Team 103

Subscriber Ask Me Anything: February 2019

Every month, we host an ‘ask me anything’ thread on our message board for our members.

I’ll answer questions about Michigan hoops, recruiting, the Big Ten, this website or anything else.

Any subscriber can submit a question, all you have to do is login to the message board and post your question. I’ll be answering questions throughout the day.

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Notable Replies

  1. umhoops

    I’ll answer questions throughout the day. Hopefully starting around 9. Go ahead and start submitting them here!

  2. jordraph

    You talked about this on the pod (which is awesome by the way), but I’m interested in your thoughts on post ups against switching defenses. Do you think M’s program reluctance to do so is the main factor, or do you think it was mainly poor decisions by Poole in the MSU game that kind of steered M away from them in that instance? Seems like they sort of had something figured out in the Minnesota game, as y’all mentioned. Do you foresee more lobs to Teske going forward if the situation dictates, or do you think the post up is just anathema to what M does as an offensive mindset? Thanks!

  3. Melandtoto

    That tape of Jordan’s defense was BRUTAL. 1. Has he been that bad all season, and it just hasn’t been highlighted? 2. What can JB do to get J.P. to buckle down?

  4. bluejayway

    Charles is gone, but Iggy and Poole continue to crop up as possible jumpers to the NBA. I know I’m missing something because that doesn’t seem realistic to me (and yes, I’m also declaring homer bias for them to stay). To me, Iggy can be dynamic but needs to hone his passing and Poole has a great skill set but his concentration and, hence, his performances are inconsistent. What do you think would need to happen, in the remainder of this season, for them either to return to U-M, or jump to the NBA?

  5. umhoops

    Good question and thanks for the nice words about the pod…

    There are a couple of things going on here that I think tend to get lumped together.

    1. If Jon Teske can seal his man and create space for a catch and layup (he did this really well once early in the MSU game and a couple times at Minnesota) then you have to reward him and pass the ball. There was one clear instance where this looked to be the case in the second half and Poole didn’t make the pass. IMO, Poole was hunting home run plays after he knew he made some dumb plays on defense. As Beilein would say, just hit the single.

    2. I don’t think that means the answer against switching is just throwing the ball into Teske 10x in a game against the switch. A lot of pressure is on him to create that advantage down low and that’s something he hasn’t been great at (but is improving). If you are throwing it into the post and he’s going to dribble it multiple times and go into a move, even against a smaller defender, I don’t think that is a +EV strategy especially as the defense is going to collapse (and MSU’s defense already was fairly collapsed).

    3. If Michigan makes a few shots during that stretch (there were some bad ones and some good ones – they all missed) or gets a few stops, maybe we are talking about how Izzo switched and it didn’t work. Michigan’s first half offense was impressive and it was one of U-M’s better offensive games overall in Big ten play.

    4. Lobs to Teske aren’t usually going to come against the switch, they are going to come when he gets on the backside of the PNR rotation. So something that you’ll see against teams that play the PNR straight up like Wisconsin or something like that usually.

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