Michigan/PSU Postgame Thread
Post-game thoughts...share away!
EDIT: I'm choosing to share some of my thoughts in this OP because some drunken jackass wants to neg every post. Fine by me, all you can do is downvote this thread and that does nothing to me or my thoughts as far as visibility.
There are waaaaaaaay too many of you guys freaking out and overlooking that we just had the toughest stretch of ANY team in college basketball in terms of scheduling. You're also overlooking the fact that we didn't have our best big man for ANY of it...and didn't have him today. J-Mo doesn't do a ton, but he plays defense and gets rebounds. That's exactly what most of you who are bitching...are bitching about. Why do you leave out that caveat?
Michigan allowed 70 points ONE time in the 6 games prior to Morgan's injury. This is where I feel the defense "clicked" for Michigan and we were playing MUCH better on the defensive end.
Also, you fail to note the fact that we just played THREE top 10 teams in 10 days! ...and the other game? @ Wisconsin. One of the toughest places to play in the country.
So don't overlook those two HUGE facts just so you can whine and complain. Sidenote, no other B1G contender will have a stretch like we did. It's unfair and unfortunate.
February 17th, 2013 at 2:22 PM ^
But still, its Infuriating to see Penn State out-rebound us and be able to impose its will on our defense for much of the game. Im sorry, but Penn State sucks. They've lost their best player to injury, and still, their walk-ons have their way with us. I don't like the fact that we have to win games by out-scoring our opponent, and not be able to just fall back on solid defense. Penn State had open lanes and exploited them all game.
I hate being such a negative nancy, and at the end of the day, these are 18-22 year old kids we're talking about. But these are problems that just aren't going away. Quite frankly, they could be getting worse, and could (maybe will?) cost us in March.
February 17th, 2013 at 2:23 PM ^
The team still looked tired overall. The week off is a godsend. I expect us to bring our A game against Illinois.
February 17th, 2013 at 2:24 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 2:27 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 2:31 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 2:35 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 2:46 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 2:49 PM ^
Why do you think that is? How do you explain it?
Seriously, I'm curious.
February 17th, 2013 at 2:53 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 2:56 PM ^
Why is that? Why do you think the atmosphere shuts him down on the road? It didn't against Minnesota, though. Or Illinois. And they were both pretty hostile crowds. How do you explain why he was so good in those road games and so poor in the past three?
February 17th, 2013 at 3:03 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 3:04 PM ^
I want to hear his explanation. Because I don't think he has a clue what he's talking about.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:13 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 3:39 PM ^
It's the lack of transition, which comes from not getting defensive stops.
It's also that we utilized probably too much 2-man ball in those games which too often leave GRIII in the weak side corner since he usually operates on the right side of the court with Burke attacking from the left. It's also that Burke hasn't been as effective beating his man and getting into the lane off the pick and roll, which mean that GRIII's man isn't helping or turning his head, making it harder for GRIII's cuts and slashes to be effective.
Today, in addition to getting out in transition, we ran a lot more motion sets, the first of which led to GRIII setting Morgan up for a point blank look.
But good post.
February 18th, 2013 at 8:36 AM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 2:35 PM ^
Can IU get warmups that do not resemble a candy cane?
Can ohio win a BIG championship with quintuplets named "Buckeyes"?
Can Tubby Smith dance?
February 17th, 2013 at 2:41 PM ^
You would not believe how attached IU fans are to the candy-stripe warmups.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:01 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 5:54 PM ^
True, but it's kind of weird to be that into warmup gear.
February 17th, 2013 at 2:41 PM ^
i got tickets to the game in happy valley on the 27th. alittle worried after penn states effort today and michigan's lack of effort on the road as of late.. anyway will be my first michigan basketball game GO BLUE
February 17th, 2013 at 2:43 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 2:50 PM ^
I'm enjoying that game - but I hope Ohio snaps out of its funk in time to play MSU at Value City.
February 17th, 2013 at 2:53 PM ^
Ohio State's going through the gauntled that we just did. And they're handling it worse.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:13 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 4:21 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 5:44 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 2:44 PM ^
Sure, it wasn't pretty, but after the past few weeks, AND a crushing loss for OSU at Wisconsin, I'd call it a perfect day. We're still in this...
February 17th, 2013 at 2:44 PM ^
0 points from the C position. Enough said...
