Thanks to Michigan Basketball. Next year, "It's time for us to eat."
Now that I've stopped grinding my teeth (and cursing up a storm) in frustration during the entire game against Ohio University, and now that I've accepted the loss to that solid team (led by an outstanding performance by DJ Cooper); I realize that despite the upset tonight, Michigan was a great team in 2011 -- 2012. Looking on as a dedicated basketball fan, I believe Michigan overachieved when it captured a share of the Big Ten championship for the season. In retrospect, it looks like that overachievement also led to the team losing some of its hunger--some of its edge.
Now, I'm not suggesting the team didn't prepare enough for the post-season tournaments. I just think the mentality of the team changed the moment it won a share of the title. Before that moment, Michigan (like the previous season and even like the season Beilein first took Michigan to the NCAA tournament) was out to prove people (the naysayers and doubters) wrong. It often acted like its back was to the wall. That mentality is how it beat MSU and Ohio at home and also went on the road and won at Illinois and at PSU. Winning the big ten title, however, validated Michigan's great season, and Michigan never seemed like it could thereafter adjust its mental approach (from that of an underdog to that of a champion) to play well going forward.
You may remember that the team came out flat against Minnesota. Michigan still won because the gap between Michigan and the Gophers is apparent. I think the gap is less apparent against Ohio University and inapplicable relative to Ohio. Michigan was hungry when it won out after losing to Purdue; and, if it had that same edge tonight, I think we would have advanced to Sunday. Instead, Michigan now has the off-season to learn how to play as a favorite, as a front runner.
And who knows? Perhaps Beilein also isn't used to being the favorite. It's possible. Ultimately though, I have no doubt that Michigan will perform better in the tournaments next year.
Despite the disappointment of tonight's game, I gotta give it up for the seniors and the rest of the team. The team was undersized the entire season and still earned a championship in the best conference. Would advancing to the second weekend--the sweet 16--been a notable improvement over last season's finish? Yes, without question.
Was winning a big ten title this season a notable improvement over last season's 9-9 finish in the conference? Yes, without question. Would I trade the championship for a sweet 16 finish? No, without question; absolutely not. Next year, I want the championship and the sweet 16 (at least!).
So, anyway, thanks, Michigan, for a great season. For basketball, I see a bright future with a team hungrier in 2012 -- 2013 than it was when it finished 2012 -- 2013. As Denard once said: "This program's been starving for a while. It's time for us to make something happen. We've been starving. It's time for us to eat."
GO BLUE.
March 16th, 2012 at 11:00 PM ^
I put this in another thread but it's probably more appropriate here:
Being small with little depth finally caught up with us, starting with the OSU game. This was a tough night but sometimes you lose and it sucks. Missed a few layups and just came up short against a team on fire. It happens.
Smotrych actually came up big, and so did Burke IMO - you can't make every 3-point shot and he made some big ones. We were a little small and a little slow in some spots - it was a struggle all night. Next year it will be a different story.
A few years ago we were dying just to get in, now we are crushed to lose. Expectations are higher than they have been in a long time.
March 16th, 2012 at 11:01 PM ^
sorry but the seniors got us here but they're the reason that we're done. We desparately need an upgrade in atheleticism
March 16th, 2012 at 11:03 PM ^
...and it shall come!
Three athletic players coming soon!
March 16th, 2012 at 11:05 PM ^
but you're right. They did not play well down the stretch (but not because they were lacking in effort). and when two/three of your guys on the floor are not playing well, there's no way you are going to win games.
I'm happy that we won the big ten championship. But I feel totally unsatisfied in how this season ended. Reminds me of the way I felt after the 2006 football season.
Go blue, and the sun will rise tomorrow.
March 16th, 2012 at 11:14 PM ^
exactly. thank god Mizzou and Dook lost otherwise we would be the upset focus
March 17th, 2012 at 12:21 AM ^
So apparently this was no upset.
Unfortunately, our misery will continue until our bros in East Lansing lose. I'm happy I've already sworn off Detroit print and radio media.
Besides Sam and Angelique, does Detroit still have print media?
