Punching The Ticket: Yes, That Was Bad
Same. [Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog]
Surprise! Getting four cracks at a fourth top-100 victory only to fall short in all of them is bad for a team's NCAA Tournament chances. Michigan was already in a precarious spot heading into the weekend; after falling to Iowa, they need at least two wins in the Big Ten Tournament to avoid missing the dance for the second straight season.
Michigan's resumé as it currently stands:
Record: 20-11 (19-11 vs. D-I), 10-8 Big Ten
RPI: 70
KenPom: 54
RPI Strength of Schedule: 69
KP SOS: 54
RPI Top-50: 3-9
RPI 51-100: 0-2
RPI 101+: 16-0
Unless Penn State (#114) pulls some upsets in the BTT—they draw Ohio State in the second round for the right to play Michigan State—Michigan isn't going to pick up any more RPI top-100 victories without an upset over Indiana; that, of course, would require the Wolverines to beat Northwestern on Thursday, which KenPom projects has a 57% chance of happening.
Of the 89 brackets currently comprising the Bracket Matrix, Michigan makes only 46 of them, and the more recently updated brackets almost all omit the Wolverines; they're the second team left out of the field in the consensus. After updating his bracket last night, CBS's Jerry Palm placed M as one of the first four teams out, citing the lack of quality wins as the primary reason they're not in:
Michigan has fallen off the bracket for now. The Wolverines lost at home to Iowa 71-61 on Saturday to fall to 3-9 against the top 50, 3-11 against the top 100 and 10-11 against the top 200.
Those are all bad numbers. Michigan will have a lot of work to do in Indianapolis at the Big Ten tournament.
Michigan fell off the Yahoo big board. They're the fourth team out to ESPN's Joe Lunardi. Notably, Michigan is projected to miss the tourney before accounting for the inevitable bid-stealers that will arise from the conference tournaments this week. Even if the Wolverines get a lot of help from other bubble teams, it's difficult to see a path to the tournament that doesn't involve a victory against Indiana.
I guess I'll post a rooting guide anyway. Teams you want are in bold, bubble teams are in italics.
- Monmouth vs. Iona (MAAC championship) (tonight, 7 pm, ESPN)
- Green Bay vs. Valparaiso (Horizon semifinal) (tonight, 7 pm, ESPNU)
- Pepperdine vs. St. Mary's (WCC semifinal) (tonight, 9 pm, ESPN)
- BYU vs. Gonzaga (WCC semifinal) (tonight, 11:30 pm, ESPN2)*
- Syracuse vs. Pittsburgh (ACC 2nd round) (Wednesday, noon, ESPN)
- Washington State vs. Colorado (Pac-12 1st round) (Wednesday, 5:30, Pac-12 Network)
- UCLA vs. USC (Pac-12 1st round) (Wednesday, 9 pm, Pac-12 Network)
- Arizona State vs. Oregon State (Pac-12 1st round) (Wednesday, 11:30 pm, Pac-12 Network)
- Arkansas vs. Florida (SEC 2nd round) (Thursday, 1 pm, SEC Network)
- Butler vs. Providence (Big East quarterfinal) (Thursday, 2:30 pm, FS1)
- Penn State vs. Ohio State (Big Ten 2nd round) (Thursday, 6:30 pm, ESPN2)
*You want St. Mary's to beat the winner in the title game; both BYU and Gonzaga are on the bubble but the Zags are closer to getting in.
Biedfeld??? Oh wait, he wasn't on UM's team this year.
Well you did just answer your own question there String.
Donnal improved and not just a little, a WHOLE lot.
And Rahk improved a great deal as well.
And I actually liiked Walton's game quite a bit this year. Better than I had before.
Agree that most of the rest treaded water at best.
And then there's Kam Chatman. Sheesh, what a miscalculation we (and the recruiting services) made on his talent! He could do with a return to the West Coast, maybe some E. Washington/S. Oregon type school where he could get his mind right.
Portland State still exist?
who was that guy that led the nation in scoring from that school?
without turning this into a yes-no beilein post, that's been a disappointing part of this season...there've been any number of games where we really needed a spark, and instead of throwing chatman out there to see what he could do, he might run andrew dakich.
i know, different roles on the team, different skill sets...and the beilein system notoriously takes some time to gather, but come on - dakich is not going to lead you anywhere. kam chatman actually might, if he can get his legs under him. let's see what he can do.
There was so much promise coming into the season based on the expectations of the 2014 class and healthy upper classmen.
Something went horribly wrong. My basketball knowledge isn't good enough to know what the cause is, bus the symptoms are manifesting as a shit Defensive efficiency, turnovers and a lack of hustle/grit (there's no Novak or Burke in the locker room)
there at least seemed to be some grit and tenacity on the floor. This year it's just kind of blah.
You can't say that about this year's team. Even with Caris and Spike out, they played down to inferior opponents, and we're run out of the court by any team with a pulse (Maryland and Purdue games excluded).
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about this team today as I was Sat and the last 2 months...Basketball is dead to me again..It feels Like Eleerbee and Amaker all over again..and the Hockey team too..Minny has done everything possible to hand the title to Michigan and as they have the previous 3 years they have absolutey CHOKED
you're comparing this season to the "eleerbee" and amaker years? that's just idiotic.
With the Michigan brand, they should and could have recruited better talents.
...i'm sure that syracuse will enjoy their one season of watching tyus battle freelance his way to the lottery.
With the Michigan brand, they should and could have recruited better talents.
honestly, this is not a team that is fun to watch. they just lose against reasonable teams. it's boring and they look bad. you can say what you want about firing/not firing, but the team is not very good.
Look! Another homer apologist.
I could accept 20-11 from this team, given the talent level. But what bothered me was HOW they looked, especially how they got clowned by Indiana and MSU before getting mildly smoked by Iowa and looking hopeless in those games. All of those 3 games were at home and they were all against teams that they should have had a chance against when they played them.
The weak talent level is a whole 'nother issue. But, to me, this team did not look like it was prepared to play winning basketball.
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Since when is "not being a dumbass" considered a knee jerk reaction?
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- Iona beat Monmouth 79-76
- Green Bay beat Valparaiso 99-92
- Saint Mary's beat Pepperdine 81-66
- Gonzaga beat BYU 88-84
And Big Apple Buckets' NIT Bracketology gave Michigan the two seed in the "Pittsburgh Region," opening against IPFW. LINK
my friend's mother-in-law makes $56 /hour on the computer . She has been out of a job for nine months but last month her income was $8520 just working on the computer for a few hours. browse around this web-site.
We (at least according to Lunardi) have to jump 5 teams - UConn, Oregon State, Gonzaga, Tulsa, Florida. It may be impossible to jump Gonzaga if they beat St. Mary's.
I'm not sure a win over Northwestern, then a win over Indiana, then a loss to Iowa/Purdue will be enought to make up all this ground. Blech.
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