Shitty ass endings to both major sports negbang
March 29th, 2019 at 12:26 AM ^
A lot of those questions are justified. But “why don’t the bench players develop?” seems unfair. We’ve seen that happen in past years with McGary, DJ Wilson, and this year even Brooks seems to have come on late. In addition, guys that were bench players have stepped into starting roles pretty well like Teske.
I don’t feel like development is a bummer at Michigan.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:41 AM ^
Yeah, wtf, Beilein is only considered the best in the country at developing players.
I agree with the observation that bench players develop. Year over year. I was talking about improvement during the season. If the bench really developed during a season then the rotation would have expanded from the 7-8 to whoever many can contribute. Often times, Michigan's starting five and also the second string looked lost, slow and static on the floor. The crispness, the urgency didn't come out. For the second stringer lack of game exposure is to be blamed for that. If the bench players aren't showing enough development, then they won't get many minutes in spite of starters getting into foul trouble. That would lead to less game exposure and may be less development as well.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:16 AM ^
Observation 1: It's all about match-ups....just not our type of game. Texas Tech is one of the best coached programs - they were light years ahead of us in drawing up plays/counters - their thinking was 3D and creative.
Observation 2: This was HANDS DOWN, Beilein's best coaching job at UM - we had glaring weaknesses - no pure shooters, very little adaptability, no depth, no high-level "take over the game" type. I have so much respect for JB because he does more with less.
Observation 3: Everyone SHOULD return - if CM wants to make money overseas then no argument but the others are nowhere near pro-ready.
GREAT SEASON - very proud of this group - GO BLUE!
March 29th, 2019 at 12:18 AM ^
These guys will be forced to return? Who is a pro player? Iggy?
March 29th, 2019 at 12:26 AM ^
Dude... Beilein recruited these guys who can't shoot.
Idk how much better Z will get at shooting. That means that Iggy and Poole have to make a Stauskas-like jump next year.
Hopefully Johns and Castleton also make the jump and become reliable 4-5 combo.
Still need more shooting on top of that. Nunez, Brooks or one of the incoming freshman will have to be clutch.
I would also love for Teske to realize that he's a 7 footer and develop a post game.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:34 AM ^
I understand - you recruit kids thinking development and long term - ZS is what he is but it's all about the system so you cannot marginalize the fact we won the B1G and went to the title game WITH him as our PG last year. I totally agree our liability is shooting and it does not help that we do not have a PG who can take/make the "tree of shots" like elite level PG's but I trust JB to sort through it - more depth next year will help but IMO, JP needs to mature his game for us to turn the corner.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:56 AM ^
Last year ZS was surrounded by 3-4 good to very good offensive players last year. In that role, he and the team can function at a high level. But when he has to be a focal part of the offense, things tend to fall apart against the elite teams in the country. I thought he defense regressed this year too--he dominated everyone last year. This year, the effects of expending all that energy on offense hurt his D too.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:36 AM ^
Why would Teske develop a post game, is he transferring?
You didn't mention Livers, who has a good stroke.
If Poole, Iggy and Livers all (or at least 2 of them) make modest improvements, and some combination of Johns/Castleton/Brooks/DDJ improve like Teske and Livers did this year, Michigan is gonna be really fucking good next year.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:35 AM ^
JB’s the best basketball coach Michigan has ever had. But I think this is one of his worst seasons coaching-wise. If he really is leaving the defense to the assistants, then he’s soley responsible for a pretty mediocre unit. After all the previous success, I thought we’d be much better on that side of the ball. The defense was tremdous, way beyond any reasonable expectation.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:35 AM ^
Thought this was his worst coaching job. His X and O's on offense took a nosedive this year. He has no idea how to initiate offense if it's not coming from the perimeter. He was a huge liability in the biggest games of the year. Thank god for Yaklich and the defense.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:44 AM ^
He got people wide open shots all season long, they just missed them. And then you have Charles refusing to take it to the rim in favor of fade away jumpers he shoots like 20% at all season long. And then you have Poole who can't figure out what's a good shot and what's a bad shot. Then you have a tiny point guard who can't shoot that defenses can cheat off of. Beilein was fine, we just had shitty offensive players, and yet he turned them into the #18 offense in the country, and if both teams played as expected we woulda won this game. Sample size of 1, sometimes you just get beat.
