Zavier Simpson

[Shell21]

If you were playing us , I’d do the same thing to Jacob young . Much better player when he attacks than is shooting threes . You are taking something Simpson does extremely well ( attack and get others involved from 2 and 3) and making him do something he doesn’t want to do ( shoot threes ). I’m not saying is isn’t capable of making threes but I’d rather him do smithing that he isn’t as comfortable doing than have him kill us with his passing ability .

you are a UM fan , so would you rather have Simpson shooting threes or livers or johns or livers

 

[blockm2]

If you were playing us , I’d do the same thing to Jacob young . Much better player when he attacks than is shooting threes . You are taking something Simpson does extremely well ( attack and get others involved from 2 and 3) and making him do something he doesn’t want to do ( shoot threes ). I’m not saying is isn’t capable of making threes but I’d rather him do smithing that he isn’t as comfortable doing than have him kill us with his passing ability .

you are a UM fan , so would you rather have Simpson shooting threes or livers or johns or livers

I'm saying Rutgers has a great defense. Acting like they should play a weird defense they have literally never done and let a player who probably hits them at a 40% rate have uncontested 3s is just stupid. I mean like fire the coach stupid.

Of course teams should let Jay Young shoot since he is making them at a 22% clip. But Simpson is literally knocking down 3s at nearly the exact same rate as the best shooter on Rutgers (Yeboah) for the season.


Simpson is elite driving the ball which is why you try to slow that down. But you do it by playing normally defense, not by sagging 10 feet off him at the line.

 

[Caliknight]

I'm saying Rutgers has a great defense. Acting like they should play a weird defense they have literally never done and let a player who probably hits them at a 40% rate have uncontested 3s is just stupid. I mean like fire the coach stupid.

Of course teams should let Jay Young shoot since he is making them at a 22% clip. But Simpson is literally knocking down 3s at nearly the exact same rate as the best shooter on Rutgers (Yeboah) for the season.


Simpson is elite driving the ball which is why you try to slow that down. But you do it by playing normally defense, not by sagging 10 feet off him at the line.

Playing man to man defense and not hedging hard is not some "weird defense". In fact, most people would call that normal, which you just did.

I haven't seen anyone suggest you sag 10 feet off of him. That's straw man.

 

[blockm2]

Playing man to man defense and not hedging hard is not some "weird defense". In fact, most people would call that normal, which you just did.

I haven't seen anyone suggest you sag 10 feet off of him. That's straw man.

In this thread there are literally suggestions to let him shoot any 3 he wants, play him like a big man who can't shoot and sag way off him, would love to let him shoot open 3s, dare him to shoot them, etc.

Have you not been reading along?

If your suggestion is "just don't hard hedge", OK that's basically what I have suggested doing. So thanks.

I mean Rutgers held Michigan to 1.00 PPP last time with Simpson attempting a grand total of one 3. And that's including a bunch of intentional foul FTs at the end that padded the scoring a little. It's not like they struggled defensively with their approach the first time.

 

[Plum Street]

Give him a breathalyzer

 

[RU-ROCS]

I didn't say he wasn't better going to the hoop, just pointing out for the season he has been a better 3 pt shooter than everyone on the Rutgers roster except Yeboah who barely nudges him out.

I would play to take away the drive, but you can't just leave him 10 feet open all the time because he has now shown the ability to can those shots at about a 40% clip. MSU tried to go under every screen and double off of him and he shot 4/7.

Fair point. But, I think MSU had the right strategy. Make him beat you from deep.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

So.. the band does and instrumental of the Beatles Baby You Can Drive My Car.. but when they get to the chorus they.. and the whole student sections sings..

Zavier, you can drive my car
Yes, I'm gonna be a star
Zavier, you can drive my car
And Zavier we R U"

 

[fluoxetine]

Have never seen a player more blatantly carry the ball. They're at the top of their game and I'm not sure we can beat the. They're a match up nightmare.

