Defense does not carry teams in the tourney...we will have to score the ball.
Really? Because it carried last year's team to the title game. Objectively they played poorly offensively in every game in the tournament besides one, now they did get a favorable draw, but that very well may happen again, who knows. The fact is most teams in the country are not equipped offensively to deal with UM's defense when everybody is on the floor and healthy. Matthews is a huge piece defensively. This is not the NBA where everyone is scoring 100+ a game and you can't win with great defense and questionable offense. The bigger problem tonight was rebounding honestly, they have to rebound closer to their season average in the tournament.
I was optimistic about this game and I was going to bet on UM until I talked to my brother. He asked me if I actually believed the refs would give Michigan a chance to win this game. He said name one time in the last couple of years when UM got a fair shake in a big game. Maybe I’m crazy for starting to believe there’s some sort of conspiracy against UM, but whatever, it saved me money tonight.
You know what's funny. We make fun of MSU in football all the time for their little brother mentality of only one game mattering but we have people in this thread calling a team that won 26 games in a tough conference who had several wins over ranked teams a failure or soft because of two games. It is idiotic. Regular season titles in college basketball are nice, but the measuring stick is always how far you go in the big dance anyways.
You have to realize the source. Half of these idiots are trolls. If you happen to be a real Michigan fan you can be critical of your team and be happy for them at the same time. However, when you see stuff like the travesty that was called a championship game was ruined by gross incompetent refereeing and that’s an understatement. We’ll be fine. GO BLUE, and thank you players and coaches for an amazing season.
BoCanHam15 - as I was leaving the bar with my wife I mentioned that this game reminded me of the title game - really takes you out of your rhythm when you're not allowed to play defense due to phantom fouls.
I re-watched most of the game when I got home - it is just hard to fathom how anyone watching that game could not scratch their head over the foul disparity. When ESPN announcers proclaim "this is a team that does not foul" and are incredulous of calls you know it's really, really bad officiating. I counted at least 5 fouls that weren't even touch fouls, they were literally called when there was absolutely no contact.
Not sure how far they'll go but I still have a lot of confidence in this team and of course how well JB and his staff coach them up.
Totally agree. I just re-watched the game after getting home from watching it and this team has absolutely nothing to hang their heads about. Yes, scoring slumps are a concern but almost every team has them. Hated to see them lose this one as I thought they played well enough to win for most of the game.
We played a bit loose at the end of the half - probably should have been up by 15 at the half rather than 6 - definitely would have helped.
Down the stretch we just couldn't get anything to drop - even decent shots - just sometimes the way it goes.
I'd like to see statistics on how often a team that shoots 5-7 FTs beats a team that shoots 23-30 FTs.
I know it's bad form to blame refs but when you have ESPN announcers incredulous over calls you know it's really, really bad.
.....?......
Bummer
March 10th, 2019 at 12:33 PM ^
izzo works the refs, Beilein does not
Shouldn't make a difference, BUT DOES
Free throws 30 - 7
March 10th, 2019 at 10:43 PM ^
Looked back briefly at this thread. Surprised no one posted about Winston’s walk in the 1st half. For those who have the game on tape. Watch winston’s Feet when he “draws” the foul on Castle at the 15:32 mark. He comes to a jump stop at the foul line. Maybe can take one more step, he takes three. Then to salt the wound they call the nickle dimer on Castle. Then they open the stitches in the 2nd and call teske for a walk where he takes 2.5 fewer steps than Winston did.
This team settles for too many bad shots and has no way to fight through when things get tough