2018-19 air force

2 hours and 4 minutes

The Sponsors

This show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan nobody would get our jokes. 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, and Lantana Hummus

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1. The Peach

starts at 1:00

Don Brown got got again, occasionally by stuff right out of the Ohio State tape. Michigan’s offensive play-calling system drives us nuts. They ruined another season of offense by not knowing what they were doing in the preseason. Long discussion on the offensive issues, since there doesn’t seem to be much we can do about

2. Hoops: Air Force and Binghamton

starts at 28:59

Michigan got baited into wide open free throw line jumpers. Is that a good shot? Craig/Beilein thinks they are, Brian doesn’t. Matthews was something like 0/10 on them. Michigan is an odd team. Need to mandate you have to play man to man if you want to play Michigan in the nonconference season. Zavier Simpson has the most pristine sky hook since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

3. Big Ten Hoops Preview Pt 1, wsg Craig Ross

starts at 55:20

There’s no bad/awful team in the league: the bottom tier is just two teams and Rutgers has a decent defense.  Does Underwood regret leaving? Minnesota is a big bangin team. Northwestern picked the wrong year to be flawed but peaking for a year. Speaking of no point guards: Purdue, who’s been unlucky, and Iowa, who’s improved to a bad Beilein defense. Maryland is better, unlucky, having a hard time getting over the Turgeon hump.

4. Big Ten Hoops Preview Pt 2

Starts at 1:26:27

Ohio State is good a year early, still needs to figure out who's at point. Nebraska is legit but peak Nebrasketball might just be an also-ran here. Wisconsin has some pieces around their incredible set piece. Indiana has the megalodon. Michigan State and Michigan have switched identities: MSU best shooting team in the league.

MUSIC

• "Nobody Really Cares if You Don't Go to the Party"—Courtney Barnett
• "Sea of Dreams"—Oberhafer
• "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)"—cover by Dubchek
• “Across 110th Street”

THE USUAL LINKS

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• Direct download link (right-click/save-as)
• What's with the theme music?

But enough about Russian geopolitics.

THE ESSENTIALS

THE US

The early season flame-throwing Michigan team has backslid a little bit once they cleared the early conference portion of the schedule. Ten games in and faced with a series of teams outside of the top 100, it's natural to slacken a bit. Once you grind out an 8-point win over Western Michigan it's time to tighten the ol' belt and once more get locked in.

Air Force isn't very good and it'll take a catastrophic shooting performance on both ends for them to win, but the manner of the victory will mean a little something. An emphatic one points towards disinterest as the main cause of this minor hiccup. Another scuffle and things get a wee tiny tad bit concerning as Michigan heads towards a knock-down, drag-out Big Ten season.

THE LINEUP CARD

Projected starters are in bold. Hover over headers for stat explanations. The "Should I Be Mad If He Hits A Three" methodology: we're mad if a guy who's not good at shooting somehow hits one. Yes, you're still allowed to be unhappy if a proven shooter is left open. It's a free country.

Pos.	#	Name	Yr.	Ht./Wt.	%Min	%Poss	ORtg	SIBMIHHAT
G	12	AJ Walker	Fr.	6'2, 191	56	20	100	No
NR FR shooting 44% from three and 32% from two. Nominal PG.
G	4	Sid Tomes	Jr.	6'4, 200	68	19	83	Yes
Shooting 43/26 with twice as many threes as twos. Six attempts at rim all year. I'd say he's just a shooter if he could shoot.
F	44	Keaton Van Soelen	So.	6'7, 190	60	10	113	Yes
10% usage is mostly spent trying to finish on shots others create. Some OREBs.
F	12	Lavelle Scottie	Jr.	6'7 225	74	25	86	Meh
Slashing wing gets to rim a fair bit and finishes very well once there. 27% 3P shooter but 35% last year. Giant TO rate, few assists. Black hole. Bad at line.
F	34	Ryan Swan	Jr.	6'7, 235	79	27	115	Yes
Stretch "5" given AF constraints. 75% on twos this year; 50% last year. Competition level. Good but oddly infrequent 3P shooter. Some OREBs. TO rate has spiked.
G	5	Chris Joyce	So.	6'5, 185	47	22	94	Yes
Only guy on team other than Walker with an assist rate > his TO rate. Not by much. 60/23 in early going.
G	22	Pervis Louder	Sr.	6'4, 187	54	16	96	Yes
PERVIS LOUDER. (Giant TO rate, few assists, shooting well on twos against bad comp.)
G	0	Caleb Morris	Jr.	6'4, 185	35	19	107	No
Not Just A Shooter hitting 50/44 after a 57/35 last year. Rim or 3 guy. Usage decent; emerged into 30 MPG starter in last three.
F	11	Ameka Akaya	So.	6'6, 215	33	20	105	No
Data thin after nearly no minutes last year. 76/50 on 31 shots this year. Giant TO rate (32).

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the preview.]