Please. We can beat anyone.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

Pay attention to
How we defended differently in the last 8
Minute of our game in the garden

There is our receipe

 

[Scangg]

I can't believe some people would rather have Simpson penetrating and dishing than shooting from the perimeter on the the road at the RAC. Just a wild thought process.

If we hedge hard / double Simpson outside the 3 point line we are doing exactlyyy what Simpson and Michigan want us to do.

Simpson distributer / penetrating >>>> Simpson outside shooter on the road

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

I can't believe some people would rather have Simpson penetrating and dishing than shooting from the perimeter on the the road at the RAC. Just a wild thought process.

If we hedge hard / double Simpson outside the 3 point line we are doing exactlyyy what Simpson and Michigan want us to do.

Simpson distributer / penetrating >>>> Simpson outside shooter on the road

Checking the ball and stopping penetration is something we failed to do when we had out bad outings. Pair that with leaving shooters open in corners to come help in the lane and that is a bad recipe as most teams have 3-point shooters. Let the penetrator shoot... they tend to throw up a lot of junk... focus on blocking out and rebounding.

I hope we get at least one hook call on Simpson when he elbows people to get an edge to drive.

 

[ReegsShannon]

As a Michigan fan, the best D vs Simpson is probably just drop coverage. I would guess that Rutgers isn't prepared to play that though and just uses a softer hedge.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Playing man to man defense and not hedging hard is not some "weird defense". In fact, most people would call that normal, which you just did.

I haven't seen anyone suggest you sag 10 feet off of him. That's straw man.

Add to this that he is shooting <18% on 3s in away games

 

[RutgersChow]

I would exclusively put Young and Tez on him the whole game.

I think they are likely to do this. I also think it will drive the kid nuts.

 

[Caliknight]

I am ok with him driving into trees. He's a little dude who doesn't finish well. He's at his best finding open guys in helter skelter situations which our D creates when we hedge hard. Against him, I would do the exact opposite. Have Tez and Young forget offense for the night. Dog the hell out of him man to man knowing we will get beat sometimes. Force him to be scorer, not a distributor. I don't care if he goes for 30. Just don't allow him to get the other guys involved.

Pike saw what I saw did exactly this. Held their offense to 16 points below their season average. That’s an epic performance. Too bad the o went to sleep.

 

[blockm2]

Pike saw what I saw did exactly this. Held their offense to 16 points below their season average. That’s an epic performance. Too bad the o went to sleep.

Michigan scored 1 PPP which is basically identical to what happened at the garden, and contrary to your assessment of Simpson being a little dude who doesn’t finish well he scored inside consistently.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Simpson (aka Jeff) is a VERY good college basketball player.

 

[Caliknight]

Michigan scored 1 PPP which is basically identical to what happened at the garden, and contrary to your assessment of Simpson being a little dude who doesn’t finish well he scored inside consistently.

Michigan scored 16 points less than their average and 9 points less than our game against them at MSG. I wouldn’t say he finished well and clearly that was the plan. 16 less points is a massive delta. Even 9 is.

We played it exactly how we should have. Make Simpson the scorer. Their biggest plays were when we didn’t do that and he found open guys for 3. That effort should have won us the game had the offense showed at all.

 

[bac2therac]

Simpson has been excellent since his suspension and has Michigan poised for a deep NCAA tourney run if they can get Livers healthy

 

[BlockR]

Simpson controlled the Michigan offense in the first half ,if RU would have shut him down then,the lead at half would have been double figures.Then again RU lack of any offense in second half might have still lead to a loss. Harper and Myles need to play with a little more effort and create own shots,or at least rebound.

 

[Knights 1212]

Simpson scored 8 of Michigan's first 10 points which included two threes. He struggled a bit on the foul line but he is the one who makes his team go. Johns didn't even score and we still lost. Wagner and the big guy off the bench in the second half hurt us.

