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Dusty May, in so many words, said his game plan

Ace was 3-15. That’s a lot of empty possessions and we only lost by three. The only way we make a run that we’re all hoping for is to make teams pay when they collapse on our star players and keep them honest. We did it against Nebraska. We need to eventually learn to trust our players to step up when the shot is not falling for Ace (or Dylan). Each of the role players have all stepped up in a game at one point or another.
 
NW defended Ace just as good. The difference is Ace's shots went in. Our offense is live or doe by Ace's bad shot attempts. Crazy so many go in.

Ace needs to play less, be fresh, and move off the ball more. Any team that over plays and denies Ace the ball needs to pay with Ace making cits to the basket. I have no idea why Ace gets stuck in the corner. Move him to the wing where he is toughter to defend. That way you can dribble at him and ither dribble hand off or back door cut. Can't do any of that in a corner
 
I mean Ace had a ton of open / good looks and missed them.

Today wasn’t his day.
I disagree, I think the vast majority of his shots were objectively difficult looks. Maybe not as difficult for Ace, but generally speaking difficult IMO.

Ace is at his best when he’s comfortable. Michigan made him uncomfortable today. Pike and staff did nothing to change that.
 
I disagree, I think the vast majority of his shots were objectively difficult looks. Maybe not as difficult for Ace, but generally speaking difficult IMO.

Ace is at his best when he’s comfortable. Michigan made him uncomfortable today. Pike and staff did nothing to change that.

He had enough good looks. And to your point, sometimes tough shots for others are good looks for Ace.

He also passed up multiple wide open opportunities because his shot wasn’t falling.

Outside Davis or Acuff nobody on the team could hit a shot to save their life.

I just don’t think today is the day to get on the staff for not getting Ace enough good looks.

One way that Ace could have gotten comfortable was if a few more teammates stepped up and made some wide open shots. This would have taken some pressure off Ace and maybe they wouldn’t have doubled him as much.
 
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He had enough good looks. And to your point, sometimes tough shots for others are good looks for Ace.

He also passed up multiple wide open opportunities because his shot wasn’t falling.

Outside Davis or Acuff nobody on the team could hit a shot to save their life.

I just don’t think today is the day to get on the staff for not getting Ace enough good looks.

One way that Ace could have gotten comfortable was if a few more teammates stepped up and made some wide open shots.
We'll have to agree to disagree.

Ace scoring and scoring efficiently is a win condition for this team right now. To me, it's unacceptable that our staff allowed another team to dictate the game for our win condition. Especially something as simple as finding ways to get him shots BEFORE the double has time to get to him.

I actually think I was the only person in the RAC that loved Ace's pass to Martini. One of the better passes I've seen all year from the team, and certainly one of Ace's best IMO. It was the right basketball play.

I will give credit to the staff for the improvement defensively and on the glass, but offensively this stuff has been a mess for years. It's inexcusable to me that they don't have a "counter" for a team doubling their best player.
 
We'll have to agree to disagree.

Ace scoring and scoring efficiently is a win condition for this team right now. To me, it's unacceptable that our staff allowed another team to dictate the game for our win condition. Especially something as simple as finding ways to get him shots BEFORE the double has time to get to him.

I actually think I was the only person in the RAC that loved Ace's pass to Martini. One of the better passes I've seen all year from the team, and certainly one of Ace's best IMO. It was the right basketball play.

I will give credit to the staff for the improvement defensively and on the glass, but offensively this stuff has been a mess for years. It's inexcusable to me that they don't have a "counter" for a team doubling their best player.
I would agree as offense has been offensive for years. Zero off the ball movement by players infuriates me.
That said, today many players had decent looks and kissed and that includes Ace
 
So many wide open 3s because of this game plan. 36 attempts had to be a season high for us. Just couldn't hit them. Damn shame...
Roster formation failed along with Harper injury has made it necessary for Bailey to consistently score at least 25 points.It took two last minute 3 pointers to score 63 points.This is a deeply flawed roster with no margin for error with Harper injury.
 
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Roster formation failed along with Harper injury has made it necessary for Bailey to consistently score at least 25 points.It took two last minute 3 pointers to score 63 points.This is a deeply flawed roster with no margin for error with Harper injury.
This was a shooting problem.

Things id like to change about our offense, but we should have scored 75-80 with looks we got.

Heck if ace goes 6-15 thats 8 right there. Didnt dortch fumble 2 open dunks?
 
