Well that’s certainly not how to snap a losing streak. Michigan picked up right where they left off with another terrible performance.
Michigan knew the importance of this game but they played without any mental toughness. They blew routine layups, fell asleep on inbounds plays, couldn’t hit a shot, and lacked defensive intensity. The whole nine yards.
Right before players were introduced John Mahoney motioned to CJ Lee, who was sitting directly behind the Maize Rage, to come down on the court and put on a jersey. He was obviously kidding, but there is no doubt that it would have helped. It’s beginning to sound redundant but the void in leadership is painfully obvious. It’s time for someone to take ownership and get this team on the same page.
On offense, it just isn’t working. Boston College packed the lane and dared Michigan to beat them from the outside. It obviously worked. Michigan shot 38.7% on two point field goals and 26.5% from long range (39.2% eFG). They simply couldn’t buy a basket. The shooting has to get better but what I’m most worried about is the flow of the offense. At this point it seems like there is far too much thinking going on before the correct reads are made.
The defense was brutal as well. Yes, it got better as the game went on but Boston College had already established their dominance. Boston College ran the flex offense to perfection against Michigan, mostly thanks to Corey Raji who scored 24 points on 11 of 16 shooting. According to the numbers at SCACC Hoops, through the first 30 minutes of play Michigan was giving up an astounding 1.30 points per possession.
As someone that has tried to be a consistent voice of reason, it’s hard not to panic at this point. Michigan laid an egg, at home, in a game they had to have. The season is still young but this team is playing terrible basketball, there is no other way to put it. At this point, every game seems to raise more questions about this team.
How do you fix it? This team’s confidence is rattled and who knows what will get it back. This stretch is eerily similar to Michigan’s swoon in late January when the offense seemed to disappear and Michigan lost 5 of 6 games. In the middle of that stretch, I wrote a piece proclaiming that Michigan needed to “Just Play Ball” rather than be crushed under the weight of expectations. At this point, there’s not much more that Michigan can do.
Player Bullets:
- Manny Harris: It’s hard to call 19 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 turnover, and 2 steals a bad game but it’s reality. There are enormous expectations on Manny’s shoulders but I don’t think he would want it any way else.
- DeShawn Sims: Ugh. Michigan needs a lot more from Peedi. I don’t know whether it’s effort, focus, or hustle but Sims needs to produce. He has all the talent in the world but he needs this is his senior year, he needs to bring more to the table.
- Zack Novak: Love Zack’s hustle but after the first few minutes his shot disappeared. He was banging against a 6’9 Joe Trapani all night which might have something to do with it. Zack Novak is going to play a lot but that means he needs to hit shots, especially if he is going to take 11 field goal attempts.
- Zack Gibson: Gibson is playing very well: 9 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 blocks in 16 minutes. He needs minutes, I’m not sure where they come but he needs to get them. This game emphasized why Beilein is hesitant to play Sims with Gibson, as both big men got in foul trouble in the first half.
- Darius Morris: Not ready for primetime. Darius isn’t ready and that was clear by his minutes which almost disappeared during the game.
- Stu Douglass: Stu is typically a gunner but by the end of the game he had lost his confidence as well. Him passing up a three point shot (yes, it was deep) with around 1:30 left and Michigan trailing by 6 says about all you need to know about how he feels about his shot.
- Laval Lucas-Perry: Not LLP’s best day to say the least. His missed layup looked like perfect material for the Not Top 10, he had some terrible free throw misses, and couldn’t buy a three pointer.
- Matt Vogrich: Vogrich is going to be a good player but right now his head is still swimming. It was good to let him get some playing time but I think Beilein is limited with what he can do with Vogrich on the court. Needs to stay confident in his three point shot because the drive isn’t happening against bigger and more athletic teams.
- Anthony Wright: I am rarely positive about Anthony Wright’s game but I really liked what he gave the team. He hit a three but I also thought he came in the game with more defensive intensity than anyone else on the floor during the first half.
I said it when he decided to leave and im going to say it again that we need KALVIN GRADY out there. Why? Go look at the Duke game from last year and the UCLA game.. The reason we were so sucessful against those teams is because Kalvin Grady would drive the ball into the lane and kick it out to an open shooter.
I have rarely seen anyone do that to this point. We seem to hang around the three point lane waiting for a back door cut, the problem is that all the teams are just stacking the middle and daring michigan to shot the three point shot which obviously they cant seem to do to this point.
