While Michigan couldn’t make the plays, Trevon Hughes and Rob Wilson made enough to guide Wisconsin to the win. Hughes scored 16 second half points including a pair of huge three pointers. Hughes was joined by Rob Wilson, a guy who Hughes praised for his play on Wisconsin’s scout team in his post-game interview. Wilson scored a career high 13 points, 11 of which came in the second half.
DeShawn Sims was absolutely phenomenal yet again. Michigan gave him the ball early and often and he was dominant in the first half. He finished 9 of 14 on the night for 23 points with 13 rebounds (12 defensive). Sims didn’t score a lot of points versus UConn but for the second game in a row he was very impressive on the defensive glass, rebounding 33% of Wisconsin’s missed shots by himself.
The rest of the Wolverines must not have found the trip to Madison worth their time. They combined to shoot 8 of 33 for a dreadful 24%. Role players aren’t supposed to play well on the road, but performances like Zack Novak’s 0-6, Stu Douglass’ 2-8, or the one point that the bench mustered just aren’t good enough to win games.
Manny Harris’ 4 for 14 (2-6 3pt), 4 rebound, 1 assist and 3 turnover performance can be described as nothing short of disappointing. Not only did Harris struggle mightily on offense, he backed up his poor play on offense with lackluster effort (or maybe concentration?) on defense which enabled Rob Wilson to explode in the second half.
This wasn’t the first time that Harris has struggled on the defensive end. He has always had a tendency to free lance on that end of the court, going for cheap steals rather than playing solid defense. Against Northwestern it was Harris who was backdoored by freshman Drew Crawford down the stretch, giving Northwestern their final lead. It’s disappointing because Harris has the athletic ability to be a terrific defender but at this point he’s anything but.
Michigan actually outshot Wisconsin (if you can really do that while shooting in the 30 percent range) and finished a hair behind the Badgers on the glass and at the stripe. Michigan also lost the turnover battle, turning it over on over 20% of their possessions. Michigan has turned it over on 19% of their possessions or more in their last 5 games after only turning it over that often once before that stretch.
When Michigan led by only three at the half, the writing was on the wall. Wisconsin played about as poorly as they could and Michigan just couldn’t put together a lead. Closing halves has been a problem all year and it is one of the most critical aspects of a basketball game. It was tough to think about anything other than how Michigan would let the game slip away in the end.
Even after allowing Wisconsin back into the game, Michigan led by 9 points with 9 minutes to play after a pair of Douglass threes. Then the wheels fell off. Sims barely touched the ball in the post down the stretch (his three touches resulted in a missed layup, made jumpshot, and a charge on a flop from Nankivil) and Michigan attempted to ride Manny Harris to victory.
It didn’t work. The last 9 minutes of the game were ones that Harris would like to have back. It’s obviously unfair to just pick on Manny but these are the negative plays I marked down from the 9 minute mark until Wisconsin took their first lead of the game:
- Harris drifted off of Rob Wilson in the corner leaving him open to nail a three point jumpshot from the wing
- He was called for a (questionable) charge.
- He missed a wide jumper from the free throw line.
- He lost Rob Wilson again, this time for a wide open layup.
- He blew a box out of Nankivil that led to an easy put back.
- He did make a nice runner in the lane but he proceeded to miss an identical shot on the next possession.
- With the game tied, Michigan went back to Harris once more as he airballed some sort of half hook shot, Wisconsin took the lead on the next possession with 3 minutes to play and never trailed again.
Other people made mistakes over this stretch as well. Sims and Novak missed painful bunny shots on the same possession. Douglass and Lucas-Perry both missed three point attempts. Morris got burned off the dribble by, who else, Rob Wilson. But as Michigan let their 9 point lead turn into a 2 point deficit it was tough not to focus on Michigan’s superstar, Manny Harris.
