Kelvin Grady was one of the most inconsistent players on the Michigan team this year. Of course this is normal for freshman who are not the Kalin Lucas, Manny Harris and Robbie Hummels of the world. It was still gut wrenching to see Kelvin wow you with his good play against teams like Georgetown, Duke, or Iowa and then turn around and make you sick by disappearing or turning the ball over. After the break I’ll look at the positives and negatives of Kelvin’s season and what he needs to do to improve. Continue reading ‘Report Card: Kelvin Grady’
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Now that was a struggle. Painful all the way through and definetely a game you have to be glad was on Big Ten Network. But as they say, style points don’t count. Michigan shot a horrific 30% from the field for the game, luckily Illinois only managed 32%.
Players of the game have to be Grady and Ekpe. Grady played well offensively I thought for the most part and hit some big shots. One thing that pains me about Grady is how poorly he runs the fast break, this is something that the whole team really needs work on. Ekpe was a monster on defense and dominated Pruitt. Ekpe had 7 points, 7 boards, 5 blocks, and 2 steals and held Pruitt to 6 points and 5 turn overs. After the game while getting interviewed Ekpe said that he thought “he was the best defensive player in the country and loved challenges like this”. At least he has some confidence.
Ant Wright started on the wing which I think has to be done. He did a surprisingly decent job on defense especially with Illinois going small all game. Ron Coleman brings absolutely nothing and seems to regress every game. I think Wright should play about 30 minutes a game and Shepherd about 15. Ronnie needs to be the odd man out at this point.
It was great to see Jalen in the house looking sharp. A quick recap over what he said:
- Always a Michigan man and it was great to be back. First time he had been back to a basketball game since he played on the court (not because he didn’t love it but he was playing professionally).
- Mentioned Perry Watson, Bo Schembechler, and Fisher.
- RIP Bo.
- Gave a shout out to the rest of the Fab Five individually (Jimmy sat on the sidelines with him) and said he would be back the day the banners went back up.
- Said he would be around the program and it was great to be back.
- Said Go Blue! once in his speech and the band started playing and he had to cut them off and continue.
- “Every time you see the black shoes, the black socks, the baggy shorts, the Fab Five lives. I’ll be back one day when those banners get hung back up.”
- Crowd reaction was great the whole time, he got a big welcome when he walked out to half court before tip off. The starters all gave him hugs before the game.
A win is a win and Michigan has to learn how to win the tough ones like this because they aren’t all going to be easy. But man I hope we can start hitting some shots. There were ALOT of wide open shots today and very few of them went down. Good physical gutty effort. Another note, saw Jordan Morgan was there, not sure if any other recruits were in the house.
One more addition: huge props to Anthony and DeShawn. They have really started attacking the glass. DeShawn had 9 rebounds and Wright pulled down 8. Not to mention Manny pulling down 6 and Ekpe 7. All together we outrebounded Illinois 43 to 36. I think the man-to-man has really helped our defensive rebounding but DeShawn especially seems to have started to find an extra gear in terms of hustle.
Here are some thoughts on the point guard and small forward positions and who should get the minutes. These are the two positions that are really up for grabs on the team. Sadly they are up for grabs because there really isn’t a great option at either position it seems. All the players at the one and three have deficiencies in their game. Would be interested in your thoughts in this one as well so leave some comments!
Small Forward
Ron Coleman is doing nothing. Against Penn State he shot 0-2, had 0 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 turnover in 17 minutes. Jevohn Shepherd had 2-5 shooting, 2 rebounds, 4 points, 3 assists, 1 turnover in just 13 minutes. Anthony Wright playing some three and some four was 5-7 (3-5 3pt), 3 rebounds, 13 points, 2 TO in 23 minutes.
By the numbers Anthony played 10 minutes at the SF along side DeShawn Sims. I don’t think this has happened often this year and it will be interesting if Beilein continues to go with that look.
Anthony Wright is playing the best out of this group by far, however Jevohn Shepherd has started to do some things that are encouraging. Shepherd has done a very good job rebounding and getting to the hole.
The question is who should start. I would start Shepherd at the three and play him around 20 minutes per game. Give Wright 10 minutes each backing up the three and four and then give Ron what’s left (about 10 minutes at the three).
Point Guard
The Kelvin Grady debate is a big one on the message boards. Kelvin Grady provides a hope for future improvement for a lot of fans and one argument is to play him more often because of his youth. However he still struggles to be consistent, sometimes he looks great, other times he has trouble making simple passes and running the offense. Continue reading ‘Position Battles’
Some more catching up here:
- Great article on Manny Harris in the Free Press. It’s really becoming hard not to root for this kid in every way. He stuck with us and continues to stick with us and its scary to think where we would be without him. Although the Daily says that Manny needs to heed his own advice (I thought he played a very in control game at OSU when his shot wasn’t falling).
- For all you Kelvin Grady fans here is an article from the Daily about him regaining his starting spot.
- Next years (hopefully) projected savior Laval Lucas-Perry got some positive ink in the Daily as well.
- Also our friends at Spartan Weblog have a good take on the Illinois/IU Game last night. Make a free throw Pruitt! That one was a debacle in a lot of ways but it certainly was entertaining.
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