A fan's take into why we lost tonight
Great season but very dissapointing last few weeks... I think one of the most important factors going into the NCAA tournament is team hot streak/momentum (take UConn '11 as the prime example) , and we had none... We had consecutive poor showings since the Penn State game and it carried over into the blowout loss vs. OSU and into the tournament. Watch as a team like NC State or FSU make a deep tourney run this year due to their gathered momentum/confidence in their respective conference tourneys. This is why the last few games of the regular season/conference tournament are of paramount importance.
Although the majority of the teams going into the tournament are coming of a loss many of those are just happy to have the opportunity to play in the tournament. So this does not apply to your typical bubble team (or typical 8-16 seed) because the mere fact of making it into the tourney is momentum enough. However, it is extremely applicable to a team like ours this year (and 1-6 seeds in general) who have known for a while that they were going to the tournament.
So why did we lose to Ohio? A combination of wear and tear from a grinding B1G season (especially hard on undersized teams) combined with an early peak (mid February) and a hot team in Ohio U.
Anyway, after much cursing and throwing of objects into concrete walls (yes, I am a man without cellphone since approx. 9:45pm) lets take a minute to put this aside for a second and think about all the great things that Zack Novak and Stu Douglass have done for this basketball program. Sure, they lack athleticism, size, and strength but these kids brought Michigan BACK! THANK YOU!
March 17th, 2012 at 12:22 AM ^
I thought we lost because Hoke refers to Ohio State as Ohio.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:37 AM ^
If only they weren't so motivated by it, we probably would have won
It was a perfect storm of problems. Not finishing our layups, tired legs, poor defense, unable to make a three when we need it, need it, need it, need it. Come on just freaking sink one! Smotz was not the issue. One turnover to end the game is not the reason we lost to a 13 seed.
What amzed me was their ability to just throw up off-balance prayer shots and make them. Pretty discouraging to watch them do it time after time. Especially when we aren't able to match their intensity.
Momentum is definitely key going into tournament, and we've basically sucked since the MN performance in the BIG 10 tourney. I think the most important factor in ommeethatsee's post is the missed layup opportunities.
We all know our team has overachieved all year - past two actually-given that we're undersized, lack height,slow.............but we've relied on chemistry and Jr., or Novak getting hot to win many of our games. When they're both hot, we've normally won w/o too much trouble.
But those damned missed layups. This points to another, more important factor, lack of focus. That is what has been missing since the conference tourney and that is what will lead to so many unforced turnovers - thinking the receiver will be there instead of making sure - and the lack of converting something that is normally done at about a 98% clip. On the majority of our layup or layin attemps(whichever is appropriate for given opportunity) the shots were actually the easiest part of the sequence. Often times Jr., would make an outstanding move, or Novak, always fighting to get his attempt at the chippy would somehow forget the most important thing after actually doing everything right to get the open look.
This comes from a lack of focus that we really didn't see until about the 6 minute mark. It is difficult for a team that is normally playing against better athletes to win when they don't take advantage of what Coach B. has built in to allow for the opportunity to win.
The good thing, as OP also stated is that next season we should see a stark contrast to what we have been doing, and much respect to those that are graduating for reestablishing the expectation of tournament appearances. We will be fielding a starting five that will match up athletically to our opponents, while at the same time still being supervised by Coach B., and the opportunities his system generates.
Instead of one, maybe two players that can take it to the hoop, we'll suddenly see more FT opportunities due to that and more put backs due to having two legitimate bigs on the floor at the same time. It's ever evolving and w/in two more years, I'm guessing our victories will be decided before the final 5-6 minute mark than after, as has been the case due to what we've been lacking. All in all though, even with disappointment over a loss that would have been a win earlier in the season, we should be delighted at what the future brings.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:31 AM ^
I think we lost because the refs were horrible, Ohio was shooting 90% from 30' away from the basket, if they drove the lane and put it off the glass it had to go in, and (most importantly) Michigan played horribly.
Bullshit. There were definitely calls that went our way that shouldn't have, most notably that possession call with less than a minute left.
I'm all for ref bashing when it's warranted. I really don't think it is here.
I sensed sarcasm in his post.
if you are posting sarcasm, please post it in italics
March 17th, 2012 at 12:33 AM ^
When Zack and Stu were committing to Michigan, we were in the woes or a 10-22 season.
The future is brighter than tonight, but I'd rather have lost to Lehigh than Ohio!
