Yes, today is my 25th birthday, and my birthday week had a great start by being at Crisler to enjoy the Michigan victory over Sparty. It wasn’t the best played game of the season by the Wolverines, but it was good enough to get the very important W. Regardless of winning 3 in a row over MSU, it was just important for this team to come out and play well after 2 subpar games. They needed to get back into a winning mentality, especially entering their toughest part of the season.
Offensively Michigan performed well at times and were extremely frustrating at others. The team finished shooting over 50% for the game for the first time since the Indiana game, but they still only shot 6-21 from 3. This means that Michigan shot an astounding 71% from inside the arc. The game would have been a blowout if the best shooters on the team knocked down their 3 point chances. Many players had wide open looks out of the 21 threes jacked up. Hardaway has taken a major step backwards from last season. I don’t know what is going on in his head sometimes. He basically did absolutely nothing on either end of the floor, not only did he not perform well it looked like he could care less to be on the floor for most of the night. Then with 3 minutes left, Michigan runs 2 plays in a row for Hardaway isolations. Nobody on MSU’s team can keep up with Hardaways quickness or finishing strength around the rim, yet he settles for becoming invisible for most of the game. We need him to play a lot more aggressive. He cannot just continue to go 0- whatever from the 3 point line and let it take him out of his game. He is not Stu or Vogrich, his offensive abilities are not limited to shooting 3s. He is doing himself and his team a disservice by just putting self limits on himself by staying 20-25 feet from the hoop at all times. To show you how little respect Izzo had for our supposed best player and scorer, when Appling (MSU’s best defender) picked up his 3rd foul early in the 2nd half Izzo just switched him from Burke to Hardaway. How did Tim not demand the ball on the next few possessions and take the ball right at Appling? Instead, he stayed in his favorite spot, first row of the stands with Lloyd Carr. First off, Izzo feared Burke more by having Appling defend him, then secondly he thought Hardaway was having such a little impact in the game that instead of sitting his only point guard and best defender he just switched him onto Tim. Izzo’s plan should have backfired immediately, and Hardaway should have went into attack mode and made Appling make a decision to defend or let Tim go by for easy lay ups. If Appling picked up his 4th foul, you could argue that the MSU run would have never happened. Appling made many great decisions on offense to put the ball in open players hands. Also, during their run Appling had 2 rebounds and a steal.
Defensively Michigan played pretty well for most of the game. The Wolverines held the B1G’s most efficient offense to 59 points for the entire game. A big part of their success is that they did not foul. They finished the game with 8 fouls. Usually they have 9-10 in one half. The refs let both teams play physically, and it really helped us get into a defensive rhythm. Burke seems to be one of the most under rated defenders in the conference, and he is becoming one of our leaders on this end as well. Morgan struggled with Payne and Nix at times, but for the most part he fought hard down low and put in his best defensive performance of the year. I know I called out Tim in the offensive section, but I have to do it again on the defensive side. I guess it is pick on Tim day. But he is hands down the worst defender on our team. He had a terrible game again on the most important end of the floor. He gave up 2 threes to Thornton, which doesn’t sound bad, but Thornton can do one thing and that is shoot threes. Both times Hardaway did not close out like he should have, instead he worried about Thornton driving around him off the dribble. Thornton couldn’t dribble drive on me, he is as close to useless on offense as McLimans. Hardaway also got lost on his assignment to guard Kearney when he knocked down the 3 pointer in the corner to give State their first lead. The worst part of his game though is he constantly gives up the baseline, which is the first rule in any defense. The baseline has to become an extra defender, and you cannot let the offensive player between you and the line. Hardaway did this 4 times, that I remember, and all 4 ended in wide open shots because our defense was now way out of position. It led to Greens open 3 at the end of the first half, 2 uncontested layups from the opposite block, and the other 3 that Kearney knocked down. On top of being inept in the man to man defense, Hardaway was constantly out of position while in the 1-3-1. He got beat off the dribble while in a zone, this cannot happen when you are the point person in the 1-3-1. He needs to improve dramatically to even be considered an average defender.
Michigan almost got doubled up in their rebounding efforts Tuesday night. This was mainly due to their overwhelming concern of Appling in the fast break. The Wolverines only used 2 guys to crash the offensive glass, while the other 3 drifted back to stop any transition chances. Then on the defensive end, especially when Nix played, Michigan consistently put one guy in motion to increase the tempo, therefore only using 3-4 players to rebound over 4-5. When we actually did come up with a rebound though, the strategy did work. State struggled in transition defense, Michigan usually came up with a bucket or got fouled. But anytime you get outrebounded 31-18, you are fortunate to win the game.
It was a good turn around game from NW and Iowa, and a huge win for the team and the fans, but which team shows up on Saturday at Arkansas? Michigan has the talent to go through this gauntlet stretch with a winning record, but they also have the ability to look awful and lose the next 5 games. Will this team take the next step and actually compete for a B1G championship?
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