For the third year in a row, Michigan played extremely hard fought competitive game at the Kohl Center and came away empty handed. In two of those games Michigan held a lead at halftime and in all three Michigan was within two points with under 4 minutes to play. You don’t go 131-10 at home for no reason though, Wisconsin just figures out ways to win. Whether it was Joe Krabbenhoft, Marcus Landry, or Trevon Hughes — Wisconsin made the big plays and Michigan didn’t.
Next up Michigan heads to Purdue for a Saturday afternoon tilt in Mackey Arena. Purdue got an impressive performance from Kelsey Barlow and John Hart (If you’re asking yourself ‘who?’, Hart wasn’t even listed in the official scorebook) in a win over Illinois and appear to be righting the ship after three straight losses. The task certainly doesn’t get any easier.
Player Bullets:
- DeShawn Sims: Peedi is making his case for a spot on the all-conference first team, through six Big Ten games Sims is averaging 21 points (1st) and 8 rebounds (3rd) and shooting 62% from the field (1st). Sims was dominant again today and it was a shame to see his effort go to waste. Oh yeah, Happy Birthday.
- Zack Novak: There appears to be some kind of jinx here. When I wrote an article praising Zack Gibson he reverted to his old ways and my article this week about Zack Novak appeared to have a similarly negative effect. Novak couldn’t hit a shot – not a layup, not a wide open jumper from the elbow, not a three, nothing. It was just a terrible shooting shooting performance and six rebounds is nice but Zack has to hit some shots. Michigan also switched screens through most of the game, leaving Novak on Trevon Hughes for two critical possessions late in the second half, Hughes obviously got in the lane easily.
- Stu Douglass: Douglass has emerged as Michigan’s go to three point shooter, averaging 6.55 attempts per game over Michigan’s last nine games and he’s even making 37% of those attempts. But right now it, despite his shots looking good, it’s tough to imagine him making more than 2 or 3 in a game.
- Manny Harris: I have probably harped on Harris’ play enough in this post, in short he was locked down by Tim Jarmusz.
- Darius Morris: Darius makes some nice plays but he’s obviously a freshmen out there. Opposing offenses seem to be figuring out how to beat him on defense as he’s struggled the last two times out.
- Laval Lucas-Perry: Nothing earth shattering from Laval but he hit a couple shots and I thought he actually played pretty well defensively. He is a passive offensive player and he isn’t going to create much there but I think he is finally making some strides defensively.
After watching that game I’m scared to death of what this team might look like next year without Sims. With or without Manny I don’t see much success.
are bench sucks and so do our highly touted freshman….
Highly touted is a bit of a stretch. Morris and Vogrich have been disappointing but it’s not like they were McDonalds All Americans.
I really think the key here isn’t so much Manny’s poor play, it’s that he tried to take over at the end of the game when he shouldn’t have. Either that or the team just defaults to him down the stretch because nobody else wants to step up. Sure we would have probably won if Manny had made a couple more shots, but we also probably would have won if we just had kept our focus on Sims in the last 5 minutes.
That’s definitely part of it maxwell’s demon… As I mentioned, as Michigan was blowing their lead they really only got Sims involved twice down low.
What’s Beilein telling Douglass in the photo?
-”Kid, you’re doing great. Just keep chucking up threes and remember, keep it ethical.”
Dylan – Right, I know you pointed it out too, just felt like it was worth emphasizing.
bluejays- I don’t know whether to think your comment is unfair or not. Can you teach a team mental toughness? If so, then haha because Beilein isn’t doing it.
Kind of off topic, but since someone mentioned “highly touted” recruits…
I talked to a friend of mine who plays for Bridgton Academy, which is in the same league as Smotrycz’s New Hampton team. I asked my friend to give me his thoughts on Smotrycz’s game after playing him for the second or third time this season (as I was going to pass them on to Dylan to toss in the next update). Bridgton won the game by around 10 points, and my friend had nothing to say. He said Smotrycz isn’t special at all and was definitely unimpressed by his game. I really hope the games they’ve played have just been aberrations, but it definitely helps me keep my hopes for next year very reasonable…
Sims got the ball down low 3x down the stretch. Don’t forget about the flopping offensive foul called against him w/ under 2 to play.
