UM Hoops.com

Rough loss for the women’s team tonight to Wisconsin 69-67. Michigan led by as much as 20 points and still managed to let the game slip away. As you can see from Borseth’s reaction, Michigan got out rebounded 40-33 (23-7 offensive rebounds). This was enough to cost Michigan the game even though they out shot Wisconsin 51% to 34%.The loss will probably cost Michigan an NCAA tournament bid but it has still been a very successful first season for Borseth and the Wolverines. They beat Michigan State for the first time in six years (nine games) in front of a record 5,596 people (more people than have been at many mens games this year). They also probably will finish with a winning record in the BigTen as well. Not to mention winning 3 road games in the Big Ten (at Wisconsin, Northwestern and Illinois). Hopefully they can scrape together a few more wins and make some noise in the Big Ten Tournament to reach the NCAA tournament. Or at least get a few offensive rebounds. Continue reading ‘Offensive Rebounds’

• 6-11 power forward Mason Plumlee verballed to Duke. This one was showing signs of being over once he raved about his visit to Duke. Plumlee also scored a team high 15 points in the North Carolina 3-A State championship win for the Greenies.
• Nice piece on Zack Novak and his father’s battle with cancer. Novak led Chesterton with 23 points and 9 boards in a win over Crown Point to wrap up their first ever outright conference title.
• Kyle Cassity put up a solid double double with 15 points and 16 boards in a win over Harrisburg to advance to Friday’s sectional final. St. Louis headman Rick Majerus was in the house watching Kyle play.
• Corey Person and K-Zoo Central have advanced to Friday’s district final as well, Person scored 9 points in the easy victory over Portage Northern.
• David Curletti, another potential walk on, scored 26 points in Orchard Lake St. Mary’s win over Birmingham Groves. Dion Sims was reportedly a non-factor and John Beilein was in the house. OLSM also rolled over PSL-champ Northwestern in the opening rounds of distrcits (Sims 30pts, Curletti 18)
• The talk down in Bloomington is that Tony Bennett might be the guy, although Washington State fans say no chance. Could Klay Thompson end up back on the board? Thompson recently scored a career high 40 points (5 3pfg) and had 8 assists. The reports were glowing about Klay at open-gym on his visit and he sounds like a guy that could come in and play from day 1.
• Donald Stewart is reportedly receiving Michigan interest. This is the first I have heard of Stewart who is averaging 16.3 points, 6 rebounds, 2.5 steals, and 2.4 assists.
• Jordan Morgan and U-D Jesuit got blown out by Detroit Pershing and 2010 standout Keith Appling. Rumor has it that it will be tough for Michigan to get a sniff of Appling and this is pretty believable. A.W. Canada has not been around Crisler this year, let the PSL recruiting debate rage on. Ekpe and Manny were in the house as well.
• Mater Dei junior forward Andy Brown had 25 points and 8 boards in a 70-61 win. Brown is definetely one to watch in the class of 2009.

There is really nothing positive to say after this game. A bad Northwestern team came into Crisler and just kicked our butts, There is no doubt that we came out flat and complacent in the first half. And Moore was on fire the entire game, kid was just raining threes, but that was just an inexcusable loss. As a couple people said in comments before the game, this one had all the signs of an upset.

It has been a painful season and we really shouldn’t have expected anything less than a loss to Northwestern honestly. The only positive spin I can put on this game is that it teaches this team a good lesson about bringing it every night. You better believe that we will bring 100% effort against Northwestern next year.

DeShawn Sims appeared to get it for a bit in the last stretch of game but something just isn’t there and its pretty clear that he just doesn’t have the motor. Manny is great but the turnovers are really killing this team, I’m confident he will get it straightened out but some of them are just awful. Ant Wright, our “shooter”, is not making shots even wide open ones. The only player who really played well was CJ Lee who helped get us back in the game at all.

This article about the state of the program pretty much sums it up for me. We have a LONG ways to go and it isn’t gonna be pretty.

Stuart Douglass and his Carmel team survived an upset bid in the first round of sectionals on a very rough shooting night. Stu led the team with 15 points.

Finally a game that Michigan should run away with easily. We were dominating Northwestern for the first 30+ minutes of the first meeting and our offense looked great all around. Then we took the pedal off the metal too soon and Coble went crazy. Northwestern almost beat a distracted Indiana team but they still should be no worry for Michigan Tuesday. Maybe the Wildcats are improving as they have lost their last two games by a combined 5 points.

It’s probably a pretty safe bet that Coble will score at least 20 points but Michigan should be able to neutralize the rest of the Northwestern lineup. Where Michigan looked best in their last contest against the Wildcats was on offense. They played lights out offense for about 30 minutes in Evanston, making shots, making cuts, playing true Beilein ball. Hopefully a game against Northwestern is what this team needs to get its offense back in gear because Saturday was simply a sickening offensive performance.

I expect Ant Wright to get the start again at the three, but at this point who knows. The production at the wing position has basically been reduced to nothing. Although both Wright (7 pts, 7 boards) and Shepherd (8pts, 4reb, 5ast) had solid games last time against Northwestern.

One thing to mention is that this is the teams 3rd game in six days. The team looked tired against Illinois and you can bet that the fatigue is really starting to affect these kids. Only one starter (Ekpe) on the team has played major minutes for an entire college season.

Luckily we don’t have to worry about Northwestern invading Crisler but you can sure bet that a 9pm Tuesday night game over Spring Break against Northwestern will be just about empty (update: The snow is only going to make this one worse, crowd is going to be embarassing tonight).

UMHoops Prediction: Michigan 80 – NW 63 – The Wolverines get a confidence boost and coast to a solid win before a big test at Penn State this weekend.

The Big Ten announced today that the Purdue game will be Sunday March 9th at 4pm on CBS. Hooray for more national exposure. Could be a great way to finish the season against a very good, but not invincible, Purdue team. The stakes will be high as Purdue will probably be playing for a share of the Big Ten title.