Michigan Basketball Game Thread - Virginia
November 30th, 2022 at 12:55 AM ^
pretty sure they have break away fouls now in college. that said, it was a weak call.
December 1st, 2022 at 1:25 PM ^
November 29th, 2022 at 11:46 PM ^
I think Juwan and staff might not have a ton of X's and O's ability. Bennett ran circles around Juwan tonight. If we are not shooting lights out, we have no answers on offense. Why did we continue to run the exact same sets on offense when they stopped working?? We need new ideas when that happens. STOP RUNNING THE SAME BALL SCREENS WHEN THEY HEDGE AND PUSH OUR GUARDS TO THE HALF LINE EVERY DAMN TIME!!!
November 30th, 2022 at 12:56 AM ^
maybe because we have only 2 above avg offensive players on the roster: HD and Jett. but that, too, is juwan's fault. tho, we could have used transfer shannon jr big time. somehow illinois got him in.
November 30th, 2022 at 2:00 AM ^
Somehow? He's from Illinois
November 30th, 2022 at 2:50 AM ^
i was referring to the academic issues
November 29th, 2022 at 11:47 PM ^
Tough loss. Lot's to learn from after a really good first half. Tough non call at end too for 3 shots. Close. That game was very winnable.
November 29th, 2022 at 11:47 PM ^
I will say it since no one else will. Juwan is a mediocre coach. He's a far cry from Beilein who always achieved more with less talent. Unlike Harbaugh, who was clearly a superb head coach with a decade plus evidence to prove it, Juwan was an unknown commodity and we are finding out in real time what his competency level is. And it's not the level that will take Michigan back to the Final Four.
November 29th, 2022 at 11:58 PM ^
Well according to one basketball writer on this site, Howard would make us more competitive with top teams because his recruiting is better and he'll have better athletes. You know since Michigan always used to struggle against elite teams under Beilein.
November 30th, 2022 at 12:06 AM ^
Beilein is both a great coach and also just severely overrated by this blog. He missed the ncaa tourney in year 7, he wasn’t some infallible god
November 30th, 2022 at 12:11 AM ^
I cant tell if you are serious. Best coach we ever had. Id take another decade of coach b in an instant. He went head to head with Izzo when Izzo had this state locked down. Im not sure if you take the school into account but what more do you expect? He was 2 wins away from doubling Izzos championship.
November 30th, 2022 at 12:48 AM ^
you are not smart. do you mean year 7 when their best player basically missed most of the year? that's a big deal in basketball vs football.
November 30th, 2022 at 2:04 AM ^
I think missing the tourney in year 7 can be excused by getting us to the NCAA finals twice in a decade.
Say what you want about Beilein but he had the ability to put his players in positions to succeed.
November 30th, 2022 at 2:54 AM ^
"weed" mcgary suspended for the year, so he turns pro
stauskus goes pro after soph year; unthinkable a year earlier
levert misses basically the entire big ten season with injury.
team finishes 8-10 in the big ten with 3 OT losses and another close one. any of those players makes it a 12-6 third place team in the big ten.
November 30th, 2022 at 12:07 AM ^
That writer says his style is to have better and stronger athletes and overwhelm and dominate people. When I kept asking about the small point guards he kept pointing to Louisville with Siva and some of them. Do you see our team as positionally overwhelming people? You don’t NBA without NBA talent and we basically have Jett that has that talent level.
November 30th, 2022 at 2:56 AM ^
the questionable one and doners could have helped this year.
November 29th, 2022 at 11:58 PM ^
EDIT: Double post
November 29th, 2022 at 11:48 PM ^
Why the timeout before the free throw? And, is that the play we really wanted? Williams dribble up the court and pass into a double team? This loss is completely on the 2nd half coaching. The lack of adequate substitutions is the worse that I've ever seen.
Wow. I'm simply stunned at losing an absolutely winnable game. I'm also confused at how Coach Howard, IN YEAR 4, doesn't seem to learn from mistakes. I'm afraid that we are going to be saddled with a very mediocre coach for a few more years.
