Michigan-Minnesota MBB postgame snowflakes

Minn played good D and Michigan played like Donkey dick and missed Eli. That’s about it

Can’t win a championship when you lose to an average Minnesota team. Unacceptable.

Regroup. Learn from it. Move forward. 

I think that was Juwan Howard's worst game at Michigan.  Zeb isn't ready, I understand Smith can't play 40 but at the 2-guard, Howard could have gotten away without playing him there by playing Johns more at the 4 and allowing Franz to slide down the 2 and staggering the minutes more.

Terrence Williams and Zeb Jackson late-game minutes are essentially a white flag right now.  Niether is ready for prime time.  Perhaps it will pay dividends later in the season, as might holding Dickinson accountable for playing poorly.

But in that case, Johns still getting just 8 minutes is worrisome, especially in a game where Dickinson and Davis both struggled defensively.  

In any case, if Howard was coaching to win the game today, a lot of these moves were counterproductive.  I hope Johns earns his trust because he's going to need to play a bigger role as a switchable defender.  I shudder to think what would have happened if we played a team like Gonzaga or Baylor (or hell, even Illinois) the way we played today.

Lost the game and Minny played well.  Learn from it, be better the next game.

Brooks being out hurt, but turning the ball over on something like a third of their possessions is going to submarine any team.  Minnesota at home has blown out MSU, Ohio State, UM, and beaten Iowa.  Credit to them for playing well and Michigan not meeting that level of play.  I think Howard will have to figure out his bench a bit more; playing Jackson felt like a reach but I also get wanting to see if you could give Brown a couple of minutes to recover given how much effort he was putting in on both ends.  

I expected them to lose a game like this at some point in the year, and we'll see how they recover.  Every team is going to have games like this and Michigan isn't immune to it.  

We can't win them all! Overall, we have a great team but we may be a bit weak at guard when our starters go down.

Difficult for me to be upset at this one. 

Team played hard and things just did not fall & tad out of sync. 

Per usual, the refs were totally against Michigan. 

Win the next one. 

Go Blue. 

Ah well...on to the next, and we’ll just hope Brooks is ok. 

You simply can’t have shooting stats like that on the road in the Big Ten and expect you will win.   Even against the worst Big Ten teams, which is not Minnesota.   End of story.  
 

Michigan had zero chance of running the table. 
 

Get back to practice and win the next 11. 

Tough game.  Dickinson finally had a bad, freshman-like game.  It was inevitable and it will probably happen again.  Howard will work with him on doing a better job with the double teams, that only will continue.  Also, he'll need to figure out some other play sets to counter these aggressive defenses at the 3 point line.  I look to us having a really good game against Maryland coming back from this.  Maybe this loss will pay dividends as the season wears on.  

Turns out there are real road games this year after all

you could see it was going to be tough night for Michigan after the first 5 minutes; Minny played well, no doubt, but Michigan was throwing up bricks early. When Franz missed those 2 FTs, I thought that this wasn't going to be a good night.

That said, Minnesota is very good at home, so no shame in losing, but a little concerned by the margin... just have to bounce back like Minnesota and Wisconsin did after Michigan whipped them at home...

Too many turnovers.

Missed free throws.

Missed bunnies.

Good Gopher D plan on Dickinson which limited his impact.

Playing a good motivated team on the road.

We definitely missed Brooks who was replaced by an inexperienced freshman.

Kudos to Minnesota.  Michigan has to regroup, adjust to playing without Brooks and learn from their mistakes.

What this game really showed me is that we need one or two of Brooks, Smith and Brown to come back next year. We are going to be super young next year and we already turn the ball over a ton. 

Minnesota's plan is to attack Davis and Dickinson and it worked. This is why Dickinson likely won't be a 1st round pick because of his lack of mobility. Carr had a strong game and forced Michigan to foul him while making solid decisions all game long. Robbins bounced back big time from the first matchup and Minnesota put out a blueprint to stop Michigan offense which is doubling the post and run off 3 point shooters. We'll see how Juwan will respond after it.

This is a game to forget for Michigan but luckily, it's not the end of the season. Minnesota is dominant at home for a reason and they're a solid team. B1G is a grind and Michigan still controls their destiny towards a B1G title.

Awful shooting day.

Stars not stepping up and being the go-to guy.

