Huge Weekend for Michigan

#23 Michigan 74 Illinois 64

Let's start with the huge 74-64 win for #23 (for a few more hours until the new poll comes out) Michigan (11-3, 1-1) over Illinois (13-2, 1-1) on Sunday. It was a game that Laval Lucas-Perry said Michigan "needed to win" and they did just that to get to .500 in Big Ten Conference play. If Michigan wants to go dancing, they need to beat tough teams like the Illini on their home court. Illinois came in receiving votes in the polls and with a RPI of #18. With the way they've looked all season, I'd expect them to be around the top 25 at the end of the year.

Michigan trailed by one at the half but battled back and eventually pulled away in the final minutes to earn the ten point win. After playing man-to-man for most of the game against Wisconsin, the Wolverines spent much of the Illinois game in their 1-3-1 zone. While Illinois only turned the ball over eight times, the zone was effective in hiding Michigan's lack of size down low. There were still a few times where Beilein had four guards in the game and Bruce Weber exploited that size advantage for a few easy buckets by his big men but I like Michigan much better defensively in that 1-3-1.

Michigan used a balanced scoring attack as Harris lead the way with 16 but Sims, Perry, Novak, and Gibson also reached double figures. Novak earned his second start of the season and played well in the first half, scoring all of his 11 points on 5-6 shooting, 4-5 from beyond the arc. For those keeping track at home, that makes Novak 8-11 from beyond the arc (or 72.7% if you prefer percentages to fractions as I do) in the two games he's started - I'm disregarding the desperation three that he shot at the end of the Wisconsin game. Novak was neutralized for much of the second half by an Alex Legion elbow that left a trail of blood from the far basket all the way to the tunnel and required six stitches above Novak's left eye (see picture above).

Zach Gibson played above the rim, showing signs of athleticism that caught everybody, including Gibson, off guard. I know Gibson wasn't expecting himself to dunk because he couldn't stick the landing on his first slam, falling straight on his tailbone. Gibson jokes aside, he had a monster game for Michigan with the fast break dunk, a huge block on a Brock layup, a three pointer, then beating Tisdale off the dribble for his second dunk. His three pointer gave Michigan a lead that they would not surrender. The win improved Michigan's RPI 13 slots to #39 while dropping Illinois just one spot to #19. Michigan will next be in action on Wednesday night at 6:30 at Indiana with the game televised on the Big Ten Network. Now, moving on to recruiting...

Michael Chandler Commits to Michigan...and Lousiville?
After the Michigan win over Illinois, they won a verbal commitment from Michael Chandler, a 4-star, #4 ranked 6'10" Center in the 2011 class. This commitment seemed to come out of nowhere so I decided to do a little digging to find out about this Michael Chandler. ESPN's Scouts Inc. grade him at a 96 and said this about him:

If you want to see him play, you better get to the JV game at Lawrence North High School. He runs the floor extremely well, he is active on both ends of the floor and he rebounds very well. He is very coordinated for a kid his size and his age. He oozes with potential and is certain to attract a lot of attention as he gets older and continues to develop as a player.

Did scouts inc really send someone to watch this kid's JV game???

Chandler apparently has offers from Duke, Michigan State, Kansas, Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio State, among several others. The strange thing? Of the three recruiting sites I checked out (Rivals, Scout, and ESPN) Scout was the only one that even listed Michigan as a possible interest!

Better yet, tonight Rivals posted their own article saying that Chandler committed to Lousiville today! Scouts and Rivals need to get together and figure out whats going on, or better yet, they need to stop covering high school sophomores in their JV games. Who's willing to put any amount of money that this kid actually puts on a maize and blue jersey in three years?

William Campbell Commits to Michigan...Again
During the third quarter of the Army All-American Game, Cass Tech's 5-star Defensive Tackle Will Campbell announced his commitment to the Wolverines (wait, hadn't he already done this...?) Campbell who seemed to be enjoying the recruitment process way too much faked for the LSU hat before donning the block M. Earlier in the week, Campbell had told the media that Michigan as no longer under consideration...so much for that, I guess. Campbell is the only 5-star in Rich Rod's 2009 class and plays a position where Michigan will be extremely thin next year as the entire Defensive line minus Brandon Graham (if he stays) graduates.

