Way Too Early Expectations-o-Meter: Matt Vogrich

People I've already talked about: Tim Hardaway Jr., Jordan Morgan

Today we shift back to the back court, to the offensively one-dimensional yet sneakily grit-tastic Matt Vogrich, the pride of Lake Forest, IL (sorry Tommy Rees).

NB: I didn't think of this until now, but I'm probably just going to do these previews for guys that are returning from last year. Of course, the 2012 class will be major contributors, especially given the turnover that Michigan has had (losing Novak and Douglass to graduation and also losing Smotrycz, Brundidge, and Christian to more playing time elsewhere). With that said, a "preview" post for Mitch McGary et al would just end up being a useless collection of Rivals/Scout links and pointless highlight videos. There's no point in wasting your time on redundancies like that so let's just keep talking about players we are already familiar with and can speak out with some level of authority.

GRIT. 

Career To Date 
I feel like I say this all the time, but man I cannot believe Matt Vogrich is a senior. Actually, I'm fairly certain that I say this every time I talk about a senior player in any of the Michigan sports I follow closely: once you find yourself saying this on the reg, you have proof positive that you are getting old. As we all know, time speeds along faster and faster the older you get, which I guess is a good thing if you're trying to get through the horrid thing we call The Offseason (that's right, it merits capitalization).

To be honest, Vogrich's recruitment at this point is a vague thing to me, so I checked his Rivals profile and was somewhat surprised to see some of the schools on his offer list. He was a generic 3-star, the type of 3-point gunner that John Beilein craves like plants crave Brawndo. It's science. Other than Michigan, Vogrich received offers from basketball names like Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Baylor, Georgia Tech, and Stanford, among several other lower level offers. So, it's not like he was just some guy like Zack Novak, whose second best offer after Michigan came from Valparaiso.

As a high schooler, Vogrich averaged 16.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, which is also somewhat surprising given the fact that his offensive game at the college level hasn't materialized much at all yet thus far. Obviously, he came in with the hype of a deadly shooter from outside, but you don't average those numbers without being able to do a little more than shoot the three. Of course, high school is a different game: even the college spot up shooter can do some things on the bounce.

As a freshman, Vogrich played only sparingly, averaging 5.5 minutes per game. During the 2009-10 season, however, he did shoot 39% from beyond the arc, lending credence to the notion that he could in fact be the Mike Gansey-esque gunner specialist that Beilein had been searching for. In 2010-11, Vogrich nearly tripled his minutes, averaging 14 per game while also shooting 39% from 3 yet again. He even upped his percentage from the field overall, going from 40.5% to 42.9% from his freshman to his sophomore year.

We knew that Vogrich would be coming off the bench likely throughout his entire career, so expectations at that juncture--after his sophomore year, that is--were fairly reasonable. He would come off the bench and take a few shots, hit a couple threes, and contribute some general grit. He displayed a surprising ability to pick up rebounds despite only being 6'4'' and not much of an athlete, a facet of his game which inspired me to dub him Diet Novak last season.

Then the 2011-12 season happened, leaving us with some questions about what to reasonably expect out of Matt Vogrich.


Last Year 
In light of his 3-point shooting percentages during his first two seasons in Ann Arbor, it would not be unreasonable to posit that his performance from 3 last season was somewhat of an anomaly. Vogrich's percentage took a nosedive, dipping all the way down to 30%, a number which would be below average for a guy who is not a 3-point specialist, let alone for a guy who ostensibly is one.

With that said, his minutes also took a bit of a nosedive, going from the aforementioned 14 per game to 10.7 per last season. It might seem like an insignificant difference, but for a guy like Vogrich, this sort of decline in deployment means the world. It goes without saying that a guy whose offensive game depends almost entirely on the 3 will suffer when he doesn't see the floor a much.

