Maverick Prophecy
3/09/2017 – Michigan 75, Illinois 55 – 21-11, 10-8 Big Ten
3/10/2017 – Michigan 74, Purdue 70 (OT) – 22-11, 10-8 Big Ten
3/11/2017 – Michigan 84, Minnesota 77 – 23-11, 10-8 Big Ten
3/12/2017 – Michigan 71, Wisconsin 56 – 24-11, 10-8 Big Ten, BTT Champs
[Paul Sherman]
Over the course of thousands of years of human history since the invention of writing, many people have written—or chiseled or typed or uh is there a calligraphy verb—unwise things. Incorrect things. Silly, stupid, terribly wrong things. Some of these were supported by the best available evidence available at the time. Some of these had rather a lot of backing.
Nonetheless, diseases are not cured by bleeding out-of-balance humours from the body. No matter what NBA players may tell you, the earth is not flat. And virtually everything written about the Michigan basketball team during the first five weeks of 2017 should be taken to the largest conveniently-located landfill or event horizon and disposed of, never to be revisited. For example, take this festering twit from the depths of the internet reacting to Michigan's trip to East Lansing:
gonna be hard for Irvin to erase this from the top line of his Michigan legacy
— mgoblog (@mgoblog) January 29, 2017
That was either in late January (by ordinal time) or the Cretaceous (by subjective time). There was rather a lot of data backing that up, as Michigan trundled towards the NIT with a defense that at one point had sunk as low as #184 in the country on Kenpom.
Even by then, though, things were fitting into place. That was their fourth straight game of decent to good defense, and Irvin quietly spearheaded it. Future lottery pick Miles Bridges scuffled to 15 points on 17 shots and chipped in couple of turnovers en route to a 94 ORTG. In the return game things would only get worse for him, with 5 turnovers sinking his game ORTG even lower.
Michigan is fighting in the post and closing out like crazy and every single guy on the team has bought in. Only Irvin had to do that while simultaneously coming to grips with his role on the team, and how it wasn't what he wanted it to be. Walton's gotten the headlines and the hosannahs, but in a way it's much harder to fade into the background gracefully than become the lip-curled alpha dog. In that hamblasting of Michigan State at Crisler he had three points on 8% usage. Zak Irvin's learned something about humility this year. Hopefully so have festering twits from the internet*.
*[Spoiler: they have not.]
-----------------------------------
[Sherman]
Irvin is an emblem of a Michigan renaissance unmatched since the Aneurysm of Leadership. Since The White Collar Incident, Michigan is 13-5 and one of the top ten teams in the country.
Also emblems: Derrick Walton, about whom the Trey Burke whispers are getting louder. Duncan Robinson, the world's unlikeliest candidate for defensive stopper and also a gentleman who would have gotten Michigan to overtime against Northwestern if not for Julia Louis-Drefyus's heavenly intervention. DJ Wilson, who can apparently play center now and guard 1-5 and go bucket for bucket with Purdue bigs. Mo Wagner, who firebombed Isaac Haas off the floor and has developed a stick-and-move hedge game that turns late clock in to very late clock. Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, who nobody even notices anymore because he's just as efficient as everyone else. Maverick Morgan, whose sick burn made Walton so angry he turned into the Hulk.
That's everyone with a usage above "limited roles" and a guy who plays for Illinois.
The improvement is comprehensive and near-unprecedented, and it stretches back half the season now. This isn't a fluke. It hasn't been inconsistent. Michigan has won a bunch of blowouts during that stretch and aside from that inexplicable OSU game all their losses were on narrow, on the road, against tournament teams. They had a plane crash; they arrived at the Big Ten tournament barely over an hour before their scheduled start time; Illinois was more shell-shocked than Michigan was, trailing by 11 by the first break.
I can't explain it. I feel like Robert Hooke looking through a microscope and finding out life was impossibly smaller and bigger than it seemed, simultaneously. I feel like I've just watched a month long Rocky training montage that has turned this Poindexter of a team into... well, still that but a murder hobo version of it. We were given many pieces of evidence and this team has improbably, wonderfully overturned them all.
