Did anyone else notice that RichRod was absolutely emotionless? He almost looked bored watching the game and seemed to be more interested in the piece of paper in his hand than in the game. Just an observation, but this lack of enthusiasm for Michigan sports concerns me just a bit.

What a great win though UM did look ugly and sloppy at times. Helps that UCONN played sloppy too.

Maybe RR just isn’t into basketball.

RR can leave for all I care.

As for rushing the court, I don’t care about that either. It’s been a tough season and it feels good to celebrate a little, even if we only beat the #15 team in the country.

Awesome win!!! If we can keep rolling going into Wisconsin that would be even better!!!

We kinda got pushed onto the court. Mob mentality

Man its about time, but man those refs were getting pretty bad the last couple mins. I really like our chances against Wisconsin with Leur out and them going to a small 3 guard lineup.

Is it worth pointing out that Michigan is 2-1 SU, 3-0 ATS against ranked teams this year?

Their next three foes are all ranked right now. They’ve set themselves up to get that bid back on the table as long as they dont swept in those three.

I didnt mind the court storming. Enthusiasm like that never hurts. Good practice for 1/26.

Great win 2day!! Go Blue!!

Wow, great win. I was at the game and the place was absolutely electric. That’s the loudest game I’ve ever been to. I really liked what I saw from U of M as a whole. Shout out to Zack Novak for being so clutch. He’s a winner. My one concern would be Darius Morris. At times it felt like he was almost throwing away the game for us. I’m scared to think people have labeled the kid as our future. Sorry for being a little negative, Let’s Go Blue!

Frankly I’d prefer if they save the court storming for Sparty.

Two words:

Anthony Wright.

student seating policy is a giant scam

Gabey, I know Darius missed the front end of the 1 and 1 and also got a stupid foul on the 3 late, but if you don’t see potential in him, I don’t know what you’re watching.

Don’t read to much in to rich rod… he is probably preoccupied doing things like making our football team win… he has a big month right now… maybe just a mellow dude…

First off about rich rod looking emotionless…really ? thats the best you have ? pay attention to the BASKETBALL game you were at. It means nothing. Second off, great win for the team. It will at least put off the worries about us being out to the tourney as of now. We need to get one more win out of the next three, and i’ll be satisfied. As for the team itself, we did a great job of battling. helps that their best player was off the court for more than half the game, but we FINALLY had people step up and make hustle plays….and hit shots. UConn is a very athletic team and we hung tough on the glass for the entire game. great win, go blue

I’m excited about the potential of Morris. I think there are great things in store.

I don’t recall Lloyd Carr going real bananas ar basketball games.

Jamie Mac – I’m sorry SU? ATS? ??

Stu’s tipping Walker’s(?) dribble to Manny = ball game.

Ant and Zack G. helped out, now they just need to do that without giving part of it back.

Bottom line – This was fun and things are interesting for a while. Hope is great.

We’ve still got a ton of work to do before we can think about the tourney. Our RPI is well into the 100s. But this was a big step in the right direction. If we can steal a win in Madison (Leuer being out helps a lot), then we’re in business.

Another great, great, ugly, great win. But what this team needs is some harsh praise.

Manny was great. DeShawn was a little passive but still solid. Anthony Wright was amazing, and quite frankly, the outright Wright-hate in the web forums has surprised me, considering 1) the love for our equally spirited, equally streaky trio of babyfaced white guys and 2) his awesome performance during our only NCAA bid in a decade. In short, Wright gives us a boost when we are outsized, even if he is a questionable decision maker.

Novak and Douglass played well, they hit the shots they needed to, but they need to work on 1) defense and 2) not passing the ball to imaginary players. Douglass looked utterly hounded at PG, and showed the kind of vulnerability that leads to turnovers.

By contrast, LLP and Morris are capital-A Athletes, but they both almost threw the game away in the closing minutes: Morris with that foul on the 3-pt shooter, and LLP with that wild pass thing.
We need these two to play smarter. LLP in particular needs some mental toughness to match his skills.

But the thing that concerned me most is coaching. Because, although the 1-3-1 is starting to work, and the shots are starting to fall, certain errors remain uncorrected week after week: like Douglass making shaky one-handed passes. Also, because this team seems to hesitate at the wrong moments; I counted a number of occasions where someone drove the lane, stopped, thought for a moment, and then tried to kick it out to the arc instead of finishing. Need to finish.