Yeah.. Good call on Sims.
I actually thought that was a good call when I watched the replay. Nankivil anticipated perfectly what Sims was going to do and was in position. However, the charge against Harris was a terrible call, IMO, Nankivil was still sliding over and had to lean to his left to create the contact. It was a very expected call considering where they were though.
Anyone have any insight into the offense they were running in the first half. The one with all the hand offs and curls? I think they ran it a little during the UConn game and it seemed pretty effective. At least visually, seems better than all the passing around the perimeter. They also seemed to abandon it down the stretch, which was disappointing. Almost looked like a weave with some flex cuts.
@Jeff –
I don’t disagree about Nankivil beating Sims to the spot, it’s the flying backwards that kills me. No way Sims hit him hard enough to send him flying. I hate that about basketball. I’m all for instituting a hockey like rule that would give someone a technical for diving. I’ve played basketball for 25 years (not well, and mostly rec since high school) and can count on one hand how often someone has ran into me hard enough to knock me down like that. I just don’t think it’s good sportsmanship to embelish like that.
Yeah Sims will be missed very much, but if Harris stays, hopefully Morris can develop and Smotrycz can step up as a freshman…
Wisconsin changed their defensive plan halfway through the second half. They collapsed on everything in the middle. You could just sense that Sims would not be scoring any more down low and Manny didn’t have a shot at driving. There was always double and triple teams inside. Wisconsin’s defense was just too good and Michigan can’t hit outside shots consistently enough to win these games.
I really appreciated the game plan early on though – get it to Sims down low. Now only if Harris could have contributed in the first half, we might have had a blowout. But when Wisconsin decided to stop the inside play, Michigan has got to hit its shots.
Nice comments on Novak. He was my player of the game against UConn. He was incredible. And for this game, besides all his missed shots, he didn’t seem to have the intensity. What a difference.
Andy,
On that we agree, the charge has always been overcalled in college. I agree that college refs basically reward flopping. There are a lot of things I don’t like about college refs, and B10 refs in particular.
I think if Manny stays, the team will be, generally, a bit better than they are this year, and the results will largely be a matter of execution and intangibles. However, I have a hard time imagining him staying, and therefore, I do think an NIT bid could be a big challenge.
Scott/Tim/ToddH: Is one handle not good enough for you?
Well UNC has “instant impact” freshmen, and I don’t see them making the tournament either, lol.
ToddH: There’s absolutely no reason that every recruit needs to be an instant impact player. It’s nice to have one or two of those in any given class (which Beilein is doing) but as long as you have depth there’s no reason a player can’t redshirt and develop for a year or two before becoming a big contributor. Our problem is that Beilein had to start from scratch especially losing Ekpe and Cronin, so we don’t have that depth.
So I’ll break it down like this: the ideal is to have ideal veteran talent across the board. As talent often leaves early this is hard and there’s really only one program in the B10 that can truly fill their entire team with talent and that’s MSU. So next best scenario is to have talent and veteran role players (who often are not instant impact players). We lost our veteran role players last year and since Beilein has only been here 2.5 years he hasn’t had a chance to develop any. Therefore we are playing with talent (Manny and Sims) and also non-veteran role players (Stu and Novak). This is non-ideal but also not Beilein’s fault. Give the team a year or two and they will prove your theory wrong.
In Manny’s defense it’s not like he could’ve really gone to the basket in the last 5 minutes. A charge will be called every single time on the road. That’s why you get those silly running hook shots, the ball has to be gone before any contact is made because he knew he wouldn’t get the call.
At home on the other hand Manny always seems to take over the game at the end because he can drive with impunity to the basket and never get called for anything.
If you want to win on the road in the Big 10 against a team with equal talent it has to be from the perimeter.
I liked when Manny made that three and Larivee said “Manny’s having an off night but at least he isn’t forcing things” and I thought to myself…hmm he’s kind of right. This is very un-Manny like.
Then the next trip down the court he chucks up a three pointer taking no time off the shot clock. I think to myself “ok just a heat check”.
