UCLA Snowflakes
March 31st, 2021 at 12:16 AM ^
Since Burke and caris, Michigan has struggled when the offense can’t get going because they don’t have a guy who can just go get a bucket when it’s needed. Unfortunately really could have used one of those guys tonight.
honestly couldn’t have asked for a better look than the mike smith 3 and I feel really bad for the kid.
re-group and come back stronger next year I guess.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:19 AM ^
We need a go-to wing that can make his own shot at will. Unfortunately, those don't grow on trees and the guy that could've been that dude is sunbathing in Tempe.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:11 AM ^
Bingo.
Michigan had a lot of good players, but they have no one who can get their own shot regularly.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:16 AM ^
It honestly felt like UM game planned the whole time Fla State to get past them. Blew their wad on Sunday.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:17 AM ^
Why are we drawing up the last 3-pointer for the guy who just airballed a wide open 3-pointer, instead of for the guy who’s actually made a few 3s in the game?
March 31st, 2021 at 12:17 AM ^
I've never really questioned Juwan's coaching much but his game ending plays continue to puzzle me. Our game ending play against OSU in the B1G tourney was a step back 3, while down 2. Tonight, we had 3 potential game winning shots while down 2, and he gives 2 of those shots to Franz, who finished 1-10 on the night and has shot 2-10 from 3 in the tourney, and Mike Smith, who finished 1-7 on the night. All 3 pointers while down 2. I just don't get it. Chaundee Brown was reliable the whole game and has been the whole tourney and Juwan benched him...
We are the better team, but we beat ourselves tonight and could not execute offensively
March 31st, 2021 at 12:18 AM ^
Totally agree. Chaundee was the only one making 3s. He should have been involved
March 31st, 2021 at 12:23 AM ^
He is still learning but his coaching in close games is horrible. He is smart though and should travel to Duke, sit down with the GOAT in Coach K and learn to coach the close ones
March 31st, 2021 at 12:29 AM ^
That's exactly what I was asking. Franz had barely grazed the front rim on a three, and then completely airballed a three, yet he was still on the court and was the option for the game winning 3. I wouldn't even have had Franz on the court. He was THAT bad tonight.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:41 AM ^
I mean, we missed our last 8 shots. 5-6 were layups and everyone missed one. 2 were open 3s. Just a total clunker
March 31st, 2021 at 12:17 AM ^
Juzang with 28/51 points... basically 1 player beat the team
March 31st, 2021 at 12:25 AM ^
The backbreaker was Bernards only two buckets including an oreb and a late shot prayer bank.
Literally gave UCLA no good looks last 5 minutes but they hit the trash/grit shots we couldn't.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:47 AM ^
That's the NCAA tournament in a nutshell for most teams. Shit comes up to bite you that you don't expect. On the other hand, we had ZERO perimeter game. I don't understand why we didn't take more shots. Perhaps they would start to fall and we could gain some momentum then start feeding down low again. We fell out of rhythm about mid way through the first half and never regained it. Hunter wasn't consistent enough. I won't kick the dead horse that is Franz. And free throw shooting was abysmal.
I was worried about this game all week. Fear the scrappy underdog.
Oh well...onward.
smith didn't box him out either after he missed his shot. got his own rebound.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:17 AM ^
Anything said right now is gonna seem like piling on and I’m gonna do my best not to. It was a really good season. Unfortunately we had to lose Livers late in the season. We lost the game at the fucking free throw line plain and simple. Wagner absolutely disappeared on the biggest stage, not the last second shot but all game long and especially a wide open air ball. I don’t know how the fuck we didn’t learn to not let Mike Smith take the most important shot of the game?
March 31st, 2021 at 12:24 AM ^
I would say we exceeded expectations given that we were without Livers.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:18 AM ^
after watching Ucla's last couple games, felt like we matched up very well 1-7, almost an advantage everywhere (besides juzak?) , and finally after the last few games a break from big combo guards who could get to rim at will against our 5-10/6-1 backcourt. not sure i've ever seen such an obvious mental / cerebral breakdown of virtually an entire team at this level...clanged free throws, blown layups , passing up open shots, you could feel the moment overwhelming everyone but johns jr and brown. guys on the FT line loooked scared. i guess they're just kids. what a disappointment, having this matchup should have been so good for us
also yeah anther f'ing career night from a 2guard against us - juzak in the annals of hancock and devincenzo now, never to be heard from again...
March 31st, 2021 at 12:44 AM ^
I was nervous we looked at 11 UCLA and thought this will be easy!? And that's how they played!
March 31st, 2021 at 12:18 AM ^
I am bitterly disappointed.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:18 AM ^
Yes, Wagner leaves because he's a mid-first round pick. Don't try and make him out to be a bad guy for leaving after a bad game in his last game in a Michigan uniform. It happens.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:22 AM ^
He should leave. He's probably a mid first rounder. But that doesn't change that I think this was definitely a Chris Webber timeout moment for him
March 31st, 2021 at 12:30 AM ^
He didn't play well; no doubt about it.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:25 AM ^
I don't think anyone would hate him for leaving, if he thinks he's ready go for it. But it's pretty apparent he isn't ready.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:36 AM ^
Most of the guys taken in the NBA draft aren't "ready." NBA teams draft players based on their evaluation of whether a player has the talent to be a productive NBA players after further development. Franz does. He will never be an NBA team's go-to scorer, but, if he continues to develop, can be a stat sheet stuffing wing player who will get you points, boards, assists, steals, and blocks on a regular basis. There's not that many guys who can do that.
Tell me more about these "points" on a "regular basis"... I very much agree on the other points and he can influence a game in many other ways, but it seems there is a pretty high variability in how many points he's going to put up.
