Michigan 79, Appalachian State 71
The callbacks were not welcome.
Michigan looked well on their way to a blowout victory in Juwan Howard's official debut, leading Appalachian State by as many as 30 points with 13 minutes to go. Jon Teske dominated the Mountaineers, who had no answer for his combination of size and skill. The offense operated with impressive speed and precision, leading to a lot of open looks that the shooters were knocking down. ASU needed tough bucket after tough bucket from guard Justin Forrest just to keep within shouting distance.
Then the Wolverines appeared to forget how to basketball. They committed ten turnovers over the game's final 13 minutes, four of them by Zavier Simpson, who looked as perplexed as the rest of us. App State ground the lead down to four with 20 seconds left, helped by a streak of cold free throw shooting for Michigan, but ultimately Eli Brooks iced the game at the line and we no longer had to hear Stephen Bardo strain himself to bring up the first ever BTN football broadcast again.
Brooks was the game's unlikely star, drilling 5-of-11 threes on his way to a career-best 24 points to go with three assists, a block, a steal, and a critical late-game rebound. In addition to taking on a lead scoring role, he piloted the offense when Simpson picked up two first-half fouls, and his defense was a positive all night—it was Brooks, not Simpson, who had the game's most memorable stop when he smothered a late fallaway jumper by Forrest.
when the game takes an unpleasant turn. [Campredon]
Teske finished with 17 points and a career-high 13 rebounds; he did almost all his damage before the break, though when the team needed a bucket out of a late timeout, they went to Teske in the post—he found Brooks for an open three that didn't fall, but his passing was excellent all evening.
Michigan got an up-and-down performance from Isaiah Livers, who got off to a quiet start, then popped off for 14 points on 11 shots but also turned the ball over five times, looking unsteady handling the rock in traffic. Adrien Nunez, who started at small forward, committed four fouls in 12 minutes, though he sunk a late three to help salvage a tough evening. Brandon Johns, a more positive presence at this point on defense and the boards, soaked up some of Nunez's time, as did David DeJulius, who went scoreless with three assists and no turnovers in 29 minutes.
Howard tinkered with some interesting lineups, giving us a brief look at the Teske-Castleton twin towers pairing and a much longer one at a Simpson-Brooks-DDJ backcourt.
This game may end up being a microcosm of the season: a lot of excitement, some rough moments, and ultimately coming out positive. While there was some truly hideous play for stretches of the second half, we also saw this team's potential in the early going. Simpson isn't going to have many six-turnover games. Brooks probably won't have a ton of 25-point outbursts, either, but his shooting looked more sustainable tonight than an uncharacteristic series of brain farts from Simpson.
[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]
November 5th, 2019 at 9:58 PM ^
In before the hot takes. Great 2/3 of a game, people need to recognize that this is going to be far from a perfect year with LOTS of bumps, however, a win is a win is a win when we have a FIRST TIME coach. Nice adversity to build on before a tough Creighton game next Tuesday. Also, hello Eli Brooks, keep doing what you did tonight.
November 5th, 2019 at 10:03 PM ^
Castleton warrants more than 11 min a game especially if Teske is going to be gassed by the 10 min mark of the 2nd half.
November 5th, 2019 at 10:27 PM ^
Dunno... While not a liability, he wasn't getting anywhere near Teske's production. Seems that he is still a work in progress.
November 5th, 2019 at 11:10 PM ^
He had 8 points in those minutes, seems pretty productive to me.
November 6th, 2019 at 6:36 AM ^
Maybe, but it looked like he was out of position a lot, especially on defense.
November 5th, 2019 at 10:04 PM ^
I agree this game will likely be a microcosm of the season, and that's to be expected. Howard had even less time to prepare than during your usual coaching change, he's never been a head coach before, and a bunch of guys are in new positions and have new responsibilities. This team isn't going to compete for a conference crown, and it's likely they'll be sweating Selection Sunday a bit more than fans are used to. But for 2/3 of the game they looked really good, and there are enough encouraging signs (and Howard working with the talent he's got instead of simply trying to impose a system) that this season should be fun.