Bullets
Mind the gap. Three point launch margin over the course of the tourney: +10, +6, +10, +8. An increasingly tired Michigan outfit wasn't as efficient on theirs as they usually are, and it's no surprise to find out that a Beilein team takes a lot of threes.
But the three avoidance is real, and it's spectacular: Wisconsin's first shot in the championship game was a late-clock long two forced by an aggressive MAAR closeout. This is a beautiful place to force an off the dribble shot from:
Once again, barely more than a quarter of an opponent's FGAs were from behind the arc. Michigan moved up a spot in 3PA prevention after the BTT. They're still 308th in 3PA% allowed.
In Soviet Smiths Album, DJ hangs you. In the championship game Mark Donnal was limited to a few brief cameos and avoided a trillion only because he picked up a personal foul; Mo Wagner also played just 24 minutes. Michigan papered over the gap with DJ Wilson at the 5, and this worked brilliantly.
He was able to effectively front Happ most of the time and use his length to bother him when he did get a catch; Happ ended up shooting 6 of 16 from the floor with 3 TOs. With Irvin capable of checking the perimeter-oriented Hayes and Wagner having a rough day on offense, Michigan simply chose to ride with their small lineup in crunch time.
Short turnover Beilein time. So Michigan's two-point shooting was scorching over the course of the four days: 68%, 54%. 68%, 68%. All the more impressive since there were periods in the second half of all four games where Michigan looked too exhausted to run their offense and settled for some heroball.
Minnesota in particular was diced into a fine mist by the Michigan offense. Discombobulated by the lack of Reggie Lynch on the interior—the nation's leading shotblocker had zero as he tried to check Wagner on the perimter—the Gophers fell prey to a half-dozen back cuts in the first ten minutes and fell behind so badly that Michigan's dead-legs period in the second half only got them back to a tie, and from there Walton took over.
That's Michigan's offense going to work when the three point shooting was iffy.
One note of praise for referees. The championship game was downright perfect. I was a little irritated from time to time when Michigan didn't get a particular call but since they were letting various minor bumps go on both ends I soon settled down into a mode where—get this—I was not surprised when fouls happened or what direction they went.
The golden age of offense. Big Ten players who played at least 40% of the time and had a usage rate of at least 16%, ranked by ORTG:
- Duncan Robinson, 126
- Derrick Walton, 125
- James Blackmon, IU, 123
- DJ Wilson, 123
- Juwan Morgan, IU, 122
- Vincent Edwards, PU, 119
- Mo Wagner, 118
- Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, 116
- Bronson Koenig, UW, 116
- Trevor Thompson, OSU, 115
Only Zak Irvin(103) has the requisite minutes to qualify and is not on this list. This the second-best offense Beilein's ever had at Michigan, slotting in a hair behind the Stauskas/Levert-led Elite 8 team.
A bit on the draw. More on Michigan's first and (potential) second round opponents later in the week. At first blush this is a rough one. Oklahoma State is the #1 offense in the country and a team that, like Michigan, had a mid-season turnaround that has seen them thump a lot of teams and lose narrowly when they do in fact lose. If I had to pick one stat I do not want to see an opponent bring to a matchup with Michigan it's a bucket of OREBs, and Okie State is 6th nationally in that department.
On the other hand, their defense is miserable, like Michigan-before-Maverick miserable, and the only thing they're actually good at in that department is forcing turnovers. This could be a game where Duncan Robinson is 7/11 from 3, that sort of thing.
It should be good for neutrals. Thrill quotient type calculations that prioritize high scoring, close games have Michigan-Okie State as the best game of the first round.
A hypothetical second round matchup against (almost certainly Louisville) is not ideal, but at least the pod also features Kentucky so the crowd in Indy is likely to be relatively split. This version of UL has the usual jumping jacks in the middle that give them a ton of OREBs and swat/alter a ton of shots. Their shooting is only middling; they hang their hat on D and on the glass.
Seeding complaints are real. Maybe not for Michigan, but you know you screwed up as a committee when you've done this:
10-seed Wichita St. opened as a 6.5-point favorite over 7-seed Dayton. On what planet is that fair to the Flyers as a reward for a good yr?
