Strategy

Michigan Basketball
1

I’ve taken a lot of heat from some posters regarding my criticism of our small ball approach, with the defense often being “to play a bruiser would negate the strategy”. Some posters have said Coach Beilien has been successful playing this brand of ball, and we should defer to that strategy.

My question is, what exactly is the “strategy”? Is it spread the court with so called “shooters” and hope to outshoot the opposition?

To my non-coach eyes, it sure seems that way. We literally play horrendous defense, we can’t stop penetration from a 7th grader let alone a high major college team. We never apply ball pressure, we allow entry passes to the post so easily. We don’t close out on shooters, we don’t have crisp switches when defending the pick and roll. We’re NEVER the more physical or aggressive team.

On offense, we refuse to implement McGary, despite the fact that he’s one of our best offensive options. Our offense is either dribble the ball on the perimeter for 25 seconds and hoist a perimeter shot or pick and roll and kick out. Our off ball movement is pathetic, GR3 should be the prime beneficiary of the backdoor cuts, but he cuts so soft he may as well just camp out at the 3 line.

I know it’s early, but I have to say, I think the coaches have done a poor job thus far. There HAS to be some emphasis on defense and interior offense. We are a one dimensional team at this point, and not even efficient at that end of the court.

I know this post probably won’t be popular, but I’m willing to deal with that. When you’re winning, I guess the “strategy” is good, but when the team is losing it’s no longer “strategy”, it’s simply bad defense and a failure to feed the post.

2

I have to agree.

If anyone can answer these for me, be my guest.

Who is teaching them rebounding fundamentals?
Why does anyone with a pulse burn them on the perimeter?
Why no two man game with our wings and McGary?
Why is Spike playing extended minutes and he is a liability?
Why do our guys dribble around the perimeter instead of probing the paint?
Why does McGary have as many shots as Horford or Morgan?

Levert is the lead guard of this team not Spike, not Walton. Things happen when he has the ball.

The two big lineup does not work. We still get out rebounded because even our bigs are soft.

Irvin cannot play the 4 position next year.

WE NEED TO LOOK AT USING A 2-3 ZONE LIKE SYRACUSE AND VERMONT

3

McGary- we simply don’t give him the ball on the block. If I’m him. I’m mad about that.
GR 3. - needs to get tougher. And people need to accept him for what he is. A role player that can’t create but great at garbage buckets and occasional 3. Needs to man up on d
Stauskas. - he is the man on a team that has 2 sop posed nba dudes. Go figure. Keep it up nik.
Walton. Playing very good for freshman. Will content to get better
Levert. - don’t press. You r not the man yet. Not as good of defender as coaches think. Got nurned at end of game. Control self please.
Horford/ jmo- they are bodies.
Spike - Does great for what He has the ability to do.
Irvin - will be ok. Just hurry up and get comfortable. You are just as good better than most of these guys.

4

McGary- we simply don’t give him the ball on the block. If I’m him. I’m mad about that.
GR 3. - needs to get tougher. And people need to accept him for what he is. A role player that can’t create but great at garbage buckets and occasional 3. Needs to man up on d
Stauskas. - he is the man on a team that has 2 sop posed nba dudes. Go figure. Keep it up nik.
Walton. Playing very good for freshman. Will content to get better
Levert. - don’t press. You r not the man yet. Not as good of defender as coaches think. Got nurned at end of game. Control self please.
Horford/ jmo- they are bodies.
Spike - Does great for what He has the ability to do.
Irvin - will be ok. Just hurry up and get comfortable. You are just as good better than most of these guys.

You forgot Bielfeldt so I’ll do it for you
Max - not athletic, can’t shoot, can’t rebound, clumsy when he runs, and just finds ways to mess up anything we have going for us

5

Thanks. Can’t disagree.

6

I guess the thing that’s so frustrating for me is that we’ve been a poor defensive/rebounding team since Beilien’s arrival. At some point the “strategy” has to change if you expect to improve as a team. First and foremost we need to recruit more players that are defensive oriented, tough players.

If you guys think this is bad, wait until next year when our frontcourt is composed of Horford/Donnal/Wilson/Doyle. Your appreciation for Mitch will be at an all time high.

When the team is winning I guess it’s easy to dismiss me as the “troll”, but the problems were there last year as well, we just had a great offense to mask those problems.

I think as the season progresses you guys will come to see im not a “troll” blowing smoke out if my a$%, but rather a die hard fan/alumni that is truly concerned with the long term direction of this program. We are on the brink of being VERY good consistently, but I don’t think we can sustain success playing this style of basketball.

7

I look forward to having Kameron Chatman and…I look forward to Kameron Chatman joining the team next year.

8

Matt, most of us realize there are problems, I just don’t know if we can fix some of them with our current and incoming personnel, which is a problem in itself. So yes, we definitely need to recruit some stronger/defensive minded players. Looking at Michigan, you don’t really see one player that looks like a grown man (aside from maybe Mitch and GRIII who plays soft for his size) and that is filled out with muscle. However, it seems that every team that we play (no matter how lowly ranked) has some of combination of players that just look like men, and play that way as well.

