and it’s only going to get better throughout this season and probably next season as well. It’s amazing how much better this team looks now with a shortened bench and with everybody getting comfortable with their roles. The loss of Walton will hurt if he’s out long term but if he’s not, this team is going to be very dangerous come tournament time. There is simply too much talent on the team and the coaching is too strong for the team to struggle for long.
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Think we’re pretty far from REALLY good still, but this team will come together. If we can somehow cinch a win at SMU we will have a couple of quality wins on the resume and a long stretch in which to get comfortable as a team.
It’s great to see Robinson finding his stroke early and Moe working the rotation for the bigs.
But we really could use some consistency IMO. I’d like to see Irvin find his way quickly.
Freshman year he was the chucker off the bench.
Sophomore year he was shouldering the load.
Junior year he’s sort of the 3rd option? He needs to find out what that means for his game.
Its definitely going to be an interesting season, how serious did Walton’s injury look? That is huge.
Not to get too far ahead but I worry about who creates next year with Caris gone, some guys are going to have to step up big time in that aspect. Would be great if we somehow find a wing who can take it to the rack in the spring.
I still think it’s too early to say what this team is other than its not bad. The offense has definitely improved over the last several weeks but I’m not sure if the defense has. Xavier and uconn both killed Michigan by having multiple guys who could penetrate and multiple guys who could shoot. Neither Texas nor nc state really had that combo to test Michigan.
as much as I like the way the offense is coming around, I am very concerned with the perimeter defense.
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I am still not sure I would go that far. NC State is not a good team I know fans may overreact but their fans believe the season is already over and the team is complete garbage.
There were some good things Michigan did I think we will know more after that 4th BIG game though.
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Sounds like people here two weeks ago 
Don’t think NC State is great, but winning on the road against a top-100 team is an accomplishment at this point in the season. Michigan couldn’t drop that game. Next Tuesday will be huge against a SMU team that is favored per KenPom in all but two of its remaining games.
Even if you lose that game, 10-3 in the non-conference with road/neutral wins over Texas/NC St would be reasonable. Compare that to last season when Michigan entered Big Ten play with five losses and basically playing catch up all year.
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umhoops, The people who are negative will spin this any way they want to fit their narrative.
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I am not sure this is a negative spin some NC State fans think they’re good for a 10-12 win season overall. Fans are tired of Gottfried.
I was and am still very high in these team if healthy. Walton is the key. Especially if he plays with confidence and attacks. So many options to kick to. I was also one guy who thought Dawkins would take over. I’m sad that he doesn’t seem to have confidence and looks lost. I’d actually like the team to try and get him involved and run some curls on the elbow like last year to wake him up. If he finds his range and confidence this offense could be amazing with Robinson.
Wagner is also going to be a big reason we could be very dangerous if healthy. He’s more than competent and you can trust him to catch and finish at the rim. Team needs to play hard and team rebound like yesterday to be successful. This is where Irvin is key. His role should be utility man. Yes his driving skills and threes are nice but his grit and rebounding will be huge.
I just pray Walton is healthy because with him playing well and getting in the paint it opens so much up. Also his rebounding is huge. I really like our potential if we can just realize it. I don’t want them to totally forget about Wilson though. Another guy who I think just needs some time to find his game in live action.
Also rahkman looked good yesterday. If Waltons hurt he’s gonna see a lot of time and I actually think he can do it. He’s great getting in the lane when he wants to. It seems like him and Aubrey might deferring now that the others are back. I hope they realize there’s no need to defer and attack as we can win in a variety of ways. Rahk could have gone to the rack more but hesitated. If he starts with Derrick down he has to step up and attack like we know he can.see his spin move last night.Also push the tempo sometimes with him out there. He drew a hard foul doing this. Very excited to see guys living up to their billing. We can win these upcoming even without Derrick that’s how good and deep we are. Just have to adjust and execute. But man having Derrick makes me feel even better. No true point but by sharing ball duties rahk levert can do it.
I’m hopeful the best is yet to come.
Wagner’s apparent ability to hit 3’s and drag opposing 5’s out to the 3 point line, is as of yet untapped. Not to mention his ability and audacity to then drive around them.
