MBB: Michigan vs. MSU [open thread]

Look at Izzo. He's basketball's Harbaugh when it comes to the fire. 

Beilein looks lethargic compared to him. 

There is like no defense to speak of.  So many of State's shots are not even contested.  It's scary and embarassing. 

Coach B needs to get an assistant coach who specializes in defense.  And he needs to recruit some big goons to just come in and pick up some hard fouls.  Let em know you're there and get tough - LETS GO DEFENSE!

This season doesn't seem to be trending in the right direction.  I mean, if they get into the tournament on the bubble, it's easy at that point to look back at that big two year run and say things are still relatively good.

However, if we end up missing the tournament, it will be the second season in a row, and FOURTH time Beilein has missed the show.  At a certain point, repeatedly failing to make the field has to be taken seriously IF we have any aspirations of being an upper level basketball program.  Making one big run when you strike gold on one great player followed by one great class doesn't make up for repeated mediocrity all those other seasons.

When you look at Beilein's time at Michigan during seasons that did not feature Burke or Stauskas, we've been a middling-to-bubble team pretty consistently.  So either you can pray for another 3* to blow up into the national player of the year for us, or you should probably start asking whether this program is honestly heading to a place where we can consistently, year in and year out contend for deep tournament runs and Big 10 titles.

No, I don't expect us to be Kentucky for a lot of reasons.  But I don't believe a program with such a strong brand and boatloads of money and resources should have to miss the postseason four times for every one final four trip.  Maybe we can't be Duke, but programs like Gonzaga, Wichita State, and Butler win with more consistency than we do.  We can do better than this.

I can't watch this shit. 

This sucks.  Michigan is soft.  This is where I think they miss Spike being out there.  He could create offense of hit some shots when they were desperately needed.  Plus he brought an intensity that is just totally absent from everyone on the court right now. 

And that's all I have to say about that...

Probably know my thoughts already. I've been on the "It's time to move on" train all year. Beilein did great things but I don't see how we are going to get any better under him. If we don't get another significant win, I see no way we get into the tournament..