February 17th, 2013 at 2:47 PM ^
I would like to see more of the [Big]-THJ-GRIII-Lavert-Burke lineup. Brought some good defensive intensity and pressure when we were struggling.
February 17th, 2013 at 2:52 PM ^
Our bigs, especially Mitch, spend way too much time out on the perimeter, hoping to trap the oppositions point guard. Sure every once in a while we get a steal out of it, but today, it left the lane wide open.
We made Boronvnjak look like an All-American as he had a career high 17 points on 7 for 9 shooting. Kinda hard to miss layups when absolutely nobody is guarding you down on the low block.
Forget the crap out there and get back in the paint and guard your man!
February 17th, 2013 at 3:00 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 3:01 PM ^
Seriously, look at the combined stat lines of Morgan + Horford + McGary: no buckets, more fouls than rebounds. What the hell just happened? Can't do that against most of the Big Ten.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:13 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 2:49 PM ^
Thank God GRIII came to play. Welcome back.
I was really pissed the entire first half but knew Michigan would still win.
At least it was a game and not a boring blowout for all the former players who came back.
The House That Cazzie Built, Rice filled, The Fab Five electrified and Beilein resurrected.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:01 PM ^
but, nice to be past the moster part of the year. Get healthy, get back at Sparty, and get ready for some March Madness.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:12 PM ^
..but by all the conventional logic, we shouldn't have had to fight today. Here's a handy chart of our FG and 3FG shooting as well as our opponents in conference play (thumbnail - original chart is big):
You can definitely see the trends pre- and post-Indiana at this point. To be fair, we have played four of the top 30 teams in defensive efficiency in the last two weeks or so, which is definitely part of the reason that our average FG% is about 7% less than before Indiana, but I would also agree with those who said we looked tired and flat today as well, so this week before Illinois could not come at a better time. Rest, regroup, work on the game.
It is also noteworthy that the FG% for our opponents is 7% greater since Indiana, as is opponent 3FG%. Tougher defenses seem to get us out of our offense, and we do struggle on defense allowing 0.935 points per possession, significantly less than some of the teams we just played. I think this moderates as this team builds experience, but it was disconcerting to watch a team with a statistically worse defense dictate the game to us for stretches.
I still think we do great in this next stretch, but we definitely need this break.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:18 PM ^
...should be front-paged ASAP.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:15 PM ^
...and I choose to blame the terrible acoustics of this new laptop. Apologies to the board on that one.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:32 PM ^
+5000000000 Cocktails, you're my new favorite poster. I love this blog but some of the board members make me want to shoot myself in the face.
February 17th, 2013 at 4:36 PM ^
...would you want to destroy a perfecetly good coconut by shooting it in its face?
February 17th, 2013 at 3:40 PM ^
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/schedule/_/id/130/year/2008/michigan-wolverines
Well it could be worse. We just won a game and some people are about to just give up on this team. The team had 1, SINGULAR, one game all year where they played a BAD game. My choice between getting mad or upset about a poor performance is to just remember how awesome this is compared to what not so long ago was the norm for Michigan Basketball. For those who wish to say thats a losers mentality. Well, I don't play on the team and if my feelings are somehow effecting how they play, then they should be undefeated.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:41 PM ^
Without those 2 things you can be beaten by almost anyone,if you can't see that this team is vulnerable then you are watching with rose colored glasses.I hope I'm wrong but I see at least 1 more reg season lose,probably 2,a loss in B1G tourney and another in NCAA that adds up roughly to a 26-8 record,pretty good for a young team but not what we've been hoping for.
I was pleased to see us play more zone and extending it to create turnovers & transition baskets.Also we drove more which got us to the line.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:54 PM ^
I think Morgan and McGary had about 4 rebounds and ZERO points along with 4 missed layups combined. wtf?
February 17th, 2013 at 3:59 PM ^
0 points....6 rebs....7 fouls....3 turnovers VS EFFING PENN ST @ HOME !!! We are very soft inside thus we have to play an uptempo type game.
February 17th, 2013 at 3:56 PM ^
On a side note, how is Amir Williams this bad for OSU?
February 17th, 2013 at 3:57 PM ^
About Morgan, Mcgary, and Horford's play today, a melmet loses its wings. SAVE THE MELMETS.
February 17th, 2013 at 4:09 PM ^