The UM Hoops Mailbag is a collection of questions tweeted (@umhoops), e-mailed or sent via our Facebook page. Submit your questions and we’ll answer as many as we can.
@MBainbridgeCFF: @umhoops I get having more talented players is better than not, but does this roster even need Bamba if Wagner/Wilson come back?
In one word: yes. Bamba is an insane talent that makes an instant impact wherever he ends up. He’s 7-foot tall with a 7-foot-8 wingspan and completely changes his team’s defense for the presumed one year that he spends in college. Moritz Wagner and DJ Wilson are great pieces, but Bamba is, simply put, a game changer.
Rim protection has been arguably the biggest problem with Michigan’s defense since John Beilein arrived. It’s also a problem that has been magnified by recent NCAA rule changes. Bamba is about as close to a sure thing as you can get in terms of instant impact rim protection and he’s capable of anchoring any defense and elevating it to elite status.
Just read this one more time: he has a 7-foot-8 wingspan. Put him near the basket and your 2-point shooting defense rises to the top-10 in the country.
@YpsiTuckyBoy; @umhoops what’s the pick-n-roll going to look like next year? lots of Matthews with the ball and possibly even a Wilson/Wagner combo?
Michigan loses 80% of its ball screen production with the graduation of Derrick Walton and Zak Irvin. That’s not really a secret, but it is something that feels even more unsettling after its written out on paper.
There are a bunch of possible solutions, but they are more along the lines of spitballing possibilities than concrete well-reasoned theories backed by logic. At the end of the day, there are too many guys on this roster that we haven’t seen or have barely seen, or that haven’t played that role.
This might be a somewhat hot take, but I’m more in on Xavier Simpson as ball screen player than Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman. Simpson’s efficiency numbers were better in (very limited) ball screen exposure and he made some really nice passes. On the flip side, Abdur-Rahkman just hasn’t emerged as a passer.
It sounds crazy to say after watching Derrick Walton go super-human over the last month as a senior, but at some point you are what you are. Abdur-Rahkman’s stats have improved incrementally, but his assist numbers have been flat and he was below average in ball screen efficiency this season.
I’m sure this is a topic that we’ll delve into further over the offseason, but it’s going to be hard to draw many conclusions given that the other options — Charles Matthews, Eli Brooks, Jordan Poole, Ibi Watson and DJ Wilson — have combined to execute about ten pick-and-rolls in the college game.
@colintj: @umhoops without a guard at least as good as Derrick/Nik/Trey can UM make the tourney without sweating?
I have a really hard time worrying about a team’s offense under John Beilein, but next year’s group might push the limit of that equation. This year’s team also proved just how fine the line is between making the NCAA Tournament with a sweat and without.
Michigan has had teams with non-scoring point guards that found success — namely the 2009 team that broke the NCAA Tournament drought — so it is possibly, but that team also had Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims.
It’s not going to look anything like the last few years where you knew what you were getting from Zak Irvin and Derrick Walton on any given night, but there are still guys on the roster that can put the ball in the basket. I think there are at least enough cards in Beilein’s hand to make something work offensively, even without a dominant pick-and-roll scorer.
@range_4: @umhoops How much will Austin Davis and Jon Teske be involved next year?
There are obviously some moving parts with Moritz Wagner, DJ Wilson and Mo Bamba all having decisions to make, but let’s pretend that Wagner and Wilson come back and Bamba heads elsewhere.
In that case, you have the backup minutes at the five available (Mark Donnal played 12.2 minutes per game this year) for the two young bigs to fight over. John Beilein spent a lot of time hyping up Davis this season despite his redshirt, but it’s hard to imagine that either of them would demand more time than what would be available behind Wagner.
I think a situational platoon where you have Austin Davis for muscle and Jon Teske for potential shot blocking would be a solid solution to fill the 2nd and 3rd big man roles on the team. If both Wagner and Wilson come back, you also have the small-ball option that we saw quite a bit of with Wilson at the five.
@PaulPodzikowski: @umhoops What are the odds that Billy Donlon gets a head coaching offer, and if he leaves, does our defensive resurgence suffer?
Brendan Quinn had a well reported update on Donlon on Monday that was worth a read. In short, Donlon hasn’t interviewed for any jobs and doesn’t appear to be in the mix for anything currently.
Donlon was expected to garner attention on the coaching carousel. Things haven’t quite played out that way and Donlon, as of now, is expected to be back at Michigan next year.
A source informed me that Donlon has not formally interviewed for any head-coaching opening. Nor has he had contact with UNC-Wilmington, his alma mater, and a job many underlined for Donlon when former head coach Kevin Keatts left for N.C. State.
Per that source, Donlon is not in any current talks for any head-coaching positions.