November 6th, 2019 at 9:06 AM ^
I hate to draw many conclusions after a first game.
Beilein's teams were often rough at the beginning of the season and looked a lot different by January.
My three takes; Eli Brooks can play. Simpson will rarely play so poorly. The team will look a lot better with Franz in the rotation.
November 6th, 2019 at 9:55 AM ^
I hope this was just a random one-off for Simpson, but man did he look uncomfortable last night, right down to the headband.
November 6th, 2019 at 10:35 AM ^
The headband was weird -- when I saw it, I thought "No way that stays on. Does he even know how to wear one?" It was way too high on his head, and sure enough it came off.
Hopefully just something he was trying out and will discard so he can focus on more important things, as the team needs him to play like an All-B1G player, not whatever that was yesterday.
November 6th, 2019 at 2:42 PM ^
I noticed that he made a few extremely fast passes to players that weren't ready. As the year progresses the players around him will learn to always be ready for a pass and Simpson won't be trying to force passes with speed as everyone gets more comfortable.
November 5th, 2019 at 10:07 PM ^
Interestingly, of all the comparisons, this actually feels like the football team: big offensive change, still decent on defense, faster pace leading to more possessions, definite transition costs in the offing.
And a surprising amount of turnovers.
Here's to settling in faster than 50% into the season.
November 6th, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
To add to the comparison -- uncharacteristic number of turnovers by the QB (Z). Is Shea setting the tone for both the football and the basketball team?
November 5th, 2019 at 10:09 PM ^
Fire Howard!
November 5th, 2019 at 10:09 PM ^
Sorry guys, this was my fault. Had a busy evening and turned the game on with 10:00 to go and the score 70-46.
That was...unpleasant.
November 5th, 2019 at 10:30 PM ^
Nah, it was mine. When we were up 30, I joked with the kids that App State was going to come back and win by field goal. It was funny until it wasn't...
November 6th, 2019 at 9:07 AM ^
You sick fuck
November 6th, 2019 at 9:05 AM ^
2nd'd. I turned it on at almost the exact same time. Let's coordinate and make sure we don't ever do that again.
November 5th, 2019 at 10:10 PM ^
We always tend to look bad the first game of the season. But that second half...wow.
November 6th, 2019 at 9:56 AM ^
Not even second half. They scored 21 points in the first 7 minutes of the second half. It's the last 13 minutes that was...wow.
- 10 turnovers
- 2/14 FGs
- Missed first 5 FTs before hitting next 7
We were on pace for ~100 most of the game. Our 27.5 minutes (First 27 + last 30 seconds) were enough to outscore them in 40, but that's not going to work against opponents with a pulse.
November 5th, 2019 at 10:10 PM ^
Nice writeup Ace.
Forrest was terrific. Long way to go M. But flashes of fun.
DeJulius has to go back and watch his hs games.
Confidence kid.
November 6th, 2019 at 11:13 AM ^
I don;t think watching HS games is going to do it for DDJ. He just doesn't look like he will ever be a net positive player for more than small stretches when his shot is falling. He does little else positive and the shot is the bad side of streaky.
November 5th, 2019 at 10:12 PM ^
Positive is that the Nate Oats era is off to losing start at Alabama with a loss to Penn. Come on Nimari, Go Blue!
November 5th, 2019 at 10:14 PM ^
Great first win Coach Howard!!
November 5th, 2019 at 10:35 PM ^
So it wasn't a lot different than a lot of Beilein early teams. Cool. Hopefully the end of season result will be good then! Seriously though, first game, new coach, new system. They won. End of story. Mark it down and move on and improve.
November 8th, 2019 at 1:56 AM ^
You mean it wasn't all that different only in the sense that it was frustrating, right?
Because the style here was VERY different. There were 77 possessions in this game. More than any game last year, even OT games!
Michigan turned it over on 22% of possessions which is VERY BAD. Only twice did they turn it over at a higher rate last year, and both of those games were against P5 teams. That's a cost of pushing the offense to play at a fast pace and it's probably far too big a price to pay. Even though it was mostly Z and Livers, who probably can't be that bad, it does not bode well that this was against App State.
