Game thoughts
1. I'm speechless. I never complain about overall refereeing in a game--calls, yes, but not as a whole. Never. I was sitting two rows from the floor, and that was a complete freaking joke. Words cannot describe how bad that was. I don't know whether we would have won with competent refereeing--Wisconsin is a very good team, especially on the offensive end of the floor. I do know that we can only guess, because we didn't get it. Period.
2. MAAR and Zak did a great job playing through very hard contact (which apparently is permissible, at least in Lamont Simpson's mind). Those guys are going to give us a dimension in the lane we haven't had previously.
3. Again, Zak was a man. He's now versatile enough to play 2G and strong enough to do a decent job guarding Hayes (and even, in occasion, Kaminsky) on the block. A lot of guys improve from one year to the next--for a non-freshman to improve as much from the first half of a season to the second is very impressive.
4. Ricky played pretty well--he rolled and finished better, and once got and held position in the low block, took a nice post entry feed from Kam and finished. He needs to work on his rebounding and passing out of the post. Wisconsin's bigs can really pass, which makes it extremely difficult to double them, and leads to open shots. Ricky needs to get stronger. He will be at Camp Sanderson as will the other freshmen (Chatman, Dawkins, MAAR and Wilson.
5. Spike is very, very good offensively, and there are teams without 2 guards who can drive (like Illinois) where we can hide him defensively. Against other teams, a healthy Derrick will really help defensively. We couldn't keep their guards out of the lane.
6. Beilein loves this team going forward. That's evident listening to him and watching him. And, as noted, the younger kids (and perhaps others) are going to be in Ann Arbor all summer. I cannot wait for next year.
7. My hope is that Zak takes Aubrey under his wing and helps guide the improvement process as to his deficiencies--Rebounding (especially box outs), defense, ball and passing skills. Athletically, Aubrey has everything it takes to be elie. Zak has turned into a leader. If Aubrey improves in the same areas that Zak needed work on to the same extent, he's going to be a great player.
8. Before the last 2 days, I was indifferent as to whether we played in the NIT. Now I want it--I don't know how much it would help, but I'd like to watch them continue to play and grow. I don't think it will happen though.
9. Have I mentioned how much the refereeing sucked. Seriously, there were over 5,000 games this year played by DI teams. I'd like to know if there were any others where a team did not commit 7 (or in this case, 6) fouls for the entire game.
1. I'm speechless. I never complain about overall refereeing in a game--calls, yes, but not as a whole. Never. I was sitting two rows from the floor, and that was a complete freaking joke. Words cannot describe how bad that was. I don't know whether we would have won with competent refereeing--Wisconsin is a very good team, especially on the offensive end of the floor. I do know that we can only guess, because we didn't get it. Period.
2. MAAR and Zak did a great job playing through very hard contact (which apparently is permissible, at least in Lamont Simpson's mind). Those guys are going to give us a dimension in the lane we haven't had previously.
3. Again, Zak was a man. He's now versatile enough to play 2G and strong enough to do a decent job guarding Hayes (and even, in occasion, Kaminsky) on the block. A lot of guys improve from one year to the next--for a non-freshman to improve as much from the first half of a season to the second is very impressive.
4. Ricky played pretty well--he rolled and finished better, and once got and held position in the low block, took a nice post entry feed from Kam and finished. He needs to work on his rebounding and passing out of the post. Wisconsin's bigs can really pass, which makes it extremely difficult to double them, and leads to open shots. Ricky needs to get stronger. He will be at Camp Sanderson as will the other freshmen (Chatman, Dawkins, MAAR and Wilson.
5. Spike is very, very good offensively, and there are teams without 2 guards who can drive (like Illinois) where we can hide him defensively. Against other teams, a healthy Derrick will really help defensively. We couldn't keep their guards out of the lane.
6. Beilein loves this team going forward. That's evident listening to him and watching him. And, as noted, the younger kids (and perhaps others) are going to be in Ann Arbor all summer. I cannot wait for next year.
7. My hope is that Zak takes Aubrey under his wing and helps guide the improvement process as to his deficiencies--Rebounding (especially box outs), defense, ball and passing skills. Athletically, Aubrey has everything it takes to be elie. Zak has turned into a leader. If Aubrey improves in the same areas that Zak needed work on to the same extent, he's going to be a great player.
8. Before the last 2 days, I was indifferent as to whether we played in the NIT. Now I want it--I don't know how much it would help, but I'd like to watch them continue to play and grow. I don't think it will happen though.
9. Have I mentioned how much the refereeing sucked. Seriously, there were over 5,000 games this year played by DI teams. I'd like to know if there were any others where a team did not commit 7 (or in this case, 6) fouls for the entire game.
