GBMWolverine: Michigan Basketball -- Michigan at Indiana -- How To Describe the Game

Posted at 6:00am — 1/17/2011

GBMWolverine: Michigan Basketball — Michigan at Indiana — How To Describe the Game

No one has been waiting with baited breath for a recap of Saturday’s Michigan/Indiana game at Bloomington. With apologies to all here is the recap.

Assembly Hall, Bloomington Indiana, a place where the opposition rarely wins and visiting teams feel intimidated: that is up until a few years ago. But no longer as the Hoosiers have struggled to grab much of anything since Kelvin Sampson left.

On the surface one could say the set-up was perfect for Indiana: Michigan was on the road, Indiana had a complete week to prepare, and Michigan was coming off two tough games against top three teams Kansas and Ohio State.

Taking the above into consideration would be too kind after watching Michigan play Saturday. Tom Crean must love to see the Wolverines in Bloomington, after all, the best highlights of Indiana’s season can be found among the Michigan game film.

So what happened? As many have said a big egg was laid, that is really all that matters and the result was a big thump. Analyzing why is fine but insufficient to better the team as the season goes forward.

First, Indiana has some strong talent, it just has not fallen together yet. There is some size inside if Crean goes that route and much better than average defense, especially at home. So, the Hoosiers are not Gordon Gee’s Sisters of the Poor, but there will be no regular season championship banner hung in Bloomington this year (and of course none in Ann Arbor).

But Indiana has three constants that serve well: Tom Crean’s solid preparation, tough defensive play, and very good effort by his players, almost always as a matter of fact. On the road the Hoosiers can lay some bad eggs as well. But keep in mind the Hoosiers are a team that got clobbered by Northwestern, not Ohio State

Michigan did not have the preparation advantage, and the short time window is clearly a factor, but that is life in major conferences. The intense defensive play on the perimeter by the Hoosiers totally threw the Wolverine offense out of whack, and Plan B came later with some resolve but eventually the surrender flag was raised. The difference in effort was clear enough to be viewed by all. As the game announcers mentioned, how can a team go eight minutes without a rebound? Tougher, faster, and more aggressive gets a team some boards in the Big Ten; weak hands, cement feet, and little resolve will not garner anything, including pity.

While Michigan’s offense was thrown out of kilter by a sound Hoosier defensive effort, the primary target of Crean’s attention, Darius Morris, again lost it, resulting in a total first-half offensive breakdown. Darius made the game personal, going one against the Hoosiers, stubbornly forcing the issue and coming up short, very short. We give Darius the benefit of the doubt, he is young, talented, has the ball in his hand, and is a fierce competitor. But it is clear Darius likes to get his own way on the court with the calls and the green light to go full speed ahead regardless of the outcome. The godfather of Big Ten officiating, Ed Hightower, lent a polite ear to Darius, but that is all. No doubt Hightower will cancel the complaint department if this trend continues.

This game was, of course, not all about the troubles of one Darius Morris. He just happened to serve as a starting point. Stu Douglass can hit fade-away threes once in a while, and once in a while is not enough to suffice. Smotzy still plays a little in the clouds and time will tell his progress. Coach B got him in a little trouble yesterday not pulling him to avoid the third foul. Smotzy is not physical and still picks up fouls and gets to a spot late, as does Douglass. Vogrich still looks very limited, but is giving decent minutes, but plenty of guys can do that, he was brought to Michigan to score.

Again, this team just took the easy way out and launched threes. There were reasons this happened. First, Michigan did not do a good job of working the ball and the offense kept getting pushed out by the Hoosier defense and at times had no choice but to launch threes in hope that one might clang back to the Wolverines on a rebound. Second, UM stuck to screens and dribble drive trying to get Morris down the middle. This option was shut down as many as three times on the same possession. The first and second problems led to a third, a familiar story, no inside game to speak of, and an occasion dunk on a dish by Morris is not an inside game. The poor shooting continues and everyone will have to see if a late season improvement occurs. Big guys, like anyone else, need the ball to contribute. There remains, for the inside game, some occasional flashes, but the light goes out all too quickly.

Also troubling is the inability to beat a team that must be beat and should be beat. This now puts UM in a position of needing to pull an upset to even the scale and a couple of those opportunities are now history.

Michigan at Indiana – Postgame Quotes — Head Coach John Beilein

Opening Statement:
“We had two teams today. Obviously very young teams and Indiana just played really well and we couldn’t stop them. Verdell Jones III was incredible. We just couldn’t stop them. Before anybody asks me the rebounding question, they only missed 14 shots. So, there are not a whole lot of rebounds on 14 shots and when you have that you are never into your transition. You aren’t able to do a lot of the things that you want to do. They did a great job with it. We are always going to have trouble scoring the ball when we don’t shoot well from the outside and they didn’t give us a lot of good looks from the outside.” — John Beilein

On loss being frustrating:
“No, it’s part of playing on the road. It’s a tough game on the road playing against a team that was very, very hungry. We were hungry, but when you get in to these situations and things don’t go your way, it can just roll on you so quick and get you down by eight, ten, twelve. I feel, we’ll go in, we’ll practice, and we have another road game on Tuesday. We will be as ready as we can be, given the travel, etc.” — John Beilein

On the foul trouble:
“We have been preaching it. I am actually one of the guys that think we should be cleaning up the game. We should be calling the game close. Some of our guys have to learn the hard way right now. It disrupts us and it has been a consistent problem. We are trying to find ways to remedy it. Whether we bench them, whether we run them, whether we just continue to teach them. They are young and they are forced to find out the hard way. We couldn’t get Evan out of there. It was a matter of seconds and he already put his hands on someone else. That’s the way the game should be called.” — John Beilein

On the way Indiana played tonight compared to last couple of weeks:
“I watched the Northwestern game and the Ohio State game a little bit. They made shots. Verdell Jones got a lot of minutes, and Watford the same thing. Hull’s three daggers, those go in and out and all of a sudden it can be anybody’s game. Those were three daggers in an eleven point game. That he hadn’t shot any the whole game. We know he’s a great shooter. One of them was in the zone, the other one the guy was right in his face, the third one, we just had a little bit poor leverage of which side he was on.” — John Beilein

So, GBMWolverine Michigan Basketball fans what to do?
Although cruel and unusual punishment may be asserted by the local media outlets, start off by making the players view this game film as long as possible within the allotted time guidelines. If something of that nature does not garner irritation, then step up the practice intensity even more. Unfortunately the next game is Tuesday on the road. This could be good or bad, we will see. This team should be so happy to see the next game after a couple of foul practices that the opportunity will be truly relished.

Again, remaining in a chorus of the obvious, getting a true center or two that can play and contribute down low is a must. Morgan is working, setting screens, trying to get open and hoping for the ball, and hitting some 15 footers. He is progressing, but Jordan Morgan cannot carry this team single-handed in conference play.

There are some winnable games on the horizon, but no gimme’s. Northwestern had another chance at a big win and let another one slip away. So, the Wildcats are thinking redemption as well and are home when Michigan visits Tuesday. UM will have to play very well to win that game. In fact the Wolverines need to play very well to win any game remaining.

All is not lost, things can change; make that things must change to avoid more results like we all witnessed at Indiana.

The call here early on was for between 14 and 16 wins, later bumped to a range of 15-17. That looks about right at this point in time. Football is not the only bully-boy sport in the Big Ten and this team better start getting after it on the boards and getting to the foul line.

The meek will inherit the earth, but that does not help rebounding.

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff

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