2018 big ten tournament

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

This Week’s Obsession: The Banner Gallery

Seth •

[This and the other photos by MG Campredon]

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The Question: Choose a photo from the Big Ten Tourney and tell us why it’s representative of the trip.

Alex: I would pick the pic of me drunk at the bar with friends post-state win buuuuut no.

David: This is mine:

Shout-out to the side dribble.

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Brian:

This is Jaren Jackson plowing into Moe Wagner after driving on Simpson. Jackson will cartwheel to the ground and fumble the ball out of bounds for a turnover. A few things about this jump out.

One: this was not a foul. It also was not called a foul despite the heavy contact. This is because Wagner was stationary and within the cylinder he's allowed to be in. Everyone got furious about the Iowa game and rightly so; since we do so much ref complaining around here it's only right to stop and note that the refereeing for the rest of the tournament was pretty good. (Except for MSU screening.)

Two: with some limited exceptions this is representative of Michigan's defense in the tournament. If you approached the basket, usually bad stuff happened. Michigan turned Miles Bridges into a guy who mostly takes contested 18-footers. It's not as impressive to do that to Josh Langford, but they also did it to Josh Langford. They did it to Carsen Edwards; by the second half Glynn Watson was convinced that off the dribble shots by a 39/28 shooter were Nebraska's best option. He might not have been wrong.

Three: X had gotten switched onto a 6'11" guy and it didn't matter. Michigan actually put X on Bridges on purpose for the first ten minutes, which appeared to bait him into "I can shoot over this guy" mode and helped initiate that pretend Rip Hamilton stuff.

[Hit THE JUMP to get to a very Rocky 3 take on MSU basketball]

The Big Ten Tournament In Photos

Ace •

All photos/words by Marc-Gregor Campredon.

First day: Iowa

The game was dreadful and the Garden was quiet like a cemetery at midnight. I could even hear the officials talking to the players and the coaches. It was nightmarish and it went to overtime: not what I expected in NYC.

NYC: