John Beilein announced today that Manny and DeShawn will return for next year. This was a foregone conclusion of sorts, but confirmation is nice.

More later, because iPhone is not the optimal blogging device.

Posted under Photo Album

First of all, if you haven’t already checked out the video Dylan posted, you should take some time and do so now.

Done? Alright. A few people have asked me how full Crisler was. There were probably between 1500 and 2000 people all sitting in the lower bowl on the East sideline. That area was pretty full, a few seats here or there, but fairly packed. Apparently, Beilein dind’t originally intend on doing a big event, but as he walked around and saw the cheerleaders’ and managers’ and students’ excitement, he realized that this meant a lot to the entire Michigan community. I’m glad he came to his realization, because it really was a special moment, and it was awesome to experience it with that many other people.

Our good friends at WOLV Student Television were there covering the event. For those of you who don’t know, this blog started out as a companion blog for the show Tim produced about Michigan football. Luckily, we’re still close with WOLV, and they were nice enough to share some pictures:

Furthermore, if you’d like to see some video of the celebration and some interviews, WOLV’s very own Kaitlin Urka put together this piece on the Selection Show event:

Thanks to WOLV for the media, and if you’re in the dorms you can catch original WOLV programming on channel 55.

Posted under Basketball, Photo Album

The path had been set for a while.  Since home February 19th when Michigan beat Minnesota at home, the formula was set: win two of four and one in the Big Ten Tournament. After Iowa it didn’t look like it was going to happen, and then Michigan stunned Purdue and came back against Minnesota.

The stage was set for everything to come together.  They had to play then team that almost ruined the dream.  This time, they didn’t feel like letting the refs have any impact on the outcome.

Michigan could have stopped scoring with 16 minutes left in the second half and still won the game.  It was barely even a contest.

The variables are set and Michigan is in the Tournament.  Let’s think about this for second. In John Beilein’s second year, after only winning 10 games the previous year, with only about two and half players taller than 6’7″, Michigan is in the tournament.

The start of the game was everything a Michigan fan could hope for. The team fed DeShaun Sims every time down the court and got rewarded with Peedi scoring the first 14 points for the good guys.

They slowed down Sims a little (mainly because he went to the bench), but then the 3pt shots started to fall.  Michigan shot over 70% in the first half to Iowa’s mid 30%.  It was over at the half.

The second half was more of the same with Manny getting his rythm from 3.  Hopefully this will carry over to the Illinois game.  It’s not a must win, but this is the best I’ve seen this team play, and if they continue to play like this they can beat anyone in the Big Ten and a good number of teams in the national field.

Sims was owning a bigger player. The spacing was perfect. Manny was able to work some amazing pick and rolls with Peedi.  The defense forced 16 turn overs and was able to run out on most of them.  The only thing I can complain about this game is that Sims should have dunked more.

Michigan 73 – Iowa 45

Enjoy this game, and get out your dancing shoes!

Posted under Basketball

Quick programming update: The first few recaps of info on individual players from the press conference are up on MGoBlog. Subsequent notes will be here throughout the day and maybe a bit tomorrow.

If you want a full recap of the game that’s not obscured by some post work revelry, I suggest you head over to UMHoops and check out Dylan’s always excellent recaps.

For a lot of games in the Big Ten season I’ve found myself repeating the same things over and over again. Indiana/Purdue/Penn St./Illinois can’t keep hitting those shots. They invariably kept hitting them. Michigan can’t keep shooting this poorly all game. They sure could. The refs will actually start calling those hacks on Manny. They never really did. Finally, against Penn St. last night, I was actually right.

In the first half Battle made some ridiculous shots that no one has any business making.  But Michigan kept playing mostly good aggressive defense and eventually it payed off. They held Battle to 3/16 shooting and only 9 points.  This is the guy who has to be the odds on favorite for Big Ten player of the year and he was pretty much stymied.

