Basketball Nonconference Schedule Upgraded To "Brutal" Comment Count

Brian

Michigan already had a pretty tough nonconference schedule lined up this fall, with a home game against UConn, BC in the B10/ACC challenge, and a serious nonconference tournament. Now, uh, well, here's another game:

A rematch of the 2008 NCAA National Championship Game against Memphis, trips to UCLA and Tennessee and home games against Cal and Michigan highlight the non-conference schedule for the Kansas University men’s basketball team in 2009-10.

Yipes. I'd rather fill out the schedule with some moderately difficult games—like the ND series I keep advocating—instead of death on a platter, but better a tough roadie against Kansas than IUPUI.

Comments

Zone Read Left

June 2nd, 2009 at 11:03 PM ^

Looks like Beilein is utilizing the Tom Izzo strategy of nonconference schedule here. Love it! Even when MSU gets beat up early by a brutal schedule, playing tough teams always prepares them for March. With our high variance offense consisting of tons of 3s, we're likely to add a couple major scalps to our resume, even if we do get a couple more losses along the way. Regardless, we'll be able to tell pretty early on whether Andy Katz is a fool or a prophet.

SportsFront

June 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 PM ^

UConn doesn't return a game in Ann Arbor until the 10-11 season. I saw MS and his wonderful reporting at the Freep also had this game this season. It is not.

dylanb

June 2nd, 2009 at 11:25 PM ^

Call it brutal or whatever... With Duke out, we needed another game like this.

Gotta play the best teams... A road game against a truly elite top 5 team is really a no lose situation when it comes to the RPI as well.

mblood7

June 3rd, 2009 at 2:36 AM ^

I love it! I'ma be pissed if we get slaughtered but PR like this announcing Michigan is back on the map and we're not going anywhere. I think it will bring Trey, Ray Ray and other future recruits...

UM Indy

June 3rd, 2009 at 10:00 AM ^

Look at the trip to UConn as an example of how Beilein's allegedly overmatched team performs in a hostile environment against one of the top teams in the country. I expect nothing less in Lawrence. My hat's off to Beilein. He has been pitch perfect in every respect since taking the reins and leading this program back.

robpollard

June 3rd, 2009 at 11:01 AM ^

I love how a newspaper site dedicated to a university's team gets the name wrong. It may be "KU", but it's the University of Kansas. It would be like calling the Sooners, "Oklahoma University".

Minor thing, but just jarring that a hometown site would get it wrong.

In any case, I hope Michigan University can beat them.

robpollard

June 3rd, 2009 at 12:54 PM ^

I have no idea why they do KU (University of Kansas), OU (University of Oklahoma) and MU (University of Missouri). Maybe it was a condition on joining the Big 8 long ago you had to invert things!

And I doubt they did to avoid confusion with other schools (e.g., Kentucky or Oregon). Trust me, if you ever talk to someone from Minneapolis and mention you went to "U of M", they're thinking you're a Gopher, not a Wolverine. Same thing in Memphis. There are only same many abbreviations.

Oh well, at least they don't have to struggle with being called "Miami (Ohio)" vs. the "proper" "Miami University" (per Brian's funny note during the Frozen Four about the RedHawks trying to get the media to get their name right).

funkywolve

June 4th, 2009 at 3:00 AM ^

I like it. With just about everyone coming back, you probably do want to step up the non-conference schedule a bit. I'd rather have 2, 3 maybe 4 losses heading into big ten play with a real good non-conference schedule then have 0 or 1 loss with a non-conference schedule that is completely full of cupcakes.

A strong strength of schedule is a key component to making the ncaa tourney.