Illini Michigan Recap

Don't lie to me, with about 6 minutes left in the first half, you thought that is could turn out to be a 30 something output for the Illini just like Minnesota and Penn State last year. I was thinking it. Neither team could shoot, and Illinios was turning the ball over at an alarming rate. They gutted the game out, and pulled off their 5th road win in the Big Ten this season. Here are some quick thoughts from the game:

- How many times have I bitched about Michigan's offense on this blog?? Basically every time I talk about them, right? Well tonight was a perfect example of I hate John Beilein's offense. I don't care how many 3's you shoot, more often than not, you are not going to shoot a good percentage. Beilein has 4 one dimensional guards on his roster (that one dimension being shooting 3's), and their back up post player can only shoot from outside. When they slump, which they all have done all season, they can't do anything else. That leaves you with only 2 scoring options, and one of them is also a bad 3 point shooter. That is how a team that was ranked 15th in the nation in preseason polls ends up 13-14 through 27 games. People are going to argue that if they shot better, they would have won. My rebuttal is when the shit have they shot well all season? They are the worst 3 point shooting team in the Big Ten at 30%.

- The Illinois offense looked bad and stagnant for one reason: Michigan was playing 4 guards, which means that Mike Davis had Zack Novak on him pretty much all game. The game plan especially in the second half was to run pick and roll with McCamey and Tisdale, and then have a high-low with Davis posting up. Tisdale could never get him the ball. Illinois was just sloppy all night. Illinois should have put this game away in the first half, but they didn't take care of the ball. When you look back on this season, you have to thank god that Illinois some what learned from their losses early to Utah, Bradley and Georgia. They still took shitty teams lightly, like Indiana, Penn State, Iowa and Michigan, but at least they didn't have a horrific late season loss. Bad losses early in the season aren't nearly as meaningful in the eyes of the selection committee as late season shitty losses are.

- Manny Harris hates playing on this team. He was suspended for a game earlier this season because there was an altercation after practice one night. During this game, he was upset on the floor during the first half, and then gave up on Mike Davis' dunk at the end of the half. Don't be surprised if he goes pro, even it means he has to play in Europe. Him and Beilein have not seen eye to eye for 3 years now, and Harris isn't getting any better. He has tuned his coach out, and when he looks back on this season, what would make him want to come back?

If you think about it, what is the difference between Evan Turner and Manny Harris? They both can get to the hoop whenever they want because of their size and athleticism. They can both handle the ball, and they both dish it really well. The only thing that Turner does better is rebound, but that is only because this season he has to due to OSU's lack of size inside. Compare their stats:

Evan Turner: 19.5 ppg, 54.1% FG, 26% 3 FG, 72% FT, 9 REB, 6 Assists, 4 TO, 2 Steals
Manny Harris: 18.4 ppg, 42% FG, 31% 3 FG, 77% FT, 6.5 REB, 4 Assists, 2 TO, 2 Steals

Their FG% jumps out at you, but Turner has only shot 31 three's, where Manny has shot 135. If you take away Manny's 3's he is shooting 49% which is very respectable for a guard. Evan Turner has more assists, but that is because the offense revolves around him, that is also why he has more turnovers. Last season they were the exact same player:

Evan Turner: 17.3 PPG, 50% FG, 44% 3 FG, 79% FT, 7.1 REB, 4 Assists, 3.5 TO, 2 Steals
Manny Harris: 16.9 PPG, 42% FG, 33% 3 FG, 86% FT, 6.8 REB, 4.4 Assists, 3.1 TO, 1 Steal

Again, last season Evan Turner only shot 25 3's where Manny shot 159. If you take away Manny's 3's, he shot 47%.

