As Michigan fans we love to bounce back and forth from being a football school or a basketball school. It's very convenient for us, when one program is playing better than the other. As Michigan Football has won back-to-back Big Ten Championships, we have found Juwan's program heading in the other direction. When Jimmy's team was playing terribly, we were clearly a Basketball School.
That point was driven home Thursday afternoon in the Big Ten Tournament when Michigan got completely out played by Rutgers. When you get out played by Rutgers in anything, you're having a bad season.
So now what? Juwan has recruited 5-stars and they didn't' develop fast enough and jumped to the NBA, the last recruiting period he was focused more on 4-stars including his son and even though they did improve during the year the development again was not fast enough to secure an NCAA Tournament invite.
What's the answer? I think Juwan has to go after 1 or 2 guys that can put in 30 but also has the hard nose Beilein recruits that play defense, rebound, and give you 10 a game. Michigan also needs solid guard play from the point and shooting guard position. In today's basketball world, if you can't' shoot the 3, you're not going to win many games. I know Juwan loves to develop big guys, but unless you're a unicorn the NBA isn't drafting a ton of centers.
I'm torn if Michigan should accept an NIT bid. I like it for development purposes but I also feel the coaches could use the time recruiting.
Good thing we have Spring Practice!
- Michael Barrett on new Michigan LB Ernest Hausmann “Just his natural athletic ability. He’s smart, fast, can move,” Barrett said. “Just how fast he’s learning the defense, coming along with our guys, blending in, meshing together well with everyone. He’s going to be a great player. I like his enthusiasm, the way he flies around at practice. He always has a smile on his face. He’s going to bring something to this team.”
- If you missed it, at the end of the Big Ten Basketball regular season was the last ESPN broadcast for the Big Ten. That is something like 40 years of coverage. In business, you always take the highest bidder, but watch the Big Ten lose some coverage on Sportscenter which will give the league less exposure.
10 comments:
UM played horribly against Rutgers. No blocking out, no hustle, poor rebounding, and turnover after turnover. That's coaching. Team had a lack of discipline. Way too careless. And oddly enough played worse with Jett in the lineup. I thought these guys all brought something to the table, they just didn't gell. That was a tough watch yesterday!
ESPN sucks. Plain and simple. Their Woke agenda driven programming is unwatchable. Sorry, sports and politics do not mix. I can't and won't watch that fake news network.
They, ESPN, love the SEC more than the Big Ten, anyway.
I Like juwan Howard, but his coaching has to approve the plays that they run when coming out of a timeout are not good and that's a sign of bad coaching
Hasn't this team embarrassed themselves and Michigan enough. Stay out of the NIT. They don't need anymore ridicule.
Not calling for Juwan to get fired, but I really think next season is a make it or break it year. His teams don't really have an identity. They do a lot of stuff ok at times, but nothing really well. They don't shoot well, defense at times is ok, other times they get lost. Team doesn't and hasn't rebounded well for the past 2 seasons at least. At critical moments in the game they unravel! Just kind reminds me of those teams, no matter what the sport, that have guys, but they never gel and become a Team!
I think Juwan is just waiting his kid's time at UM, then he's bolting. Problem is I think his stock is down since his teams aren't producing. He had enough talent to win this year, no doubt about it. He reminded me of Hoke; plenty of talent on the teams but couldn't squeeze the most out of them.
Game 3, against Pitt, the announcers were talking about how far ahead UM was than the previous year. I laughed when they said that. Poor FT shooting was my biggest issue then, and I wasn't sold on the defense and how we played against EMU. I said then, we'd be lucky to be .500 in the Big Ten and would be lucky to make the NCAA Tournament. The CMU game sealed the season, but as a true UM fan I continued to watch, and hope, even though I saw the signs. The February stretch gave me hope that things would turn around, but I still wasn't surprised with how the season ended the last 3 games, exactly how it should have.
The team played better towards the end of the season, but so did others, as expected. We didn't have one and done players last year or this year. We have to be a development program and guys stay for at least 2-3 on the regular. We lost that last year, and it hurt us this year. If we can keep our top 3, as none have a true reason to leave, especially Dickinson unfortunately, then we should contend for the Big Ten and Final Four. In that situation, if we don't contend for the Big Ten and Sweet 16 at worst, then it's coaching and Howard. He's not on the hot seat now, but will be depending on who returns and how bext year plays out
The team almost never had rhythm and even on fastbreaks looked out of sync. Sometimes they wouldn't force things but often looked to make the play called work even when it wasn't there, no emprovising. Shoot the 3 and stand around. How many times in a game can you go on 5 and 6 min. Plus scoring droughts from the field. Defense was suspect at times and pure out hustled in many games. Most all of this is coaching but this year michigan basketball wasn't a good team, period. Please stop recruiting star ratings and recruit players that best fit your system of what your trying to do, well heck maybe that's the first problem, what is coach Howard's teams identity?
Post a Comment