On the other side, Manny blew up.  He got his 3pt shot to fall early, which seemed to give him a bunch of confidence.  He also, for probably the first time in conference, got to the line like he should. 14 free throw attempts! That has to be the record for him in Big Ten games this year. He didn’t just score either. His final line was 28pts/6reb/7ast/2blks/2stl and only 2 turnovers.  This was easily his best game of the conference season and definitely top 3 on the year.

I’m not sure if Penn St. was doing something different from the first time the two teams met, but it really seemed that Michigan was able to get a lot of cuts moving toward the basket for easy lay ups and dunks. Like I said, I was certainly enjoying myself during this game, so my analysis is lacking, but I feel the big difference was Michigan finally started hitting some outside shots. This stretched out the defense, which allowed for the cuts and for Manny to get into the lane and make things happen.  On top of that, when Michigan is hitting their shots, all the players seem to be much more energetic in the 1-3-1 and force a lot of action.

When Michigan gets going like they did last night, they can hang with most teams in the league, especially at home.  I’m not going to say there’s a chance against UConn, but the performance of Manny and the defense of the entire team gives me hope that Michigan could steal a game down the stretch and maybe win a couple of tournament games.  Every time I think this team in done, they go and play well.

Posted under Basketball

Purdue 67 – Michigan 49

At the end of the first half it was 26-25 Michigan after a last second tip by Gibson as time expired.  The first half Manny was quiet and Novak was suspended. Michigan got some good production from DeShawn Sims early and then the bench brigade, mainly Sheppherd and Gibson, was key in providing a lot of the first scoring.

The first half was pretty brutal offensively overall. Michigan didn’t score for the first 6 minutes of the game yet only trailed by 4 points.  Michigan played tough and hustled hard on defense even though they were overmatched at more than a few positions.

The second half is where it all went to hell. Usually there isn’t a particular play in a basketball game, much less a 18 point blow out,  but this game is defenitely an exception. Like most games, Manny Harris was frustrated as he would go to the basket, get mauled and have to get back on defense when the ref didn’t blow his whistle.  Before the 18 minutes mark in the second half, Manny had the ball outside the 3 point arc on the wing. The defender, Robbie Hummel [UPADTE: It was Kramer. My rage got the best of me], was right up in Manny’s face playing tight D.  Manny brought his arms with the ball around and accidentally caught Kramer in the nose with an elbow.  Kramer went to the ground holding his nose.  There was blood, and the Purdue fans were howling for more. Immediately a foul was called. Manny looked around for a ref, so he could give him the ball. All of a sudden they called it a flagrant personal foul and Manny was heading to the locker room. The rule book (pg 87) says:

Art. 4. Flagrant personal foul, live ball.
A flagrant personal foul shall be a personal foul that involves severe or excessive contact with an opponent or involves contact that is extreme in nature while the ball is live.

I guess there isn’t anything in there about intent, so if the official thinks that the contact is that far out of the realm of normal play, he has every right to throw Manny out. But it wasn’t a dirty play. Manny wasn’t trying to hurt the player; he wasn’t even trying to hit the Purdue player. Obviously it should be a foul. There was contact and the defender had his position, but there shouldn’t have been an ejection for that.

Speaking of the refs, they were pretty awful the entire games. Like most Big Ten crews, they love to call stupid, ticky-tack fouls, yet don’t call muggings at the rim. I really don’t get it, at all.

After that, everything went to hell in a handbasket. Purdue got hot and Michigan was rattled. They couldn’t get anything going offensively and that affected their defensive ability.  Eventually it got to be too much. Around the 11 minute mark, most observers could tell the game was effectively over.

They were able to lead a good Purdue team at the half without Novak, who is arguably Michigan’s 3rd or 4th best player. No way Michigan had a chance without Manny for the second half. Manny averages 32 minutes a game, but only could play 18. Novak averages 26 and played none.  Playing on the road against a team with better talent, it was just too much for this team to overcome.  They played hard, but when Anthony Wright, CJ Lee and David Merrit all have to play serious minutes, the team is not going to win much.

