Michigan 102, Chaminade 64
Charles Matthews dribbles baseline, rises up, and throws down a dunk to give Michigan a 63-40 lead over Chaminade with 12:01 left in the game. pic.twitter.com/33o2tBRalU
— Evan Petzold (@EvanPetzold) November 22, 2017
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.]
November 21st, 2017 at 10:26 PM ^
November 21st, 2017 at 10:30 PM ^
Thanks for the write-up, Ace. Hopefully a W against VCU manana will help erase some of the downside of beating a D2 team tonight. Go Blue!
November 21st, 2017 at 10:32 PM ^
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.
November 21st, 2017 at 10:49 PM ^
November 22nd, 2017 at 9:19 AM ^
November 22nd, 2017 at 11:19 AM ^
November 21st, 2017 at 11:04 PM ^
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.
November 21st, 2017 at 10:43 PM ^
November 21st, 2017 at 10:46 PM ^
Certainly a long trip for them to the gym.
November 22nd, 2017 at 7:34 AM ^
A very short trip, but their campus is in Honolulu.
November 21st, 2017 at 11:45 PM ^
very good... +1
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.
November 22nd, 2017 at 11:17 AM ^
I will be shocked if Matthews is on this team next year. To me, he looks like a gimme first rounder.
November 22nd, 2017 at 1:34 PM ^
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.
November 22nd, 2017 at 12:05 AM ^
Watching Matthews next to some of the guys on the roster is eye opening. Athletically he's in a completely different zip code.
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.
November 22nd, 2017 at 2:40 PM ^
Zak had that athleticism befor he jacked up his back but yeah watching him just move and jump i immediately thought 'man, why can't we have more athletes like this' and 'already i'm going to miss him when he's gone.'
November 22nd, 2017 at 4:08 PM ^
because they are incredibly rare. There's only a handful of guys every year with Charles Matthews athleticism and if they also can dribble and shoot, they're five-star one-and-dones that are going to have offers from any school they want.
November 22nd, 2017 at 6:34 PM ^
I just meant the athlete part, they can easily be taught defense and rebounding and I trust Beilein to teach anyone how to shoot. Those athletes are everywhere, I know this because we are constantly out-athleted by teams 100 to 200 spots below us in kenpom. Hell GrIII could barely shoot or dribble.
November 22nd, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^
I know I shouldn't diss a college guy who put in 4 plus years at Michigan but its nice to turn on a game and not see Zak Irvin's bowlegged, erratic-shooting, hero-ball-ass out there. I wish him all the luck in his career but I think ultimately this will be a good thing for Michigan.
November 22nd, 2017 at 12:10 AM ^
November 22nd, 2017 at 12:10 AM ^
Im thankful for Charles Mathews this Thanksgiving to come Lol
November 22nd, 2017 at 1:08 AM ^
that loss is going to hurt if we are on the bubble come March...
November 22nd, 2017 at 8:32 AM ^
92 - 53 for those who didn't see the score. Ouch.
November 22nd, 2017 at 7:44 AM ^
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.
November 22nd, 2017 at 9:16 AM ^
It is November and I'm already getting nervous about 2018 mock drafts with Matthews and Wagner listed as going in the first round.
November 22nd, 2017 at 10:37 AM ^
that this is Moe's last year at Michigan regardless of the result. Charles Matthews is another potential one and done for Michigan and it's looking that way especially if he can continue to shoot over 35% from 3 pts for the season.
November 22nd, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^
November 22nd, 2017 at 2:43 PM ^
Wagner's going to get the exact same feedback as last year. Needs to improve defense, rebounding, and toughness. As of now I'd be surprised if he leaves.
Dunno about Matthews.
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.
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.
November 22nd, 2017 at 9:57 AM ^
I went to an all-boys Catholic high school called Chaminade for 2+ years. It was horrible. I for one am glad they were beaten thoroughly haha.
November 22nd, 2017 at 2:44 PM ^
I went to a coed Catholic high school and middle school for 6 years. It was great. I feel an irrational affinity for the college version.
November 22nd, 2017 at 10:50 AM ^
Excited to see more from Poole. Great looking player that I think most fans have overlooked.
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.
November 22nd, 2017 at 4:31 PM ^
That's a cool pic on this post btw!
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