BasicsWho: Michigan (3-1) vs. Alabama (3-2) |
 |
No real preview because I’m traveling and haven’t caught any of the Alabama games.
Michigan needs a win over the Crimson Tide to escape Orlando with an acceptable 2-1 record. Alabama picked up a pretty nice win over Baylor but they are still far from a complete team. Anthony Grant has been on the job for only a couple months and his program is very much in a transitional state.
I haven’t seen them play this year, but from what I understand, Alabama is a similar team to Creighton and Marquette in terms of style of play but they lack Marquette’s skill and Creighton’s experience and discipline.
Michigan has to worry about the inside outside duo of JaMychal Green and Mikhail Torrance. Green is the man inside, averaging 15 points, 8 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks. Torrance is the outside threat, shooting 40% from three point range and averaging 16.8 points, 4.8 assists, and 3.8 rebounds per game.
A way too early look at the Tide’s statistical profile shows that they have been able to score the ball extremely efficiently but haven’t been able to stop anyone. On offense they hold onto the ball, get to the line, and crash the glass. But on defense they have had loads of trouble defending the three point shot (38.6%) and have allowed opponents to rebound 40% of their misses.
This is a game that Michigan simply has to have. Predictions and in game discussion belongs below in the comments.
Hopefully Michigan will “Roll Tide.”;~)
Go Blue.
No worries Dylan – I’m sure Alabama fans don’t know much about their basketball team either.
I expect the difference today will be our ability to force turnovers out of the 1-3-1. Here’s hoping we shoot a little better as well. Go Blue!
Just to add / help out a traveling Dylan:
* Bama lost to Cornell on Nov. 14, in which they went spanned about 10 minutes scoring only 2 points. That lull put them in a bad position against a respectable and surprisingly ‘good’ Cornell team (Cornell played ‘Cuse tough for about 15 minutes last week). Bama was 24-52 from the floor, and a lot of misses were second half 3s to try and cut into the Cornell lead.
* Soph. JaMychel Green is probably their biggest collective scoring and board threat for us to defend and is a “bigger” 6′9″ 4/5. Sr. Anthony Brock, their PG, has a smooth touch and can shoot the ball pretty well. Bama doesn’t shoot the three ball very much and is averaging .352 on threes (mind you, that’s better than our .320 after the 3/20 performance on Friday).
* From what I’ve seen of Bama play and in the box scores, they commit a lot of fouls (averaging 19.8 per game). This could translate into lots of FT opportunities for us. Which means if this is a close game, or we’re trying to build a lead, we’ll need to shoot better than our .682 average so far this season.
and by CU playing Cuse tough for 15 minutes, I meant the first half…a brain lapse, my apologies…
Maybe this is a game where Vogrich can make a difference, with their poor 3pt defense.
Now i have to find a sports bar with ESPNU.
Yikes, Creighton loses to Iona… maybe our win against them won’t be so “quality” after all…
Creighton was down after losing to UM.
Same thing happened to Siena in last year’s Old Spice? They lost the first game to Tennesse and proceeded to mope around the rest of the weekend…they finished 0-3, but rebounded to have a strong season.
I expect Creighton will get it together — they always do. However, their struggles in Old Spice really hamper their chances to get an at-large bid if they don’t win the MVC.
And Baylor beats Xavier. For all the “our half of the bracket was so much tougher…”
Whelp, I guess that’s not true at all. Hopefully we pull it off and Marquette looks good winning the tourney, that will make ours a respectable showing still.
Udoh 15 pts, 9 boards, 6 blocks against Xavier today
As long as we don’t get killed on the glass, we should be alright. Alabama hopefully will be careless with the ball and that will lead to some easy opportunities.
I wanna see us push the tempo, force turnovers, and hit threes. If we do those things it shouldn’t be close.
By the way, it’s pretty dead here today, although there are at least more M fans than Bama.
Is it me or did the ESPNU announcers just try to analyze our 1-3-1 zone defense when we were in a 2-3 zone defense?
douglass is killing me
Man, Stu…you gotta finish that.