When Goldin blocked Ace’s 1st shot that may have changed his stroke and arc for the rest of the game. Wolf covered Ace well for the most part also and impacted his arc when Ace got shots off against Wolf or anyone else that switched off in man coverage. Rough shooting night for Ace. Highlighted by the poster on Wolf.
 
No Dylan is effecting this team in every way. Double Ace, and “hold” him to 15-20, we lose. Simple. Only 2 others in double figures. JMike leading scorer? Color me perplexed. Acuff should be option 3, but Rutgers is the place where transfers come to “die”, figuratively speaking
 
When Goldin blocked Ace’s 1st shot that may have changed his stroke and arc for the rest of the game. Wolf covered Ace well for the most part also and impacted his arc when Ace got shots off against Wolf or anyone else that switched off in man coverage. Rough shooting night for Ace. Highlighted by the poster on Wolf.
and the funny thing is, this is the type of big, tough team that Ace will see in the NBA. He’s really not used to that type of size.
 
No Dylan is effecting this team in every way. Double Ace, and “hold” him to 15-20, we lose. Simple. Only 2 others in double figures. JMike leading scorer? Color me perplexed. Acuff should be option 3, but Rutgers is the place where transfers come to “die”, figuratively speaking
We had so many open look 3s with other guys who just missed. Whole teams shooting was off obviously at 31%
 
i seriously cannot understand our coaches. If I forget the entire roster construction thing for a second which is the real problem.
Why cant we get Ace some looks off a screen or two or three in the 12-15' range
He obviously doesn't need much space but we still can't get him any better looks
 
they can’t play 7 on 5 so what exactly is your counter ? The roster sucks.

Shelby never thought he’d see a player with less hand-eye coordination than Cliff, but wow. Dortch might not ever score a point.
We'll have to agree to disagree.

Ace scoring and scoring efficiently is a win condition for this team right now. To me, it's unacceptable that our staff allowed another team to dictate the game for our win condition. Especially something as simple as finding ways to get him shots BEFORE the double has time to get to him.

I actually think I was the only person in the RAC that loved Ace's pass to Martini. One of the better passes I've seen all year from the team, and certainly one of Ace's best IMO. It was the right basketball play.

I will give credit to the staff for the improvement defensively and on the glass, but offensively this stuff has been a mess for years. It's inexcusable to me that they don't have a "counter" for a team doubling their best player.
Shelby didn’t love it per se, that’s too strong, but yes it was the correct play.

Ace drew defenders in the first half and passed to Acuff who made the same shot.

Doesn’t matter who the shooter is, spacing was good and we got the good look.

Didn’t Grant shoot an air ball from the corner in the first half ?

Some go in and some don’t.

.
 
May out coached Pike, we lost for a lot of reasons, and Pike could have made some changes to Counter May, but he didn’t.
I heard Pike’s favorite game is checkers.
Chess ♟️ is too complicated.
 
We'll have to agree to disagree.

Ace scoring and scoring efficiently is a win condition for this team right now. To me, it's unacceptable that our staff allowed another team to dictate the game for our win condition. Especially something as simple as finding ways to get him shots BEFORE the double has time to get to him.

I actually think I was the only person in the RAC that loved Ace's pass to Martini. One of the better passes I've seen all year from the team, and certainly one of Ace's best IMO. It was the right basketball play.

I will give credit to the staff for the improvement defensively and on the glass, but offensively this stuff has been a mess for years. It's inexcusable to me that they don't have a "counter" for a team doubling their best player.

I mean.

We did have a counter. We got 36 open three point looks. And missed 26 of them. Wtf is the coach supposed to do about that?
 
The dumb outcoaching comments are why the message boards cannot advance beyond 3rd to 5th grade basketball discussion.....

A) If May outcoached Pike, why was the game so close??

B) If players make wide open 3s and RU wins by 6 to 10 points, what was May and Michigan's counter to doubling Ace...?

C) Michigan had 17 turnovers and should have been 20+, if normal traveling calls are made. Is that good coaching??

D) Let's assume Ogbole was available to get in Goldens way or to play him 1 on 1....would he have scored just as easily as he did when Martini was asked at 6'6" to guard him?? If that is slowed down, where else was Michigan going to get points from??

There's a lot of cliche and fans talk that literally makes no sense. Michigan has better players when you remove Ogbole from the post defense, consistently missed wide open 3s from RU and Dylan Harper in a walking boot.

With all of that said, if Michigan was well coached, they'd probably had won the game by 12 to 15 points....considering the lack of productivity from Ace, Martini, Grant and JWill playing 9 minutes and to win by 3, is more of an indictment on coaching that compliments.

