May 25, 2013

Michigan 80, Arkansas 67

December 8, 2012 by

ESPN.com: No. 3 Michigan improves to 9-0 with blowout of Arkansas

Jordan Morgan scored 12 points and had 10 rebounds to help No. 3 Michigan beat visiting Arkansas, 80-67.

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Filed Under: Arkansas Razorbacks, Basketball, Recap
  • Jay

    For a team and coach that promote pressure defense, this team plays none. Horrible defensive team that often looks like they give no effort and they don’t rebound. Painful to watch at times.

    • austintxhog

      What game did you watch? Clearly there are certain aspects of the game they need to get better at, but the Hogs played with great intensity and kept it close for most of the game, in spite of the home cooking they were being served by the refs. No FT’s until 6 minutes left in the game — are you kidding me?? Besides, this was a really tough stretch of non-conference games they just went through. This was the #3 team in the nation we just played on the road for pete’s sake. I for one think this is going to be a fun team to watch as they continue to grow. It’s only a matter of time before they get over the hump of learning how to win.

      • http://www.razorbloggers.net/ Walking on Sunshine

        I thought the effort was there, and they fought hard, but I have to agree with Jay on this one. We’re just not very good defensively right now. We guard close, but can’t stop the dribble penetration.

        They have made it through the toughest stretch of the season, and honestly, I thought they would be 5-3 at the worst. Gotta keep getting better on defense.

      • Jay

        Go back and watch almost any of the Michigan possessions in the first half. Concentrate on Mickelson or Young, for instance. They don’t guard their man with any intensity. Two dribbles and they easily get around them for penetration. If you remember the Syracuse game, Syracuse got to the rim anytime they wanted to, and most of the time it seemed like it was starting from way out on the perimeter. Easy for the opponent to beat the first man off the dribble and then there’s rarely help defense. Really poor fundamentals and effort. I don’t understand that from a coach whose calling card supposedly is pressure defense.

        Did you hear Doug Gottlieb on the halftime show? He said, “Arkansas doesn’t play defense and everyone knows it”.

        Also a poor rebounding team, which is usually made better simply with high effort and boxing out. Doesn’t bode well for the SEC season.

        • Jim Dogg

          I agree with the rebounding problem. However, from a coach’s standpoint when you go into someone else’s barn you not only coach against the othe coach and the other team’s players but also the refs. Anderson cannot afford to have Mickelson and Young on the bench with fouls. If they are not playing with intensity, I suspect that Anderson has told them to stay out of foul trouble. Only way is to not play aggressively. If you needed a definition of home cooking you got it at UM. I tuned in a little late in the first half and MIckelson was already on the bench. Shot blockers are the easiest targets for fouls by homer refs. Powell made the comment that the foul differential may have, in part, been due to less penetration by the Hogs. But if you’re the coach and you you’re not going to get calls you’ve got to do something else. I remember a famous incident that occured years ago. John Thompson’s Georgetown team was supposed to play USC in LA. The Trojans switched refs on John who gave USC the finger and said he wasn’t coming. And remember the famous Texas game years ago that Richradson was so incensed he walked out (Didn’t see the Longhorns blow the game and Mayberry win it). Even the extremely biased announcers desperately reran the so-called intentional foul over and over which exposed both the refs and the network as prejudicial. A UALR coach of yore once told me that basketball was the greatest game on earth…. except for the referring. But that’s life and as a coach you deal with it the best you can.

          An interesting situation was after Haydar made 4 straight 3s he didn’t attempt another one. This presumably was because the UM coach finally put a man on him and he wasn’t open. But when someone has a hot hand then you ride him. Haydar’s job apparently was to relieve defensive pressure on the other players but still. Seems that Anderson should have had a screen set up for that to at least to bring the defense out further to weaken defensive rebounding. Surprised no one has brought this up. The biggest problem I see is the inability of the Hogs to hit 8-10 foot open jumpers and the opposition to be able to do just that.

  • Roadhog

    I didn’t see the game, so perhaps I should not comment about defense. But just considering it objectively from media accounts, it seems to me that holding the undefeated #3 team in the nation to 80 points on their floor is a worthy defensive effort. Isn’t something like 72 points considered an average score in college basketball?

    • Johnny Hog

      I Don’t think you can look at points. Many high scoring games are played with great defensive intensity, etc. you have to look at things such as Michigan shooting over 50% from the field in the first half and also the Hogs being outrebounded 42 to 26 for the game. That’s bad.

      Not trying to pick on Mickelson, but some of his play is ‘masked’ by his occasional blocked shot or dunk. But watch him on each possession. He’s a poor defender and rebounder. He doesn’t move his feet or seem like he wants to. Looks lazy.

  • Jonesboro Hog

    All I’m saying is that our problems this year is the same as last year just not as bad. Mickelson just can’t handle the guys like Michigan and Syracuse had. They were just pushing him around. Lack of rebounding hurts in count of that. They feed it too the post it’s two points. Also teams figure out to lock us up in half court offense. If we are not hitting the jumper we come away on the possession with no points. I want us to feed the post but it just doesn’t match up in size. No doubt about it we can score points. I love it! People say no defense but we score like crazy off turnovers. Just need a player like big nasty….remember every time we fed him the ball it was two points. This team will come in time, like the way we are headed!!

    The only major two things I’m concerned is our offensive rebounding and our half court offense against the 2-3 zone.

    Teams that have played us always say “never felt for sure we had the game won till the final horn”

  • soupdhog

    Just wondering – since when is 13 points considered a ‘blowout’, particularly when the game was pretty close most of the 2nd half?
    Arkansas biggest problem – mid range shooting. I’ve said this a million times – unless you have a Dwight Howard type player in the middle you HAVE to have some mid range jump shooters. The 3 point basket is too easy to stop for good defensive teams.
    We’ve held up very well against 2 of the top teams in basketball. I’m very pleased with this team, as well as the coaching. Anderson’s rotations are getting a lot of kids involved against some top competition. He’s coaching for the long haul. Can’t wait to see what we do in the SEC.