BasicsWho: Michigan (10-9, 3-4) vs. MSU (17-3, 7-0) |
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Michigan welcomes Michigan State to Crisler Arena as the Wolverines slowly watch their season slip away into darkness. Conversely, Michigan State is playing their best basketball of the season in the midst of a 7-0 start to conference play.
It appeared that Michigan might have rejuvenated their season with a home win over Connecticut but they followed that up with disappointment. The first blow was a crushing collapse in Madison that saw Michigan let a 9 point second half lead slip away. The loss in Madison was followed by Manny Harris’ practice incident which led to his suspension and a blow out loss at Purdue.
On paper, last week was just a pair of road losses to the #2 and #3 teams in the conference. That doesn’t seem like it should be something to be ashamed of but there is no doubt that this team is on life support, gasping for their final breaths.
Michigan State’s offense has actually been better than their defense. It should come as no surprise that Michigan State’s offense still relies heavily on offensive rebounding, the Spartans rebound 40.8% of their misses (9th nationally). They also shoot the ball very well, mostly because of their proficient shooting inside the arc (53.2%) where they take almost 75% of their shots.
Michigan State also dominates the glass on defense (rebounding over 70% of their opponents misses) but they also keep their opponents off the free throw line (28.1 FTR, 23rd nationally) and force them into low percentage shots. Michigan State’s opponents are shooting only 30.8% from three point range and that doesn’t bode well for the three point happy Wolverines.
In the backcourt, Michigan State will start Kalin Lucas (16 points, 4 assists) and Chris Allen (10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists). Allen struggled at times early in his career but has put it together on both ends of the floor this year, becoming a defensive stopper and averaging 10 points per game (39.3% 3pt shooting). Kalin Lucas, well, he’s Kalin Lucas. Michigan has struggled to stop opposing point guards from getting in the lane this year and Kalin Lucas should be more of the same. Lucas-Perry, Morris, and Douglass will all get their shots but I’m less than optimistic that any of them can stop, or even slowdown, Lucas.
On the block, Delvon Roe is the guy who killed Michigan last year with one of his career best performances in Crisler Arena. Derrick Nix and Garrick Sherman are intriguing freshman but KJ tells me (via IM) that he thinks they will have lots of trouble handling Sims on the block and expects them to play sparingly.
Then you have Draymond Green, who is easily my favorite Spartan. Green will play down low, mostly at the four position, and is the straw that stirs the drink in East Lansing. Green averages 10 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists per game and will be an extremely tough match-up for Zack Novak.
When Michigan State offer Draymond Green a scholarship, the internet argument was that the offer was to prevent him from going to Michigan when it appeared he was on the verge of a commitment. It’s interesting to see Tom Izzo essentially admit that he got lucky with the recruitment and that he had his doubts about Green’s ability to play at this level. I saw Draymond play in a Christmas tournament versus Manny Harris during Green’s junior year and it was clear the kid could play. His basketball IQ and passing ability is off the charts and his success this yearly in his career is a testament to his work ethic and ability.
Raymar Morgan (11 points, 6 rebounds) and Durrell Summers are Michigan State’s main options on the wing. Raymar Morgan can play on the wing or move to the four spot. Summers has been up and down this year but is certainly a capable wing scorer who can get hot at any time. Both Morgan and Summers will also likely get their shots at guarding Manny Harris.
Last year’s contest was extremely ugly, a 54-42 Michigan State win, as Sims was really the only person to get going for Michigan. Michigan needs Harris and Sims to play well to have a chance. If they want to actually win it, some of the complementary players will have to step up as well.
I would expect healthy doses of ball pressure on Michigan’s tentative guards because Tom Izzo has almost certainly seen tape of the turnover problems that Douglass, Lucas-Perry, and Morris have developed. If Michigan can hit a few shots and keep their turnover percentage under 20% they have a chance.
Michigan State is also very good at completely eliminating at least one star player out of the offensive picture. Manny Harris always received the Travis Walton treatment and while Chris Allen is no Walton, you can be sure Michigan State will have a strong defensive plan in place for Harris.