Great home win, though. Amazing crowd help — let’s hope they can bring it again against ILL, MINN, WISC and MSU!

Oh, and I don’t know much about how SOS is calculated, but I would image we all need to become Huskies fans from here on in. Cause if they aren’t dance-worthy, this wasn’t a signature win, right? (Basketball experts please correct me).

ToBlav,
SU= Straight up
ATS= Against the spread

Gambling terms. God i’m addicted.

Real good win today. We are starting to see more of that scrappiness especially on D, that made us a good team last year. I think early in the season this team forgot just how hard they had to work to get some of those wins last season. They thought they could come out and win on just talent b/c they were 15. Now they seem to be realizing that they dont have the talent to just show up and get a win, they need to fight for everything.

I think the biggest positive we are seeing over the last few games is the offensive rebounding. We are doing a very good job at chasing down misses and getting tip outs.

Morris just had another freshman bump. Thats what they do. Some games they are just going to be off.

And, cannot forget to mention the bench. Huge effort today. Wright hitting threes, Gibson making some big energy plays. Those guys were crucial in helping us build that first half lead. Hopefully it means that the depth is coming along better than it appeared. I heard Beilein in the postgame mention how they push those guys harder in practice than anyone else, so that they are ready when the moment comes. He also said how positive those two in particular have been about putting in the extra work. Its great to hear that kind of thing and know that guys are still in it despite rarely seeing the floor in recent games.

@ToBlav: Straight up, and Against the spread. I assume.

Great win. The biggest problem was the reffing… whoever that pair of old guys are, they have tried as hard as they can to screw us every time they come to Crisler. Seriously.

All I can say is that I look forward to the day when UCONN fans storm the court for beating us.

Even though I know I will hate it when it actually happens.

Great win today, not too many times you beat Duke one year and UConn the next, gotta enjoy that, regardless of the season so far. Gotta find a way to get something out of Morris and Vogrich, their lack of production compared to last year’s freshman is the difference in the two seasons so far.

great win. anyone see ziegler or horford there?

I have to disagree with timeout1993 on several points:

1.Ant Wright gets a lot of hate because he’s not that good. He has never lived up to his potential. Yes he had one good game last year in the tourney. He had one good game this year today. He CAN be a good shooter, but only for 1-2 games a year. It’s hardly worth a scholarship. Aside from his shooting, he still made plenty of mistakes (remember first half when he tried to drive it and threw it out of bounds as he dove?). When Ant’s shot is falling, he’s a good spot up shooter, but that’s about it.

2. Novak played great defense. I don’t know what you are talking about. He was time and time again rebounding and playing much bigger than he is. I was SO frustrated with his shooting though. But then he hit that one clutch shot. Prior to that shot I was wondering if Beilein needed to pull in his leash a bit on the shooting. I still think the defense is taking it’s toll on him and affecting his shot.

3. Douglas WAS hounded. But I thought he handled it well. Unless we had Grady back, I don’t think there is anyone else who could have handled the pressure better. UConn thought they could pressure him into turnovers and it didn’t work for the most part. I thought Manny and DeShawn had worse turnovers (like when Sims stood thre and Walker poked the ball out). Those turnovers hurt much worse because they are mental breakdowns. I don’t fault Douglass for any turnovers he had while being hounded. The one phantom pass was just a bad read. Sims cut and Douglass didn’t read it. Just back luck/bad read. Not too bad.

4. I think the Morris foul on the 3 point shot was BS. Well not really BS, it was good acting by Kemba Walker. If you watch it in slow mo, he could see morris closing and he jumped INTO Walker. It really should have been a no call because he was looking to get bailed out by the refs. But Walker sold it. I would still rather have Morris close on the shooter and take that chance of bailing him out than letting Walker have an uncontested 3. At least Walker had to work for it (and if I recall he missed at least 1 shot right?)

5. LLP as a capital A athlete? I don’t know man…he’s like Ant wright. When he’s on, he’s on. But he’s usually only “on” for 1-2 games a year. The rest of the time it’s a crap shoot with him. LLP played well today but Manny and Sims are our only “capital A athletes”. The rest are role players.

