spain pick and roll

11/10/2021 – Michigan 88, Buffalo 76 – 1-0

No column for a quick turnaround column on a WTKA day, but here are some

BULLETS

Dickinson things. I'm not sure if this is a sane thing to say, but it felt like Hunter Dickinson had a quiet 27 points last night. For some reason I thought that he wasn't doing all that much; then you'd look at his stats and think "uhhhhhhh am I having a stroke?"

Best I can figure is that there are various Hunter Dickinson moments where my brain fast-forwards through the inevitable hoop and starts thinking about how Michigan needs to get back on defense. Supporting evidence is that when Dickinson does miss there is a record scratch in my head and I have to remember not to be offended at the cosmos. It is amazing what you can take for granted, and how quickly.

Dickinson went to his right hand a couple of times here, once spinning baseline for an and-one dunk over a befuddled Generic White Post Stiff. He also did a good job not picking up charging calls on the very frequent occurrences where he was provided a pocket pass in PNR and Buffalo was rotating over extremely well. The one call he did pick up was hot garbage, naturally.

if 29 minutes counts as a sixth man [Campredon]

Sixth man: hello. Much of the offseason chatter centered on Terrance Williams II, and how he was a different guy in year two. That bore itself out here as Williams had 15 points on 9 shot equivalents, a couple of offensive rebounds, an assist, and drew the defensive assignment on Jeenathan Williams after his outburst in the second half. Per Craig Ross, Williams already had 28 points when Michigan stuck TWII on him and finished with 32. The buckets he did get were heavily contested.

Williams has clearly slimmed down after a year of Camp Sanderson and took a step towards trashing his freshman numbers by hitting 2/3 from deep, one of them a semi-transition look that was Chaundee-esque in its authority. He also hit a late-clock Dirk fadeaway and took his man to the bucket on a drive.

That was an impressive suite of skills to display in just one game.

Williams isn't a guy who's likely to end up on NBA radars and so I am looking forward to having him around as an upperclassmen, when opposing fanbases are going to moan about how this guy is still around and isn't he 80 and why does he have to do various this well while not being an NBA caliber athlete.

[After THE JUMP: Spain!]

Beilein, analyst. Basketball dad is working with BTN now, and has some things to say about Hunter Dickinson:

That was a lot more detailed than I thought it was going to be. My expectations were something along the lines of "He's in what people call 'the post', and… okay he's got his back to the basket, which is weird, I always taught my players to look at it—oh wow he turned around okay I see where this is going… huh. Well, I never."

Instead he knows many things about the thing he never did.

Beilein was set to debut as a color guy for BTN but the Nebraska-Purdue game was postponed (say it with me: May Madness). That's going to be weird even if I imagine they'll keep him away from Michigan games. Looking forward to him talking about the basketball game in front of his face instead of whatever Andy Katz's deal is. QUIT RANKING DELIS ANDY KATZ.

[After THE JUMP: dunk tech FACTS]