Great defensive effort by opponent.

Mess of turnovers.

Missing defensive glove and offensive facilitator.

Playing on the road against a good team.

I’m no coach, but this situation will never win many games.

Time to put it behind you and bounce back.

“The Bounds of BPONE” (Post-Minnesota-Loss - January 16, 2021)

BPONE’s now a hated “friend”
Winning streak came to an end.
Thinking victory was deceiving.
All that’s left are days of sad grieving
While they wonder if there’s anything to gain
From the pain . . . within the bounds of BPONE

Poor defenders left alone
In man-to-man instead of zone.
Had they practiced zone since training camp?
They might need it if they’ll be a champ
And surprise some teams with some flash and a tougher fight.
Were they uptight . . . within the bounds of BPONE?

Down by seven – halftime’s score.
By some luck it wasn’t more.
Defense needed lots of smart tweaking.
Where was the offense that they’d need to bring?
Shots were off and passes were just drifting through the air.
Were they scared . . . within the bounds of BPONE.

Defense looked a bit too slow.
The Gophers’ lead began to grow.
Wolverines’ shots weren’t fallin’ through.
In seven minutes they became unglued.
Seventy-five, fifty-seven was the scoreboard’s final tell.
It told them of the hell . . .  of BPONE.

Wolverines are now dismayed
‘Bout the way this game was played,
‘Cause they couldn't stop Gophers' scoring
From increasing ‘til it was soaring.
And so the song of the Victors
Won’t be sung at their locker stalls
Or Crisler Center halls . . . slipped up in the bounds of BPONE.

Need a true point guard like Simpson was. Also could use a pure 3 point shooter. Teams are going to double Dickinson and need better shooters outside.

Game wasn’t a fluke. Minnesota was the better team today, and you’ve got to give them their due credit. Even if you had Eli playing the result doesn’t change much. Maybe they lose by 12-15 instead.

You have to believe Minnesota was motivated and pissed after being absolutely embarrassed by Michigan a week and a half ago. That Robbins kid sure was. Dickinson made him look like a chump in the first game, and then he responded by just going off today and doing what Dickinson did to him.

I’d tell people don’t let today bog them down on what this team can do. Upsets happen in college basketball all the damn time. Michigan can learn from this and improve. They were never going to go undefeated, and they are still in the driver’s seat for all of their goals for the year. Their job right now is to put this loss behind them and move on. 

Don’t let a one day story turn into a two day story.

A stinker is almost inevitable at some point during a season.  Minn played well and the good guys did not.  Lots to learn from here w.r.t. double teams and pressure D.

Damn, I though we were going undefeated.  Now that all that greatness talk can recede a bit, let’s get bacK to work.  

Any shade toward Juwan is laughable. College kids are going to lay an egg from time to time. Hunter looked like he hit a wall. Zeb ain’t ready and you could see his confidence was lacking. Minnesota played about as well as they could and hit many great shots. The zebras were rather harsh toward Michigan in the beginning and set the tone for the game. They really really missed Brooks and it was obvious. No other guard play to help Smith (big guards give him trouble).  

Not fun today but in the long run this game will help this team. Lots of growth needed and shows they can get beat badly too if they aren’t ready. 

Obviously, we should fire Juwan Howard. It's the only logical thing to do.

Well, shit.

Started slow and sloppy. Minnesota played aggressive and like they probably worked hard in practice to get some payback.

Missed Brooks, if for no other reason than to have more defense to toss at Carr. But also to help out Smith, who had a tough game.

Dickinson did not play well on defense or offense. He looked off, turning the ball over trying to pass out of the post and getting beat on the defensive end.

Well I don't buy the "wanted it more" axiom, this game is what it looks like when people describe it that way. I go more for Minnesota "worked harder, played harder," and had their collective heads in the game more.

We knew a loss was coming - let’s sublimate this into something good

We were bound to have a game like this eventually.  Gotta look ahead and not linger on the loss. Great things are ahead!

Ah yes, our amateur coaches here all know the moves that should have been made by Coach Howard.  It’s obvious, he just was clueless.?. Guys, without Eli we were going down for this road game.  Just how it was.  No brilliant analysis or coaching moves required.  

We are a fucking football school 

It was bound to happen. Teams don't go undefeated. Sucks that we looked like garbage after playing such great ball for the past few weeks.