I'm even more puzzled after looking at the box score.
In the 2nd half, MAAR played all 20 minutes, Wagner 15, Matthews, Robinson and Simpson 14 each. Nobody else, obviously played more than 6 minutes.
Out of the five players that played most of the half, the leading scorer was .. Zavier Simpson, with 4 points. The other four players combined for 6 points - 2 each except for Robinson who was shut out. Those other four shot a combined 1-for-20 from the field.
You could see it wasn't working. So why did we not see more of Brooks, Poole, Livers and Teske? Even Simmons had solid time in the first half.
Michigan has legit final 4 potential this season. They have the 20th adjD and 49th adjO.
Gotta imagine that offense is going to contibue to ascend into top 30 territory now that the rotation, particularly at point guard, appears set. And of course, Belein teams always trend upward.
I've got them as a team people aren't going to want to play in the tournament, but not quite strong enough to go deep. It's really important that they win enough games to get off the 8/9 seed lines.
I didn't think Zavier Simpson played as well today as he did against Iowa, but he did play better in the 2nd half. He needs to continue to improve on the offensive end.
Beilein continues to make interesting choices in terms of the substitution pattern, all kinds of different combinations. Today's twist was Robinson and Livers on the floor at the same time. Probably good for defense if Robinson can bump down to the 3 when Matthews is out of the game.
Big time game for your Michigan Wolverines tonight.
This would count as a quadrant/tier 1 win for either team. Road wins vs top 75 RPI are quad 1 and home wins vs top 30 rpi are quad one. Purdue will assuredly finish in the top 30 of rpi (theyre currently 15th)regardless of outcome tonight and Michigan is a lock for top 75(37th I believe rn).
So someone is getting that coveted tier 1 win that the committee has openly said they will be weighing heavily for seeding.
Mo should be able to pull Haas away from the basket or just bomb open 3s vs him.
Im hoping Haas will get Mo in early foul troyble or just score at will in the post.