Near the end of the Ohio St. game, Zack Novak appeared to intentionally hit PJ Hill with an elbow in the face after a free throw attempt.  He was given a flagrant foul and ejected from the game. Coach Beilein announced that Novak will serve a one game suspension:

“We are taking swift and appropriate action with Zack for the unacceptable incident that occurred at Ohio State,” said Beilein. “After speaking with Zack, he understands the severity of his actions. He expressed regret and embarrassment for his behavior. I hope Zack will learn a valuable lesson from this imposed discipline.”

This seems like the appropriate response. People have made comparisons with the Conboy play on Kampfer. While there are common features, the biggest difference is that this is Zack’s first time pulling something like this while Conboy had a string of prior bad acts. Hopefully this was a one-off, gritty freshman mistake.  For those of you who like Jevhohn Sheppard, you’ll be seeing plenty of him against Purdue.

UPDATE: The Big Ten approves of the suspension. Here’s the commish:

“Zack Novak’s actions at the end of the Ohio State game are unacceptable and have no place in the sport of basketball or the Big Ten Conference,” Commissioner James E. Delany said. “We support Michigan’s implementation of a one-game suspension. Also, SEC sux, Big Ten rulez!*”

*He didn’t actually say that last part

Posted under Basketball

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

<cliche>The shooting inside was as cold as the weather outside</cliche>

This wasn’t the best game Michigan has played.  Neither team was really able to get into any sort of rythm, and the flow wasn’t helped out at all by the referees.  I’m not sure if it was how the FGCU Eagles were playing defense or just a bit of laziness, but Michigan rarely got any sort of penetration or post presence.  While Beilein does believe in the power of the 3pt shot, I’m sure he wasn’t happy with almost 66% (42/64) field goal attempts being from long range, especially when the team wasn’t shooting particularly well.

For a while it didn’t really matter since since FGCU showed why they are in the bottom 10 of RPI.  They didn’t get to double digits until about 3:10 left in the first half, while Michigan had put up a (from just watching the game) very inefficient 27 points.  FGCU went on a run midway through the second half to cut it down to eight.  Eight seems to be the magic number, because then Manny keyed a little run to put the game out of reach.  He didn’t do it with his scoring but rather he finally got some penetration which first led to a Sims dunk.  Manny then drove to the right and kicked out on consecutive plays to Novack then Grady for corner threes.  From there, the game was basically over.

Quick Notes:

• Reed Baker had 16 points and played fairly well.  There were a few people in the crowd really cheering on Reed Baker, which was fine, but when he’s on the line hitting the free throw of a three point play to get them within 8pt, the funnyness is gone, and you should root for your team.
• DeShawn Sims was definitely the MVP for Michigan this game.  He went a very efficient 20/20 with 5 offensive rebounds.  He generally took good shots and was a force inside on the glass and with the ball.
• Manny Harris had another quiet game and sat on the bench quite a bit after picking up a couple offensive fouls.  In the Oakland game, he was still able to get penetration and make plays happen.  He was much more passive tonight.
• Laval Lucas-Perry played fairly well, but doesn’t look as comfortable in the offense as the other guards out there.  This will come with time.  He was still able to make some shots (2/3 from deep) and get to the rim and free throw line.  He does look like the third guy to get into double figures most nights.
• Zack Novack, Jevohn Sheppard Stu Douglass, Zack Gibson were never really able to get going.  Gibson missed his outside shots and did his Courtney Simms impression whenever he got inside.  Novack and Douglass never really got their shots going and Sheppard was never in the game enough get his rhythm.
• There was dumb fan behind me saying we needed to post up when there was Grady, LLP, Novack, Lee and Gibson in the game.  I respectfully disagree,

Posted under Basketball

Tim bought tickets for the Duke game on a whim earlier this year. Before the season started, we figured it would at least be a big game with national coverage. After the UCLA game, it started to look like it might be winnable. After the first Duke game, we figured the team could at least make a game of it.

I haven’t been to that many basketball games, but this was the best crowd I have ever seen at Crisler. There were times that it was absolutely ready to explode, but it rarely got to that next, euphoric level. There was a Novak three point attempt that just rimmed out, a Manny Harris missed dunk (which was a horrible no call), and a lot of other times Duke was able to come down and get a big basket. I know Tim and I felt impending doom, and it seemed like the crowd as a whole had that feeling. We all wanted to believe, but Michigan could never pull away and Duke kept hitting big shots.

What I thought really showed that this team has really gotten to the “next level” was the start of the second half. Duke went on a run and there were a 3 or 4 calls that went against Michigan (not all of them “bad” calls, but rather calls that could reasonably be no-calls). Duke got a bit of a lead and the “here we go again” feeling started setting in. Then, Michigan went on their own run. Novak hit a monster three-pointer from both corners, and Manny was able to knife through Duke’s defense and get to the basket. Suddenly Michigan was up 5 or so. Watching the Maryland game, I kept thinking that all they needed was a basket, stop and a basket to have a chance at winning that game. They weren’t able to do that, but at home, against Duke, they pulled together and stopped the run and put together one of their own. Duke didn’t seem to play particularly poorly either. They ran their offense efficiently and looked decent on defense.

A few random things:

• Manny Harris can’t be stopped. He seems to be able to get to the basket at will, regardless of who he’s playing against.
• DeShawn Simms was on fire in the first half and came up with some big offensive rebounds in the second half.
• Zack Novak is quickly becoming one of my favorite players. He is absolutely fearless shooting the ball.
• Did Anthony Wright even take a shot? Weird…
• I feel comfortable with Kelvin Grady breaking any press that’s thrown at him. He has great speed and some nice moves. He just needs to finish more consistently. He was clutch at the end.
• Rushing the court at the end of the game is completely acceptable. Tim and I didn’t participate (we were in the nosebleeds), but this is one of the biggest wins in the post-sanctions era.
• I wish I could have heard the interview between Bilas and Beilein. Awkward! The shot was absolutely awesome with Beilein in front of a bunch of crazy fans. Maybe this is a result of blogging, but our first thought was “this will be awesome for recruiting”

Posted under Basketball