Not only did Douglass miss that layup (which wasnt the easy layup since he was coming straight at the basket with a guy on his back), but he also did not fight thru screens on two possessions which gave Bama two open threes, one of which they made.
Alabama looks like the Michigan football team…turnover every other possession.
Manny is a man among boys… and has been for all three games down here. He just needs to hit that outside shot…
new rule: If wright misses his first 2 he doesn’t shoot the rest of the game.
Anybody know of a site to watch this online? I don’t get ESPNU
Eric, I saw a link on mgoblog.com earlier
Eric, I swiped a justin.tv link from the Mgoblog open thread, I’m watching the popout, so I don’t have it up anymore.
here ya go: http://www.justin.tv/cbb2k8
Our perimeter defense is really poor. The on the ball pressure is lacking as well as any sort of rotation.
Thanks guys!
I can’t believe we let them back in the game like that…we should be up 15 at half.
Ball pressure, early help on dribble drives, better rotations, stopping opposing teams runs, closing out halves, these are all issues this team is having right now. I think a lot of it right now is a lack in vocal leadership on the court. They need someone to step up and get after people. Lee brought a lot of that last year, I have not seen anyone yet this year really show that attitude.
Yes, this team seriously misses CJ and Dave a lot.
If you go back to the Marquette game, I truly believe CJ and Dave would not have allowed that Marquette run after we managed to get it back to a one point game.
I must be a jinx. We seem to have been playing very well until the second I started watching.
I think the leadership thing can get overblown. The bigger problem that I am seeing is a lack of knowing what to do in certain situations. Most notably the skip pass is killing us because the backside defender is sagging way too low for help.
Is it me or does it seem like teams always shoot a really high field goal % against us in the first half.
NOVAK! Big three.
Why are we keeping a second guard back when bringing the ball up court? Clear everyone out and make them pay if they keep trying to trap the ball handler.
Alabama has come out for the second half insanely fired up…I wonder what the coach said to them at halftime.
Peedi needs to finish some of these looks.
We are letting this game get a little too frenetic. We can play high tempo, but we cant play wild high tempo and that is what is happenning right now.
peedi has been flat the last 2 games. It really makes me wonder how much his efficiency declines when he plays more than 25 minutes.
sims is killing me!!!!!!!!
Gibson has been playing pretty solid lately, wouldnt mind seeing him pick up a few minutes.
I cringe when I see Wright and Gibson on offense at the same time, but they do know where to stand in the 1-3-1. I assume that’s why we see this lineup.
that last 3 by bama really showcased the problem with our perimeter defense… aimlessly chasing the ball.
Wow, I can’t believe we are letting this game slip away right now. We are being so sloppy.
Yeah, lets kick it around to our worst three point shooter. Jesus.
we are in serious trouble, our perimeter defense is awful
this team certainly has a lot of growing up to do.
novak has been brutal all weekend
Doesn’t appear the Wolverines are as good as advertised. Quicker teams seem to give them fits and their 3-point shooting needs to improve dramatically or they will have trouble against better teams.
game over
game over
If we blow this game, we might not sniff the Top 25 again.
wow dont overact too much there guys. They got some work to do, but its basketball. You are going to lose games, just got to get better. This one isnt even over yet.
Embarrassing. Just embarrassing.
whats embarrassing is the reactions of some of these posters.
Need to get to the line (and make the FTs) – that was working in the first half.
freethrows need work as well
how in the world did that guy call a timeout so fast? I am not sure he had even got the ball yet.
They must have let the coach call the TO.
yea but even if the coach called it, i dont know if they had possession yet.
They must have said he never lost possession – Stu never touched the ball.
doesnt matter. it was a loose ball, you have to have the ball in your hands to call a timeout
terrible shot selection harris
Well, that heave with 23 seconds on the shot clock isn’t going to win anybody the Wooden Award.
Manny, Manny, Manny…why would you take that shot?
where the hell is sims
We are definitely a first half team
5.4 seconds. plenty of time to get a good look.
We’ve got a lot of work to do.
sorry, but the coaching in the tournament was absolutely brutal as well. How does Harris not get that shot. He has been penetrating all day.