Irvin’s shot: once he starts shooting it better, this offense is lethal. There will be shooters spotting up everywhere and a wide open lane for drivers.
Defense, rebounding, and blocking out: this team has come along ways in this regard, has a long way to go, and should continue to improve.
Coaching: these guys know how to get it done. Coach Beilein is supremely confident in his ability and he should be, he’s been down this path many many times. I’ve been watching Coach Beilein for 9 years, I don’t understand some of his methodology, but he does, and it works. When he says he not frustrated with the team and he knows what needs to be done, I believe him.
Do we know how good of a shooter Irvin is? He didn’t shoot a lot his freshman year. He didn’t shoot very well last year and was healthy. This year he hasn’t shot well and we are chalking it up to his back surgery.
5-28 behind the arc
11-19 inside the arc
Why does he insist on shooting behind the arc when he’s much better and it’s not even close inside the arc?
I think Irvin has always been a streaky shooter, but he hit 40+% as a freshman with over 150 attempts. That’s a great shooting year. I don’t have a doubt that the back injury, more the time off, is affecting his shot right now.
This is also a guy who was 3 to 1 3PA to 2PA as a freshman and had single digit assists and barely rebounded. We’re seeing his floor game continue to improve and I think the long-range shot will improve (only way to go is up from 18%).
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His shot will come back as his conditioning improves. This is a guy who basically went from non contact drills to playing in relatively no time. It’ll take him a while to catch up. I think our schedule will allow him to play himself into his normal game shape and work out any kinks in his jumper. He’s going to be a huge part of what we do in Big 10 play.
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It’s nice to get 3 wins in a row. Saying this team is good is every bit an overreaction as when I said they were bad.
We beat arguably the worst team in D1 in Charlotte. We beat a Texas team bound for the NIT and we beat NC State who probably won’t play in a post season this year.
I like that we seem to have an established rotation now. Our Spacing seems to be better on offense. Wagner is an animal. MAAR can defend. Duncan can flat out shoot. 3 players this team needs to improve on a game to game basis to be a NCAA tournament team.
I’m surprised by Doyle’s slow start but I think we have a lot of guys figuring things out.
Duncan and Mo contributing.
Irvin coming back off an injury and finding his role.
Dawkins trying to figure out where his shots went and what to do now.
Spike hurt.
I would love to see Wilson play the 4 position now that Mo is plugging in at the 5.
He’ll take some adjusting but long term I think it’s a good flexibility move.
Not many scary teams in the Big 10 though.
I’d much rather see Dawkins improve to the point where that’s not really an option.
Problem with moving anyone from the 5 to the 4 is that it takes minutes away from Irvin, Robinson, Dawkins.
Not everyone needs to score, and if Aubrey can fill the role of a solid wing defender who can rebound (haven’t seen it yet), I think he’s find starting, and you use Wagner/Duncan as your catalysts if the starters can’t get the offense going (like last night).
Assisted 2s are the only metric I watch with this team. 3s will fall some nights, and not on others (UConn), so we need offense with at least one foot in the paint. Walton can enable that, but I think Caris at the 1 is perfectly viable if we have to do it for stretches until Spike is back.
Zak is the only one who can pass it softly enough for Doyle to catch, but those two had good chemistry end of last year. Ride that to get some easy points while Caris and others try to get the first unit going. If it doesn’t work, Ducan and Mo to the rescue. I think this can work sustainably except against teams like Purdue, Xavier, etc who have crazy size.
Still need to be better at the fundamentals of rebounding which anyone can develop if they focus on it. Lots of time to get better if we can get through SMU.
Would you agree, next season, Wagner and Wilson at the 4 is the best scenario? At least some portion of the game it would be nice to match the opponent’s size, without sacrificing shooting and skill. I think, potentially, Wilson and Wagner offer this.
It’s nice to see you backtracking now on your earlier comments. The difference between mine and yours is that I will never have to backtrack because I know that Michigan has a ton of talent on the team this year and we’ve got an exceptional coach. We are going to be a good team this year and barring some unusual attrition, we will be good next year as well. How good will we be is a question I can’t answer but I think the ceiling is very high given the talent on the roster.
For the life of me, I just can’t understand how people can jump ship so fast. It’s almost like people have never seen JB operate before.
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