Published Jan 19, 2018
Michigan Basketball Podcast Highlights: Tim McCormick
John Borton  •  Maize&BlueReview
Senior Editor

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Tim McCormick joined the podcast, discussing U-M's lopsided loss to Nebraska and much more. Here are highlights, including McCormick on…

• The loss in Lincoln: "I don't necessarily look at the Nebraska loss as a horrible thing. I think it was more of a function of the schedule. That was a scheduling loss. That was three games in six days.

"Going to Nebraska, people are going to say, 'How can you lose to that team? They're no good.' That's not actually true. Nebraska is a pretty darned good team that is finding its way onto the NCAA bubble.

"They lost to Kansas by one, they won at Northwestern … if you watched the game last night, it's a really good team that is playing hard. Then you consider the fact that it's a payback situation, after Michigan beat them by 36 last year. That might have been the biggest game of the entire season for Nebraska…

"John Beilein has their attention now, for a very important stretch. I don't necessarily think they're going to lose at home to Rutgers. Going to Purdue is going to be really hard. This is the stretch where they can really solidify their NCAA resume."

• Issues from the Nebraska loss: "Defensively, Nebraska was great. They held Michigan to 36 or 37 percent. But if [junior forward Moritz] Wagner and [sophomore guard Zavier] Simpson are 2-for-9 from the field, they're not going to win.

"Michigan didn't shoot well, but it's a tough environment. That crowd is pretty hyped, you've got young players in key roles.

"The thing I worry more about is that defensively, if somebody in the Big Ten comes up with a strategy that works really well and might expose a weakness of an opponent, well, Rutgers saw that game last night. I would imagine some of the defensive tactics and techniques employed by Coach [Tim] Miles, you're going to see employed by Rutgers.

"They're going to have to look really closely at the tape. There are a lot of good teaching points.

"Also, emotionally, Michigan feeds off Wagner. He did not play his best basketball last night. That was very evident. They'll be a lot better. You're going to probably see a really positive outcome against Rutgers."

• Looking past Rutgers: "You go to West Lafayette, and Purdue, they understand that Michigan is a good team. I don't think they are going to have an off game in the Big Ten this year.

"They check off all the boxes: they're tough, they're physical, they share the ball, they've got stars, they've got role players, they've got veterans, they've got excited youth. I just don't see Michigan going in and surprising them. I don't see Michigan going in and winning that game."


Here is a link to the full podcast.

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