uneblinstu's post game chatter: ed 6, vol 15: Michigan

[throwback]

Agreed that I don't think Parker was on the floor when we were betting beat pick & roll - seemed like the bigger problem was Smith just couldn't get back to help on the big quickly enough, at least over the last several minutes. I have to think NU's game plan was don't allow the 3 and don't allow the guards to drive, so Smith was trying to really hedge and make sure those guys couldn't turn the corner, but he just wasn't quick enough to recover. And NU may not have wanted to rotate to help him, for fear of leaving UM open for 3s. I could be wrong, but it felt like Pitchford was better vs the pick and roll.

 

As it turned out though, I think UM was 24 of 33 on 2s and may have had 17-18 layups in there - NU may have been better off allowing UM to shoot more 3s ... or foul because they sucked at the line last night. Running on the treadmill may have worked TOO well.

 

And on the last play, Miles signaled a play as soon as BIggs had the ball in the backcourt at the 16-17 second mark, but the coaches must have thought they saw something that wouldn't let that play work once he started to set it up, so they called the timeout - that's all I can think of.

 

Then after the timeout UM didn't have any post players in the game, so I thought NU might try to get Smith on the low block. Or maybe get Smith & Pitchford on the floor together and really crash the boards. However NU ended up with 3 players outside the 3-pt line when Petteway flipped up the shot. And still with all that, Smith crashed hard and had great position and for the tip try to win it. I watched it live & saw it another 3-4 times on replay last night after getting home & am still unsure how it didn't go in. He was in perfect position. Maybe he felt like he had to rush it.