The only way this team is going to win is if our point guard penetrates the lane either finding sims down low or dishing it our to a shooter. The whole hot potato around the arc IS NOT GOING TO WORK THIS YEAR.. Also 1 more thing is that we need to dish it down low more often. Weather its manny, sims, or gibson there needs to be more posting and going to the rim to try to cause contact and going to line for free throws. Go Blue!!!
I think the offense was really not bad aside from the worst shooting performance I’ve seen. Now maybe if we actually hit some of those shots then BC decides to guard the 3. But turnover wise it wasn’t bad.
I definitely agree that seeing Stu pass up that 3 is scary. Not sure how you get out of a shooting slump, but we need to ASAP.
I do think the D improved in the 2nd half, but we are still missing that last rotation underneath and give up too many lay ups and easy put backs because of it.
I still think this team still could be pretty good, but pretty good isn’t going to cut it if we want to make the tourney.
I’m with you on this one, Dylan. I’m usually a positive poster, but I was simply stunned at Michigan’s lack of intensity throughout the game.
One of the things that is shocking me the most, which I think is a pretty good indicator of the displaced mental state of this team, is the horrendous free throw shooting by everybody on the team. Last year, Manny was basically 100% at mid-season, and ended the season at 86.5%. He’s currently at 75%.
Lack of focus, lack of intensity, lack of effort are the three most troubling things about this team. I wouldn’t be as upset if we were losing and playing our guts out, but we’re losing and sleepwalking around the court.
This is somewhat off-topic but I’m assuming some Maize Rage higher ups read this- can someone PLEASE tell the Maize Rage that “we own Penn State” is not funny anymore? They’ve absolutely destroyed us twice in a row on the football field and we split with them last year in basketball. We do not “own” them anymore and this chant needs to be gone.
Mich Man i agree w/you and the guy who can dish is Morris. This is his strength. He’s our fastest guard and a good defender.
But he’s getting less than half the minutes Novak gets and that’s just wrong imo.
TomAce: Did you watch the game? Darius didn’t deserve any more minutes than he got. He’s a good player and will be very good, but let’s not pretend that Darius on the bench is the reason we lost this game. That’s foolish.
o far Michigan has lost to one of the worst teams in the SEC, a Big East team that won’t make the NCAA Tournament that doesn’t have a starter taller than 6-7, and perhaps the 8th place team in the ACC.
We are in serious trouble, and unless we go at least 11-7 in the Big Ten have probably already lost an NCAA Tournament at-large berth, barring a sweep of both Kansas and Connecticut, because there’s not enough quality wins attainable on our schedule given the three bad losses we already have.
It’s clear the chemistry isn’t right on the team, and this was not a productive offseason in terms of player development and anticipating how teams would adjust to us after seeing us on film with this core group of players for all of last season. The size limitations were there last season, and will be there all this season as well, but we made up for that with chemisty and guts.
Two things we lack, along with defense.
We need to win against U-Conn or Kansas or both to have that out of conference signature win and the Utah game on the road also becomes vital. Typically you want to have 10 out of conference wins where you only need to go 10-8 in conference play to get to 20 wins to feel comfortable about making the tournament. That is not going to happen this year. Assuming they can go 4-2 in the rest of the non-conference tilt they will need to go 11-7 in conference play to get to 18 wins or they need to finish in 4th place or better in the conference to make the tournament.
TomAce: Did you see the +/- post? Did you see in the second half his attempt at “intense” man-to-man defense? He got a blocking foul within a second of picking up the ball handler crossing half court. He definitely should be a really solid PG, but he currently has no idea what he’s doing.
I’m wondering if the lack of intensity/focus/leadership a lot of people have mentioned isn’t a function of Michigan’s drinking their own kool-aid. In other words, I think the basketball players are probably shocked out of their minds right now at how the season is turning, and they, much like the football team has had an issue with at times, seemingly…just felt entitled to a great year based on last year and didn’t fully realize they were still going to have to work to be as good as everyone expected.
When this teams gets better, it is going to happen because of the guys who have been here longer than 6 months.
Some people spend too much team reading high school hype. Freshmen (unless they are uber recruits) don’t dominate. I love Morris, he is going to be great, but he needs time to learn. The same goes for our other freshmen.