Do you think that the ejection was the wrong call? Let us know in the comments.

Posted under Basketball

Just a few quick thoughts about the hoops game. UFR might not be coming until Tuesday-ish because tomorrow is my birthday and I’ll be busy.

1. After the Wisconsin game, I thought the refereeing might have just been coincidentally slanted in favor of Wisconsin. After this game, I’m starting to think that there’s no way a game would be called so poorly unless the refs actually had something out for us. They wouldn’t call absolute muggings on our end of the floor, and then would call the most ticky-tack fouls on the other side.
2. Zack Novak was a real trooper for getting all bloody-like, then getting stitches during the game and being able to come back in before it ended. The #11 jersey is not nearly as awesome though.
3. Zack Gibson can be surprisingly athletic at times. He wasn’t the player of the game today, but Michigan certainly doesn’t win if he isn’t in there. The block on one end (before which the announcers stated Illinois was about to answer Michigan’s basket on the other side), followed shortly thereafter by the drive and dunk was awesome.
4. Manny Harris was back to being effective, and he wasn’t forcing up too many shots this game. I think he will grade out much better in UFR than he did against Wisconsin.
5. After the Wisconsin game, I think a lot of Michigan fans were depressed that it meant we’d have to be nearly perfect the rest of the way to get to the NCAA tournament. After this game, Michigan has shown they can play poorly and still win as long as they step it up in crunch time. There is still plenty of work to do to secure a tournament bid, but this win certainly makes it look a lot less dire.
6. Kelvin Grady made a layup! If he can do that consistently, this team is a lot better.

Anything else I missed?

Posted under Basketball

<cliche>The shooting inside was as cold as the weather outside</cliche>

This wasn’t the best game Michigan has played.  Neither team was really able to get into any sort of rythm, and the flow wasn’t helped out at all by the referees.  I’m not sure if it was how the FGCU Eagles were playing defense or just a bit of laziness, but Michigan rarely got any sort of penetration or post presence.  While Beilein does believe in the power of the 3pt shot, I’m sure he wasn’t happy with almost 66% (42/64) field goal attempts being from long range, especially when the team wasn’t shooting particularly well.

For a while it didn’t really matter since since FGCU showed why they are in the bottom 10 of RPI.  They didn’t get to double digits until about 3:10 left in the first half, while Michigan had put up a (from just watching the game) very inefficient 27 points.  FGCU went on a run midway through the second half to cut it down to eight.  Eight seems to be the magic number, because then Manny keyed a little run to put the game out of reach.  He didn’t do it with his scoring but rather he finally got some penetration which first led to a Sims dunk.  Manny then drove to the right and kicked out on consecutive plays to Novack then Grady for corner threes.  From there, the game was basically over.

Quick Notes:

• Reed Baker had 16 points and played fairly well.  There were a few people in the crowd really cheering on Reed Baker, which was fine, but when he’s on the line hitting the free throw of a three point play to get them within 8pt, the funnyness is gone, and you should root for your team.
• DeShawn Sims was definitely the MVP for Michigan this game.  He went a very efficient 20/20 with 5 offensive rebounds.  He generally took good shots and was a force inside on the glass and with the ball.
• Manny Harris had another quiet game and sat on the bench quite a bit after picking up a couple offensive fouls.  In the Oakland game, he was still able to get penetration and make plays happen.  He was much more passive tonight.
• Laval Lucas-Perry played fairly well, but doesn’t look as comfortable in the offense as the other guards out there.  This will come with time.  He was still able to make some shots (2/3 from deep) and get to the rim and free throw line.  He does look like the third guy to get into double figures most nights.
• Zack Novack, Jevohn Sheppard Stu Douglass, Zack Gibson were never really able to get going.  Gibson missed his outside shots and did his Courtney Simms impression whenever he got inside.  Novack and Douglass never really got their shots going and Sheppard was never in the game enough get his rhythm.
• There was dumb fan behind me saying we needed to post up when there was Grady, LLP, Novack, Lee and Gibson in the game.  I respectfully disagree,

Posted under Basketball

Since I plan (hope) to do something a little more in-depth about this game as an experiment, I’ll just give a few brief thoughts on the game.