As a Chicago Bulls fan, I saw the same sort of thing play out with a much better 3-point shooter in Kyle Korver. Korver, despite shooting an excellent 43.5% last season, often had off nights. Given the Bulls' prowess on the offensive glass, I distinctly remember several possessions during which Korver would clank a 3, only to get a second chance after an offensive rebound only to clank another one. Korver was also a defensive liability, so when the 3s didn't fall, his presence on the court became a net negative. This, in short, is the plight of the 3-point specialist. When the so called "rhythm" that commentators allude to so often isn't there--a notion which is generally directly correlated to playing time--the specialist becomes someone that you don't want on the court. It essentially becomes a situation where you are playing 4 on 5 when that person is on the floor.

The same could be said for Vogrich last season. We have already seen him shoot the 3 in a way that would make Rick James from Dave Chappelle's E True Hollywood Story sketch blush. However, in limited minutes last season, he would often get on the floor, miss his only one or two threes, and that would be it.


Things That Were Good 
Of course, things weren't all bad for Vogrich last season. Against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, he dropped 11 points on 4-7 shooting (3-5 from 3). In only 11 minutes at Nebraska, he scored 9 points on 3-4 shooting from beyond the arc, a game which could have potentially been close if did not pitch in in the way that he did.

In a big home win against Illinois, Vogrich put up 8 points on 3-3 shooting (2-2 from 3); Michigan won that game by 9, FWIW.

In Michigan's second thrilling OT victory against Northwestern, Vogrich put up 9 points on 3-6 from 3, an obviously important game for him, played less than an hour away from his hometown of Lake Forest. He hit two big threes in the early going to held build Michigan's lead (which was of course squandered by halftime), and then hit a third to put Michigan up by 1 with just under 9 minutes to go. It's easy to forget such contribution on a team headlined by guys like Tim Hardaway Jr. and Trey Burke, but these subtle contributions are often the difference between winning and losing in close conference tilts.


Things That Were Bad 
This section will probably be mostly redundant, but Vogrich failed to make an impact in several Michigan losses. At Iowa, Vogrich went 0-1 from 3 in 18 minutes, which can partly be attributed to the nature of that performance for the team as a whole, particularly the offense's propensity to break down if Trey Burke isn't functioning at peak levels or if the pick and roll is being stonewalled.

Otherwise, just scan his game log for yourself: it's littered with 0-2s from 3, which unfortunately was the standard Vogrich stat line last season. I get the feeling that I'm being almost unfairly negative here, so, to reiterate: it's very difficult for a player like Vogrich to make a difference with consistency when he's only putting up 2 shots, at most, on any given night.

The question becomes: what do you do about it? I'm not sure that Vogrich is an integral cog to the point that he should be asked to "keep shooting", as is often told to 3-point specialists when they are struggling. If he doesn't hit one of his first 2 or 3 shots, it's very difficult to justify that sort of advice, as much as I or any other Michigan fan would love to see him become that 3-point shooter that we all want him to be.

Maybe things will change this season, but Vogrich does not strike me as a guy like Novak or Douglass, players who were predominantly 3-point spot up guys for their first three seasons before the desert bloomed last season when they displayed an ability to make a difference on the bounce and in the mid-range game.

If Vogrich Was A Literary Figure 


Harper Lee. Kind of a one-hit wonder. His ability to write To Kill A Mockingbird shoot the three early on in his career inspired visions of greatness in many, visions which only gave way to a not so gradual fade into obscurity. Is he, like Harper Lee post-TKAM, done writing shooting the three at the level he once did?


