Highlights from the ESPNU/Under Armour All-American game, featuring Michigan commits Craig Roh, Taylor Lewan, and Isaiah Bell.

 

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Posted under Recruiting

Wow. The only thing I want to do after that game is let out a sigh of relief. Michigan was down by 20 points early in the second half, but fought back against the Hoosiers for an overtime win, their first victory in Bloomington since 1995.

This game (along with Eastern Michigan and Savannah State wins) shows that, with poor enough shooting, Michigan can lose to anybody. Of course, the corollary to that is that Michigan can also beat anybody if the shots are falling (wins over UCLA and Duke). Of course, there is also a disturbing trend of letting bad teams play with them, and opposing offenses consistently shooting the lights out.

The shooting woes were attributable to several factors. Michigan hasn’t played away from home since December 20th, and haven’t played a true road game since the loss to Maryland in College Park. Several players, Manny Harris chief among them, were also settling for terrible looks early in the shot clock (I’m sure UFR will bear that out).

As far as the defense, I really don’t know enough about basketball to say “this is the reason opposing offenses can’t miss when they play Michigan.” I’m sure John Beilein does, and now it’s up to him to see if he can get that figured out and solved before it really bites this team. One of the few things I can really point to is the inability to corral defensive rebounds, which gives oponents way too many second looks.

In the end, though, it’s wins and losses that matter. Michigan was able to squeak one out today, and the NCAA tournament dream can live on.

Posted under Basketball

Or: Tim’s foray into tempo-free statistics.

Michigan takes on conference foe Indiana tonight at 6:30 in Bloomington. The game can be seen on Big Ten Network.

Tempo-Free and efficiency comparison (if you need an explanation of what any of these things mean, head to KenPom’s website):

Differences of more than 100 places in the rankings garner two-letter advantages, differences of more than 200 get a third.

Indiana is really, really bad this year. I’ll allow Spartans Weblog to bring the visual aid:

IU’s defensive efficiency is near the bottom of the conference, but the story for the Hoosiers this year has been their utter ineptitude on offense. This is understandable when you have no players, and that is certainly the case for Indiana. In this particular game, Michigan has 100+ ranking-place advantages in 5 categories, and Indiana only leads the Wolverines in those areas you’d expect Michigan, and perimeter-oriented team, to be weak. Each team’s effective field goal percentage should play a significant role in determining who wins this game. The Wolverines hold huge advantages in this area on each end of the floor. Ken Pomeroy predicts a 72-62 Michigan victory, with the Hoosiers only given a 17% chance to steal a win.

There is no way to spin this game as anything other than a must-win for Michigan. Indiana is a sorry squad this year, and Tom Crean has some major rebuilding to do inside Assembly Hall. One key factor to keep in mind is the home-court advantage. The Wolverines have played only one true road game this year, a 5-point loss to Maryland. That was over a month ago, and Beilein’s crew will have to adjust to playing away from Crisler.

Posted under Analysis, Basketball

Check out Michigan commits Jeremy Gallon, William Campbell, Justin Turner, and Brendan Gibbons, as well as uncommitted prospect Je’Ron Stokes. The East team (on which all the aformentioned individuals played) defeated West 30-17 in San Antonio Saturday.

 

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Posted under Recruiting

Michigan 2009 WR/LB commit Cameron Gordon and 2010 QB prospect Devin Gardner in the MHSAA Division 3 championship game.

 

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Posted under Recruiting, Video

After several suggestions, I’ve decided to scrap the play-by-play aspect of the UFR feature, and just include the final stats from the game. The raw data is available in .xls format here.

Half 1

Half 2

Game totals

Individual players:

Much better than last game. He was looking to pass when he got into trouble. A couple of the misses in the lane (noted as a difficulty of 1) probably could have been called fouls.

LLP was hitting the open 3s on this day, but none of the covered ones. Most of his shots came from outside (as per usual).

It seemed like Novak was doing a hell of a lot more than it looks like he did just by checking his shot chart. The importance of the baskets must have played a big role in that. He also made the midrange shot on which he was fouled.

Sims, like Novak, seemed to be a lot more active than his chart would indicate. Both of the times he was blocked could have conceivably be called fouls.

Grady got much more time than he did in the previous game, and though he took a couple ill-advised shots, he was a catalyst for the rest of the offense (4 assists, 2 more assist opportunities missed). He also made the lane shot on which he was fouled.

He played a lot without much in the way of scoring, but a couple of the dunks he had were huge in terms of momentum. He also had an enormous block.

Not much usage for Dave. Interestingly, he was ONLY on the court with the “A-Team” (Lucas-Perry, Harris, Novak, Sims).

