I haven’t paid much attention this year, but every time I do pay attention, something bad is happening. What went wrong? Players, team, coach, program?
We failed the offseason.
Every decision went the other way.
We waited on two NBA draft decisions.
Scrambled, but yoyo wasn’t ready
Everyone said we had no guard depth.
Llewellyn proceeds to get a year ending injury.
Baker was a bust.
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They just didn’t have it. Coaches to the players. They’re not crisp up enough and they don’t have the chemistry or mental make up of a good team.
I also feel like the skill sets didn’t fit well.There is raw talent but it doesn’t blend well.
They’re also extremely inexperienced. Their only 2 seniors were both transfers in.
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One returning starter from last year. Llewelyn injury and most of the rotation ended up first and second year players. One player Shannon would have made the difference. As good as Hunter is he has huge holes in his game (defense). Not enough defensive stoppers. We have been spoiled with Livers, Wagner and Eli Brooks.
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May this thread age worse than any other thread in the history of threads.
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The 5 players who played the most minutes in the biggest game of the year yesterday:
-True Freshman (Dug)
-True Freshman (Jett)
-True Freshman (Reed)
-Sophomore, first year with a legitimate role (Kobe)
-Hunter
I mean there are a lot of reasons but when you look at where the team has failed the most it’s doing the little things to win close games. Experience has to play a part in that.
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I don’t have any huge thoughts yet, but our starting 4 the last 4 games attempted zero 2 point field goals in that timeframe and is still somehow the preferred option to start. That level of futility out of a spot is hard to fathom. 1 total shot attempt in combined 4 games is madness.
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Looking back, the variety of outcomes this team could have had is pretty crazy. They easily could have been undefeated since February and won a share of the Big Ten Title, they also could have easily lost to Ohio and Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan.
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That’s what you get when you have a young team.
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sophomore who is also literally the youngest player on the team! (although i know your point is more about game experience)
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Not sure what you expected from Baker but he actually contributed in a positive way more than I thought. We had what he was, a guy off the bench to hit threes. The rest is all true
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^^This tweet explains a lot. This year is a unique outlier - due to extra years of COVID eligibility plus loosening of the transfer portal, the average team was way more experienced this year.
Michigan, on the other hand, had a really young team due to several factors, some more controllable than others:
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Disrupted '19 Recruiting - let’s start with the fact that Juwan started coaching exactly 4 years ago. When a new coach comes in it disrupts your immediate recruiting efforts. In 2019, Michigan only landed Franz, who left to the NBA, and Bajema, who transferred. Michigan has 0 seniors as a result. Suffice to say this team would look a lot more dangerous with Jalen Wilson on it
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Early NBA Departures - Franz, Diabate, Houstan all left early to the NBA. It is what it is. Some might say this is why you shouldn’t recruit those types of guys, but 1) I’d rather have 1-2 years of those guys than none at all and 2) You must have the memory of a goldfish if you don’t remember how much people were complaining about not being able to land those kinds of guys during the Beilein era.
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Net Transfer Loss - In a different universe, some combination of Bajema, Frankie Collins, Zeb Jackson, Brandon Johns and/or Terrence Shannon would be contributing players on this roster. Instead we got Llewellyn and Baker.
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Injuries - Yes, Llewellyn wasn’t playing that great before he went down, but it still sucks to lose your starting PG, and even though Dug stepped up big time in his absence, the trickle down impact on our depth was huge.
Add it all up, and this was a very shallow, inexperienced roster competing against a uniquely experienced competitive field.
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Looking back, I’ll always remember this year as TSJ not getting admitted. That turned out to be a 6+ game swing and even that prediction is pretty modest, could’ve been more. Think we were anywhere from a 2 seed to a 5 seed at the worst with him on the roster. Also would’ve set the Illinois season on fire so it double sucks.
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We should make a banner to congratulate the admissions office.
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Overall young team, that brought in 2 older transfers hoping to get production, neither of which ended up being any good.
We had tons of early departures under Beilein, anyway.
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Strong take!