Our Depth was Exposed

[Mbash93]

When Mag went out with injury, not only did we lose our most athletic player (outside cliff), but we lost our swiss army knife.

Mag was able to cut when doubles came to cliff and paul and get to the rim effectively when doing so. Mag was able to get us a tough basket when the ruts came whether it was a mid rage jumper or posting up a weaker defender. Losing him, made us lose the bandaid that was covering up the cut that was our lack of effective offense.

But it also exposed our depth. As @RU72 has mentioned before more talented teams catch up to us as we head to March. There talent gets better and we couldn't grind out these games like we did early on.

Should we have won Minnesota? Yes, that loss was inexcusable and likely will be the cause of our loss of an NCAA bid. Should we have beaten OSU? Yes, you already know why.

The problem that needs to be adressed is our lack of depth. Every game we lost was the same story, we came out hot, locked up and then we had to go to the bench and all momentum was lost. The drop off was huge and there was no bench piece other than simpson that brought anything. We have two guys on scholarship who we couldn't even put out there. Pike's style is most effective when he can play 9 deep and not 6.5 deep. We have help on the way in GG and Baye but the portal is going to have to bring in another piece (if we have the spot for it).

Pike is the right guy for the job, and if it wasn't for a rash of injuries and ton of bad luck we were probably looking at a 2nd weekend team. We got one more game to clinch our spot, so lets take care of the wolverines and send Jawan home crying.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Yes - depth issues have hurt us but it’s now clear that isn’t the main reason we’re now in a win or NIT situation.

The bottom line is one player can make or break success when that player typically plays 35 mpg and runs your offense. Mag did not make Paul a better player in his role. There’s very little correlation there. But there’s a ton of correlation between us sucking and Paul falling apart looking like a completely different player. Now it’s one thing to have an off day but this is now a lot of off days. If Paul played even a little better we don’t lose the Minny game and we’re likely locked into the field. If he plays even a little better at Indiana that outcome is probably different too. He scored 2 points against Nebraska. He was beyond awful yesterday. Points mostly in garbage time.

Now when you add in that our best defensive player isn’t really a scorer - it compounds the issue of Paul not scoring (Caleb can’t even practice with the team his back is in such bad shape per Politi article by the way).

Now the good news is Michigan is a decent match up for Paul offense wise. Unfortunately that’s neutralized by some of the other guys not being good match ups for the team (and again it doesn’t help that Caleb is far from 100%).

 

[ScarletDave]

The reality is, our backs reaaaaally weren’t truly up against the wall, until now. Even at Minnesota, even NW game, there was still breathing room. Only now is that truly gone. Unlike the last couple seasons when our backs were truly against the wall (ie outside the bubble) going into the last couple, now is truly when we are up against it. For that reason I haven’t given up hope. These guys just find a way

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

The reality is, our backs reaaaaally weren’t truly up against the wall, until now. Even at Minnesota, even NW game, there was still breathing room. Only now is that truly gone. Unlike the last couple seasons when our backs were truly against the wall (ie outside the bubble) going into the last couple, now is truly when we are up against it. For that reason I haven’t given up hope. These guys just find a way

Normally I’d agree with you but it’s a huge factor that Caleb hasn’t been able to practice with the team if it means he’s not going to be able to for the Michigan prep either. This isn’t an excuse for losing, but it’s a definite disadvantage not to have one of the guys you expect to log 30+ minutes prepping with the others. No question about that.

 

[Mbash93]

Yes - depth issues have hurt us but it’s now clear that isn’t the main reason we’re now in a win or NIT situation.

The bottom line is one player can make or break success when that player typically plays 35 mpg and runs your offense. Mag did not make Paul a better player in his role. There’s very little correlation there. But there’s a ton of correlation between us sucking and Paul falling apart looking like a completely different player. Now it’s one thing to have an off day but this is now a lot of off days. If Paul played even a little better we don’t lose the Minny game and we’re likely locked into the field. If he plays even a little better at Indiana that outcome is probably different too. He scored 2 points against Nebraska. He was beyond awful yesterday. Points mostly in garbage time.

Now when you add in that our best defensive player isn’t really a scorer - it compounds the issue of Paul not scoring (Caleb can’t even practice with the team his back is in such bad shape per Politi article by the way).

Now the good news is Michigan is a decent match up for Paul offense wise. Unfortunately that’s neutralized by some of the other guys not being good match ups for the team (and again it doesn’t help that Caleb is far from 100%).

Yea the team is clearly banged up between losing Mag, and Paul and Caleb less than 100%. But that is where our depth has killed us. Going from Mag to Hyatt isn't terrible. But going from Hyatt off the bench to Oskar off the bench is a huge drop off unless Oskar is hot that game.

Reiber being a non factor and Wolf being extremely limited at this stage in his career, once Cliff goes out we have nothing inside.

 

[RUBlackout]

Good post. I just stated this a few times on other threads about Mag's ability to move without the ball and create various outlets for others in passing lanes. I left out his defense and that has been critical too but more about his offense

 

[Mbash93]

Good post. I just stated this a few times on other threads about Mag's ability to move without the ball and create various outlets for others in passing lanes. I left out his defense and that has been critical too but more about his offense

He was truly our swiss army knife. He could do a little of everything and that helped us avoid 15-2 / 19-0 type runs

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Now the good news is Michigan is a decent match up for Paul offense wise. Unfortunately that’s neutralized by some of the other guys not being good match ups for the team (and again it doesn’t help that Caleb is far from 100%).

That all depends who Michigan decides to match on him. Bufkin or McDaniel could make his life miserable.

 

[S_Janowski]

Depth is a major issue.

Mags loss goes well beyond his stats. He brought a lot of attributes and strengths that we can’t seem to fill…and its asked other guys who were performing fairly well to do more/different but we don’t have the personnel.

If I’m Pikiell I’m shaking up the starting lineup for the BIG10 tournament. Our current rotation/sun patterns is simply not working.

 

[RUfubar]

I find it interesting that one of the guys on the selection committee is from Minnesota.