geo baker

About seven minutes into the second half, Michigan PF Moussa Diabate went up for an uncontested dunk. The French big man slammed the ball violently at the rim, but it did not go in. The ball popped out, Michigan fans everywhere put their faces in their palms, and when they re-opened their eyes, the ensuing possession was ending with Rutgers' Caleb McConnell draining a three pointer. That pushed the Scarlett Knights' lead to 17 points and seemingly closed the door on the Wolverines' chances of leaving Piscataway with a win. That feeling was proven correct, as Rutgers toppled Michigan 75-67 tonight. Michigan is now 1-2 in the B1G and 7-6 on the season. Michigan's season is in terrible shape. 

For the second consecutive game, Michigan got battered by two players with exceptional nights, this time being Ron Harper Jr. and Geo Baker. The former killed Michigan from distance (5/6 from three), while the latter killed Michigan using his height/length to knock down off the dribble jumpers with ease, shooting 7/8 from inside the arc. Meanwhile the Maize & Blue were dreadful from three point range and also subpar at the rack, going 13/22 on easy layups, blowing far too many bunnies in big moments. It's another loss and with an even tougher schedule coming up, the train continues to steam forward towards an NCAA Tournament-less season. 

The game really never had a crisp stretch of basketball from Michigan, even right from the beginning. The Wolverines fell behind 9-2 just over three minutes into this game and then 24-11 ten minutes into the contest. They were fighting uphill even from before the game started after it was revealed that huge chunks of their rotation (mostly bench pieces like Brandon Johns Jr. and Terrance Williams II) were going to be missing from the contest. But it didn't get any better once the game actually started. 

Dickinson was Michigan's bright light offensively [Campredon]

After that equilibrium of a 10 or so point Rutgers lead developed, the game just sort of seesawed in that state. Michigan struggled defensively in the first half, breaking down in coverage and leaving shooters wide open from the perimeter. On the flip side, they continue to stagnate on offense with no dribble penetration, and the three point shots were not falling. Even when they got open looks inside, the layups often clanged off the iron to no avail.

With about 6.5 minutes to go in the first half, your author opined that if Michigan could whittle the ten point Rutgers lead down to five by halftime, they'd be in decent shape. That didn't happen. It was a nine point lead at the break thanks in part to Moussa Diabate settling for a long two with seven seconds left in the half with the shot clock turned off that didn't fall, affording Rutgers another try before the buzzer (which fortunately did not fall). Still, the dysfunction and poor offensive decision-making was all too familiar. 

Michigan didn't get a fast start out of the gate in the second half either, falling down 14 points yet again just five minutes into that stanza. They continued to be unable to contain Geo Baker off the dribble, they lost Ron Harper Jr. and Caleb McConnell outside, and then the offense, with its faulty interior scoring and awful three point shooting, wasn't enough to keep up. After the Diabate dunk mentioned in the intro popped out, Michigan trailed by 17 and the game felt over. It was. 

Ron Harper Jr. was open from behind the arc far too often tonight [Campredon]

To Michigan's credit, the Wolverines didn't quit. They used the next six minutes to trim the lead down to ten, but yet another huge swing play happened with about seven minutes left: an Eli Brooks three pointer bounced out and then Harper Jr. came off a double screen to knock down a three and just like that, the lead was back up to 13. A minute or so later, a Diabate three went down and Michigan had it cut to seven, but again Rutgers answered with a huge shot, as Caleb McConnell banged in a three. Not long after that, the 2-3 zone coaxed Kobe Bufkin to go after McConnell while Baker hit an open three to make it an 11 point game. Even when Michigan's offense flowed well, as it did during that stretch, they couldn't consistently get stops, and that was a story of the game. 

In the end, Rutgers was able to ride out the last six minutes and win by eight, with Michigan never seriously threatening after those moments. In totality, both teams shot about the same mark from the field and both teams made ten free throws. The difference lay in the three pointers, where Rutgers made eleven (47.8%) and Michigan made three (20%). Hunter Dickinson had a fine night inside (10/16, 25 points), and the visitors did dominate the paint. It's just the difference outside was so large. Diabate added 15 points of his own, while Houstan and Brooks each chipped in 12 and 11 points. No other Scarlett Knights scored in double figures. 

Michigan now enters the toughest stretch of its season *gulp*, hosting Michigan State on Saturday afternoon. That game is at 2:30 pm and is slated to be on FOX. There is no content after the jump. 