Things That Would Be Prettyyyy Prettyyyy Prettyyyy Good

• Justify more minutes. As I mentioned, pure minutes played is a big issue for a guy like Vogrich. Getting on the floor more often--for instance, something in the neighborhood of the 14 minutes per game that he logged in 2010-11--necessitates doing other things other than 3-point shooting. 
• GRIT. This has been a positive in Vogrich's game that has nothing to do with outside shooting. He hasn't exactly racked up eye-popping rebounding numbers, but I've found myself fairly surprised with his ability to pull down the occasional offensive board or two despite his obvious physical limitations. This is one of those aforementioned "other things" that Vogrich can do to get more minutes and, consequently, have more of a chance to get in a rhythm. Like major league hitters, 3-point specialists are creatures of habit and repetition. 
• Yeah, 3-point shooting. For the millionth time, Vogrich needs to make good on his few attempts per game. This again is a nod to the point I made about Jordan Morgan finishing around the basket and the Ray Ratto "just win the game" reference. I'm not sure that there was anything explicitly off with his mechanics, footwork, etc. He just needs to make them when he gets the chance, which is unfortunately a difficult task given his overall lack of usage and his ancillary role on this iteration of Michigan basketball. 

OFFICIAL EXPECTATIONS FOR SOMETHING THAT'S FOUR MONTHS AWAY 

FROM STARTING 

Michigan will likely have a team capable of winning the conference whether or not Vogrich returns to the form that he showed during his first two seasons. With that said, having a guy that shoots 40% from three, despite being very low usage, would be an incredible boon for a team that no longer has Zack Novak and Stu Douglass to rely on from outside, in addition to THJ being decidedly erratic from outside and Trey being approximately adequate from there as well. Luckily, Michigan does have reputed 3-point gunner Nik Stauskas coming in, but in a system like Beilein's--and today's college basketball world, generally--you can never have too much quality 3-point shooting.

I'm having a hard time getting a handle on what to expect from Vogrich this season. With Stauskas figuring to be a major component of this team, Vogrich's 3-point ability might be somewhat marginalized. Similarly, with THJ moving to the two (although I have always been somewhat skeptical of the rigidity of these number/position designations), minutes may be hard to come by in any greater number than they were last season.

Regardless, I think that Vogrich will prove that last season was somewhat of an outlier. He is a good shooter, period, and I'm confident that if he was playing for another team where minutes were more available, he would be able to show that on a more consistent basis. I think that Vogrich will see the court a little more than last season, and his percentage will climb back up to respectability. His 30% mark last season will be proven to simply be a convergence of bad luck and lack of run...I think somewhere in the range of 34-36% is a reasonable expectation for Vogrich in 2012-13.

Michigan-Nebraska: Guess I'm Doin' Fine

Michigan 62, Nebraska 46

Rod Beard tweeted this and I thought it was just about the perfect way to summarize everything about this game: 

Everything about this game was redolent of high school basketball; the crippling offensive incompetence, the lopsided score, the peanut gallery fans yelling SHOOT THE BALL as the home team "runs the offense," an elaborate series of passes and movements that eventually ends in some final, awkward self-immolating act. 

Nebraska's offensive attack (I know I know, it's Family 

Guy...also, in German for some reason)

Watching Nebraska try to do anything really took me back to my high school basketball days. They were really that bad, and the score doesn't even begin to reflect how non-competitive it truly was (the Huskers hit a few meaningless shots at the end--including a buzzer beating 3--to up their total to 46). In any case, if you needed any further reminder as to which sport the conference had in mind when it came time to admit Nebraska, I'll give you a hint: it wasn't basketball. 

After the game in November, I have a hard time being too disparaging of the Huskers because all of their fans just seemed so gosh darned nice. So, I will talk about Michigan from here on out. Michigan came out firing from 3 (i.e. Novak and Douglass did), and then spent much of the rest of the half fending off whatever offense-destroying virus had infected them by virtue of being on the same court as the inept Huskers. Michigan ended the first half with only 22 points and shot way too many threes against a Husker team that was decent at defending the 3 but downright turrible Kenny at defending the 2. Overall, though, the Huskers did a good job defensively in the first half. The match-up zone gave Michigan some problems, exacerbated by the fact that Michigan kept taking the outside shot that Nebraska was, to an extent, conceding. After the first three triples to start the game, Michigan scored 13 points in the last 13 minutes of the first half, which would be good if this were football. 

