Michigan 102, Chaminade 64 Comment Count

Ace

Glorified scrimmage

Would be the game they get hot

Hot damn, Charles Matthews

Fine, some bullets:

But for real, of all the games for three-point luck to even out. Michigan went a scorching 15-for-28 from beyond the arc. Chaminade canned a couple fluky ones and still only made 5-of-22.

Anyway, Charles Matthews! Even against D-II competition, this is a quite a stat line for a guy who also had a huge game last night: 22 points on perfect 8-for-8 shooting, ten rebounds, four assists, two turnovers, three blocks, and two steals in 29 minutes. Matthews played with every bit of effort and skill that stat line suggests.

Duncan Robinson found his shot. 14 points, 4-for-9 from beyond the arc, unfair in transition. A nice bounceback after a rough go against LSU.

Eli Brooks got his first start. Brooks had a nice start with a catch-and-shoot three and a slick pick-and-roll assist, but his effectiveness didn't last; he went 1-for-4 with one assist and a turnover the rest of the way. Jaaron Simmons, the next point guard to get in, nearly put up an 11-minute trillion. Zavier Simpson was the best PG tonight but didn't exactly stand out.

Jordan Poole got a longer look. Poole looked good in his first extended action, doing what he's supposed to do: get buckets. He needed only nine minutes to score ten points, drilling two of his three shots from downtown. While he's got a long way to go on defense, he should cut into Ibi Watson's minutes if he keeps hitting jumpers.

Rahk, sharing. For the fourth straight game, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman scored double-digit points with at least four assists. He's turned the ball over just once in that four-game span, an especially remarkable feat considering how often he drives into traffic. That's a big development with the point guards struggling to produce.

Rebounding: not great. Outside of Matthews, the team didn't rebound well. Michigan had only three offensive boards (Jon Teske grabbed the third) before Austin Davis had three on his lonesome in the late going. Chaminade, meanwhile, pulled down 16 of their 39 missed shots (41%). After doing well on the boards early on, this didn't look like nearly as good an effort from Moe Wagner on first viewing.

Tomorrow's game. Michigan faces VCU, 83-69 winners over Cal, at 5 pm EST on ESPN 2. KenPom has the good guys as five-point favorites.

[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]

Comments

ppudge

November 21st, 2017 at 10:32 PM ^

Not sure what to make of the outing since it was Chaminade. That said, it's good to see shots falling, especially for the younger guys to get them some confidence. Having been at the 3 games at Crisler (admittedly missing last night's game because it was so late), the game tonight was BY FAR better than any showing in those first 3 games.



I liked Brooks tonight, but after seeing Poole, I'm wondering if we could see a lineup with MAAR running the point and Poole at the 2 with Matthews, Duncan and Moe rounding out the lineup.

outsidethebox

November 22nd, 2017 at 7:10 AM ^

Okay. My comments/beliefs regarding PG play are very pointed...because this is something I know a great deal about. Your PG is your PG is Your PG! SGs are not PGs...it would be a most rare situation where a SG would function well as a PG! (Assists do not tell the whole story in these regards.) In my very strong opinion your best PG should be on the floor foor at least 80 to 90% of the minutes...only on the bench for enough of a blow to resume a high level of play. Again, it would be a rare situation where a team would perform at its highest level with a significant split of time at the PG position. Just the facts. 

TrueBlue2003

November 21st, 2017 at 11:47 PM ^

1. Poole was in the game for 5 minutes before I realized he wasn't Ibi Watson. Aside from the 3 on Ibi's Jersey, those two are indistinguishable. And they both look like mini-DJ Wilson's with the hair and the shorts. Kids these days.

2. Charles Matthews.  He good.  I'm already preparing to lose him to the NBA after this year, because we can't have nice things for very long.

3. LSU...um...welp.  Maybe we tired them out? Yeah, that's the ticket.

wahooverine

November 22nd, 2017 at 1:34 PM ^

Had a rare lol at this description and comparison of Watson and Poole. It’s spot on. Mini-DJ Wilson’s in appearance. Poole looks like the better player though. Watson plays as if he doesn’t know you can touch other players and avoids contact at all costs. Plays delicately. And so far doesn’t give you the impression he’s a shooting impresario.

Baffin

November 21st, 2017 at 11:53 PM ^

Matthews is the best player we've had since the 2012 class. It would be nice if JB recruited explosive athletes like that more than once every five years. He's so much better than Irvin despite not being a "shooter".  

Poole is a below-average athlete but has a reputation as a decent shooter and very good passer. Maybe we should try running MAAR at the point and Poole at the two... we're not getting anything from the true PGs on the roster, might as well mix it up and play a big lineup. 

Zenogias

November 22nd, 2017 at 8:18 AM ^

But I think Isaiah Livers is pretty close. He made one of those smooth, easy dunks where you're shocked at how easy it was for him to explode up above the rim. That's what I want to see: guys who make it look easy, like THJ or GR3. Meanwhile, Poole's dunk was one of those "Yeah, I can dunk, but just barely" types. And for as much as Zak Irvin contributed to the program, he bricked so many dunks, it was painful to watch him try. The one guy we had the last few years who was capable of making them look easy, Aubrey Dawkins, couldn't actually get them to go through the net. It's hurt not having the kind of athleticism that Matthews (and hopefully Livers) brings to the table.

ppudge

November 22nd, 2017 at 7:44 AM ^

MAAR may very well be our best PG right now. He's a good ball handler, was basically the backup PG to Walton last year - heck he sometimes played PG with Walton in the lineup to give him breathers last year.



Not sure about MAAR's defense against quicker PGs, but only Simpson seems better on that end of the floor right now - Simmons and Brooks aren't great defensively. And based on what Poole showed, is he a better option to have on the floor than any of the 3 PGs? Jury is still out, for sure.



Right now the offense seems the have a better flow with Brooks, then Simmons, then Simpson. But Simpson is so good defensively (great steal and assist to Livers for a dunk last night) and has shown flashes of great passing (beautiful bounce pass in the lane to Wagner for a dunk) that make me think he could be our best PG. Problem is, he can't (or won't) shoot. He's basically Tum Tum Nairn right now.



Hopefully it will sort itself out because I agree with you on this point - as the PG goes, so goes the team.

TrueBlue2003

November 22nd, 2017 at 4:13 PM ^

that IF he has't made progress from last year to this year (and the jury is still out on that), why would he come back to the same program at which he's apparently hit a (hypothetical) ceiling?

I feel like he's highly, highly likely to be gone either because he is a first rounder, or if not, because he feels that even if he goes undrafted and unsigned he would be better off developing in Europe.

Jonesy

November 22nd, 2017 at 6:37 PM ^

Because he likes college and Michigan and he needs more than a little improvement, more than a years improvement, on those things and he can just as easily get that here. Plus he wants to go to the NBA not overseas. Another year of camp sanderson, another year of muscle, and he might get there. He looks bigger this year but still not big enough. Players that voluntarily leave early when not projected to get picked are 1 or 2 people per year across the entire country, ones that leave early to go overseas are nonexistent. I'd be surprised if he leaves without major improvements over the rest of the year. To me he still looks like a really good college player but not an NBA player.

Ramblin

November 22nd, 2017 at 11:16 AM ^

...but I think LSU had a flukey awesome game against us.  They lost Sampson early against ND and that really hurt them.  Bad luck for LSU and us...

I still like what I'm seeing.