NCAA Basketball: Biggest takeaways midway through 2020-21 season

Biggest “frauds” of the season

Now, this might be an unpopular opinion, but what have the Michigan Wolverines done to warrant all this love? They have some nice players, but it looks like a repeat of last year to me. They had all the buzz after winning the Battle of Atlantis tournament, but then followed it up with a very pedestrian season.

Hunter Dickinson is having a terrific freshman campaign, but he doesn’t play with the emotion you want your best player to have. He needs to obtain the personality and attitude that his coach, Juwan Howard, has. He had his first subpar performance at Minnesota where they got their doors blown off, but it’s only going to get tougher from here.

Beating the Badgers was impressive, but that was their only significant win to this point. They have played nobody in the non-conference and have beaten up on the bottom of the Big 10. The Wolverines had their first true road test, and it was an abysmal performance.

It won’t get easier with Purdue, Michigan State, Illinois, Ohio State, and Iowa. Plus Wisconsin again, who is ought to get some revenge. With a 12-1 record, I shouldn’t call them frauds, but let’s pump the breaks on putting them anywhere near that elite category.

The best player in the country is arguably Luke Garza. They have a dynamic wing in Joe Weiskamp, and they have a tough shot-maker who isn’t afraid of the moment in Jordan Bohannon. Fran McCaffrey’s squad has as good of an offensive unit as anybody in the country. However, the problem with the Iowa Hawkeyes is that they just don’t want to guard.

I guarantee you that come March when these games get tighter and closer that they’ll be in a dogfight. When they do happen to have an off night shooting the rock, you need to find other ways to get the job done. My philosophy is playing slow on offense and playing fast on defense to speed the other team-up. They do neither. I understand they can score with anyone, but you have to commit to the defensive side of the floor if a National Championship is your goal.

I can’t sit here and be confident in a team in a one and done situation if they refuse to guard. There will be an off night on offense, but the golden question is if they can win when that’s the case.

DISCLAIMER: I wrote this on Wednesday night. Iowa played this exact type of game on their home floor against an inconsistent Indiana team. However, Michigan won their first true road game against the Sasha Stefanovic-less Purdue Boilermakers.