When is someone going to tell Sims that he needs to get his arse off the 3 point line and under the basket. How many recoveries has he ruined by taking a 3 pointer? I’ll leave Gibson alone in this as he drilled 2 to make it a game but I was screaming at the set when he let the 1st one fly.
Does anybody else not understand why they let Sims shoot it from behind the arc?
On a separate note, I was impressed with Vogrich’s ball-handling. When he put the ball on the floor, he penetrated. He didn’t get to the rim and he seems hesitant to shoot in the lane but it changed the offense when he penetrated.
I’d also like to see Morris shoot the ball. A little floater on a dribble drive from Morris should be a huge focus of his development.
LLP missing a layup? Shocking. He’s blown several others this year and he couldn’t make them last year either.
I, for one, would love to see Sims get mad. I don’t mean whinny mad. I mean angry like he is going to hurt someone. I don’t mean actually hurt someone, but just the vibe that says: “You are going to bend to my will, whether you like it or not.”
Beilein will find the right rotation and this team will become focused. Right now, they just all seem out of it. Once JB finds that perfect rotation, everyone will calm down and actually play bball again and stop thinking too much. It sucks it has to be this way and we’re gonna pay for it early, but don’t write this team off yet. That said, I think Stu needs to start over LLP. Dude missed a wide open layup, can’t finish when he drives, doesn’t play that good of D, and can’t make free throws. He’s better served coming off the bench. And can we please have one of Wisconsin’s 7 big guys? Why don’t our bigs look like that? I think we need to put our bigs on the Tisdale diet and get em ready for Big Ten Ball asap.
Pretty rough game. Here’s the Sports With Bracket’s take: http://tinyurl.com/yldy6c6
Yes guys I saw the game. I was at the game. All our venting about lineup changes and somebody should shoot more or less or whatever…
Of Course no single tweak changes the outcome!
I come here to applaud the wins, or now to vent my frustration, just like everyone else. I would like to do that without being called foolish.
(omg, are even us fans infighting now…do we need fan chemistry?!)
jds: Pretty sure Beilein knows what rotations he wants and he wants Stu running the show when Morris isn’t in. So, I don’t think it’s an LLP vs. Stu deal.
I really think our struggles so far are almost entirely due to the mental aspects of the game. I think our shooting woes are breaking our spirit, which then translates to defense. This translation should never happen, but it is.
I am completely distraught with this team right now. I feel nauseous after the last three games. Their play has been deplorable.
I agree with MarcO about DeShawn. His play seems to be regressing every game. I think the worst thing for him might have been his 3pt success in the first couple of games. He needs to stick in the post area instead of floating around the perimeter. He is really going to have to step it up if he wants a shot at the NBA. No way will he get drafted playing like this. As other people have stated, maybe he needs to come off the bench for now until he gets his head straight. Gibson has certainly showed more recently and deserves more than 10-15 minutes a game.
I think Manny is still injured and it’s affecting his jump shot. It just doesn’t look right. Maybe he should sit out the next game or so. Then again, we don’t really have anyone else scoring regularly so that might be risky.
On that note I would just like to warn everybody if they lose to Arkansas Pine Bluff watch out for me projectile vomiting in the stands.
i don’t really understand the Darius criticism. true, while he hasn’t put up stellar numbers, I don’t think hes done that bad for a freshman. that blocking foul that was mentioned was honestly ticky tack at best. he also creates more shots for others than stu does. a few freshman mistakes are going to happen and i agree with people who say he does need time to develop. But at this point, what is stu offering that Morris isn’t? side note: the officials in general were pretty bad but thats not why we lost. However, if they would have been looking for 3 second calls, which they are supposed to, they could have called one every posession on BC…they NEVER left the lane
Projectile vomit warning noted.
after watching ohio state throttle fsu, illinois come back from 23 down, watch northwestern win on the road, wisconsin beat duke, and indiana sticking with maryland for much of the game, with the way we’re currently playing, we could easily be in the bottom 3 or 4 of the big ten…
but i wont jump ship just yet…
Sack up Michigan Fans! I was as disgusted with that game as everyone else was. I spent the majority of last night attempting not to drink myself down a bottle, but to say the season is over is foolish and bandwagony. This is a team that lost 5 of 6 last season as noted by Dylan. They shot horribly in those games, so have they to start this season.
