Post-MSU Snowflake Thread
Get well soon Eli. This team has no depth without you.
Seems like teams have figured out the offense a bit especially since Illinois. Need some more creativity. Livers is MIA. Franz has been sloppy as of late.
Figure M has to be the 4th #1 at this point unless it gets farther in the BIG Tourney than Illinois.
I wish we benched the starters. The only thing worse than breaking the streak for Sparty would have been knowing it only came because Michigan treated the game as utterly meaningless.
In a way, the Michigan players kinda did do that. But in that case, just roll with Zeb, Brown, T-Will, Johns, and Davis.
Hoping Eli heals up quickly and is a go for the Big10 tourney.. lot of good film for Juwan to work with, sure seems like we were expecting to go through the motions and have sparty fold like the other night.
That kind of effort isn't going to take us very far in the tournament, hoping this is the wakeup call we need.
Post isolation is not only boring to watch, but also is death for us.
Can we just run offense? I guess not.
Fan snowflake disclaimers, but the set calls this game felt the worst of the year. So many sets ran to get post touches, but State did well not letting HD get deep post position.
State gave 0 minutes to Kithier this game, Izzo definitely saw our reliance on HD post touches. I'm just surprised we kept going to them so much in the 2nd half. Seemed like a good time to run some of the Go & Catch sets Hoop Vision highlighted or other plays to get the wings separation.
This has been the story all week. Insistence feeding the post, even when it’s not working. Not only is not effective, it’s bogging down the rest of the offense. Let’s see some movement again!
Can someone else start the snowflake thread other than the resident Eeyore.
Ayo says hello
Hello, Ayo. You play for a team that finished second in a loaded Big Ten. You should be very proud, son.
Ayo just lost to this same team like a week or two ago. He’d have nothing to say here.
Hey Ayo. Congrats on a nice season and finishing 2nd in the big ten
If you play your starters you need to win the game. So not only did Michigan lose, it’s another top win for MSU to make the tournament.
Sorry I’m not sugar coating this one.
For what it’s worth, most analysts had MSU as one of the last teams to make it in before today’s game anyway. They just needed to not get embarrassed.
How convenient that the Big Ten was able to get state into the tournament field.
The B1G didn’t play any part of this. We shot poorly most of the game, MSU made some tough shots, and we didn’t seem too interested in the game unfortunately. I like the unselfish style of play, but lately seems like Livers is passing up a lot of good looks that he should be taking. We need someone to step up in tourney time and be able to take over a game if necessary, and lately I don’t know that we have that person on the team...
If Brooks is not back by NCAAs, the ceiling of this team lowers drastically. The fact that two of three Michigan’s losses came without Brooks in the lineup and the offense falling apart without him are not a coincidence.
They’d still handle a 16 seed, but depending on who that 8-9 seed is that they get matched up with, things could get really dicey.
It's not just the ceiling, the floor is gone too. Carr and Watts destroyed us without Eli. Anytime those teams needed a bucket, they got it. Illinois was a nightmare match-up before this injury, now imagine Zeb trying to guard Ayo or Curbello
Losing one of the only two guards we have that's playable is a huge blow. Our lack of depth is a killer
I’m concerned but not necessarily worried moving forward. The health of Eli is of course a huge deal because the depth is just not there.
If they don’t make the Big Ten Tourney finals then I’ll definitely be a bit worried. It’s time for a mental regroup and just lock in on the mentality of one and done moving forward. In an ideal world, I’d obviously prefer to be playing better basketball right now but this isn’t the end of the world.
If Brooks can’t play, I would be happy to see them get to the semis next week.
It sucks but the glue of our team Eli went out early and they made a ton a well contested long jumpers.
Got outhustled the first 30 mins.
Missed 1 and 1's didn't help.
They had their A game and we came in with our C- game.
Bittersweet ending to the B1G season....winning the conference but losing 2 or 3 to the basketball programs I hate most.
Get Brooks back and it's all good. That's what matters.
Get well Eli. The Cube is a loser and the blog would be a better place without you. Big Ten officiating has screwed the conference. There is a reason the conference hasn’t won a title in 20 years.
What's it like being my groupie? lol
You really are an awful poster. One of the worst on the blog.
Yawn.
I would love to know how Big Ten officials have prevented the conference from winning a title. The Big Ten is 0-7 in NC games since MSU won in 2000. It’s not as if the conference hasn’t been good enough. It’s just miraculously fallen one game short over and over in the crapshoot known as March Madness. Five different programs have played for a NC in that time span, more than any other conference. Bad luck is bad luck.
Bad luck? They ran up against superior firepower in many of those games:
- 2002: Maryland > Indiana (12-point loss)
- 2005: UNC > Illinois (All five Illinois guys at least had a cup of coffee in the NBA, but only one of them -- Deron Williams -- made an impact.)