Lee and Douglass also played extensive minutes without charting a shot attempt (Douglass 9:59, -11; Lee 4:02, -2). It’s become quite clear that the best lineup consists of Grady-Lucas-Perry-Harris-Novak-Sims. Gibson is hit-or-miss, but is probably overall the next best player to insert in the lineup (removing Novak). Without Grady at the point, the team was -10 (-3 with Merritt, and -7 with Douglass). Standard caveats about sample size, but that’s certainly notable.

Posted under Analysis, Basketball

Moved to Committed: 2009 MI DT William Campbell. Relief, joy, etc.
Removed: 2009 MN WR Bryce McNeal Clemson commit, 2009 MS DT Pernell McPhee, who signed his LOI with Mississippi State, and 2010 IL OL Christian Lombard, who committed to Notre Dame.

This weekend is expected to be a big one for recruiting. The Freep says:

West Monroe, La., defensive end Barkevious Mingo, an Army All-American; Greenwood, S.C., defensive end Sam Montgomery, an UnderArmour All-American; and Denard Robinson of Deerfield Beach, Fla., who Michigan is looking at for the quarterback…

Inkster wide receiver Cameron Gordon and offensive tackle Michael Schofield of Orland Park, Ill., are the only two Michigan commitments scheduled to officially visit for the Jan. 9 weekend. Three-star defensive end Bennie Logan of Coushatta, La., and three-star cornerback Demontre Hurst of Lancaster, Texas, are also scheduled to officially visit at that time…

Leesville, La., wide receiver Travante Stallworth (Auburn) and Lafayette, La., wide receiver Ricky Johnson (Arkansas) have scheduled official visits in Ann Arbor for the Jan. 9 weekend.

According to SoFlaFootball, Adrian Witty will also be in town:

“I’m going to Michigan on the 9th, Kansas State on the 16th, 17th, Florida on the 23rd, Middle Tennessee and FIU the following week,” said Witty.

And Sam Webb filled in a bit more a while back (caution: this is the oldest source, so it may be a bit out of date). He said on WTKA that Je’Ron Stokes will be in town as well, along with maybe Josh Hunter.

And that’s one full recruiting weekend. With no basketball game until Sunday morning, I’m curious as to what the recruits will spend their time doing. I wouldn’t be surprised if they went to a hockey game over the weekend, so if you’re interested in helping with the recruiting effort, get out and support the reigning CCHA champs, as well. Also of note: I’d assume the early-enrolling commits will be on hand for the recruiting visit, and it’s more likely that some of these guys have built up relationships with fellow members of the class of 2009. Will Tate Forcier, Big Will, and the gang be a valuable recruiting force for the rest of this class?

Look for another recruiting update later this week.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

Limited posting today, because it’s my birthday and I have better ways to spend it.

Recruiting post this afternoon, and Illinois UFR coming tomorrow.

Posted under Blog News

Who: You, me, anyone else who feels like discussing.

What: Discussion about the ESPNU Under Armour All-American Bowl.

Where: ESPN on your television, this post on your computer.

When: Tonight at 8 PM, when TV coverage starts. Conversation may get going a bit earlier (hopefully).

Why: Drool over Craig Roh and Taylor Lewan and Isaiah Bell, get a glimpse of a few guys Michigan still has a shot with.

How: Converse via the comments section of this post. Should a spontaneous liveblog pop up at MGoBlog, I’ll move over there and abandon this thread.

Posted under Football

Just a few quick thoughts about the hoops game. UFR might not be coming until Tuesday-ish because tomorrow is my birthday and I’ll be busy.

1. After the Wisconsin game, I thought the refereeing might have just been coincidentally slanted in favor of Wisconsin. After this game, I’m starting to think that there’s no way a game would be called so poorly unless the refs actually had something out for us. They wouldn’t call absolute muggings on our end of the floor, and then would call the most ticky-tack fouls on the other side.
2. Zack Novak was a real trooper for getting all bloody-like, then getting stitches during the game and being able to come back in before it ended. The #11 jersey is not nearly as awesome though.
3. Zack Gibson can be surprisingly athletic at times. He wasn’t the player of the game today, but Michigan certainly doesn’t win if he isn’t in there. The block on one end (before which the announcers stated Illinois was about to answer Michigan’s basket on the other side), followed shortly thereafter by the drive and dunk was awesome.
4. Manny Harris was back to being effective, and he wasn’t forcing up too many shots this game. I think he will grade out much better in UFR than he did against Wisconsin.
5. After the Wisconsin game, I think a lot of Michigan fans were depressed that it meant we’d have to be nearly perfect the rest of the way to get to the NCAA tournament. After this game, Michigan has shown they can play poorly and still win as long as they step it up in crunch time. There is still plenty of work to do to secure a tournament bid, but this win certainly makes it look a lot less dire.
6. Kelvin Grady made a layup! If he can do that consistently, this team is a lot better.

Anything else I missed?

Posted under Basketball