ej liddell

When the Michigan threes were raining down in buckets on Thursday, I stood there and thought "I hope we save some for Saturday". That turned out to be the correct sentiment because Michigan could've used some today, as a 24% three point performance was one of several factors that doomed the Wolverines to an eleven point loss at home against rival Ohio State. Good offensive coaching and a solid defensive effort was not enough to overcome poor offensive execution for a Wolverine team that failed to muster 60 points. 

The Crisler Center crowd tonight donned blue to match their team's blue uniforms and came juiced up, riding high after the win on Thursday over Purdue. The first half was intense as expected. Michigan used their height advantage inside as Moussa Diabate and Hunter Dickinson combined for nearly half of the team's point total on 7/11 from the field. Eli Brooks chipped in a couple triples but the rest of the offense was pretty cold, including several misses on wide open threes. Still, a strong defensive effort held Ohio State to a similar point total, forcing EJ Liddell into tough makes and limiting offensive rebounds. The Buckeyes led 33-30 at the break. 

A story of the game for Michigan offensively was an inability to get much of anything going besides dunks and layups. Entry passes to the height inside was a matchup to exploit, but otherwise the outside shooting was cold and the switch everything OSU defense stunted the Michigan offensive flow. In addition, frequent doubles came on Hunter Dickinson, as you'd expect. Meanwhile the Michigan defense continued to put pressure on the Buckeyes but Liddell was the best player on the floor tonight and made difficult, NBA-caliber shots. 

Eli Brooks had a solid night [Campredon]

Ohio State got a couple jumpers from Malaki Branham early in the second half to push the margin to seven and that established a medium-sized OSU margin that wouldn't budge much throughout the final 20 minutes. Ohio State would pull 10 ahead, then Michigan would trim it to 5, and then OSU would push it back to 10. That seesaw was pretty consistent, with Ohio State's defense doing enough to stem any extended Wolverine run needed to claw back further. And on the flip side, someone, often Liddell, would hit a tough shot for the Buckeyes to bump the lead back up further. 

Case in point: Michigan managed to hack the Ohio State lead down to 52-47 with 5:00 to go, but after Dickinson turned it over, Liddell canned a corner three to push the margin back up to eight. A few minutes later it repeated, as Eli Brooks nailed a three, but Michigan couldn't get it closer than five following two Kyle Young free throws. DeVante' Jones missed a shot, and then Branham made a jumper to make it 61-52 OSU. With barely over two minutes left, the game was more or less over at this point. 

In the end, the Wolverines simply didn't muster enough scoring in a game where it felt like the opportunities were there. 4/17 from three on a lot of open looks is suboptimal, especially when you consider that three of the makes were from Eli Brooks. The rest of the team was 1/10 from beyond the arc. Hunter Dickinson scored 14 points but that was far from the dominance you expected from the big man against a team lacking a traditional center. The team limited turnovers decently well, but three from an out of control Frankie Collins stood out. 

Hunter wasn't as dominant as you'd probably like given the height advantage [Campredon]

Liddell led OSU with 28 points on 8/17 from the field. The Buckeyes didn't shoot well from three either, but they made lots of tough shots from inside the arc, with Cedric Russell helping out in that department. Ohio State shooting 20/37 from two despite what felt like a strong defensive effort is indicative of that reality. Only four players between the two teams scored in double figures. 

Michigan is now 13-10 overall and 7-6 in the conference. They went 2-1 over this huge week, which was the reasonable goal, but there is still plenty of work to do to get back into the playoff picture. Next week is a big one, with two huge road games against Iowa and Wisconsin. It feels like splitting the two is a necessity to continue the tourney push. The next game is not until Thursday, though, a plus for a team that has now played four games in eight days. Rest is needed. That game against the Hawkeyes is at 7:00 PM EST. The box score is after the jump. 

[Click the JUMP for the box score]

2021-22 B1G Basketball Season Preview... previously: Season preview podcast, Power Rankings Lower Half

Yesterday we covered the lower half of the B1G and ranked teams 14-8. Today we will be doing the same but for the upper half of the conference, talking less about despair and more about hope and pivotal questions that could define the seasons. Our first entrant in this article is also a new face in the conference: 

7. Indiana

Projected starting lineup:

• G, Xavier Johnson
• G, Parker Stewart
• F, Miller Kopp
• F, Race Thompson
• F, Trayce Jackson-Davis

Mike Woodson takes over in Bloomington and if he wants to begin his era off on the right foot, making the NCAA Tournament is a good way to begin. Luckily for him, the Hoosiers have a high floor by returning Trayce Jackson-Davis, who is a B1G Player of the Year candidate. TJD is an elite rebounder who gets to the stripe at an incredibly high rate, in addition to soaking up a ginormous volume of possessions. Indiana leans on him heavily, but whether the Hoosiers wind up in March Madness probably depends on whether or not they find impact players besides TJD.

Race Thompson returns as well, a slightly smaller and far less used version of TJD. He rebounds, blocks, and gets to the line just like the IU star, but his usage is indicative of a role player and not a star. Thompson should be in line for a bigger job this season, but if he is, then you have a situation where both of IU’s two biggest pieces can’t shoot from outside, which raises relevant questions about floor spacing and the ability of this team to pack the perimeter punch. Rob Phinisee returns as a guard off the bench, but he certainly won’t add that three-point shooting (career 29.8%).