LLP

He can definitely shoot the open three. He was 4-6 from behind the arc, though the first few looks he got were wide, wide open. He only played 16 minutes (6th on the team), which was probably a good way to ease him in. What I thought was more interesting was the fact that he never played at the 1 spot. Going in, most observers thought he’d be taking away point guard minutes from former walkon David Merritt, while leaving Kelvin Grady’s playing time intact. Instead, LLP took away minutes from former walkon CJ Lee, and maybe Jevohn Shepherd.

Personnel

“How did he take away time from Jevohn Shepherd?” you may ask. Perhaps it actually had nothing to do with the availability of Laval, but this game, the coaches went a with a very small lineup very often. Grady or Merrit played the 1 spot, and two other shooting guards were on the court at the same time. Somehow, having Stu Douglass and Zack Novak on the court at the same time failed to rip a hole in the space-time continuum. Regardless, this was an intereting lineup choice, and it will be interesting to see whether it is something the coaches see as being viable in the long-term, or if it was a one-time (or few-time) deal against a particular weakness they saw in Oakland. Also, Anthony Wright didnt’ play a second in this game. That can only be construed as a good thing.

Rebounding

Michigan actually managed to out-rebound the Golden Grizzlies, which is an encouragin sign. Not only did Oakland have a fairly large lineup (especially when they played 7-footer Ilja Milutinovic), but Michigan went with a small lineup for much of the game. When you look at the rebounds that went through players’ hands (hopefully bad luck, rather than a pattern), there is even more room for improvement here, which could certainly aid the fortune of Michigan down the line, as Beilein’s teams have never rebounded all that well, and it would be a boon if they could.

Manny & DeShawn

Harris had a quiet first half, not scoring at all. He came back in the second half to notch 15 points, but it wasn’t his scoring that made Manny important in this game. He notched 13 assists without a single turnover. He had 6 rebounds, making him 4 away from a triple-double. If this is considered an “off night” for Manny, imagine what he can be when he is truly on. I think in the future, the role players are going to continue stepping up, so Manny doesn’t have to take control in every game. That said, he will still be capable of doing so when his team needs him. DeShawn Sims, on the other hand, produced consistently throughout the game, and scored a game-high 20 points. He still had a slightly slow first half, and again the role players proved they can help the team survive slumps by the stars.

Etc.

Was it just me, or did the rims in the Palace seem reallllly soft? There were a few times where shots just died on the rim, and then fell in. There were some really ridiculous bounces on free throws that ended up dropping in as well.

The refs were crappy (as they so often are). Of course, it may be my bias speaking, but I thought a slight majority of the poor calls went against Michigan. When I watch the game more closely, I reserve the right to change my mind.

Posted under Basketball

At some point during the first half of the basketball game against Duke, I decided that I was going to go to the basketball game against Eastern Michigan.  As opposed to previous years, I have actually enjoyed watching this team play.  They are generally likeable players who are well coached and play hard for the entire game.  I remember watching the teams with Horton, Hunter, Abrams, among others, trying to win games and do well, but failed by their coach.  Watching Tommy Amaker stand there and wave his finger as though that meant anything other than pass it around the perimeter then let Horton make a huge play was one of the most frustrating things to watch.

