I'll give credit to Michigan

Michigan is an underrated team and they have a lot of talent. Sims and Harris are extremely legit. Sims was clearly better than any big we had guarding him and he absolutely destroyed Jon Williams all day long. Harris is a big time player he stepped up and hit some big shots. Lucas-Perry has a lot of potential but he was clearly playing above his head today (6-7 FG, 3-4 3s), but hey he got hot, it happens.

Also a lot of credit to Beilein for his coaching, he exposed the mismatchs on offense and when he switched into zone he slowed down our offense big time, we were trash against the zone today.

That being said, that Michigan is a good team, they are much softer than we are and we killed them on the boards 25-11, we should have finished them off, we had the chance. Chance(s).

What Up Guy said:

Michigan is an underrated team and they have a lot of talent. Sims and Harris are extremely legit. Sims was clearly better than any big we had guarding him and he absolutely destroyed Jon Williams all day long. Harris is a big time player he stepped up and hit some big shots. Lucas-Perry has a lot of potential but he was clearly playing above his head today (6-7 FG, 3-4 3s), but hey he got hot, it happens.

Also a lot of credit to Beilein for his coaching, he exposed the mismatchs on offense and when he switched into zone he slowed down our offense big time, we were trash against the zone today.

That being said, that Michigan is a good team, they are much softer than we are and we killed them on the boards 25-11, we should have finished them off, we had the chance. Chance(s).

Click to expand...

Jon Williams had no business being in the game All Day Long.

Minnesota played poorly in the 2nd half. Period.

I think the margin on the boards was much larger than that...we were in the 30's i do believe

We didn't lose ground when big John was in there. Not saying we wouldn't have done better if he was on the bench, just saying I don't think he deserves being ripped for this loss. We never lost ground while he was in there. If there was a +/- for his minutes I'm pretty sure it's on the plus side.

Was Sims 3's John's assignment. I didn't think it was. Were we in man to man? I thought DJ had that. Anyway, a big guy with a tall J is not easy to stop. If he's on there aint nobody stopping that shot. Unless you're a bigger guy with hops.

Telling stats

You can say all you want about the 9 threes Michigan made (41% from the arc). We shot 55% overall and killed them on the boards 30-13. How did we lose the game? 18 turnovers to Michigan's 9. Story of the season. I still believe we will be dancing after all is said and done.

GoldysArmy said:

I still believe we will be dancing after all is said and done.

Click to expand...

I agree.

Yes, it's quite likely we will still be in the NCAA tournament as long as we avoid a bad loss in the BTT, meaning, if we play Iowa, win it. Just too many other bubble teams have completely blown it.

Yeah, you have to give Michigan some credit. Sims was hitting shots from everywhere, #31 is going to be a great player for them, and Harris obviously is a great player.

The problem for us today, and in the first game for that matter, is that Michigan hit their 3's. In the 16 games they played in the Big Ten outside ours, they only shot 31% from 3. In the two games against us, they shot 44%. You can blame our defense but not getting out to guard them better, but when any teams shoots 44%, they're going to have a great shot to win, especially when you put up 25 threes a game like they do.

Why We Lost...

How can a team dominate in the paint and on the boards and lose like this?

1) Turnovers...I think this is the biggest factor. Eighteen turnovers and the Wolverines had 9. There were lazy passes, poor ball handling in traffic and general sloppiness. This stuff should be under control at this stage of the season. Very disappointing.

2) Can't shoot the three. Hoff really has hurt us with his weak outside shot this year. Nolen just is not a good shooter at this point. And LW is inconsistent. We need a guy who is a three point assassin. I am sure Tubby thought Blake was that guy going into the season.

3) Lapses in defending the three point shot. We owned the paint. They had to beat us with perimeter game. And we let them do it. There were times we defended the three and other times there was a complete lack of intensity and recognition to stop the three.

Turnovers and defense are a result of discipline and hard work. They are very fixable and I am sure Tubby is very disgusted with the effort here during stretches of the game. Poor perimeter shooting is another story....will Hoff ever get his mojo back? Who will finally step up to take that assassin's role?