6. Regarding the drive and kick, I suspect that is partly due to UConn’s shot blocking. They were trying to draw the defense in, then kick it out for an open look. It’s tough to finish against a shot blocking team when you give up so much height. I actually felt that was very good coaching. Also, I didn’t see a whole lot of 1-3-1 today. There was some. But mostly they played man, 2-3, and some 2-3 trap.

The only coaching I thought was disappointing was in the first half when we made all those threes and the crowd was into it…Beilein gave our guys a break and put in Wright, Vogrich, LLP, etc. We lost momentum going into the half. I know you have to rest your guys, but to me, that was the time to really pile it on. We had momentum, our shooters were feeling it, Dyson was on the bench in foul trouble…we could have extended that lead and really put the game out of reach.

Overall though, great game. It was nice to FINALLY see our role players step up. It wasn’t a full 40 minutes, but it was better than the recent 20 minute efforts.

3.

Erik agree on your response points. I also dont think Morris is a capital A athlete. He is a good athlete but he is nothing special athletically. Harris is probably the only player that can be regarded as a capital A athlete. Guys like Stanley Robinson, Jerome Dyson, or a Durrell Summers, those are capital A athletes and they are in a whole other world athletically compared to LLP or Morris.

I could be wrong on this, but at least in terms of Wright and Gibson being out there for the remainder of the half, I think it was due to foul trouble. Both Novak and Sims had two I believe. So there really was not much of an option but to put in the reserves. Vogrich only got in for a short sting to give Manny a blow, and if you saw Manny coming to the bench, he needed it.

Credit to the student section for doing their part in making Chrysler a tough place to play… BUT stop storming the damn court!!! We are a Big Ten school for Christ sake… If we ever want to be a respectable program again we cant jizz on the floor every time we beat a ranked team. No recruit wants to be part of a Cinderella program, shake the image.

Opps spell check got me on Crisler…

Re:StopStormingTheCourt

I don’t think Rashad Knight minded it too much. Get over yourself man, the last year of Michigan athletics hasn’t held too many bright spots. Let the students have their fun; I’m sorry they embarrassed you so much.

StopStormingTheCourt, you need to STOP posting until you know where Michigan plays basketball OK? Certainly this was not a HUGE win, but storming the court for two games in two years is too many??

Ah Fritz Chrysler. Not only gave us the winged helmbet but the sebring too

I like how the anti-storming the court thing has become the vogue. Who really cares? Let the kids have their fun. It doesnt hurt anyone (at least not usually) and I would much rather have it that way, than fans who dont care about the team.

Even Dylan didn’t like it. This was not a storm the court moment, period.

If I was a recruit I’d be pretty pumped to see a student fan base get as rowdy and excited after a victory as ours. I don’t see the harm. It was finally a great day for Michigan hoops in a very lackluster season thus far. To criticize “storming the court” is a mistake…who cares its college students having fun and living in the moment. It’s what college is all about. Forget this we need to be a big time program and not rush the floor everytime we beat someone good. I say do it more often. Whatever gets more fans in the seats and more enthusiasm out there I say do it.

I respectfully disagree to the extent that I think Morris is an explosive player and our best ball-handler, but he still needs a lot of maturing mentally. Plus he has a flashy style of play that seems to be undervalued at UM. I admit I was totally exaggerating about LLP, but only because I bought the hype that circulated everywhere (even at smart places like MGoblog) about the highly-touted Arizona transfer. As for Wright, I was simply saying that he turned in a great performance today, and we should applaud him the way we do whenever Vogrich makes a gutsy move inevitably followed by three embarrassingly bad plays.

Im in the student section and was one of the few kids who remained in the stands when everyone else stormed the court. I understand storming it against Duke last year, but this was totally different. UConn definitely won’t even be ranked once the next poll comes out. I’m not saying its not a good win, because it is. It’s just that we need to start acting like we belong with the likes of the #15 team in the nation. We need to expect to win games like this. It’s a little embarrassing to be called out on national TV like we were today.

i noticed stu using a sideways jab-step twice in the first few minutes. i’m assuming beilein jumped on that, because i was waiting to yell at it the rest of the game and it never came. llp used a nice, meaty forward jab-step in the second half from the corner; didn’t shoot off it though.

