RAPID REACTION - Michigan

[Degaz-RU]

1. Michigan did a fantastic job taking Ace Bailey out of the game. Denied the ball, swarmed him with double team when he got the ball, and had tall guys guarding him to make his shooting more difficult. Second Saturday in a row against a team from Michigan that Ace struggled. 4-17 last week, and 3-15 (0-7) this week. Game over. We just can’t win with neither of our superstars playing well.

2. The rest of the team wasn’t much better. Overall we shot 22-67 overall (32.8%), and 10-36 from three (27.8%). Michigan played a subpar game and was ripe for an upset, but we just couldn’t hit shots. Every time we cut the lead to 3 or 4, we would miss and Michigan would push back up to 6 or 7. Just could never get over the hump.

3. Michigan had 17 TOs and gave up 15 offensive rebounds, giving Rutgers many more possessions, and a whopping 21 more shots. But whereas we shot 22-67, Michigan was an efficient 22-46 (7-20) and hit 15-21 FTs. This was a workmanlike road win for the more talented team.

4. Humongous shout out to Jamichael Davis for a career day, leading Rutgers with 20 points on 8-14 FGs, including an impressive 4-7 from 3-pt range. He added 4 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists, and another 0 TO game. He also ran the offense well. I actually feel more confident in his ability to quarterback our offense, way more than JWill.

5. For anybody holding out a faint hope of a magical February run, this loss puts a stake in those hopes. We’re done from an NCAA at-large standpoint. Period. The goal now is to try and make a mini run to finish 9th in league, so we can get a single bye and hope for a magical BTT run.

6. But this all depends on a somewhat healthy Dylan Harper, and that’s a big question mark. If he’s out for much longer, or not effective upon his return, then we’re just playing out the string and maybe playing spoiler.

 

[fluoxetine]

#5..
We’re not any more done than we were like pre-Northwestern. The 3% chance or whatever is still there

 

[Loyal_2RU]

Remember Kemba Walker and UConn's magic run, no bye won BET and natty

 

[RAC93]

1. Ace was awful, even passed up open threes and passed to Martini and JMike??? WTF?!?! Main reason we lost as he missed a ton of shots. He has been great for us this year and won us the NWestern game, but an objective evaluation of just today’s game adds up to him being the biggest reason for this loss.

4. Real quick and simple - Acuff and JMike need to be starters. JWill we have learned is a net negative out on the floor, JMike playing great ball right now, Acuff offers better shooting than Derkack.

 

[Wagram97]

Are we cursed though? Acuff breaks his foot at the start of the season. Bailey misses the start due to injury. I’m guessing this caused the development of Grant and Dortch to be delayed. Then Harper is fully healthy for basically only 2 conference games. Our starting center goes out for the season right as he’s showing improvement. Also, they can’t stop getting the flu. WTF.

 

[rpiseman]

RAC is no longer the advantage it used to be….has become much easier in the visiting team in recent years.

 

[RU MAN]

1. Michigan did a fantastic job taking Ace Bailey out of the game. Denied the ball, swarmed him with double team when he got the ball, and had tall guys guarding him to make his shooting more difficult. Second Saturday in a row against a team from Michigan that Ace struggled. 4-17 last week, and 3-15 (0-7) this week. Game over. We just can’t win with neither of our superstars playing well.

2. The rest of the team wasn’t much better. Overall we shot 22-67 overall (32.8%), and 10-36 from three (27.8%). Michigan played a subpar game and was ripe for an upset, but we just couldn’t hit shots. Every time we cut the lead to 3 or 4, we would miss and Michigan would push back up to 6 or 7. Just could never get over the hump.

3. Michigan had 17 TOs and gave up 15 offensive rebounds, giving Rutgers many more possessions, and a whopping 21 more shots. But whereas we shot 22-67, Michigan was an efficient 22-46 (7-20) and hit 15-21 FTs. This was a workmanlike road win for the more talented team.

4. Humongous shout out to Jamichael Davis for a career day, leading Rutgers with 20 points on 8-14 FGs, including an impressive 4-7 from 3-pt range. He added 4 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists, and another 0 TO game. He also ran the offense well. I actually feel more confident in his ability to quarterback our offense, way more than JWill.