— Mike James (@ivybball) March 13, 2017
That line is the best available guess from people with many dollars riding on accurate projections and just about matches Kenpom's 7-point projected margin. That corresponds to a 75% shot at a Wichita win. Congrats, Dayton. Here's a 25% shot at a first round game as a 7 seed.
I don't think Wichita should have been given a two like a world that seeds exclusively by Kenpom would, but does anyone blink if the Shockers are a 6? No. The team testing out the theory that Wichita State is actually good despite a loss to 3-9 19-14 Michigan State would be one of the last at-larges in the field and thus just happy to be here.
Don't even get me started on the Big Ten. The committee talked a big game about finally modernizing their approach, and that was all balderdash.
Once again, everybody who thought the Selection Committee had gotten off their RPI addiction looks like a fool.
— Jeff (BPredict) (@BPredict) March 12, 2017
When the committee chair is Mark Hollis I don't know why anyone expected better except for blind optimism.
Well, poop. They've been found. Chad Ford didn't have anyone from Michigan on his draft radar this season, but that's changed. He's got a list of the top guys to watch in the NCAA tournament; Wilson and Wagner check in towards the tail end of the list:
25. D.J. Wilson
Wilson is an athletic forward who can both stretch the floor and protect the rim. He has a rare combination of explosiveness and skill. His inconsistency and soft play (despite his size he doesn't really like contact in the paint) concern NBA scouts.
He's on the first-round bubble, but a big NCAA tournament could change things for him. He was outstanding in the Big 10 tourney for Michigan with 26 points, eight boards and three blocks against Purdue and 17 points, six boards, three assists and two steals against Wisconsin to lead Michigan to the title.
26. Moritz Wagner
Wagner might be the biggest sleeper on this list. The native of Germany brings many of the things that Lauri Markkanen brings to the table and is just six months older, such as size, agility, a terrific 3-point stroke and a high basketball IQ.
Like Markkannen, he isn't a great rebounder or shot blocker, but you don't find many players with his size and skill set in the draft.
He's still got both in the 30-50 range—ie, the second round—and FWIW, I've heard that both are planning to return next year. I wouldn't count on year four from either.
I don't know enough about the rest of college basketball to say whether that's true. But I was struck by the end of the tournament by the fact that there was nothing flukey or streaky about Michigan's win. This was not a group of plucky upstarts who skated by on good luck to an improbable victory. I think Michigan would win the tournament again if you replayed it. This team is just plain good. And they carry themselves like they know they're good.
the committee probably didn't shell out the money for a kenpom subscription.
it was obvious that Duncan Robinson, even when not shooting was going to be a great player with huge stops and timely rebounds.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:49 PM ^
I remember him bodying up against Happ and keeping him from getting to the basket. It was just a second or 2 as Happ turned into him and then passed right back out, but still, great to see.
calligraphed.
on the refs, Ace.
Looking back at the Wisc game now, I don't recall the teeth gritting, seething anger and general hopeless feeling like in the previous 2 games where it seemed like we couldn't look askance at the oppostion while they were allowed to hurl us into the 3rd row with no repercussion.
but the travel on DJ was awful. Watched that on slo-mo and he absolutely did not shuffle his pivot foot. Whenever Beilien gets angry, you almost know it was a bad call.
I thought the block-charges were almost all wrong in both directions. The charge that Schowalter took from Rahkman in the first half, he was sliding his feet. The charge Trice took on Irvin on the break was clearly a block on the overhead view as Trice moved into him and all the announcers knew it and commented on it. And the block on Irvin's and1 was the closest to a charge of all three. Charge/block, who knows. Seems like they could do better by flipping a coin.
Regardless, I did like that they let minor bumps go both ways, and the bad evened out for the most part. Definitely not a game in which the refs impacted it one way or the other.
I freak out pretty bad when I sense the fouls starting to seem to favor the other team and I really effing lose it if Beilein is getting pissed because then you KNOW things are getting ridiculous.
Excellent to eat some crow on Zak. This team can do some damage in the tourney.
Get the first one.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:51 PM ^
I'm actually kinda more worried about OK St. than Louisville. May be a crazy down to the wire shootout. I believe it was UM Hoops that tweeted that Louisville's top 3 scorers all have amazingly low FG%.