They might not turn it around, and it’s totally fair to be frustrated, but understand that the basketball season is very long and every team has these valleys. In a way this is the anti-football season, we have started out horribly and crushed all expectations instead of starting out 4-0 and having ludicrous expectations. This is a time for patience. They just played 4 games in 7 days, They have had about 2 days in practice, what did you expect to get fixed?
Interesting take by the former Big Ten Wonk on where Michigan really lost this game:
http://www.basketballprospectu.....icleid=808
Good link Eddie. Two point shooting was brutal (I think I pointed it out in my report, maybe not) but that’s because BC was packing the lane, daring Michigan to beat them from three. They weren’t going to extend their defense if Michigan couldn’t hit threes, and they couldn’t.
I thought the team looked tired. It seemed like most of the misses were short and that guys didn’t have their legs. Perhpas 4 games in 7 days early in the season has taken its toll on a team that is not very deep. This might explain the surprise appearance of Cronin who was reportedly going to be held out until Big 10 season. I think Beliein will sort out the chemistry issues, guys will get into shape, and the team will start playing better, although I am very worried about that mid-season stretch of 5 games in 12 days which includes UConn, @Wisconsin, @Purdue and MSU – Yikes!!!
I bet sales of the Beilein ball have dropped off drastically…on a serious note, I do not think they will shoot this poorly for the entire a season. Let’s just hope the funk ends soon! Go Blue and remember, it is still really early and this isn’t college football where you can blow your chance in the 1st or 2nd game…they will get it turned around!
I actually feel a little better after sleeping off my rage and frustration — if a few more shots start falling and their confidence starts rebuilding, I think this team can still contend for a top-5 finish in the Big Ten.
On another positive note, I agree with the poster above who noted Vogrich’s surprisingly effective dribble penetration — I think he’s gonna develop into a good player.
In response to bill asking the maize rage to end the we own penn state chant. At least when i was in school the maize rage was run by a bunch of tools. They do the dumbest chants and do not listen to reason when told that they make us look dumb. I got into it with them when they were yelling at kids with corn rows to cut their mullets.
I agree with the comments on DeShawn. Last year he was at his best when he was working on the block, making his presence felt inside. It didn’t matter if the opponents were cupcakes (Savannah St. I believe was his 20/20 game? Correct me if I’m wrong), or powerhouses (he DOMINATED Jujuan Johnson of Purdue in their second meeting at Crisler). Sims needs to be angry and start demanding the ball on the block.
I loved that Manny was demanding the ball at the end of the game, but he needed to pass off to someone else on that last possession. They were basically triple teaming him and the rest of the team stood around. Had someone curled around the back of Harris to the corner (Douglass comes to mind), they could have had an open look. I like Manny’s fire at the end of the game. Hopefully he can spread that to the rest of the team.
I agree with Craig, I think the four games in seven days has really taken its toll on us. I know we have a lot of issues, but I’m hoping that we will improve dramatically once we have a few days off. i.e. i’m optimistically hoping that arkansas pb can be a turning point.
Wow, this is way off topic, but did anyone see the end of regulation in the Texas Tech/Washington game? I have never seen a closer call in my life. Fans rush the court after an apparent buzzer-beating three by Tech, but the refs waive it off. It appeared that the ball was just on the edge of his fingertips with 0.0 showing, but the ball was clearly gone by the time the backboard lit up. This makes for an interesting OT.
As for Michigan, I have all the confidence and faith in the world in John Beilein. I’m just sick of trying to figure out who I want to lose every college basketball game based on how I think they will finish the season and if I think they are clearly in, out, or on the bubble. Probably too early for this and let’s hope it doesn’t come down to this again, but I have to admit I’m not happy so far to say the least.
OK, a couple more things. To Bill and Danger: I am in the Maize Rage, I write some of the Rage Pages, attend all the meetings, am fairly high up. I’m not an officer, but I know all of them very very well. I assure you that all five of them are wonderful people and know basketball. We are all extremely distraught so far, but we are not giving up hope by any means. Danger, the people that you say were the “leaders” of the Rage probably weren’t. And if they were, times have changed. We all sit right in the middle in the first and second rows. We are trying our very best to coordinate the chants with the rest of the Rage, but when you have 2500 students with tickets, meaning at least 2000 that didn’t last year, it is hard to do. There are some people that purposefully try to start different chants in their sections and it just makes it so hard. Notably, there is some frat guy that thinks he is awesome that is in the far left side of the bleachers that is always starting different chants and trying to get everyone else in his section to join in. We have placed section leaders at the front of every section in the lower bowl, and well they have done a good job so far, it is going to take a little bit to get things better. Trust me, the bandwagoners don’t help the cohesion. It is also very difficult when the section right next to the band and behind the band, as well as all the students in the gold, do nothing. If any of you are reading this, please participate; do popcorn on defense and try to hear and join in the chants on offense.
