Feb 22, 2009 at 1:14 pm by Dylan Burkhardt Filed under: 2008-2009 Season

Game 28: Michigan at Iowa Live Blog

Tip off is at 5PM, we will probably get started 15 minutes or so early. Brian is hosting this one but I’m going to throw it up here as well.

  • WHATAP

    Why doesnt NCAA adopt the half circle? Man sometimes it seams like the reffs have a personal vendetta against UM!

  • bentley

    season’s over … I didn’t like the calls down the stretch, but lets be honest the defense in the second half was pretty suspect. Letting Kelly drive on almost every possession is a joke. And belein sitting harris in overtime is a joke as well. Somebody needs to hold him accountable. This has gone too far with the questionable rotation

  • WHATAP

    GET THE BALL INSIDE!! GET THE BALL INSIDE, GET THE BALL INSIDE. John Beilein was out coached.

  • NIT

    Horrible coaching effort by JB. Sims needs to take skirt off and start banging inside

  • MichiganFanTrappedinOhio

    Can anyone Please explain my Manny Harris was on the bench the entire overtime???? Now is not the time to make your pooint as a choach do that Crap in the offseason. Another example of this poor pratice is not playing Grady at all the entire game. Why would you do that??? HE ONLY SCORED IN DOUBLE FIGURES IN 14 MIN OF ACTION LAST GAME. I would like to break something right now I am so frustrated. Someone please call a reporter to ask Beline these questions in press conference.

  • UMDC

    We’re not done until we lose our 10th B10 game AND lose in the B10 tourney.

    I refuse to give up!

  • MichiganFanTrappedinOhio

    Sorry for all the spelling errors. I can not even think to function.

  • UMDC

    Coach B just said on the post game that Manny wasn’t playing well so we said lets go…

    That’s paraphrased of course.

  • Bill

    CJ Lee for ALL Big Ten. He made a couple of good passes.
    Hit the backboard from the side missed a couple of layups and his defense, couldn’t handle anyone.

    Benching Harris, yep he was the only player out there the last 10 seconds and it looked like Beilein set up a great play. “Hey john” a lot of coaches call time outs when things aren’t going to plan on last shots.

    I feel bad for guys playing their a$$ off all game and seeing the coach sit the best player as a “teaching moment”. Maybe Martin should teach him something and fire him.

  • Mason

    Anyone listen to Shep’s interview with Belien? When asked about the different OT lineup, he says “Manny wasn’t playing well, so let’s go play ball.”

    Un-bleeping-real.

  • MichiganFanTrappedinOhio

    Okay he gives his shooters a green light to fire at will, but you bench one of the Big Ten’s leading scorers and clutch players because he is off. Great decision.

  • UMDC

    There was no suggestion by Coach that sitting Manny was to “teach him” anything. It seemed to me that he felt like Manny wasn’t playing well, so they went with the lineup they liked.

  • WHATAP

    The way we played today scares me a little moving forward as well. When we do have guys that have size and can bang, how is JB going to utilize them?? 75% of the teams we faced this year had us beat inside, there is no doubting that, and I can also understand the philosophy in those games in that we basically have no shot at scoring much in the paint so we have to do other things..BUT.. when we face a depleted Iowa team, who has 1 maybe 2 serviceable bigs, and we fool around out at the perimeter hoisting 3 after 3 it begins to get very frustrating. Sims and Gibson should have touched the ball every time down the floor. I hope that when we get some guys in here with some post skill that we actually utilize it! My fear is that JB doesnt make it much of a priority and therefore we are not accustomed to going inside. We are soo used to jacking it up from deep, which in turn I think it causes some of our guys to lose their fight. Myabe Im wrong but I just wish we took it at Iowa a little more. Part of basketball is taking advantage of your mis matches, and in my estimation we did not do that today. We let a less talented, depleted team beat us today. As far as Manny not playing in overtime, I dont know what happend at the end of reg, but I guess JB figured a teaching lesson was more important than the win. Im a bit lost on that decision.

  • Bill

    Manny not playing well is still better than anyone else playing good.
    CJ was being punked out and missing shots and he was still out there. What would you expect Beilein to say after the game. Those comments don’t mean much.

  • AG2

    Wow, just wow. At least Iowa’s win could propel them back into the RPI Top 100. Other than that, I’d expect to see Maryland take our spot in ESPN’s projection come Monday.

    I’m seriously questioning whether we can win any of our last 3 games. Can they even finish ahead of Northwestern now? Even if they do somehow benefit from a Minnesota or OSU collapse and get to 7th in the Big Ten, they could just end up losing to Iowa again.

