MBB vs. FSU postgame snowflakes
One. You could tell the entire game that Michigan had prepared for Florida State press and switches. Even the bench mob was prepared for the switch, and both Adrien Nunez and Jace Howard were ready for it. That is some incredible top to bottom team basketball right there.
Two. Franz Wagner is so incredibly versatile; a third ball handler and a fantastic interior passer and driver is such an asset. And he was a primary reason, along with Brandon Johns, that Florida State looked so out of sorts.
Three. Brandon Johns had himself a heckuva game and I loved it. I counted him drawing six fouls, three in the first three minutes. I would love to see a “Brandon Johns foul magnet” tag.
Four. You can see why the NBA is so excited about Scottie Barnes, but he’s going to take some time to develop. He doesn’t really know how to play basketball other than being a phenomenal passer and a good defender.
Five. Michigan plays the prettiest basketball in the country, with stellar coaching. On to the Elite Eight!
That’s enough for now. What did you all think?
Six. We won the game!
Seven...Jace hit his free throw for the -and one
Now we can finally say we want Bama without sounding completely and utterly insane.
I'd still rather face Ucla of course, but I think Michigan matches up well against Bama. They hurry so much and Michigan's transition D is very good. I think M's length and front court are going to make it tough in transition and at the rim for Alabama. They'll have to be very hot from 3 to beat M I think.
Michigan better play better transition D than we did today. Bama will feast on open threes
In all fairness, I thought we gave up quite a few good looks at open threes in the first half. Thankful that FSU didn't hit them. I'm sure that will be the big point of emphasis in practice tomorrow if we get Alabama.
Seven. All Wolverines go to heaven.
TBS just showed a graphic that said 1st time UM has made the Elite 8 since 2018. Oh boy, we missed 1 yr. That has to be the stupidest graphic ever.
Easiest job in the world is the person who makes sports stat graphics. In the 2017 Wisconsin football game there was a graphic that said Taylor was the first Wisconsin running back with 100+ yards against Michigan since 2010. WE ONLY PLAYED THEM ONCE IN THAT SPAN!!
We got destroyed in 2010, played a bad Wisconsin offense in 2016, and then got destroyed again in 2017. Such a lazy take when the real stat should be that we only played Wisconsin once in the span of 6 years!
I was at Michigan Stadium for that 2010 game. Behind a bunch of Wisconsin students who'd bought Michigan student tickets and yelled "On Wisconsin" after every first down, and they had a lot opportunities to do that because the Michigan defense that year was utter trash. Sad times. WHY DID YOU MAKE ME RECALL THAT ON THIS DAY OF HAPPINESS, YOU SICK BASTARD?
I was wrong about Brandon Johns. Kiddo turned on the jets this post-season. Dude is going off!!!
neg vote away!
You aren’t the only one. I owe him an apology for not believing too. Clearly there is a reason that Juwan was giving him minutes earlier in the season.
Hopefully, this puts an end to the Johns transfer talk. The dude is going to be a starter next year.
Upvoted because you don't tell me what to do!!
Go Blue!!
Kid needs a little more upper body strength and a better 3pt shot and he's there.
He's definitely getting better. I'd still love to have Livers' shooting, I think we'll need it if we play Gonzaga, but our defense is maybe better with Johns.
Pretty good set of snowflakes. In sum, we have great players at each position, and they are playing like a team, and we have the best coach in the land.
Preparation >> undisciplined talent. By 20 points or so.
Pre-shutdown team there. Peak. And no better time.
- I thought Franz had a great game. The 3s didnt drop but he was slashing and dishing a lot inside the 3 pt line
- Not sure how egregious the officiating was but it didn't look that bad to me but I'm obviously biased. I actually thought Hunter got mauled a lot down low - especially on rebounds - which was never called
- Defense killed FSU. Complain about fouls all you want but the defense absolutely neutered FSU's offense. It didn't look like they had planned at all for Michigan's D. That's a huge coaching W for Juwan & Co and a big fat L for Hamilton
Jace and Jet played against Barnes in high school apparently. And the scouting report was dude can't shoot so who cares if you switch Hunter onto him and he sags off.
Yeah I was really surprised in the 2nd half to see Hunter on Barnes a lot...and Barnes never really did anything about it. Never shot 3s and would occasionally drive past. I thought Hunter did a great job not taking dumb fouls when a guy was slashing past him and he had no chance. Let em have em and fight for another day. FSU only scoring 58 says that was a good plan
Thanks for posting. I saw what you described with Barnes but I couldn't figure out what was going on. I did see a few times where Michigan appears so well coached and confident enough to say to the FSU player something like "you can go anywhere you want right now but not here."
I think they played on the same team actually. And I swore a couple times when they were sagging and when he went up to shoot they didn’t at least try to put a hand up. Then.... Brick. Kid is a talent but he needs to learn to shoot.
Zeb was teammates with him
I think FSU fans are probably pissed off about officiating - it wouldn't have mattered today, but the calls were pretty one-sided.
Maybe because FSU's defensive strategy is to bump your guy as much as you can without getting called for a foul.
Despite the number of fouls called on them, it still seemed like FSU got away with a lot more fouls than Michigan did. They played MSU football type defense. Make the refs call a foul on every play
Perhaps there's a reason for the foul disparity? Michigan ranks 32nd in fouls committed per possession and Florida State ranks 232nd in fouls committed per possession. The officiating was "one-sided" because one team fouls more than the other, it's really just that simple.
