What a colossal choke job against Vanderbilt
They gave up a 9-0 run with barely more than a minute left. Turnovers, fouls, bad defense, horrid inbounds passing, and just plain not handling the pressure. This is how they lost 16 games this year...
Good effort with Jett and Kobe, but good god what way to choke away a game that was won. JFC.
Of all the losses this year, this one is the most recent.
That was..... wow. It's been clear all year, but this game (and especially without Kobe) demonstrated how badly they're in need of secondary ball handlers. I love dug, but he's a 5'9 Freshman and only 1 guy. How or why they decided to have T-will playing backup PG and being a primary ball handler inside of a minute against a full court press is absolutely mind boggling. Give it to Baker, or Hunter, or Kayat, or damn near anybody BUT T-Will when ball security is basically the only thing that matters.
Yeah that’s where not having Kobe killed them. There was no one to bring the ball up.
I did not watch, thank god, but isn't this kind of meltdown what happens when your backup guard is, uh, a not-so-good power forward?
It didn't help that T-Will plays like he sticks his hands in vaseline during every timeout break.
I don't usually blame one guy but Williams was largely awful all game and basically single-handedly killed them in that final minute.
Ah well. This was a deserved end to a shitty season. It was encouraging they played as well as they did (until the last minute) without Bufkin and Howard but they absolutely need to upgrade at the 4 regardless of what happens with anyone coming or going.
He was awful. But quite frankly, the coaching kept putting him position to fail. He's an atrocious ball handler, literally his worst trait, but for some reason they kept using him to break the press and even had him play a few min at PG when Dug was on the bench.
Yeah but there were no other guards.
Also dug should have called a timeout instead of throwing a crazy pass.
Absolutely correct. Had to use the TO in the front court at that point.
Yeah Michigan still had 2. He calls a timeout there and Michigan is shooting free throws after an inbounds.
What a joke. Glad this shits over so I don’t have to watch any more.
Glad I haven’t stopped sniffing glue yet.
Williams turns the ball over 3 times in 35 secs, and yet he's still inbounding the ball on the final possession! Absolutely unreal. I know the MGoBlog narrative is that Michigan has just been "unlucky" at the end of games, but I mean come on. This team is not well-coached. Simple as that.
It's ALL of the above but they make their own bad luck, too.
LOL re Williams. He has strung together some of the worst offensive sequences that I can remember with a guy who gets lots of play in P5. That last minute was horrific.
Baffling why Juwan would have him on the floor when possession of the ball and good decisions are critical.
Because good decisions are critical. 👀
Trying not to be critical of Coach here, but Juwan sticks with what was practiced. He seems to not deviate or make many in-game adjustments and waits until the next game to implement changes. Problem is this time there is no next game.
As fitting as this end is to this miserable season I need some help getting excited about the future of the program. I loved Juwan on the Fab 5 and was excited for the hire but the day he slapped the kid it has been a descent to this.
a) first TO was a foul. You can’t hold the ball when your arms are pulled away from it
b) on the final play he made an excellent play to keep Hunter from throwing it away…again
HD was the one who made the most bad plays down the stretch. Missed layup, TO was on him, final play he tried to throw is away again.
We found TWILL moms account
a) AFTER breaking the press, you DO NOT continue to dribble into 3 defenders, soooo YES that was on him
And was a clear foul.
F R U S T R A T I N G!!!
Memo to the Wolverine MBB team, the game is 40 minutes long, not 39. You'd have a great record if regulation is 39 minutes.
I still think MSU has the more embarrassing loss after being up 13 with 2 minutes to go at Iowa. So we go THAT goin for us, which is nice.
Yeah but MSU is playing in the tourney with the chance to go to the sweet 16. Meanwhile we just lost in embarrassing fashion(again) in the NIT!!!
I know. I'm trying to find a silver lining in this pile of horse manure. Trust me, it's very difficult.
Look no further than the Purdue game yesterday. We'll forget about this melt down, but Purdue will never wash the stank off that game.
Only Michigan fans saw this loss and that is your silver lining.
That game went to overtime. It was pretty hilarious. This game was a disgusting, horrifying, terrible joke. The MSU-Iowa game doesn't come close.
Edit: And MSU actually made some baskets in that last 2 minutes.