  • UMDC

    I don’t know where you guys are getting this “teaching Manny a lesson” stuff from. It’s not true. JB went with the lineup he thought was playing well. He turned out to be wrong, but this “teaching Manny a lesson” thing is just not true.

  • http://Detroitsportsrag.com GBMDC02

    great team! Great coach! teaching moment!

    CJ Lee-Merritt-Stu-Novak-Deshawn is a great lineup! Really! It is! Big Ten Talent! Intelligent!

    Maybe someone can ask why he’s starting a player who could barely get minutes at Manhattan?

    Nope, not questionable at all.

  • jmblue

    It could be that JB doesn’t want to go public with whatever happened, and the “he wasn’t playing well” line is just a cover.

    I can’t get over that last minute of regulation. Manny gets hammered, no call. Sims ties up a guy, no contact, and it’s a foul. Killer, killer swing.

  • NIT

    Our defense made Iowa’s gumpy-ass white guards look like Kobe Bryant

  • Tom Too

    Did anyone see Manny get up (unasked) with about 3:10 left in OT to go in and JB had him sit back down? Check the replay out…it is right after Sims misses a jumper. I think JB was pissed about the last play of regulation…Manny not knowing the situation and probably didn’t listen in the huddle before the last play.

  • Bill

    “I can’t get over that last minute of regulation. Manny gets hammered, no call. Sims ties up a guy, no contact, and it’s a foul. Killer, killer swing.”

    Yeah Manny doesn’t get many calls especially when Eddie O’Neil is the ref in position to call it.

  • WHATAP

    I will take an average day from Manny over a good day from Lee, Novak…ect. In crunch time you need your star player ON the COURT, even if in regulation he missed a couple shots. At least Manny would have had a shot at stopping the clock and go to the line, instead we have Lee(bless his heart) and Novak get their shots batted off the backboard by none other than MATT GATENS! WOW. JB just simply was out coached and did not have a very good game plan going in, nor did he make the necessary adjustments in game.

  • Avery Queen

    Regardless of whether he was teaching him a lesson or if he just thought he didn’t play well (which he didn’t) it was just absolutely idiotic. The team looked clueless in OT probably because they were wondering why the hell Manny wasn’t in. And how about that play at the end of regulation? This game was a coaching breakdown. Oh and if I’m Grady I’d start exploring some other options.

  • Bill

    Has Beilein ever admitted to making a mistake during a game??
    I don’t recall ever hearing him admit it. Maybe he needs to realise he is coaching college kids mostly 1st and second year players. If Manny was in his 3rd or fourth year his reaction would be understandable. This is the first time for these guys playing in important games ther were none last year. When there is 8 or 9 seconds to go and things are falling apart he should have called a time out. All I saw was him point to the clock.

  • http://umhoops.com Go Blue

    This is what you get when you insist on playing walk ons. Can we now put the great myth of Lee and Merritts good defense to rest, those slow white guards of Iowa did whatever they wanted all game long!!! Is it possible that a super quick and athletic guard, who happens to be your best 3 point shooter could have helped today???? He only scored like 13 points in 14 minutes last game, but no forget about it. Lets take our best player and rebounder out in overtime!!!!!!! If I was Grady I would transfer in a second.

  • WHATAP

    Yeah and lets pray that Manny isnt exploring either. NO reason he should have been sitting on the bench with the season on the line. Have a heart to heart after the game for GOD sakes. Its crap like that doesnt sit well with players, and forces them out. I understand you need to have control over your players, but you just cant screw around like that in a crucial game.

  • BJ

    Beat Purdue

  • AG2

    On the one hand, there is no excuse for Manny not playing in OT if he’s not hurt. On the other hand, Beilein is not Thad Matta. He’s not going to let his players walk all over him just because they’re talented.

    On the last play of regulation I was for sure convinced that Manny was going to drive the lane and get to the freethrow line with like, 3 seconds left or something. Then again, the refs were letting Iowa get away with murder all game and our 3 point shooting, while good, wasn’t that much better than Iowa’s.

  • Avery Queen

    I definitely agree the defense was pathetic tonight. Bullwinkle or whatever his name was got open look after open look. And Merritt cannot run the bottom position of the 1-3-1.

  • Tom Too

    And, when Stu hit that three with a minute left to put them up by four, I was screaming, “That is the shot of the year! That is the shot of the year!” Now, it is all but forgotten….NIT!!!!!!!!!

  • Avery Queen

    I mean I agree Manny should have done something with 3 seconds other than hand it off to Novak. But we might as well just have done a Manny iso play instead of getting it to him at the top of the key with 3 seconds left.

    I’m so mad right now I could go for a Bilas breakdown of the game.

  • AG2

    I just saw the box score. Are you aware that 4 of Iowa’s starters played all 45 minutes? The only subs they made were for Cole who only sat out for 7 mins while Cyrus Tate tried to play. I guess all that time off before this game really helped. Well, that and extremely biased officiating.

