Team Review After 1/4 Season

Michigan Basketball
81

I’m not spinning it. That was your stance. You handpicked games to try and show that Walton, LeVert, and Irvin can’t shoot vs good opponents.

Guestavo, you LITERALLY said this:
“There’s no difference between shooting against a big, athletic defender that top teams have to offer and the defenders that Nicholls State has to offer? Pretty stupid logic.”

The facts are that 3pt % is only very slightly related to level of opponent. I linked facts. Facts also show that LeVert, Irvin, and Walton were parts of that rule last year and small sample sizes this year don’t change that.

82

I have to say I thought Chatman would be a far better player right out of the gate. I thought he would be a very reasonable GR3 replacement but he’s a long way from being a good player. He’s shooting 28% from the floor and 21% from three. He throws up some very soft shots in the lane that get easily stuffed. His defense is also quite poor.

We need to develop the bench. Irvin and LeVert have averaged 39 minutes a game in the 5 close games we’ve played. I don’t think that’s substsinable over the course of long season. They need Dawkins to be able to play a little to spell those guys.

Love most of what I’ve seen of Doyle. His defensive rebounding needs to drastically improve though. He has 8 def Rebs in 8 games. That has to change. I like Donnal’s shooting touch but he doesn’t offer much else. He’s a liability on defense and on the boards.

LeVert is playing really well. His efficiency numbers are great. 50% from three on the year, 83% from the line and a 35/14 asst to TO’s

Biggest issue with the team is always going to be defense. We have no rim protection and our perimeter defense still needs a lot of work. We are allowing teams to shoot 40% from three so far.

83
I have to say I thought Chatman would be a far better player right out of the gate. I thought he would be a very reasonable GR3 replacement but he's a long way from being a good player. He's shooting 28% from the floor and 21% from three. He throws up some very soft shots in the lane that get easily stuffed. His defense is also quite poor.

We need to develop the bench. Irvin and LeVert have averaged 39 minutes a game in the 5 close games we’ve played. I don’t think that’s substsinable over the course of long season. They need Dawkins to be able to play a little to spell those guys.

Love most of what I’ve seen of Doyle. His defensive rebounding needs to drastically improve though. He has 8 def Rebs in 8 games. That has to change. I like Donnal’s shooting touch but he doesn’t offer much else. He’s a liability on defense and on the boards.

LeVert is playing really well. His efficiency numbers are great. 50% from three on the year, 83% from the line and a 35/14 asst to TO’s

Biggest issue with the team is always going to be defense. We have no rim protection and our perimeter defense still needs a lot of work. We are allowing teams to shoot 40% from three so far.

Chatman cannot shoot at all. From any distance. Really disappointing so far. He reminds me of Jerrod Ward who never met a layup he couldn’t brick.

84

Trying not to overreact to one game (look what they did after losing to Charlotte). But in combination with the Hillsdale and Detroit games, it looks like when they are off, they are really off and don’t have anyone except Spike coming off the bench for a spark but since he’s basically playing starters minutes that doesn’t help.
I think this propensity to play down to the opponents is going to cost them at least three extra conference games. Think they knock them down to 4 or 5 in the conference.
Although Caris seems like he can really take over and put the team on his shoulders when they need him, today (even though it didn’t end up being a win), Detroit, Villanova (even though they didn’t win that either)

85

The biggest issue for me (other than an overall lethargic lack of effort) is that for two games in a row, Irvin has missed several wide open threes. For those of you who are down on Duncan Robinson because he’s “just a shooter,” I wish he had been taking some of those shots. We really need Irvin to make the open looks - he’s our primary three point catch and shoot wing player, as we need Caris to have the ball in his hands much of the time.

86
The biggest issue for me (other than an overall lethargic lack of effort) is that for two games in a row, Irvin has missed several *wide open* threes. For those of you who are down on Duncan Robinson because he's "just a shooter," I wish he had been taking some of those shots. We really need Irvin to make the open looks - he's our primary three point catch and shoot wing player, as we need Caris to have the ball in his hands much of the time.

Agreed, and with the shooting we’ve seen from him you have to assume it will come around. But if it doesn’t boy are we in for a long season.
Hopefully he didn’t use up all his good shots in Italy.

87

Caris played valiantly and I know we needed a “hero” ( he did his best ) but our offense is really to dependent on 1-1 isolations right now. Not a lot of smooth flow or high ball screen options in the half court, a lot of standing around. The loss of JMo is showing up glaringly right now as the youngsters try and figure things out. Really frustrating how soft Chatman and Donnal appear to be so far, on both ends. Doyle has to get more active and aggressive on the defensive backboard as well. These growing pains were all to predictable, but it’s only one loss, we’ve had them early in the season before. As much as the loss stings, NJIT had every reason to fold after we took back the lead late in the second half, and they didn’t. They earned that W with grit and determination, their tenacity was very obvious and deserving.

