1. Wow. This team has stones. We were clearly a step slow in the first half--that's more defensive breakdown and lapses than I've seen in the last 10 games put together, and then we absolutely put the screws to Wisconsin in the second half on the defensive end. It's not like the Badgers got good shots and missed; we suffocated them, especially D'Mitrick Trice. Just a great, great effort.
2. We ran the offense today through Isaiah Livers drove more, posted up more, and attacked more than he has all season, and he did so successfully. He took sixteen shots, which is a lot on this team, and I actually wish he had taken more. He also rebounded well in traffic, including a few early on the offensive end, and made money 3s. In the unusual situation we found ourselves in, your senior leader has to step up. Isaiah really did. If he can consistently do the things he did today against a very good defensive team, we're going to be even better, and he's going to be making himself some real money next season.
3. Which brings us to another senior, Eli Brooks. If you only watched the offensive end, you'd conclude that Eli was way, way off today, and you'd be right--he missed a lot of shots pretty badly, and wound up 2-11 from the floor. On the other hand, if you watched only the defensive end, he was the clear MVP--he shut down Trice, defended successfully when he got switched onto bigs even on post-ups, and forced Wisconsin to run its offense from way outside and deep in the shot clock.
4. Hunter Dickinson was big time. He missed some shots he customarily makes, but he was fantastic on the glass including key offensive rebounds, block 5 shots and altered a lot more, and even got out on their bigs on the perimeter. I wish he'd have played more--maybe though, that was a conditioning thing after the lay-off. Austin Davis plays hard, and he does some very good things on the offensive end, but our defense takes a real shot when he's in there, especially against a team like Wisconsin with perimeter bigs and a focus on driving the lane. And Brandon Johns seemed out of sorts today in his brief stint. We needed Hunter desparately down the stretch, and he and Isaiah carried us on the offensive end during that time.
5. Wisconsin did a truly great job in transition defense--we had a number of fast break opportunities off of turnovers, and never really got anything going. We also seemed off on timing on the breaks; again, that may have been a bit of rust, but give credit to Wisconsin.
6. There were some weird calls in that game. Davis's "continuation" in the first half was bizarre. I don't know what the "basketball move" is in throwing your off arm elbow sideways and directly into the nose of a defender as Davison did. In addition to that play, Mike Smith (who played very well, and very tough--the clear-out for an and one right after the Davison elbow was just a triumph of will) got absolutely destroyed on a couple of drives to the rin with no calls. And I don't know what the technical on us was on the Davison elbow play--maybe we yelled something and deserved it--but when your guy is lying on the ground holding his head, perhaps a bit of leeway might be reasonable.
7. Franz Wagner's outside shot looked purer than it has with the exception of the strange, heat check, step back 3 he took (please don't take that one again, Franz). He had a bit of trouble with the smaller, quicker Davis on the defensive end, but (a) Davis is goig to be a very, very good player for Wisconsin, and (b) he made some tough shots.
8. We got out with a win with one of Chaundee Brown's worst performances of the season on both ends of the floor, and with Johns doing nothing much either. I expected to see a lengthier rotation in the first game back--instead, we saw six guys get the vast bulk of the minutes. We've been getting strong contributions all year off the bench--if we make up a significant number or all of the games missed, we'll need those contributions to continue.
9. Nice to watch Michigan hoops again, and to watch them win in a tough place under tough conditions.
2. We ran the offense today through Isaiah Livers drove more, posted up more, and attacked more than he has all season, and he did so successfully. He took sixteen shots, which is a lot on this team, and I actually wish he had taken more. He also rebounded well in traffic, including a few early on the offensive end, and made money 3s. In the unusual situation we found ourselves in, your senior leader has to step up. Isaiah really did. If he can consistently do the things he did today against a very good defensive team, we're going to be even better, and he's going to be making himself some real money next season.
3. Which brings us to another senior, Eli Brooks. If you only watched the offensive end, you'd conclude that Eli was way, way off today, and you'd be right--he missed a lot of shots pretty badly, and wound up 2-11 from the floor. On the other hand, if you watched only the defensive end, he was the clear MVP--he shut down Trice, defended successfully when he got switched onto bigs even on post-ups, and forced Wisconsin to run its offense from way outside and deep in the shot clock.
4. Hunter Dickinson was big time. He missed some shots he customarily makes, but he was fantastic on the glass including key offensive rebounds, block 5 shots and altered a lot more, and even got out on their bigs on the perimeter. I wish he'd have played more--maybe though, that was a conditioning thing after the lay-off. Austin Davis plays hard, and he does some very good things on the offensive end, but our defense takes a real shot when he's in there, especially against a team like Wisconsin with perimeter bigs and a focus on driving the lane. And Brandon Johns seemed out of sorts today in his brief stint. We needed Hunter desparately down the stretch, and he and Isaiah carried us on the offensive end during that time.
5. Wisconsin did a truly great job in transition defense--we had a number of fast break opportunities off of turnovers, and never really got anything going. We also seemed off on timing on the breaks; again, that may have been a bit of rust, but give credit to Wisconsin.
6. There were some weird calls in that game. Davis's "continuation" in the first half was bizarre. I don't know what the "basketball move" is in throwing your off arm elbow sideways and directly into the nose of a defender as Davison did. In addition to that play, Mike Smith (who played very well, and very tough--the clear-out for an and one right after the Davison elbow was just a triumph of will) got absolutely destroyed on a couple of drives to the rin with no calls. And I don't know what the technical on us was on the Davison elbow play--maybe we yelled something and deserved it--but when your guy is lying on the ground holding his head, perhaps a bit of leeway might be reasonable.
7. Franz Wagner's outside shot looked purer than it has with the exception of the strange, heat check, step back 3 he took (please don't take that one again, Franz). He had a bit of trouble with the smaller, quicker Davis on the defensive end, but (a) Davis is goig to be a very, very good player for Wisconsin, and (b) he made some tough shots.
8. We got out with a win with one of Chaundee Brown's worst performances of the season on both ends of the floor, and with Johns doing nothing much either. I expected to see a lengthier rotation in the first game back--instead, we saw six guys get the vast bulk of the minutes. We've been getting strong contributions all year off the bench--if we make up a significant number or all of the games missed, we'll need those contributions to continue.
9. Nice to watch Michigan hoops again, and to watch them win in a tough place under tough conditions.