5. For anybody holding out a faint hope of a magical February run, this loss puts a stake in those hopes. We’re done from an NCAA at-large standpoint. Period. The goal now is to try and make a mini run to finish 9th in league, so we can get a single bye and hope for a magical BTT run.

6. But this all depends on a somewhat healthy Dylan Harper, and that’s a big question mark. If he’s out for much longer, or not effective upon his return, then we’re just playing out the string and maybe playing spoiler.

Good post as usual. As for your #1 point, yes Michigan did a decent job against Ace with their bigs, but he was left open at least a half dozen times and missed all of those open shots. As for the rest of the team, they’re bad shooting is par for the course. That’s who they are. If Ace was even mediocre today we this game.

Lastly, shoutout to JMike. He played his best game today and kept us in it.

 

[RexMantlepiece]

Are we cursed though? Acuff breaks his foot at the start of the season. Bailey misses the start due to injury. I’m guessing this caused the development of Grant and Dortch to be delayed. Then Harper is fully healthy for basically only 2 conference games. Our starting center goes out for the season right as he’s showing improvement. Also, they can’t stop getting the flu. WTF.

Pike controls all these things don’t you know that?

 

[RU MAN]

Are we cursed though? Acuff breaks his foot at the start of the season. Bailey misses the start due to injury. I’m guessing this caused the development of Grant and Dortch to be delayed. Then Harper is fully healthy for basically only 2 conference games. Our starting center goes out for the season right as he’s showing improvement. Also, they can’t stop getting the flu. WTF.

It sometimes feels that way doesn’t it?

 

[RUtrumpet92]

Everyone other than Davis and Acuff went 2-21 from deep. Many of those were open looks, not a lot of forced junk. That's the ball game. If that collective bunch hit 6-21 (not even a great %), we probably would have won.

Oh well.

 

[cm_13]

Back to back awesome games from JMike. My biggest bright spot from today.

 

[bitnez]

Outplayed them in every aspect of the game except putting the ball in the hoop. If we miss only 23 3s instead of 26….

 

[RUGiddy777]

Good post as usual. As for your #1 point, yes Michigan did a decent job against Ace with their bigs, but he was left open at least a half dozen times and missed all of those open shots. As for the rest of the team, they’re bad shooting is par for the course. That’s who they are. If Ace was even mediocre today we this game.

Lastly, shoutout to JMike. He played his best game today and kept us in it.

Showed off some nice handles too.

 

[Mr Magoo]

At least we can put this miserable season to bed. It’s easier this way.

 

[darkcheck]

27’ for martini. 21 for Acuff. 12 for grant and 9’for Dortch.

 

[shields]

Davis played well.

 

[RUJMM78]

This was another winnable game that turned out to be a loss because of Rutgers abysmal half court offense.Michigan won by making layups and dunks while Rutgers shot bricks all over the court.For two straight games in front of the home crowd at MSG and the RAC ,Bailey had terrible shooting performances.I knew Michigan strategy was to double team Bailey all over the court and let the rest of the Rutgers team take open shots and miss them at a alarming rate.Rutgers took 20 more shots than Michigan many form the 3point line but never could sustain offense throughout the game.Once again a slow start scoring allowed Michigan to take the early lead which they maintained for most of the game.Davis was the only player I would give a passing grade on offense.

 

[Duff366]

They missed open threes, that's not bad half court offense

 

[#1 RUFan]

RAC is no longer the advantage it used to be….has become much easier in the visiting team in recent years.

When your team is not good the RAC has nothing to cheer about and the fans sit on their hands. It's the team not the fans or RAC. I'm not saying that's what you're implying. There were times tonight the fans were going nuts but our team can't sustain and the fans are left gasping.

 

[scarletpumpernickl]

Davis played a great game. Name the building after him - how about J Mike's Arena?

 

[RUBlackout]

We took 20 more shots than UM. We just weren’t efficient which is why we lost. Not due to bad coaching

 

[stribucher]

We missed a lot of shots but look how Michigan ran a motion offense that got their players in a position to succeed. Michigan coach far superior to Pike. At least Michigan got their coach before Indiana fires theirs. Dusty May would have been at the top of their list and he would probably succeed in Bloomington

 

[JudgeSmails56]

RAC is no longer the advantage it used to be….has become much easier in the visiting team in recent years.

Well it’s easy when our teams shoot like dogshit and we run no offense for years..

