Juwan’s becoming more comfortable and more polished. And with that, a little more generous with his analysis. I like what he says about the team’s readiness to grow from the Minnesota loss.
Yikes. Watching a Johns’ presser is like awkwardly sitting in on someone else’s therapy session. No wonder the dude is a hot mess on the court half the time.
How do you guys feel about Zay’s answers about other players? I always flinch when he starts talking about anybody but himself or coach. Brandon was a late bloomer, didn’t care about basketball, now he’s figuring it out. Mike never hit the weight room at Columbia, but now he is so he is learning defense. Maybe it can be ascribed as leadership, but I wonder if it grates and it makes me nervous for an otherwise special team. None of the other players ever talk in any way other than total support. I maybe even sensed a bit of annoyance in Brandon’s answer to BQ about how Isaiah would always do what’s best for him. What do y’all think?
I found it more strange that the first four minutes of Isaiah’s questions and answers were about how comfortable he is as a driver and a passer, that might literally be the only thing I would label a weak spot in his game. “You seem to get 3-4 assists every night and we take it for granted”…he’s averaging just over 2 per game on the season and his drives into traffic still end negatively more often than not.
He’s been way better as a passer. 2.3 assists is a huge uptick from him compared to the past.
It’s definitely a nice improvement. But Franz, Eli, and Smith all made larger jumps in assists per game from last season to this one than Isaiah. Maybe I’m in the “people who take your playmaking for granted” category, but on a night when he scored a super-efficient 20 points on 8 shots and I was surprised all his questions were about how comfortable he is driving into traffic and kicking out (I still cringe when he passes up decent looks from three to drive into traffic).
Also labeling Livers as a “4 assists a night” guy is straight out of the “Joey Hauser 6 assists per game” playbook.
Definitely fair. Isaiah has douled his assist rate but its nowhere close to 3-4 a game. And it’s kind of like Dylan’s discussion with BQ on twitter last night. BQ suggested Livers try to get fouled more, Dylan said he should just shoot more since he’s good at that and not good at drawing fouls.
When Isaiah makes a questionable drive we can now blame the Michigan media for gassing him up.
I love Isaiah’s answers; always very thoughtful and insightful. He gives more insight into how the game is played than some coaches are willing to give. In this one, he was highly complimentary of Brandon and Mike, and I’m sure both players would agree with everything he said about how they’ve developed; through the years in Brandon’s case and through the months in Mike’s case.
I think Brandon’s comment about Isaiah doing what’s best for him “at the end of the day” was in the context of what’s going to happen at the end of the season (ie.- leave or stick around for another year).
I didn’t get any of that, although I can see how it might be misconstrued. Seemed like a strong compliment to Mike, honestly. What struck me was the comment about getting to your spots and Coach Howard blaming not the passer but the recipient for not getting there. Helps explain the sometimes uncanny efficiency. . .
I thought the same thing. It would be great if felt like he could be aggressive and be comfortable playing thru mistakes.
I’ve always wondered how Isaiah would look with more movement to generate his shots. At this point he’s shooting purely spot-up/catch-and-shoot shots, but his FT% and sweet stroke makes me wonder if there’s more potential there to open up the offense even more.
Not saying he’s Duncan Robinson and we should be running DHO’s for him, but I think he can be more than a 40%+ stand still shooter.
I agree, Chatta, and his discussion of Eli last week was incredibly insightful and very complimentary! In my subsequent conversation with my son (PhD in Pychology and a pretty good athlete in his day) I spoke of Isaiah’s great leadership and his ability to selflessly extol the virtues of his teammates!
Some of us were complaining about what seemed like piling on against Davis last year, so it’s not like it’s a new topic on this board. And clearly, some of us have different demonstrated definitions of what’s acceptable in such commentary, as demonstrated over time. To some people a certain clinical criticism is just telling it like it is; to some of us longtime fans and M grads, it’s a little more about respecting players and school. To everyone’s immense credit, this board is mostly a polite place.
I do think that the conversation is pretty much exhausted, but would love to hear someone ballsy enough approach Juwan with the criticism(s). Ater all, that’s what journalism is supposed to be about. I promise that this will be my last intervention on this subject. 