Then some errant passes. Then the charging call…then the running hook shots started. That’s about when my head exploded.
Manny, you are talented and I love what you have to offer, but my God I don’t remember anyone with decision making this bad. It’s like he just chucks up shots and plays defense when he wants to, and slacks off the rest of the game and there is no thought about situational awareness as to when he turns it “on” and “off”.
I’m just frustrated.
i hate to “hate” on Novak, but I’m tired of hearing about how hard he works and how much he hussles. There are a ton of players out there like Novak that aren’t wearing top tier D-1 uniforms because they just don’t have the talent to be a productive player consistently. Novak would be coming off the bench if we had any other decent option. I really hope he doesn’t think he’s going to be one of the go to guys next year, but unfortunately he probably will be. All I know is I can’t handle watching him throw up 9 or 10 bricks a game in the future.
Wisconsin is actually the B10 program I am hoping UofM will be able to emulate. They don’t have a single 5-star athlete on their team and they haven’t had a top-25 class since ’06–and even then it was just barely–but they haven’t missed the tournament since 1998. When their players are freshman they don’t seem like they are going to be that good, but every year they seem to have two really good seniors on the team. I think that’s because Ryan’s system takes a couple years for most players to play well in it, which can also be said for Beilein’s. Unfortunately, with injuries and player transfers, I think we are still two years away from seeing Beilein have a full complement of players who aren’t in their first year in the system. It will be hard to be patient, but what choice do we have?
In my simplistic mind, I just KNEW halfway through the 1st half that we would find a way to lose that game. We ***should have*** had those damn Badgers down by 25 or so at that point, not just 11. When you go on the road in conference play & the home team basically fails to show up for the first 10 minutes & the crowd is not into the game at all – you MUST have enough of the “killer instinct” to put the game away right then & there! Good teams do; I guess we’re just not in that category. YET.
Previous commentators in this thread have amply dissected our individual players’ performances. Let me just emphasize my agreement with what Erik said about Manny: “You want to go in the first round next spring? Well, good luck with that…’cause too often, your decision-making & all-around play haven’t improved appreciably since your PSL days.”
And 1 more thing – why, in a game that is being played at a glacial pace even by Big 10 standards, does any player, much less a key starter like Deshawn, need to goto the bench for a rest? Jeez, he was HOT. “C’mon, Coach – leave him in! It’s getting worrisome: you’re starting to exhibit Amaker-ish substitution patterns!”
GOBLUE!!!
(I will fight, until I’m dead, with a Maize and Blue helmet on my head!)
I too think Novak has been somewhat oversold. And I would love it if I never heard Deshawn Sims maligned again–that guy has been a warrior.
Just don’t think the immediate prospects are good in either of M’s two major sports, which saddens me. With pro sports so sullied by scandal and drugs, I really yearn to believe in my Michigan squads.
As poor as our offense was all game. I thought our defense lost it for us down the stretch. I think we gave up buckets on at least four straight possessions at the end.
I have to agree with Dan and the other naysayers to the extent that we sometimes bend over backwards to commend our players for hustle and heart when they lack consistency and fundamental skill. Of course they’re ecstatic to be on a D-1 court and will do everything in their power to stay there: that, alone, doesn’t warrant our gratitude and adoration.
Now, every day people say: “Michigan is not a top program. We cannot expect to recruit John Walls, Turners, Grffins, etc.” But wait a second here. When we got Beilein from a top WVU program, everybody said “Of course Beilein would want to come to Michigan. That’s a no-brainer. We’re a hallowed program with great tradition, fans, etc., whereas WVU is a still-developing Appalachian parvenu.” Fine. So, how could our program be so attractive for a guy like JB and not so for new recruits? Do we assume all these kids born in 1992 or 1993 don’t know anything about the Fab Five?
Sorry, I am letting the disappointment over last night get to me. I’ll take a break.