 

[koleszar]

#5..
We’re not any more done than we were like pre-Northwestern. The 3% chance or whatever is still there

Nice!

and yes this is called sarcasm

 

[RUJMM78]

RAC is no longer the advantage it used to be….has become much easier in the visiting team in recent years.

Home court advantage helps only on defense.Rutgers loss because of abysmal shooting. There was no go to scorer in the last minutes of the game.Bailey only scoring 10 points is a credit to Michigan double teaming him allowing other players wide open shots which weren't made.The record is now 11-11 and Rutgers will be the underdog in many of the remaining games with Harper not playing.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Of course we play our best defensive game of the year....(based on adjusted defensive efficiency) and lay an egg shooting. I have very little complaints. We shoot average we win by a few possessions and I thought our non Ace looks were good and the Ace looks were the same that go in during the season.

 

[RAC93]

#5..
We’re not any more done than we were like pre-Northwestern. The 3% chance or whatever is still there

 

[fatsam98]

Of course we play our best defensive game of the year....(based on adjusted defensive efficiency) and lay an egg shooting. I have very little complaints. We shoot average we win by a few possessions and I thought our non Ace looks were good and the Ace looks were the same that go in during the season.

Yup. Very frustrating game, very frustrating season.

Don't really have any complaints today either

 

[Shelby65]

We missed a lot of shots but look how Michigan ran a motion offense that got their players in a position to succeed. Michigan coach far superior to Pike. At least Michigan got their coach before Indiana fires theirs. Dusty May would have been at the top of their list and he would probably succeed in Bloomington

Michigan has multiple players who can run motion, pass well, etc. See how they even move Wolf ? Pike doesn’t recruit that. Never has. He recruits iso players, and this year a few spot up shooters. Good god, do you want Sommerville passing and cutting ? Or Derkack ?

Fair to criticize the recruiting philosophy but not also the style of play. The die was cast. Completely different skills than Michigan players.

 

[RuSnp]

1. Ace was awful, even passed up open threes and passed to Martini and JMike??? WTF?!?! Main reason we lost as he missed a ton of shots. He has been great for us this year and won us the NWestern game, but an objective evaluation of just today’s game adds up to him being the biggest reason for this loss.

4. Real quick and simple - Acuff and JMike need to be starters. JWill we have learned is a net negative out on the floor, JMike playing great ball right now, Acuff offers better shooting than Derkack.

On #1 - Thought both passes you reference were unselfish and the right play.
And #4 (for some reason) - Sure. But then one of them plays poorly and we scream for <insert bench player>. Personally I'd keep JMike in the exact role he's in now since he's on a heater.

 

[satnom]

Game was there for the taking but RU could not hit open shots and take advantage of UM turnovers. UM was not going to let Ace beat them and RU came up small when it needed to hit shots.

That being said, if a healthy Dylan plays RU wins by 10+.

GO RU

 

[RAC93]

On #1 - Thought both passes you reference were unselfish and the right play.
And #4 (for some reason) - Sure. But then one of them plays poorly and we scream for <insert bench player>. Personally I'd keep JMike in the exact role he's in now since he's on a heater.

On #1 - It was the wrong play, Ace had a WIDE OPEN THREE and passed to Martini. Never, ever, ever, never do we want Ace passing up his own wide open 3 to give Martini a shot for the three. I repeat, never, ever. If Ace was covered then I would agree with you, but Ace was wide open.

 

[goru7]

This game was lost because we kept on taking 3 point shots , most of them open and we shot bricks. We had 10 chances in the second half alone to take the lead for good and run away with this and fell flat. Why were we taken over 30 threes. ACE probably had his worst game of the year besides his 3-15 and did not impact the game in other ways. Thought once his shot was not going down he could have crashed the offensive boards but he remained outside all game. Almost mind boggling to see him shoot like this today after his 4 road games in January where he shoots like 55-65% .
We as a team shoot better on the road as the RAC has not only not become an intimidating place any longer , but we play and shoot much worse at the RAC. Anyone of Martini , PJ or Derdack multiple open threes for some reason do not go down at the RAC no matter how open the player is. Such an easy game to get a victory and we mostly lay an egg . Michigan would turn the ball over or we would get a steal and come up empty on the ensuing possession

 

[bac2therac]