  • jack simms

    it kills me to say so—but the state fans at crisler were absolutely right—N-I-T! N-I-T!

    if manny said something/did something totally out of line then the coach has to sit him—-but let’s not kid ourselves about the talent level on this team—-and let’s not kid ourselves about the level of talent “upgrade?” we have coming in next year

    maybe we make the ncaas after the 2010-2011 season

  • http://umhoops.com Go Blue

    Winning is obviously secondary to looking out for your 5th year walk on players. Ive supported Beilein, but the player rotations and playing time have gone too far. Its obvious to any one not blindly trying to defend it.

  • http://www.umhoops.com Dylan

    FWIW… Our RPI fell a couple spots to 52.

  • MichiganFanTrappedinOhio

    Say what you want about Thad Matta, but if I am not mistaken we have not finished ahead of them in the Big Ten since he has been there. As I said earlier teaching players your way needs to be done in the off season and pratice not during critical times and games throught the year. I believe Grady will explor his options and I also belive after this stunt tonight that Manny might just enter the Draft.

  • Avery Queen

    Think how mad we are and then think how mad Manny must be. There’s no way that can be healthy for him or the team.

  • WHATAP

    I love JB, but this was just one of the worst coached game Ive seen from him, and it didnt come at a worse time. I guess coaches have bad games to. We could still beat Purdue, get 1 more from either Wisconsin, or Minn, and get hot in the BTT and win 2. We could be right on the fence. However we have to have better gameplans.

  • Giddings

    I don’t know what happened between the end of regulation and OT, but just remember this… Beilein isn’t building a season, he’s building a program. Manny had to have done something that didn’t fit in line with what Beilein is trying to do here at Michigan, and unfortunately it came at a critical moment.

  • http://umhoops.com Go Blue

    CJ Lee played 36 minutes and scored ZERO points!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On top of the fact he was victimized all game long on defense and Grady still couldnt get on the court. This is beyond explanation as far as im concerned. Hell, if he played defense like Gary Payton he wouldnt warrant all those minutes if he cant score, at all.

  • Avery Queen

    Anything short of death threats does not justify sitting Manny in the most crucial 5 minutes of the season.

  • MichiganFanTrappedinOhio

    You Need recruits to build a program and if I was a recruit sitting at home watrching that game and saw how Manny got treated and how Grady has been getting treated this year I would question if I wanted to play for him or not.

  • http://www.umhoops.com Dylan

    the counter argument to recruiting is that you see two freshmen, Douglass and Novak, playing huge minutes…

  • WHATAP

    I understand where you are coming from Gidds, but there isnt going to be season(s) to come if he continues to make decisions like that. Manny Harris better have made a bigtime booboo to warrant him the entire duration of OT on the bench. Otherwise I am seriously lost in translation.

  • MichiganFanTrappedinOhio

    At what cost do you want those minutes? At the cost of having all credibality taken away from you with your teamates and fans by getting benched for a mistake. kids now do not respond to that type of coaching. As a matter of fact I am not sure who does respond to public humilation

  • Tom Too

    Manny did something very wrong at some point, and I think we are all judging JB without knowing all of the facts. If it warranted benching him the entire OT, I gotta believe he deserved it.

  • Giddings

    I do have to say, though, that CJ was simply not getting it done today and probably didn’t deserve to play as many minutes as he did. In the past few games we were fine with him not scoring because he was shutting down the other team’s lead guard. Today, he could not stop Jake Kelly… whether it was the step back 3, penetration, or moving without the ball, Kelly just destroyed us. He had a couple nice hustle steals (or almost steals) but it was obvious that Kelly was having his way all game.

    In that case I think JB has to try Grady… that was a bit disappointing.

  • AG2

    The moral of the story is that freshmen and walkons do not win on the road. And teams that can’t win on the road don’t make the tournament.

    Next season, Michigan will play in the Old Spice Classic. Since that tournament is entirely on the road it will hopefully inflate our road record unlike this year were we ended up playing a home game vs. a D2 school.

  • Fab54ever

    Lets be honest letting a team this shorthanded hang around is just a joke. How they don’t pound the ball inside to Peedi all game I’ll never understand. Is that coaching? It has to be. Yes, the call at the game on deshawn was horrible it was a jump ball, not to mention sent a 93% foul shooter to the line for their last 4 pts. Manny must of said something stupid, if not there is no excuse for him to be on the bench. The team is lost without him on the floor, as you saw in OT. 3 games left, have to get 2 its as simple as that. Another must win at home vs Purdue. I hope these guys can get up for that one. We can’t expect to win every overtime game this year, they have been playing with fire for a while now.