March 14th, 2017 at 12:12 AM ^
their top three scorers actually shoot a lot of threes. So FG%, as always, is a bad stat to use because if I shoot 50 percent but all my shots are twos, that's just mediocre efficiency, whereas if I shoot 40 percent and all my shots are threes, I'm scoring 0.2 more points per shot which is HUGE. eFG percent is the stat to care about.
Even there, they're just an ok shooting team, as usual. They're a killer offensive rebounding team though and they don't turn it over. That's their strength on offense.
But also as usual, they're driven by their defense. They block a ton of shots, force a lot of turnovers, and defend the perimeter well. They'll be a very tough matchup. But so will Ok St. We were not done any favors by the committee in our pod. Get past the first weekend, though, and watch out.
"I feel like I've just watched a month long Rocky training montage that has turned this Poindexter of a team into....well, still that but a murder hobo version of it."
This line got me giggling. Win or lose, this team has been a joy to watch develop and grow over the past two months. I find myself wanting them to win for obvious reasons, but also because I'm selfish and don't want this fun ride to end. Keep it going, boys. GO BLUE!!
This is my top favorite thing about college hoops. Each team forges a new identity every year. It's a brand-new chemistry experiment each and every season. Lots of fiddling until the pieces mesh together the way they should - or never do. Sometimes it takes a while, which is just as much fun. Bill Simmons used to nail the topic perfectly regarding the NBA, which works similarly. I'd love to be able to just consume college basketball all year long and watch the various teams figure themselves out along the way.
Wagner's face in the team photo is priceless. Made me laugh out loud. Even Andrew's facial expression is hilarious too.
I wouldn't be so hard on yourself, ya festering twit. It was hard for Irvin to erase all that losing heroball from his legacy. Yes, he did it, but look at the accomplishments that happened along the way. That's what makes it so great that he did it.
That Bart Torvik link is fascinating. 3 of the 4 teams in our pod are in the top 16 in adjusted efficiency since Jan. 12. Screw the committee, man. What a joke. All else being equal, you'd expect 1 top 16 team per pod. Meanwhile, MSU at 38 gets a game against Miami at 34.
Crazy Bart Torvik stat of the day: Michigan's ADJOE AND ADJDE are better than Duke's over that time period, and Duke was a threat to be a 1 seed. Yet we got stuck with a 7?!?
Regarding the refs, there were a couple BTT games where our opponents had 2 fouls called against them well into the first half. I'm talking like 16-17 minutes into the game. That got me a little peeved. But it seems like our guys earned respect from the refs and things were more balanced during the 2nd halves of those games. We were no 8 seed and shouldn't be treated like one.
It basically seems like a free version of kenpom. But apprently the methodology is not stolen from kenpom, because the numbers are not quite the same. Despite this, they are all in the same ballpark and have pretty good agreement with kenpom.
I couldn't find anything on the site describing the system, does anyone know anything about it?
free useful information? committee can't be bothered by the logic.
in a 4 team pod out of 68, there is the #5 team, #8 team and #13 team in the second half of the season. Sigh.
That's what struck me about the link too. Michigan has done very well for itself ove the later portion of the season, but too bad our potential opponents in the tournament have done well too. If the higher ranked team on this list wins every game prior to facing Michigan we would have to go through the #13, #5, #8, #12, # 3, and #1 teams to win the tournament. The only positive there is that Kansas is the lowest ranked #1 seed on the list.
I'd bet more on a Final Four run for the current team than 2018. Walton is THAT good right now. Getting similar play out of Simpson next year cannot be relied on at this point. And in a tournament format, PG is King.
Simpson has defintely shown flashes recently of what is to come - he had a few nice drives to the bucket that ended in points or kickouts for someone else to shoot during the BTT. Obviously a small sample size - but there's definitely potential there.
For sure. But Walton showed more potential as a freshman and it took him this long. Maybe it has to do more with injuries, and 2 players aren't going to grow at the same rate. Yadda yadda yadda.
This is not a slight against Simpson at all though. Walton's name is being whispered with the likes of Burke for a reason though. That's something I would need to see out of Simpson though. You can't expect or even hope for that kind of play from XS next year.
