richard pitino

Beilein demonstrates my facial expression if Indiana hires him [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Welp. Wouldn't bank on a Livers return:

I'm trying to remember the last time Michigan went into the postseason with a significant injury. A meaningful one: not having Devin Gardner for the Oh God Tyler Lockett Bowl doesn't count. I guess Jabrill Peppers versus Florida State. Mitch McGary in 2014 sort of counts but he'd been out for a long time and Michigan was still really good.

Anyway, having the chair pulled out like this sucks.

this tweet: lol lol lol lolllllllllll

Stay away from basketball dad. The Minnesota and Indiana jobs just opened and I swear they're really going to chase me into the ocean this time if this dread prophecy is fulfilled:

Thankfully, early vibes don't seem to be pointing in this direction. Beilein did draw mention on Seth Davis's candidate list—was in fact his pick for the job—but it sounds like he's just guessing. Beilein was omitted from David Cobb's, and it doesn't seem like the fanbase is overly enthusiastic about a guy who would necessarily be a stopgap since he's 68.

On the other hand, some of these Indiana names are downright preposterous. Davis listed Scott Drew and Nate Oats, as did Inside The Hall. Oats already shot that idea down. Drew has spent 18 years at Baylor, which stuck with him through a 12-52 conference record in his first four years, and has finally turned the Bears into an outright power with what would have been back-to-back one seeds if last year's tournament happened. ITH did not list a singe mid-major head coach, instead focusing on two guys above and further extreme longshots (Eric Mussleman two years in at Arkansas, Oregon's Dana Altman)… mostly.

The exception? MSU assistant Dane Fife. This would be amazing. MSU fans want to run Fife out of town on a rail because they blame him for having Thomas Kithier and Foster Loyer on the roster instead of large, athletic persons. Fife is a former Indiana player, FWIW, but man there's no in-between here. Porter Moser now seems like a solid idea! Try that!

[After THE JUMP: even more Michigan connections to Big Ten coaching searches]

hopefully Brown is making a really annoying noise here [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

1/6/2021 – Michigan 82, Minnesota 57 – 10-0, 5-0 Big Ten

Lopsided basketball games, like most other uncompetitive sporting events, have a desultory ending period where players go through the motions but aren't giving maximum effort. You get turnovers and runouts on both ends as passing gets lackadaisical. Not much about the last ten minutes of Michigan's blowout of Minnesota was unfamiliar.

One thing was: Chaundee Brown going from vaguely on-screen to full-on Tasmanian Devil. There were two separate incidents. On the first (as Ace detailed), Minnesota tossed the ball into the back court for an over-and-back that both Mike Smith and Marcus Carr couldn't catch up to. Brown came from seemingly nowhere to grab it and shot upcourt for a dunk. This one was precisely calibrated to not quite cross the chin-up-tech line.

Okay, that's one thing. Basketball players like to score. Gimme gimme gimme the ball because I'm gonna dunk it. Etc.

The second one, though. The second one was one of those Kenpom Time turnovers that was about to lead to a Minnesota  transition bucket. Brown tore at this like Tayshaun Prince going after Reggie Miller. He didn't get there—it was a goaltend—but it was literally a 34-point game when he did this.

Getting there is beside the point. The vibe is the point. Chaundee Brown isn't here for desultory. He's had enough of that in his career already. Chaundee Brown is here to feel alive on a basketball court.

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[Campredon]

More quietly, Mike Smith is also busy busting his ass. I've been loathe to mention this for a couple weeks because of its general unlikeliness, but I just saw him stone a Marcus Carr drive late in this game: he is now an acceptable-or-better defender. Much of the discourse here and elsewhere during the early part of the season consisted of worries about defense, and Smith in particular came in for a lot of fretting.

This was because he got blown by regularly. Michigan, in general, was giving up a number of straight-line drives to the basket. They are no longer. Smith also had a tendency to over-help and blow closeouts. That, too, is a receding issue. Michigan is fresh off two dominant defensive performances against top-60 Kenpom offenses, the kind of performances that you can't manage unless everyone is doing most of their job. Smith is doing his job.

Since he's a Micro Machine that means staying in front of guys and living in the breadbasket of three-point shooters. This he has done admirably. He's developed a closeout style where he sidles up to you without jumping and just sort of, you know, insinuates himself in there. It's awkward. It works. Gabe Kalscheur got a couple of buckets by going off the dribble and shooting over him, and that's always going to be a thing given Smith's size. If those are the things Smith is giving up, you'll take that and run.

Smith has also been remarkably unselfish, especially since he's coming off multiple seasons of giant usage. Even when he takes a difficult stepback, as he did early, he's not just shooting to shoot. A couple possessions later he roasted Carr with a threatened stepback to set up Dickinson for a dunk:

His main problem is trying too many audacious passes so his teammates can dunk. He's seamlessly faded into a role, and repaired his glaring deficiency in a couple months.

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Everyone wants to win. Mike Smith and Chaundee Brown are dying to win. Everyone else in the rotation is either a freshman from a DMV power or a guy who's been kicking around the Michigan program for at least a year or two. They come from good cultures that emphasize doing the things you need to do to be successful. They have been successful.

So they don't know. They don't know what it's like to go 14-42 in three whole years of ACC conference play. They don't know what it's like to put up 34% usage for a 1-13 Ivy League team. They don't know what it's like to drive into the lane against UNC and dump it off for a teammate who does not do the Hunter Dickinson thing (catch it and dunk it) but rather some bad Ivy League process where the ball is the subject of a multivariate analysis before being goofily booted into the third row with a business plan attached to it.

These guys know. Early this year Smith was asked how it felt to be 2-0; he said something to the effect of "I've never been 1-0." Brown runs around clapping his giant meaty arms and smiling so wide his head seems like it's about to fall off. Together they've injected Michigan's culture with the only thing it lacked: desperation. Even when you're up 34.

[After THE JUMP: Richard Pitino's face!]

wingspaaaaan [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Content supplies are critically low. BTN had some Northwestern memories on deck a few days back. They were extremely Northwestern.

More on Eastern. Brendan Quinn has an article on a whirlwind couple of days in the portal:

According to a source, Eastern and Michigan coach Juwan Howard spoke on Wednesday night.

By Thursday morning, Eastern’s decision was made.

He confirms that Eastern is not immediately eligible, which may be for the best. A year off for Eastern to attend the Zavier Simpson School Of Adequate When Unguarded Shooting could make his year at Michigan more productive. Meanwhile the 2021-22 roster will lose Smith, Brooks, Livers, and maybe Wagner.

That team is likely to be very young, and if Howard is able to secure a big-timer next year Eastern fits more neatly next to a high-usage teammate. Purdue was able to paper over his offensive deficiencies when Carsen Edwards was around; not so much after Edwards left for the NBA. Edwards's ORTG against Tier A and B opponents (top 100 adjusted for location) dropped from 110 his sophomore year to 85 his junior year. There's a reasonably efficient low-usage offensive player in Eastern if he's in the right context. That is admittedly a narrow one.

In other transfer news, Michigan is not listed amongst the schools who have reached out to sit-out Georgetown transfer Mac McClung.

[After THE JUMP: Jacobi brain good?]