Game Thread: Northwestern at No. 20 Michigan
- Thread starter mshelton33
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They’ve lost 3 B1G games with a 35 foot prayer(Iowa), a ******** call at the end(PSU) and their point guard getting ejected for another ******** call(today). Those have nothing to do with us making key plays.
Come on, man! Why be a fan? The guy is a warrior. He’s not only gassed. He’s clearly not 100%.
We obviously have had enough talent to compete, we’ve competed with nearly everyone we’ve played. We just lack some firepower at the end and some terrible luck killing us twice and we’re 2-5.
Berry isn’t “clutch” in that he’s a role player. He’s not a guy you expect to take over games. I still expect him to make key defensive plays, as he did today. Last year when he was shooting well o had every faith in him pulling the trigger late on a shot created by Boo. This year he isn’t shooting well so I don’t have that faith regardless of when in the game it is.
And all that is just fine.
They will EASILY make the NIT or that College Basketball Crown tourney in Vegas, whichever ends up drawing the better teams.
Just going to say it...
It seemed like a significant error on Collins' part to play Blake Smith in the OT.
Its the "We're not going to score with Nicholson and Mullins on the court" scenario, except its worse.
Smith is at the end of the bench for a reason.
Windham and Ciaravino are both better players.
Made no sense to me as soon as I saw it.
It seemed like a significant error on Collins' part to play Blake Smith in the OT.
Its the "We're not going to score with Nicholson and Mullins on the court" scenario, except its worse.
Smith is at the end of the bench for a reason.
Windham and Ciaravino are both better players.
Made no sense to me as soon as I saw it.
Was curious about that too I guess his defense was greater than the offense deficit compared to the frosh. Collins was very displeased with KJ handling of the press
Once Blake came in the defense got much better. Offense was a problem but he had to pick his battle without Leach.
That made it way easier to double Brooks and Nick. I didn’t get it. We needed points.
Smith played about 2 minutes in regulation, with Ciaravino getting most of the minutes from Leach's departure.
We made it to overtime.
Then Collins decided it would be better to play Smith the first 4:30 of OT.
Strange decision, probably made on a hunch based on not trusting the freshmen, who he was trusting until OT.
It didn't work - we didn't make a field goal in OT.
To me that confirms the mistake. You only get one shot - and when it doesn't work you take the blame.
Playing Blake over Mullins and Gelo in OT was a headscratcher. Collins went with gut but gotta agree with PWB that it didn’t work.
That’s lame, dude. Not many teams can go on the road into Michigan and play like we did, nearly pulling off the win in spite of our hottest shooter getting booted from the game on a ******** call. We held Wolf to 0-7 shooting and four points total, though the Russian had a great game helped by his unconscious 3 point shooting in the first half. This team has been hit with some bad luck, but proud of how they played.
No one has gone into Michigan and played like we did this year. They said during the broadcast that today was the first time Michigan trailed at halftime at home, and just the 2nd time all year.
Not trying to start a fight, but I can’t let “significant error” and “headscratcher” go without challenging this as over the top second guessing. In 29 minutes of combined game time Gelo and KJ accounted for 0 points, 0 assists, and 2 rebounds. It’s almost impossible to have that few countable stats. I thought they improved significantly on defense, but on offense they brought zero, and I mean zero. How exactly were we hindered on offense by not having them in TODAY?
I have no idea what is going on with Mullins. If it is simply, Coaches decision ( which I don’t believe for a minute) then criticize away as Nick was regularly being beat off the dribble at the end of the game. Mullins could have spelled him for 3-4 minutes and that might have helped. However, let’s not act like we have Vinnie Johnson available on our bench to give us an offensive jolt. We have 3.5 guys on this team that are dependable scorers. As my HS Coach used to say “ you can’t make velvet out of pigskin”.
My gripe, from a personnel perspective, is that I would have preferred to see Ciaravino or Windham or Mullins out there instead of Blake Smith. Ciaravino has started the last 2 games. Smith has essentially been an afterthought - and somehow he's thrust into the fire on the road in overtime.
It was just a weird choice that defied the "play your best players" mantra that Collins has been repeating the last couple of years.
And, in my opinion, a slap in the face for Windham, Mullins and Ciaravino.
I was puzzled too. I mean I was just trying to argue Mullins might have had his minutes cut because he creates a problem with the spacing Nick and Brooks have to play. And we play Smith down the stretch.
Your point the freshmen had no points is valid. But if you have them in, MI is going to come out to stop their shot, they are going to respect it. The spacing improves compared to having Smith there.
Of course Collins has something else in mind, game was low scoring, so he probably thought overtime could be like a 6-4 mini game. But, ultimately, it did not work.
This is not a diss on Collins, good coaches try things that don’t work. It’s not an exact science.
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All that you say is fine but the only thing that matters is the final score. We are undefeated in moral victories.