Hoops vs Rutgers

[thewolverines24]

This weekend of college basketball isn’t short on high-profile matchups — Wisconsin-Purdue, Duke-North Carolina, Houston-Kansas, and Tennessee-Kentucky are among the headliners — but above all others, there will also be what can only be described as the equivalent of Tyson vs Ali in their prime!

The Wolverines host the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (Saturday, 4:00 p.m., BTN) in a battle to get out of last place between two teams that don’t have many better chances to win games left on the schedule. Can you feel the untethered excitement coursing through every nerve in your body?!

KEYS

Bad offense vs. bad defense: Michigan’s defense and Rutgers’ offense push the limits of ineptitude. Something has to give, but I don’t have any clue what that will be. I’ve written a few times that it feels like Michigan’s defense provides a similar level of resistance to what an opponent would see in a walkthrough. I’m not convinced that Rutgers makes shots in its walkthroughs.

Don’t turn it over (LOL): Rutgers forces turnovers more than once every five possessions and leads the country in non-steal turnover rate. Michigan hasn’t been great at valuing the basketball and will have to adjust to running offense against length and athleticism at multiple spots.

Hit residual action: Rutgers has always had a defense that isn’t afraid to over-help against ball screens or trap the post. That means the offensive key is having the patience to make the correct read and then hitting the open shots that result from those passes.

BOTTOM LINE

This one is for all the glory!

 

[tinselwolverine]

Go Blue!

 

[tinselwolverine]

Well this ain’t so good.

 

[thewolverines24]

Another amazing performance. 18 turnovers, gave up 18 second chance points, and blew a 15 point 2nd half lead. Phenomenal.

 

[biggunsbob]

Yikes.

Father-in-law was here couldn’t watch and sadly I had forgot they were playing.

 

[thewolverines24]

Yikes.

Father-in-law was here couldn’t watch and sadly I had forgot they were playing.

Just another insanely bad loss in the worst season since 1981-82.

Need a complete overhaul. New staff, completely new roster. None of these players should come back. Just try to retain the 3 incoming freshmen, and try to bring in 10 portal guys.

 

[wlvrnstlr4life]

Give Jay Wright anything he wants. Whatever it takes to get this fucking mess cleaned up.

 

[thewolverines24]

Give Jay Wright anything he wants. Whatever it takes to get this fucking mess cleaned up.

He's 62. Why would he want to do a rebuild at a program that does not care about NIL being competitive and has admission restrictions with the portal?

I don't think any amount of money gets him to Ann Arbor. I think we're looking at an up and comer at a mid-major like Schertz at Indiana State.

 

[Spartanmack]

I haven't watched much uofm hoops this year but read this on SBNation today - 7 & 15 in games they had the half time lead this year and 94 points less than the next lowest 2nd half point total in the conference. Ouch. However, given expectations, MSU might be a bigger disappointment so far. This is not a good year for college basketball in the state of Michigan.

 

[Michchamp]

Just another insanely bad loss in the worst season since 1981-82.

Need a complete overhaul. New staff, completely new roster. None of these players should come back. Just try to retain the 3 incoming freshmen, and try to bring in 10 portal guys.

but they've had halftime leads against decent teams. they're not getting run off the court from the opening whistle every week... they have talent, but I think Howard just can't run a program.

 

[UMRules06]

I haven't looked at the numbers recently but earlier in the season we had basically the fewest bench minutes played in the entire country or close to it. We may get out to leads in some of the games, but with zero depth the guys are gonna get gassed come end of game time. Probably a major factor why they're letting leads slip away.