The naysayers need to calm a bit. Would Douglass and Novak be playing these minutes for an elite team? Of course not – we “stole” them from Valpo. There IS more talent coming into this team – Morris, Vogrich, Hardaway, Smotrycz, Zeigler, Horford (if we get those two) are all fairly well-thought of guys – we just need to get them on the court. It’s waaaaay to early to say he can’t recruit – this is his 3rd class, he had a top 100 player, a solid shot at a 2nd (Zeigler), and a guy just on the cusp (Hardaway), along with a commit from a 2011 top-100 player. The talent is coming.
ToddH – I think it’s funny that you left out his two recruits that are starting – Douglass and Novak, but obsess over the “busts” of Cronin, Morgan, and McLimans when Cronin hasn’t played because of a carerr-ending injury, Morgan has been injured, and McLimans is about 65 pounds.
I’d much rather watch this club than the days of Maurice Taylor and Robert Traylor any day.
Not blaming anyone but just stating a fact. Watching the game last night, I counted Novak missing four uncontested layups giving away eight points.
Add eight points to Michigan’s 48 and the final score would be Michigan 56 Wisconsin 54.
You never know what would happen if he had hit those layups but in a game that close the eight additional points could have provided us with a little more cushion which we obviously needed.
In last night’s game the end result was that one player (Sims) couldn’t beat five. We really have to find a third option if we have any chance to go to any post-season tournament. What a frustrating season.
chitownblue, I agree. That epic collapse by the Taylor/Traylor/Baston team was the beginning of the end. Yay, the won the NIT! Wait…vacated…no…
That team had an ass-load of talent. Far more talent than our current Wolverines. One similarity is that both teams look lethargic and downright lazy at times. That ’97 team could afford it from time to time because they had talent and size. This team has to fight for 40 minutes a game and when they don’t…well, we lose to Wisconsin. And Utah. And Northwestern. And Alabama. And Indiana. And Boston College.
But. I’m over last night. I dropped some turds and then flushed them and last night’s game at the same time.
We beat Purdue.
We beat Michigan State.
Believe.
You can redshirt players in basketball if you have an established program with experienced players. The problem now is that we only have about 5 1/2 players who can play at all against B10 competition. I don’t see how anyone can blame Beilein for what happened with Cronin and I’m sure Morgan’s injury contributed to him being redshirted. However, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about our current freshman class. I still think Morris has been disappointing and Vogrich and evidently McLimans are completely unprepared for the college game at this point. This was Beilein’s first full-year recruiting class, so I was expecting it to be better than the last one. Collectively, they haven’t been as good as last year’s freshman were. I’m really hoping that it’s just the learning curve for Beilein’s system and that they will be much better next year.
The bottom line is Beilein has not recruited successfully. From Stu and Zack who neither are good enough to start at this level and now these very dissapointing freshmen. Look in basketball if you got the skills you can make plays as a freshmen(Daniel Horton).
I understand Zack Gibson has to play a few minutes a game in order to rest Deshawn but why does it seem like everytime the guy enters the game our guards try to force him the ball? How many times does he have to fumble and turnover a bouce pass or any pass in traffic for that matter before they figure out that he has NO hands?
Gibson is a complete disaster. We have Division 2 caliber players on our team in Gibson, Wright and Morris for the most part. When will the black cloud over this program end?
Wait, how has Morris been disappointing? Were you expecting John Wall? I don’t get where everyone is getting these delusions that we should be bringing in the Fab 5 every year. And Ted, last year.
morris a d2 player? i know it was a frustrating loss but seriously? get real. Beilein is going to recruit just fine.
he started way late the year he got novak and them, and the past year. coaches start recruiting players from the time they’re underclassmen in high school. beilein joined us when we were basically in shambles.
There are reasons UNC gets these “instant impact” freshmen. they’ve been a top program for years that has produced tons of nba players. while michigan is good historically, our problems can’t be solved at the snap of fingers.
also, morris is the only 1, 2, or 3 on our team besides manny who can score on drives. he’s a true point guard on a team that lacks talent.
