I have a ton basketball knowledge so you should listen to me. I coach and played. I now officiate.  I could go on and on. So that makes me an expert on the 2-3 zone.

We are lucky enough to get a little preview of this Final Four match up back in 2011 when Michigan played Cuse in the Legends Classic. Now the 2011 Michigan team is in no way as good as the 2013 team but not far off.

The basics are to keep the ball moving. Burke can't pound the air out of the rock for 10 and 15 secs of a position. Attack the creases(looking at you THJ,GR3 and Burke) and find soft spots in the zone. Soft spots can be found all over the court. Moving the ball with a good flow will open them all up. A "stuck" ball will not.

Soft spots in the short corner
This is where Burke must find Mcgary, Morgan, GR3 and Horford's when the soft spot in the zone opens up in the short corner. Ok pictures.

Morgan is standing in the short corner. If one thing Morris has on Burke is his great court vision. He already can see Morgan creeping in the short corner. He looks out to his right which looks off the center Mello and opens a crease for a pretty pass which Morgan finishes for 2. Now the pass was a bit high which caused Morgan to use a up and under but the play was made. Also with Novak close to the short corner that means his man won't sag off a lot since he can knock down threes. That will be Nik on Saturday. Michigan has to get its fair share of easy buckets from the short corner.

Soft Spots in the Corners
Alright Nik this is you buddy.
I suspect Beilein will move Nik all over and even throw him in the middle which is a great idea. It is harder to keep track of shooters in the zone if you are not just planting them on wings and having them wait for kicks. Here Evan starts in middle. The ball swings right and he moves out to the corner and Morgan slides to the cuse bench side. This moves the zone which gives Morris his crease to attack. The defense closes on Morris and the ball is kicked to the corner for a easy three for Evan. Open shots will be had when Burke attacks. Michigan just has to make them.

Soft Spot in the Middle
THJ needs to be chucking less here and be more of a play maker.
When the ball get to the high elbow or the "middle" the zone is broke. Options galore happen. You have the shot, the dump down to the short corner and the drive and kick for a 3. Now here Evan rushes the shot and misses. He has Morgan wide open for the dump or he can put the ball on the floor and suck the defense in even more setting up Stu(not the best idea since he wasn't that skilled at doing such things). The reason the zone works even after you break it is because the players are given so many options they don't always take the right one or they turn it over. THJ will be the main man here and maybe Mitch too. THJ can't just chuck the ball at the hoop cause hes open for one split second. Him getting to the rack would be a great option which gets him to the foul line and gets open looks for his team. I can't stress it enough that getting the ball in the middle is only half the battle. Once there you will need be quick and smart. Dumb teams like Marquette get killed since they DERP once the ball enters the high posts.

A few notes on this 2011 game
-Michigan lacks the talent Cuse has but Beilein's X and O zone break keeps this game close.
-Michigan got a good number of offensive rebs. GO GET EM MITCH.
-THJ was THJ. Bad shot selection, quick shots in the middle of the zone.
-Morris found Morgan countless times in the short corner. Burke must do the same.
-Like they did with Evan, moving Nik all over the court in the zone will be key.
-The corners were open a lot in this game. Nik should be drooling.
-Jordan Morgan looks more confident in this game then he has all season in 2013.

A few notes on the 2013 game
-Burke has to move the ball. The only dribbling that is needed will be for hitting creases.
-Team basketball is key.
-Be smart when you break the zone. Looking at you Tim.
-Feast on the short corner Mitch and GR3.
-Turnovers will happen and happen early.
-If the shots fall the zone will become less aggressive. You have won the war.
-THJ is due. That is all I will say.

Michigan struggled for a bit with the Florida's zone but found comfort after about 5 mins of it. That is how zones are. Your brain settles in after seeing it move position after position  You know the movements of the defense. After Michigan settles in the turnovers will become less and things should open up a lot. This is why when I coach I would never use it full time. Its great for a change of pace or "curve ball" but after the offense settles in... It can be hard to get defensive stops. I won't even get into rebounding.

Michigan has all the tools to "get nuts" on this thing but they will need to be smart, quick and shoot decent. Slow and dumb could cause Michigan to lose. I like our chances if Burke is finding his bros. Remember Bros before shots vs a Zone Trey. Go Blue.

Denard signed autographs at the Woodland Mall in Grand Rapids last Saturday. The turn out was well... large. I was 506 in line and they sold over 700 tickets! Denard was suppose to be done at 3pm but I didn't get to him until 5 pm. He was smiling and talking with fans. You wouldn't have know that he had been signing for the last 5 hours. He was really great to all the fans. It was at Legends Card Shop. This was much better then fan day since you had a number and could roam and be a Mall Rat for the day. It did cost money but I like getting my crappy MS Paints signed. Sunday Will Gholston was signing for a fraction of the price. Not sure how the turn out was but I would think it was just friends and family.

When I met Denard he got a good laugh out of it and said it was nice to see something different. If I were my wife I would say "what does that mean?!?!?" but I am me and I took it as glad your not a eBay whore and no one would ever buy this.

I now can put my Denard art on my wall next to this worthless autograph.

I got to sit court side for the EMU game a few months back and got to hear all the good stuff that is said on a basketball court. I wasn't court side for the MSU or the Purdue game but from my lip reading skills I can up with these from the last two games.

Well the day I have been waiting for has come. I will no longer be a 3rd shift who blogs once in a while. I will no longer walk around like a zombie. I will actually be me for once and not some lazy pathetic over tired slob. I will no longer not like me. I haven't liked me in some time. Working 3rds can mentally break you down and physically turn you into a pile ooze.