Jake & Sam you clowns I was a student at Michigan from ’88-’93 getting my MBA and missed a total of 8 basketball games so dont talk basketball if you were born after 1993… Rashad Knight is a 3star football recruit, 5 star BB recruits dont commit to CourtStormingSchools. I share the excitment of a great win along with everyone else but this just in CourtStorming is lame!

Eric, we’re just not there yet as a program. Look at where we were just two years ago. I realize that last year built us up to a preseason #15 ranking, but this is a team that was only 9-7 heading into this afternoon’s game.

I hope that by the time Darius is a senior, we can expect to win a game against a 15th-ranked UConn, but I don’t think we can do that yet.

I have to congratulate the crowd, and question the eyesight and sanity of the people complaining about the officiating. There is no way, NO WAY Michigan would have won this game if Dyson hadn’t been on the bench for half the game with foul trouble. There is no way Michigan would have won this game without all those hustle rebounds against taller players with inside position, yet were they ever called for going over the back? There’s no way Michigan would have won this game without getting to so many loose balls, yet were they ever given fouls for making incidental contact while chasing after the ball?

The conventional wisdom is that the refs aren’t openly biased, they just tend to be subconsciously affected by a partisan crowd. There’s no way Michigan would have won this game with an arena full of sleepy fans following the football game on their cellphones…

[...] in the final sequences to close down its most important win of the season. Celebrate Good Times right here at Dylan’s pad, and ponder the Maize and Blue’s new postseason [...]

I think the officiating seemed fine. Ric is right that a smaller team usually can’t get the calls to go its way when they’re defending inside/rebounding, a la Oklahoma last year (I sooooo wanted someone to take a charge from that beast Blake Griffin). Maybe UConn committed a few no-call reach-ins, but such is life.

By contrast, anyone see the officiating at the Texas/A&M game? Those late calls against A&M’s big man that fouled him out basically sealed the game for the Longhorns, who were roughing shooters all over the place without a single whistle. I started to suspect that the same shady oil billionaire who no doubt fixed the UT-Nebraska football game made a phone call before the start of OT.

I thought we played really well. I thought we had a good game plan and executed it for the most part. With regards to driving and kicking out, it was definitely caused by UConn’s shot blocking ability. We went hard to the rim a few times and got stoned (Morris once and Sims a couple of times, I think). We’re very difficult to beat when we’re getting timely 3 point shooting from a number of players. Stu got it started, LLP kept it going, Ant hit a few, and Novak hit a big one at the end.

As for the officiating, I agree with rlc. I thought the refs really let them play both ways and we took advantage of it inside. UConn got away with a couple of egregious offensive fouls so it’s not like they weren’t using the officiating to their advantage, just not as well as we were.

The crowd sounded awesome on TV. I’m disappointed we never played huge OOC games at home when I was a student. My favorite games at Crisler were the 02 State game and the 2 home NIT games in 04 (Missouri and Oklahoma). The NIT games in particular had smaller crowds but it was loud as hell when it needed to be. I can only imagine how loud it was in person.

Does anyone know where to find extended, high-quality highlights of the game? Listened to the game on AM 1050; not the greatest of ways to experience the game. There were a few points where the announcers started yelling in excitement, yet not saying what actually happened; I would like to know..

so what do you all think?

Does 8-5 the rest of the way, getting Michigan to 18-12, 11-7 in the Big 10…..does that get them in…….maybe with one BTT win tacked on?

Thoughts?

@timeout1993: Right on regarding Wright.

He’s been bad, obviously, but it’s odd that people kill him (and not others) for failing to reach his “potential.” He’s a 3-star whose suitors were mostly mid-majors (plus St. John’s). Basically the same caliber of recruit as Gibson, who doesn’t get half as much grief.

Great job by him today, though. Nine points on 3-of-5 with one turnover — that’s as good as it gets in 12 minutes.

I really feel that Michigan can get a bid with 8 more Big Ten wins, if for no other reason than there are so many mid-majors up for at large consideration. With the collapse of the Pac 10 and the ACC being pretty down, a resurgent Michigan team with some wins over MSU, OSU, Wisconsin, and Minnesota has to look better to the committee than Richmond or Saint Mary’s.