Defensively there are so many options to stop that a couple of them are bound to have success. Michigan just can’t let three guys get hot like they did in West Lafayette. Prior to the Purdue game Michigan’s defense had improved quite a bit, holding Indiana, Connecticut, and Wisconsin under one point per possession. Michigan needs to find this defensive effort again, especially on the defensive glass, and play with that sort of intensity for 40 minutes.
It’s really all or nothing for Michigan here. Their season has been a colossal disappointment and beating Michigan State is one of the last opportunities to spark any kind of a run. Even if it doesn’t spark a run, it would be John Beilein’s first win over Michigan State which has to count for something.
Lets forget about the past and the future tonight. This is MSU.
Lol’ing at the new logo in the preview. The thing is gross, and that has nothing to do with my hatred of MSU
Man, I hate Sparty. But, man, they looked good against Minnesota even when Minnesota was hitting on all cylinders. I just hope this stays close.
I can’t believe MSU is only a 5pt favorite. There is one major thing I remember from last season’s game, other than Delvon Roe’s dominance anyway. Right before the half, Zack Gibson got free on a backdoor cut but was held before he could lay it up. They called an intentional foul and he missed both free throws.
That can’t happen this time. Michigan has to play perfect basketball to win this game. And most importantly, WIN THE SECOND HALF!
A win tonight could be the highlight of the season…gotta make some noise!
Thanks for bringing up Draymond’s recruitment, Dylan. Beilein really did a great job making a push for him even though he was late to the game (it was his first year at U-M). The only thing that kept him from committing to U-M was his lifelong love of MSU. Even the harshest Beilein recruiting critics have to give him some credit for the work he put in on Draymond.
Anyone know who’s doing the game for ESPN tonite?
Eddie: Lavin, O’Brien, and Andrews
The chief problem is that MSU closes out close games brilliantly, while Michigan…does not (Wisconsin, Northwestern). Michigan needs to rally around Sims and a reinstated Harris; Novak’s shot looked good against Purdue so let’s hope he can keep that up. Our guards are going to be hounded, I’m just looking for fewer mental mistakes from Douglass, Lucas-Perry, and Morris. GO BLUE
I expect us to lose by double digits, but I’m hoping for the win. It’s going to take the best effort of the season from this team.
Acouple of things that I think might happen tonight:
Harris hits for 35, Peedi gets a 20/20, and we win 59-57. LLP, Douglass, Zack, and our 2 freshman guards combine for 0-17 from behind the arc.
Izzo is so flustered by all the noise generated by the Maize Rage that he tells Erin Andrews at halftime that he thinks MSU should start a student section at Breslin sorta like we have.
Any other predictions?
It’ll be an interesting game. Michigan’s motivation should be at a pinnacle with Manny’s return and knowing that (with only pride and an NIT bid, I guess, to play for) this game may be the most important of the regular season.
If they can pull out a victory (or at least play well enough to win) it’ll be a sign that the team has a shot at making a run in the B10 Tourney and that the poor season thusfar may be more about bad luck than a deficient team. If they get beaten easily, the rest of the season becomes pretty meaningless and I’ll be calling for more underclassmen to get playing time in preparation for next year.
ya i dont see us winning this game, too much talent and depth on MSU.
I know the season is a disappointment–I’ve wailed about it myself. But I don’t like to think of college kids as being on ‘life support.’ Hopefully, they can go out and enjoy playing a basketball game, and some of us who don’t have too much of our own self-esteem invested can appreciate their effort.
If I were Belein I might be tempted to call off the dogs, w. the NCAAs unlikely encourage them to just go out and play.
We gotta get into the paint. I’m gonna guess they are going to put a lot of effort into stopping Sims and if we only feed from the perimeter, they might be successful. But if we (and by we I mean Manny) can get penetration, then hopefully the Sims dumpoff or kick-out will be readily available. I think they are too smart to send Manny to the foul line all game so he’s going to have to stay in control and find the man who’s open.
On defense I don’t know how we can stop Nix, Morgan, and Summers simultaneously, especially on the boards. So lets hope we can score some points.
Well said, Mattski.
