What is the definition of insanity again? Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, that is what Beilein is currently doing. Time too try something else, small ball has not worked for this group.
Sign of a great coach…adjusting your system to fit your players. Unfortunately Beilein doesn’t seem to do that.
To me, it’s less of what he has shown as opposed to wanting to see how he can develop.
Along with what everyone else has shown haha I’m not impressed.
Actually, I would probably rather see Wagner at the 4 and Doyle at the 5 for spurts but that’s not going to happen.
If Beilein wants to play small ball that’s fine, but excel at small ball.
We don’t excel at it. Our perimeter defense is weak IMO and in key games we’re not hitting shots.
We’re also not winning the turnover battle as we should if we’re playing good small ball.
I thought EA Sports stopped making NCAA video games. Guess a forum is the next best place to play those games.
I’ll put this the simplest way I can. On a scale of 1-10, I would say Doyle is a 3.5, Wagner is a 3, dj is a 2, and donnal is a .5. Now, if we go to a scale of what these players could potentially be. Doyle is probably close to what he will always be at a 3.5, Wagner could probably get to a 6.5/7, dj could probably become a 6/7 and donnal is a lost cause who comes into games and gives up Plays immediately. Now, with those things in consideration, why not play the guys who actually have potential to get better and be good at basketball vs. guys who are huge disappointments? We aren’t going to win any big games this year because of Doyle and Donnal. Doyle can be the big strong guy if we need one, but that’s absolutely all he can do. Let’s play these young guys and let them get better now so their careers are complete wastes like Doyle and donnal. Playing zone will probably be out the door with Wagner and dj out there but how well have Doyle and donnal played it? It’s been awful anyway. What has Dawkins done to earn pt? Chapman? Donnal? Nothing at all. Vs decent teams these guys disappear. Get these young guys with potential some pt and let them develop instead of having them consistantly watch 2 guys play who are more consistent at doing the wrong thing than anything else.
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