- 2009: UNC >> MSU (That was an ugly game.)
- 2015: Duke >> Wisconsin
- 2018: Villanova >> Michigan
I thought OSU was in the same ballpark as Florida for talent, but they were young in 2007. Same for Michigan in 2013.
My snowflake post: This team feels somewhat like the 2018-19 team Heading into the closing of the season.
A loss in the B1G Tourney Championship game and a Sweet 16 exit.
I could see something similar but this team has more potential with a healthy Eli.
Feels more like 2012-2013 to me. That year we got smoked by (an actually good) MSU team in Breslin (the equivalent of this year's Illinois game), then sleptwalked against bottom feeder Penn State (the equivalent of today's game).
Tough to get up for every game and let's face it, this one was meaningless. Nothing to gain.
Franz didnt show up until less than 5 minutes to go, Hunter made a ton of unforced errors early. The Illinois game has me much more worried than this one.
Here's to a healthy Eli and a hungry Michigan basketball team the rest of the way. B 10 Champs with a big chance at the Big Dance.
That was gross. Oh well, hope we pick it back up soon.
This team looks closer to what we thought they might be before the season, than what we hoped they had become a couple of weeks ago.
Was a tough tough game. Really stinks that we missed an opportunity to probably end Izzo’s tourney streak.
I don’t want to see them on Friday.
Was a tough tough game. Really stinks that we missed an opportunity to probably end Izzo’s tourney streak.
I don’t want to see them on Friday.
Wieskamp and Brooks both possibly done for 2021 in meaningless games. I'm not saying anything should've been different but goddammit it's very frustrating (as a fan...can't fathom what the players are feeling now).
You don't like to lose these games but if Eli ultimately comes back then I don't really care. MSU hit a bunch of midrange jumpers and some desperation 3s. It happens. But as I've heard numerous times from every other fanbase, teams have played a lot of games these past couple of weeks and UM is no different. MSU played better and then closed it out, but I think this team looks a lot different in a week when they play again.
UM won a banner and are the #1 seed in the BTT. I think the Illinois loss exposes some UM flaws; this was more a bad luck game that doesn't mean a ton in the long term unless UM runs into a team that can hit a ton of tough shots and UM loses their starting guard 3 minutes in.
I agree msu hit some tough midrange shots, but the vast majority of their threes were pathetically wide open. A two point game with under a minute left, and nobody is within 10 feet of a 5 star shooter. That's a collapse, not luck
Don’t think we should’ve played zone down 2. I’d just rather play it straight up.
I wouldn't have been in zone on that possession. Part of the problem is MSU isn't great at shooting 3s so I can see why you'd try to force them into one but you gotta cover guys.
That said, I thought the defense overall was solid and going 4/11 from 3 is about what I expected msu to do.
That was all Franz’s fault. He stayed locked on Hall in corner instead of on flight of ball coming to Langford to give Brown time to recover.
Exactly. The Illinois game was worrisome, because it does seem like teams with athletic wings, quick guards, AND a massive big with mobility can cause problems. Drew Timme isn't massive but he's a very good defender and Gonzaga could pose similar problems to Illinois. So that's what worries me.
This game? Didn't look like MIchigan had much interest and MSU was hitting ridiculous shots. Doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things.
Losing here sucks mostly because it's only the third one this year. After the Wisconsin, OSU, and Iowa games it felt like we were just going to blow everyone out for the rest of the year.
Sit with it for a day, shake it off, and look forward to the Big Ten tournament. Hopefully Eli's year didn't end today, I feel bad for that kid.
Need to pause on pay Juwan all the money. Team is limping to the end of the season. This wasn’t a meaningless game and Michigan crapped the bed on national TV. If Brooks is hurt they won’t make it out of the first weekend of the tournament. If they play MSU again and Brooks can’t play they aren’t winning. Season can turn from being a success to a colossal failure very quickly.
A season with a Big Ten Title could turn into a “colossal failure” very quickly? What are you smoking?
Big ten regular season and the post season are separate things. Nobody remembers a regular season title if you don't do shit in the tournament. Every Michigan fan makes fun of the msu teams who lost to Syracuse and MTSU in the tournament, but both of those teams won big ten titles. Getting a banner is nice, but it's hollow if you don't take advantage of a 1 seed in the tournament
Lack of effort for 34 minutes and couldn’t pull it off in the end.
What is it with trash players taking garbage mid range shots on us and it working?
This team is starting to stand around too much. Lackadaisical cuts, not using the screen efficiently, and no attempt to drive to the basket. This is not going to bode well in the tournament. They need to play with more intensity or they will be playing video games in two weeks.
wagner came up lame on the last play of the game too.
Yes he did but then you remember it’s Franz and him and Livers love to act like they are dead