I think people are seriously not giving Darius Morris enough credit. I absolutely believe he’s improving and besides, does anyone remember Ron Coleman and Dion Harris? How many 0-10 and 0-11 games did those two guys have?
As far as Zack Gibson, Amaker brought him in. The very fact that Beilein got a team with someone who transferred from Rutgers due to lack of playing time into the 2nd round of the tournament speaks volumes.
I can’t help but feel like the success of recruiting coordinators masquerading as coaches, like John Calipari, Roy Williams, and Bill Self, and Thad Matta are making people forget how important coaching is. Would Rick Barnes have made the tournament with Michigan’s roster last year?
I’m worried about Vogrich. He is not quick and he can’t play at the speed of Div. 1 yet. Does anybody have any examples of players ever developing their quickness and speed for the game through their career? I can’t think of anybody off hand.
I hope he is not a wasted 4 yr. scholarship and become another Gavin Gronginer who could shot the 3 in H.S., but wasn’t quick enough for the Big Ten. I hope he proves me wrong, but not sure how you develop that physical trait.
I think that Morris shows some potential and will be a very good point guard if he can keep the mental mistakes to a minimum.
But the talk about Wright and Gibson does bring up a valid point about recruiting. The talent level of this team definitely needs to be upped;
Beilein is beginning to head in the right direction with Morris and the commitment of Carlton Brundidge, but Beilein needs to grab more in-state quality players, guys like Trey Zeigler and Ray McCallum. Guys such as Matt Vogrich, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Stu Douglass come to Michigan to just jack up 3′s; we need more gritty, tough Big-ten style players.
I would add that IF Beilein’s priority is to recruit for threes and not for great PGs or dominant big men, he needs to recruit three-point GENIUSES, those guys with weird emotionless eyes who shoot from the arc like a perfectly calibrated robot.
I’m thinking Christian Laettner types, or more recently a guy like Lee Humphrey on those Florida championship teams. No my fave style of basketball but it can be effective, particularly if you have Grant Hill on your team also.
In defense of Baston, I thought he played up to his potential and if I remember right, he wasn’t paid like the other two.
I just can’t believe that we shoot this bad in year 3. I was under the impression that Beilein recruited shooters and was a good shooting coach. I can understand why someone would think that this program isn’t necessarily headed in the right direction.
Are you people crazy? Morgan got red-shirted because he tore his knee. You want him on the floor? He couldn’t run until two months ago. That’s why he red-shirted. Cronin had a career-ending injury.
Yes, some guys break-out as freshmen, but not everyone. What was Jon Leuer from Wisconsin doing as a freshman? Playing 9 minutes a game. Trevon Hughes? Playing 7 minutes.
This takes time.
If we don’t get Zeigler and Horford it could be another long season next year!!!
There is a big difference in shooting 3′s in H.S. vs. college. In H.S. you have more time to set up and most times no one is flying in your face. I believe UM is experiencing some of this with our current players and why the Indy,IL & Flint kids are shooting so poorly compared to their H.S. days.
Hopefully, Beilein can tell the difference when he recruits future 3 point specialists.
Quit jumping on and off the bandwagon every game. Manny sucked vs Wisconsin….stuff happens. He’s been carrying this team most of the season along with DeShawn. There are twelve Big Ten games left, plenty of opportunities left for this team to build momentum for March. There’s always the BTT as well, and looking at the history of that tourney anything can happen. Personally, I’d rather this team have their backs against the wall they have played much better.
Keep hope alive. Michigan has lost a couple of games that could have gone the other way. They are playing pretty good defense now. If they find a way to win the next two games who knows where they could go.
I think the elephant in the room is the referee’s officiating against Wisconsin…one of the most one-sided officiated games I’ve ever witnessed.
Nankvil’s flop on Deshawn Sim’s ‘offensive foul’ was ridiculous; it just seemed every tough call went against Michigan. I think Michigan got frustrated at the end and didn’t play their game, not finding Sims and instead forcing up low-percentage shots.
Sidenote: Manny Harris needs to not use that little floater layup shot thing ever again.