That's true; his scoring is variable. "On a regular basis" isn't necessarily the same thing as consistent. My point is that he is by no means an elite scorer, but he does a lot of things pretty darn well, including scoring. With continued maturity and coaching, he can improve his consistency also.
He can also guard 3 positions in the NBA - that's incredibly valuable.
Franz is a better NBA prospect than his brother, who has found a place in the NBA.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:39 AM ^
The way college sports is, he's ready if the NBA will draft him at a high enough position. The NCAA will not let him make $$, so shy risk blowing out a knee when you can get paid? I don't like it, but that's the game.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:18 AM ^
Wagner lacks the ability to take over a game like a lottery pick should. When the team is doing well, he plays great. I have yet to see him put this team on his shoulders and dominate. He seems scared of the moment and gets shook easily. Great kid, but I would take Moe’s game any day. Franz may have more skill than Moe, but Moe was a baller and never scared of the moment. Franz lacks the killer instinct you normally see in a lottery pick.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:18 AM ^
Michigan literally only had to be 'not awful' to win this game and we somehow screwed up everything
- Terrible FT shooting
- Tons of turnovers
- Awful shooting
The team collectively came out tonight and were awful. Really a gut wrenching performance because a 15 point win was right there in front of us and we completely effed it up. Thats going to hurt forever
March 31st, 2021 at 12:22 AM ^
It'll only hurt until you see Gonzaga next week blow out UCLA, knowing Michigan would have been on the receiving end of that too.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:37 AM ^
Don't care about Gonzaga. I wanted another Final Four and it was right in front of us. The team completely shit the bed
The Final Four is nice but it's window dressing. It's a worthless banner, to be completely honest. It's the bridesmaid to the national champion. This loss doesn't sting me like it appears to sting others on this board. I expected this game to be close down the stretch and was worried this could be our waterloo because the truth is we just weren't the same team without Livers and we punched above our weight class as long as we could. If we won, I honestly believed next week would've been a blood bath against Gonzaga. It sucks to lose but we have a really bright future with big time studs coming in next season.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:24 AM ^
The nba draft is based almost solely on potential. However, I don’t see any wow factor in Wagner at all to make him a lottery pick or even first round pick.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:24 AM ^
Geez, it's Wagner's second year, and his first-ever NCAA tournament. Maybe you're right, and Moe was better, but ... give the kid a break. I'm sure Moe had some bad games in the first half of his career as well.
When he came up big against LSU nobody was slamming him. He had a bad game. I'm as disappointed as anyone else, but I don't start accusing them all of being bad players.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:29 AM ^
Moe stunk his freshman year. Wagner is an elite defender with confidence issues with his shot.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:44 AM ^
Sugar coat it however you want but to the rest of the country that was an epic chokejob highlighted by the airballed open 3.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:48 AM ^
The game was already rolling in Michigan’s direction when Wagner began scoring. Plus everyone is making him the best player on the team and a lottery pick. You can’t have it both ways. If you say someone he is a lottery pick. Then he should never have games like this especially in big moments. Lottery picks take over games, they don’t get excuses made for them after games. Trey Burke was a lottery pick and a sophomore. Stop making excuses for him.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:33 AM ^
His brother started taking over games in year 3. Does Franz stay another year?
March 31st, 2021 at 12:55 AM ^
I hope not..
March 31st, 2021 at 12:18 AM ^
Why force so much through Dickenson?
why did Brooks shoot those two backwards one handed shots?
The offense totally stalled. The ball didn’t move. Too much pregame buy in to having more size will win.
didn’t play our game. Tough lessons hopefully learned for next year.
Good run, good year. I would’ve taken Elite 8 without Livers pre-tourney. Still sucks.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:20 AM ^
Pre season with Livers elite 8 sounded really nice.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:29 AM ^
They forced it to Dickenson because no one else could make any shots, or wanted to shoot the ball!
March 31st, 2021 at 12:19 AM ^
This is the other end of the Poole shot/Burke shot.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:23 AM ^
Oh god no. This isn't close to that bad. This was a team that played like shit all game refusing to win. It wasn't a nearly impossible shot taking us out. Not nearly that bad.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:29 AM ^
Michigan missed their last eight shots, including three "last-second" shots.
Death by a thousand paper cuts...
March 31st, 2021 at 12:27 AM ^
The Burke shot was a game we played well against a team that was as good or maybe better. This was an airball to end an epic choke of missed layups and free throws against a middling team that Michigan ought to beat 8 times out of 10.
I was yelling at the screen to give Brown the last shot. Dude absolutely deserved it. Either that or have Johns drive it and hope to tie it with a layup or free throws.
Putting Smith back in mid second half killed us. Had some momentum with Brown and Johns on the floor. I’m not going to hate on Smith but his was a bad night for him and it should have been obvious.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:35 AM ^
Agree with much of what you said. But maybe UCLA isn't so much a middling team. Not a big deal beating MSU and AC, but they have now beaten BYU, #2 Bama and #1 Michigan. They have one great player, a few good players, and good coaching. They ended the year with a losing streak, but they seem to be hitting now. However, they will get rolled by Gonzaga.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:19 AM ^
They had good looks, took the shots, and just couldn’t drain them. UCLA free throw defense juju lives on.
thanks for the fun season in hard times gentlemen.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:19 AM ^
Absolutely love Wagner, and having a bad game doesn’t change that. I question why he was the guy getting the ball at the end and not Brown. And why was Hunter putting the ball in? That last play was just bad.
But it doesn’t matter much when just making one of those layups or a few FTs, and we win. We could have run them off the court if we hit the easy shots they gave us, and we didn’t. Hats off to UCLA for finding a way to win.