No, really, this team isn’t very good. Deshawn has looked like Courtney Sims this year.
Manny just can’t huck up a three with that much time on the shot clock in a tie game. Just an awful decision, you’d think he’d know better by now. ESPECIALLY when he hasn’t been able to hit that shot at all so far this year.
tough loss. big time issues with intensity especially defensively. Just way too many lapses where they will lose focus.
Just took out my frustration from this weekend on a door… felt good. Lose Wednesday and we’re looking at a LONG year.
well i dont think the plan was just take it all the morris. he was probably supposed to pass up the court and given the option to drive if it was there.
Just an awful tournament. But this team lives and dies by its 3 point shooters. Where was Stu all tournament? We need him if we’re going to do anything this year.
Soft overall. Very soft. I don’t believe that some of these play calls were Beilein’s, come on now.
We’ve got to get Gibson more minutes. DeShawn just isn’t giving us anything on the defensive end. I can’t see us being a good defensive team if we’re going to use him as our only big man 35 minutes a game.
The Zack Novak at power forward experiment needs to end. One of the other bigs (besides Sims & Gibson) needs to step up. Think we miss the hustle and leadership of Merritt & Lee, too. Darius Morris looked like a freshman today.
This will be looked at as a “bad loss” RPI wise when it comes to Selection Sunday. Bama is not a good team… we picked a terrible three-game stretch to go cold from 3-point range, and the team definitely looked lost out there many times tonight. The 2-3 zone seemed to confuse us… sounds like we had plays for it but guys were going to the wrong spots.
Stu showed up for the last couple of minutes in this game…too little, too late. It’s a long season though. Now we get to play as underdogs again. Hopefully that will light a fire under the team.
Biggest thing with this game was the lack of ball pressure in the zone. It seemed like we got lazy for awhile there and allowed their guards to hold the ball and wait for their big to post the low man in the zone. The 1-3-1 works well when we are active and aggressive, but when we are passive our lack of size really shows up.
Tough, tough loss. Few quick reaction thoughts:
1. I’m not that well-versed in 1-3-1 but we look like a bunch of headless chickens on defense. Defense is creating a lot of turnovers but also giving up a lot (too many in my opinion) of open shots, both inside and outside.
2. I know this is a shooting team but we need some penetration – especially when shots aren’t falling. Let Manny and maybe DMorris drive more. Give Gibson some more time, he has been able to finish inside.
3. Need to make FTs.
It’s still early – I almost think a little adversity early in the season is good. This isn’t going to be that easy but I think the team will be better as a result.
With the way UM played at Old Spice, looks like we should lower our expectations for this season. I know it’s early, but we have many weaknesses. I don’t see any toughness physically or mentally.
At the start of the season, as a MSU fan, I was really worried that UofM could be a strong contender for the big ten crown and well I suppose they still are but from what I have seen so far it has been Manny Harris, Deshawn Sims and then everybody else. Again it is still really early but for this team to be a strong contender there needs to be a consistent 3rd option.
Even more so why it is more important for a 3rd option to break through is due to the fact that UofM relies on the 3 point shot and as the saying goes live by the 3, die by the 3. There will be your 15% and 25% 3 pt nights like we’ve seen. When the 3 point shot isn’t falling, well, manny harris can’t do much more to help the team win than deliver 26 pts, 10 boards, 2 assists and 5 steals.
through 5 games Harris and sims have taken (I think)151 of UofMs 303 field goal attempts. So who will be the guy to step up? LLP seems to be the best option IMO.
Pathetic. Unfocused and uninspired.
Forget the Big10 and ranking hype. This team has stuck itself into the NCAA tourney bubble class of teams.
Well, B10 better win the ACC challenge if they want any face.
I missed the game but the box score says alot, we are in search of the #3 scorer. A consistent one, Manny and Peedi had 42 of the 64 and nobody else had more then 6? that says alot! Expectations shouldnt be lowered, its called players need to step up. This is there time, and chance to be the man. It’s still early, and they faced great comp you cant ask for more. Its alot better then playing willacoochie state and winning by 40, these struggles make teams better.
