MANNY ROTTEN

After crying ourselves to sleep last night following Michigan's collapse on the road at Iowa, this is as calm as we're going to sit down and post.

So let's cut straight to the million-dollar question:

What the hell happened to Manny Harris?

In just a few short months he went from the favorite to win Big Ten Player of the Year to riding the pine in Iowa City during overtime.

It's as simple as this: Manny has always been an awful fit for Beilein's offense, which made it really easy for Big Ten opponents to figure out how to defend him.

It's pretty obvious at this point Corperryale is like a square peg in a round hole in this 5 Out Offense. Manny is a slasher who is tremendous driving to the rack, where he creates for himself or others, and DEADLY on the break. Take a look at Manny being fresh back in November:



It's a shame none of Manny's strengths (except being good at basketball) fit Beilein's offense, which is predicated on half-court offense, movement away from the ball, sharp passing and - above all - spot-up shooting (hence, Zack Novak is starting to look like J.J. Redick).

With all five players on the perimeter at the offensive end, teams now double Manny as soon as he starts to penetrate, forcing him to swing it around the arc and go scratch his head in the corner.

In the one good outing Manny has had in the last 5 games (vs. Northwestern), he was completely shut down in the first half (1 point), then exploded for 25 points by creating turnovers and getting out on the break. Unfortunately, this is the Big 10 and teams take care of the ball too well to count on that happening on a regular basis.

Now completely frustrated and pushing too hard to make things worse, Manny has turned into a complete headcase.

This leaves Beilein at a huge crossroad: Push the tempo of his offense and tweak the 5 Out to accamodate his best player by playing two bigs (who wouldn't want to see a starting lineup of DeShawn Sims and Zack Gibson right about now?), or keep shoving the system down Manny's throat and hope he develops a clue and a long-range jumper?

Count on the latter, since the former is basically sacrilege.

See you all at The Garden...