Michigan only scored just over a point per possession despite having relatively good shooting splits. That's the startling result of turning it over a bunch: you can't score if you don't get shots up.
November 5th, 2019 at 10:35 PM ^
17 turnovers. Crappy defense. Offense showed flashes. When was the last time you saw 17 turnovers against a poor opponent? It was not encouraging.
November 5th, 2019 at 11:02 PM ^
You need to look at those stats in context, though. For one thing, this game had 77 possessions; I doubt Michigan played more than one or two 77 possession games in the Beilein era. For another, a lot of those turnovers were after the game appeared to be decided. I think that the team thought that they could coast to a victory. I hope that this will serve as an important reminder that they can't.
BTW: 22.1% turnover rate (dividing turnovers by possessions to account for pace): the last time they had a worse one was literally their last game (22.6%), but Texas Tech was obviously a quality opponent. Prior to that, you have to go all the way back to... the loss at Wisconsin (24.1%). If you want a crappy team -- how about the win vs. South Carolina (22.4%).
November 6th, 2019 at 5:00 AM ^
This is good perspective. I too was shocked at the raw numbers, but it does make sense that TOs increase with increased possessions. Still not sure I like this style of basketball more than Beilein's, but I'll have to see how it extrapolates out over an entire season. Very interested to see where this year goes
November 6th, 2019 at 9:58 AM ^
Agreed, but at one point they had 8 turnovers in 19 possessions so it was really noticeable.
November 8th, 2019 at 2:10 AM ^
No that doesn't really help. You just went through the entire list of games in which they turned it over at a higher rate last year: only three. All against P5 opponents, one the national runner. It's a bit of a concern.
This is definitely a very different style. It's an almost unavoidable cost of playing so fast and if this does keep up and they're turning it over more than 20% of possessions, it is not a cost worth paying. Even if they're above 16% it's not worth it.
November 6th, 2019 at 3:48 AM ^
When was the last time you saw a Michigan team with 17 turnovers against anybody?
November 6th, 2019 at 10:05 AM ^
Had 14 against Texas Tech last game...
November 5th, 2019 at 10:44 PM ^
As nerve-wracking as this was, it gives Howard an opportunity to start working toward being the best head coach he can be. Yes, a blowout win would have been nice, but, in reality, there was no way Howard was going to have the team at its peak out of the gate.
With this game, he can go back, look at film, analyze, figure out what worked and what didn't and move forward. He's not a veteran head coach like Beilein. He has to work toward that and start developing his style and system. How is he going to get all the pieces to fit correctly? And games like this will only help him get there.
And the team still won, so there's an added bonus.
November 5th, 2019 at 10:46 PM ^
Simpson played poorly -- I'm not worried about the turnovers long-term (he was forcing things, as was Livers for that matter) but I don't see any sign he's got an outside shot, which is a real bummer. Plus, what happened to his reverse layup? He had at least three that he could have taken, but he just fired passes to the outside instead.
Johns look surprisingly slow on D -- perhaps he was just out of position, as he seems like a great athlete, but he got beat to the basket a number of times.
And DeJulius...in the words of my (non-bball fan) family member who was watching with me, "I thought you said that guy was a great scorer in high school?" He needs go talk to Greg Harden or something and get his mind right -- he needs to get buckets & 3s, because he's not out there for his defense.
Teske, Brooks and Castleton carried the load. Really impressed by the last two.
Going to be an up & down season. Can't wait until Franz is healthy!
November 5th, 2019 at 10:52 PM ^
The team flashed a lot of potential, still got the win despite the face plant finish. That is why you start the schedule with lower tier teams. As mystifying as it is to watch, in the big picture of the entire season, the late collapse is probably a better outcome than a 30-point blowout win. A lot to build upon, a lot of improvement still needed, and Juwaan will not have any trouble keeping their attention.
