The Michigan basketball team been “stugggaling” a little as of late.  Joe Namath kind of strugggaling.

After the disappointing performance in the Old Spice Classic Michigan looked to get back on track at home against a bottom of the pack ACC team (BC) without their best player available (although Corey Raji might have something to say about that). Instead, Boston College came to play from the get-go and thoroughly dominated Michigan in nearly every facet. Don't let the four point spread (62-58) fool you, it was more like a 14 point spread. To make matters worse (for Michigan's RPI at least) just a week after defeating Michigan BC lost to those mighty Crimson fellers from Harvard, you know, the program with Tommy Amaker at the helm.

Troubles Resume

After an uninspiring effort against Arkansas Pine-Bluff (67-53 W) Michigan headed out to Utah, or perhaps the “Mormom State of Mind” as Anthony Wright on his Twitter so eloquently stated  (yes, Wright did spell Mormon wrong).

I don't remember a ton about this game but I do remember an annoying Utah freshman having a career game.  It started to get ugly in the second half, clank three after clank three. Homework was calling my name, so I jumped ship.

I'll just say this, it became more apparent than ever that this team will live and die from downtown and the sooner every Michigan basketball fan can accept that the better off they will be. With the roster Michigan has now, they will never be anything more than a perimeter oriented team (and welcome to Beilein ball people, it's not a surprise anymore). The only thing I can concede to that is by saying Manny and DeShawn do have the ability to create their own shots, but at times it's difficult because sometimes the system just doesn't allow for that, and other teams defensive schemes are well aware that if you can stop one of them from going off you're probably in a great position to beat them.  This team plays outside-outside, and unfortunately that's probably not going to change.  Like I said, the sooner people finally accept it the better off they will be.  Once more of Michigan's shooters start heating up the offense will look a whole lot prettier and hopefully those L's will turn into W's.  Yeah, I would like Sims to post up more too, but come on, this whole thing is taking the shape of the Rasheed Wallace stuff when he was in Detroit, you take the good shots with the bad.  Just accept it.

At any rate, I cracked up reading many of the comments on UMHoops.com after the BC and Utah losses. Two of the best:

by  brogrich #1 fan (post BC game)

"Hey Sam and Maize Rage-

Can you please get rid of the Chinese Fire Drill. It looks stupid and makes us all look like non-basketball fans. Thank you."

Some Maize Rage infighting? Now that's a shocker.

by brady- (post Utah game)

"Stu Douglass was AWFUL last night, his 1st half was awful, then he STARTED the 2nd half, I couldn’t figure that one out, he plays scared out there and he got lost on D a few times, why is this kid in the rotation, are we THAT bad?"

Did you just jump on the bandwagon this year dude?

Victory Over Detroit on Sunday

Decent effort from Michigan, especially in the second half when the defense made it tough for the Titans to get clean looks. Detroit is definitely a formidable mid-major, but like a lot of mid-majors they didn't quite have the depth to stay with a slightly more talented team for the whole 40 minutes. Detroit was much more athletic than Michigan and it showed during much of the first half.  Thankfully Sims and Harris played pretty consistently (18-28 fgs) and Stu Douglass and Laval Lucas-Perry made some nice buckets as well. Only one other player made a field goal (Zack Novak). For all that depth it seemed Michigan would have for this season it sure doesn't look like it's coming along all that well right now.

Big game on the road this Saturday against the Kansas Jayhawks. I've heard they have a pretty nice basketball program over there.

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I've always been pretty neutral on Rich Rodriguez, feeling he deserves at least three years to show what he can do, but I think it's clear that, if there aren't drastic improvements in his third season, he's gots to go.  I don't think he helped his cause with me, or his haters with his choice of analogy at the team's banquet tonight.  To me, it sounds awfully Matt Millenish (aka stupid -- will someone put that on Urbandictionary?):

“It’s really kind of ironic that the New Orleans Saints overcame the hurricane a few years back,” Rodriguez said, referring to Hurricane Katrina, which damaged large sections of the Gulf Coast in 2005. “I used to live and coach in New Orleans for a couple years, and I know how devastated that city is and how they overcome and rebuild the stadium and rebuild the program.

“And we’ve had a few hurricanes of our own. We had a big hurricane in August, and it kind of hit us like a ton of bricks. But you had 120 young men and a bunch of people on the staff that said this is not going to tear our program apart.

“In fact, it will do just the opposite: Bring us together. This senior class and the underclassmen that are leaders took charge of this football team and said nothing is going to tear this team apart, and nothing did.

