UM hoops now #4 in AP poll
1. Louisville
2. Kansas
3. Maryland
4. Michigan
5. Virginia
UNC is 7 and Gonzaga 9.
December 2nd, 2019 at 12:42 PM ^
Here are the nine voters who voted us No. 1:
Chris Murray, Nevada Sports Net
Donna Ditota, Syracuse Post-Standard
James Crepea, The Oregonian
Jeff Call, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Paul Clee, Denver Gazette
Rob Dauster, NBC Sports
Scott Richey, Champaign News-Gazette
Seth Davis, CBS/Sports Illustrated
Shannon Ryan, Chicago Tribune
Others of note:
Jack Ebling, WSYM-Lansing, voted us No. 2
Jon Rothstein, CBS, voted us No. 2
Dick Vitale, ESPN, voted us No. 5
Adam Grosbard, Orange County Register, voted us No. 12 - by far the lowest of any voter
December 2nd, 2019 at 1:42 PM ^
I doubt a guy in Costa Mesa weather, had a chance to watch all four games....
December 2nd, 2019 at 12:52 PM ^
So we have a legitimate shot to be #1 in a week. I would have put money on us beating OSU before I would have this scenario
December 2nd, 2019 at 12:52 PM ^
Wow, I did not see that coming. The voters actually paid attention.
December 2nd, 2019 at 12:56 PM ^
ESPN has been hyping the MSU/Duke & OSU/UNC matchups for the past week...now the best matchup for the challenge will be Michigan/Louisville...waiting on the cool promos for this one now!
December 2nd, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^
These polls mean less than nothing, but this is kind of funny: When the preseason poll was released, the #4 team was scheduled to play the #1 team on the road in the B1G-ACC challenge on ESPN.
That has indeed happened, except that it's Michigan at Louisville instead of Duke (10) at MSU (11).
December 2nd, 2019 at 9:58 PM ^
I do love how this was scheduled as an appetizer and has turned out to be the main course.
December 2nd, 2019 at 1:04 PM ^
I love this recognition. I love the way Coach Howard has these guys believing in themselves. He's putting together game plans that match our strengths to our opponents weaknesses.
That being said, I'm just hoping they can play consistent ball throughout every game this whole season. I don't think we've seen that 9 minute scoreless streak yet that was the Achilles heel of previous years. That's most refreshing, especially over the past week.
December 2nd, 2019 at 1:32 PM ^
don't think we've seen that 9 minute scoreless streak yet that was the Achilles heel of previous years.
You didn't watch the 2nd half of the App State game did ya?
December 2nd, 2019 at 2:47 PM ^
Or even the 11ish minute to 1ish minute stretch vs. North Carolina, when we were outscored by 16.
Of course, that’s basketball, and teams go on runs/cold spells like that all the time. Happens more often with slower-paced teams of course (fewer possessions means fewer chances to score/longer scoring droughts) and this year we have pushed the tempo a fair bit relative to recent seasons, but missing 5 shots in a row with 2-3 turnovers sprinkled in is going to happen.
December 2nd, 2019 at 3:43 PM ^
I missed App St and Iowa State, but I've seen the others. Vs. UNC their longest stretch was 3:06 without scoring.
December 2nd, 2019 at 1:11 PM ^
Is L'ville really that good?
I agree with the guys on the podcast from yesterday. This team wasn't exactly a world-beater last year and got bounced by Minnesota in the 2nd round?
I get that there will probably/maybe some regression in our play, but it's not like we got a jump start in our season. Every single team is growing and improving in this early part of the season. We still have some room to grow and improve too.
I see it as a Watchmen Rorshach situation. We can be worried about how good L'ville is, but we are good too.
We aren't locked in there with them. They are locked in there with us!
December 2nd, 2019 at 2:53 PM ^
Are they that good? Probably. They haven’t beaten anybody special, but they’ve taken care of business pretty convincingly in most of those games. They’re #2 in KenPom, 0.01 points behind #1 MSU (ugh).
That said, the narrative about there not being any dominant teams this year does seem to have some veracity to it. Compared to other #1 teams throughout the history of the polling, Louisville is likely in one of the lower tiers, but they’ll be rightly favored to win tomorrow at home.