March 17th, 2012 at 12:37 AM ^
I'm gonna say defense. Yes we missed layups, yes we missed open shots, yes we turned the ball over. But everytime we did score, they would come right back down and somehow get a wide open three, or a layup. We just didn't seem to have it on defense tonight. On offense either, but defense is where we lost this game tonight, IMO.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:54 AM ^
they would get a three, a layup, or a foul. having 3 of our key players with 4 fouls with 5 minutes left was bad news.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:59 PM ^
specifically defense around the basket..bombing 3s is one thing...if we had been able to stop even some of those inside baskets it might have made a difference...we were undersized and outmanned....next year will be completely different
this team overachieved all year with what they had...the future is bright
Our defensive rotations were brutal. Ohio only needed a little penetration or a couple of swing passes to get a wide-open shot from the perimeter. This was true in the BTT as well. It may be a function of the "tired legs" hypothesis.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:40 AM ^
Thin depth. Michigan relies heavily on shooting and tired legs is a real phenomenon after a long, grinding season. By asking people to play so many minutes I think it really hurt Michigan in the end. Depth played into other factors, like not being able to find a hot hand, not finding someone to be a lock-down defender when needed, etc., but tired legs seemed to take over this team the last couple weeks in regards to shooting and doing little things correctly (like finishing around the basket and defending well).
I don't mean for this to sound bad but at nearly every position we were lacking. Trey had a tremendous year being a freshman, but it seemed like everyone else was not up to task at one point or another, and maybe for an extended period of time. Next year the addition of Mitch, GRIII, and Nick will be a welcome infusion of talent and athleticism that this team has been lacking, not to mention size. Zack and Stu were great but this team is going to be better next year with those three in the lineup.
We need to remember that the bar of expectation wasn't winning a Big Ten Championship when we started, right? This team did great, won the championship got into the FF and they were beat by a decent mid-major that played better than we did. We move on...
March 17th, 2012 at 12:44 AM ^
March 17th, 2012 at 12:46 AM ^
This was their third game in almost two weeks, first since Saturday, and they were fatigued? This looked like the same team that was extremely lucky to win BOTH games against Northwestern and got smoked on the road against OSU and MSU. Jay Bilas said it best last week. Based on our talent, we were overseeded and undervalued. We were not as good as MSU and OSU, definitely not as talented. But we're more talented than some people want to accept. We overperformed and got a high seed. There's no shame in that. Next year, we'll meet expectations and get an even higher seed.
Accummulated fatigue. Week after week of playing heavy minutes catches up to a lot of players. (And it's not like they just flop on the couch on non-gamedays; they're practicing and in the weight room for hours.) I think the team's tank started running on empty in late February and this continued until the end of the season. All of a sudden those open threes weren't falling as often and defensive rotations were a step slow, so instead of drawing charges we were committing blocking fouls. Next year, a guy like McGary (or Horford) might be able to cover up for other players' defensive mistakes; this year, if a guy got by Burke the whole team had to rotate properly to make sure no one was left open.
March 17th, 2012 at 11:46 AM ^
I dont agree with lilpenny, but how is his different for Ohio and other teams. All teams have played alot of basketball. the shots didnt fall for us and they fell for Ohio. Am i upset, sure i am, but its on to the next year.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:43 PM ^
I think the difference may be that those teams go more than six deep.
We definitely need more depth, but we always run the shot clock down and that save some energy.
Yeah, but you can't do that on defense, and that's where we really looked fatigued.
or more in the Minnesota OT and Burke played all 45.
Last year we were on a roll at the end of the year and this season we were fading. I think they were tired.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:48 AM ^
March 17th, 2012 at 10:13 AM ^
That is all that needs to be said. Burke had a great year, but tried to play the hero in the last couple of minutes yesterday. If he was going to shoot every time down the floor, it should have been a drive to the basket. They did a great job of getting a mismatch with a big on Burke. Several times in a row he either scored on the drive or got fouled. That is what he should have done the last two minutes, but instead he settled for 25 foot 3-pointers. Even down three with a minute or two left, keep taking it too the hole. Plenty of time. Terribly frustrating.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:54 AM ^
...too any words...
sometimes it just happens and it sucks...
March 17th, 2012 at 12:58 AM ^
i disagree with the first half of your post. for every FSU, i will give you a Mizzou.
What the hell was our defensive strategy tonight? Our rotations on defense were half-hearted at best. They got a lot of open looks. They also made an absurd number of their contested shots as well. I wouldn't read too much into it, but something seemed completely off for us tonight defensively.
On the bright side, if this had happened 4 years ago we'd be REALLY pissed because we'd have no idea when our next tournament bid was coming. In all likelihood we'll have another go of it next year with a squad potentially more talented than this one.
