Michigan 75, Michigan State 64
MOOD. [Marc-Gregor Campredon]
Everything's coming up Michigan.
After an ugly first half, the Wolverines took it to Michigan State to secure a season sweep and a shot at their second consecutive Big Ten Tournament title. In addition to being a delectable and important victory over a chief rival, Michigan once again showed how far they've come this season.
Today's hero lost his starting job after four games this season and didn't regain it until January. Zavier Simpson, Bench Player, feels like forever go. He played a brilliant game on both ends, scoring 15 points on 4/8 shooting, pulling down seven boards, handing out two assists, making life tough on Cassius Winston, and even bolstering M's post defense when switched onto MSU's big men. He routinely broke down the Spartan defense with blow-bys of Winston (and even defensive ace Tum Tum Nairn). Then he iced the game at the line while showing no signs of his season-long free-throw struggles.
"It was a sweet sight to see Zavier's shots just go right through the middle," said John Beilein. "Of his foul shots the last couple of days, maybe 8-for-10 or 10-for-12, shooting it right down the middle".
Critically, Simpson did a lot of his best work in the first half as the rest of the team scuffled on offense. Moe Wagner went scoreless on seven shots in 12 first-half minutes and M was a woeful 4-for-18 from beyond the arc; Simpson was the only Wolverine to hit more than two shots in the opening stanza. Michigan stayed close with defense, holding the Spartans to 11-for-31 shooting themselves, but Wagner's wonky shot and MSU's strong offensive rebounding portended bad things. State held a three-point lead heading into the tunnel.
Not even Tum Tum could check Z. [Campredon]
Then it all clicked. Beilein ran much of the offense through Wagner to open the second half, and he responded with five points in five minutes. Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman got going with an early three. Charles Matthews shocked the Spartan defense (and others) by taking Miles Bridges left off the dribble for an uncontested dunk. MAAR, Duncan Robinson, and Wagner drilled three straight triples, and suddenly Michigan was up six.
"I told him, this is my great motivation at halftime, hey, Moe, are you going to make a shot? Because right now you're stinking the place up," said Beilein. "Just make one shot. We played with each other like that. He just smiled: Yes, Coach, I can do that."
Michigan State could only inch closer; they didn't get the margin lower than five points in the game's final seven minutes. According to KenPom, Michigan delivered the third-best defensive performance against MSU this season. Though offensive rebounds ruined some of Michigan's better defensive possessions in the first half, they still managed to hold State below a point per possession in each half. The Wolverines now rank sixth(!!!) nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency. I'll give you a moment to reassemble your jaw.
They did this by, as usual, forcing tough shots in the paint while running shooters off the line. MSU made only 7 of 25 threes, and several attempts were desperation chucks in the final minutes. Bullying towards the basket and pulling up from midrange wasn't much more effective; the Spartans made 44.7% of their twos, ten percentage points below their season average.
No easy buckets. [Campredon]
Now, for the second straight year, Michigan has a chance to win their fourth game in four days to hang another banner. They've probably locked up a four-seed in the NCAA Tournament and another win would give them an outside shot at a three-seed. It's been a little less dramatic this year; it was no easier to see coming a couple months ago. A swaggering band of Wolverines will face the winner of PSU/Purdue tomorrow afternoon. I wouldn't want to be the team to try to stop this run.
Just ask Michigan State. They're 0-2 against Michigan and 29-2 against everyone else.
[Hit THE JUMP for more photos and the box score.]
All photos by Marc-Gregor Campredon. Full gallery here.
we're a four seed, even with a loss tomorrow. Almost no possible way we'll be a 5.
if we're not at least a 4 seed with a loss and a 3 seed with a win IMHO.
publicly admit I was wrong about Z. I never thought he would turn into the player he has. He is salowly becoming my favorite player. Kid gets it done.
on every single play, maybe in all of college basketball. The kid is tough as nails.
the best part...he owns winston. i love it.
he left before JB took over. that's when i first heard of all of these aau shenanigans.
Udoh played one season under Beilein. He got talked into leaving with the idea that playing in Beilein's offense was hurting his chances of making the NBA.
I didn’t think Z was the answer but he’s been a blast to watch defensively as well as growing into some swag on the offensive side
you're exactly right that it seems like that's how Z has come alive this year. Those insane hooks, and flips in the lane. You know he learned to do that as a tiny guy on the playgrounds and it's so fun to watch. He's just doing what he's comfortable with. You can't coach that stuff. He's just honed those skills out of necessity and he's so good at it.
Is a great way to describe his game. I was calling it resourceful. Either way he knows what he has to get done and he finds a way to do it without some of the traditional tools in the toolbox. It makes it a lot of fun to watch.
Me too :) We were traveling and I have only seen very brief clips of the game but from what I have seen is that Simpson stepped up big-time and made the offensive plays that I have been complaing he was not making. A point guard has got to penetrate and either finish or get a teammate a good look and otherwise keep the opposing defense honest...he did this and more from what I have seen. He has a ways to go but it looks as though he is taking significant steps in the right direction.
Additionally, the coaching staff deserves major credit here for forging this group into a formidable team. Basketball is a special game due to all the nuances that are constantly in play and here the value of teamwork cannot be overstated. (Those very gifted MSU players would do well to take notice.)