It's basketball preview season everyone! With the dawn of a new Michigan hoops campaign upon us, we will be counting down the final 8 days before the season opener with the usual content you've come to expect, except with me taking over the role of author. This week we will be scouting the competition in the B1G, which will be done in a power ranking format instead of tiers like past years. Today we'll look at the bottom half (14-8) and tomorrow we'll cover the upper half of the conference (7-1). Our expedition begins with a team that has a chance to be one of the worst teams in the conference in a while: 

14. Minnesota 

Projected lineup:

- G, Payton Willis

- G, EJ Stephens

- F, Jamison Battle

- F, Eric Curry

- C, Treyton Thompson

This is extremely grim. Richard Pitino is gone from Minneapolis and left behind a roster that is the basketball equivalent of a smoldering nuclear bomb crater. Nearly everyone who didn’t graduate opted to transfer somewhere else, leaving only Eric Curry and Isaiah Ihnen as the two returners, a pair of players with <100 ORTGs who played <50% of minutes. Oh and Ihnen is out for the year. Grim.

The reconstructed roster was put together entirely of transfers and recruits by new head coach Ben Johnson, who has never been a head coach before in the NCAA. Freshman big man Treyton Thompson is the only player above 6’9” on the roster, and he is Freshman Caris LeVert skinny. Jamison Battle transferred in from GW and was at least a decent A-10 player, and the same could be said of Payton Willis at Charleston, who has power conference experience in his past amid a tumultuous career path (actually was on Minnesota before, prior to transferring away and now transferring back).

EJ Stephens and Luke Loewe were both good players at small schools, too, but there are real reasons to wonder whether they can adjust to the B1G. The rest of the bench are players who were not even starters at mid-majors (Charlie Daniels), DII players (Daniel Ogele), JUCO players (Abdoulaye Thiam), or America East players who haven’t played in two seasons due to injury (Sean Sutherlin). Grim.

Even if some of these transfers hit, not all will, and all have never played with each other before, nor have they played with this new coach before. It’s going to be immensely painful in Minneapolis and they are the worst B1G by a wide margin. A trip to The Barn may not even be threatening this year.

13. Northwestern

Projected lineup:

- Boo Buie, G

- Ty Berry, G

- Chase Audige, G

- Robbie Beran, F

- Pete Nance, F

A Canadian who doesn’t follow college basketball intensely but has general cognitive knowledge of the subject recently said to me about Northwestern hoops “I remember them from one of those March Madness runs” and I had to note that it was one (1) run and the “run” was one NCAA Tournament win, but the combination of it seeming like the biggest deal in the world and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss going ballistic has resonated with sports fans everywhere and in the process, has bought Chris Collins a lot of time in Evanston. That time may be running out.

Since the 2017 team was bounced from that NCAA tourney, Northwestern is 45-74. Last year’s team seemed good for a few weeks but Eli Brooks dunking on them broke their soul and the ship crashed down to earth. The Wildcats lost 13 straight games before a three-game win streak closed the regular season, which came just before they scored only 46 points in the BTT, mercifully ending the Cats’ season.

Northwestern enters 2021-22 with Chris Collins fighting for his life. He returns the stellar Pete Nance, a big and long stretch five who is one of the conference’s better players, but the rest of the roster does not look particularly great. Optimism probably has a lot to do with a returning backcourt of Chase Audige and Boo Buie.

Audige is a plus defender but was also a central problem with Northwestern last season: he was the Wildcats’ highest usage piece and he put up a 86.9 ORTG with one of the worst eFG clips in the conference among players who played at least 60% of minutes. Want to know who else ranked in that cellar among eFG%? Boo Buie himself, owner of the best name in the B1G. Buie’s saving grace is that he’s a great distributor of the basketball, but those two guards need to be better on the offensive end.

Robbie Beran returns as an efficient, low usage stretch big who fits the five-out scheme that NW is trying to run. Returners Ty Berry and Ryan Young add depth, as does transfer Elyjah Williams, but this team hinges on what those big pieces, Nance, Audige, and Buie, can do. Last season wasn’t good enough and with rather few new pieces compared to similar B1G teams, it’s a matter of how much improvement Chris Collins can get out of a largely identical roster. Color me skeptical.

[AFTER THE JUMP: your least favorite B1G player returns]