9

Exactly, now you see why I have such a problem with the type of players we’ve recruited, but I will refrain from identifying specific names.

10

We need good players.
We have 11 players on scholarship.
We have 2 unused.
= our staff failed to find good players.

11

Dude - the strategy will not change, so you are just banging your head against the wall if you are hoping it will. And I have news for you - you can win at basketball without being a great rebounding or defensive team. You are certainly not a troll, but your posts are certainly negative to the point of being obnoxious. As far as your complaints against the current coaching staff, would you prefer Amaker? Ellerbe? Fisher and Frieder and the NCAA violations that come with? who the hell is out there that would do a better job than Beilein has? Since you hate our current direction so much, I would like to ask you who you would like to coach our team instead?

12

We’ve recruited good players, in particular on the perimeter, but the failure to obtain legit big men is going to absolutely kill us next year unfortunately.

13

ajerome, I’m sure Matt doesn’t need me to fight his battles for him, but he has already addressed the fact that some people perceive his comments as being negative in nature and has said that he will try to avoid doing so. Anyways, I would agree that this just might be the way Beilein prefers to play, but no strategy is perfect, so there should be no reason why a coach wouldn’t be willing to change things around because there will always be something that can be done to play better. And I think everyone on this forum praises what Beilein has done for us and wouldn’t prefer past coaches over him, but that doesn’t mean you cannot have high expectations and try to reach them. At this point, with the talent we have, we should be shooting for Final 4s and championships nearly every year, just like UK, KU, MSU, and Louisville do.

14

I disagree completely. I’ve seen us win a lot of games with Jordan Morgan and Novak inside. The sky is not falling.

15
Dude - the strategy will not change, so you are just banging your head against the wall if you are hoping it will. And I have news for you - you can win at basketball without being a great rebounding or defensive team. You are certainly not a troll, but your posts are certainly negative to the point of being obnoxious. As far as your complaints against the current coaching staff, would you prefer Amaker? Ellerbe? Fisher and Frieder and the NCAA violations that come with? who the hell is out there that would do a better job than Beilein has? Since you hate our current direction so much, I would like to ask you who you would like to coach our team instead?

Yes you can win without being a great rebounding/defensive team, but you can’t win with an incompetent defensive/rebounding team - which is exactly what we are.

I simply think Coach B needs to modify the so called “strategy” rather than scrap it in its entirety. My posts aren’t negative, it’s called realistic.

16
I have to agree.

If anyone can answer these for me, be my guest.

Who is teaching them rebounding fundamentals?
Why does anyone with a pulse burn them on the perimeter?
Why no two man game with our wings and McGary?
Why is Spike playing extended minutes and he is a liability?
Why do our guys dribble around the perimeter instead of probing the paint?
Why does McGary have as many shots as Horford or Morgan?

Levert is the lead guard of this team not Spike, not Walton. Things happen when he has the ball.

The two big lineup does not work. We still get out rebounded because even our bigs are soft.

Irvin cannot play the 4 position next year.

WE NEED TO LOOK AT USING A 2-3 ZONE LIKE SYRACUSE AND VERMONT

Not sure if you seriously want someone to answer or you are just ranting but I will guess the former:

Rebounding - Bacari + JB, we have never rebounded well under JB so don’t see why this is such a concern right now. We always seem to run smaller lineups anyway.

Getting Burnt on Perimiter - Probably exaggerating just a little here. Stauskas tweaked ankle and Caris got beat one time that I can remember, though it was a bad time to get beat.

Two man game w/ wings and McGary - Stauskas/McGary run pick and roll all the time so not sure why this is a question.

Why is Spike playing - Come on man. This sounds like you spent all summer telling folks Walton was the second coming. Spike is solid, at least.

Why do we dribble around the perimiter instead of probing - Watching different games than me. In any event, not a video game you can’t just beat a guy to the paint every time you touch it.

Why does McGary have as many shots as Horford/Morgan? - Easily your best question. Hard to tell. Coaches pretty clearly think Horford has a superior back to the basket game. McGary still being banged up might have something to do with it, or maybe it just happened that way within the flow of the game because sports, ya know.

Neither Spike nor Walton are being treated as the lead guard so not sure where that next comment is coming from.

2 bigs does not work and we are soft - Maybe it doesn’t in this system but the guy that invented the system seems to believe that it will. You were complaining about rebounding earlier in this rant though so not sure which one you want now. Robinson was hurt anyway so unless you are advocating playing Irvin for the entire game, someone has to play 4. That makes the options (1) 100% Irvin (2) Stauskas or Levert at 4 or (3) another big which is what we have been practicing. You want to complain about rebounding but then you want to play Walton, Spike, Caris, Stauskas, and McGary at the same time. But yet again you also said you don’t want to play Spike and Walton, so can’t do that right? Basically, not following you here.