December 2nd, 2019 at 1:11 PM ^
Meaningless, but impressive. Hopefully they don't let this go to their heads. They are playing really hard and shooting 3's better than they probably will continue to. But they have a lot of really useful pieces that all play well together. Great start for Juwan & Company!
December 2nd, 2019 at 1:29 PM ^
Let me get this straight. Maryland has beaten Holy Cross, Rhode Island, Oakland, Fairfield, George Mason, Temple (narrowly), Harvard (tight game) and Marquette.
And Maryland is ranked ahead of us? We have beaten UNC and Gonzaga as well as a good Creighton team (that just beat Texas Tech) and a decent Iowa State team that routed Alabama before narrowly losing to a good Seton Hall team that is ranked #16.
Stupid fucking AP voters. They got it so wrong in the pre-season, apparently by placing UM at #1 or #2 (where they belong), it would injure their pride too much.
December 2nd, 2019 at 1:45 PM ^
So I guess we improved our non-conf schedule for all those bitching about it in past years - I say, bring on Furman.
December 2nd, 2019 at 10:07 PM ^
Wasn't exactly intentional though. The schedule has been strong because Michigan won and kept advancing to play better teams in a loaded Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, a field that's out of Michigan's control.
Outside of the tournament and the ACC/B1G challenge which the AD also doesn't control, Michigan's out of conference is somewhat typical with a lot of really bad teams (Elon, Houston Baptist, Presbyterian, UMass Lowell).
The other big change is that the B1G is playing 20 games instead of 18 so with Michigan locked into a Thanksgiving weekend tourney and the ACC/B1G challenge, the impact has been to cut back on the really bad opponents from ~4 to ~6. So it's mostly that we just have fewer out-of-conference games to get soft with.
December 2nd, 2019 at 2:17 PM ^
A little voter analysis, mostly on the outliers.
Adam Grosbard of the Orange County (CA) Register. Somehow, the 2 teams we pasted (UNC and Gonzaga) and the team which lost to both the teams we pasted (Oregon) are all ranked ahead of Michigan. That makes sense.
- #1 Kansas, #2 Louisville, #3 Maryland
- #4 UNC
- #5 michigan state ("extreme pick" more than 5 spots from actual - #11)
- #6 Duke, #7 Kentucky,
- #10 Gonzaga, #11 Oregon
- #12 Michigan ("extreme pick")
Jesse Newell of the KC Star
- #1 Louisville, #2 Kansas
- #3 michigan state ("extreme pick" - 8 spots higher than actual)
- #4 ohio state
- #8 Gonzaga
- #9 Michigan
- #14 UNC
- #19 Purdue (actual #33) and #20 penn state (actual #37)
The 2 of the 3 voters who had us at #8 at least had Oregon, UNC, Gonzaga, and msu ranked lower than Michigan.
However, Brian Holland of Baton Rouge, LA had msu at #6, with Michigan at #8. That baffles.
https://collegepolltracker.com/basketball/team/michigan-wolverines/2019
December 2nd, 2019 at 3:59 PM ^
Just a nice primer on my polls, in ANY sport, are basically bull****.
December 2nd, 2019 at 2:47 PM ^
This is just amazing. Am so proud of everyone on, and supporting, that team. That goes for everyone on the football team, too, despite it all. So fantastic.
December 2nd, 2019 at 2:57 PM ^
Beating North Carolina and Gonzaga and now in the top 5 with a chance to be #1 if they beat Louisville.
This really stinks of Michigan basketball cheating. That is how it works now, right?
December 2nd, 2019 at 9:42 PM ^
Elsewhere:
Massey:
- Michigan
- Virginia
- Gonzaga
- Auburn
- North Carolina
- Maryland
- Kansas
- Florida St.
- Oregon
- Michigan St.
Sagarin:
- Kansas
- Duke
- Michigan
- Ohio St.
- Maryland
- Auburn
- Virginia
- Arizona
- Louisville
- Florida St.
I'm surprised how different these are--Duke's 2nd in one but 13th in the other, UNC's 5th and 16th. The differences between the two algorithms aren't usually enough to make that happen.