88

I sat on this a while and really thought about it before posting…and I know most people will disagree. Today’s performance was absolutely pathetic from an effort/energy standpoint, and the coaching staff should be held accountable for allowing the team to look that disinterested in a game. Now im not going to overreact, because it’s only 1 game in the grand scheme of things, but I will say today’s effort was quite alarming. Overall, I still think this team has exceeded expectations overall thus far notwithstanding today of course. But the coaching staff must do a better job of making sure the team is ready to play regardless of opponent. Today was simply unacceptable on behalf of both the players and coaches

89
I sat on this a while and really thought about it before posting..........and I know most people will disagree. Today's performance was absolutely pathetic from an effort/energy standpoint, and the coaching staff should be held accountable for allowing the team to look that disinterested in a game. Now im not going to overreact, because it's only 1 game in the grand scheme of things, but I will say today's effort was quite alarming. Overall, I still think this team has exceeded expectations overall thus far notwithstanding today of course. But the coaching staff must do a better job of making sure the team is ready to play regardless of opponent. Today was simply unacceptable on behalf of both the players and coaches

I actually think most people will agree with you

90

I don’t have a big problem with MattD’s point. It’s one thing to come out flat, but once you’re in a ballgame with 15:00 left, it’s time to pick up the intensity and take care of business. Their 13-0 run was some really bad basketball on both ends for us. I’d like to see a strong rebound against a pretty good (so far) EMU squad. No doubt Ray Lee and Michael Talley Jr. will be motivated for that one.

91

I totally agree with Matt’s point. This was absolutely an effort loss

92

Im going to call it like it is - John Beilein did an absolutely horrible job of coaching the team tonight. No in game adjustments at all. Effort was not the issue tonight, poor coaching was. Disagree all you want, JB was pathetic tonight

93

Matt, he was SERIOUSLY out coached by both Engles and Murphy the last two games. Hate to pile on and sound the fire alarm, but he made zero adjustments to EMU playing high on the wings. He gave his team no schematic counter to their defend the 3 mentality. What’s really disturbing to me so far, is the lack of passion and fire from this squad. Very disappointing.

94

Guys, John Beilein is a really nice guy, he just might not be cut out for this :wink: In all seriousness, I have to agree with MattD. Never in my life have I seen 2 straight performances with such uninspired, lackluster, and generally lazy play. We did absolutely NOTHING different against the zone in the 2nd half, and some could say that we got worse as the game went on. It’s officially time to panic. NJIT and Eastern, a team in the 300s and a team in the mid 100s on kenpom, just beat us at home. I think our mediocre recruiting for this cycle is coming around to bite us, and our lack of real bench depth is very worrisome. We are basically 8 men deep, and Donnal and Chatman aren’t exactly good in any way. Obviously I’m not saying he’s a bad coach by any means, he just needs to find something to spark this team, and quickly.

95

Holy hell is this team in trouble. Wasn’t Spike supposed to be surehanded? How many times did he throw the ball away today?

Can anyone on this team corral a loose ball?

In one freaking week, this season has been pretty much shot to hell.

People need to realize that is is going to make a shit ton of work just to be in consideration for a tournament bid.

These aren’t bad losses, these are HORRIBLE LOSSES.

Obviously a win versus Arizona would alleviate a lot of issues, but that seems comically unrealistic.

96

Still way to early to write them off, but this is very disconcerting. I still am mystified at the majority of the fan base ( check archived predictions ) universally thinking this year was going to be a seamless transition to continuing success. You don’t lose the POY and the heart and soul of the team ( 5th year senior Morgan ) along with two other NBA draft picks and carry on. The bigs aren’t ready yet, and Kam appears to be vastly over rated. Both he and Donnal are super soft on both ends. JBs inability to make in game adjustments to “this” zone concept will only inspire other teams to follow the blueprint come B1G time. We really had no answer schematically and that is puzzling. What a difference a 6’6" Stauskas was compared to two under six foot guards trying to combat wing pressure. Can’t beg people to come here, but the loosing of Booker and Blackmon is very revealing right now.

97

I don’t know which is more disappointing…This year or the 2009/10 year. I mean NJIT is just a terrible team, and although EMU is a step up, they have no business even contending with us on our home court. These losses have the potential to be a MAJOR negative for our efforts in recruiting elite talent. Who would want to a team that makes gets talked about on ESPN a ton for constantly getting upset? This current team is just completely out of it, and I would say I hope they learn from it, but it has become apparent that they aren’t learning from their mistakes as well as they should be. Sorry for being all negative by the way, but I think this is an alright time for it.

