Depth is just such an issue for us this year. We’ve got 7 guys who can play right now. Davis is a liability out there.

There’s also the problem of Simpson being an awful shooter. We still need to figure out what to do when defenses pack it in and keep Simpson out of the paint.

IMO Davis shouldn't see the floor again this season. Dude is a division 2 player. Cant defend, cant score, cant catch a ball that's passed to him.

Get Johns some of his burn, what more does Beilein need to see? I wanna see some DeJulious too

Saw iggy on campus, scary intimidating guy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

One way or another

X is gonna get ya

At the start of the season I thought this looked like an extremely serious threat for the national championship. The last three games, not so much. It's not reason to panic. Undefeated is awesome. But I haven't liked what I've seen the last three games through the prism of, is this a national championship team? Hopefully the last three games are just a temporary blip due to 1) you can't get fired up for everyone, 2) finals, 3) just taking a breath before ramping it up for the second half of the regular season. I was really hoping the way we looked against Villanova, North Carolina was the new normal for a truly dominant team. I vote for that over winning ugly.

Livers looks so much better this year now that hes healthy. Poole looks like a pro. Kind of crazy that Rivals didnt have either top 100 in their class.

Poole was ranked #106 and Livers was #137 so they weren't that far off. Also, Beilein recruits to fit his system so players that rank lower on a traditional scale would rank higher if you rank them on the skillset that Beilein seeks.

And I agree, Livers looks like a completely different and greatly improved player this season. Last year he was starting, but rarely did much to stuff the stat sheet.

My point is its hard to believe Poole wasnt a top 50 guy. Hes athletic, can shoot, can dribble, has good size for his position.

I guess I can understand it more with Livers since hes kind of undersized for a PF at 6'6/6'7ish.

I really hope that at the end of the year someone compiles a video of all of X’s hook shots.

It's so awesome.

I love Simpson so much. I love that he was so pissed off at losing the title game last year that he spent the entire offseason developing a brand new shot to increase his effectiveness when he gets in the paint. It's such a sick weapon for an undersized guy without elite speed, but will get ample opportunities to drive to the hole, and the fact that he developed it by himself during the offseason is such a testament to his drive and will to compete.

On another subject, I was listening to a podcast this morning (The Moving Screen, Brendan Quinn from the Athletic and Dylan from UMhoops, it's alright) and there was a comment that Johns had a +/- of minus-5 while on the floor. I was only half paying attention when I watched the game last night (on tape) so i didn't really have a sense of how well he meshed as a whole but the effort level and switches on D seemed good at a superficial level and obviously had a couple of key baskets.

I don't expect he'll get a lot of time going forward but it is entirely possible that he displaces Austin Davis ASAP (though I do actually think Davis would be not terrible if he could just not commit a foul-a-minute).

Great point. I am always surprised that any player fails to spend an entire offseason adding one brand new tool to his toolbox. Work on it every day. Then the next offseason add something else new. It's an easy way to improve greatly. I guess a lot of people don't think that way though.

Less than 2 minutes into the Illinois game, pass out to X for an in-rhythm three and he knocks it down like he was Trey Burke. Damn.

Another pretty 3pt stat line for Simpson. If this dude starts making people pay for leaving him open this team is seriously unbeatable.

Seeing Teske get fed for 3s and Simpson taking a heat check 3 in the same game is really something.

Yeah if Teske and Simpson start hitting from outside, our offense becomes much more difficult to guard.

Just having to respect the range from both of those guys should open up lanes for Matthews and Iggy.

Down goes Duke! Down goes Duke! Down goes Duke! We are on the verge of being ranked #1.

In this day and age of March Madness national title or bust I don't know why this still makes me giddy with anticipation/excitement but it does.

I know this team is technically the best team we've had (prob close between this team and 2012), but I just don't have the same optimistic feeling about this squad coming into the tournament that I had last year or 2012/2013.

I just hate that in late game situations, our offense just doesn't seem like it has any go to options to find a bucket when we need one.

It's weird, I almost think they have too many go to options, to the point where they hesitate in choosing between them. Yesterday, the last play was a designed Iggy drive, something we saw several times. That's an option they like. Matthews driving is another option, though I suspect with his struggles with the turnaround he's more reluctant to be that guy. Poole is always an option, if he'd been having any kind of game I think he gets the last shot but given that he missed everything he looked at including free throws I get why the play wasn't drawn up for him. Simpson is always an option especially now that he's a hooker and if Teske's in the game to take a pick and roll pass.

The one thing they don't have is that guy you think is never going to miss from 3. Poole and Livers are good shooters. By the numbers they may even be excellent shooters. But I at least never have the feeling that I did with Stauskas (and to a lesser degree Burke and Walton) that yeah, that's going in, even if oftentimes it doesn't.

Incidentally, for Poole to take that next step (and to eventually make it in the league) I think he's got to get stronger. He doesn't finish at the rate he should because he's just not strong enough.

I think we're seeing the team we expected to see at this point of the season if they hadn't come out of the gate so strong. There are weaknesses, lots of things to work on, but if this team gets the late-season Beilein bump of getting better they've still got great potential in the tourney..... where the law of averages says that they're probably going to lose at some point where the defense can't bail out the offense when they go cold.

One other thought on yesterday's game, almost all of our 3 point shots seemed just a tiny bit rushed. If any kind of contortion to get into shooting position was involved, the shot wasn't going in. Everyone not named Poole appears to be effective only at catch and shoot and Poole had a bad day.

lol indiana

Going to be a race down to the wire for B1G defensive player of the year between Jon Teske, Zavier Simpson, and Charles Mathews.

(I vote Jon Teske btw)

I think I'd vote Matthews, but you can make an argument for any of the three. Matthews can shut down 2s, 3s and 4s. Teske is probably more indispensible. Simpson makes it all work.

Jon Teske is more valuable than Isaac Haas was to Purdue last year. Its primarily because he just shuts shop down at the rim.

Btw, Michigan could conceivably return all 5 starters and dumptruck their way to a national title next year without even considering this season.

BEILEIN