On #1 - It was the wrong play, Ace had a WIDE OPEN THREE and passed to Martini. Never, ever, ever, never do we want Ace passing up his own wide open 3 to give Martini a shot for the three. I repeat, never, ever. If Ace was covered then I would agree with you, but Ace was wide open.

ace didnt work hard enough imo...as an upperclassmen he would...oh well

 

[goru7]

This game was lost because we kept on taking 3 point shots , most of them open and we shot bricks. We had 10 chances in the second half alone to take the lead for good and run away with this and fell flat. Why were we taken over 30 threes. ACE probably had his worst game of the year besides his 3-15 and did not impact the game in other ways. Thought once his shot was not going down he could have crashed the offensive boards but he remained outside all game. Almost mind boggling to see him shoot like this today after his 4 road games in January where he shoots like 55-65% .
We as a team shoot better on the road as the RAC has not only not become an intimidating place any longer , but we play and shoot much worse at the RAC. Anyone of Martini , PJ or Derdack multiple open threes for some reason do not go down at the RAC no matter how open the player is. Such an easy game to get a victory and we mostly lay an egg . Michigan would turn the ball over or we would get a steal and come up empty on the ensuing possession

Did not like Pike ‘s rotations tonight. He left Acuff on the bench too long when we really could have used a bucket. Left PJ and Martini in too long. He played Zach to handle their bigs defensively but to bury Grant is not good coaching. Dylan tried to do too much and took a bad 3 but was yelled out by Brandon Knight and the next trip , he had a nice drive , came to a nice stop and just left the shot short. He was yanked and never saw the floor again. Good coaching is you pull out the player , tell him what he did wrong or exactly what you want him to do and put him back in. While Martini and PJ were stinking up the court with missed shots and airballs .

This was such a missed opportunity as you shot 20 more shots than Michigan and couldn’t erase a 3 point lead. Settled for 3’s. Never want to see 30 threes taken , this isn’t the NBA. We should have been attacking the basket and drawing fouls and getting to the line. We made it easy for Michigan. Disgusted and really disappointing loss.

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

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.

 

[bac2therac]

Did not like Pike ‘s rotations tonight. He left Acuff on the bench too long when we really could have used a bucket. Left PJ and Martini in too long. He played Zach to handle their bigs defensively but to bury Grant is not good coaching. Dylan tried to do too much and took a bad 3 but was yelled out by Brandon Knight and the next trip , he had a nice drive , came to a nice stop and just left the shot short. He was yanked and never saw the floor again. Good coaching is you pull out the player , tell him what he did wrong or exactly what you want him to do and put him back in. While Martini and PJ were stinking up the court with missed shots and airballs .

This was such a missed opportunity as you shot 20 more shots than Michigan and couldn’t erase a 3 point lead. Settled for 3’s. Never want to see 30 threes taken , this isn’t the NBA. We should have been attacking the basket and drawing fouls and getting to the line. We made it easy for Michigan. Disgusted and really disappointing loss.

Zak and PJ both hit pivitols 3 that kept Rutgers wit in 2

Its up to Pike to get Ace unleashed at that point

Pike put JD in to draw fouls and it worked

Just not enough horses with Ace shooting like ass

Playing Grant was going to do jackshit 6-7 minutes left in the game

 

[goru7]

Zak and PJ both hit pivitols 3 that kept Rutgers wit in 2

Its up to Pike to get Ace unleashed at that point

Pike put JD in to draw fouls and it worked

Just not enough horses with Ace shooting like ass

Playing Grant was going to do jackshit 6-7 minutes left in the game

They hit a three after 10 empty possessions with Zach and PJ stinking up the joint. You say they hit a 3 finally to keep us in it but that is not the goal. The goal is to take the lead and leave Michigan behind in the dust. Not getting the lead mentally was a huge failure. We unlikely give up the lead if we got it with the pressure we applied to Michigan.
ACE should have been more aggressive and driven to the hoop and not stay on the outside when doubled to take a tough shot. He could have done some damage on the offensive boards with all the bricks we shot today .
You know jack about what Grant might have done but you witnessed Martini and PJ and it looked like crap. Costly decision.

 

[RUforester72]

Any early insight into what the team might do next year?

 

[RUskoolie]

RAC is no longer the advantage it used to be….has become much easier in the visiting team in recent years.

Lol because the team is not as good as it used to be. This is the 4th year of a downward trajectory. Open your eyes.