Great to see the Wolverines get revenge on the Huskies this year. It was exciting to be at the game and I definitely loved the enthusiasm the students showed in the last five minutes. And what’s the problem with the students rushing? After all of the trouble we’ve been through, what’s wrong with some celebrating? No fights occurred, the court cleared out after a few minutes, and we all went home happy. Now, let’s carry this momentum into Madison!

Great win!…D. Morris is not a super athlete and really not a full time PG, anytime he has to run, its awkward for him to stop and he has to give up his dribble manny times. This team does not have a single bonafide PG on the roster but they found a way to win. Go Blue!!!

I feel like 11 wins in conference just puts us right on the bubble. I know historically 11 wins in a major conference gets you in but our non-conference is really going to hurt us. We now have one good win, but even that win is at home vs. what looks like the 5th best team in the Big East. With no other impressive wins and a handful of relatively bad losses it’s just going to be a glaring weakness on the resume. However, a marquee road win would help.

Also, certainly not convinced this team can win 11 games. I’d say we played about as well as we could today and barely beat a pretty good UCONN team that played without Dyson for essentially the first half.

I wouldn’t say we came even close to playing as well as we could today. 37% shooting is the best we can do?? I don’t think so. It was a solid performance, but not even close to as well as we can play yet.

8-5 with a BTT win gets it done, I think. Provided the mid-majors have another light at-large bid haul, which it looks like they will.

But that’s asking a ton. I’d be impressed if we can get back to 9-9. Remember: We had a pretty rough time last season with MSU/Wis/OSU/Pur/Ill (2-7 combined). Still have seven games against those guys.

I agree totally with AG2′s assessment, except I doubt (with sadness) that the blue and maize can get 8 more wins in the reg season.

There should be more bids for a surging B10, but I think the conference will probably hold steady with 6 bids. The Pac 10 is weak this year, with many commentators claiming they’ll only get one bid. Obviously, since basketball and media and money are all connected, the P10 will get more than that, but it will be hard to justify more than 3 bids for them (particular if ineligible USC is in the top three). The ACC is weaker this year, while the A10 is stronger.

So, will Michigan get to 11-7 and be top-6 in conference? (which, I think, is all we need to be, having earned our signature win, assuming the Huskies don’t collapse). Well, I can see us sweeping Iowa and PSU, so there’s 6 wins. More challenging but doable, we need to take down Minnesota and Illinois at home; there’s 8. But how do we get from there to 11? I think the most likely candidates are @MN and @NW, but that still leaves a win against the Big 4: OSU (on road, with healthy Turner), Wisconsin, @Purdue, or MSU. For those predicting an 11-7 record, which one do you see us picking up?

@jamie mac. Yes. 8-5 the rest of the way with a BTT win, gets them in. Assuming that some of those wins come against MSU, Purdue, Wisky, OSU and Illinois (which I would think they have to in order to get 8 more). Whether this team can actually do that or not is a different story. I still believe, but a win at Wisky this week would go a long ways toward building that momentum.

@GoBlue: I guess it depends on what you mean by bonafide. If you mean a legit top level PG, then I agree with you. If you just mean a guy that is capable of running this offense, then I disagree. Douglass and Morris are both capable of running this team, much the same way that CJ Lee did. Are they ideal PGs, no, ofcourse not. But very few teams have great PGs out there. For instance if anyone has watched Georgia Tech this year, that is a team that is a real good PG away from being a national title contender. As it is, they have a guy that is pretty solid and can run the team for them.

That’s kind of how I see it with Douglass and Morris. I dont feel like they are winning despite their play (which is how you made it sound). For the most part Douglass has been fine. Yea he is not going to beat anyone off the dribble right now or create a lot of shots for other people. But he makes good decisions, and he is a very good passer. He made several passes today that led directly to baskets that a lot of college players would not have made. If I am picking a team, I’m not gonna go out and pick Douglass first as my PG, but if he ends up being my guy, I know that I can win with him there and talent around him.

I have a hard time buying any 11-7 Big 10 being left out of the field, especially during an era when perception towards the league is at a high.

If Michigan adds a Big 10 Tourney win, they would be 13-7 in their final 20 games……with most of those wins being of the resume variety.