I saw flashes of the Beilein system last year and was really excited for the season this year.  This year with only a few new contributors (Novak and Douglass) Beilein has made this into a very entertaining and, more importantly,  competative team.  I’m committed now to attend as many games as I can.  Tim is probably going to head to the Big Ten Championship.  This is almost exclusively the result of Beilein’s coaching.  He has, in less time than I ever thought possible, made Michigan Basketball relevant on campus again.  Now there’s a plan for a new practice facility going before the Regents in January.  This is a program on the rise, and I can see Beilein getting Michigan getting this team all the way with the right personnel and a bit of luck.

Eastern Michigan Specifically

• The attendance was actually fairly impressive for a game where most of the students are either home or studying for exams.  Granted the fact that the “away” team was a defacto second home team and student tickets are free, but no way would this game be that well attended last year.
• It was kind of weird that they never announced at the game that Beilein wasn’t there.  I didn’t know until someone texted me.
• If you told me that Manny Harris would be held to 2 points in the first half and DeShawn Sims wasn’t all that effective either, no way I would have guessed that Michigan would have a 10 point lead.
• No one can stay in front of Kelvin Grady.  I actually look forward to seeing teams trying to press him.
• Manny Harris has this ability to get wherever he wants on the floor whenever he wants.  It’s a bit absurd how he can knife through  the defense.  It wasn’t just against Eastern, either; he was able to do it against UCLA and Duke.
• Jevohn Shepherd may be my favorite player on the team.  He doesn’t have the tools of Sims or Harris, but he’s gone from being an afterthought to a very solid contributor.  He even carried the team a while in the first half.
• The biggest applause of the game was when Lloyd Carr walked in during half time.

Posted under Basketball

Tim bought tickets for the Duke game on a whim earlier this year. Before the season started, we figured it would at least be a big game with national coverage. After the UCLA game, it started to look like it might be winnable. After the first Duke game, we figured the team could at least make a game of it.

I haven’t been to that many basketball games, but this was the best crowd I have ever seen at Crisler. There were times that it was absolutely ready to explode, but it rarely got to that next, euphoric level. There was a Novak three point attempt that just rimmed out, a Manny Harris missed dunk (which was a horrible no call), and a lot of other times Duke was able to come down and get a big basket. I know Tim and I felt impending doom, and it seemed like the crowd as a whole had that feeling. We all wanted to believe, but Michigan could never pull away and Duke kept hitting big shots.

What I thought really showed that this team has really gotten to the “next level” was the start of the second half. Duke went on a run and there were a 3 or 4 calls that went against Michigan (not all of them “bad” calls, but rather calls that could reasonably be no-calls). Duke got a bit of a lead and the “here we go again” feeling started setting in. Then, Michigan went on their own run. Novak hit a monster three-pointer from both corners, and Manny was able to knife through Duke’s defense and get to the basket. Suddenly Michigan was up 5 or so. Watching the Maryland game, I kept thinking that all they needed was a basket, stop and a basket to have a chance at winning that game. They weren’t able to do that, but at home, against Duke, they pulled together and stopped the run and put together one of their own. Duke didn’t seem to play particularly poorly either. They ran their offense efficiently and looked decent on defense.

A few random things:

• Manny Harris can’t be stopped. He seems to be able to get to the basket at will, regardless of who he’s playing against.
• DeShawn Simms was on fire in the first half and came up with some big offensive rebounds in the second half.
• Zack Novak is quickly becoming one of my favorite players. He is absolutely fearless shooting the ball.
• Did Anthony Wright even take a shot? Weird…
• I feel comfortable with Kelvin Grady breaking any press that’s thrown at him. He has great speed and some nice moves. He just needs to finish more consistently. He was clutch at the end.
• Rushing the court at the end of the game is completely acceptable. Tim and I didn’t participate (we were in the nosebleeds), but this is one of the biggest wins in the post-sanctions era.
• I wish I could have heard the interview between Bilas and Beilein. Awkward! The shot was absolutely awesome with Beilein in front of a bunch of crazy fans. Maybe this is a result of blogging, but our first thought was “this will be awesome for recruiting”

Posted under Basketball