Even though I love this rosters depth, I thought facing that wonderfully, physically talented MSU squad for a 3rd game in three days would be too much for this team to overcome. Now it's 4 in 4 days...but these kids seem to have forgotten how to lose :)
Feels so nice to beat them twice.
Eat shizzo, Izzo.
I agree, Jackson is the only elite prospect on that team.
except for a couple offensive rebounds he was invisible. izzo not maximizing the talent...again.
Let's be fair about this, Bridges has a load of athleticism and potential. That Izzo hasn't really unlocked the potential isn't a reflection on the pro potential of Bridges, whom NBA teams will no doubt believe they can develop into a quality player once they get him out of the development quicksand upon which the Breslin Center is built.
We all know that Bridges would develop better under better coaching, such as that provided by John Beilein. But players don't go to Michigan State to develop their basketball; they're going there for something else.
Izzo just isn't a very good coach in terms of strategy.
He hasn't coached those horrible pull up twos out of Bridges game yet. But he's a great 3 point shooter, he can get to the hole, and he can even post up. A good coach in the NBA won't let him shoot those long twos and he'll probably be a really good player.
OUCH!!! Quite the ending zinger!!!
of course you're going to scout that game when you play the winner. Every team in every tournament does it in that situation.
Nice to wipe the floor today with the Christian Dawkins State University Floor Slappers.
Its the defense. This team takes their opponents out of their comfort zone.
Also notice the free throws. That stat used to be reversed when we played MSU.
half of our FTs were in the last two minutes when the game was over but Sparty of course can't accept the fact they got their asses handed to them.
Just saw this quote from his press conference:
"I think [Michigan's] a little tougher, personally... And maybe, I don't know, him [sic], their staff still figured out at the end of the day you do gotta check people well to win. So I think his team is a better defensive team."
Nice backhanded compliment there, Tommy Boy. Stay classy...
Edit: PS -- apparently Poole waved goodbye to Bridges when he fouled out. Normally I'd consdier that to be a little unsportsmanlike, but somehow it just doesn't feel all that inappropriate to me today. :-) (Source: http://www.espn.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/121346/michi… )
we are a better defensive team. They're 9th in kenpom, we're 6th!!!
That is incredible. They are the #1 shot blocking team in the country, which directly results in them being the #1 2pt defense team in the country and we are a better defensive team.
I don't even know how to process that.
It's actually pretty simple. If you take a look at Michigan's KenPom profile, nothing really stands out on defense. They're pretty good in every defensive category in the four factors, but not elite at any of them.
But if you look a little further down, into the style components, you'll see one key to Michgan's success -- opponents only take 30% of their shots from 3, which is 9th in the country. Michigan makes teams play inside the arc. Teams can't hit 3s if they don't shoot them. The second key isn't on KenPom, but it's on hoop-math -- 46.6% of opposition shots are 2-point jumpers*, which connect at 36%. Meanwhile, Michigan only takes 2-point jumpers on 27.8% of its shots.
Finally, also on hoop-math, by abandoning most offensive rebounds and hustling into position, Michigan is holding opponents to a mind-boggling 48.6% eFG on transition opportunities. These are supposed to be an offense's best chance to take advantage of a defnesive breakdown, but Michigan's overall eFG allowed is 48.3%. It basically makes no difference whether you run on Michigan or not. That's outstanding. (As a point of comparison, Michigan's offense has an eFG of 63.5% in transition, and that's on more attempts, too -- 24.2% of Michigan's offensive possessions are in transition but only 20.3% of opposition possessions are).
This has been a fun team to watch. I will admit, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop on this defensive renaissance, because we've seen it before -- numbers would get propped up by the nonconference foes and then fall back to earth against the Big Ten. This year, though, with the exception of Purdue, that really hasn't happened.
Tomorrow should be very interesting. Go Blue!
* Taking this with a grain of salt after seeing the exposé about a week ago on this site regarding what counted as a 2-point jumper at Crisler -- but, then again, if they're courting layups as 2-point jumpers, that makes the percentage even more incredible.
I just can't believe that we're doing it. Beilein has a top 10 defense despite never previously having even a top 25 defense at any stop. Even when he had a starting five plus bench made of mostly NBA players.
What a transformation and what an amazing job by Yaklich.
a lot of credit to him. like we saw last year, teams lick their chops and try to isolate against DRob. this obviously worked the last few years, and even early this year. it ain't working anymore. i've never seen a guy improve so much on D over the course of one year. it's really weird. huge credit to DRob and the coaches. he now beats guys to spots on D. that never happened much before.
A significant part of defense is guys actually wanting to play it. Yes, some of it's quickness and physical measures, but a lot of it is heart.
That's both desperation and bad coaching-plain and simple. First, you're telling your team that you cannot compete with your opponent straight up...which is a huge WOW here. Secondly, no reasonable coach would believe that the other team will make less than 50% of their FTs...so you're still going to have to make offensive plays. And chances are good that your opponent is going to shoot at least 65-70% which means that your team is going to have to score at a better than 1.2 PPP to cut into their lead. Just plain bad on Izzo's part!
Will the REAL Mr. March please stand up! I Love it!!!!!!
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