“We didn’t end the season the way we wanted, and we didn’t win as many games as everybody would have liked. But don’t tell me this team is a failure. It’s a disappointment because we thought we could have won more and should have won more. But these guys are champions. I am proud of everyone.”

People losing their lives in a huge natural disaster was not like the heat you caught in August for allegedly taking your players away from their studies and keeping them overtime at practice.  Yes, it might of hit the program like a ton of bricks, but it wasn't even close to what New Orleans had to battle through.

I was encouraged by the 4-0 start, I really was, but 1-7 the last eight games isn't coming together.  In fact, it's just the opposite.  It's falling apart.

And the difference between the Saints and your football team, Rich, is that the Saints actually made it to the playoffs in 2006.  Michigan is Bowl'less for the 2nd straight season, the first time that's happened since the 70's. Any time you don't go to a Bowl game, the season is a failure. Period.

Oh, you started your speech with a joke?

Rodriguez opened his speech with a joke: He was not a candidate for the Notre Dame job.

Hilarious.  We already knew that, though, because there's a pretty good chance you'll be jockeying him for couch space this time next year.

[Freep]

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The season is done for the Michigan Wolverines.

At 5-7, they will not go to a bowl game for the second straight season. Under Rich Rodriguez, the Wolves have made steady, if not substantial, progress. But after a 4-0 start, the Wolverines were winless in Big 10 play, including losses in each of the last five games.

Three of the losses in that span were by more than 20 points. Wolverine Nation shouldn't be too up in arms, however. Michigan was playing all season with less scholarships than they are allotted. That's primarily because Rodriguez is being careful about selecting which recruits he wants for his spread offense and system.

So after two years and zero bowls, people are wondering if he is the right hire. The Wolverines are the winningest program in major college football history. Former coach Lloyd Carr wasn't doing a bad job - he could constantly win 9 or 10 games. But he wasn't competing for championships.

Basketball is different. Kentucky went from an NIT team last season to an immediate national championship contender because of new coach John Calipari and his star-studded recruiting class. Basketball only uses five players at once; in football, there are 85 scholarships allowed at the Division I-A level. It takes time to bring in the necessary pieces to not only compete with Ohio State and Penn State for Big 10 titles, but for any plans to compete on the national level.

Year Three of the Rodriguez experiment will be a good point to gauge the progress as Michigan tries to emerge on the national map once again.

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Ryan Pravato, a student at the University of Michigan and blogger of Life on Dumars, breaks down Michigan's performance in the Old Spice Classic.  Michigan finished in a disappointing fourth place in the tournament after defeating Creighton, but losing to Marquette and Alabama. Ryan's break down of each game is after the jump.  Check it out.

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On Friday night in Crisler Arena the Michigan Wolverines took on the Huskies from Houston Baptist University (HB). Apparently HB is a member of the Great West conference. Because the Great West is a relatively new DI basketball conference its members won't be able to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament until about 2043 give or take 20 years.  I know you're all counting down the days. Anyways, it took UofM until the 10 minute mark in the first half to pull away from HB. If there was ever an example of a team playing down to its level of competition, that example was Michigan in the opening 10 minutes.  It wasn't as if the Huskies were forcing Michigan to do anything they didn't want to do.  I never got the feeling that it was going to be a repeat of last season's Savannah State game.

Thoughts on the Game

• Ben Cronin already seems to be a crowd favorite. I don't know if it's because he's 7 feet tall, or that folks feel bad for him because he's not playing regular minutes, or maybe both. The plan for Cronin was definitely not for him to be in the scrub role, but currently that's exactly the role he is in. I guess a really tall scrub is something to get excited about, I mean, I remember rooting on Amadou Ba every time he entered a lopsided game, never mind that he had the best last name in the history of last names.  But like I said, Cronin's role this season is not to be a garbage time guy. Beilein says that hopefully Cronin will be fully healthy come the Big Ten opener. Note: my use of 'scrub' is meant in the most positive way possible, DI basketball scrubs are still pretty damn good.

• Michigan came out of the gate sluggish. Manny Harris must've missed 4 or 5 shots around the basket in the early going, Darius Morris blew a wide open layup, nobody could knock down a jumper or corral a rebound.

• I'm not sure DeShawn shooting 8 triples in a game is a recipe for success, but on Friday it was because he drained 5 of the 8.

• Stu Douglass' jumper wasn't falling for him but Stu found a way to contribute by leading the team in assists (7) while doing a nice chunk of the ball handling. He seemed calm and comfortable against the feisty pressure of the HB guards. I'm all for Stu Douglass getting more opportunities to play the point.  He definitely didn't hurt his case on Friday.

