Scoring clearly isn’t a concern. Seldom has been under Beilein.
The only question about the offense going forward is whether it’s going to hurt the defense. That is, if a roster that’s long on skill but short on athleticism/tenacity is going to get victimized on the other end.
Presumably Matthews will help in this regard, although losing Walton’s rebounding (and his fire) will hurt.
Next year I see a couple of things that are a concern. Depth at point guard and defense with both Walton and Irvin gone. I know Matthews will be eligible but I see a lot of holes in the defensive end after X and Matthews.
I don’t get your point. We have good replacements for the guys that we are losing, but the returning guys are an issue?
Specifically, Duncan and Ibi. MAAR isn’t some kind of great lock down defender himself. The freshman coming in we don’t know what we are getting.
Updated ranks for Michigan in Big Ten play. I think you can tell which side is offense and which is defense (League average is the far right).
Good win. We played average to below avg and win. Imo that shows a lot. I really think if this team had turned up the d and effort a month and a half ago that we finish first or second to Purdue In conference.
There was a lot to like and a lot not to like today. First off I’d like to see Belein use the bench a bit more. I really think x can handle 15 minutes a game right now. He has great vision and can create imo. It was a confidence thing clearly. I’d also love to see donnal play with that effort every game. The whole game shifted on his d effort and dirty work. We know he can shoot and is an ok finisher. Play with that edge and he to can give us a nice 15-20. I hope he realizes he can still salvage his career here and help this team make a serious run. Duncan as well needs 20 a game. No reason he shouldn’t. His value is obvious.
Dj can not keep having games like this as the season gets serious here. He needs to bring energy and aggression constantly. There is no reason he should have games like this or even stretches in games like this. He’s too good and valuable on both ends. We can’t afford that against top teams.
We played very sloppy on offense today and early on d. They really showed up on d late and kudos on the hustle and d adjustments. Won the game for us. I still think we need to play headier on o. Lots of wasted chances and opportunities. Teams can not guard us if we stay grounded yet aggressive. There’s too much skill and balance. I’ve always liked the talent we’ve had here just not always how it’s used / played out as a unit. Much of it mental letdiwns.
Let’s keep it up. With this effort and back against the wall mentality, I really believe they will win out on The road. Let’s hope they don’t get comfy and keep fighting like the Hoosier match ups, like the season depends on it.
Things that give me confidence for the future:
1)Wagner and DJ are good and are going to get even better.
MAAR has become a very reliable 3 point shooter.
Robinson’s shot is looking beautiful and his all around game has improved.
Charles Mathews!
X’s elite quickness bothers people.
Teske’s size bothers people. (Although Happ destroyed him.)
I believe Livers, Brooks, Poole and DeJulius are great additions.
Cory told me that Bamba likes Michigan.
Yes.i love the talent Belein has on hand/ coming in. He’s missed on big recruits but he’s gonna look like a genius finding unheralded guys again imo.
Maar could always shoot after his frosh year, it’s been mental. The he can’t shoot notion was ridiculous. Knock down? No but 35-38 percent all dAy imo. Charles and him should be shouting 500 a day though going into next year. X too. It’s going to be our weakness but if they can keep teams honest and hit the open ones then I think we’re gonna be very tough.
I also hope like this year Belein adjusts a bit. This team should be fast breaking more next year/ feeding the paint more. If we try and shoot this many next year and keep our current sets we may struggle. I hope he adjusts all summer instead of us losing lots of winnable games again early next year before he figures it out.
I derive some hope out of the fact that JB has proven, this year, that he can adjust in a meaningful way. JB is winning by having his team play tougher defense, without a great playmaker, without a great pick and roll game…It is inspiring to see the pieces come together.
The p n r game is still pretty dangerous this year imo. Even when we don’t score off of it it gets the d scrambled and off balance and we make them pay somewhere else.
I’ve written a lot today in my excited state. One thing I’d love for us to iron out late here that I mentioned in another thread is our off the ball picks/sets. We leave to early not letting the pick to be set properly and it renders it useless, to often I think we just go through the motions on our sets, just waiting to get late in the clock to run the p n r.
Sometimes guys are open and the passer doesn’t hit the cutter or player coming off the pick. They will be open and it’s almost like the ball handler had his mind made up already so their not ready to pass it when the guy breaks free or he has an angle/ positioning.
We have to keep the d honest and feed them and read the d. Why run the set at all if you don’t pass him the ball when it works? Then we just pass it back around the perimeter far from the hoop till there’s 10-13 on the clock and go into a one on one or two man game. I’d love for us to run those sets with more discipline / intensity and look to get easy baskets on them. It has a very real effect on the rest of the o. It will really open up a lot of looks and Angles for our bread and butter.
Same goes for the backdoor. Guys are open a lot. Feed him the rock for an easy two. That will get us the space for the open threes/ good looks. Exhibit A the first Hoosier game. We actually made the pass got 2 or three great looks and beleins offense just opened up. Suddenly we were unstoppable… .
Congrats on that win! Wish I would’ve DVRed it. Sounds like it would’ve been a good game to see.
It’ll likely end up on YouTube in some fashion.
Mgovideo has only the second half for some reason: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KP4fIiHB3o
The tough middle part of the schedule that everyone was worried about is now over. We went 4-2, which I think we all would have gladly taken at the start.
Now we face a final 5 game stretch that may be even more difficult since 3 opponents are ahead of us in the standings and 4 games are on the road. Three weeks ago, we needed to find ourselves. Now, we need to see if we can maintain the effort and consistency.
I’ll go now and watch. Thanks!
Good list, though I would say Teske destroyed himself. Self immolation.
Man he plays small. He makes himself X Simpson size the way he plays. I have confidence coaches will get him straightened out. Going to take some time though
Not counting the Wisconsin game. Teske, in my opinion, sets the most solid screens on the team and has shown that he is very hard for other players (like Nick Ward) to push around. He is a lot stronger than I was expecting. Surprised to hear you say he plays small. A poor leaper but he takes up space and a few times I saw him cleverly seal off defenders as our players drive toward the hoop.
His rebounding and low post moves have been unimpressive.
Teske has played 19 Big Ten minutes. I think it’s pretty clear he’s not ready for this level, but I don’t think you could RS both big men.
I thought yesterday was the first time he looked bad all year. Still really like his future, and think he’s worth giving spot minutes to down the stretch.
It’s very important our bigs stay out of trouble. It seems like every game we lost moe or dj were in foul trouble and not on the floor much. I liked that they were careful not to let this happen again yesterday like it did at the kohl. Killed us in that game.