Irvin cannot play 4 next year - Better hope we have at least one of Caris/Stauskas go pro then or Irvin could explore his options. Not saying he will, I’m saying that I would. Being that highly rated and then playing sparingly for your first 2 years while waiting for your 3rd is not a very common practice. To say this, you have to assume one of Donnal, Chatman, Wilson, or maybe Doyle is going to start at 4 since you do not want 2 bigs. You can probably rule Chatman out of your preferred lineup because of your rebounding concerns and him being 6’6".

Moral of the story, calm down man it is one game in November. We have tons of young talent and great coaching. Just missed some easy shots and had a couple too many turnovers tonight. Sometimes you just lose, that is the nature of sports.

EDIT: Forgot one (Zone) - Our D really is not really that bad. Charlotte shot 39% and had 17 turnovers. D looks better than last year, the year we played for the national championship. In any event, zone is for cowards.

17

Okay, Burke, my point is - it doesn’t matter what you, MattD, or I think. Beilein knows tremendously more than any of us do. He will not change his strategy. So wtf is the point of all this banter and sky is falling thought process. And if you think for a minute that our coaching staff doesn’t want to take the next step or doesn’t have high expectations, I’m not sure what else there is to say here.

I think it is time to take a long break from this forum. There are way too many people on here that freak out whenever things don’t go well and clearly have little understanding of the game of basketball.

18

Not I sir, I’ve had these concerns even when we’re winning. For me it’s not about individual wins/losses, but rather what are the weaknesses for which we can improve in order to take the next step.

Furthermore, you clearly have little understanding of basketball if you think you can win consistently without playing defense or rebounding.

19

We’re not seeing the same thing on the court but I’m too tired to argue.

I have to agree.

If anyone can answer these for me, be my guest.

Who is teaching them rebounding fundamentals?
Why does anyone with a pulse burn them on the perimeter?
Why no two man game with our wings and McGary?
Why is Spike playing extended minutes and he is a liability?
Why do our guys dribble around the perimeter instead of probing the paint?
Why does McGary have as many shots as Horford or Morgan?

Levert is the lead guard of this team not Spike, not Walton. Things happen when he has the ball.

The two big lineup does not work. We still get out rebounded because even our bigs are soft.

Irvin cannot play the 4 position next year.

WE NEED TO LOOK AT USING A 2-3 ZONE LIKE SYRACUSE AND VERMONT

Not sure if you seriously want someone to answer or you are just ranting but I will guess the former:

Rebounding - Bacari + JB, we have never rebounded well under JB so don’t see why this is such a concern right now. We always seem to run smaller lineups anyway.

Getting Burnt on Perimiter - Probably exaggerating just a little here. Stauskas tweaked ankle and Caris got beat one time that I can remember, though it was a bad time to get beat.

Two man game w/ wings and McGary - Stauskas/McGary run pick and roll all the time so not sure why this is a question.

Why is Spike playing - Come on man. This sounds like you spent all summer telling folks Walton was the second coming. Spike is solid, at least.

Why do we dribble around the perimiter instead of probing - Watching different games than me. In any event, not a video game you can’t just beat a guy to the paint every time you touch it.

Why does McGary have as many shots as Horford/Morgan? - Easily your best question. Hard to tell. Coaches pretty clearly think Horford has a superior back to the basket game. McGary still being banged up might have something to do with it, or maybe it just happened that way within the flow of the game because sports, ya know.

Neither Spike nor Walton are being treated as the lead guard so not sure where that next comment is coming from.

2 bigs does not work and we are soft - Maybe it doesn’t in this system but the guy that invented the system seems to believe that it will. You were complaining about rebounding earlier in this rant though so not sure which one you want now. Robinson was hurt anyway so unless you are advocating playing Irvin for the entire game, someone has to play 4. That makes the options (1) 100% Irvin (2) Stauskas or Levert at 4 or (3) another big which is what we have been practicing. You want to complain about rebounding but then you want to play Walton, Spike, Caris, Stauskas, and McGary at the same time. But yet again you also said you don’t want to play Spike and Walton, so can’t do that right? Basically, not following you here.

Irvin cannot play 4 next year - Better hope we have at least one of Caris/Stauskas go pro then or Irvin could explore his options. Not saying he will, I’m saying that I would. Being that highly rated and then playing sparingly for your first 2 years while waiting for your 3rd is not a very common practice. To say this, you have to assume one of Donnal, Chatman, Wilson, or maybe Doyle is going to start at 4 since you do not want 2 bigs. You can probably rule Chatman out of your preferred lineup because of your rebounding concerns and him being 6’6".

Moral of the story, calm down man it is one game in November. We have tons of young talent and great coaching. Just missed some easy shots and had a couple too many turnovers tonight. Sometimes you just lose, that is the nature of sports.

EDIT: Forgot one (Zone) - Our D really is not really that bad. Looks better than last year, the year we played for the national championship. In any event, zone is for cowards.

20

Well you will never be satisfied then.