In Reply to: Re: Michigan at UCLA preview posted by Cachorro on January 06, 2025 at 13:58:35
answer I don't wanna know the question.
The good news is Mara has made some strides from his 2023-24 debut in Div 1.
The bad news is Mara wasn't a real-deal Div 1 rotation player in 2023-24.
MI is not the team to expect Mada/Mata/Mara to flex, becuz he's still way too light in the caboose against the two Michigan beastie boys. He could answer the bell in 2025-26 with more weight and more time in the gym, but my expectation for him tomorrow is to continue to get thrown around in the low blocks like a rag doll. That expectation entails 2 problems:
1) when he can't bang for position he gets happy feet and panics into a reincarnation of Gregory Hines on the dance floor; and
2) when they ask him to hedge out to the perimeter on D, he misses more D assignments than a traffic cone, which arguably cuts his minutes moreso than his jitterbugging on multiple pivot feet on the O end.
He's progressing but still isn't a game-changer off the bench. Plus, Kyle is expected to re-emerge against MI tomorrow.
I like your version of Mada/Mata/Mara more than mine, but I'm from Missouri and it will be tuff for me to expunge these Mara images that have been burned into my cerebral cortex.