Bill, I personally don’t really like the “We are Penn State” chant either, but we don’t choose what music to play either. The majority of the kids that don’t come to Rage meetings know all the football chants but few of the bball chants. I will address this at the next meeting and see if we might be able to get this chant eliminated (when we aren’t playing Penn State, that is).
Rob, Sims’ 20-20 game came against Florida Gulf Coast last year. We can only hope that he returns to form very soon.
Sorry for the length of this post.
Even when we are playing Penn State (maybe even ESPECIALLY when we are), the “We Own Penn State” has to go. It was clever and perfect when we truly did own them (11 unbeaten years in football and something like 5 unbeaten years in basketball), but if anything they’re starting to own us now. See: ’08 and ’09 football games, last year’s b-ball game at PSU
Buck up, b*tches. The season isn’t over. The shots will start falling. We can still make the tournament, and even if we don’t make the tournament, Beilein has us moving the right direction. This program is going up. There’s a lot to play for. Simply beating MSU and OSU would bring a smile to my face. There is no call for excessive negativity. We can’t really control anything because we’re not on the court. We can simply cheer our brains out and keep a good attitude. I think Michigan will beat someone really good this year and I will bask in the glory of that victory like an elephant seal on the sun-baked sands of central California.
It’s hard because I just don’t understand this. Clearly the lack of leadership is hurting us…we didn’t lose that much talent and to see it play out this way is not fun. That being said we aren’t the only team in the country having problems other ranked teams are losing to teams they should beat. We are now in a position though where we cannot lose any more games that we are supposed to win. And have to sneak a few we aren’t supposed to win. I love Beilein and having watched Michigan basketball the last 15 years we are getting better. We need to click and click fast or it might become time to panic.
You know what this team needs: Arkansas Pine Bluff at home Saturday.
I Miss Alan Branch, nothing would bring a smile to my face more than wins over OSU and MSU (except seeing the team’s name called on selection sunday perhaps), but the problem is that we CAN’T right now because of the way we handle teams that are more athletic than us.
Rob, its kinda hard for Deshawn to demand the ball on the block when the block is covered by Raji, Southern, and Tripani who are all bigger and more athletic than he is. I agree Sims needs to get more aggressive on the block, but he’s a wing playing center, so he can’t help trying to prove he can play the wing for draft purposes I guess.
I’m glad to hear that Manny was demanding the ball because he will need to put this team on his back from time to time (just like Evan Turner has), but it would be even better if the rest of the team gets behind him.
I’m normally pretty level headed like Dylan with regards to this stuff…and I supported Beilein when many others didn’t. But I am concerned for this season and here is why. We don’t have many quality winable games left.
We have a lot of “must win” games which are the crappy schools like Arkansas PB. We simply HAVE to win those. Next, are a few of the “mediocre” games. This is like Utah and included Creighton, Alabama, Marquette and BC. These are the meat and potatoes of your schedule, unfortunately for UofM, they just pissed away 3 of these games and there are very few left. So these few remaining ones have now gone into “must win” status. The remainder of the games are the marquee ones like UConn, Kansas, MSU, and Purdue. These appear to be impossible to win given the way our team looks right now. Before the season started we probably could have gotten by with 1-2 of these wins. But now, even these are starting to turn into “must wins”.
This season is young, but our backs are firmly against the wall. Way too many of our games are “must wins” and I do not see any immediate improvement on the way. I don’t believe things will suddenly “click”. I think it’s going to be too little too late.
I’m not predicting the sky to fall, but I think this team is headed very squarely to a disappointing NIT bid.
Three things:
Sims – his mental regression is clearly apparent. This offense really clicks at a different level when there are two scorers than can create for themselves. He needs to get at the 10-15 range and play around with his jumper and moves to the basket. All day he can hit the 17 footer; why the hell isn’t he taking that? He’s not calling for the ball one bit.