The rest of the roster consists of new players that Woodson has imported to Indiana. Xavier Johnson is a high usage PG from Pitt who will be expected to run the offense but he, too, has struggled from three in his career and could best be described up to this point as a “turnover machine”. Perhaps a reduced role akin to Mike Smith last year could reign some of the wildness in and make him take better shots. Parker Stewart sat out last season after transferring from UT-Martin and is supposed to be the sharp-shooter that this roster lacks. Miller Kopp could bring some perimeter shooting from the wing position if he’s more 2019-20 (39.6%) than 2021-21 (32.0%), after arriving from Northwestern. Tamar Bates also should play a role as a top 50 recruit off the bench. 

To me, Indiana starts out as a bubble team. They won’t be terrible, because of TJD and to a lesser extent, Thompson. But outside shooting is the crucial factor as to whether IU is another Archie-style bellyflop or a genuinely encouraging 8-9 seed type team, which is mostly a function of how well all the offseason shopping this program did in the transfer portal really went. Though Woodson has no recruits of his own on this roster, we’ll get a decent temperature of how he is as a B1G coach in year #1 based on how well he can integrate the fresh faces.

6. Michigan State

Projected lineup:

• G, Tyson Walker
• G, Max Christie
• F, Gabe Brown
• F, Joey Hauser
• F, Marcus Bingham

Michigan State missed Cassius Winston like a baby misses its pacifier last season, cycling through a number of PG options and never really landing on one until their season ran out in the NCAA Tournament’s play-in game against UCLA (haha, losers, what kind of team loses to UCLA?). Tom Izzo thinks he may have solved that problem by reeling in PG transfer Tyson Walker from Northeastern. Walker was a magnificent player in the Colonial Athletic Association, winning that conference’s POY award after posting 19 a game with 5 assists, shooting 35% from deep on humongous usage. Walker is a little undersized and of course there will be transition costs, but he could be a big addition (for the record, the CAA is roughly ranked akin to the Sun Belt and Ivy League in KP’s conference rankings).

The other big addition is five-star SG Max Christie, a 6’6” prospect who profiles as a knock down shooter with skill and poise, not unlike Michigan’s addition of Caleb Houstan. Considering that MSU couldn’t buy a three last season, adding impact shooting perimeter shooting is big. The big question for the Spartans is who whether Walker and Christie are ready to gobble up a high volume of possessions, because losing Aaron Henry, Rocket Watts, and Josh Langford means that three of MSU’s top four usage guys from last season are out the door, including their top two.

The question increases in importance when you remember that the other pieces, though familiar, have refused to take charge offensively. Lanky stretch forward Gabe Brown has been a useful option, but he’s allergic to playing an active role in the offense, and the same can be said for big men Malik Hall and Marcus Bingham. Which is why MSU’s season hinges on Joey Hauser. The Marquette transfer was not the big splash addition that Spartan fans had hoped for last season, shooting just 34% from three and 61% at the line for a 103.8 ORTG. That represented a big turn from the promising player that Hauser had seemed to be in 2019 for the Golden Eagles.

If Hauser can re-find his Marquette form, then a good campaign from Christie and Walker may be enough to boost MSU into the top four of the league. But, those are all sizable question marks considering you’re talking about one player transferring in from mid-major basketball, another who’s never played a collegiate game, and a third who struggled mightily in his first B1G season. For now, we keep State in the middle of the B1G.

[AFTER THE JUMP: More transfers!]

Previously: Part One (Illinois-Minnesota), Part Two (Nebraska-Wisconsin), Part Three (ranking 8-14)

The rankings so far:

14. Minnesota (Tier VI)
13. Penn State (Tier VI)
12. Rutgers (Tier VI)
11. Wisconsin (Tier V)
10. Iowa (Tier V)
9. Nebraska (Tier IV)
8. Illinois (Tier IV)

I have to begin this post with an apology. When putting together my tiers, I... uh... forgot Northwestern. I do not, in fact, believe that the Wildcats will shoot into the top half of the Big Ten. I'm sorry to the readers for the omission. I also want to state that this isn't an apology to Northwestern basketball for reasons I shouldn't need to get into.

sorry, also not sorry

Let's take care of their section, fix these rankings, and get on to the real top half of the conference.

Northwestern. The good news is Chris Collins' squad returns most of their production. The bad news is that they're mostly the same team that wasn't very good last year. Once opponents got the scout on Northwestern's revamped five-out offense, which Michigan laid the blueprint for shutting down, they were cooked. They should improve by virtue of player development and familiarity in the system but I'm not convinced their team experience will translate to as many wins as Torvik's early projections, which have them 8th in the Big Ten.

Room for movement? I'm not seeing much. The spot where Northwestern had an unexpected loss—wing Miller Kopp transferring to Indiana—is where they have an incoming four-star freshman.

Alright, let's try this again:

14. Minnesota (Tier VI)
13. Penn State (Tier VI)
12. Rutgers (Tier VI)
11. Wisconsin (Tier V)
10. Northwestern (Tier V)
9. Iowa (Tier V)
8. Nebraska (Tier IV)
7. Illinois (Tier IV)

Much better. Back to our regularly scheduled good teams.

[After THE JUMP]