 

[blockm2]

Michigan scored 16 points less than their average and 9 points less than our game against them at MSG. I wouldn’t say he finished well and clearly that was the plan. 16 less points is a massive delta. Even 9 is.

We played it exactly how we should have. Make Simpson the scorer. Their biggest plays were when we didn’t do that and he found open guys for 3. That effort should have won us the game had the offense showed at all.

If you are literally not going to understand the difference between a 69 possession game and a 62 possession game and how that relates to tempo and not efficiency, well please join modern basketball analysis.

My point is not whether Rutgers did anything "right" or "wrong", merely that Michigan's offensive efficiency was almost identical between both games. Rutgers has an elite defense. They are hard to score against.

Points per game as a basis for any analysis is outdated and simplistic (and basically wrong unless you are talking in regards to tempo).

 

[Caliknight]

We can agree to disagree. What was obvious is we changed strategy to the exact one I suggested. And it worked.

 

[RutgersLarry]

Does he have an NBA Future? Looks about 5'10 soaking wet with his hair up.

 

[Mr. Magoo1]

This is a team that handed Gonzaga it's only loss....by 18 points. When they are "clicking" they can beat anyone and their offense is one of the best. Their mid-season slump was kind of a mystery. That being said, we could have beaten them twice this year.

 

[blockm2]

We can agree to disagree. What was obvious is we changed strategy to the exact one I suggested. And it worked.

I guess I can't agree to disagree that anything worked or didn't work because it had the exact same success (per possession) which is all that matters. Rutgers defense was equally successful against Michigan in both games on a per possession basis. The only difference in point totals was because last night games was played much slower.

 

[goru7]

I guess I can't agree to disagree that anything worked or didn't work because it had the exact same success (per possession) which is all that matters. Rutgers defense was equally successful against Michigan in both games on a per possession basis. The only difference in point totals was because last night games was played much slower.

Just looking at stats and ppp doesnot tell you much. The game at MSG was our worst offensive and defensive game of the year as Michigan played one of their best games of the year, hitting from 3 and running the pick and roll to perfection. You were shooting almost 50% from 2 and from 3 point range with a bout 3 minutes to go and we missed shot after shot in the comeback of the 83 shots we took.
Last night was much different . You got one pick and roll basket instead of 7 and except for a couple of threes late , you did almost nothing. You shot 44% from 2 and 26% from 3 and only made 6;all game. The only thing consistent in both games was our piss poor shooting especially from 2 point range , the first game trying to comeback from 14 down and this game blowing a 9 point second half lead. Michigan played well in the MSG game , not very well last night.

 

[blockm2]

Just looking at stats and ppp doesnot tell you much. The game at MSG was our worst offensive and defensive game of the year as Michigan played one of their best games of the year, hitting from 3 and running the pick and roll to perfection. You were shooting almost 50% from 2 and from 3 point range with a bout 3 minutes to go and we missed shot after shot in the comeback of the 83 shots we took.
Last night was much different . You got one pick and roll basket instead of 7 and except for a couple of threes late , you did almost nothing. You shot 44% from 2 and 26% from 3 and only made 6;all game. The only thing consistent in both games was our piss poor shooting especially from 2 point range , the first game trying to comeback from 14 down and this game blowing a 9 point second half lead. Michigan played well in the MSG game , not very well last night.

it's interesting looking at different games that can have different paths to the exact same outcome. In the MSG game, Michigan shot 46% on 2s, 47% on 3s, rebounded 19% of their missed shots, and turned the ball over 23% of the time. In the RAC game, Michigan shot 63% on 2s, 26% on 3s, rebounded 15% of their missed shots, and turned the ball over 16% of the time.

So Michigan's far better inside scoring last night and lower TO rate helped offset worse 3 point shooting and offensive rebounding to come up with the exact same offensive performance as measured per possession.


(I don't know where you got your stat from on Michigan's 2 pt shooting last night. I suspect you found their overall FG% and confused it with 2 pt shooting as they were 15-24 last night including the 2 blocked shots.)