The further the season goes, the tough games turn into who can shot create and/or shot make. Our personnel doesn’t offer either and JB knew this which is why he used and overused the pick and roll. To me - JP is the key - he’s the only one who has a mechanically fluid jumpshot and at the same time can put the ball on the floor - but he’s way too erratic and goes invisible for long stretches which tells me he lacks confidence and doesn’t want the ball.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:17 AM ^
Without the basketball team we'd have nothing over the last 17 years but Harbaugh quotes.
I cant hate them, they've given us the only joy in being a Michigan fan in a long time
March 29th, 2019 at 12:17 AM ^
62-39 in football
63-44 in basketball.
We lost to teams who wear the color red.
Our vaunted defenses both got carved up.
And the players who we needed to step up disappeared.
Tough loss, and as much as we want to (and can) win every game, we won't them all.
A temporary setback to what I believe is still a great future.
We'll be back.
Go Blue.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:17 AM ^
What did we all do to deserve this?
March 29th, 2019 at 12:17 AM ^
Michigan could not buy an open shot...
really highlighted the issue that there was just no one they could go to...during the season, someone always managed to pick up the slack, but today was a black hole...
sad way to see Matthews go out though... a loss wasn't necessarily a surprise; how they lost was though.
Iggy should come back as i don't think he showed that well in the big games, but we'll see i guess.
it was a very good year...though i understand why no one thinks that after tonight
March 29th, 2019 at 12:27 AM ^
Iggy is in no way ready for the pros. Not in the least.
He had a couple of good games in November when nobody knew who he was and there was no game plan against him.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:18 AM ^
The issue with this team starts at the guards. Simpson, Poole, and Brooks are all too inconsistent. We need ddj to improve a lot and shoot like he did in high school. Hopefully we offer a shooting guard in the 2019 class.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:19 AM ^
I just feel like if you were actually rationale about this basketball team you could see this result from miles away.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:27 AM ^
I give you props. You saw it coming.
I had the blinders that Michigan football fans always have with Harbaugh
The crazy part is how Michigan just DISMANTLED Villanova, UNC, Purdue, etc.
I’ll admit, those games had me thinking that perhaps my expectations were too low coming into the season. At the end of the day, the team started the year ranked somewhere around 20th if I remember right. I think it’s fair to say we exceeded expectations all around by beating some really good teams by wide margins and made it to the Sweet Sixteen. Just a disappointing way to end the season.
What sucks most is knowing that we have to wait until September for football to start. That’s a long time without televised Michigan athletics.
This was an unusual season and team. Capable of fantastic performances and horrible clunkers.
Michigan looked like the best team in the country at times (NC, 'nova, Purdue, even Maryland and pretty much every first half against MSU), yet also looked absolutely horrible at other times - we all know those.
Badly inconsistent shooting is a big part of it - all our guys seemed to feed off each other, and suffered team-wide shooting/offensive slumps.
We lost only 7 games all year, but boy we looked bad at times.
Hopefully next year the shooting and overall offense will be more consistent.
top and nasty defense against a meh offensive team. No pure shooters on this team and you need 1 to play with teams like this. More like 2....makes you appreciate those scorers we had last year.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:19 AM ^
Also, this is remarkably positive for a neg-bang lol
March 29th, 2019 at 12:57 AM ^
I think deep inside we all know that we were lucky to get this far. This is a team with a lot of holes that papered over them with defense tenaciousness.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:20 AM ^
Over hype and underperforming is normally a Michigan football thing.
This is new territory for basketball. Best defensive team they played all year and a pure 3 point shooter was really missed. Hopefully someone can emerge next year that can shoot when the team is in the slumps. Basketball will be back next year, can’t wait. Hopefully this puts a chip on their shoulder.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:28 AM ^
Isn’t it crazy that a D-3 transfer was the guy we missed sometimes at most this year?
March 29th, 2019 at 12:36 AM ^
I would argue we missed Abdur-Rackman the most, Wagner second, Duncan third.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:51 AM ^
Yep, the drop off at SG was steep.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:52 AM ^
Which is why I would argue this team really overachieved this year.
