Wolverine247 Board

I disagree, the Fab 5 was a blast to watch. The high feeds and loose play was exciting. As you pointed out, frustrating at times also.

It will be interesting to see if Michigan wears down in the second half. I thought Coach B did a good job with his substitutions in the first half.

My thoughts from this game:

- Congrats to Coach Beilein for winning his 100th game as Head Coach of Michigan Basketball.

- We played really well in the 1st half. Other than allowing Haydar to go 3-3 from beyond the arc on wide open 3s, we played really well. Coach Beilein admitted that Haydar was not on the scouting report.

- We started out-of-sync and sluggishly in the 2nd half but then picked up our play as the team adjusted.

- I love the balance on our team. We had 5 players finish with with at least 12 points.

- We need to continue to improve on our half-court offensive sets but I liked that Coach Beilein used a 4 out, 1 in system and then complemented it with a 3 out, 2 in system.

- We showed that we can play at any tempo. This is was a welcome change to the slow, plodding style that is typical of Big X basketball.

- This is not a vintage "40 minutes of hell" Arkansas team from the 90s. Mike Anderson was an assistant for Nolan Richardson on Arkansas's 94 National Championship team and he wants to transform the Razorbacks a strong defensive team that plays full court in-your-face pressure man-2-man for 40 minutes.

No one else watching this game?

pleased with the way that half went. If we didn't get bitten by whatever bug it is that makes you miss wide open threes, we'd be winning by about 35. Good ball movement, great defensive effort, clearly just miles and miles ahead of these dudes.

I need a nice relaxing thrashing of a cupcake to chill me out right now, so this is cool

I'm really surprised but not at all disappointed to see all five freshmen contributing this early and logging solid minutes. It's a great sign because at most we'll lose one freshman (Robinson III, and that's pretty likely IMO) this year and the other four will be back next year with another great recruiting class coming in. Hats off to Beilein we're really lucky to have him.

He's a freshman whose still very young so all of that will come. He definitely attacks the rim hard when he does decide to evidenced by that monster jam he had on the break Saturday against Arkansas. Nbadraft.net which is pretty reliable for such things already has him as a lottery pick. He'd actually hurt himself not coming out this year as this draft class is weak and the class of 2013 is completely stacked.

Edit- Basically, you're not seeing his full potential because he's trying to find his place in this offense where the ball is kind of dominated by Burke. But his ceiling is sky high and that's what makes his draft stock so high even at this point.

Robinson III is not ready for the NBA in any way shape or form. I don't know if he'll go or stay, but for his own benefit he needs to stay and shore up some of his game.

I really disagree. He's already got the body, basically all the pieces are there for a prototypical NBA slasher. He's 18 years old so it goes without saying that his game has got a ways to go. But as long as he's mature enough to make the jump I don't see any part of his game that won't get worked on and improved in the NBA as opposed to college. To say in any way shape or form though his a huge exaggeration.

My thoughts on the West Virginia game in the Nets' Barclays Center:

- We jumped out to a fast start in the opening 10 minutes which was really nice to see. We led 25-9 at around the 11 minute mark of the 1st half.

- Thank goodness for Trey Burke. 27 points (on 12-16 shooting) and 8 assists with 0 turnovers. That's as awesome a performance a coach can hope for from his starting PG.

Are there still any Ohio fans that think Aaron Craft is better than Burke?

- Thank goodness for Tim Hardaway Jr. He had 25 points (on 7-12 shooting) and 3 assists. If he can tighten up his dribble a bit more, he will become more comfortable in attacking the basket off the dribble and off of screens.

- So we had 2 players (Burke and Hardaway Jr.) account for over 60% of the team's 81 points. Stauskas had 10 points while Glen Robinson III and Jordan Morgan both had 8 points. In other words, we had great team balance.

- Stauskas had a tough second half. Overall, he shot 3-9 from the field and 2-7 from beyond the arc. That's well below his season averages. (Stauskas came in shooting nearly 60% from 3.)

But what's a bit concerning is his 6 turnovers - a number of them in transition. At times, he tried to do too much rather than make the safe play. I know his confidence his growing but he has to do the right play rather than the flashy play.

The walk that was called on Stauskas after the behind-the-back crossover dribble seemed questionable. Also, the technical that was called on Stauskas after he hit the 3 was bogus.

- It was horrible to see Horford reinjure his knee. I didn't see any contact. It seemed like his knee just gave out. For his sake, I hope has a swift recovery.

- McGary has to improve his stroke from the FT line. As he becomes more comfortable to the college game, he'll get more looks. If he doesn't improve his FT shooting, teams will start using a Hack-a-McGary strategy.

- Our offense is excellent. Michigan shot over 56% from the field and it could've easily been higher. Our players missed some wide open looks even after offensive rebounds.

- Defense was respectable. The team became complacent for stretches but that's understandable given that the team built large leads and became a little carefree on both ends.

- I'd like to see this team become better at boxing-out. In my opinion, West Virginia got way too many offensive rebounds and second opportunities. Again, it seemed like the team became complacent but this can't become a habit.

Overall, it was a fantastic game for Michigan which showed that it clearly deserves its top-3 ranking.