March 16th, 2012 at 11:19 PM ^
March 16th, 2012 at 11:23 PM ^
Glick, how can next year be a renaissance for M sports? 10-2 football season with a sugar bowl win and a conference title in basketball.
March 16th, 2012 at 11:23 PM ^
Relative to last year, this year was a renaissance. 11-2 BCS win. Share of B10 Title.
Next year? Denard-fest!
March 16th, 2012 at 11:02 PM ^
So it goes.
March 16th, 2012 at 11:07 PM ^
Michigan had shots to win and didn't sink them. A team like ours can be very dangerous when the shots are falling, and lifeless when they are not. We simply don't have much alternative.
March 16th, 2012 at 11:49 PM ^
turrible
March 17th, 2012 at 12:50 AM ^
March 16th, 2012 at 11:04 PM ^
Was that we lost to OHIO!! Holy shit balls, does anyone not see that! Stop giving a MAC team credit. Who gives a shit about DJ 'whats his name' Cooper. We have Burke?!
That saddest part is, it was OHIO!! At this very moment in time Hoke must STOP using 'Ohio' to reference osu. Dead. Done. No more. The bball team killed it. It's absolutley disrespectful to use that term now that we are their bithces. Ohio was used as a slight rib, not any more! It would be hypocritical at this point. Almost complimenting osu to call them 'Ohio'.
Mother of god why couldn't it have been F'ckn Hawaii State Tech College?!
It couldn't have been a WORSE loss than to OHIO.
Ugghhhhhh....
March 16th, 2012 at 11:14 PM ^
i wish i had enough points to neg u
March 16th, 2012 at 11:15 PM ^
Relax?
March 16th, 2012 at 11:22 PM ^
Shut. Up.
Quite Stupid.
March 16th, 2012 at 11:05 PM ^
Hopefully we let this loss simmer and come out firing next year
March 16th, 2012 at 11:05 PM ^
Hopefully this will fuel the team's work ethic over the summer, and they'll come back stronger next year... and, of course, with the recruits we've got coming in...
It's a sad way for the seniors to go out, but a good learning experience for the youngsters. 2012: It's time to eat!
March 16th, 2012 at 11:17 PM ^
March 16th, 2012 at 11:21 PM ^
Quemar los barcos, mofos!
McGary, GRIII, Horford back will bring must-needed frontcourt presence.
Thanks for a B1G title., bring home bigger and better things in 2013!
March 16th, 2012 at 11:26 PM ^
March 16th, 2012 at 11:45 PM ^
March 16th, 2012 at 11:51 PM ^
You have a 6'4: guy playing a 4 against 6'8' guys, I love the heart Novak and Dougla demonstrated; but havingMorgan at 5, McGary at a 4, GR3 at a 3, THJ at a 2, Burke at point will be insane!
March 17th, 2012 at 12:12 AM ^
March 16th, 2012 at 11:51 PM ^
Ben Cronin and Jon Horford were/are true 5's, but unfortunately both got injured.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:07 AM ^
My critcism for Beilein today is not using enough zone. We just didn't have anyone that could guard Cooper and Ohio wasn't considered a good three point shooting team. I would have liked that adjustment. Up until the last few minutes, the lack of defense was what did us in.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:10 AM ^
I don't think a zone would have been effective against Cooper who was launching them NBA Jam style from the parking lot.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:37 AM ^
March 17th, 2012 at 12:09 AM ^
DMo progressed under Beilein. Novak and Douglass became better under him.
Vogrich is a role player, Hardaway was a headcase, and Morgan has no game outside of 5 feet. They'll be improved next year but probably not a lot. Some of those guys are probably near their ceilings. By most accounts Smotz had progressed real nicely during the offseason, but he became a headcase too. For the first half of the year he looked like Beilein really coached him up.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:28 AM ^
THJ started to turn things around late in the season when his confidence in his shot came back.
Smotrycz showed his improvement until he wore down in the conference season.
I would like to see more from Vogrich, but he was still a sophomore. Hopefully he becomes a late bloomer and doesn't get lost in the shuffle next year.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:37 AM ^
Vogrich was a junior this year.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:53 AM ^
Crap, well I hope he's a really late bloomer next year.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:13 AM ^
People are overthinking this stuff. On Senior Day, with the Big Ten title potentially hanging in the balance, we laid an egg. A week later, we struggled to hold on against a last-place PSU team. We had ugly overtime wins over Northwestern and Minnesota thrown in there as well.