98
Still way to early to write them off, but this is very disconcerting. I still am mystified at the majority of the fan base ( check archived predictions ) universally thinking this year was going to be a seamless transition to continuing success. You don't lose the POY and the heart and soul of the team ( 5th year senior Morgan ) along with two other NBA draft picks and carry on. The bigs aren't ready yet, and Kam appears to be vastly over rated. Both he and Donnal are super soft on both ends. JBs inability to make in game adjustments to "this" zone concept will only inspire other teams to follow the blueprint come B1G time. We really had no answer schematically and that is puzzling. What a difference a 6'6" Stauskas was compared to two under six foot guards trying to combat wing pressure. Can't beg people to come here, but the loosing of Booker and Blackmon is very revealing right now.

If anything, no one expected losses to these two community college type schools. Plus, the Big Ten overall was a big question mark aside from maybe Wisconsin.

So I don’t think it was unfair to say this team could be a top 4 team in the Big Ten before the season.

We are a young team, but that doesn’t excuse these last two losses. Losses in the Big Ten would be understandable. These make no sense.

Just flinging up shots at the end of the shot clock with no ability to get rebounds pretty much the entire game.

99

Let me start by saying that message boards often overreact. However, when you lose to NJIT and Eastern and you don’t even look like the better team, the only thing that’s an overreaction is “fire Beilein.”

I would strongly agree with everyone who says Beilein was pathetic tonight, because he totally was. There was no different attack at all, all night.

I think he is one of the best coaches in the nation and he is a Hall of Fame level coach. However, as Matt and others have pointed out, there’s serious reason to worry about not only this year, but the future. With Levert gone and no one else coming in but an unrpoven D3 shooter, it should really worry people.

Although JB is an amazing coach and offensive mastermind, recruiting is the name of the game and two years with no class and an average AT BEST class is going to show itself.

The most important one is the one that I think many people really fear, just how bad the talent is on this roster.

Levert is a very good player, all conference type and I will leave it at that.

Derrick Walton is a nice point guard if he is on a team with weapons. He seems the floor well and if he is not with Spike alone, he is a feasible defender.

Zak Irvin is probably about the player Nik Stauskas was as a freshman. Probably better at defense although I think how good he is there has been way overstated, does a few things like rebound.

Chatman is flat out not a B1G starter. His metrics are beyond miserable, worst on the entire team. He has a decent handle for a guy his size and has some knack for finding the ball off the glass. Other than that, I see nothing that indicates he will be a B1G starter this year, nothing. He’s not tough and although I hate using this because it is hard to measure, but the dude doesn’t play hard.

Doyle has some nice elements to his game, but as Matt mentioned, he’s almost not usable on defense and isn’t a very good defensive rebounder. The last two games have also showed that his hands are terrible. The only thing he can be counted on for now is screaming after every single basket.

Donnal- Taller version of Max, but doesn’t know the offense as well and isn’t strong. Way too passive like Chatman.

Max- Doing the best he can, he’s not a B1G ten player and no one mentions his name when they talk about Michigan’s last minute steals and rags to riches recruiting.

Spike- Great highlight film and despite the turnovers tonight, is a very reliable back up point guard. What people seem to forget is that a back up point guard should be getting 8 to 12 minutes a game. It’s really hard to knock Spike, who like Max, faces tons of physical obstacles. However, when this kid was identified, you could have never imagined what he has done on offense and should obviously not be surprised by how bad of a defender he is. If he spent the summer at “Camp Sanderson” and the winter with the Red Army he still wouldn’t be able to do anything effective on defense.

Dawkins- I think physically better than expected and could actually be a player who gives some valuable minutes (5-8) by the end of the season. He’s obviously a bit lost, but he could actually be a player at some point.

MAAR- Not enough data here but like Charles Woodson said about Jim Harbaugh “it ain’t looking good.”

Wilson- He has long arms and hedges well, other than that, count me very skeptical and certainly not thinking one should count on him for next year to do much of major impact.

100
I don't know which is more disappointing......This year or the 2009/10 year. I mean NJIT is just a terrible team, and although EMU is a step up, they have no business even contending with us on our home court. These losses have the potential to be a MAJOR negative for our efforts in recruiting elite talent. Who would want to a team that makes gets talked about on ESPN a ton for constantly getting upset? This current team is just completely out of it, and I would say I hope they learn from it, but it has become apparent that they aren't learning from their mistakes as well as they should be. Sorry for being all negative by the way, but I think this is an alright time for it.

We weren’t hitting on ELITE recruits after making the Championship game and Elite Eight. So I don’t know how suddenly these losses will makes things anything different.

We basically took a bunch of flyers on guys to fill the roster none of which are even close to being college ready.

Its like Beilein is being punished right now for being so good at developing talent. He hasn’t kept up the recruiting.

Beilein needs a take a page out of Izzo’s book and get guys to stay four years that should have been gone in two years.

Its hard to build a consistent program when our guys leave at their first sign of success.

The loss of Mcgary is devastating this team.