When do doors open at Crisler?
Key tonight is controlling tempo. Take our shots and run we got numbers, but otherwise work the offense, take care of the ball and get Sims touches. State has so much depth that if the game gets any kind of fast tempo established, I think we are in trouble. Its not that I dont think we can play at high tempo, but rather I just think we are going to wear down too fast.
I am assuming that we see a Uconn type defensive effort, and if you remember that game, the team really looked like they wore down a couple minutes into the second half. They were able to survive some of the Uconn push because Uconn lacked depth as well. However, State can run 9 quality guys out there and not miss a beat.
Personally, I like our chances tonight. Lets just hope the turnovers are low and some shots fall early. 61-58 UM.
OT: I remember awhile back someone was talking about there has never been a player that redshirted his freshman year and then went on to be any sort of player. At the time I could not think of anyone off the top of my head, but yesterday I remembered a couple.
Brian Butch for Wisky. He was a McDonald’s all-american, so he had talent, but he chose to redshirt and went on to have a productive college career and he got a shot at the NBA but did not make it.
Darrell Owens for Georgetown, also chose to redshirt. I dont think he was ever a star but he was very good for Georgetown his junior and senior year.
I then found an article from last year that had four players who were in rivals150 that chose to redshirt as freshmen. Darnell Gant at Washington, Michael Sanchez at Arkansas, Festus Ezeli at Vandy, and Derek Selvig at Montana. They have had varying degrees of success so far this season, but I think 3 of the 4 are seeing a lot of run and being productive.
Obviously most of these guys were pretty highly thought of coming out of highschool, but still were not ready to play at the D1 level. So lets not write off McLimans. Players develope at different paces and sometimes guys just need a year to really grow into their bodies.
I’d like to see UM stay active on offense. When they play good defense, and move their feet on that end, they tend to make harder cuts and set better picks on offense. They seem to get lulled to sleep on offense and just jog around, instead of making fast crisp passes followed by quick movements to get free from their defender.
Tweeter – I would also think it would be far more common for a big man to redshirt than a guard similar to football with linemen.
Morris Peterson redshirted his freshman year at MSU and went on to a pretty distiguished career. All American and still in the NBA.
Mattski – Wonderful post, if only your perspective was the norm.
Jim Burr officiating… Again.
I agree that the key is to stay active on offense. If we stagnate, MSU will be on Douglas and Morris like magnets.
Anyone else get the feeling tonight might be the best opportunity for Beilien to take one from Izzo. May be quite awhile before another serious opportunity comes around.
hows the crowd? lot of state fans? i cant really tell in the upper bowl on tv.
solid start so far.
Looks like MSU is turning it over a good amount. Hopefully we can stay in the game when that dries up.
man Burr you are an absolute joke
Ugh, how awesome it would be if we could shoot 3′s at even a half-way devent clip!
Any thoughts on the elbow?
What a joke. Just as bad or worse than Manny’s last year, but of course no ejection for this one.
Yeah, that was every bit as bad as Harris’s elbow last year. I wonder if Jay Bilas (and the gameday crew) will go crazy about this like he did with Harris. My guess is you won’t here a peep out of them.
again the worst play call to end the half again………beilein is the worst i have seen when calling plays to finish a half when time matters
The question now for UM, will they become soft and lose mental toughness in the second half. Let’s hope they learned.
Sigh, we all know MSU isn’t going to go the entire game without hitting another 3, and one has to believe they won’t turn it over as much in the 2nd half. So what can we do?
Well we shoot 29% and go 2-14 from 3 and still lead by 2. Defense look as good as they have all year. We start knocking down open shots and I don’t see any reason we can’t pull this off. Atleast now they should know that they can play with MSU. Should be a great second half.
Can Morris plaese hit the rim.Good game!!!
Turnovers the difference thus far. Msu turning it over on 35% of their possessions. Mich only 6%. Then again, Mich is shooting 29% that’s why they only lead by 2.
If only Laval was bleeding like a stuck pig, then we might have seen a hysterical overreaction from the officials. I really wanted him to get thrown out because then maybe people would shut up about Manny’s elbow. That said, Manny’s shouldn’t have been an ejection and neither should this one.