November 30th, 2022 at 12:13 AM ^
Coaches at all levels let the fantastic play dictate what happens down 2 or tied. Give Bufkin the ball and set him loose. Its a 2 point deficit go make your 15 footer or less.
November 29th, 2022 at 11:48 PM ^
Meanwhile, Terrence Shannon scored 17 points on 5 threes for Illinois tonight.
November 29th, 2022 at 11:51 PM ^
Damn admissions staff *shakes fist*
November 30th, 2022 at 1:00 AM ^
you neglected to mention he was 5 for 15 from 3 and 5 for 17 shooting---against a really shitty team. Bad game to make your point.
November 29th, 2022 at 11:54 PM ^
10 points in the final 10 minutes. Started 7-14 from 3, finish 1-5 in the 2nd Half. Moronic substitutions, ill-timed timeouts, lack of counterpunch, just par for the course from Juwan.
Tony Bennett coached circles around Juwan in the 2nd Half. This is not a tournament team anymore, led by a fool's gold head coach.
November 29th, 2022 at 11:54 PM ^
Unfortunately there just are not enough reliable scorers on this team right now. Can't get by with just Jett and Hunter, inconsistency at best from the rest of the starters and a complete drop off a cliff with the 2nd team. Only silver lining is UM teams under Howard and even before that have a habit of starting slow but man gonna need alot of in season improvement from multiple guys to even just make the tourney with how strong the conference is.
November 29th, 2022 at 11:55 PM ^
Well this is at least something to build on, but we need to something in the non-conference to build up momentum.
This still feels like a bottom B1G team though.
November 29th, 2022 at 11:55 PM ^
I want to know how we can get a reputation as a “great defensive team” so that we can play super handsy defense without getting called for it. Why do some teams get away with that style while others get called for touch fouls?
We still shouldn’t have shot so poorly in the second half, but if you can’t even cut without being bear hugged, it’s gotta take something out of you.
November 30th, 2022 at 12:00 AM ^
Unfortunately the simplest answer is that college basketball officials generally suck and have no consistency whatsoever. But yes the reputation thing is also a thing, same reason why Wisconsin under Ryan in particular got away with ungodly amounts of contact on ballhandlers.
I mean some are going to call it whining and counter with the fouls overall were somewhat even in number but you would have to be blind to not see tons of contact that UVA got away with on ballhandlers. Definitely was not being let go when it occurred on the other end of the floor.
November 30th, 2022 at 1:01 AM ^
But we are a poor defensive team
November 29th, 2022 at 11:56 PM ^
We are fixing to play UK and NC here shortly and then get into the bigten which looks very damn deep. 11 games left on our schedule against ranked teams and Wisconsin, Iowa and others won’t be cakewalks either. Unless the point guard situation gets straightened out we are in for a long season.
November 30th, 2022 at 10:45 AM ^
Kentucky also looks like they were totally overrated coming into the season. They look as disjointed as we do on offense. Winnable game there. I can't argue with the rest of what you said, though.
November 29th, 2022 at 11:57 PM ^
Hunter is a good player but I really don’t like the post heavy offense. I also wish we put more priority on recruiting guards.
November 29th, 2022 at 11:59 PM ^
Please start Dug for the sake of this team's potential. Enough of Llewellyn
November 30th, 2022 at 12:19 AM ^
Agreed. Let Dug figure it out. We brought a 2 guard transfer that looks more like Bufkin from last year.
November 30th, 2022 at 12:59 AM ^
unfortunately, dug thinks he's more of a scorer than distributor. need to coach that shit out of him.
November 30th, 2022 at 12:01 AM ^
If Juwan doesn’t change things fast, this season is in the trash can. Especially with a tough Big Ten. He got out coached so bad tonight.
Twill can’t play this much. He’s afraid to shoot. We have no guard depth, so Llywellen and Kobe are already a bit of O liabilities, that will play. Kobe does lots of good things, just struggles to shoot. We need to see more Baker or even Chett. Hell even yo-yo perhaps. Rotations are brutal. Jace shouldn’t be playing.