So my point is that, John Beilein basically misused a player who, had he progressed like he should have, he would be a first round draft pick. OSU's entire offense revolves around Evan Turner, and they are a Top 15 team. As far as I can tell Michigan's offense is take the first 3 you see until we get down, and then let Manny Harris take over when we are screwed. Beilein will never get another talent like Manny Harris... EVER!! No elite guard will want to play for him. He has one fluke Elite 8 run, where West Virginia was a 7 seed. They barely beat Creighton in the First Round by blocking a 3 and then scoring a lay-up at the buzzer to win by 2. In the next round they beat #2 Wake Forest 111-105 in double overtime. Then finally they beat #6 Texas Tech to go to the Elite 8. In 18 seasons he has taken 5 teams to the NCAA tournament, so good luck Michigan. Alright enough of my Beilein rant, back to the game.


- Bill Cole is short on every 3 he misses. I can't tell if it is because he doesn't step into his shot, or because he is short arming everything, but he needs to fix that, because McCamey gets him 3-4 open looks a game. Brandon Paul hits every 3 he shoots when he follows through and holds his release. When he snaps his hand back, he always misses, you can tell a miss or a make as soon as it leaves his hand.

- McCamey did a poor job of running the pick and roll early. He was looking to hit Tisdale on the pop almost every time. He should have gone to the hoop more often, which hopefully he does against Minnesota this weekend. I love that he has turned into a pass first guard this season, and he has done an amazing job reading the pick, but this game he made some poor decisions.

- Bruce has really killed his rotation, which is something that I was imploring him to do earlier in the season. He still played 9 people tonight, but the bench only got 23 out of 200 minutes. McCamey has to be in amazing shape, because he is playing at least 36 minutes a game since getting benched early. If watch closely, Bruce always takes McCamey out in between 12 and 8 minutes to go in the first half every game. He will sit him on the bench for 2-3 offensive possessions, then sub him back in, and then he gets another break at the under 8 timeout. He pulled him at 11 minutes, he was at the scorers table with 10 minutes, and got back into the game at 9, and there was a TV timeout at 7:50. Great way to steal minutes while not having Demitri sit for too many possessions. They did the same thing in the second half for one possession. Against Purdue, he played the entire game.

- So everyone has been bashing the Illini defense so far this season, but they are the only team who is holding their opponents to less than 40% from the floor this season. It would help if they could rebound, but their man-to-man is pretty solid. The only game where it was suspect was OSU, but they shot lights out in the first 8 minutes.

- There was a closet skinny cheerleader for Michigan. By closet skinny chick, I mean that she looked thick when you saw her face and arms, but when they panned away, she actually wasn't chubby. Unfortunately for her, you can tell that she is keeping the weight off because she is a cheerleader. As soon as that ends, its all downhill for her, and there is nothing wrong with that. I just thought about it during the game.

- Musberger cannot help but mention gambling in every broadcast he does. It must be a nod to his former TV partner Jimmy the Greek. He mentioned during the game that he couldn't believe that Illinois was an under dog in this game. Then after the game, when Musberger and Lavin were interviewing Demitri, Lavin mentioned that Brent wanted to take McCamey to Vegas because he has a hot hand. Also Musberger thinks that everyone in the Big Ten will play in the NBA. According to him, Tisdale, McCamey, Harris and Simms will all play at the next level.

- Having Mike Davis playing well completely changes this team. When he is playing hard and rebounding, it always leads to him running the floor and getting dunks. These last 2 games, he has shown up, and it greatly helped us in both games. Plain and simple, there are things that Davis can do that Griffey can't. Having back to back good games is a blessing going into the last 3 games Illinois has to play. Davis got benched after 1:30 in the second half, obviously got a talking to by Wayne McClain and then was right back in the game, and he played hard from that point on.

- How clutch is DJ Richardson at the end of games shooting free throws? The only other player I would rather have on the line at the end of games would be Mike Tisdale. They both are icing close games for us. Tonight DJ had McCamey open ahead of him, but instead he kept the ball and waited to get fouled. He is a really smart player and does not make very many mistakes. Before the season started, Bruce was constantly asked who was going to step up and be a leader on the floor and take over for Chester Frazier. Bruce had no idea, but he mentioned that down the road it would be DJ. After watching DJ so far this season, you can see what it was that Bruce saw in DJ. By his Junior year he is going to be one of the best players Illinois has had in a very long time.

That's it for now. Have a good week.