Golden should have had 20 to 24 points with reasonable coaching by Michigan IMO....but carry on with the compliments about everyone else's coaching staffs....LMAO
 
I mean.

We did have a counter. We got 36 open three point looks. And missed 26 of them. Wtf is the coach supposed to do about that?

Exactly.

The common sense counter to a constant double team is to get the ball to the open guy for a clean look.

And then those open guys to make their shots at a decent clip.

We had tons of those opportunities and everyone with the exception of Davis/Acuff couldn’t hit a shot to save their life all game.

It’s almost impossible to win any game with shooting like that, along with the inability to capitalize on all of our second chance opportunities from the offensive rebounds.

This isn’t the game to blame the coaches imo.
 
The common sense counter to a constant double team is to get the ball to the open guy for a clean look.
This is totally fair and reasonable.
I mean.

We did have a counter. We got 36 open three point looks. And missed 26 of them. Wtf is the coach supposed to do about that?
Majority of those were from role players. I mean Martini for example has had legit an all time awful time shooting the ball as of late, Gavin Griffiths bad (the guy that got ran out of here). Michigan had their game plan for a reason, and by not finding ways to free up Ace PRIOR to the double arriving, we played the game they wanted to play.

I guess I've hit the point where I realize this team isn't winning (without Harper), unless Ace has an efficient day offensively. It's brutal to me that JMike had probably his best game of his career, and we still were unable to win.

RU couldn't get over the hump all day, we'd make a little mini run, get close and then the offensive possessions where you NEED a bucket to flip the script we were just content not getting the ball to Ace because of the double and would settle for jumpers from Martini, Sommerville, and Hayes (who hasn't gotten run all year).

I just don't think it's winning basketball. I would have liked us to have a couple of plays drawn up to free up Ace for really clean looks in those key spots. Perhaps nitpicking, but in a 1 possession game, these things matter.

I do give credit for the staff though as this was the most Pike/Rutgers game we've played all year. Was good to see.
 
This is totally fair and reasonable.

Majority of those were from role players. I mean Martini for example has had legit an all time awful time shooting the ball as of late, Gavin Griffiths bad (the guy that got ran out of here). Michigan had their game plan for a reason, and by not finding ways to free up Ace PRIOR to the double arriving, we played the game they wanted to play.

I guess I've hit the point where I realize this team isn't winning (without Harper), unless Ace has an efficient day offensively. It's brutal to me that JMike had probably his best game of his career, and we still were unable to win.

RU couldn't get over the hump all day, we'd make a little mini run, get close and then the offensive possessions where you NEED a bucket to flip the script we were just content not getting the ball to Ace because of the double and would settle for jumpers from Martini, Sommerville, and Hayes (who hasn't gotten run all year).

I just don't think it's winning basketball. I would have liked us to have a couple of plays drawn up to free up Ace for really clean looks in those key spots. Perhaps nitpicking, but in a 1 possession game, these things matter.

I do give credit for the staff though as this was the most Pike/Rutgers game we've played all year. Was good to see.
Yeah but what happened to the mid range game from ACE or anyone else on the roster. Shooting 36 threes no matter how open they were was Michigan’s game plan. Hitting 5 midrange shots by ACE , Martini , PJ , Lathan , or Jordan wins the game easily. Pike not getting ACE off the 3 point line and getting him in the paint or foul line was a total fail to make a simple adjustment. They were not giving ACE threes but doubt they could have stopped ACE at 12-15 feet. Anyone else hitting a few midrange shots if set up with a pin down wins the game especially during the droughts between 13 minutes and 6 minutes to play.
 
He had enough good looks. And to your point, sometimes tough shots for others are good looks for Ace.

He also passed up multiple wide open opportunities because his shot wasn’t falling.

Outside Davis or Acuff nobody on the team could hit a shot to save their life.

I just don’t think today is the day to get on the staff for not getting Ace enough good looks.

One way that Ace could have gotten comfortable was if a few more teammates stepped up and made some wide open shots. This would have taken some pressure off Ace and maybe they wouldn’t have doubled him as much.

I don’t think Ace had the legs today. His shot was off in warm ups too. He passed up open looks during the game.

But yeah, we missed a lot. No one shot well, but the chances were definitely there.
 
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This is totally fair and reasonable.

