Well the basketball team couldn't avoid a bad loss all season I guess. They have kept playing with fire during the Minnesota and Northwestern games, but today they made sure it all came together to complete one of the most embarassing losses in the B1G this season.
I feel like I have to give Iowa some credit for punching Michigan in the face today, but I can't. Iowa is a terrible, awful, poorly coached basketball team. The only good thing that I can say about them is that they will not finish in 11th or 12th place in the conference. Michigan has more talent at every position on the floor, yet they proved that any team is able to beat the Wolverines when they are not focused on playing basketball.
I was surprised to see them come out so flat for the second game in a row. I really didn't think the seniors would allow it to happen. The one thing that Michigan had going for them in the first half was Trey Burke scoring a quick 6 points. He looked determined to keep Michigan in the game, but then he picked up his 2nd foul with 12 minutes left of the half. It is the same situation that happened in the game vs Virginia earlier this season. Beilein again chose to take out one of his star players for the remainder of the half. During this time, not only did Michigan look completely inept on the offensive end but Burke got extremely cold on the bench. Burke averages 2 fouls per game, and I think Coach B made the wrong decision again in this situation. Sometimes he needs to trust his players not to pick up that 3rd foul. And really, even if Burke did pick up another foul then you can just sit him the rest of the game. It is close to impossible to get Burke fouled out of a game. He is smart enough to run our offense so well, then he is smart enough to know he can't get another foul. Alright, enough of that.
Defensively Michigan looked awful. They allowed way too many layups to an unathletic team. They got outrebounded by 7 to a terrible rebounding team, and somehow they gave up 10 offensive rebounds. Iowa was also helped out by some pretty questionable calls and very dumb fouls that resulted in 28 free throw attempts (11 more than Michigan). The Wolverines played with no energy or intensity for the 2nd game in a row. The only saving grace on Wednesday night was that they turned it around a bit in the 2nd half. Today they slept walked through all 40 minutes. I mean, come on guys, Iowa just got done losing by 29 and 34 points in 2 games. How do you give up 75 points, and almost lose by 20?
Offensively we played even worse. In my preview I said Michigan needs to attack the middle because Iowa was likely to play some matchup zone. It is the only way an overmatched team is able to stay in a game, if the other team just shoots threes (and misses). Well Michigan played perfectly into the trap. For the 2nd straight game we shot over 30 threes in a game. There is no reason why they had to shoot even 20. Today was an absolute joke. Jordan Morgan was 1-1 from the floor. I didn't make a mistake, yes the 2nd leading shooter in the B1G got 1 shot attempt off. On the other hand the 3 starting guards finished 14-37 for the game. Hardaway finished the game 0-8 from the 3 point line, are you serious?!? Why is he not attacking the hoop. Iowa could put any 3 guys on him, and Hardaway is still more athletic than those guys combined. His basketball IQ has to be nearly as low as Smot's. Iowa should not be a team that we need to make 15 threes to win. I could go on and on, but I should stop here... you get the idea though, today was an embarassment.
It was the perfect opportunity to keep up with MSU in the standings (and right now they are down by 10 so we should be tied for the conference lead). Now Michigan is just starting to get into the most difficult part of their schedule. They play 6 of 8 games on the road, and a lot of these 8 games are against the top teams in the B1G and a pretty good Arkansas team. The loss today makes Tuesday night vs MSU a very high pressure game. If we cannot take care of home court, Michigan could go on a 7 game losing streak. Right now I am the lowest on this basketball team as I have been all season. Will they respond over the next 3 weeks? Today's game could serve as an eye opener, or it could be the beginning of a very disappointing season. I still think they have enough talent to finish in the top 3/4 of the conference, but they will need to find someway to win a few games on the road because right now they are 0-3 on the season. I believe in the leadership from Novak to make today an opportunity to improve for the rest of the season, but it will be very difficult.
No comments:
Post a Comment