A Synopsis of Michigan Men's Basketball
So what are they all talking about? Michigan fans are all to well familiar with it. This is a synopsis:
Is the cause recruiting? Is Michigan basketball missing Franz Wagner, Jordan Poole, and others that have been drafted in the last 4 years, and recruiting has not replaced that talent? Or is the talent there, and it's the coaching? Other?
Do these two tweets sum up what many Michigan fans are feeling?
Whatever the case, what is clear is change has to happen. It's no fun to watch with a feeling that your team will be competitive.... until crunch moments come and the game is on the line.
I respect your calm, and in principle I agree with you. But people aren't objecting to us losing yesterday. It's the way we lost, in the last minute, which was so incredibly painful ... and yes somehow not nearly as surprising as it should have been.
Can Howard make TWill pass the ball and catch the ball? Dug make a better decision? Players were put in position to succeed and didn’t.
Eric Shapiro did a twitter thread about Michigan end of game plays under Howard. I’m trying to find it but he’s actually been pretty good and players have just missed shots. We got three great looks against UCLA and the players just missed them like Baker did against Illinois.
Howard is responsible for TWill being in that position if he can't pass and catch the ball. Baker can. Why TWill can't do that makes you wonder about coaching as well.
And you're suggesting getting 0-4 scoreless Baker an open look was good coaching?
I think getting one your best shooters a wide open look is a good play, yes.
If you think Baker is a better option to dribble through a press than TWill, then I can understand why you are confused by alot in basketball
you would think juwan would have at least one little shit PG on the bench that could dribble the ball when asked. hell, beilein had two in cj lee and david merritt when he came on board.
Right, so if you think getting Baker that shot was good coaching I can see why you think Juwan is great in late game situations despite being 1-13 in one score games. Pretty impressive.
Re: Baker vs. TWill, in fact I don't "think" it. I know it. I saw what happened when we relied on TWill. I've seen Baker take it to the hoop. Howard fucked up. Eso Akunne would have been a better option. Josh Bartlestein. Anyone.
Baker can only drive off closeouts. He’s not breaking anybody down. You’re clueless
March 19th, 2023 at 10:30 PM ^
Lol at breaking someone down = handle a press, which TWill can't do. Reed could probably do it but not TWill. You're forgetting it's not impossible to get Dug the ball as well via Hunter or well designed play. Maybe you watched MSU run one tonight.
Are they not his players? I don't get the it's the players' fault argument. It's his roster, his players, him developing them.
Scheme wise Howard is fine, I actually think pretty good, but in most other aspects of running a program I think he's been pretty bad.
The mistakes were very simple ones. Much like JB, Howard teams have had a low turnover rate. Which means they emphasize taking care of the ball. Don’t think Howard told TWill to dribble all the way up instead of passing to Baker wide open up the court. Don’t think he told him to drop a pass from HD right under the basket. Don’t think he told Dug to lob the ball OOB. Twill was in a position he shouldn’t have been since he’s not a guard. But our other options were walk ons.
You sound a little like Tom Izzo after a loss- I told my guys what to do, they just didn't execute it.
Great insight, Bacon all of what you said in a nutshell.
The team was missing a leader. It was essentially the 2017 team minus Derrick Walton Jr. Plenty of talent but no chemistry. No will to win.
Where will it come from? This year Kobe was the closest to filling the role but I think he came short when we needed it most. Perhaps Dug with another year under his belt.
Zach Shaw is a master at the stats. The record and numbers don't lie. My conclusion about Michigan Basketball these past two years is MEDIOCRATY, and that's just the 41-34 record.
It gets worse with the 1 possession scores and Quad 1 wins. The program has clearly taken several steps back. Juwan is on the hot seat. He has one more year, at most. It will be a very long off season and whatever news comes out of Crisler Center won't surprise me.
I also expect improvement next year, or else.
Wow I'm not sure if you just don't know the spelling, however you can't say advancing to a Sweet 16 back to back years is mediocrity. But I guess,"you" can try.
Or else what?
..and what is this hot seat you speak of? Sounds like a Freep article.
The fan reaction to how this team performed has been hot and negative. The or else only refers to more uproar but hey, we're only fans. Perhaps big donors will start chiming in with their pocket books. Maybe Warde and Juwan will come to an agreement that Juwan would be better off moving on if things do not change or turn around for the better next season.
That's my reference to a hot seat. Take what you will. IMO, Juwan should remain as HC for at least one more year, unless the wheels fall of the wagon next season. I tend to be optimistic. I am not for and am against firing Juwan.
I give the team credit for battling hard in most of the games this year and playing most teams close. But the only thing they seemed to excel at was finding ways to lose leads in the last 5 minutes of games. And yesterday's game was their Magnum Opus. It's almost impossible to lose a game with a 96.7% probablility of winning in the last minute or minute and a half. But they surprised everyone and pulled it off. The only reason that happens time after time is a losing mental mindset. They're scared to make mistakes and have no confidence. That's on the coaches when it keeps happening. Howard and staff need to get this train back on the tracks. If there's anyone in the program (players or staff) who aren't prepared to make big changes in their approach. they need to go.
Disagree about a change having to happen. Juwan has shown a lot of promise, especially for someone without head coaching experience. He utilized Beilein players nicely, developed a few, and brought in some good players via the xfer portal. Those who know better say his scheming has been pretty good.