That would wash away a lot of criticisms from the OOC results. In the end, I also wonder if UM’s “bad losses” are really going to be worse than most other Bubble team’s bad losses are. That might be a sneaky thing worth tracking if Michigan makes a serious run at this.

As far as UM’s ability to follow through and go 8-5, today gives me plenty of reasons to believe. The big key will not be getting swept in this big stretch of three games. If they can get one win, they’re probably going to be favored to win 6, maybe 7, of their final 10 regular season games. It’s a tough chore. A worthy chore. But one they have a chance at acheiving.

Cant wait for Wednesday

I’m with you, Jamie. Obviously 11-7 would get us on the bubble, whether or not we’re on the right side of it would depend on what happens nationwide and in the BTT.

/stating the obvious

For whomever was asking about highlights, I’d suggest just going to http://www.mgovideo.com and use torrents to download the entire game. It’s worth a watch end-to-end.

RR was probably holding the piece of paper that listed all 30 Recruits that were visiting Ann Arbor from the 2010 and 2011 classes this weekend. People need to chill out about Rich Rod for a little. He has had 2 years to turn a pure pro style passing offense into a spread option offense. That means that the only players on the roster that were recruited to play the spread are 18 and 19 years old as sophomores and freshmen (most of whom redshirted this year). Seeing as he has turned around every program that he has been at for the better, I think we should all let the man do his thing for at least another 12 months and stop worrying about his facial expressions at a basketball game.

The court got stormed because the students storming the court were the fair weather/big game fans. A big percentage of the fans that really care and go to all of the games tried to resist.

And people need to stop talking smack on LLP. He’s not shooting well and does 1 or 2 stupid turnovers a game, but he continues to start every game because he’s a solid defender and comes up with big plays on defense. He also is the only guard that can actually penetrate on the dribble (excluding Manny of course).

I want to take this time out, and give a quick apology to Zack Novak. Other day I said he never makes a 3 when it counts, and I almost cringe when the ball rotates his way in a tight game. Well today..he knocked the biggest one down of the season for him and this team. Takes confidence to continue shooting that rock, when you havent been “on” so to speak. Ant you did your thing too. While watching the game, I explained to my friend that you were probably “the worst player ever from Oak Hill” (sorry but you’ve killed me everytime I thought you were turning the corner, so I had to jump off the very small Ant Wright bandwagon)..well today you came through…Very good win for Blue. Lets build on it!

2600 students at the game, there were sure to be some that thought this was court-storming-worthy, even though must of the core Ragers had no interest in rushing the court.

But we will have you know that when we beat those guys from East Lansing, the entire student body will be on the floor. That is the kind of game that begs for students rushing the floor, and the Maize Rage will be all over the court then.

Whoever is criticizing fans for storming the court, you should probably start watching the GAME and not just the last two minutes. The fact that you can point out one collective problem in an entire day shows that you have no vested interest in the TEAM and how they perform. It is not only insulting to the students who genuinely cheer for the team night in and night out, but it is disrespectful to the team because you are putting them in the back of your minds while you concern yourself with the fact that the fans are over-zealous.

What’s with all the posts about who the TRUE fans are and who is better than who. Let’s all grow up a little. Yikes.

Great win. Manny’s drive and dunk was awesome. Anthony Wright did a nice job as well. They have some tough games ahead. Hopefully they can keep the streak going. Go Blue!

I take some of the credit for Ant Wrights pretty good game!! (Just kidding, i did call him out after the Indiana game.) I still think he makes horrible decisions and throws the ball into the 1st row to many times in 8-12 minutes of game time he gets. It was nice to see him get some confidence and shine on National TV. Good for him. It was great to see Peedie and Manny get help! we still need 2 of the next 3.

It would be nice to make the Big Dance but for me that would just be another huge bonus and a blessing for recruiting. I have felt we were way to overrated with the talent or lack of talent on the roster. For us to have the same season as lat year we need a lot of breaks and for LLP, Stu D, and Novak to shoot the lights out consistently. Gibson, Morris and Wright to contribute good minutes of smart basketball and solid role-playng when they come in to rest our starters. When you’re starting 4 small guards and 1 PF you need to hit your shots and limit turnovers, play solid D. I liked when they showed Beilien talking to they guys after the win and he was stating the statistics and how playing that tuff D the whole game will get them the W.