• Zack Gibson followed up his 5 for 5 shooting against Northern Michigan with another solid showing, scoring 8 and grabbing 6 rebounds in just 14 minutes.  As Zack's confidence grows hopefully Beilein can find more playing time for him.

• At times Darius Morris seems to coast a bit and careless mistakes result, but Beilein's leash on Darius looks to be pretty long right now.

• While Anthony Wright didn't hit a shot or get an assist, he bounced a perfect back door pass to a cutting DeShawn Sims in the second half.  It was textbook. Unfortunately DeShawn was fouled and wasn't able to convert. The pass was almost as beautiful as when Anthony and DeShawn hooked up last season via the back door in Madison Square Garden.

Poking fun at the opponent portion

I did about 45 seconds worth of scouting on the Huskies online prior to the game. I didn't actually look to see what HB's key players looked like, but I took note of a couple names.   I remembered that HB's leading scorer and rebounder was Mario Flaherty, a 6'9 forward/center.  I expected Mario to be ripped specimen of man flesh.  He wasn't.  Instead Mario could have easily passed for Seth Rogen's little brother.

Judging by some of DeShawn Sims on court mannerisms, he thought this Mario dude wasn't fit to carry his jockstrap. But for the most part Mario held his own (even made DeShawn look silly when he made a sweeping hook shot over him) and gave Michigan fits on the boards the entire game.  The Michigan student section noticed. When you get the attention of the Maize Rage, you know you're doing something right. Resembling Seth Rogen and having Mario as your first name sure doesn't hurt either.

Then there was Remy Boswell.

I remember seeing his name and that his season stats didn't exactly jump out at you. Watching him shoot some jumpers in pre-game warmups led me to believe he was the bench warmer of all bench warmers. Watching his lefty slinging gyration of a jump shot was more cringe-worthy than a Borat and Azamat asshole grinding session. Remy shuffled his way around the court like he just ate an IHOP Who-cake. He seemed like he was actually trying his darndest to give hard working practice players a bad name.  So it was much to my surprise when Remy was the first bench player to enter the game for HB. I don't know how Remy did it, scoring 8 points and gathering 10 rebounds. His four baskets were layups mind you, and his misses were of the jump shot variety—I assume the Michigan players were well aware of his offensive capabilities because whenever Remy had the ball away from the basket they gave him the Ben Wallace treatment and sagged.  How nice it must be to be 6'7.

And that concludes the poking fun at the opponent portion.

Don't Forget

Michigan heads off to Orlando to play in the Old Spice Classic beginning on Thanksgiving.  Creighton is first up at noon sharp.  A possible matchup with former Wolverine Ekpe Udoh looms as Baylor is in the field as well.  Udoh is currently averaging 16, 8 and just over 3 blocks a game.

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Ryan Pravato is going to bring you Michigan basketball coverage here at D4L and starts it off here with the season preview.  Ryan is the head honcho over at Life on Dumars and is a student at the University of Michigan.

The time has finally come for Michigan to tip-off the season. The anticipation seems to be pretty tremendous here in Ann Arbor. But being that this is my first semester attending the U, I'm still not sure what to expect, or what I should expect, from the fans, the media, or the students. I do know that basketball plays second fiddle to football here, as was particularly evident during the high years on the gridiron and the down years on the court with Tommy Turtleneck...Brian Ellerbe...ugh I have a headache now. But on the hardwood things are changing, and a little faster than expected, at least from my perspective anyway. Student season ticket sales this season skyrocketed and now stand at about 2,500 (below 500 last season), as well they should, this team is not your garden variety middle of pack elite conference team anymore.

Why?

Competent coaching.

John Beilein is an outstanding coach and once he gets the players he wants into his unique system, NCAA tourney berths are a foregone conclusion.  Jerry Dunn is a respected coach who has prior experience and success coaching in the Big Ten with Penn State.  This program is in good hands.

Who will pick up the leadership slack of the departed David Merritt and CJ. Lee?

The obvious choice would be to look at Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims as the leaders. That's fine. More should be expected from them, as well it should considering both are far and away the most talented players on the team. However, if you really think about the leadership qualities Merritt and Lee brought to the team last season, you realize that sometimes the guys that go out and put their soul into a program despite their lack of basketball prowess or star capability are the ones deemed to be the pulse of a team— the players the other guys on the team know are busting their tails for the absolute love of the game. They're tough, focused, passionate, team oriented guys. Their teammates will run through a wall for them. Vocal or not, Manny and DeShawn will lead by example, but sometimes you need a fiery guy to direct you in stressful situations, or even better yet to tell you to dislodge your cranium from your anus. Believe me, it sounds much different coming from a player than a coach. My two leading candidates would be freshman point guard Darius Morris and the gritty sophomore Zack Novak. Time will tell.