Cam anyone say Wisconsin Part Deux?
2nd half – keep up the defensive intensity, continue to take good care of the ball and we will be in it till the end. If we make 6 or 7 3′s we will win for sure.
I thought the elbow call was bs. I’d like to see consistency how rip moves are called. Either it’s a foul or and ejection. Stop leaving it up to the officials. If you leave it as a foul guys won’t guard so close. Make it an ejection and guys won’t rip at the head. Either way works.
Doesn’t feel like were winning does it?
Because we can’t finish in the 2nd half. Because Douglass can’t make an entry pass to save his life. Because nobody can stop Raymar Morgan. If it doesn’t feel like we’re winning, that might be why.
3 TO’s already
Outrebounded by 14, only shoot 29% to MSU 41% and still have a 2 point lead? Gotta be happy but surprised by that. I know i could say cut down on 3 attempts, and get a more high quality shot but thats not gonna happen. So gotta find a way to get that fg% up, and cut down the rebounding margin a little bit and they will have a shot.
Peedi is carrying this team again.
Future Michigan basketball coach Jalen Rose making an appearance.
A. I can’t stand raymar morgan
B. this game is SO winnable
C. let’s see some more of zach gibson for some post defense
What happened to Green’s knee? And I didn’t catch why they counted the basket and gave Sims to FTs on that breakaway.
Looked like Green hyper-extended his knee.
nice post d by gibson…and that’s why im not a coach
4-23 from long range, and we continue to bombs away…?
This is getting ugly. I don’t understand how Douglass can miss so many wide open shots.
Stu Douglas is terrible
who is this Corey Person fellow?
Shocking that we are completely broke.
Here we go losing focus and can’t buy a basket.
They are sagging on Sims and letting us shoot from outside – looks like a good strategy.
Novak and Douglas have absolutely no ability to create or finish a shot if a defender is within a foot of them.
Im dreaming of the days when we had a 6’6-6’9 swingman..I will even take Willie Mitchell right now. Give me LaVell Blanchard, Lester Abrams, Bernard Robinson please? Just somebody anybody that can matchup and slow down Raymar Morgan
I’ve come to admire Izzo as a coach. Wish he did it at Utah State.
I don’t blame Beilein for his first recruiting class, and I certainly don’t blame Stu and Novak because they give their all and play above their talent level, but that being said, I can’t wait til we don’t start 2 2 star recruits.
So this is it then, huh? Trading 2s for 3s? Good luck with that. I can only hope this is some sort of sophomore shooting slump for the guys.
Who do you blame then maxwell lol? He could of pulled an extreme case of Tom Crean and ate the schollies! JK, but its not even a star issue its more of a size thing when you face the bullies in the big 10. Stu an Zack can play at this level, but should prolly be coming off the bench
no way were blowing this game. Defense game to play today
Almost there!!! KEEP HUSTLIN’!!!!
Jay – That’s my point. They would make good veteran bench players but not sophomore starters. Let’s pull this out.
but man are shooting has been ugly
nice Stu comes in and shoots an air ball then fails to box out!
Come on !!
And…2 airballs.
hope they dont hold for last shot here
FCK ME
God, I can’t believe how this season is going.
Yo got to be kidding me
he was all over Simms
That was technically an intentional foul, holding him by the jersey before the ball reached him, but there was no way they were going to call it. It’s deja vu all over again.
Well Lucas did what he does and we did what we do. Good game. Hope we get em next year.
fck my life. MIchigan has ruined yet another day of mine
Where’s the guy who said Beilein can’t draw up an in-bounds play?
ARGH.
Our star (Sims) airballs a wide open three at the end then misses the last second shot, while their star hits a clutch shot with three seconds, that’s the difference.
Wayman, you really can’t knock Peedi this game. He played his butt off. It’s just that someone other than Sims or Harris has to step up…and they never do.
Novak, Douglas and Perry were the key. If we get ANYTHING from them UM wins this game.
Cue the “we’re still in the tournament hunt” comments.