Defense – Clearly CJ is missed for on the ball D. But these problems are not just that. There are clear miss-reads, bad fundamentals and half-hustles leaving guys with wide open shots 70% of the possessions (with 50% of those within 5 feet). I think this defense looks eerily similar to early last season, but we ended up winning games bc the shot was falling.
Conditioning – To me this team looks out of shape. I don’t know if this has to do with the new conditioning coach or what, but the first step is just not there, on both ends of the court (save Manny on offense). This was clearly apparent in the last 3 games. I’m wondering, were the teams we played last year this much quicker than these teams? Or are we just that much slower.
Correction: were the teams we played so far this year that much quicker than the teams last year?
I agree with everyone that has said that Peedi needs the ball a bit more. And AG2, I don’t think any of the three guys you mentioned are even close to as talented or as athletic as Sims is. Trapani is a tall, lanky shooter. Southern looked kind of like Kyle Rowley of Northwestern to me. Raji was the most athletic of the bunch, but he certainly isn’t Deshawn Sims. Sims needs to find his Purdue game tape from last year and play charades the rest of the season.
Erik, you clearly have not looked at the schedule. I agree that these crappy teams are definitely must-wins and the Utahs of the world are as well. But if you think we’re gonna have a problem with quality opponents, you are sorely mistaken. Let’s see what I can come up with (in order of when we play them): @Kansas, Ohio State, Connecticut, @Wisconsin, @Purdue, Michigan State, Wisconsin, @Minnesota, @Ohio State, @Michigan State. That is 10 games that would be considered high quality if you ask me. And this is not even including games like @Northwestern, Minnesota at home, Illinois at home, etc. If we step our game up and play like we all know we can, we won’t have any problem filling that line of the resume.
I still feel we might have a slight issue with playing down to the competition. We let Houston Baptist hang around, we almost let Creighton steal it from us, and we all know what has happened in the past three games. I guarantee that we will at least give Kansas a game. Our team needs to get over this and give it their best night in and night out.
As far as conditioning goes, I haven’t noticed a big difference in speed or quickness from our guys, but I did notice Novak looking quite winded by the end of the game. I don’t know what this should be attributed to, but I’m guessing it’s a combination of playing 35 minutes per game for 4 times in 7 days. Although I admittedly miss Mike Curtis.
Sam I did not include Big Ten teams in my assessment because by the time Big ten season starts, the conference RPI is locked in and its a whole different ball game. We aren’t going to steal one from Purdue, MSU, or Wisconsin on the road. We may beat a couple of those teams at home, but not all. So we will win less than half.
It’s the out of conference games that make a difference and we blew our chance only a couple weeks into the season. Even if our conference record pulls our RPI up, we may not have enough “quality wins” because each time we beat a conference foe, their RPI drops which in turn makes the win look less impressive.
We simply CAN NOT lose to another mid tier team for the rest of the season and we MUST beat UConn or Kansas. otherwise I’m afraid our only hope is winning the Big Ten tournament (which I believe we may have a shot if the team gels by then)
Blake McLimans over Dashonte Riley right now really can that be justified? I know it doesnt matter now Dylan, but hey I would like a do over. We lack an interior defender or anybody that wants to actually touch the paint on defense. Riley is averaging 10 minutes a game, 3 boards and 1 block a game for Syracuse but he couldnt play here? We need someone to step up on the defensive end. Shots will fall, but the effort and attitude on D has to change. Get after it, because effort on D can translate to more attempts on O (hopefully inside the arc)
Funny thing is for Michigan Madness we gave them the benefit of the doubt for sloppy D since it was the first time they played together but that’s how the team looks now and is playing on d
Tyler, it’s completely unfair to say anything about the D in Michigan Madness. They were instructed to play lax defense and it was a 8 minute “exhibition”.
We should have seen this coming (and some people did). Last year’s team had a razor-thin margin of error, and we lost three point guards from that team. The optimists correctly noted that Morris and Vogrich have way more talent than Lee and Merritt, but right now what the team misses most are the strengths of the ex-captains. On ball defense. Feeding the post. Rallying the team on the court.
