Why we beat Michigan Thursday

[RUsojo]

In our two games vs Michigan Mulcahy and McConnell played a combined 72 minutes.

Against Maryland and Purdue (OT) they played a combined 40 minutes.

As most know, Young and Montez have been the benefactors of this long-awaited development.

Everyone should feel very good going into the BIG and NCAA tournament because runs are coming. Pike has caught on and Young Tez and Geo will make this team go. He’s also done much better with lineup combination since 2H Penn State with the exception of Purdue after the first TV timeout to the third TV timeout. Things are looking up.

And oh yeah.....they all return next year baby

 

[Classof93CS]

I don't know if we'll win - but having played them twice gives the coaching staff a better sense of what strategies will work and won't work. Still mostly comes down to players making plays/shots though. Hopefully they come in overconfident, and we come in desperate for a W.

And yeah - gotta be excited that the core of our team is young.

 

[RU#1fan]

In our two games vs Michigan Mulcahy and McConnell played a combined 72 minutes.

Against Maryland and Purdue (OT) they played a combined 40 minutes.

As most know, Young and Montez have been the benefactors of this long-awaited development.

Everyone should feel very good going into the BIG and NCAA tournament because runs are coming. Pike has caught on and Young Tez and Geo will make this team go. He’s also done much better with lineup combination since 2H Penn State with the exception of Purdue after the first TV timeout to the third TV timeout. Things are looking up.

And oh yeah.....they all return next year baby

good points.
I hope Geo returns.

 

[RUChoppin]

In our two games vs Michigan Mulcahy and McConnell played a combined 72 minutes.

Against Maryland and Purdue (OT) they played a combined 40 minutes.

As most know, Young and Montez have been the benefactors of this long-awaited development.

Everyone should feel very good going into the BIG and NCAA tournament because runs are coming. Pike has caught on and Young Tez and Geo will make this team go. He’s also done much better with lineup combination since 2H Penn State with the exception of Purdue after the first TV timeout to the third TV timeout. Things are looking up.

And oh yeah.....they all return next year baby

Weird comparison.... Mulcahy played 29 min vs. Michigan (.363 of a possible 80 minutes), and 32 min (.376 of a possible 85 minutes) against Maryland and Purdue. That's a touch more vs. MD/Purdue than vs. Michigan.

McConnell's the one who has seen a huge dropoff in minutes.... 43 min over the two Michigan games and just 8 over the last two games.

 

[RUsojo]

Weird comparison.... Mulcahy played 29 min vs. Michigan (.363 of a possible 80 minutes), and 32 min (.376 of a possible 85 minutes) against Maryland and Purdue. That's a touch more vs. MD/Purdue than vs. Michigan.

McConnell's the one who has seen a huge dropoff in minutes.... 43 min over the two Michigan games and just 8 over the last two games.

Big difference with Paul was most of his minutes were coming with being on the floor with Young and Geo at the same time.

No longer the case. Didn’t feel like beating that one any more in the OP got tired of it in game threads lol

 

[RUChoppin]

Big difference with Paul was most of his minutes were coming with being on the floor with Young and Geo at the same time.

No longer the case. Didn’t feel like beating that one any more in the OP got tired of it in game threads lol

We've definitely had a different rotation and mix of players on the court, but that's largely come at the expense of McConnell. I really hope he breaks out of his funk soon - if we can pull out a win vs Michigan, we're going to have tired legs on Thursday vs. Wisconsin and will need to draw on depth.

 

[Tango Two]

We didn't beat them without Livers.

Will be harder to with him.

 

[Mr_Twister]

I like our chances against Michigan. The other notion in this thread, “our team is young” has less and less meaning these days. Keeping a roster intact from year-to-year is not easy. There are lots of examples of players leaving for perceived greener pastures at the drop of a hat. And lots of the departures are surprises, ill-timed, and often head-scratching.

 

[JavaDunk18]

Young needs to play as much as possible. I remember the game at MSG. We fell in a hole early, Young comes in, gets 2 steals for layups, and team makes a run.
They will be doing a lot of those cross court passes to the corner for the 3, so we need to break up those lanes.
Minimize easy put backs for them, but also don’t leave Teske open forthe 3s.
Win Thursday would check another ‘never’ off the list..

 

[whofrewdatmataRU13]

The two Michigan games were brutal...... Hoping for a different outcome

 

[Yeah Baby]

Young has elevated his game. He also gives us energy.