That being said, job situations can change quickly. There are other jobs open in Ohio, where Donlon coached last at Wright State, including Akron and Dayton and as those jobs fill others will open. The coaching carousel never stops turning and Donlon only helped his resume this year in Ann Arbor.
Michigan’s defense started to figure things out late in the season defensively, but there were also some ugly defensive moments mid-way through the year.
Michigan had an impressive in-season defensive turnaround, but there’s still a ways to go on that side of the ball. This team finished 11th in the Big Ten in points per possession allowed and 71st nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency.
Donlon had a major impact on that turnaround and deserves all of the credit that he received. If he sticks around, I’m excited to see what he can do with next year’s roster which has some of the best defensive tools that I can remember on a Beilein roster.
Zak Irvin developed quite a bit as a defender, but having Charles Matthews and Xavier Simpson as core rotation players should be a huge boost defensively.
@Casey41300: @umhoops how do you think Eli Brooks and Jordan Poole will fit into the system next year? #GoBlue
If you could only have one basketball skill and wanted to fit into a John Beilein team as quickly as possible, you would probably want to choose shooting. There are plenty of questions about Jordan Poole and Eli Brooks, but we know that both can shoot the ball.
Poole, a 6-foot-4 wing, shot 42% from three-point range as a senior at La Lumiere and was a volume shooter (over 60 made threes). He still needs to get stronger and quicker, but with his length and shooting ability I think he plays a key role as a shooting wing off the bench.
Brooks is a more interesting case because of the uncertainty at the point guard position. The fact that Brooks didn’t play Nike EYBL ball and played at a small high school in rural Pennsylvania is a red flag and a legitimate concern. On the other hand, he had major-conference offers including one from Villanova and, by all accounts, can really play. If he can come in and play as a scoring point guard off the bench, that could go a long way toward alleviating some of Michigan’s perimeter concerns.
UMHoopsFan: In a weird way, looking back, didn’t the end results of this season actually play out quite close to reasonable expectations? A very good to elite offense with a pretty good to so-so defense (the efficiency numbers are quite close to ’13-’14) is pretty much what we’ve had with Beilein the past several years outside the one (and arguably two) decimated by NBA departures and injuries. We were No. 16 in preseason BPI. Obviously there was a big in-season dip toward the end of the nonconference/beginning of Big Ten play. But if you had told me at the beginning of the year that we’d end up with 14 wins between the conference season and conference tournament, an offense that finished top 5 and defense that finished top 75 in kenpom, a 10-3 nonconference record and that we’d go out in the Sweet 16, I think I would’ve said that sounds about right, or at least totally reasonable. Obviously we had some pretty big highs and lows along the way…
Welcome to college basketball, where we live on the highs and lows of every game and then judge success or failure based on a single-elimination tournament.
I would say that, in the end, Michigan ended up right around expectations. This graph of Michigan’s KenPom ranking does a good job of illustrating that fact:
The roller coaster of Michigan's season, as seen by their Kenpom ranking: pic.twitter.com/7wQj3o2hzp
— Crisler Spider-Man (@CrislerSpidey) March 27, 2017
Before the year, I thought this was a group capable of making the NCAA Tournament second weekend, but I didn’t necessarily think they could compete for a Big Ten Championship or make a Final Four.
Those expectations skyrocketed a bit in November, plummeted in January and then were rising until the final shot in Kansas City. In the end though, this team probably ended up right around the top of where we would have expected in the preseason.
There were disappointing moments during the regular season, including some extraordinarily frustrating losses, but the Big Ten Tournament gives this group a distinct accomplishment and they’ll be remembered for how they closed the season.
ZRL: Do you consider this year (26-12, 20th on kenpom, unranked in polls all year, T-5th and 8 seed in B10, BTT champs, sweet 16) or 2011-2012 (24-10, 22nd on kenpom, ranked in polls all year, co-regular season champs and 1 seed in B10, BTT semis, upset in first round) a better season?
It might be because I’m such a college hoops junkie, but regular season conference titles are among the most impressive feats in college basketball.
The way that 2012 team came together down the stretch to win a share of the conference was really impressive that season, and I started writing this answer fully expecting to defend their accomplishments. Looking back on it all, both teams closed the year strong and it’s a lot closer than I expected.
I could care less about ranking in the polls or Big Ten Tournament seeding (that 2012 team was actually the 3-seed in the Big Ten Tournament), so basically you are comparing regular season conference, Big Ten Tournament, and NCAA Tournament performance.
I still am partial to the 2012 group, but taking a step back I could be sold on an argument for the 2017 team. At the end of the day both teams put up a Big Ten banner and won 24 games headed into the NCAA Tournament with perceived momentum. But the 2017 team won two in the Big Dance and the 2012 group ran out of steam against DJ Cooper.
I’ve long been a believer that NCAA Tournament play is overrated in evaluating a season’s success, so I’ll stick with my original pick, but this one is almost too close to call.