No defensive intensity. You just can’t count on all the rebounds from Sims. Get Gibson in there with Sims and stop this nonsense with Novak guarding players much taller then him. Novak is overmatched. Would be helpful if we hit some 3’s as well.
Wins against BC and Utah would definitely help ease the pain of this loss, but unless we beat Kansas I think 9-9 in the Big Ten won’t get us to the tourney this year. Obviously it’s way too early to be talking about that but this tourney was clearly a blown opportunity to get some solid if not great wins to keep us in the “should be in” conversation for the season.
Missed the game, just saw the score and read a recap. Wow. I expected at some point to have our expectations lowered a little, but not brought crashing down. Now I have to question…can we beat Utah, can we beat BC? Forget about UConn and Kansas. I know its too early to panic but I just feel like the whole season is screwed. Yuck.
One of the worst labels a player can be given is “soft”. Congratulations, DeShawn. How does it feel?
Terrible 3 by Manny. We know, HE KNOWS, everyone knows he could’ve gotten a better shot. But…really, I’d be tired after carrying the team on my shoulders for 3 games in 4 days, too. Settle for a 3? Whatever. Until someone else decides to help out on the offensive end, this team is going to suck. Plain and simple.
One aspect of Beilein’s offense that is not going work is the 3-pt shot. The team can’t make them, soooo…..shoot 25 of them. That’s intelligent. Some people on here will say the team “can” make 3’s. You “can” when you “do” and they haven’t yet.
Never thought I’d say this, but…more Gibson, please.
Oh noes, the sky is falling, the season is over, Novak sucks if he were three inches taller we would have won, they can’t play defense, they can’t shoot, they’ll never win again, no big dance this year.
Ok, now that that’s out of the way. I’m interested to see how they respond in the coming weeks. They’re much better than this.
UMIndy, I agree that there’s a bit too much hand wringing going on, but I also think that it really is a problem that we can’t win a game when we get to the line much more often and have 19 steals.
I think that — based on last year — this team will get better and will get up for big games. The defense has to improve drastically though.
KDavis, good point about Manny — they were having success drawing foul calls on the inside and taking a long 3-pointer at that time didn’t make sense. I’d have gone inside at least once if nothing was there popped it back out.
This team is soft, plays uninspired and cannot rebound. We should have got Pitino 8 years ago. Sad thing is, they’ll be lucky to make the NIT the 4 years, especially without Harris and Sims. Yuck!!!
Scott, let’s wait until you’re sober to post again.
Well at least Marquette looks legit.
By the way, would you rather have neutral court losses to Marquette and Alabama, Utah and Bradley, or Portland and Texas A&M? I wonder if the Illinois and Minny fans are freaking out as much as we are.
FWIW, Portland will be in the top 25 tomorrow.
Maybe I spoke too soon on Marquette… didn’t realize they would decide to stop scoring in this half. 48-48 with 3 mins left, that’s ugly…
Wow, both UM and Marquette should have coasted today, instead both blow it in the 2nd half… and that makes the “top half” of the bracket 0-4 today.
Marquette loss really puts a nice final touch to this weekend. Hopefully we shoot better back in our own gym
ugh. so in every our bracket vs. the other bracket game, our bracket loses. The one team we beat lost all three. Good thing basketball season is longer than football season. also, i have more faith in beilein to figure things out.
I believe a lot of people are looking at the wrong side of the court. Our offense has not been great by any standard, but to me, that is not where the problem lies. Its the defense.
Even if we had converted more on offense, those defensive issues still cost us. UM missed three layups and two dunks that I can remember, but Alabama missed just as many if not more easy shots in the paint. Until this team figures out how to stop people from getting inside, they are not going to win consistently.
Offense comes and goes, as we saw this weekend with the putrid shooting, but defense is always your fallback. When last years team made their turnaround in Big Ten play, it was on the strength of their D. So while finding a third scoring option or knocking down more threes would certainly be nice, this team needs to focus more on stopping penetration and ball pressure.