I have accepted a new job within the company I work for working with academics and kids. I will now be a normal human who works 7 am to 3 pm and sleep in the same bed as my wife for 7 days a week. I am pretty excited about this. Its been six long years of 10:30 pm to 9 am. Its finally over and I can't soak it in enough.
People every night take for granted sleeping in their own bed. I got to sleep in my own bed 3 nights a week. That is 156 days a year. Think about that. That is absurd. It makes you worthless pretty much everyday.

I was keeping up fine until my son was born then things changed... My wife goes to school full time so I would come home and have to watch him all day after staying up all night. Not only was this terrible for me and my well being but I was a useless dad who turned the TV on and tried not to fall a sleep as my son played. This is a big reason I stopped posting on MM so much. I couldn't focus on writing anything at night since my vision would just blur and double as I would struggle to stay awake. Writing for me is just like reading a book. It relaxes me and puts me out. So unless I got some extra sleep or I was feeling better then norm I wasn't going to write anything. Here was my normal day after my 3 days off. Wake at 8:00 am when my son did. Watch him all day until my wife got home at 6 pm. Do family and dinner and go to work at 10:30 pm. We have meetings on the following day so I have to stay until 11 am... So now I am at about 27 hour awake. I would go home and watch my son until my wife got home around 5 pm and maybe 4 pm if I am lucky. So that is about 32-34 hours awake straight. I would then sleep from 5 pm to 10 pm and go back to work and repeat. It was killing me. And it almost did numerous times. I have lost count how many times I have dozed off while driving and almost gotten into an accident. I have been very lucky. I have taken 15 min power naps at many gas stations just to make it home.

Its 3:35 am right now and I have been up since 8 am.. Oh and I have a meeting until 11 am tomorrow. This is the last week of killing my brain.

So many people would say, how do you do it? It crazy how you just like hit this wall and you can't keep your head up but then out of no where you will break through the wall and have a new burst for an hour. When I had Season tickets last season I would head to Ann Arbor on no sleep right after work. I would be having a really hard time staying awake but once I got on US-23 I would get a rush of energy as I could feel the Big House calling me. I only went to a few games and sold the rest since I couldn't pass up the one day I could just go home and go to sleep for 10 hours(I won't get into day sleeping, its sucks). I watched most my games on DVR.

My body? Its goo. I started at 195 lbs and no I am a hefty 220 lbs. At 6'2 it isn't the end of the world but I am not happy with it. I eat so much crap at night to stay awake. My mind? A mess. I can't remember anything anymore. You sit around all alone at night and wonder what you are dying from this week. Worry about this or that. Did I just see a figure out the window? A person? No I am just dozing off again. Seeing things. Wait what did I hear? A child sneaking out? Nope just me nodding off and hitting the remote control on the ground. Nothing seems real and your a step slow with every thought.

I didn't want my son seeing his dad sleep his days away and not being able to be there for special moments. If I hadn't knocked this interview out of the park I'm not sure what I would have done. With my wife a full time slave of school and the hospital(intern) I could never walk away. But I did own that interview and now I can lead a normal life. I now can help kids at work while they are awake and that is a good feeling. I didn't mean to ramble this long post out but its been a long time coming. 3rd shifters will never get their due since its hard to imagine the torture they go through unless you do it. I have no idea if this changes anything with my blog that gets a few ebay posts and MS paints here and there. My motivation will be back. That I can say... So I have no idea. Not like I have a ton of readers but I do enjoy the people that do read.

I start Monday. I am free of this torture. My mind and body will be back. I can now watch Michigan Football and Basketball live. Life is good.

I give you the single most terrible cardigan ever knitted in history of man..

I mean wow. Just terrible. The only thing that it is missing on this thing is a couch on fire. If I felt $19.77(odd price) was worth spending on Spartan apparel then I would buy it and knit "WE ON" in highlighter yellow on the front and back and sport it on Tuesday.

I can't even tell where the  coat ends and his face starts. "Is my face red enough for this picture?" "Sure is coach".
This 1989 photo of Northwestern basketball pretty much sums up their tournament participation history.

Nebraska great David Hoppen had great size. I can't believe he didn't make it in the NBA.


Looks just like Talor Battle... If he were white. I do like the sellers comments. "I'll be honest:  I've never heard of this guy so I'm not sure why he warrants a stature, but here it is. Someone likes him." 

This 1980s $59.99 Minnesota Gophers sweat shirt has every inch of every space being used. Nothing is wasted here.


Evan Eschmeyer basketball card. Picture of Jean Keady with his autograph on his junk. This Chief Illiniwek sweat shirt is offensive.

Its that time of year again for giving to others who have less.

In the past some great Michigan fans and Grads have donated to our home through this blog. In the past people have donated Michigan T-shirts, Basketball Tickets, Football tickets and even money for Hot Dogs at the games. Each time we go to a Michigan event the kids have a blast. Some even mention when they leave that it was their favorite day at St.Johns. Right now we have some big Michigan fans in the house(no State! yay!).

So this Christmas we are looking for any donation to a Basketball game. Does not matter what the game. Hoping for at least 3 tickets together. Then we could take one staff and two boys. We have 9 boys total but I know getting that many together is a stretch. So we will take any number of tickets that are offered. If I get more then one offer then I will try and see if any other homes would like them(we have 5 other houses on campus)

I am also looking for a old NES or SNES for the boys. I think they would really have a good time with some classic games. Our xbox broke and haven't had the money to replace it so I have been wanting to find something that could fill some time during the winter that won't cost $100+. If anyone has a old NES or SNES with some games laying around they don't want then the boys would really love it. I could swing some funds for the shipping.

If you would like to donate anything at all then please contact me through my email at the right of the page. If you have any questions please contact me as well. I want to thank the people who have been so kind to donate in the past and thanks for taking time to read this post. Happy Holidays!