Does it matter? Does it really matter? Even if that was an intentional foul, does anyone really think Sims makes the FTs? WHen the game was on the line, the Big Ten player of the year hit the game winner in TRIPLE COVERAGE. When The game is on the line, Michigan shoots back to back airballs. Just one rebound or one shot.
We’re not going to see MSU simultaneously have that bad of a shooting day and that bad of a ball handling day at the same time at the Breslin Center. I’m as close as I’ve ever been in my entire life to throwing up as the result of a sports game.
That was one of the worst no calls ive ever seen at the end. He grabbed Simms jersey!!!!!!!!!!! No way that goes the other way if we did it. Just aggravating
Why is it that every announcer in the world assumes that NOT making a foul call has a neutral effect on the game, while making a foul call helps one team. Not making a call is a choice and it is NOT neutral in it’s effect. It has a positive effect on one team (MSU) and a negative effect on the other (UM).
“Sometimes it’s just like when you’re playing your little brother in basketball.” “You let him get a lead and let him get excited, but then you take it back from him.”
Ain’t it the truth!?!?!
Go STATE
FWIW I hate you Dylan, your posts are too accurate. Two minutes left in the game, Michigan is up three, and all I can think of is “State doesn’t lose these games”. Dammit.
That should not have been called a foul, and the one previous should not have been intentional. Lucas is clutch, we are not. They have depth, we do not.
Junderground – We were in the tournament hunt until now.
I wouldn’t even want the win if it came from an intentional foul call. What we needed to do was make any sort of play at the end, offensively or defensively. We did neither. Hence, we lose yet again.
Sims and Harris can only do so much by themselves.
How does it feel to be part of history? MSU’s best start in BT ever. How many more accolades can Tom Izzo bring home? How about another FF and NC this year. Lucas is cold blooded. Manny’s gone after this year. I love Belein almost as much as RichRod. GO GREEN!
Its completely a coincidence Tom Izzo and Bo Ryan’s teams are at the top of the league every year. First of all Sims was intentionally fouled should be shooting 2 and the ball…on the lob summers basically raped him and nothing was called. No wonder tommy and bo are at the top of the league every year they get every call down the stretch.
Curois what people think. Has the tide turned? Is MSU now better in the major athletic sports than UM. They sure have owned us in basketball for 12 years and football for two and maybe more. Same thing with girls bball.
Though I am a fan of Coach B its really hard to see him unable to call a play that works. With 45 seconds to go the best we can come up with is a corner 3 point shot. The final play was a good call just didnt happen and the no calls hurt there were 2 foouls on the last drive. Thats haed to handle, but if they would have called them it would be “home cookin” Go Blue….. we need some serious work now to stay in any tourny hunt.
It’s mindboggling to me that the guys Beilein has brought in just aren’t good shooters. Stu, Novak, LLP are just not good percentage shooters and Morris is even worse from the outside. I’m confused as to how these players help us do what we supposedly want to do on offense.
Wayman – Yes Sparty has owned us in bball in large part due to Leprechaun Izzo. Football losses the last two years are a fluke; have you seen their squad in the news as of late? Have faith in Rich Rod. No one cares about girls bball unless they live in Connecticut.
Two consecutive no-calls to end the game in our own house. That hurts.
I like Lavin’s analysis, but his rationalization of the no-call on Manny was. . . dubious.
we play just well enough to barely lose every game…whether to NW without coble at home, indiana without creek on the road, msu at home, and the list goes on. that’s a trademark of a bad team. we blew this one. we have nobody to blame but ourselves. we have a lot of shortcomings but there’s no reason we should have lost this one.
i don’t think there’s any possibility that we make the tournament now.
if horford wants pt, i hope he watched this game. draymond bagadoughnuts looked like shaq against our interior defense.
this team is driving me insanse.
as far as fouls go…if it was UofM fouling MSU with 1.5 seconds left and uofm defending an MSU alley oop with 1 second left would you have been saying that should have been a foul? I am thinking no. And in that case say those fouls were called on uofm in that situation would you have been pissed off? I am betting yes just like MSU fans would be pissed off if they were called on them in this game.