It seemed like FSU was very aggressive (which leads to a lot of foul calls) but with a bench that deep I can see that being part of their game plan - hoping to force turnovers and get their opposition rattled. Didn't work against Michigan. You could tell that they play one way and don’t adjust. They were pressing the entire game but no one on their team could keep up with Smith allowing our offense to get set up quickly rather than the other way around.
Impressively easy win, especially considered how balanced everyone was. This was another coaching blowout by Juwan. Team made only 3 threes against a team full of ents and instead dominated in the paint and won by 18. This team can win in any way and with anybody. Will likely still be underdogs the rest of the tournament, but you can tell they love it
I see what you mean because we won by a lot, but was seriously a grind it out tough game every possession optimized as best it could be by Michigan.
Hunter spent a lot of calories down low on both ends of the court. And we were up by 5 at one point in the 2nd half. We "should" have been up more perhaps with a few more attempted or made 3's by that point, but it was still close, so much grinding and FSU is known for runs.
Just Michigan was so disciplined that FSU couldn't quite crack it. Definitely, the last 8 minutes were simpler due to the discipline leading to high percentage shots and the lead increased, but did not seem easy to me at all to get there.
Such a team! They play so well together...that's why we aren't missing Isaiah, EVERYONE is picking up the slack, playing 101% every moment of the game. Everyone knows what everyone else is going to do. It was artesian out there, bravo maestros!
That was a fantastic game from the coaching to the playing.
Everyone contributed too, very disciplined and well executed gameplan.
I like our chances against anyone, watching Bama/UCLA and Bama is leading and looks like the better squad but I think we would really frustrate them too.
The only thing we were lacking in today was FT shooting, if we had hit our normal %, we would have won by about 25, good thing it wasn't crucial today.
Nat'l Championship your place? Just kidding. (I'm out of town not to mention the covid)
One time I stopped by for a M football game though when I was in SD. Thanks for that!
You're welcome, that was a good time, which one were you?
The smart one? In glasses? Was staying in North Park at the time. It was so long ago I don't know if you'd remember unless we did it again.
We play smart and that’s not depending on whether we can shoot well On any given night. We prepare. We might not be the most athletic team in the tournament, but we’re probably the smartest with our players that just might get it done.
Biggest great surprises how well we played without livers, master of the obvious take. B Johns and Chaundee have just been great.
Last year team struggled big time without Livers but I think that's due to the personnel on the floor. You have nonshooting threat in Zavier and Teske that teams can pack the paint and run off the good shooters. Michigan really struggled to score at times. This year, they're a lot better because Mike Smith can score but BJJ and Eli picked up the slack on offense while Franz took it into the next level.
That's the difference between last year and this year with regards to Livers absence on the floor
If not for the missed free throws and some near misses under the basket, this game is even more lopsided than the final score. Completely different story from the last time we played these guys.
So happy right now. The only thing that still kills me is that Livers has to watch all this from the sideline.
Go Blue!!!
Yeah, I agree with all the points in the OP and was going to say similar: IMO, this was M's B+ game given the shooting in H1 and the FT%.
Couple bad TOs and lots of missed putbacks on ORebs. Easily could have been up 15 at half and 25-28 for the game and it wouldn't have seemed beyond insane.
This team and play without Livers and Phil Martelli* can coach
* /s, obvly
Once again we whoop Bunny Colvin's squads ass. It's nice.
Is this the drinking thread?
I think they are all drinking threads for the rest of the day. Cheers!
Michigan had a fantastic game plan, and even better halftime adjustments. First half they missed some WIDE open 3's - so second half they just attacked the basket with beautiful motion, passing and spacing.
FSU looked awful in the first half - totally agree with Barkley. If Michigan were shooting better from the field and line, they would have annihilated them in the first half.
This is the first game since Livers got hurt that Michigan played like the machine they were prior to his injury. That's a great sign - they've figured out how to mesh again.
Hamilton seems like a good guy, and he's built a consistent program at FSU - but da-yum, that team does not play sound basketball. They spent the entire game looking over their shoulders as a Michigan player was making a layup/dunk.
I feel like FSU plays too many guys - they never seem to have a consistent rotation. Foul trouble may have contributed.
This was a far better matchup for Michigan than LSU - FSU's guards just aren't that quick. They couldn't press us, and Smith was better able to pass without LSU's long arms harassing him.
Davis played great. The offense became silky smooth as soon as he came in the second half. That high-low game was beautiful to watch.
I don't know that I've ever seen a guy jump as high as Chaundee did on that offensive board - Holy Schnikees!
Second half was a basketball clinic. Almost every possession was....perfect.
Proud of our boys - Final 8, baby! Go Blue!!!
Davis even had an assist. Whaaaaat?
i don’t think anybody had a bad game. Wagner, Brown and Johns were outstanding. Other than 2 late mistakes in the game, Smith was flawless.
Davis' assist was pretty, too.
I know one other time I’ve seen someone jump as high as Chaundee Brown did for his offensive board. It was during this game, when Brandon Johns jumped for an offensive board and managed to make a spectacular save to Brooks in the corner. Dude looked like Carl Lewis.
For the life of me, I could not figure out what Hamilton's game plan was in this game, especially in the first half. 21 points at halftime.