Majority of those were from role players. I mean Martini for example has had legit an all time awful time shooting the ball as of late, Gavin Griffiths bad (the guy that got ran out of here). Michigan had their game plan for a reason, and by not finding ways to free up Ace PRIOR to the double arriving, we played the game they wanted to play.

I guess I've hit the point where I realize this team isn't winning (without Harper), unless Ace has an efficient day offensively. It's brutal to me that JMike had probably his best game of his career, and we still were unable to win.

RU couldn't get over the hump all day, we'd make a little mini run, get close and then the offensive possessions where you NEED a bucket to flip the script we were just content not getting the ball to Ace because of the double and would settle for jumpers from Martini, Sommerville, and Hayes (who hasn't gotten run all year).

I just don't think it's winning basketball. I would have liked us to have a couple of plays drawn up to free up Ace for really clean looks in those key spots. Perhaps nitpicking, but in a 1 possession game, these things matter.

I do give credit for the staff though as this was the most Pike/Rutgers game we've played all year. Was good to see.

I think the upside is that we’ll be able to work Dylan back in gradually and not be so reliant on him once he’s back. Thought JMike did a really nice job as a true 1 today.
 
I mean.

We did have a counter. We got 36 open three point looks. And missed 26 of them. Wtf is the coach supposed to do about that?

That's not a counter.
That's exactly what UM wanted. An open 3 from JWill, Lathan, Grant, Derkack and even Davis is playing into exactly what they wanted.

The counter is not be in this situation where Ace could be taken out of the game By doubling. Which is why we need Harper back so badly. He's the only other consistent offensive threat.

The actual counter is prioritize shooting and recruit players that make that type of defense untenable.
Not just 1 or 2 end of bench players.
The guys on the floor need to be threats - ideally including the center.

If Davis doesn't have a historic shooting night for himself we are blown out.
 
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i seriously cannot understand our coaches. If I forget the entire roster construction thing for a second which is the real problem.
Why cant we get Ace some looks off a screen or two or three in the 12-15' range
He obviously doesn't need much space but we still can't get him any better looks
They don't even run plays for him. When Dylan was healthy, I'm mystified as to why they didn't run pick and rolls with him and Ace. It's like the coaches are trying to make offense as difficult as possible.
 
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Yeah but what happened to the mid range game from ACE or anyone else on the roster. Shooting 36 threes no matter how open they were was Michigan’s game plan. Hitting 5 midrange shots by ACE , Martini , PJ , Lathan , or Jordan wins the game easily. Pike not getting ACE off the 3 point line and getting him in the paint or foul line was a total fail to make a simple adjustment. They were not giving ACE threes but doubt they could have stopped ACE at 12-15 feet. Anyone else hitting a few midrange shots if set up with a pin down wins the game especially during the droughts between 13 minutes and 6 minutes to play.

Getting Ace in the paint?

I don’t really think that’s where he can excel right now unfortunately.

When has he dominated the paint this season?
 
This is totally fair and reasonable.

Majority of those were from role players. I mean Martini for example has had legit an all time awful time shooting the ball as of late, Gavin Griffiths bad (the guy that got ran out of here). Michigan had their game plan for a reason, and by not finding ways to free up Ace PRIOR to the double arriving, we played the game they wanted to play.

I guess I've hit the point where I realize this team isn't winning (without Harper), unless Ace has an efficient day offensively. It's brutal to me that JMike had probably his best game of his career, and we still were unable to win.

RU couldn't get over the hump all day, we'd make a little mini run, get close and then the offensive possessions where you NEED a bucket to flip the script we were just content not getting the ball to Ace because of the double and would settle for jumpers from Martini, Sommerville, and Hayes (who hasn't gotten run all year).

I just don't think it's winning basketball. I would have liked us to have a couple of plays drawn up to free up Ace for really clean looks in those key spots. Perhaps nitpicking, but in a 1 possession game, these things matter.

I do give credit for the staff though as this was the most Pike/Rutgers game we've played all year. Was good to see.

Overall agree.

I think when it comes down to it, we’re just not a very good, or consistent team.
 
Getting Ace in the paint?

I don’t really think that’s where he can excel right now unfortunately.

When has he dominated the paint this season?
He can easily hit a 12-15 foot jumper with a simple pin down and sharp pass from our guards. It is in every coach ‘s tool box but Pike didn’t use it to counter and ACE was struggling but at the 3 point line and staying out there. Pike never tried anything different. If ACE hits a mid range then maybe he regains his confidence and hits the last 2 open threes. Sometimes a shooter has to see the ball go thru the hoop
 
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