We’ll recover. I’m pleasantly surprised with how effective Vogrich is already; Morris is about where I expected he’d be. As the team plays together more, the defensive rotations and offensive reads will improve. Will this be enough to get the team back in the NCAAs? I don’t know. Some big impressions from the Challenge were the road wins by Penn State, Northwestern, and Illinois; we’re not going to finish 6th in the conference just by showing up.
this team is going to be fine is just a really disappointing start and will probably get a surprising win or 2 just like last year, but not a good way to start the season obviously
well to the maize rager who responded to me. Please eliminate the cut your mullet chant to those with corn rows or dread locks. It makes us look very stupid. If it already has been eliminated i apologize.
Hey Sam and Maize Rage-
Can you please get rid of the Chinese Fire Drill. It looks stupid and makes us all look like non-basketball fans. Thank you.
The conditioning may very well be a concern… I was cautiously optimistic when Sanderson was hired but in the back of my mind was the fact that his Clemson teams seemed to run out of gas every year towards the middle/end of the season. I hope this was more due to Purnell’s coaching and not conditioning…
I think Clemson runs out of gas because they play full court press defense the entire game. Isn’t that what 40 minutes of hell is?
Something else to fret about (as if there weren’t already enough): how poorly U-M plays on short-to-medium rest.
Last season, U-M played 15 games with two days off beforehand or less. They went 3-12. The three wins were Duke, Florida Gulf Coast and Indiana. This season, U-M is 0-3 in the same spot.
And as we look ahead to Big Ten play, there are of course a ton of two-days-off games that we now desperately need: OSU at home, Illinois at home, Northwestern home and away, among others. Pretty much have to have three of those four.
Doh — forgot about Northeastern. 4-12 then.
Danger, I’ve been to every home bball game for the past two years (other than like two break games) and I have never heard of the “cut your mullet” chant, so it appears that that has been eliminated.
To Brogrich Fan #1: We have tried the Chinese Fire Drill only twice this season. I feel that if every person participated and half the people didn’t just stand still, it would look pretty cool. Is there nothing we can do to have fun just once every couple games? I also believe that I know exactly where you guys sit, so I’m wondering how you would know what it looks like from outside of the student section. Is there anyone that was at the BC game that saw the Chinese Fire Drill, and, if so, how did it look? (i.e. Giddings, I know who you are). If you are so against it, I would suggest coming to a Maize Rage meeting and voicing your concerns.
thats good to hear because i graduated in 08 so hopefully it left with that class…i came off as a little harsh but i was very frustrated with the maize rage leadership for much of my time as a student…and yes i knew who the leaders were.
Honestly I missed the Chinese Fire Drill in the BC game, I was coming in from out of town and got to the game around the first media timeout… but when it was done in the Wayne State game (I think) it looked pretty funny to me.
I’ve been to all but one home game the last 6 years and I agree that “Cut your mullet” seems to have disappeared recently from the Rage, I was never a huge fan of it.
A couple of observations about the Maize Rage:
I had student tickets for 5 years, and have tickets for most games this year as well, so this is where I’m coming from.
1. The Chinese Fire Drill was, honestly, dumb.
2. Whoever writes the Rage Pages, this whole “Facts about Chris Webber” thing is one of the most short-sighted and moronic things I’ve ever seen. You do realize why our program was in the tank for over a decade, right? Ever wonder why you don’t see Webber at games, and won’t for another 3 years? Quit building the legacy of a guy who had a blatant disregard for our University and our program’s reputation. There are other players in our storied history who didn’t break the rules.
3. Speaking of the Rage Page, if you guys didn’t put a big blurb in today’s page about not booing the team, you’ve missed the boat. I’ve never been more embarrassed of our student section than the multiple points in Wednesday’s game where they booed the team. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I realize there are a LOT of bandwagoners in this group, but you’ve got to do a better job of letting them know what’s acceptable and what’s not cool.
I’ll second the comments of the fellow ’08 grad that the Rage was run by tools when we were in school. It’s absolutely true, and by the end of my run in the student section, I was sick of those kids acting like they were god’s gift to basketball fans. That’s gotta change. With the student section as big as it is, and the fact that there are so few returning season ticket holders, that’s going to be hard.
Also, this new student ticket policy is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. Way to not reward returning season ticket holders who stuck by this program when it wasn’t very popular to do so.
Sorry for the negative post, but I was pretty disappointed with what I saw on Wednesday night.