Rats — chitownblue beat me to the point about Leuer/Hughes’s modest freshman seasons. It takes time indeed.
That said, the UW teams of 2-3 years ago were way ahead of where U-M is today. Hughes was getting 8 minutes his freshman year partly because he had Flowers and Taylor ahead of him. That team was stacked.
U-M, conversely, has no depth and can’t shoot, so it’s disturbing that Vogrich (a shooter) can hardly get on the court. But Morgan obviously has an excuse, and Morris at least has shown flashes.
I think if Vogrich was shooting well at all he would be seeing more time simply as an instant offense guy. But the whole team just seems to be in a funk shooting this year. I am starting to wonder if all the work the players did in the weight room and elsewhere getting their bodies in better shape is catching up to them.
I remember at the beginning of the season how there was so much talk about Novak and LLP in particular trimming the fat and getting kinda ripped. As a guy who plays a lot of basketball and is primarily just a shooter, I know that whenever I go through a period of not playing a lot and lifting a ton, that I suck at shooting for awhile. One of the reasons that guys like Reggie Miller and Rip Hamilton were/are such great shooters is that they keep their bodies in the same state. Shooting is all about getting a perfect repetitive motion down. Once you start getting stronger in any part of your body it throws off everything.
Now you would think by this time that they would be figuring it out, but it is probably hard during the season to get back to working on fundamentals. This is just my guess and it could just be that they are head cases or just not great shooters. But I would bet that the changes in their bodies have had some effect.
Off topic question:
If Penn State was in the Pac-10, what would their record be?
I would just like to say that im proud of our team for how we played at wisky. Coach B has really transformed our defensive play by leaps and bounds from the start of the season. It sucks to lose a game like that but if we can play like that the rest of the season we would make the tourny.
Last but not least im not gonna rag on Manny too much for having an off game when he has carried us on his back for 2+ years. It happens. It sucks but it happens.
FWIW: over on mgoblog someone is saying that Horford is a lock. The poster’s also a little higher on Horford than Dylan seemed to be after taking in a game the other day (compares his development to his bro’s at the same stage):
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/ba.....cruiting-0
I watched the first half of that game of Horford’s that someone posted one of these sites. Definitely looks skinny, but you can tell he’s a smart player, good passer, good shooter. Maybe he won’t be an instant impact player (OMG he’s terrible, why bring him in?) but looks like he good be a pretty good player.
Deacon – Morris is an interesting case. He has lapses, but I think he’s already our best perimeter defender – he’s fast, has long arms, and, most importantly, generally has the effort. But, for a guy that scored so much in high school, his jumper is really a work in progress. On Vogrich – he’s clearly not ready yet – we’ll see if he grows.
My last comment on the matter – a negative poster up above cited Daniel Horton as an impact freshman. And yeah, I guess despite the 37% shooting and the 1:1 assist/TO ration from a PG, he scored 15 ppg, so I guess he did. But he NEVER got better. He scored 12 ppg with abysmal shooting percentages and turnovers for the next two years, with some modest gains coming as a senior. Courtney Sims was the same Snuggie-soft milquetoast for his entire career – no progress. Petway never learned how to do anything other than jump. Dion Harris was the same guy as a senior he was as a freshman. Sure – we got “talent” but what happened with it?
DeShawn Sims and Manny Harris, today, are significantly better players than they were before they met John Beilein. Harris’s shooting % has gone up 30 points a year under Beilein, his rebounds and assists have nearly doubled, and his turovers have gone DOWN. DeShawn Sims shoots 105 points higher than he did in Beilein’s first season, and he’s added an additional rebound per game for the past few years.
My point? Players get BETTER with Beilein. He showed this at WVU, and he’s shown this in his 2 off-seasons in Ann Arbor.
It should also be noted that much of our current freshmen were recruited under the specter of U of M’s abysmal 10-win season – not the NCAA year.
TWEETER, thanks for the comments on weightlifting and shooting. That’s certainly the most insight into a possible explanation for this team I’ve seen.