November 30th, 2022 at 12:05 AM ^
If we are going to lose, we may as well do it with Dug and let him improve on the court. This team will be so much better off than the current PG play. I don't understand risking losing Frankie for this PG portal move. Frankie may have left either way due to the family things
November 30th, 2022 at 12:02 AM ^
Didn't like anything they did after that rebound. Should have had a PG ready on a outlet to get up the court quickly. Having the rebounder get it up the court was stupidity.
November 30th, 2022 at 1:00 AM ^
no way bennett allows an outlet to a guard after that rebound. he had an entire dumb TO by howard to discuss it.
November 30th, 2022 at 12:03 AM ^
I love Howard and think he’s a good coach but that was an extremely poorly coached game. Terrible rotations and the sets weren’t working.
Ultimately what’s killing him is the point guard recruiting. Dug never made sense as a recruit and he doesn’t make sense now. You hope jaelin settles in and gets better like the other transfer point guards but even then you have one functional backup guard. And it’s not even like Frankie sticking around would solve it, he’s not that good either. Howard needs to fix his pg recruiting since it’s going to be another year next year of praying for a transfer pg to lead the team
November 30th, 2022 at 12:07 AM ^
Dug can be a good one, just needs time/experience. Start him
November 30th, 2022 at 12:09 AM ^
Dug isn't supposed to make sense in game 7. Simpson didn't either. He's a down the road guy. If the roster had any depth, he wouldn't be playing.
*And no do not start him*
November 30th, 2022 at 1:02 AM ^
i've said it before, dug needs to watch spike albrecht film. he's is super quick. break down the D and find open shooters.
November 30th, 2022 at 12:22 AM ^
The whole point of hiring a guy like Juwan was trading experience and tactics for better recruiting. Yet for the third year in a row, the most important player on the floor is a mid-major transfer. If that's what Howard brings to the table, his tenure here will be short.
November 30th, 2022 at 12:34 AM ^
Just got home from the game. This one stings because Virginia was willing to lose tonight. So many things that frustrated me tonight. What was up with the line shifts? Why the need to replace 5 starters for 5 bench guys? We're not that deep of a team. I think at one of our lineups in 2nd half was dug, baker, Jace, Reed and TWill! Wtf against Virginia??? Why not slowly rotate 2 bench dudes with 3 starters and keep rotating? Why not let Reed play with the starters for a few mins? HD was gassed. Llewellyn really turned the ball over with under 30 seconds to go down 2? Clumsy and nervous.
Why did Juwan call the timeout before the free throw? Only to have TWill bring the ball upcountry with no sense of urgency. I think Juwan thought icing the ft shooter was more important than having a plan to actually get a good shot off.
Felt bad Trey Burke was in the house and had to witness that ending.. But hey at least we have football!
November 30th, 2022 at 1:04 AM ^
get used to it. we have no bench. the starters are going to be run ragged. we are going to lose a lot of close games down the stretch due to rubber legs.
November 30th, 2022 at 9:55 AM ^
Time to let Glenn play a little bit instead of Williams . Williams slow defensive rotations are killing this team .
November 30th, 2022 at 6:20 AM ^
its going to be a long long LONG season for this team...Something missing with this team ..the younger players just arent what were used to talent wise..They are average
November 30th, 2022 at 9:53 AM ^
Big problem when your starting pg is only averaging 2.6 assists per game
November 30th, 2022 at 3:44 PM ^
He doesn't look confident with the ball in his hands and struggles to get it over the timeline when pressured. He picks up the ball too often before having someone to pass to I would much rather have a PG who can penetrate, dish, get into the lane and put some pressure on defense even if they can't shoot (and Dug should be a step up from Zavier in that category). These are things that Dug will be able to help with eventually. I know it will be tough going for a bit, but the potential is there and I don't see it being a dropoff from the start.
This team has potential with Hunter and Jett. T Williams is what he is at this point. Bufkin seems to be getting better.