For those who like to talk basketball

”Last week and a half.”  A mere blip in the grand scheme of things.  This has been a brutal schedule for a team with a lot of changes. It will serve them well later in the season.  I would much rather be better at the end of the season than at the beginning. Remember, It’s wide open this year. I’m pretty sure this is gonna be another year where a 6 seed wins it all. 

They either improve defensively or it will be an early exit from tournament. They aren’t in sync at all on that end

Those are all fair takes. The game was not lost on the last shot or John’s missed FTs, or the repeated defensive breakdowns against Pritchard’s drives to the basket. 
 

the game was lost on all of those things, plus the flat first 10 mins of the game. 
 

it boggles my mind how we didn’t adjust defensively with a zone to force Pritchard and Co to shoot from 3. We just allowed trust in Simpson’s man D despite repeated failures. 
 

wagner is emerging, along with Johns and DDJ. Totally agree those guys all need more mins. I would not give up on Brooks just yet. 
 

need to fix the turnover issue. There is way too much of the ISO attempts by M players, who probably were the cream of the crop in HS, but this is college. Wagner/Livers might be the only players with true Iso capabilities (DDJ is TBD as well), but Brooks and Simpson are not as skilled with either dribbling/passing (brooks) or shooting (Simpson) as they might think. I’m not intending my opinion to sound disparaging of those two, as I believe they play important roles on the team, just need the ball in the hands of guys who can finish and not get sloppy. 
 

also, did Teske foul out? Why in the world was he not on the court for the final play? 

On number 3, 100%. How do you go to Z so far from the basket guarded by a guy who'd had his number all day? Oh...that was the cherry on a very frustrating cake of basketball...

On number 2, I think BOTH Eli and DDJ should get more minutes. The good teams - the good coaches - know how to play Z and he is limited offensively. Pritchard is good and Z isn't going to be owned like this often - I hope - but I think having Eli and DDJ out there to change things up would open up the play some. 

Oregon was short handed and still beat us at home. It was a great game and a tough loss. I think teams are scouting our film now and defending our offense. We’ll see how Howard adjusts. 

Never mind today's game. Brooks will be forever unloved by a subset of the MGoBlog readership because he wasn't a highly rated recruit.

We are a bit overrated, unfortunately. We don’t have enough playmakers on offense that can create their own shot, and the one guy who can do that, DDJ, sits way too much in favor of our worst offensive player. 

I miss the days of peach baskets nailed to the wall.

Everybody came out flat. Yes, shots weren't falling, but I didn't think the effort level on defense was there either.

Honestly I thought Oregon just shot the lights out to start.  The whole game they seemed to make a lot of tough shots.  I'll tip my cap to them - they were playing a noon game in the eastern time zone (9 a.m. their time) and it didn't affect them a bit.

Absolutely Devatating loss...I miss John Bellien..with his teams they got better and better with each passing game..Not this team they are getting worse with each passing game and thats a serious indictment of Juwan Howard..I thought Howard was CLEARLY outcoached and outprepared and thats concerning..If he made adjustments they clearly didnt work and his decision to bench Teske one of the best big men in the nation for basically the entire game is INEXPLICABLE and needs explaining..Teske would have at a minimum clogged up the middle and not allowed Pritchard to REPATELY drive to the basket  at the end of regulation and OT it absolutely KILLED us...WHY would Howard do that? thats a HORRIBLE decision.

We will lose a ton of road games and were staring at the dreaded 8/9 seed right now..This game is a Crushing defeat and will haunt us later on..Seems like Michigan is ALWAYS on the wrong end of these type games with a few exceptions..Why is that?  are we just jinxed at Michigan where we continually Choke at the end of big games? whatever the sport..

Where are you John Belien we need you!!!   I am Pissed at this team for blowing a great start and now losing 3 of the last 4 probably falling out of the top 20 

I fully expect to be negged away by the rose colored glasses crowd so go ahead dont care.This loss AT HOME no less should have never happened and it l;ooks like we are just a mediocre team when it looked for one moment there that we would be special..WERE NOT...

Simpson lost this game in about a dozen different ways and Brooks has no business out there as much as he turns the ball over. Franz isnt Mo thats for sure and Livers is inconsistent you never know what your going to get.

If theres one bright spot on this team its DDJ he single handily rescued this team and should be starting over Z who is a ball hog  and just dribbles dribbles dribbles then tries to take it up the middle against 6-10 guys... thats STUPID and poor decision makeing for the so called Leader of the team.

The ONLY bright spot was DDJ..he should be starting .

I know we need a point guard but I think its time to siot Z and find a different answer..hes NOT it

We have 2 cupcakes ahead then on the road for our annual beatdwon in EL and we will be 1-2 to start the B10 what once looked like a VERY promising season now looks somewhat bleak..We are going to lose alot of road games..we just dont have the resolve to win on the road in the Big Ten

Dylan at UMHoops on the stretch we have gone through:

Much will be made of Michigan losing three of four games and what that means after its performance in the Bahamas. I think it is important to point out what kind of stretch Michigan has faced over the last three weeks. The Wolverines played eight consecutive games against top-50 teams in 17 days, and only two were at home. Through 11 games, Michigan’s strength of schedule is ranked 10th in the nation and first among high-major teams.

The Big Ten is good, but Michigan won’t play more than three games in a row against top-50 teams for the rest of the regular season.

I'm not hanging my head after this loss. It was a con-flip loss to a top-10 team. We're still 2-2 against top 10 teams. We're still on track to meet or exceed preseason expectations. There are positives and there are things to work on. In addition to the issues OP mentioned, the things to work on that I noticed: 

1) Bad turnovers continue to be an issue. It's a consequence of the transition to a more up-tempo style of play and will improve with time, but it's still aggravating. 