Juwan seems to be one area where Brian and Seth aren't correct. I was on board with him and the hope was that he would be an ace recruiter that would take Michigan to new heights. The recruiting has dried up and the development isn't there either. In game coaching leaves a lot to be desired.
You mean, you don't agree with every end of game collapse being written off by them as simply "unlucky"?
This blog has the oldest and most annoying shtick; any football or basketball loss is always due to luck or officiating.
Not to mention he’s had 2 embarrassing incidences where he lost control of himself
Kobe Bufkin and Dug McDaniel went from being basically unplayable coming into the year/starting the year to being a potential 1st rounder and a solid-looking PG. That's development. Williams has cratered as a player and should probably be looking for an exit to somewhere else but that's true anywhere.
Howard has had bad moments this year and I think he needs to do some staff shakeups but at the same time he came into this game with 1.5 playable guards and at least two of those Williams turnovers were just him being awful. That's not on a coach at some point even if you want to argue (and I agree to a large extent) that Williams shouldn't be out there because you still expect your upperclassman PF to handle the ball competently.
A bunny attempt with a 7-ft center with 1:04 left to possibly take a 10 pt lead, only to lose in regulation. Colossal collapse.
This type of loss is entirely on Juwan. He let the game unravel in the last minute and he fielded a team with a lack of quality guard play all season. A strong PG, especially with a strong 2 for a backcourt partner, would simply control the ball, the clock, and make FTs. Late season is guard season.
Must say: it’s an entirely fitting end to this season.
Literally the entire starting backcourt was not available today. Let’s take Akins, Hoggard, and Walker off of MSU and watch them play. Who would they play?
Jace Howard and Twill are both 6'7.. Jace Howard is a way better ball handler and plays his heart out. I just don't understand.
Me either…no idea why jace doesn’t play
Jace doesn't play more during the bulk of the game because he is not an offensive threat. He's OK on defense but gets beat a lot on drives to the hoop. See the "and ones" he gave Vandy today. I love Jace's effort and grit but he's not a B1G level rotation player. Bench, yes. Rotation player? No.
But all that said, he absolutely should've been in the game as soon as TWill committed that first turnover by dribbling it off his foot or whatever. I am frankly quite surprised Juwan didn't pull that trigger, with Jace being his son and all. But maybe that's why he didn't?
Jace often misses the rim in wide open catch and shoot three point shots.
I don’t think Juwan should or will get fired this offseason, but I think you’re kidding yourself If you don’t think the trajectory of the program is heading down. This goes deeper than roster issues
I’m sure T-Will is a nice kid. I wish him success in life. But wow, every time he touches the ball something bad happens. That he started for as much of this season as he did is mind boggling.
I hope he gets a fresh start somewhere else next year.
I wish him the best. But he needs to go be a big fish in a small pond somewhere. For his own psyche.
He does not need his self image to be one of constant failure. It could do some real damage. He is a better athlete than 99.999% of humanity. There is no reason for him not to get a taste of success somewhere. It's not going to happen here.
He can go somewhere else and be a hero.
So incredibly mentally fragile.
This team needs a Psychologist.
Or . . . new players that don't need a Psychologist.
This season mercifully ends with no lessons learned from the same poor execution that prevented them from going to the tournament. The officiating enabled Vandy to come back from oblivion as well. It was just another shitshow ending.
Thankfully this train wreck of a team has been put out of their misery…
What a pathetic way to lose a game. I can’t believe how much I hate watching this team now. We went from a top program under Beilein to an absolute joke in four seasons.
As much as I liked the hire initially, it’s really starting to feel like a Brady Hoke situation. Either Juwan turns things around next year or I say bring someone else in…what’s the value in waiting until the entire house that Beilein built is burnt to the ground and disintegrated to dust? Better trying to salvage SOME part of whatever might be left of Beilein’s program.
In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t such a shrewd move to hire a guy whose only qualification is “played for Michigan 20 years ago”.
Belein left at the worst possible time. People forget how dire that coaching search was at the time. Nate Oats was really the only other candidate I remember that really excited most people around here and imagine if Michigan was dealing with what Alabama is right now.
Then you go with an interim for a year, give them a tryout and if it doesn’t work, you have an entire year to figure out who you’re going to pursue for your next coach. It was a lazy hire by Warde, for the first 2 years it looked like it may work but now clearly it isn’t.