MU/Michigan Game Thread

[Vander Blue Man Group]

I don't think I'm overreacting either.  He's now had games of 8, 5, and 0 points.  And only about 20min/game.

I think you are.  He clearly went into the cupcake games with a mindset of facilitating.  Maybe that impacted his performance today.

But sure, put much more weight on this than his performance over the last 20 games of conference play.  That makes total sense. 

[WolfganghisKhan]

Too many people are acting like this was a 20+ win team last year. Sunday will tell us a lot.

[MuggsyB]

I am concerned about Nigel.  WTF is going on with him.  It was easy to say he was deferring against the cupcakes, but maybe that wasn't completely it...

He's thinking way too much Rocky.  Way too hesitant for some reason.  But beyond that he looks somewhat confused in our h-c sets.  I think he needs to get a few transition buckets on Sunday to build his confidence. 

[rocky_warrior]

I think you are. 

Ok, glad we settled that, lol.  I'm not even terribly disappointed in the game.  Hopefully Nigel can self-correct for Sunday.

[jimmybutlerfanatic]

Beyond the meltdowns here after game 3 of the season the direction of this year's team after this game - indeterminate.

This was a 2 or 3 point loss or a W if 2 or 3 of our guys had their usual games.

[warriors141]

Too many people are acting like this was a 20+ win team last year. Sunday will tell us a lot.

Yep, hard to chalk this up to one bad game. This team was awful last year, hate to say it but Parham had a ton of bad games last year...

Fru looked bad, Minnesale good hustle guy but we need more than that, Porter hopefully a gamer but limited by size. Just not a promising start when I hoped it would be. Same crap too, missed bunnies, trash defense, complete offensive confusion.

[mileskishnish72]

Nigel with a minus 26 - gotta be a record.
0-11 from the floor, 1 dime, 4 TO's.
Parham 2-13. And Clark, as bad as he looked,
was only a minus 6 compared to our outstanding
transfer from Germany, who was -17.
I respect the attitude of posters who think
this is one bad game, with several of our main
guys having a bad night, but I don't buy it.
We have problems.

[MuggsyB]

Nigel with a minus 26 - gotta be a record.
0-11 from the floor, 1 dime, 4 TO's.
Parham 2-13. And Clark, as bad as he looked,
was only a minus 6 compared to our outstanding
transfer from Germany, who was -17.
I respect the attitude of posters who think
this is one bad game, with several of our main
guys having a bad night, but I don't buy it.
We have problems.

Let's see how they respond on Sunday. 

[rocky_warrior]

guys having a bad night, but I don't buy it.  We have problems.

I'm trying NOT to focus on it yet, but I certainly did have a little missed layup PTSD tonight lingering from early last season.  We'll see. Michigan is going to be a good team, and it was on the road.  Hopefully some good lessons learned tonight after the cupcake fest.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

I want to say we'll be better shooting across the season than this, but the trend of the last few years is that we probably won't be THAT much better. Defense clearly took a step back once they hit that slump at the start of the second half. Probably couldn't have gone much worse.

Despite all that, there were some things to like. Clark wasn't as bad as some of the comments are gonna make him out to be. Egbuonu looked good. Porter in charge of the offense was really effective. Stevens looked great. In the first half I thought the defense was much improved from where we were against good competition last year. But boy o boy the shooting...

Clark is 7-1 and didn't come down with a single rebound tonight. He looked awesome against the cupcakes, but did not look at all prepared to be factor against high major teams tonight.

[mileskishnish72]

Tower, miss your succinct summations.

[MuggsyB]

Most of our misses at the rim were guys playing off of one foot.  Whatever happened to gathering, using the shot fake if necessary, and softly laying it off the glass?

[Johnny B]

Most of our misses at the rim were guys playing off of one foot.  Whatever happened to gathering, using the shot fake if necessary, and softly laying it off the glass?

Yeah alot of weird low percentage awkward lay up attempts around the rim

[Newsdreams]

Why can't we shoot?  Year after year Shaka's trams are terrible shooters.  Do they only practice defense? You can't win if you can't shoot.

MU only recruits non shooters

[MuggsyB]

We have to be tougher.  I thought we played charmin soft in stretches.  Perhaps we will see more tenacity on Sunday. 

[Newsdreams]

Excellent FT shooting!!

[MuggsyB]

Michigan only had 5 turns.  Our team was crushed tonight in points off turns.   That has to change.  Our defense fuels our offense and Nigel in particular flourishes in transition. 

[Scoop Snoop]

Yeah alot of weird low percentage awkward lay up attempts around the rim

Too often the ball was batted rather than either secured or tipped towards the rim.

[MuggsyB]

Too often the ball was batted rather than either secured or tipped towards the rim.

How many times have I stated emphatically to grab the ball with 2 hands?  1000?  Drives me nuts. 

[mileskishnish72]

Am getting fatigued from the "bad night", outlier attitude. Until this squad shows some cojones against D1 majors, I'll reserve judgment.

[Vander Blue Man Group]

Ok, glad we settled that, lol.  I'm not even terribly disappointed in the game.  Hopefully Nigel can self-correct for Sunday.

I expect him to.

[Scoop Snoop]

Am getting fatigued from the "bad night", outlier attitude. Until this squad shows some cojones against D1 majors, I'll reserve judgment.

When you have only one D1 major game to judge from, how do you get "fatigued" from the "bad night/outlier" attitude?

How have you "reserved judgement"? From what you wrote elsewhere in this thread, I think it is clear that you have already passed judgement.

[BM1090]

Yep, hard to chalk this up to one bad game. This team was awful last year, hate to say it but Parham had a ton of bad games last year...

Fru looked bad, Minnesale good hustle guy but we need more than that, Porter hopefully a gamer but limited by size. Just not a promising start when I hoped it would be. Same crap too, missed bunnies, trash defense, complete offensive confusion.

Win on Sunday and we're 3-1 with a 1-1 Q1 record. That's a good start. If we won today and lost Sunday people would feel fine. Let's see how it goes.

[MuggsyB]

If you were Shaka, what would you be doing in our h-c sets?  I don't see a lot of motion off the ball and we overdribble a lot. 

[K1 Lover]

Win on Sunday and we're 3-1 with a 1-1 Q1 record. That's a good start. If we won today and lost Sunday people would feel fine. Let's see how it goes.

While I do agree with this, it's how we lost that's causing concern. But I agree things should be fine as long as we respond and win convincingly on Sunday.