Year	AVG. Rush Defense Rank	AVG. Total Defense Rank
2002	54.5	42.5
2003	52.7	56.6
2004	61.7	68.5
2005	56.8	35.25
2006	53.8	54.7
2007	50.7	42.3
2008	50.8	49.9
2009	47.8	50.3

 

This kind of blew my mind. I really expected the Big 10 to have much better defenses, but that wasn’t really the case. Granted we are comparing two years to 6 ( I left out Rich Rod’s inaugural campaign at WVU because I was too lazy to look up the stats), but still I anticipated a much higher average defense rank than what we actually had. What I found with the Big 10 was three outstanding defensive teams (OSU, PSU and UW) and 8 meh teams. In the years The Big East featured Miami they weren’t much better than the years without. The Big East also had the top performing group of defenses in 2005.

So now I’m sure you’re wondering, what does this have to do with Michigan? Well I actually feel pretty good with what I found. It seems that Rich Rodriguez’s offenses played against similar statistical talent at WVU and Michigan. I have a hunch that this year, especially with it being a make or break season, Our offense will really come to life. Look at my previous post, those West Virginia offenses were ridiculous. I think now that we have the talent in place, we will put up similar numbers.

I think I know good things are on the way, it just truly sucks waiting for them to get here.

Greetings from the newest member of Midnight Maize. I will be responsible for all things hockey from now until the end of the season. I hope to improve on this concept, so please be patient as I tweak these posts and try to see what works best.

Team: Bowling Green
Record: 3-14-3 (CCHA Record) 4-19-4 (Overall Record)
Time: Tuesday February 9, 7:35 PM
Where: Yost Ice Arena
Television: Comcast

Michigan will play Bowling Green in the second half of a series that started on Thursday at Bowling Green. Michigan won that game 2-1. After Saturday's loss to Wisconsin, Michigan now sits in 6th place with 34 points, one point back of the teams tied for 4th. Michigan has 3 games in hand against these teams.

Basically, this is a must win game for Michigan, as the rest of the schedule consists of Nebraska-Omaha (currently in 4th place, tied with Alaska-Fairbanks), Northern Michigan (7th), and Notre Dame (also 7th). Bowling Green currently sits in 12th. If Michigan wants any shot at making the tournament, they need to beat teams lower in the standings than them.

The last time Bowling visited Yost, they scored 3 times in the 3rd Period to win 4-2, while Michigan won the next game 4-1 in Toledo. Bowling Green is backstopped by Nick Eno, who was quite sharp in his outing against Michigan back in November at Yost. He sports a 3.13 goals against average and a .899 save %.

A review of the game itself will be posted sometime shortly after the game is over.

 

 

Year	Rushing YPG	Avg. Oline size	Yards against top Competition*	Total Offense
2002	283.6	286.5	264 YPG 4.9 YPC	418.5 YPG
2003	212.5	291	176 YPG 4.3 YPC	368.9 YPG
2004	251.6	291.2		417.7 YPG
2005	272.4	292.5	266 YPG 2.3 YPC	388.9 YPG
2006	279.1	289.7	314.5 YPG 6.7 YPC	427.4 YPG
2007	297.2	290	322 YPG 6.9 YPC	456.2 YPG
2008	147.6	283.8	116 YPG 2.8 YPC	290.8 YPG
2009	186.2	291.1	95 YPG 2.7 YPC	384.5 YPG

* Top competition is teams with 10 wins or more 

 

So what am I trying to imply with this chart? I don’t really know, I went in with the assumption that would show that Rich Rodriguez’s offenses  had way smaller linemen at WVU and still  managed to run the ball down their opponents throats. This however is not the case, in 08 Our Line was the smallest a Rodriguez line had ever been, in 09 Our line jumped in size almost an average of 10 lbs and our rushing improved 40 YPG. I know that there has been a lot of talk this off season about getting our linemen bigger and stronger. I think the one thing that my chart doesn’t show is that the Big 10 has much better defenses than the Big East did. What really catches my eye is how poorly we have run the ball against top tier opponents. I realize that some of this is due to getting blown out and having to throw the ball, but boy we really need to improve this stat to be successful. In my next post I am going to compare Big East defenses to Big Ten defenses, see how big of a factor that plays on these numbers.

