It's amazing how fans give credit to the coach of Michigan....by swarming Ace?? That is some sort of revelation without Dylan Harper on the court, Zach Martini missing wide open 3s and playing 27 minutes??
Michigan is simply not that good and looked very pedestrian to me...Penn State, Maryland, Illinois and UCLA all look far better to me than what Michigan put on the floor today.
We played a game with no Dylan Harper, Michigan received the complimentary awful wasted possession with a running Derkack 3 in transition and Ace going 0-7 from 3 and a combined 1 of 7 from 3 from Grant and Martini, only to have Michigan up 4 with 3 minutes left??
I was pretty certain that the 2 cheap corner 3s that the role player Walters stole was ultimately the difference in the game.....and if the refs actually called a travel on at least 5 separate times on Michigan, RU would have forced 20+ turnovers instead of just 17.
All I need for the rest of the season is
A) an under control back court of JMike and Acuff off the bench.
B) a relatively productive Harper (12 to 13 PPG)...nothing crazy or 20 to 22PPG, just someone to lead some possessions and workload off of Ace Bailey.
C) Pike to limit Martini to 6 to 8 minutes a game. He simply is not adding enough across the defensive end, rebounding or shooting. The doubling of Ace Bailey should result in cookie-cutter 3s and the offense is finding Martini and he's not hitting these shots. If he doesn't hit them, he's unplayable.....Grant can take those same wide open 3s and I'll get more rebounding and a player who can dive to the rim for a layup or dunk.
D) Play Grant and Dortch are combined 40 minutes a night...Dortch is pretty solid on defensive rotations and bothers the opposing wings on drives to the paint.
E) Figure out what exactly is preventing Jordan Derkack from understanding roles and responsibilities as a upperclassman and B1G guard.
Everything for Derkack cannot be a personal one on one challenge to be so reckless and out of control. I almost would understand if JMike makes the mistakes that Derkack is consistently making at least 3 out of every 4 games, it's like he doesn't have the mindset to put it together....its a shame, because he's capable of doing everything at a solid level. The MSG game was kinda a game that because he hit some of those deep 3s, it almost unlocks him into taking out of rhythm 3s. He's very talented, he just needs to slow down and let his body and physicality dictate how he scores.
F) There’s a winning streak on this roster against this schedule, there's no game RU should be out of if I get just HALF of the list above, especially with the trend line of JMike Davis....
JMike Davis has stepped up since the Princeton game.....its nothing elite but some numbers are trending towards becoming a quality B1G guard.....and it is a significant improvement, if I start from Princeton forward.
10-29 from 3 (34.4% is more than reasonable and more effective than expected).
7-12 from the FT line (not great but trending up)
30 Assists with just 6 turnovers (5 to 1 assist to turnover ratio is considered elite on any metric).
19 Steals in those 11 games.
72 points in 11 games (6.6 PPG)
22 MPG, 6.6PPG, 2.7 APG, 34% from 3, almost 2 steals per game and well under 1 turnover per game are winning numbers for any guard off the bench.
We just need Dylan Harper and the 2 other freshman on the court more (Grant and Dortch) and the more consistent Acuff, who is shaking off the rust. I don't see any of these games being out of reach going forward.
