Sometimes lost in the premature and tunnel visioned emphasis on the NCAA tournament as the only metric of a team’s worth is the appreciation for the moments at hand. Obscured in the bid or bust equation, betrayed by the singular emphasis on the March endgame is an enjoyment of the season as a journey where each individual game, whether win or defeat, whether RPI bolstering or not, tells its own set of compelling stories.
Before we rush to a discussion of possible NCAA seedings, and while we are a mere two weeks into the Big Ten fray, let’s enjoy some of these early stories and what is shaping up to be one of the most entertaining conference races in recent memory.
Even The Losers
Two Big Ten teams of highly unlikely tournament worthiness told the biggest stories of the weekend. Iowa’s defense of Carver-Hawkeye against the sixth ranked Spartans, while one of the uglier joint shooting performances on record, was the kind of fulcrum game that Lickliter can use to great effect for the growth of his team this year and the program at large.
Beating a top ten team and holding them to 36 points, while partly attributable to an anomalous Spartan comedy of errors, gives one a glimpse of Lickliter’s methodology and bodes well for the basketball future in Iowa City.
The Hawkeyes under Lickliter, once his teaching has had enough time to take full purchase, will resemble Saturday night’s version a lot more often than the one on display the previous Wednesday in Columbus. Against an athletic, speedy team that more often than not is the one dictating tempo, the Hawkeyes slowed the eager to run Spartans to a crawl and ground it out in the half court.
What certain basketball dilettantes dub boring slowball, Lickliter has made a very successful governing philosophy. He teaches an offense where quick shots and pushing the ball are generally eschewed in favor of deliberate half court sets where picks, cuts, motion without the ball, and extra passes are the rule. Lickliter’s patient offense slows tempo and turns the game into one less defined by sheer athleticism than execution. Michigan State’s 18 turnovers (Iowa had only 8 turnovers) points to the role of execution in a slower game.
“We thought it was important to play more in the half court more than in the full court. We were able to do that. And I thought we defended with better purpose, which is very important.”
In the process, a team whose 8-9 overall, 1-3 conference mark has them being largely ignored because of postseason-obsessed valuations notched a win that has resounding significance to the Iowa program and Lickliter’s rebuilding effort. It is a win that Lickliter will likely cite as a program changer.
One Rising, One Falling
Another game with no tournament repercussions but significant meaning was Michigan’s win in Evanston. On the Maize and Blue side of things was a coach who had just entered his third month in the Big Ten and was getting his indoctrination with one of the youngest rosters in the league. On the Wildcat bench was a coach in his eighth year of Big Ten service defending his home court. After forty minutes, if you didn’t know any better, one would’ve thought Carmody was the conference rookie.
Despite the 78-68 final, this was a Michigan blowout win that was auspicious for Beilein and his new program and highly incriminating for Carmody. Beilen’s team showed poise, energy, toughness on the road while Carmody’s team, except for a 34 point effort from Kevin Coble, showed little of the same at home.
As the excuses for Carmody’s underachievement become less and less persuasive and the team continues to evidence the same bad patterns year to year - limited player development, poor conditioning, poor shooting, lack of mental and physical toughness, sloppy execution, failure to keep opponents of the offensive glass - the wait till next year mantra is wearing thin.
There are a lot of coachable elements of the game that Carmody just doesn’t seem to be getting consistent traction with. Continued blowout losses at home, especially in what should be very winnable games, will only add to the growing contingent of Carmody malcontents.
Meanwhile, Beilein’s lily young squad, which has already faced a very tough Big Ten gauntlet (Wisconsin, Purdue, and Indiana) and has performed in fairly respectable fashion considering the degree of the rebuild, gets a convincing win and a glimpse at what kind of future the fans in Ann Arbor have to look forward to.
Another Sign Of Good Coaching
Marcus Green’s 22-point effort Saturday night was that of a well coached role player who was ready to play quality, and in this case, game-changing minutes. On teams with good basketball teachers like Matt Painter one often is impressed by how seamlessly role and bench players, even those seven, eight or nine deep in the rotation, integrate into the flow of a game and make an impact. Like the quality minutes of Michigan State walk-on Jacob Hannon in several NCAA games last spring, studying bench and role players one gets an accurate measure of coaching prowess.
Coming into Saturday’s game, Green’s minutes per game put him ninth in the Purdue rotation and his 4.9 points per game gave little indication of the explosive offense that would arrive. But, showing himself to be a well taught basketball player, Green took advantage of opportunities and played a game of huge impact, leading the team in scoring.
Clearly, Matt Painter is doing the kind of top to bottom teaching and motivation in practice that has role players like Green feeling very invested and prepared to contribute. Purdue is a team where any number of players, from one to ten in the rotation, can stick a dagger in the opponent. This kind of share the load democracy is yet another reason to respect and fear the Boilermakers under Painter.
