1. I know it's a rivalry, and I hate losing to MSU as much as the next guy, but I stopped caring about the result of the game when Eli Brooks went down. It's no ccident that Rocket Watts went off against the lineups we played. It's no accident that offensive flow struggled all game. Counting stats are great and important. Not everyone is going to have great counting stats--that's why people are called role players. Eli has a huge role in leading and coordinating the defense and moving the ball and spacing the floor on offense. He's also at a position where we have no depth. If Eli's OK, this game is meaningless for us, and only important for them, which is unfortunate, but whatever. If he's not...
2. Zone is one thing--incredibly soft zone is another. The zone was somewhat effective late, then we completely lost Langford down 2, and we were very passive throughout the defensive possession. They didn't even have to do anything to free Langford, a 40% shooter, or make a play and draw help. I would very much liked to have seen them have to make a play--the game was getting away from them, and we put no pressure on them.
3. We're 19-3. In each of the 3 games we lost, none of our big 3, Hunter Dickinson, Isaiah Livers and Franz Wagner, played remotely well on the offfensive end of the floor. This isn't because there is a way to play Michigan--MSU defended us with a different plan than Illinois, which defended us with a different plan than Minnesota. This isn't because certain types of teams give us trouble--we torched MInnesota (while they had their players the first time around), and we got every shot we wanted just 3 days ago against MSU when we weren't turning the ball over. In Hunter's case, teams are attacking the lower body and his base, and whether it's because he's not strong enough there yet, has tired legs, or hasn't adjusted, he's getting pushed off of his spot repeatedly. Franz has gone hot and cold for chunks of the year, and tonight, we wasn't seeing guys on drives like he normally does. Isaiah just missed shots, including an absolute wide open, in rhythm 3 to cut it to 1. 11-31 from those guys is going to turn us into an ugly offensive team, simple as that. 3-24 against Illinois was even worse. That hasn't happened much of the year, so it may just be a lot of games in a compressed period of time leading to inconsistency from one night to the next. Whatever the reason, we can't have none of them come up big in an NCAA tournament game, or we're in danger. As wonderful as it is to be a great, share the ball team, somebody has to be able to saddle up and put guys on their shoulders for the ride when the going gets tough.
4. We only had 8 turnovers, which is fine. However, at least half of those came on bad, lazy passes into the post. Turnovers when attacking are excusable. Entry passes like the ones which got picked off--guys (especially Franz) not even lofting the ball over defenders--is unacceptable. Lots of teaching moments from those.
5. If I'm going to pick the thing which worries me the most from this game, aside from the status of Eli going forward, it's that for the second time in 3 games, we got absolutely hammered on the defensive glass. We have been a very good defensive rebounding team all season until this week. We're getting beat by smaller, quicker guys to the ball, and tonight, for one of the rare times all year, we weren't squeezing rebounds and the ball was pinballing around, generally to MSU.
6. Another thing that bothered me--missed front ends of one and ones. I thought Mike Smith was easily our best player tonight, but missing the front end of a one and one when we had some second half momentum was a killer. Austin Davis missed a front end as well; he's a 50% free throw shooter though, so that was explicable.
7. While, I know this is tough, give some credit to MSU. Watts hit some tough, contested shots he's missed all year. Ditto Hauser in the first half. Bingham corralled some rebounds in traffic. And in general, MSU's defense gave us some problems in both games. They can't score a lot--if teams hit shots against them, they're toast--but they found a way late season to stay in most of their games. If we play them again Friday, we're going to have to do a better job of spacing on offense, and recognizing what's there. I thought there were actions we had which could have worked well, especially if Hunter had adjusted to how he was being played. Make those adjustments and bury shots.
8. We won the Big Ten. We have had a rough 5 days after beating top 10 teams back-to-back in a 5 day period, and looking like the best team in the country. We torched MSU 3 days ago and lost today. I'm not happy, but this happens in basketball. Regroup and move forward. Hope for the best for Eli.
2. Zone is one thing--incredibly soft zone is another. The zone was somewhat effective late, then we completely lost Langford down 2, and we were very passive throughout the defensive possession. They didn't even have to do anything to free Langford, a 40% shooter, or make a play and draw help. I would very much liked to have seen them have to make a play--the game was getting away from them, and we put no pressure on them.
3. We're 19-3. In each of the 3 games we lost, none of our big 3, Hunter Dickinson, Isaiah Livers and Franz Wagner, played remotely well on the offfensive end of the floor. This isn't because there is a way to play Michigan--MSU defended us with a different plan than Illinois, which defended us with a different plan than Minnesota. This isn't because certain types of teams give us trouble--we torched MInnesota (while they had their players the first time around), and we got every shot we wanted just 3 days ago against MSU when we weren't turning the ball over. In Hunter's case, teams are attacking the lower body and his base, and whether it's because he's not strong enough there yet, has tired legs, or hasn't adjusted, he's getting pushed off of his spot repeatedly. Franz has gone hot and cold for chunks of the year, and tonight, we wasn't seeing guys on drives like he normally does. Isaiah just missed shots, including an absolute wide open, in rhythm 3 to cut it to 1. 11-31 from those guys is going to turn us into an ugly offensive team, simple as that. 3-24 against Illinois was even worse. That hasn't happened much of the year, so it may just be a lot of games in a compressed period of time leading to inconsistency from one night to the next. Whatever the reason, we can't have none of them come up big in an NCAA tournament game, or we're in danger. As wonderful as it is to be a great, share the ball team, somebody has to be able to saddle up and put guys on their shoulders for the ride when the going gets tough.
4. We only had 8 turnovers, which is fine. However, at least half of those came on bad, lazy passes into the post. Turnovers when attacking are excusable. Entry passes like the ones which got picked off--guys (especially Franz) not even lofting the ball over defenders--is unacceptable. Lots of teaching moments from those.
5. If I'm going to pick the thing which worries me the most from this game, aside from the status of Eli going forward, it's that for the second time in 3 games, we got absolutely hammered on the defensive glass. We have been a very good defensive rebounding team all season until this week. We're getting beat by smaller, quicker guys to the ball, and tonight, for one of the rare times all year, we weren't squeezing rebounds and the ball was pinballing around, generally to MSU.
6. Another thing that bothered me--missed front ends of one and ones. I thought Mike Smith was easily our best player tonight, but missing the front end of a one and one when we had some second half momentum was a killer. Austin Davis missed a front end as well; he's a 50% free throw shooter though, so that was explicable.
7. While, I know this is tough, give some credit to MSU. Watts hit some tough, contested shots he's missed all year. Ditto Hauser in the first half. Bingham corralled some rebounds in traffic. And in general, MSU's defense gave us some problems in both games. They can't score a lot--if teams hit shots against them, they're toast--but they found a way late season to stay in most of their games. If we play them again Friday, we're going to have to do a better job of spacing on offense, and recognizing what's there. I thought there were actions we had which could have worked well, especially if Hunter had adjusted to how he was being played. Make those adjustments and bury shots.
8. We won the Big Ten. We have had a rough 5 days after beating top 10 teams back-to-back in a 5 day period, and looking like the best team in the country. We torched MSU 3 days ago and lost today. I'm not happy, but this happens in basketball. Regroup and move forward. Hope for the best for Eli.
