Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Michigan Tuesday: Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament Trip Review

 
My family and I got the opportunity to take a long weekend to the Bahamas this past weekend and we attended two Michigan basketball games at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. We watched the Charlotte and Texas games. Being in the Bahamas is a good thing after watching that train wreck on Saturday at noon. Having a few cocktails and walking the beach helps overcome that disaster.

The basketball games were a ton of fun. The venue is just a big ballroom at the Atlantis. The tickets were a bit high but the experience was almost a private basketball game. The ticket prices were $28 for Wednesday and Thursday and $58/$41 for Friday. You could pre-pay for tickets for all 3 of your teams games for $95. There were also prices if you wanted to watch every tournament game. If your wondering, you don't have to stay at the Atlantis to enjoy the games.

Each game probably had a couple hundred people in attendance. We sat right behind Terry Mills as he did his radio broadcast. You could pretty much pick any seat you wanted.  It was a very close setting and could easily hear discussion on the floor or directions from the coaches.    My kids were able to stand on the court as the Wolverines warmed up in pregame. There were also a ton of basketball people around, other head coaches, other teams players, Jay Bilas, and a bunch of NBA scouts.

As far as the Wolverines go, here are a couple of my observations.

  • Spike must be really sore and they are saving him for the Big Ten season, he got very little playing time.

  • Zak Irvin is the team vocal leader.   Most of the guys are quiet during warm-ups, Zak isn't.

  • Michigan continues to have issues with their bigs.  Rebounding continues to be a problem.

  • The roster is full athletes that can shoot the 3 and jump out of the gym.

  • Wagner is going to be a finesse big.  The S&C program over the summer will have great returns for him and I expect he could be a huge star in a couple of years.   He is still pretty raw on defense but his athletic ability will help cover up some of those mistakes.

  • Michigan biggest need right now is better defense, I think it's fixable and will need to be if they are going to make a run in the Big Ten and to the NCAA Tournament.

1 comment:

Scott K said...

Great BB game last night. Wagner is starting to find his way.