I have seen a heck of a lot worse “intentional” fouls and sims was pushing summers as summers was on him on that alley oop. They could have been a lot more blatant and I really don’t see how they could call the foul in that situation; sims had ample opportunity to make that shot
there is no place for blaming refs in 99.9% of games. If uofm goes 9-29 from 3 instead of 7-29, we arent having this conversation.
when is signing day for basketball?
One of the things that frustrated me about last years team was that Novak, Stu, and LLP could get it together to all be hot on the same day. Never thought they would all get worse in year two. Would have been great to see Gibson in there in the last two mins when we were up three. I feel like it was scripted that MSU was going to get that offensive rebound.
How the hell am I supposed to study after that? I just experienced the most heart breaking loss I’ve gone through in a longgg time, and I live with 2 state fans. I hate life.
A season of missed opportunities!!!
Agreed. Poor shooting lost this game for Michigan. No matter how much Summers backed into Sims, the bottom line is you are NOT going to beat a top 5 team shooting 32% from the field and 7-29 from 3. Michigan has had a few crushing losses at home to MSU over the last 10 years but this one may be the hardest to take. I’d even rank it beside the close loss to #1 Ohio State a few years ago which would have got us back in the tournament.
That being said, you still cannot count U-M out. There are enough games left on the schedule where they can fight back to .500 in league and will still have a chance to pull off an upset or two that will impress the committee. I believe this team has a run in them, and hopefully its not a matter of too little too late. Their defense and rebounding has been much improved its just a matter of making jump shots.
They gave it the best they had. Their two Big-Ten Level players (Harris and Sims) largely played well. They got nothing from anyone else. With solid recruits in Morris and Vogrich getting their feet wet, at least two more solid recruits (Smotrycz and Hardaway) coming in next year, and another (Brundidge) coming in the following year, we’re staring to get our talent base back. The tournament is probably done, but I’ll rooting to see them send DeShawn Sims out with a strong performance from here on out.
Michigan basketball…they’ll break your heart
No, Pete, that will not work. The only realistic way they make the Big Dance is by winning the Big Ten Tournament. Period.
The last few years of Amaker’s recruiting left Beilein with 2 players worthy of playing in the Big 10 – Sims and Harris. A 2 year run of Morris/Vogrich/Smotcryz/Hardaway/Horford/Ziegler would be the best 2-year of recruiting since Horton/C. Sims/D. Harris/Petway, except this time we actually have a coach that can develop players, rather than watching Courtney Sims and Dion Harris be the same exact player for 4 years. We’re still on the way up.
Nobody has commented yet on us going with 1-3-1 on final defensive possession. I actually liked the call, but unfortunately Manny’s foot to Kalin’s face gave them a chance to regain themselves. Too bad we couldn’t have kept it out of his hands for the last shot.
maxwell – Novak has struggled on perimeter d all year – no huge surprise that he lost Lucas.
Couldn’t agree more chitown. Amaker brought in 3 very good recruits and absolutely nothing else in those two classes. Unfortunately we lost Ekpe, leaving us with two, and then when you combine that with Beilein having to put together a last second recruiting class, it’s pretty clear why this team struggles.
I’d like to point out that we had four turnovers tonight, played excellent defense (9 steals), and got a lot of wide open looks. These are all signs of good coaching but we just don’t have the talent to match. I hope that within the next couple years we will be winning not just in A2 but E. Lansing.
This team can go in one of two directions, and I mean not just the players, the fans, too.
We can either give up and let Iowa beat us at home, or we can come out and repeat our 30pt beatdown from the Big Ten Tournament.
I mean, Kendric Price, K’Len Morris, Reed Baker, Anthony Wright, Jevohn Shepard, Jerret Smith, Ronald Coleman…these are the guys that Beilein inherited other than Manny, Sims, and Udoh. Combine that with having 3 weeks to assemble his first class…this roster is THIN.
1) Please make someone else take the final shot besides Kalin Lucas. Has he ever missed in the clutch? Ever? I don’t care if Raymar Morgan gets a wide open look on the baseline from 12 feet, I’d rather have him shoot that than an off-balance contested 20 footer from Lucas. When he got that shot off, did anybody think it wouldn’t go in?