Truthfully, this team hasn't played that well since it won at home against OSU, back on February 18. I don't think there's any complicated psychological explanation. I think it's simply that we played a six-man rotation extremely heavy minutes all year and by late February/March, some of the guys were leg-weary. A star like Burke might have enough talent to fight through the fatigue and come up with a gem of a performance now and then (like his 30 points against Minnesota), but for guys like Novak and Douglass, if they don't have the energy to give their usual crazy-intense effort, a lot of their value to the team is lost.
If a bunch of 18-20 year olds are that worn down, then they need to hit the weight room because that didn't seem to bother all these other B10 teams in the NCAAs or NITs. This looked like the same team that scraped by conference teams in January and crappy non-conference foes. Burke covered up a lot of this team's deficiencies with his penetration and kick outs to wide open guys on the perimeter.
The MSU and OSU teams that played the last two Sundays played a brand of basketball that this team was not capable of playing. They're not talented or big enough for that. Give them credit for spunk, but the reality is that teams figured them out the second time around in conference and next year they should have a full complement of dynamic playmakers with size so they don't have to live/die by the drive and dish game of Burke.
As a side note, this last stretch of games should make it apparent that we to develop a good point guard to give Burke a break for 7-10 minutes a game.
How many of those other teams have a six-man rotation? How many of them play a 6'4" power forward 35 minutes a game, and ask a freshman point guard to routinely go the full 40 and be the sole ballhandler all that time? We scraped by all season with a thinner bench than just about every other tournament team, and it started to catch up to us late in the season.
If you think this looked just like the Michigan team that played in January, you couldn't have been paying close attention because we played much better defense back then, and continued through the home OSU game. At that point we had one of the top 50 defensive PPP in the country, which was remarkable for such an undersized team.
Over the last month that changed. Our rotations arrived more slowly. The difference between a good defensive team and a mediocre one can just be an extra half-second on rotations. All of a sudden we didn't draw the 4-5 charges a game that we were earlier, and guys were suddenly getting wide-open threes. The gameplan to beat our defense really hasn't changed all year; we just played worse D.
March 17th, 2012 at 10:21 AM ^
yes, losing a mental edge or hunger is so very very complicated
/s
/facepalm
You're tired-legs-fatigue theory is a complicated physical explanation. You should stop overthinking this stuff.
Which is more likely?
That this team, which (sans Burke) came within an eyelash of the Sweet 16 a year ago and had fantastic senior leadership, suddenly became self-satisfied after sharing the Big Ten title (even though some of the same problems were creeping in beforehand)?
or
That this team continued to play its heart out but became increasingly worn down physically from the grind of logging too many minutes?
There is no way of knowing what was going through the players' minds, but given how we saw them perform last year and this, I would not choose answer #1.
March 17th, 2012 at 12:19 AM ^
Great season! Thank you Zack and Stu!
March 17th, 2012 at 12:34 AM ^
Go Blue!
March 17th, 2012 at 12:45 AM ^
March 17th, 2012 at 12:50 AM ^
We are getting big men, but let's hope Beilein changes his system a little bit. I wouldn't call Morgan a focus of ours on offense, and Smotcryz doesn't have the body control to be consistent down low. McGary and Robinson are legit, dominate on the block players. I hope JB doesn't turn them into finesse settle for the outside shot guys.
You can't blame any single thing on the loss today. Ohio wanted it more. Burke makes that shot most of the time, just didn't fall. I would have liked a a better play designed out of the time out a la the Smot three to force OT against Minnesota in the BTT - but whatever.
If Burke returns, they'll be improved next year. The team can only go up from here
Good luck next season
March 17th, 2012 at 10:57 AM ^
Overrated novak and douglass played poor
heart only wins so much
mcgary and big dog III and stausikas gonna be a much needed upgrade
I hate to say this, but Michigan was outcoached, outhustled and nowhere near the energy that the other school had...
on a good note,,duke lost !
McGary won't do much unless Beilein can utilize his big men more effectively.