Michigan may be overrated, but that was a big win for the basketball team last night. It was also my first chance to watch them play this season. Here are my thoughts. (Be sure to add yours in the comments section.)
Likes
-- I appreciated the defensive effort. The guys limited second chances by rebounding well. You also saw a little bit of 2-3 zone, which I don't think Michigan was expecting. There was good help D and even some good one on one battles late in the game.
-- Patience on offense. As mentioned by everyone (Globe, Herald) Raji got a ton of easy baskets. He also converted at a great rate. I don't think you can depend on Raji to carry the team, but last night should be a lesson to everyone of how to get points in this offense. When Sanders returns I hope he works towards the basket like that and doesn't start chucking 3s.
-- Transition and handling the press. BC did a great job in transition and burned Michigan with a few fast breaks. They also got back on D and broke the press when Michigan applied it. Maybe up tempo and pressure won't be an Achilles Heel this year.
Dislikes
-- Letting Michigan back in the game. The final score doesn't show how much BC controlled. They let down a bit defensively in the final few minutes. We cannot do that against good teams.
-- Free Throw Shooting. Raji missed late and the others missed a few. Corey will be fouled late in the game until he shows he can make them.
In other news, the BC women bounced back too with a nice win over Iowa.
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5 comments:
First time I got to watch the 2009-2010 squad as well. I was particularly struck by how efficient we were on offense, particularly in the first half. I don't have the numbers, but we seemed to be scoring on a high percentage of our possessions.
We absolutely destroyed the 1-3-1 zone, so much so, that Michigan never really played it after the first five mins or so. Tip of the hat to Al for getting the team prepared for that.
Dunn looked servicable inside on defense. Although the Michigan big men probably don't provide too much of a test (compared to a team like, say, Wisconsin who looked great inside).
As for the tightening of the score at the end, I agree that it's a bit unnerving. But I think its a fact of life in college hoops with the 3-point line. Had we hit our free throws in the last 5 mins, it wouldn't have been close.
I don't like Benbow's work in the Globe. He just spits out the facts like a stenographer, rather than working through the underlying context of the game the way other Globe writers do. Everyone knows Michigan was still in a hangover after tough, tough losses to Marquette and AT Alabama. You couldn't expect them to be ready to play before tonight at the earliest. So that wasn't the real Michigan team BC played, and it would have been nice for Benbow to recognize that the way other writers do.
Michigan shot 32.3% from the floor, 26.5% from 3, and 64% from the line on half as many attempts as BC. As any college basketball expert like Phelps or Papile or Hutchins or Dinich knows, you have to flesh out the game based on a normal outcome rather than what you'd see on a windy playground like we saw last night.
Based on Michigan's attempts last night and assuming they shoot 50% from the floor, 40% from 3, 75% from the line with twice as many attempts as BC, you get a far different outcome. Assume they play again when Michigan doesn't have to work through the emotional fallout of their losses last weekend. Based on the attempts last night, Michigan would drain 5 more 3's, another 6 2's, and 8 more FTs. BC makes 6 FTs instead of 13, and only shoots 40% from the floor. So instead of a 62-58 fluke, Michigan beats BC 91-45. That's really the story of the game, and the Globe's second-stringer might want to explain to the first-stringer why this wasn't discussed.
i was very surprised at how we came out played the first 8 mins of the game. The flex hasnt looked this good, since Craig Smith was here.
One thing that does worry me, is our defense after misses on the offensive end. A number of michigan's baskets came after a defensive rebound. Our communication in transition d is not good. When we have shooting slumps, we need to buckle down on D, and get back.
This could be a combination of sending 4 people to the offensive boards.
The flex looked amazing in the 1st round 2007 win over Texas Tech. Just an offensive clinic against Bobby Knight.
and we woulda beat GTown that year if we had SW on the inside... alas
OC... still don't get it
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