2) It did look like an obvious grab on Peedi at the end, but no way are we going to get that call, especially with Izzo barking at the refs all night.
3) This game certainly felt like a “make or break” for the season, but at least there’s plenty of games left (there just aren’t many other golden opportunities to get a TRUE signature win).
I know Junderground and crew will jump all over me for this but we could get hot, hold serve at home (hardest game is Wisconsin, who we should have beat at their place), and go 3-2 on the road (win at NW, Iowa, and Minny, lose at OSU and MSU), win two games in the BTT, and guess what, we’re 20-13 (11-7) and probably on the right side of the bubble considering our late season run.
I know, “there’s no way we go 8-2 with this team”, but I’m just saying. Let’s keep rooting hard for these guys and see what happens. I’d say going 8-2 is more likely than winning the BTT. Winning at Minny twice in a row is no easy task but I’d say we at least have a “realistic shot”.
Not going to bash the officials for missing that call at the end. For one, there were only two of them left, but also, its tough to make that kind of call on the last play of a game. I thought as a whole the officiating was pretty awful all game, but it was equally awful to both teams.
This game was all about us making open shots. I was shocked at how many open looks State gave us. I really thought that after seeing Purdue take us out of any offense with their pressure D, State would try and replicate that. Instead it looked like they went with the Wisky option of sagging off perimeter players and taking away Sims inside and penetration off the dribble. These guys just have to make more shots than that. Even if we shot our average percentage we win.
The other thing that bothered me in this game was the number of times that guys penetrated and passed up shots in the lane for open jumpers. Some of them would have been difficult, but other times it looked like we had layups and instead kicked it out. Even Manny passed up a shot in the paint. Dont know if guys confidence was shaken by the poor layup shooting at Wisky or what, but you gotta take some of those. The big one was our second to last possession when it looked like Douglass had a great look and instead kicked it out to Peedi.
As bad as this team has been at times this year, its amazing how close they have been to having a great season. If they could just close out games.
As the season has worn on the effort and defense have largely improved. We continue to lose these games due to abysmal shooting,just appallingly bad game after game after game. It is almost inconceivable how B10 scholarship players can continue to miss so many so badly. If we make even 11-29 tonight ( and many were quite wide open) we win this game easily. The Beilein bashers are way off and have forgotten all too quickly the despair of the hopeless Amaker years. We are not far from being pretty good. State is a solid club but let’s not give them too much credit. There is not a clear cut pro on the roster, save perhaps Lucas as a backup. A team with four turnovers loses one way – by missing everything. In an answer to some earlier discussion, both Loy Vaught and Eric Riley were redshirts at Michigan and they had pretty good careers. Having decent redshirts is the sign of a functioning program, something that UM has not fully had since ’84-’89.
I actually think the 1-3-1 was a mistake. Hindsight being 20/20 and all. However, if you watch the tape M used the 1-3-1 twice in the last five minutes and both times MSU his a pull up jumper from fifteen. In the Purdue game they came out and played 1-3-1 and gave up rebounds and points galore. You don’t win with tricks. You win by playing solid basketball. Beilein is a good coach, but even good coaches outsmart themselves at times. The 1-3-1 has been ineffective all year, and it was not wise to employ it at that point, or any point in the game. It’s just not a good defensive set for those guys. Oh well.
For all you state fans on this blog, I hope you realize how severely Beilein outcoached Izzo tonight. Not even close. More thoughts later once I collect my thoughts, that is if I make it to tomorrow evening.
Keep the sanity guys. We are a team that relies on young players. Manny and Sims are our only upperclassmen that make any real contributions. Hopefully Manny stays but even if he doesn’t we will be fine going forward. Novak is going to be one helluva college player once he is playing the 3 instead of the 4. We will have lots of back court depth next year and some depth upfront. We will still be young but at least Novak, stu, llp, Darius, Vogrich,will all have another year in the system and players like Morgan, McLimans,and maybe Cronin know the system.
@Chitownblue, so when in doubt just blame it on Amaker huh?