Stupid comparisons above but many seem to want to trash certain players as often as possible. Is douchery a word? I love douchebaggery but it’s a lot to type out.

 

[ScarletLongIsland_rivals]

If I see us get burned repeatedly on that pick and roll, I might lose my mind

 

[RUScottish05]

I don't think we match-up well vs. Michigan at all. They seem to be the team RU cannot beat this year or ever since joining the BIG. RU shot terrible from the field in the first two games vs. Michigan, like low 20% from 3s and under and low 30%s overall. Playing in Indianapolis hurts our chances as well. I can see Michigan -4.5 spread come game time. But, I thought UMD was gonna roll and also thought Boiler Up was gonna beat RU as well, so I'll keep thinking this way, as it seems to be working.

 

[BillyC80]

I always thought there’s an advantage in preparing for a team that beat you because necessary adjustments are more clear or pronounced. After losing to them twice we’ll see if that’s the case, but honestly I think we beat ourselves in both games by missing an incredible number of shots.

 

[Mr_Twister]

Shooting slightly better fixes a lot.

 

[cubuffsdoug_rivals]

We didn't beat them without Livers.

Will be harder to with him.

In the first game at MSG, Rutgers shot itself in the foot over and over. It's not like Michigan won the game outright by dominating us. It was more like Rutgers left way too many opportunities on the floor.

In the game at the RAC, Livers' replacement (Brandon Johns) was unreal from 3 pt land. As a team, UM shot 48% from three and it was still a close game. It was one of the worst defensive performances of the season IMO. Can't have a team shot better from 3 pt. land than from 2.

Rutgers has to hit the boards as they did at the Garden but make the bunnies this time. Also, check the combo of players on the court at the same time. Can't have certain players who don't mesh well playing together for extended periods. Finally, Rutgers got the monkey off its back about winning away from home.

 

[bombers3shooter]

We beat Michigan because we take away what they are good at and through game flow make them extremely uncomfortable.

We lose to Michigan because the offense doesn't find an identity and we can't make free throws and get into foul trouble ourselves.

 

[Randal7]

We didn't beat them without Livers.

Will be harder to with him.

Subtraction by addition? That DOES happen, sometimes.

 

[richthedentist]

In our two games vs Michigan Mulcahy and McConnell played a combined 72 minutes.

Against Maryland and Purdue (OT) they played a combined 40 minutes.

As most know, Young and Montez have been the benefactors of this long-awaited development.

Everyone should feel very good going into the BIG and NCAA tournament because runs are coming. Pike has caught on and Young Tez and Geo will make this team go. He’s also done much better with lineup combination since 2H Penn State with the exception of Purdue after the first TV timeout to the third TV timeout. Things are looking up.

And oh yeah.....they all return next year baby

The two keys to both those ones and to me the first one is the most important is that we defended the 3 pooint line for 40 minutes in both games; and of course we shot almost 50% from the 3 point line ourselves in the 2 games

 

[Caliknight]

If I see us get burned repeatedly on that pick and roll, I might lose my mind

Last game we didn't hedge like we did the first game. I'd play it exactly how we did before, with maybe a few mix-in's just to keep him thinking.

Have Tez and Young tag team him all game, and force him to hit this circus shot finishes. He's done them pretty consistently, but I like those odds more than creating rotations where he invariably finds the open 3 point shooter or lob at the rim, both of which does very well.

We held them to I believe 10 points below their scoring average last game. We just had a horrific home night shooting.

 

[bowlgoal]

JY and Montez need to play the kind of defense they played against Maryland. Cowen is another one of those guards like Simpson and Winston. Simpson is a real pain in the *** once he gets going. They also need to double Teske and strip the ball when he gets it in the post. Don't let him shoot.

 

[AshCatchEm]

Fwiw those douchebags are very happy about being seeded against us.

 

[bombers3shooter]

Fwiw those douchebags are very happy about being seeded against us.

Good! There hasn't been a more polarizing team in the B10 this year outside of maybe OSU and PSU. Let them puff their chests out going in, the way they have handled Rutgers the last handful of years they have earned that. Their tears are going to be delicious when RU rips their hearts out of those puffed chests!

 

[cubuffsdoug_rivals]

Fwiw those douchebags are very happy about being seeded against us.

Those b*tches are talking sh*t like it's a cake-walk to the next round against Wisconsin. The B1G did them a favor.