November 5th, 2019 at 10:55 PM ^
Survive and Advance
November 5th, 2019 at 10:59 PM ^
It did seem as if the twin towers Teske/Castleton line-up in the first half was a lot more productive than the small ball Simpson/Brooks/DDJ line-up in the second half (DDJ in place of Castleton). Was puzzled why we saw so much DDJ, who was scoreless, in the second half versus Castleton, who was productive in the first half.
Also can't figure out DDJ, a cold blooded sniper in HS, who so far throws up bricks at the next level, not just from the floor, but also from the free throw line!
November 5th, 2019 at 11:18 PM ^
No Eli Brooks slander on this week’s podcast!
November 6th, 2019 at 11:04 AM ^
Yeah, Ive been defending Brooks in these parts forever...hes a good player that was shadowed by Simpson.... would be interesting to hear the hypocrites now who have been dissing him so long, and there are many.
November 6th, 2019 at 12:40 PM ^
I don’t know that one game will cause people to re-evaluate a player entirely, but it is interesting that people are simultaneously asking if the light has come on for Brooks in his junior year and writing DDJ off one game into his sophomore year. A little patience is warranted, probably on both counts.
November 6th, 2019 at 1:27 PM ^
I wish I could upvote this comment more than once. Brooks looked lost at the beginning of last year, and made dramatic progress during the season -- so much so that I thought his likely contribution to this year's team was being significantly discounted. Doesn't seem unreasonable to hope to see the same from DDJ.
November 6th, 2019 at 2:08 PM ^
For the record I stated last year that I liked Brooks as a guy who would stay in the program for 4 years and get better each year, ending up as a valuable senior presence like MAAR. He's well on his way.
November 5th, 2019 at 11:36 PM ^
We need to avoid App State like kryptonite...
November 5th, 2019 at 11:43 PM ^
Well, yuck.
Ah well. Last season kind of messed with us, with the team annihilating Villanova early and then outracing a very good North Carolina team at home right after the football team collapsed. They were a top team in the country from the get-go.
But Michigan has, far more often, started roughly and finished well. So stuff like this isn't that unusual for us; it's just that the strong finishes (and mediocre football teams) have us paying more attention.
Of course, those were Beilein teams, and this is not. Old, reliable things we could count on from Beilein--the PGs will develop into terrific players, there will be guys who can shoot, the offense will be well-designed and feature no post game, etc--are no longer givens.
It's a win, so what we are really wondering is, "what does this mean?"
Hard to tell. We still don't know if Nunez or DDJ are going to be plus contributors. Livers looks like he isn't suited for an offensive role that isn't "spot-up shooter." We don't know how good Howard is at tactics or development.
But we also know that Simpson is a senior who has been an excellent player for years. That he had a rough night suggests that the players are still adjusting. He should catch on and be fine, and with him, the rest of the team.
November 6th, 2019 at 12:20 AM ^
The team is probably not as good, especially without Wagner, as the team that raced to a 30-point lead in the first 27 minutes of the game and they probably are not as bad, even without Wagner, as the team that let KenPom's #202-ranked team go on a 32-6 run over a 12-minute period to cut the lead to 4 when they scored only 1 field goal and turned the ball over 10 times.
The concerning thing is that when things started going poorly, Michigan could do absolutely nothing to stop the bleeding. That happening last year is what cost them the regular season B1G title, the B1G tournament title, and a spot in the Elite Eight. No matter how good they can be, if they are going to collapse like they did tonight any time they face adversity, they are going to lose a bunch of close games to teams they probably should beat, which could ultimately cost them a spot in the tournament.
November 6th, 2019 at 8:44 AM ^
The reason for is simple and it has to due with Simpson. He simple can't make a basket when the team needs one. His poor shooting cost the team in these situations. He has seem to move away from his hook shot.
November 6th, 2019 at 9:54 AM ^
KenPom's #202-ranked team
Of course, right now the KenPom rankings are mostly theoretical.
November 6th, 2019 at 12:50 AM ^
pretty rough nite for the BIG in general. at least we escaped.
November 6th, 2019 at 5:01 AM ^
You're saying you wouldn't want to switch places with Nebraska??
November 6th, 2019 at 5:03 AM ^
Weird error in the box score: it says the game was tied 82 times.
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