We'll leave you with some WCBN percentages after the weekend's events. Feel free to argue them in the comments section :

• Chance Michigan hoops makes the NCAA tournament: 75%
• Chance Zach Gibson ever has two dunks in a game again: 10%
• Chance Alex Legion's mom hears another prophecy from God about her son's basketball career and Legion transfers to University of Detroit Mercy: 17%
  
• Chance Will Campbell signs with Michigan: 90% (He's supposed to enroll classes and start on Wednesday)
• Chance Michael Chandler ever wears Maize and Blue: 20%
  

For the audio highlights of Michigan's win over Illinois, click HERE

18 Wins? "Yes, We Can!"

After watching Michigan play in their only exhibition of the season, I came away with two main thoughts.  The first was that I never should have tried to eat two of the hot dogs the Crisler staff set out for the media.  These things looked like they had been saved and reheated from last season.  I had been warned by a friend not to try these, but I did not eat dinner.  I’ll just say the second half of the game was tough to get through.  But if the University is going to give a new wardrobe to every student that attends a game, can they at least make a “scarce” press core a little more comfortable in the food and beverage department?

The second (and more important) thought I was left with is that your Michigan Wolverines will win 18 games this season.

 ...and I swear to you, I am writing this sober.

Yes, I know it’s early and we have seen ONE game (an exhibition against a bottom-feeder in the GLIAC), but I am confident in this prediction. Here’s why:

Stu Douglass is for real:  Big Ten coaches will look back 2 years from now and wonder why they hadn’t come after this kid harder when he was a high school senior.  He is that good.  On multiple possessions, Douglass directed traffic like a seasoned veteran and let the offense come to him.  He made one or two bad passes, but the poise he showed in transition was well beyond his years.  He hit threes from the parking lot and has a sniper’s touch.  Crisler Arena’s “Ssstttttuuuuuuu…” chant will be heard early and often in his career.

 

Zach Gibson:  I know you’ve hated on him. I’ve hated on him. And as much as this may shock people…and I never thought I'd say this... Zach Gibson can play!!!

 

I know that was jolting so I’ll give you a moment…

 

Gibson looked good running the floor, was 2 for 3 from behind the arch, and added two blocks to his 11 points.  He looked for his shot with no signs of hesitation. In a conference where quality centers are few and far between ( MSU’s Sutton and OSU’s Mullens are the only C’s of note), it won't take much for Gibson to give consistent contribution to this team.

 

Manny Being Manny: Harris deferred to his teammates for much of the first half, making sure to work through the offensive sets.  Because Harris (and his teammates, for that matter) were so focused on running the play all the way through, they passed up open shot after open shot and were eventually left with an empty play clock.  In the second half, Beilein turned the offense loose and Manny was able to create off the dribble and in transition.  If Douglass gets hot during the season, defenses will part like the Red Sea and Harris will slash his way to 17-19 points per game.

 

The Zone:  Last year, Michigan looked lost and confused when trying to figure out the spacing of John Beilein’s specialized 1-3-1 defense. Not anymore. While it was SVSU as the opponent, the spacing looked much better and they did a better job playing as a unit.  Rebounding was an issue, but look for that to change once a line-up is established

 

The Road Home:  The Wolverines have a tough schedule, but can get to Jan 1^st with at least 8 wins if you give them loses to Duke, Maryland, and a Coaches Vs Cancer opponent.  That means they would need to win 10 games in the Big Ten after winning only 6 conference games with a much weaker team last season. It will be close, but I have them winning 6 games at home (assuming for at least one win against a top tier team), with wins at Iowa, Minnesota, PSU, and Northwestern on the road.  This is very achievable.  The home crowd tonight proved that 1) College kids will watch basketball in exchange for free stuff and 2) This team has the capability of filling most of Crisler’s upper bowl for Big Ten play if they get off to a good start…and keep the free stuff coming.

Michigan's Season (Mercifully) Come to an End

Michigan's Big 10 tournament run was halted at one game as top-seeded Wisconsin disposed of Michigan by a score of 51-34. Those 34 points set a new Big-10 tournament record for futility. Ironically enough, Michigan was the team that held Minnesota to just 40 points which was the previous low, set in last year's tournament. Wisconsin jumped out to an early 10-0 lead on five layups before Michigan could put the ball in the hoop.

Michigan shot a dreadful 10-50 (20%) from the field in the game. The wolverines actually shot better from beyond the three-point arch than they did closer to the basket, hitting 6-24 (25%) of their 3 pt FG attempts and just 4-26 (15%) of their 2 pt FG.
Zach Gibson led the way for Michigan scoring eight points in the first half . Perhaps he's been reading/listening to all the criticism that WCBN's own Rushi Vyas has been dishing his way.

With Men's Basketball now done for the season, we can turn our attention fully to Michigan Hockey as they kick off their postseason tonight. Tony, Christian, and Andrew will have the call from Yost as the puck drops at 7:30. Listen live on the sports stream at www.wcbnsports.com. Jeremy Kreisberg will have our first live blog as the game unfolds so be sure to check back for that as well.