Looking for a Walton Jr. plug and play replacement is not going to happen. That is not the type of player Simpson is. Simpson could be very good, but with different skill sets. The real question becomes where is the scoring going to come from other than Wilson & Wagner. I don't expect MAAR to take a drastic step forward offensively, so either Matthews or Watson will need to step in and fill some of the perimeter scoring void left by Walton Jr.
I think the most underrated issue with losing Walton is the end of game foul shooting. For four years we've basically had that locked as long as we could get him the ball.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:28 PM ^
March 13th, 2017 at 11:02 PM ^
March 14th, 2017 at 11:28 AM ^
I think this is an area where Simpson will be able to fill in really well. From what I have seen towards the end of the season, he is really starting to understand how the offense is suppose work and how his skill sets fit in.
March 13th, 2017 at 10:47 PM ^
is looming very large as a huge loss. And the way Zack is playing now, it'd be very difficult for Matthews to be more than a marginal upgrade, if at all. Would take further improvement from Wilson and Wagner and a big leap for X just to make up for the loss of Walton Jr.
I wouldn't be surprised if the luck evens out and we have a better regular season in terms of wins and get a better seed, but I'd be shocked if next year we're playing at a higher level than we are right now.
In other words, this is as good a year as any. I think we're a better team that the 2014 team which was slightly better offensively but not nearly as good defensively as we're playing right now.
I'm cautiously optimistic but Wilson could be rediculously good next year. He can shoot the three, has shown he can put the ball on the floor and take it to the basket (would like to see him finish stronger though), and has good vision and passing skills. I don't think he's shown it much lately but early in the year he actually had some decent moves when posting up on the block (although the shots seemed to miss a bit more than they went in).
Also, Wagner can take over on offense if necessary. So the defense can't overplay Wilson.
Tommy Likie...
I've been waiting all day for this post and it doesn't, as usual, disappoint. Nice job Ace! "murder hobo" really made laugh. Can't wait for the podcast!!!
He's not really part of Brian's article and is only briefly mentioned in the Ford blurb, but it seems like as good an opportunity as any to sing the gospel of Lauri Markkanen. What a freak. Do you remember how you would always create one player in NCAA or Madden who was 6'10", 500 pounds, and a lightning quick wide receiver? Markkanen is not quite so overweight but otherwise he feels like that video game absurdity brought to life. He's a Fred Jackson quote except it accurately applies. Dirk Nowitzki with Stephen Curry's range. His game against UCLA in the Pac-12 tournament was positively disgusting.
against Oregon in the title game, and he looked very...Euro. Timid and weak with the ball. Was pretty quiet in that game and turned over a couple times at the end to let Oregon hang around. He's even skinnier than Wagner was last year. I think that'd be an interesting matchup. Similar players. He's probably a little more skilled but Wagner is a little stronger.
UCLA is a very bad defensive team, as we saw. They let you shoot, so if you can make shots, you're gonna have a good time. Seeing him play under more pressure exposed him a little bit.
That Oregon game may have been an anomoly though. Looks like his rebounding numbers are better than Wagner's and he has a remarkably tiny TO rate for a big guy.
I was banging the randomness drum during the downturn when everyone was bailing on this team, so I think it's appropriate that I bang it a bit now too:
- We were *not* handed a pile of evidence commensurate with everyone abandoning the bandwagon in the droves that they were. Things were bad, and they felt worse, but a lot of that was random noise. It was (and not just opponent's 3P%). Not enough that we should have predicted this kind of turn around; it wasn't *all* noise. There has absolutely been palpable improvement. But the way people were reacting around here was *completely* out of step with reality.
- No one wants to hear this, but: we probably aren't a top ten team either. Guess what? There was noise during the short stretch where we were playing bad and losing and there's noise during this stretch where we are playing well and winning. And right now we all have awesome feels (and awesome they are! I have them too!) and this causes us to emphaize strengths, ignore weaknesses, and attribute lucky bounces to skill, just as we we emphasizing weaknesses, ignoring strengths, and attributing unlucky bounces to lack of skill during the downturn.
The fact is: you're never as good as you look when you're winning, and you're never as bad as you look when you're losing. You never form expectations on short stretches, no matter what your lizard brain tells you. The team that curb-stomped SMU and Marquette was still in there even when things looked bad back in January. And the team that lost to Ohio State and Illinois is still in there somewhere too, unfortunately.
