If you follow my blog at all you might think that football
is my favorite sport, and wrong you would be.
Basketball is number one in my heart, and I apologize for getting this
post out so late. The past few weeks
have been pretty crazy, so hopefully moving forward I will be able to tackle
more Michigan and college basketball. If
you don’t follow college basketball until the NCAA tournament, you might have
missed the Wolverine’s strong start to the season. They currently are sitting
at 3-0 and number 4 in the nation, which happens to be the highest ranking that
I have ever remembered. The only scary part about this is the B1G has 3 teams
in the top 4 (Indiana and Ohio State). We
have time to dive into their rosters and schemes when Michigan matches up with
them in a few months, but for now it is just non-conference season.
The Wolverines have a better non-conference schedule this
year for their “tournament resume,” although hopefully this team will be
nowhere near the bubble and the schedule is the difference between a 1,2, or 3
seed. The highlights before Big Ten play kicks off are NC State, which started
ranked in the top 10 but has lost already, Arkansas at home to get some revenge
from last year, West Virginia, Pittsburgh in NYC as part of the preseason NIT. The Wolverines also play the directional Michigan
schools this season too, which will be fun to see in the new Crisler
Center.
So far this season one thing is very clear to me, this is
the deepest team that Coach Beilein has ever had in Ann Arbor (possibly ever)
and this is the most athletic team that I can truly remember donning the maize
and blue. Just those two words have the
makings of a very good basketball team.
Offensively, Michigan has numerous weapons, and they have started the
season playing very well together.
Returning play-makers include Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr, Jordan Morgan,
and Jon Horford. Lately, Michigan basketball
has not had even 4 guys of this caliber heading into the start of a
season. Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr have
the scoring ability to be All-American contenders, and at the very least all
conference type players. Jordan Morgan
has slimmed down in the off season and has turned into a very solid B1G
center. Jon Horford is coming back from
an injury red-shirt season, but already had played valuable minutes and might
be a more raw athletic talent than Morgan.
It is very possible that the Wolverines could get 42+ points per game
just from these 4 guys.
The new faces include Mitch McGary, Glen Robinson III, Nick
Stauskas, Spike Albrecht, and Carl Levert.
The first two guys are two of the best incoming freshman in the conference. At this point in the season it looks like
McGary is a little out of shape still, but is already the best rebounder on the
team. GRIII on the other hand has come
in ready to dominate already. He is
looking like a future lottery pick in the NBA draft. Nick Stauskas is a dead eye shooter from the
outside that is surprisingly athletic and just has a knack for scoring points.
Spike Albrecht looks college ready as a backup point guard, which this team
desperately needs, and Levert will likely redshirt.
This team gets up and down the court with ease, which should
make the Indiana vs Michigan matchups this season extremely fun to watch. Tim Hardaway seems to have improved in areas
to make him a more complete player (rebounding, defense, and passing), and so
far he has been very efficient on the offensive end. John Beilein has a team here that could
average close to 80 points a game for the entire season, and not just
non-conference. The goal here though
will be for the team to play under control and not go too fast because when
Burke, Hardaway, Robinson, and McGary are on the floor at the same time a
basketball court cannot contain the speed.
On the defensive end of the floor, Michigan needs to make
the most improvement. If things do not
sure up over the course of the season, then they might have to average 80 a
game to be a favored seed (1-4). The freshman
are still learning the different defensive schemes, and game experience should
help them get up to speed quickly. Right
now the team seems a little lazy on defense.
Which makes sense, because scoring the basketball comes easy for
everyone on this team that sees meaningful minutes, but defense takes effort
and practice. That is the biggest reason
why Anthony Davis was such a phenom last season. I have no doubts that this will improve with
the more games that are played.
Overall, this is going to be a very fun team to watch. It is not too often that a high number of
people are ready for the disappointing football
season to be over so they can focus on the cagers. The day has finally come where a Michigan basketball
team matches up with everyone on their schedule, and there really isn’t a team
that I can pencil in a loss at this point.
That is a very good feeling as a fan.
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