This is not a team with a lot of horsepower. The defense masked a lot of weaknesses.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:35 AM ^
Except we lost all of our offense and won 30 games+ sweet 16 appearance. No comparison to football. Football does nothing and wins nothing.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:39 AM ^
Dude it college basketball, every team loses major chunks of their team every year. Maybe if he recruited a class who did more than sit on the bench this year outside of Iggy we wouldn't have this problem.
Sigh...
March 29th, 2019 at 12:20 AM ^
As they say in soccer, fair result.
The Sweet Sixteen was a remarkable ceiling really, for a team that struggled all season long with long scoring lapses and had no real shooters on the team.
It's BASKETball. At some point you have to do more than run around on defense. You have to be able to put the ball in the basket.
This team can't shoot well enough and consistently enough to be a Final Four team. That's perfectly fair.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:22 AM ^
Muppets?
March 29th, 2019 at 12:22 AM ^
I was disappointed because that was embarrassing, but when Simpson is the only guy who can create for others and your best scorers have tunnel vision, this defense was always going to be trouble.
I also totally reject the notion that TT's opponent 3PT% is luck. Even the open threes are rushed because of the pressure they put on you defensively. Michigan was exposed as a poseur when it comes to toughness and defense by comparison. I dreaded this match-up from the tape I saw. I actually think Tech will win it all or come close, and I think they beat Gonzaga relatively comfortably. All that means is that they will lose next.
Fuck expectations and not meeting them and also all the trolls who will feel free to finish any remaining enthusiasm on this blog with their terrible hot takes.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:25 AM ^
I also totally reject the notion that TT's opponent 3PT% is luck.
You are absolutely correct. TT's defense gave our already fragile offense the yips.
Even when they had open shots they were nervous, tentative shooters.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:37 AM ^
It felt like they almost had the yips before we tipped off. We got open looks early. Even something as simple as corralling a rebound seemed slippery/twitchy.
I agree with this, Dubliner - Michigan looked really tight and uncomfortable right from the start.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:23 AM ^
Someone needs to open up the check book and get Franz Wagner over here. How in the hell did Beilein end up with a team full of guys that can’t shoot?
March 29th, 2019 at 12:27 AM ^
Burkhardt told me on Twitter that's what Beilein has been doing for 40 years. Where the hell are they then?
March 29th, 2019 at 12:24 AM ^
Outplayed, Out hustled, Out coached.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:25 AM ^
2 years ago we lost to 3 seed by 2 points on a 3 that was a tad short.
This year, this happened. Yaklich is the best defensive coach in America. We need to go all in on offensive recruits; ones who can shoot. Without either a scoring, alpha PG or a stretch big, we will not be successful. We didn’t have either this year, plus we didn’t have wings who could knock down 3s. This team was about as talented as the 2014-15 team so it’s incredible we won 30 games. We need a hell of a lot of improvement with the guys we got to be better next year
March 29th, 2019 at 12:35 AM ^
Don't necessarily need those a scoring PG or a stretch big if we have literally anyone who can shoot. Most streaky team offensively I can remember.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:42 AM ^
Not many real streaks even. More like average offense for a bit, and then no offense for a long stretch.
March 29th, 2019 at 12:48 AM ^
We need a one and done type talent. You can see what a difference guys like Culver make when surrounded by supporting players. The basketball program has been pretty good for a while now, but we still don’t touch that kind of talent. We can develop it, but we can’t recruit it. know, I know, crootin and $$$ and we aren’t dirty and all that, but that’s the difference between top programs and Michigan right now.
This season exceeded expectations, but no titles or banners or wins over MSU make it hard for me to wax poetic over it.
Pretty good? 2 NCAA Championship games in 7 years, including LAST year. 3 Sweet 16's in a row. 2 B1G tournament championships in 3 years. Consecutive 30 win seasons.
This is the best run of high quality basketball and excellent tournament runs we've had in at least a generation - maybe ever.
Yeah, this season did not end like we would have liked, but it's ridiculous to say the basketball program has been anything other than very successful.
"Not a top program right now" - that's just dumb.