GO BLUE!
I repeat not blaming Coach Beilein, but we didnt play zone the entire game. That was Ohio's struggle all season. I know Ohio shot extremely well, but you could have thrown some zone in to just change it up, and try to get them out of rhythm.
Another thing i noticed was on the screen and roll with Morgan and Burke, all Ohio's big man did was hedge out on Burke every single time. they werent concerned with Morgan scoring from 15'. I just wanted to maybe see a few more adjustments.
Having said that, i Love Coach Beilein as our coach. The players missed easy layups, and didnt play the kind of defense we are used to seeing.
We played some zone, especially in the final 10 minutes of the game. It cut down on their drives but resulted in a lot of open threes.
If I had to pick a single reason they lost I'd say their PG played better than ours. He stretched the defense, he drew double teams and he kept his dribble when doubled and found the open man. No matter what Michigan took away from Cooper, he had an answer.
let us play a streetball, fast tempo game. Which is just how Ohio wants to play. Second I have never ever seen a team play such physical and almost perfect man to man defense they just flew around. Now they got away with stuff, but good for them the refs let them and they used that to run us litterally out of the arena.
this team is not now and has never been that good.
All the more reason to call out the insanity that is Tom Izzo being the B1G COY. Izzo would have been lucky to win 12 with this group.
I hope we hit the weights, beef up and get tougher. We were physically pushed around tonight by a MAC team. (This means you Timmy Jr.)
I hate Sparty as much as the next guy, but Izzo is the best coach in the B1G and one of the 5 best in the country. I'm sure he can take most teams and make them winners.
He'd have to step out of his comfort zone with this roster. Izzo always wants two big men on the floor.
Beg to differ. Beilin has done more with less the last few years than Izzo. But that "less" part is going to be changing real soon. Then we'll see.
We lost this game because teams figured out they could simply guard the perimeter, and UM wouldn't make them pay due to our lack of interior depth and size. I counted at least 6 times our guards looked to feed Smot or Morgan on a perimeter double team but couldn't because they just lacked the size/positioning to make the entry pass comfortable, and make Ohio pay the aggressive perimeter D. That'll change next year.
Regardless, the only stat that bugged me about tonight is that Beilin is reputed to recruit shooters, and just about every Ohio player had a higher shooting percentage tonight than every Michigan player, except Smot.
Well what's your definition of more? You guys have won, like, one total tourney game in the last few years you talk about. I'm not saying Beilin hasn't done a good job of turning the UM program around, but arguing that he is a better coach than Tom Izzo doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Ohio hit almost everything they threw at the hoop; Michigan didn't. Now I know how fans of everyone who played Michigan in 1989 must have felt after watching Glen Rice.
The only other thing that concerned me: for almost all of the game, it seemed like the refs allowed Ohio to play "Duke Defense" while calling touch fouls on MIchigan, but the disparity wasn't really all that great in the stats. I suppose I should give the refs the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to my rather obvious bias, but it still feels like Ohio got away with way too many shenanigans on defense, and made too many trips to the line when the same thing happened at the other end.
At any rate, it wouldn't have mattered if Ohio had shot their normal 43.1 percent, or if MIchigan had hit a few more shots.
Was it you who posited the theory that Izzo's flirtation with Cleveland ruined his effectiveness as MSU's coach?
Assuming it was you and I have the theory correct, do you still think that's true? If it wasn't you, nm.
Basketball has become a lazy mans game and lost the luster of old where offensive execution was key. Now it comes down to who can get away with what.
Not sure if I should make this it's own topic on the board, but what the hell is going on server wise with this site? It seems like anything remotely big news hits this server hard, I mean we even had a 503 error during an away game at Northwestern. I will gladly buy another shirt/donate/or click more ads to help get a larger server. It seems to be getting a little ridiculous at this point.
O don't get me wrong after the basketball game tonight it was probably a good thing, but even days when we get some kind of good news the site can fall apart. Like I said a few weeks ago when Mich won at NU the site had a 503 error and that was on a Tuesday night.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:47 PM ^
Yeah, it's becoming a real problem. Every game thread seems to get hit with 503/504 errors when big plays happen. This site seems to have outrgrown its server.
Honestly, I watched the Minnesota game and then I became worried. I was the first of our friend group to say Michigan would lose in the first round, but we looked like straight up shit against Minnesota AND Ohio State. I knew our momentum was negative, we absolutely looked like crap and I figured we would continue that right into the first game of the tournament.
Great season, but man, we really fell apart at the end.