I swear that Collins made all the right moves and plays.
1. During the first half, he had to spell Turner with Greer as Turner (granted not a point guard) was awful in the first half on defense and offense. If Turner didn't respond, I'm sure that Greer would have jumped in the gap for the entire second half, but Turner played his best half of basketball. Turner has potential to be close to an elite player once he gains confidence in knowing what he does, i.e., shoot the ball.
2. Second half defensive adjustment was sweet. Collins appeared to just leave one of the Michigan players undefended. Not sure of the Michigan player name. It really F'd up Michigan as we played 5 on 4 for defence. Beilan actually had to take that player out and Michigan really never got back in sinc. Kudos to Coach Collins because I believe Michigan thought they were going to just get another blowout until Collins did that adjustment and just left that one guy alone.
3. Michigan had their own adjustments and decided to double Pardon. During the first few minutes, we stumbled on this as Pardon kicked it back out but our guys simply would not take the wide open shots. Collins ended up having a lot of cutting and movement. This created some open lanes and also some good 3 pt looks for Law. So, Collins adjustments against the Pardon double team paid off. Again, we struggled during the first 3 or 4 minutes of the second half after the doubles but when Collins started all of the cutting and our players trusted in that, it really took an offensive flow that I didn't witness this season prior to this game.
4. Player Personnel. Collins made all the right calls on personnel tonight.
Kopp, while having a good shot, was getting ABUSED by #13 on the baseline and easy drive layups. Kopp got pulled and reinserted once, only to get abused again, then he saw the bench for the rest of the game.....ENTER Gaines. Gaines was simply tremendous. After #13 pimped him on with a baseline move, Gaines simply locked down the baseline and everything and damn near made them work for every look. Gaines defensive play was Sanjay like. Now if he can just learn to take that nice 3 pt shot every so often, with confidence, like Sanjay then he is Sanjay 2.0.
Collins had to insert Ash but Ash was awful. Let's be real. Dude cost us like 7 quick points and simply doesn't belong against "Top" competition. Collins sat him the rest of the game. Benson actually provides solid minutes against Big Men and he worked out ok tonight. But against smaller Bigs, he struggles.
Collins hooked Nance almost immediately. Dude was absolutely lost with little or no confidence in the system. Sore thumb out there. Once he loosens up (not sure when that will be) he will be more confident on defense and offense.
Also, good to see the last play of the game. It didn't work out due to good coaching on the Michigan bench but it appeared that the ball was set up to go to Law or Taylor. Good call. Didn't work out but I liked the play, and as it turned out, Taylor got a look but it didn't go in.
This team is a helluva lot better and talented than last year. Taylor and Turner will be the key and i'm ok with that since Taylor is finally learning solid defense and also getting more comfortable on offense. Turner is just a tweak behind I think. Still not confident or comfortable knowing his offensive role but he will realize he has to shoot that damn open shot. I saw dude hit like 12 or so pure 3s in warmup and he has a smooth nice shot, but he will bring it soon enough to a game. We won't be losing by 2 points when we got Turner rolling as well. In fact, when we get Turner, Taylor, Law and Pardon all confident, LOOK OUT!
And, yea, we lost tonight. But that team is the best Big10 team I have seen in a while. I'm fairly confident that we have potential to go to the Big dance this year.
1. During the first half, he had to spell Turner with Greer as Turner (granted not a point guard) was awful in the first half on defense and offense. If Turner didn't respond, I'm sure that Greer would have jumped in the gap for the entire second half, but Turner played his best half of basketball. Turner has potential to be close to an elite player once he gains confidence in knowing what he does, i.e., shoot the ball.
2. Second half defensive adjustment was sweet. Collins appeared to just leave one of the Michigan players undefended. Not sure of the Michigan player name. It really F'd up Michigan as we played 5 on 4 for defence. Beilan actually had to take that player out and Michigan really never got back in sinc. Kudos to Coach Collins because I believe Michigan thought they were going to just get another blowout until Collins did that adjustment and just left that one guy alone.
3. Michigan had their own adjustments and decided to double Pardon. During the first few minutes, we stumbled on this as Pardon kicked it back out but our guys simply would not take the wide open shots. Collins ended up having a lot of cutting and movement. This created some open lanes and also some good 3 pt looks for Law. So, Collins adjustments against the Pardon double team paid off. Again, we struggled during the first 3 or 4 minutes of the second half after the doubles but when Collins started all of the cutting and our players trusted in that, it really took an offensive flow that I didn't witness this season prior to this game.
4. Player Personnel. Collins made all the right calls on personnel tonight.
Kopp, while having a good shot, was getting ABUSED by #13 on the baseline and easy drive layups. Kopp got pulled and reinserted once, only to get abused again, then he saw the bench for the rest of the game.....ENTER Gaines. Gaines was simply tremendous. After #13 pimped him on with a baseline move, Gaines simply locked down the baseline and everything and damn near made them work for every look. Gaines defensive play was Sanjay like. Now if he can just learn to take that nice 3 pt shot every so often, with confidence, like Sanjay then he is Sanjay 2.0.
Collins had to insert Ash but Ash was awful. Let's be real. Dude cost us like 7 quick points and simply doesn't belong against "Top" competition. Collins sat him the rest of the game. Benson actually provides solid minutes against Big Men and he worked out ok tonight. But against smaller Bigs, he struggles.
Collins hooked Nance almost immediately. Dude was absolutely lost with little or no confidence in the system. Sore thumb out there. Once he loosens up (not sure when that will be) he will be more confident on defense and offense.
Also, good to see the last play of the game. It didn't work out due to good coaching on the Michigan bench but it appeared that the ball was set up to go to Law or Taylor. Good call. Didn't work out but I liked the play, and as it turned out, Taylor got a look but it didn't go in.
This team is a helluva lot better and talented than last year. Taylor and Turner will be the key and i'm ok with that since Taylor is finally learning solid defense and also getting more comfortable on offense. Turner is just a tweak behind I think. Still not confident or comfortable knowing his offensive role but he will realize he has to shoot that damn open shot. I saw dude hit like 12 or so pure 3s in warmup and he has a smooth nice shot, but he will bring it soon enough to a game. We won't be losing by 2 points when we got Turner rolling as well. In fact, when we get Turner, Taylor, Law and Pardon all confident, LOOK OUT!
And, yea, we lost tonight. But that team is the best Big10 team I have seen in a while. I'm fairly confident that we have potential to go to the Big dance this year.