  • WHATAP

    Good point Dylan, but without Manny this team would be nothing but a .500 team. Stu, and Zack cannot create their own shot at this point in their career. I could not imagine why you would not want the ball in Many’s hands even if he had to settle for a deep three, unless Stu or Zack are sitting on the wings wide open, and that would not happen unless Manny, or Grady are in the game creating the shot for them.

  • http://umhoops.com Go Blue

    Lets assume Manny not playing was justifiable, what about Grady not playing???? This cannot be overstated, he is our best ball handler, best 3 point shooter % wise and scored 13 points in 14 minutes last game out. Lee played poorly defensively and failed to score a single point in 36 minutes!?!? WTF, im sick of all the excuses for a coach thats not giving his team the best chance to win.

  • WHATAP

    Go Blue, It comes down to the lack of making in game adjustments. AG2 is somewhat right, we are just limited when we are playing walk-ons, and a bunch of freshmen. Still doesnt excuse not putting KG in there though. I would have even thrown Shep in there and told him to lock down Kelley on D, and take your slow less athletic defender to the rack, Something other than jacking 3′s and letting a less talented Iowa team hang around.

  • AG2

    I’m not very optimistic about either the Big Ten tournament or the last 3 games. This team has needed overtime to beat two of the worst teams in the big ten on the road. Minnesota is a much better team at The Barn, and we have about as good a chance of beating Wisconsin on the road as we did vs. UConn.

  • Giddings

    Hard to be optimistic but at least the door is not completely shut as many people are suggesting. Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? No.

  • WHATAP

    Agreed Gidds, definitely agreed. I myself will be screaming at the TV in insane optimism right until the very end. Lets all hope the program as a whole, but most importantly JB learns from this, and in moving forward devises better game plans. My suggestion: Dump it inside more against teams in which you have advantages.

  • http://Detroitsportsrag.com GBMDC02

    Uhhhhh…..

    This season is over.

    13 years since the NCAA tournament.

    Heckuva job.

  • Avery Queen

    Well Minnesota certainly recovered. Definitely can’t see us winning in Madison and if Minnesota is gonna be fighting for a berth don’t think I see that one happening either. Hope I’m wrong.

  • raiderfan

    I think JB is going to bring great things in the future but tonight he flat out coached us out of the tournament. Yes, the officiating was horrible but that has to be expetced on the road. You have to put your personal stuff aside and put your best five on the floor. This was the biggest game in the last ten years, or at least the most important, and our best point guard didn’t play a second and our best player didn’t see the court in overtime. I honestly just don’t get it.

  • Kevin

    Man, everybody here is so pessimistic. The way I see it, we need three more wins to at least give us a chance. Even if we only get 1 in the regular season, it will either give us anothe quality win, or help knock Minny off the bubble. The BTT should be good for us considering JB’s quality record in tourneys. Bottom line, if we can get three wins, I’ll have something to watch for on selection sunday, and really, that’s all i can ask for considering what i was expecting coming into the season.

  • http://umhoops.com Go Blue

    Kevin, thats not all you could ask for. You could ask that the best players get a chance to play.

  • gpsimms

    Man, Dylan i know how hard of work it is, but this is a game that needs some of your plus minus analysis. I am so positive that Merritt was killing this team when he was in. He CANNOT be the runner on the bottom of the 1-3-1. Iowa got so many open threes when he was in. I remember thinking it seemed like he was at fault on a lot of them, and then seeing during the halftime highlights that almost every one of their threes, it was Merritt running after them. He is way too short/slow for that spot. Kelvin may take poor paths through screens, but he is not slow.

    Not to pile on, JB, and thank God you’re here, because we’re [almost] relevant again because of you, but really? Merritt and Lee and no Manny in OT? Does anyone remember how terribly Manny was playing against Purdue? He was awful…yet, we were close, until he was ejected. The team cannot perform without Manny, period. Stu and Zack and even Peedie, really, have trouble creating shots on their own. Manny changes defenses and creates openings for the rest of the team. Everyone knows this, ask any coach in the big ten how they plan for us.

    The big debate about Kelvin this week will rage on, but I think the point is that CJ does bring things besides scoring and helps the team. So does Kelvin though, and no one suggests he replaces Lee, its Merritt that needs to sit.

    Frustrating game in every way. I hope they pull together for a miracle run. They shoulbe up for the Purdue game given how it went in W Lafayette, but I’m afraid coach’s decision to bench Manny and Grady has the team reeling a little bit.

  • AG2

    That’s a good point. If you really think about it, without Manny, we pretty much ARE Iowa. But getting 8 days rest and even then their team MVP was Ted Valentine. I just can’t get over that.

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