Bold Prediction: Our offensive line will average 10 lbs heavier next year and our YPG will go up to 240. We have to improve this against the OSU’s an Penn States of the world in order to be successful.

 

Final Score: UW 62 UM 44

 

Well that could of gone better, I don’t know what this team’s problem is, I can’t believe that the loss of CJ Lee and David Merritt would have this big on an effect. Maybe that’s the problem though, or maybe Beilein still doesn’t have the right guys for his system (where have we heard that before?). I don’t know, but the fact of the matter is, that this team is terrible right now.

Zack Novak and Stu Douglas finished with 3 points, all of which came from the free throw line. They shot a combined 0 of 5 from the field and 3 of 6 from the charity stripe. Michigan shot 44 percent from the field, 18 percent from beyond the arc, and 57 percent from the free throw line. We only attempted 11 threes, and Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims scored 29 of the teams 44 points. I said it before the game and I’ll say it now a little bit louder: SOMEONE ELSE NEEDS TO SCORE FOR THIS TEAM.

Wisconsin on the other hand, shot 54 percent from the field and 52 percent behind the arc(11-21), it seemed like Michigan would play good defense up until there was about 3 seconds left on the shot clock, then they would collapse. The Badgers look like the real deal right now, and in fact my own the state of Michigan in basketball. In a continuing trend we were also out rebounded 28-16.

I don’t know if there is anything good we can take away from this game. Darius Morris played fairly well, and I really think he is going to be a good ball player. It seemed to me that when he was able to penetrate good things would happen. You can see that the rough season has had an effect on Stu Douglas and Zack Novak’s confidence as they hesitate instead of jacking up shots.

Overall I was so disgusted watching this game, I nearly ripped out my own eyes. A week and a half ago I thought we had a realistic shot to make the NIT, but I think that dream has been crushed. Hopefully Beilein can get Zeigler to commit and He and Manny Harris can put together a great season next year.

The 16th ranked Badgers make the trip across Lake Michigan  to take on Michigan at Crisler Arena(Saturday 4pm CBS). Wisconsin is 17-5 with a 7-3 conference mark, while our Wolverines  sit at 11-11 with a 4-6 conference record.

The one thing that gives me hope in this game, is the Wolverines 9-3 record at home, and Wisconsin's 2-4 record on the road. When you look at it that way this game is winnable.  In the six road games the Badgers have played in conference play, their two wins have come against Penn St and Northwestern. They are probably coming off of their most impressive win of the year, beating Sparty by 18 at home.  Sophomores  Rob Wilson and Jordan  Taylor will continue to get PT with Jon Leuer’s wrist keeping him on the bench. I expect Wisconsin to continue the trend of playing with a smaller lineup, and Trevon Hughes to continue to do what he does.

In these teams first meeting, Michigan jumped out to an early 11 point lead, led most of the game, and then squandered it at the end. This has been said 800,000 times but these kids need to start hitting the outside shot. In an offense that thrives on the three ball, shooting 29 percent just isn’t going to get it done. I would imagine DeShawn Sims will get some good looks and be able to wreak havoc on the Badgers defense all day long. Hopefully Manny will be Manny minus the jacking up of crazy three pointers.

This team has been playing better, especially if you don’t count the train wreck against Northwestern. I think if we are able to knock down some threes(at a better clip than 29 percent) they stand a decent chance to win. I’m really hoping that this game is Darius Morris’s breakout game. If this kid becomes a solid contributor, I’ll feel a lot better about the future of this team.

Prediction UM 56 Whisky 51

                                                

Just so you know, I’ve never previewed an athletic event before, and I am far from a basketball expert, so it may be worth your while to check out Tim’s preview(if he posts one) on the mothership.

Lost Handles please