It was clear from the tip, the Wolverines were off their game. Not sure if it was the scouting report, jet lag, poor preparation, but John B's squad didn't pack their jumpers on the trip to California. These teams are not that different, TT made circus shots in the first half to build a lead and Michigan didn't. That gained them enough confidence to blow the game open early in the second half, as Michigan's confidence to shoot the ball was completely shot. Zavier finished with an ugly stat line of zero points, 4 turnovers, 1 assist. Livers didn't score, Teske had 4 points, and Poole finished with 8.
This has been brewing for some time, Beilein's teams usually start the season slow and finish strong as they learn the offense and each other. This team did the complete opposite, their defense led them early and while other teams got better, Michigan stayed the same. That formula is not going to win you any championships. I'm trying to remember when Michigan beat a really good team this year, was it North Carolina? That game was played on November 28th.
Its hard today not to draw a parallel with the football team. Both programs have good coaches, both programs struggle to find balance between a good offense and a good defense and both programs got embarrassed when the lights where the brightest this past season. I'm a fan of both coaches but neither one of them are going to win any National Championship until they can't find a team that plays on both sides of the ball or floor.
Michigan won 30 games this season, which is a very good effort, but they let a regular season Big Ten Championship, a Big Ten Tournament Championship and a trip to the Elite 8 out of their grasp. This team wasn't going to be Gonzaga on Saturday and I give TT only a small chance. Coach B is going to have a long off season trying to figure out how to score the basketball next season.
On a positive note, your Saturday just opened up.
Welcome to the Football Off Season
Some Spring Practice Buzz:
- With a ton of WR's out, Black who is healthy for a change, has been impressive.
- Jimmy is very happy the teams conditioning and believes they are in very good shape.
- The offensive line has experience and might be the best he has had, only the RT position is up for grabs.
- Team seems to be happy with the TE's, I actually have a concern with that position as I thought they way under preformed last year.
- DT Michael Dwumfour has been impressive and hopefully is taking a Mo Hurst jump during his senior year.
I'm concerned about RB depth and our top WR's missing spring practice with the new speed in space installs. It's great to hear about the offensive line but if they are matching up against the D Line in practice, they should be better as the defensive line is expected to take a step back. Michigan is expecting a lot from the #50/Mikes's this year: Big Mike Onwenu on the offensive line and Michael Dwumfour on the defensive line.
from The BIG HOUSE Blog http://mbighouse.blogspot.com/2019/03/power-outage.html
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