Player capable of making this team elite instead of just dangerous?

Stu Douglass' versatility means so much to this team. The glimpses of playmaking ability he showed last season made me a believer that he is equally valuable at both guard positions and it will allow Beilein more lineup flexibility. We all know Douglass is a knock down shooter and that will hopefully never change, but Douglass has the ability to make plays for others and to get the team into its offense. Stu Douglass can be the Mike Gansey of the Wolverines. Gansey was the do it all skinny two guard for West Virginia when Beilein was head coach there during the school's Elite Eight run in 2005. With Morris and Perry probably playing the point most of the time I wouldn't bet on seeing Douglass play the position a whole lot. But with this high-octane offense, the more play makers and ball handlers readily available the better. At this moment I think Douglass is the only other player on this squad other than Harris that can productively facilitate and score from the outside like a true combo guard can. While Morris can penetrate, his jumper is still suspect. Laval Lucas-Perry can knock down shots, but I don't see him as that true penetrating point guard right now.

This season's X-Factor?

I for one would like to see seniors Zack Gibson and DeShawn Sims in the game together more. It's all up to Gibson for that to happen. I think Beilein would like to play Gibson more than the 12.1 min/gm he played last season. And surely he would like more production out of his athletic, experienced 6'10 senior than 3.9 ppg and 2.2 reb/gm. Zack's confidence comes and goes more than an old man with an overactive bladder comes and goes from the john. And it's obvious.  Zack's posture slumps, his head drops and his demeanor is anything but intimidating. The only consistency to Gibson's game is his inconsistency. Gibson staying out on the floor for longer periods of time will drastically help this team--if for nothing else to alleviate the pressure placed on Sims on the defensive end. Though surprisingly enough Sims didn't get into foul trouble all that often last season even though he was often the only “big” man in the lineup for long stretches of time. I'm not confident that luck will last, especially since this team will not be sneaking up on anybody. It's entirely possible 7'0" redshirt freshman Ben Cronin can give this team some quality minutes throughout the season, and maybe even redshirt sophomore Eric Puls can contribute. But hopefully Gibson can really make strides this season and anything else the other bigs provide will just be gravy.

Michigan might not get to 20 regular season wins but will they be markedly improved?

Ok, the tournament committee doesn't factor in wins against non D1 schools, so the Northern Michigan game for all intents and purposes is an exhibition. Sure, it “counts” as a 'W' on Michigan's overall record but it really doesn't “count”. Plus, playing UNM doesn't hurt Michigan's RPI. So, with that out of the way let's look at the real schedule.

The cupcake wins include Houston Baptist, Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Detroit, and Coppin State (please no repeats of last season's Savannah State game). Neutral site games will be played in Florida (Old Spice Classic bracket) against Creighton, then either Marquette or Xavier, then hopefully a title game against Alabama, Baylor, Iona or Florida State. Michigan looks to be in pretty good shape to win the tournament, but I think Xavier (despite losing top 3 scorers from 08/09) will give them a tough game in the second round provided both schools advance that far. Winning two out of three games would not be anything to scoff at, but not making it to the title game would be disappointing. Non-conference home tilts with Boston College and UConn plus away games against Utah and Kansas could leave Michigan 1-3, or God forbid 0-4. At worst Michigan should achieve a 7-4 non-conference record. It would be nice to win the Utah game and get a road win under their belt before heading into the abrasive 18 game marathon that is the Big Ten season. 10 to 12 conference wins seems about right, as the Big Ten is 7 to 8 deep and there's not many games to take lightly. Though anything under 11 wins in conference will probably leave Michigan some work do to come the conference tourney.

I'll predict Michigan wins 7 of 11 out of conference and 12 of 18 in conference for a regular season record of 19-10 (Northern Michigan not included). By the end of the regular season I expect Michigan to be much better, and more dangerous, than last season's team just based on the fact that Darius Morris and Laval Lucas-Perry will be running the point instead of David Merritt and C.J. Lee. Add in improvements sophomores Stu Douglass and Zack Novak made to their games and already the team looks to have more talented depth and versatility than last season. Freshman Matt Vogrich and redshirt junior Anthony Wright also provide sharp shooting depth on the wings, and should find some minutes backing up the likes of Harris and Novak. I don't know how many minutes Anthony Wright should expect but I'm certain he'll get every chance possible to contribute after that 14 point performance against Oklahoma in the second round in the NCAA's.

