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GAME 13 Michigan: Find Your Way Bac

One thing I noticed is Michigan didn’t really crash the offensive boards, got some at the end on long rebounds. Dickinson is big but slow footed, won’t out hustle anyone. Their freshman inside players were not aggressive and were muscled most of the game.

Cliff got a couple of blocks last night, great to see. It’s something that has been missing from his game.
 
Look at the stat lines of the players who didn't play.....and tell me which player missing, was going to play over any of the Michigan starters.....Michigan had their entire starting lineup intact.

I could say Mag lost some teeth and played 2 minutes and Agee missed the last 2 games and wasn't ready to play and say "well, RU didn't have their full arsenal....

Michigan is essentially all 4 and 5* players on their roster......I'm not giving them the excuse of what the BS announcers during the game want to throw out there....RU dominated from start to finish....it's OK to say RU played better or was better without some asterisk next to why they beat Michigan.....
#NailedIt
 
One thing I noticed is Michigan didn’t really crash the offensive boards, got some at the end on long rebounds. Dickinson is big but slow footed, won’t out hustle anyone. Their freshman inside players were not aggressive and were muscled most of the game.

Cliff got a couple of blocks last night, great to see. It’s something that has been missing from his game.


experience mattered in a game like this. Its often overlooked, Those freshmen will be better in a couple of years but hostile environment they were rushing shots early and we were outboarding them. We had a keen sense of what it takes to win a game like this that they havent picked up on given Michigan's losses this year.
 
Holy sh#t, you must love typing and have nothing to do to write that book just to hear youself think
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Look at the stat lines of the players who didn't play.....and tell me which player missing, was going to play over any of the Michigan starters.....Michigan had their entire starting lineup intact.

I could say Mag lost some teeth and played 2 minutes and Agee missed the last 2 games and wasn't ready to play and say "well, RU didn't have their full arsenal....

Michigan is essentially all 4 and 5* players on their roster......I'm not giving them the excuse of what the BS announcers during the game want to throw out there....RU dominated from start to finish....it's OK to say RU played better or was better without some asterisk next to why they beat Michigan.....
My internal asterik looks at the variability of shooting and tries to normalize the results given that. We definitely shot it way better than normal, but I think the result was still outside that.

Obviously have to factor in we got good looks so the estimated percentage needs to adjust higher and on the other side of the court we did a very good/excellent job defending the line so UM estimated percentage goes down.

In the past there have been losses that i didn't feel bad about because we played hard, defended well, got good shots, and flat out missed them.
 
Other thing to note......
Chemistry.....always looks good in a win. No one making strange faces when you are 10-15 from the field.....

With that being said it seems like the 5 are on the same page and genuinely like each other. Trust in each other is important. 4 of the 5 starting 5 have well defined roles and know thy are playing 32+ minutes. Wish we had more bench, but it definitely isnt bad from a chemistry point of view.
 
good point about being on the same page, that clearly wasnt happening in the first 6-7 games. Didnt see a purpose and the players working in sync. I think we can shutter the chapter of the Caleb/Paul/Geo funk. I dont know why it happened. It shouldnt have happened but for some reason that struggle became part of this groups story. Can they recover from it? Maybe maybe not.


Its the depth problem now that we need to turn to, that and creating their own energy on the road.
 
Absolutely agree, that is the next phase of Cliff's game to really make him an even bigger threat to teams. We have seen him hit a few 10-12ft shots with a pretty effortless release so we know he has the shot in his bag, but if he can develop a shot with some consistency, teams will have to start respecting it and that will draw the big out of the paint and open up the floor even more. I did not like the 3 that Cliff took in the 1st half when we were up and cold a little, but I do like his confidence to shoot. Between that and working on his touch around the rim (more arc on his hook rather than a line drive), that will increase his shooting percentage as well and make him an even bigger threat offensively. All things considered, love the progress from Cliff and its fun to watch him grow game after game.
Love Cliff too, but he definitely needs to improve his positioning and anticipation on defense. No way he should have been schooled by Dickinson so thoroughly on those spin moves. Miles wouldn’t have been and he’s not nearly as quick as Cliff so it can be done with work and some smarts.
 
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Great recap Bac. With Ron and Geo's recent shooting hot streak we now have two guys out there shooting 40% or better from 3-point range for the season. That was something sorely missing in the early season. I would now like to see Mulcahy regain some of his 3-point shooting touch that allowed him to lead last year's team at 39%. But, Paul's floor game and assist to TO ration is dramatically improved from the early season, which is another key to RU's success.
 
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It is worth highlighting this bit of humility and perspective from Bac, which made his post even better:

"Yet during this 4 game stretch, Pike and his charges have done a yeomen's job of hiding these deficiencies. For all the handwringing about recruiting and rotations, he has proven why he is the paid coach and we are just bums throwing out our frustrations on a message board."

Truer words were never spoken.
 