Here's where you insert the shortest motivational coaching montage of all time. Beilein tells the guys: "Hey, maybe we should go to the basket?" The team: "Okay." Bacari Alexander then fashioned a basketball hoop out of the corn husks strewn around the locker room floor (CORN NEBRASKA HURRR), dunking on it and thereby destroying it in order to really drive the point home. Beneath the veneer of unsuccessfully stifled giggling, the players understood what they needed to do. 

And they did it. Game Blouses. Michigan's eFG% in the second half was an outrageous 97.2% (HT: UMHoops). JMo was converting on layup after layup, and, most encouragingly, THJ also joined in on the high-percentage shot fun. Also, Michigan turned the ball over a mere 4 times, and 2 of those were shot clock violations. That's crazy, and awesome, as Rees-ing it up would've been the only thing that would have given the Huskers a chance to win the game. 

Matt Vogrich, channeling Kyle Korver

Quite simply, this was a win Michigan needed to have and they got it in impressive fashion (well, most of the second half was decent, I guess, relatively). Nebraska is truly horrid, but a road win is an impressive thing no matter the opponent. More importantly, there were a few encouraging things going on vis-a-vis certain individual players that give us reasons to be optimistic going forward. 

Player Bullets, Also Known As "Trey Burke and Those Who Are Not Trey Burke": 

• Burke--The all-around very solid performance that has become customary from Trey. Twelve points on 4-7 shooting (3-4 from 3), five boards, 5 assists, and only 2 turnovers...just a very efficient performance in a low possessions game. 

• Hardaway--Okay, so 3-11 from the field and another poor performance from 3 (0-6) looks bad on the surface, but if you watched the game you'd know that he was at least trying to attack. Sure, he took some bad threes in the first half (if this was February 2011 they wouldn't be "bad" shots), but he changed it up in the second half. He was also active defensively, drawing a charge. He also pitched in a trio of assists; again, the common refrain of "he can still be a plus player if he does other things well" goes here. But, you have to think that the perimeter shots will start falling eventually...right?

• Novak--The Mayor sank a pair of threes to start the game, pretty much setting the tempo for the rest of the game. Led Michigan with 14 points on 6-9 shooting, in addition to 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and one count of grand larceny (3 steals). Also, a congratulations is in order, as Zack joined the 1,000 point club, making him the 45th Wolverine to do so. Even more impressively, he is only the 28th Wolverine to have 1,000 points and 500 rebounds to his name. Remember what happened when we thought replacing Lee and Merritt might not be a huge deal? Yeah, replacing Zack and Stu is going to be like that but ten times more difficult. 

• Douglass--Stu continues to quietly be a very good player for us. Stu pitched in 13 points on 4-7 shooting (3-5 from 3), 2 boards, 3 assists, and 2 steals. That's a good performance for Stu even without the torrid shooting...anything more is just delicious, victory-producing gravy. 

• Morgan--This team is so much more fun to watch when Morgan is being found for easy buckets. Eight points on 4-5 from the field, 6 boards, 2 assists, and a steal make for a strong performance from JMo. You would think that Nebraska would've been more cognizant of their matchups after facing a Princetony team like Northwestern last week, but that was not the case, on the break or in the half court. In any case, JMo: keep on keepin' on. 

• McLimans--Again, would've been nice to see him get a few more minutes in a blowout such as this one, but whatever. Did have a derpy turnover in garbage time. 
• Vogrich--Apparently we had Kyle Korver on loan from the Bulls tonight, which is nice but I'd imagine might result in some NCAA complications. Jokes aside, Diet Novak was en fuego from 3, showcasing the 3-point shooting prowess we were expecting from him when he was recruited. Keep doing that, please. 
• Smotrycz--Naturally, after predicting that Smotrycz would score in the double digits he puts up a goose egg. In fact, he didn't even attempt a field goal in 13 minutes, which is a little strange.