2017-18 nebraska

WTKA Roundtable 3/8/2018: It Wasn’t a Switch

Seth •

Things discussed:

Hit some threes with some weird guys. Michigan’s matchups vs MSU are all too good. Can’t cover up Winston’s defensive deficiencies the way Michigan spaces you.
Michigan’s coaching is so good
Won Nebraska with defense; didn’t like that we kept going at Roby and he was awesome. Wagner’s best game other than 27 points at Breslin?
Michigan starts the 2nd half vs Purdue with a 10-2 run after missing great shots in the first half. Purdue was one step behind Beilein all night. Painter is a great coach too.
Bridges turns into a jump shooter because Yaklich put Z on him. It’s not a switch! He wasn’t able to stick in the post despite MSU trying to run their offense through him.
State came into the game trying to punk Michigan, turned out they were the softer team.
What do we not want to face: zone teams. Good zone attack plan but not enough rise up shooters. Every time they face it they need time to adjust. Good draws: West Virginia (see: the VCU game in 2013), Virginia, teams that have a traditional post. Bad draws: Duke, UNC, Nova. Don’t want a Michigan-ish team.
There’s no favorite in this tournament. If Virginia didn’t have a history of flaming out at least.
Yaklich effect: 43rd percentile in P&R defense to 92nd!!
Craig: Zavier Simpson, best defensive point guard at Michigan since Alfred Ethelwulfsson, maybe the best ever.
Free throwin’: Z is up to 60% since his new routine, Matthews 65% in his last 30.
Can we play in Detroit? It’s possible.

You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream on Audioboom.

Segment two is here. Segment three is here.

THE USUAL LINKS

They’ve got a permanent chip on their shoulder and its name is Zavier Simpson

MGoPodcast 9.17: The Eclosion Stage

Seth •

We are at the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, or at least Brian and the equipment is; Ace called in.

We Couldn’t Have One Without the Other

We can do this because people support us. You should support them too so they’ll want to do it again next year! The show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan we’d be sighing to ourselves.

Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: HomeSure Lending, Peak Wealth Management, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Michigan Law Grad,Human Element, Lantana Hummus and new this week introducing Ecotelligent Homes

---------------------------------

1. Maryland Game

starts at 1:00

What has happened to my basketball team, why are they running the Amaker offense? The Poole explosion. Cowan can ball—Z got six turnovers from him. M kept Hueter mostly off the box score, missed switch/moving screen got him open for the almost heartbreaking screen.

2. Nebraska/Rutgers

starts at 11:45

Michigan visits The Bank. Worst performance of the season by a lot—absolute dead legs. Just six assists. Credit to Nebraska/Miles for coming up with the just switch everything defense. This is a bubble team that’s not on the bubble: in 5/6 games Nebraska’s had an 80-90 Game Score on Torvik (% likelihood winning discounting luck)—that’s a good team. Also credit to Delany for those dead legs. Rutgers guy disputes “The Cable Subscribers”, gets no assist because Rutgers had ONE assist.

Suspect Michigan’s offensive problems aren’t just being tired: they don’t have a guy they trust to take the ball off the dribble. Barring a Simmons breakout that doesn’t appear fixable.

3. Bracketology

starts at 31:55

M seems headed for an almost certain tournament spot but it’s also very likely to be an unfairly low seed (10 right now). Big Ten looks bad to RPI but these teams are all dangerous and sweeping past everybody except road games at OSU/Purdue is no even likely. Torvik thinks 8 seed. M can’t get help from their noncon wins: UCLA is off the bubble. Texas predicted to miss the NCAAs because the Big XII is tough. Poor Maryland gets in if it’s not a bad year in the Big Ten. Need a Walton-level breakout from someone or a win at Purdue to move up a seed. Poole goes supernova?

4. Ace’s Hockey Podcast wsg David Nasternak

starts at 43:05

Michigan sweeps Penn State, which gets them ranked above Penn State and has them right smack on the top of the bubble. Win and a tie at Ohio State would be huge this weekend. M is reactive on the penalty kill—not very planned. Lavigne moved up from 56th to 18th in save % in a weekend (but what a weekend!). Marody is one guy. Love how Penn State plays hockey. The 2nd line was the best line.

MUSIC

“Where is My Mind”—Pixies
“No Rain”—Blind Melon
“Cuyahoga”—REM
“Across 110th Street”

THE USUAL LINKS

I’m gonna wear all my clothes backwards like Kris Kross.

Michigan 52, Nebraska 72

Seth •

STOP! You can choose to read a recap of Michigan’s 72-52 loss to Nebraska, OR you can do literally anything else. I’ll give you 30 seconds of a drone flying over a Nebraska cornfield to decide.

there is corn in it

Okay, now that all the people who make good life decisions are gone I can tell you that after 53 years Nebraska finally beat Michigan in basketball that one time.

What happened? The main thing was the Huskers’ constantly switching, handsy defense stymied every iteration of Michigan’s offense and led to an uncharacteristic boatload of turnovers—twelve overall, nine(!!!) in the first half. At one point UMHoops tweeted Michigan was coughing it up on 40 percent of their possessions.

Against an opponent that relies on transition and getting fouled at the rim to run an efficient offense, that alone should have been a death sentence, but some tip-back offensive rebounding kept the margin to just eleven at the break. That kind of first half after a 9:12 p.m. tip would make a reasonable person put the bag labeled “Dead Dove Do Not Eat” back in the fridge and go to bed. But Michigan came back from ten just a few nights ago, and from four a couple nights before that, and down seven a few nights before that, and…and…and man we’ve had a lot of basketball.

You can try to find a reason MAAR went 3/11 from the field, why the team went 4/18 from three despite nearly all of them being good looks, why Nebraska’s normally crummy shooters were getting makes off bad shots, why Livers let Isaiah Roby walk away with a 93 eFG%, or why Nebraska fans chose to chant “Wagner” of all things. Or you can chalk it up to a road game near the end of a compact, vicious part of the schedule when nothing could go right (except doubling up on them in the OREB battle) and move on.

Michigan’s coming off a ten-point win in Breslin, a big comeback victory versus Maryland, and a classic versus Purdue. Their tourney bid is secure barring a collapse. They get Rutgers on Sunday, and every opponent on the rest of the schedule will be practicing a ton of switching this week. They’ll probably be alright.

[After THE JUMP box score also WARNING THERE’S A DEAD DOVE DO NOT CLICK]