Possible Beilein talking points to motivate this team to build on last season's success and avoid complacency?

Last year's relative success doesn't mean jack squat now. It's a new season and the start of a new journey. You have prove your worth as basketball players and as a team all over again. If anything, your opponents are going to be gunning for you even more since now you put yourself on the map. Keep the petal to the metal.

I'd sprinkle in a Jim Valvano quote for good measure too:

"No matter what business you're in, you can't run in place or someone will pass you by. It doesn't matter how many games you've won."

Whatever Coach Beilein has drummed up to get this team's attention I have no doubts that it will work.

It's going to be a fun winter in Ann Arbor.

Go Blue!

[photos via UMHOOPS]

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Yeah, Michigan lost to Purdue at the Big House for the first time since Bob Griese was under center for the Boilermakers in 1966, but why delve into that state of depression, when we can deflect it elsewhere?

How about we poke fun at Iowa who lost for the first time this season, and to Northwestern of all unworthy foes.  To be fair, they had a good nine game run and I can imagine that these two girls pictured above definitely feel as they look (like they're at a funeral), as they watch their "star" quarterback crutch off the field after the final seconds ticked off the clock of #4 Iowa's first loss.

What? We can't make fun of someone else to make ourselves feel better? Okay, where's the beer?

 

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As I said last week, we're going to be doing something new here.  What I'll do is provide you with an interesting photo each Monday and your job is to then add the best damn caption you can possibly think of.  Each week, I'll reveal the winner from the week before (with a link back to your site if you have one).

So, what's going on in this picture of the ancient Joe Paterno?  This picture was taken this past Saturday during Penn State's whooping of Michigan.

Last week's picture of Bills holder, Brian Moorman, jumping on the back of his kicker, Ryan Lindell, only generated three responses.  I think the winner was Darth_Icarus with his "Pokemon, I finally caught them all!!" caption.  Made me laugh.

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This is a pretty good shirt from a fellow Michigan fan:

As you all know, Charlie Weis gets pretty hungry.  After such a tough loss to the unranked Michigan Wolverines I can only imagine him as White Goodman at the end of Dodgeball, eating his face off and weezing out, "fucking Chuck Norris."

This t-shirt is apparently sold in Ann Arbor, so go out and get you one if you've been awoken at night to Charlie Weis putting on a bib readying himself to eat you whole.

Michigan wins. Notre Dame loses.

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He's video game good people.  He has ice water running through his veins.  He's the dude. He's a true freshman.  He's good.

"I've been preparing for this my whole life. This was nothing new to me."  -- Tate Forcier (and I say that with thick, French accented empasis).

Amazing victory for the unranked Michigan Wolverines against their rivals, the No. 18 ranked Notre Dame Rudy's.

Instant classic.

Notre Dame came back from down 31-20 to take the lead with 5:13 to play in the game.  Michigan was then forced to punt with three minutes and some change left in the game, which had many people calling Michigan's game a valiant effort that came up short.

The punt was gutsy, but they had all three of their timeouts remaining.  It was 100% the right call.

After UM gave up a first down run on the first play, it looked like the game may have been over.  But that's actually the best first down they could have given up because it was only one play and it happened early.  Michigan's defense answered with three straight, huge stops with a little under three minutes to go (thanks ND for throwing on 2nd down, morons).  Notre Dame would have to give Michigan one final chance.

Michigan started in great position at their own 42-yard line and proceded to march down the field behind Forcier's creative scrambling abilities and thread-the-needle throws on big downs. The play to Savoy to get down to Notre Dame's five yard line was when Michigan fans started to get the feeling they wouldn't be settling for the game tying field goal.  Tate Forcier wouldn't allow it.  On first down from the five, Forcier eluded defenders like Charlie Weis does NOT elude six meals a day.  It was marvelous, but unfortunately Savoy dropped the touchdown toss.  It had play of the year written all over it.

No big deal.

Forcier came right back on the next play and threw a perfect pass to Greg Mathews for the score and all of those wearing Blue and Gold in the world rejoiced.  And Michigan nearly celebrated too much.

Tack on the extra point and Michigan leads 38-34 with 11 seconds remaining.  Curtains.

As my fiance said immediately following the game, Tate Forcier is going to get lots of ass tonight.  He deserves it  (as long as it's not my fiance). Meanwhile, I'm going to go hop on Facebook and start to incessantly poke him.

Hail to the Victors!

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