2) Fatigue was an issue at the end and in OT. The entire team looked gassed. I suspect this might be because Sanderson is a Beilein holdover and might not be used to training these kids for the endurance that Juwan's faster-paced offense requires.

3) Franz Wagner is a versatile player on offense, but he's a liability at the other end of the floor. He has a lot of room for improvement defensively. 

4) Zavier should not have been the one to take the final shot. We need to draw up better plays in those situations. 

5) We need to be better prepared to handle the press. Because of our tendency to turn the ball over, Oregon knew that we could easily be forced into bad passes and bad ballhandling by applying soom pressure as we brought the ball up the court. 

Wagner is actually a young freshman just turned 18 late August meaning actually could easily be a high school senior

Agree on DDJ and Johns. They seem to be the players most capable of sparking this team. 

Other comments:

I can tell it's going to take some time for the team to get used to the freer attitude on offense, especially against disciplined, talented defenses. That said, what we thought before the season is coming true -- there's not a lot of scoring pop on this team right now. Franz needs to develop, DDJ needs to continue to develop, Johns needs to keep the energy level high.

Livers and Z, to the eye, have taken a step back. Not sure why. 

Shooters are often hesitant to take the shot in rhythm, also when we get to the rack, we often just pass all the way out. Looks like some lack of confidence out there.

During the scoring droughts, we will need to focus on playing D, because those droughts look like they will continue.

Some players need to get grittier / more aggressive, and if they don't, JH needs to sit them more. Castleton is one. 

Nunez is bringing nothing right now, and I cringe when he is out there. Brick city.

Overall, this team is ahead of where I thought they'd be, so things will be fine. Just need some progress from some scorers.

Bummer about today though, could have given us another top-10 win.

1. Howard needs to change the offense. This whole Simpson drives the ball 90% of possessions is a pretty weak strategy. Fairly certain this has something to do with our offense starting slow in a lot of games.

2. Id like to see a lineup of Simpson, Wagner, Livers, Johns, and Teske get extended minutes in these 2 easy games

This early season adversity and tough non-con schedule is going to pay off in the long run. Were already getting twice as many players involved this season than we did last season

They're sluggish. Reasonable explanations:

Illness

Finals

Lots of time on the road

New expectations and interviews to go with it

Relax and let them settle in. Then we'll find out what they really are.

What I’m worried about: We’ve already seen a team composed of these players overperform in the first month of the season only to underperform the rest of it. And if the team is going to continue to struggle shooting on the road and continue having a lack of poise in close games and if Howard continues making blunders like he did today (like allowing one guy beat them with 15 points in 9 minutes, only shooting 8 threes in the 2nd half + overtime despite making 75% of them, w/ Livers not shooting once in the final 12 minutes, and that disastrous final play), then it’s going to be a looooong year.

Of their 18 remaining B1G games, 7(!) are against teams ranked higher than Oregon—all in the top-10—with four of them coming on the road. 5 of their road games are against teams ranked higher than Illinois.

They renew B1G play on the road at #4 MSU on Jan. 5. On Feb. 8, they play #4 MSU at home. In the 33 days in between, they play home to #1 OSU (just 4 days before their 2nd MSU game), #6 Purdue (just 4 days after their 1st MSU game), #25 Penn State, #38 Illinois, and #59 Rutgers. During that time, they also have to play on the road at #22 Iowa as well as #76 Minnesota (their only remaining game beside that is at #146 Nebraska).

If their play over the last 12 days is in any way indicative of how their first five weeks of B1G play is going to go, then they’ll be lucky to just be 7-5 in conference play at this point.

And they'll still have to play 3 top-10 teams on the road! And they’ll have ~2 Quad 1 games in between those, not including their home game against Wisconsin. If they don’t get better over the next 2 weeks, going 10-10 in the B1G is not a remote possibility. That would put them at 19-12 on the year and squarely on the bubble. So...yeah.

The close outs were brutal today. Flying at players.. out of control. 

What I can’t get over: Michigan shot 13 3s in the 1st half, despite making only 3 of them (23%). In the first 5:32 of the 2nd half, they went 4-4 from 3. Over the next 14:28 of the half, they would only shoot 2 more (making 1, which was no more than a desperation shot at the end of the shot clock, to go 5/6 (83%!!!) in the half). Livers started the 2nd half with 13 points on 5/5 shooting in the half’s first 8 minutes (including 3/3 from 3 in the first 4 minutes). He would only shoot once more in the final 17 minutes of the game, a missed 3 with 6:53 left in the 2nd half, which was also Michigan’s last 3-point attempt until Franz’s to start overtime (1 of only 2 Michigan took that period).

How does that happen? It strikes me as a major coaching failure. If you’re hot from deep, you don’t go away from that. Yes, the other team is purposefully trying to prevent you from scoring. But Michigan should be able to run plays that at least set up slightly contested 3s every now and then, regardless of what the defense is doing. If they had gotten up more threes in the 2nd half, even at the expense of their shooting percentage, enough would have went it to be the difference in the game. I just don’t get it.

Not sure why they didn't change up Z on Pritchard after it was apparent the latter could get to the rim at will, and I would've drawn up the final play for Wagner or Livers, but hey, you live, you learn. It was an excellent December college basketball game, worthy of March.

Nowhere else to put this (not worthy of its own thread) but it is still a news item: Colgate beat Cincinnati 67-66.  That's not the story.  Just check out the WAY Cincinnati lost it in the final 15 seconds.  Good God.