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Love Cliff too, but he definitely needs to improve his positioning and anticipation on defense. No way he should have been schooled by Dickinson so thoroughly on those spin moves. Miles wouldn’t have been and he’s not nearly as quick as Cliff so it can be done with work and some smarts.
Agreed but Cliff is also only a 2nd year guy with limited minutes last year and overall only a few years playing basketball period. Myles is slower but certainly was bigger than Cliff body wise and his defense grew with time and seasoning.
 
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We hit 11 threes at a 47+% clip. A total outlier as compared to our typical performance. Michigan’s bench was 3 players long. Agreed terrific win, but need to carry this over to Saturday and beat Nebraska. If we do, the turnaround would start gaining traction.
Agree..

And it seemed like it was usually one of Michigan's two 6'1" starting guards trying to contest our threes. We made some great shots, but being at least 3 or 4 inches taller than the defender may have allowed for some better looks, and maybe more confidence when taking the shots... And as was often mentioned, Michigan's top 2 bench players, 6'7" and 6'8", were out, as was their backup point guard. The rematch will be interesting.
 
A select few Rutgers fans who love to kick the *ss of the opponents:

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🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
 
Its the depth problem now that we need to turn to, that and creating their own energy on the road.
The real problem is how do we succeed when Ron and Geo have off nights shooting. It impacts us on offense (obviously) but it also does on defense and rebounding.

We have a pretty meaningful sample size with our team that says we are a below average shooting team. When the dice are hot we are a good team. What are we when the dice are rolling normal?

Harper 3 point shooting
Clemson 4-6
Purdue 5-7
Michigan 5-6
 
The real problem is how do we succeed when Ron and Geo have off nights shooting. It impacts us on offense (obviously) but it also does on defense and rebounding.

We have a pretty meaningful sample size with our team that says we are a below average shooting team. When the dice are hot we are a good team. What are we when the dice are rolling normal?

Harper 3 point shooting
Clemson 4-6
Purdue 5-7
Michigan 5-6


basically you get the Seton Hall game, it could be worse

 
basically you get the Seton Hall game, it could be worse

This. Mag was basically unavailable for Michigan. Cliff had a sub par day scoring the ball too. And there will be games that Paul and Caleb score more. We don’t need stand out 20+ type nights from Geo and Ron every game to reach 70 (and the defense is moving towards good enough to expect us to hold below this threshold).

We need more consistent rebounding. If we rebounded like we did vs Michigan in November our record would look a lot different even with the poor shooting.
 
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We know the rotation of players that Pike would like use this year sooner than later, Geo, RHJ, Paul, Caleb, Cliff, main three off the bench, Hyatt, Mag, Jones, not that Miller, Palm, Reiber, and Agee-Gonzales won't have roles in some games based on game action.

Tuesday night showed what our main 4 guys in unison can do on the court together despite Cliff's struggles offensively vs Hunter, it probably stems meeting a few times in AAU ball high school years as talented big men. I think Pike is comfortable with 7, despite Mag's unfortunate injury, and would like to tap into Jaden's potential in January, so he gets to that solid 8 man rotation come the tougher part of the schedule in Feb/March. Miller can be used to defend smaller quicker guards that get hot, Palm can be used for defending taller forwards that get hot from the outside, Agee/Reiber backup Cliff from foul trouble/matchups. We just need to solve that Jaden Jones Piece going forward, I'm rooting for him to put his game together quickly. We will be a very dangerous, complete team when it happens. We are facing Nebraska twice, Maryland twice, NW, PSU, Iowa and Minnesota, These are the games to clean up the little things and get a few games over .500 in conference for the meaty part of the schedule before ending with PSU. It is definitely a promising looking 2022 after the slow November start.
 
This. Mag was basically unavailable for Michigan. Cliff had a sub par day scoring the ball too. And there will be games that Paul and Caleb score more. We don’t need stand out 20+ type nights from Geo and Ron every game to reach 70 (and the defense is moving towards good enough to expect us to hold below this threshold).

We need more consistent rebounding. If we rebounded like we did vs Michigan in November our record would look a lot different even with the poor shooting.
Great post. There are always different ways to win a game and the match ups are always different.
 
basically you get the Seton Hall game, it could be worse

bac2therac said:
Its the depth problem now that we need to turn to, that and creating their own energy on the road.
The real problem is how do we succeed when Ron and Geo have off nights shooting. It impacts us on offense (obviously) but it also does on defense and rebounding.

We have a pretty meaningful sample size with our team that says we are a below average shooting team. When the dice are hot we are a good team. What are we when the dice are rolling normal?

Harper 3 point shooting
Clemson 4-6
Purdue 5-7
Michigan 5-6
@Greene Rice FIG




its exactly what you got....the SHU game was pretty similar to the Penn State game, it was a bit more high scoring but it played out the same, get behind by double digits, do some chipping, look like you are going to make a run, get blown out in the later stages
 
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