He certainly has shortcomings. However, winning in college basketball is very hard, especially in the Big. A replacement may not fare as well as Juwan.
Some of his shortcomings may get fixed over time with more experience. His rotations may improve and his teams may become less turnover prone, especially in crucially moments. With Jett in the NBA, Juwan can focus on better rotations and building teams that win.
However, I don't think Juwan will ever become a coach whose teams excel in close games. Beilein knew how to keep games close and in close games he had clever tricks to enhance his teams' chances of winning. In his early years, Beilein won a lot of games he had no business winning. Coaches like Izzo and Beilein take their teams to a better level just when the pressure is greatest. A lot of that is instinct and cannot be learned IMO. Coaches like Juwan and Harbaugh do not have it.
Harbaugh has won the big ten, thrashed Ohio state and taken us to the playoffs in back to back years. Not sure what he has to do with this thread but he certainly is dominating more than any M football coach in the past 25 years.
JUWAN HAS WON THE BIG10 also.
I think Howard and his rotations will always be shit honestly. They've been shit for 4 years. He puts a lot of bad line ups out there for too long and he's been doing it. Beilein weirdly struggled with inbound plays, Howard doesn't know how to probably manage rotations. It's just a weird blind spot.
I didn't enjoy all aspects of the season but I did enjoy watching development of individual players, and the team.
I enjoyed Kobe - sadly, probably little chance he sticks around another season. And Dug & Terri's definitely improved.
But the team as a whole, their effort on D, their ridiculous ball security? Not an enjoyable watch!
If I’m Jett or Kobe I’m not going out like that. I would dedicate the off season to getting bigger, stronger, faster, and better. And coming back for a monster season.
I agree. I have heard the Jett is leaning toward coming back and Kobe toward the NBA. I still think Kobe would benefit from another year at M (or maybe because I really want him back and think it’ll be a huge loss if he doesn’t.)
27.6% of minutes played and 34.0% of scoring return from 2021-22 roster
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/michigan/men/2023.html
This season was always going to be a struggle breaking in that many new contributors. And then Llewellyn got hurt. And folks keep complaining about roster management as if it is within Coach Howard’s power to keep Frankie from transferring or Houstan and Diabate from leaving early. This season very well may be the floor, akin to Beilein’s 16-16 season.
Sports are one of the most presentist things we know.
Virtually everyone writing about sports acknowledges problems that happened before, especially players no longer available due to injury or transfer.
But then conversation continues as if none of that had happened. Yesterday's game might have had Jett and Kobe, and Houstan, Diabate, Collins, and Llewellyn.
Being unhappy is kind of a thing with some people. It’s what makes them happy. Go figure.
(nearly) even team in the country might have had players who left early or were hurt, in games that they lost.
There's no way Houstan and Diabate leaving shocked Howard. They were 5 stars from basketball factories who send multiple people in the NBA. They probably had no intentions of playing multiple years unless they really had to. I'm sure Howard discussed that with him during their recruitment and while they were on campus.
Frankie is the only one I'm sure surprised him.
Llewellyn was terrible before he got hurt. Since Collins played for 4 high schools in 4 years, I think his leaving was forseeable. The biggest concern might be though that the player who hustled the least, was the coaches NBA prospect son.
Barnes in portal. That’s one ship
Ship?
Ship that sailed?
Scholarship. Ship is slang for it
Whew. Thank you for the news.
I think there are a lot of similarities between good qb play in football and pg play in basketball.Think back to JB best teams he had great pg play from Trey,Derrick Jr and Zavier.Dug could be that guy in a few years.I would have thought Juwan would be better in close games given his NBA experience where a ton of games are one score games where possessions matter late.Why in the world did Dug dribble right into the half court trap with less than a minute to play?I guess because he is a freshman.If next season is like this season Juwan will probably find his way back to the NBA on his own accord.
THIS. Also no point guard in the history of basketball could do well averaging 39 minutes or close to as a freshman. If there was one, excuse my vernacular.
Maybe Juwan will have a Harbaugh 2021 type of revamp / soul searching to get back to basics and just win. Too many issues / holes to just point fingers at one person or thing.
Barnes to the portal
Writing was on the wall after he played like five minutes in the Purdue game, had like three air balls and then never saw the floor again.
Also, if Kobe leaves, will make that #1 recruiting class from two years ago a total bust for M.
It's already a total bust. One of the least impactful #1 recruiting classes ever. Only Kobe really turned into a consistently positive player.
Barnes to the portal??
Juwan too much daddy ball with jace, which meant no minutes for Barnes
You are CLUELESS. Jace's defensive numbers alone show and prove that Barnes himself busted.
They don't even play the same position.
I thought the upside of hiring Howard would be elite recruiting. I wasn't expecting Fab Five type classes each year but certainly better than what he has managed so far.
It was a given that he didn't have the coaching chops to jump right in at this level and have championship results. I bear him no ill will and want to see him succeed, whether that be here or elsewhere. But from a practical perspective, shouldn't we look to hire someone with more coaching experience if we're not going to bring in top-10 classes?
Maybe things improve if we replace Martelli and Saadi with new voices, but it's hard to accomplish much of anything in college basketball without savvy guard play.