I like the food on my Thanksgiving plate to converge into a mass of beige--turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy are really all you need. But nothing else in life should be that plain and monochromatic. For example, if you spent your holiday weekend watching David Blough and the Lions, or Taysom Hill gobbling up meaningless fantasy points, or a so-called "wild" rivalry week that really only featured one competitive game, chances are...you felt a little beige on Monday morning.
Thankfully, Feast Week delivered us from sports tedium. With so many games to watch, the basketball action may been overwhelming (Virginia Tech's upset of Michigan State feels like five years ago. However, don't let that distract you from the fact that Stephen F. Austin beat Duke in Cameron Indoor); but the whirlwind of hoops provided both entertainment and insight. Three Man Weave and Busting Brackets provide some great recaps on the week. However, I decided to just share some thoughts on the biggest storyline and also touch on one team who's not getting enough love. 1. Michigan: Top 5 Team? This offseason, the NBA siphoned a load of talent from Ann Arbor--the Wolverines lost their two best offensive players (Jordan Poole and Ignas Brazdeikis) and their best wing defender (Charles Matthews) to the draft, while the best coach in program history (John Beilein) departed to take over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Although many applauded the Juwan Howard hire back in May, the uncertainty of a first year college coach combined with the apparent lack of a scoring punch kept Michigan from gaining much preseason attention. (I ranked them #35 initially...before leaving them out of my final preseason poll). That was a mistake. No team did more for its resume during Feast Week than the Wolverines; they beat Iowa State, North Carolina, and Gonzaga to capture the title at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. It seems like Michigan materialized out of nowhere--so what makes them so good? For starters, even without Matthews, the Wolverines still deploy a top-15 defense according to KenPom. Senior big man John Teske has upped both his block percentage and defensive box plus/minus from a season ago. Against North Carolina, he put freshman Armando Bacot in a full-nelson, holding him to 3 of 10 from the field with three turnovers. As Bacot showed against Oregon the next night, he is an excellent post player. But Teske erased him with his strength and defensive instincts. The senior followed up that effort with another four blocks versus Gonzaga--against legitimate NBA prospects in Filip Petrušev and Killian Tillie. An ace at guarding ball screens, Teske almost always makes the right defensive read, and he senses where he needs to be to make a stop.
Teske (#15) block Gonzaga's Petrušev (#3)
But it's not just Michigan's defense that makes them scary--both Teske and fellow-senior Zavier Simpson look better than ever on offense, too. And the Wolverines' ancillary pieces on the wing play confidently and unselfishly. Junior guard Eli Brooks, sophomore guard David DeJulius, and junior forward Isaiah Livers are all converting over 44% (!!!) of their three-point attempts. Livers, in particular, has catapulted into a breakout season. As a "stretch-4" archetype, he can splash open jumpers and can put the ball on the deck to score in a variety of ways. Ironically, Juwan Howard and his staff laid siege on the Bahamas while Jim Harbaugh laid down (still in his Dockers, don't worry). This led to one of my favorite tweets from the weekend.
2. It's Time to Acknowledge Florida State as a Consistent Top-5 ACC Team. Since we started this blurb with my preseason miss on Michigan, I'm gonna pat myself on the back for being right about Florida State. I ranked the 'Noles 19th, due largely to their ability to pressure the ball and force opponents into mistakes--and Leonard Hamilton's team currently checks in with the third best defense in the country per KenPom. Lost in the shuffle of Maui and the Battle 4 Atlantis was a Florida State team that knocked off both Tennessee and Purdue in the Emerald Coast Classic. In those two games, they harassed the Vols into 21 turnovers and the Boilermakers into 24. Per Bart Torvik, the 'Noles are turning teams over at the 11th highest rate in the country. Senior point guard Trent Forrest deserves the bulk of the credit, as he needles the other team's ballhandlers once they cross half-court, refusing to allow an easy entry pass. But junior forward RaiQuan Gray (a preseason crush of mine) has progressed in his defensive aptitude. As a 280-pounder who can guard multiple positions, he undermines opponents' offensive schemes. He also notched four steals against Purdue.
Gray (#1) switches from guarding Purdue's big man Matt Haarms (#32) to their point guard Nojel Eastern (#20)
In addition, Gray also throws some jaw-dropping dimes (My apologies; I couldn't create a gif because the video is too long. Just click that link though). Start the man already, Coach! En route to a Sweet 16 run in 2017, Hamilton showed that he could develop highly-touted recruits like Dwayne Bacon, Jonathan Isaac, and Xavier Rathan-Mayes into a cohesive team. The Seminoles built on that momentum with an Elite 8 trip in 2018, and they haven't looked back. I buy them as ACC contenders and a perennial Top 25 team until further notice.
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AuthorRiley Davis Archives
June 2021
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Photo used under Creative Commons from MarsInOrbit