Wisconsin just knocked Michigan out of the B1G Conference tournament, with a convincing 68-59 victory. The Badgers played Bucky-Ball in the first half, holding UM to 20 points and trailing by only three. The Weasels were obviously out-coached, as the game was played at a Wisconsin tempo.
Yet in the closing seconds of the game, when the outcome was certain, the announcers were carrying on about what a great coach John Beilein is, especially with offensive strategy. Huh? His team was held to 20 in the first half. Who was the "great coach" in this game?
As the final horn sounded, a graphic appeared under a shot of Bo Ryan, showing that he had just won his 12th game against Beilein in 13 meetings. Huh? The announcers were heralding the chUMp leader, even as his team was dropping its second out of three games.
We all know the lesson; that Michigan is great when they win, and they are great when they lose. Or sometimes when they lose, it's because they weren't playing "Michigan basketball". Good grief.
Remember the big story a week ago, with all of the questions to Spartan fans about rooting for UM against Indiana? How well did that strategy turn out? Looks like our advice to avoid rooting for the arch-rival made much more sense, as the loss to the Hoosiers bumped Michigan to a 5-seed in the conference tournament, leaving them in blue uniforms against Wisconsin, and sending them home on Friday afternoon.
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A work of art - both the game and your post!
ReplyDeleteMichigan STATE also scored only 20 points in the first half but it was certainly due to an intense Iowa defense and the fact that our open shots were not even close. Fortunately, we were rewarded in the second half by never giving up. No turnovers in the final ten minutes or so made the difference. It was certainly not the coaching fault that we scored only 20 in the first half.
ReplyDeleteWe can not turn the ball over as often as we did the regular season in these one and done tournaments. Next to last in the B1G in turnovers is not unacceptable but our talent has overcome them in league play. They were still the reason we did not win one more game to share the conference title. Go Green!
I think you meant the turn are unacceptable...
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, I have come to the conclusion that Appling shooting a 3-pointer is the equivalent of a turn-over.
I did not intend to use the double negative but thanks for the correction.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Appling's 3 point attempts, I thought the same thing for several games now. If Izzo wants this team to go far into the NCAA tournament he has to convince him to take none. So he makes one a game. His shooting percentage inside the arc is phenomenal lately. 100% against Northwestern, I believe.
Missing four out of five costs us net points no matter how you look at that stat.