Anyway, here's hoping I'm 100% full of shit, that we really are a top ten team now, that everything that has happened is because we are super awesome, and that we will storm the NCAA tourney all the way to a National Championship.
It's a great time to be a Michigan Wolverine! Go Blue!
I felt that opponent 3pt percent would come back down to earth and kept believing in our talent and experience - of which we have an abundance of both. When DJ emerged as a potential draft pick, and Wagner showed the improvement we hoped for in NYC, it was clear this team had no limits when they played hard and smart. I knew that team was still in there somewhere.
Credit to the coaches and seniors for getting that team back and for transforming Duncan Robinson into a neutral, if not positive, defender. That makes our small ball lineup so dangerous. It has become our best defensive lineup and is obviously deadly on offense. Huge luxury to not have to play Donnal so much.
I always felt that the 3pt% "luck" was not an aberration during the bad stretch, but instead a real statistical result of our horrible defense.
To me, it felt like teams were shooting a low overall % of shots as threes because we were allowing an obscene amount of layups. I know the kenpom argument that the best sign of good 3pt defense is not allowing attempts, but clearly, if a team can get layups then they will shoot more of those. An interesting way to prove/disprove this theory would be to check if our 2pt defense has improved at all during this defensive improvement (I know it's never been great, but I have a feeling it has improved during this stretch), but I can't find an easy way to filter that stat over the same stretch on that site.
Lastly, I would say that while you are correct about the tendency of pundits and fans to think that the last thing that happened will continue happening forever, this sample size is non-trivial and the fact remains that we have played a top-ten level over a stretch of 18 games.
In re: 3pt% luck: I mean, it's both, right? We clearly have improved defensively; you'd have to be blind not to notice. And this shows up in the objective metrics, which have gone up as we've starting looking better too. Feelingsball and real results aren't completely uncorrelated, there's just a ton of noise over short stretches, and humans do a really bad job separating the signal from the noise.
The other important thing to remember though is that teams and players exhibit natural variance in their level of play. Just a few weeks ago, we all thought (myself included) that Derrick Walton was a spot-up shooter who was going to finish his career as a non-factor inside the arc. And then all of the sudden, he's drawing totally serious comparisons to Trey Burke.
And I hope that improvement is 100% real! I do! I hope the switch has flipped for Derrick. I hope that this is the real him. It's such a great story. It feels awesome. I'm so happy for him, a Detroit kid finally having his moment at U of M as his career is winding down. I want to believe. But we have to remember: this type of development is so exceedingly rare that we can't suddenly act as if new, awesome, please-please-please-let-me-get-what-i-want Derrick is going to be exactly this good forever. As much as it hurts, when forming a rational expectation, we have to factor some healthy measure of the old Derrick in. It just hasn't been long enough yet. Sample sizes are a bitch (and are yet another thing that humans routinely underestimate).
OK. Enough realism. I'm going to back to drinking the tasty Derrick-is-Trey-we-are-hot-as-hell-totally-unstoppable-run-through-the-tournament Kool-Aid. This is why we sports; I'm not about to not drink once it gets sweet! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
March 13th, 2017 at 10:48 PM ^
wasn't always great and the thing is, Derrick doesn't have to be either. He didn't play well at all against Purdue, and we still won. Purdue! Our leader and best player had a bad game against the best team in the conference and we still won. Why? Because we have so many offensive weapons, it's likely at least two will have a good to great game - here it was DJ and then Zak late. And our defense can now win games for us too. This is a complete team. A maybe, possibly great team.
March 14th, 2017 at 10:32 AM ^
For sure. My point is that Trey had established a much higher baseline of performance over a longer time period. While we should be adjusting Derrick's baseline expectation upwards (a good Bayesian always incorporates new data!), we have to weigh that appropriately with our old data.
was a great scientist, but also was a tremendous jerk to Isaac Newton and it is really interesting to read the drama between the two when Newton published about light.
At first I read this as "Hoke was a great scientist." To which: bahahahhaha.
I know this is mean-spirited and he is a nice man who only did his best and loved michigan, etc., but must link Brady Hoke Philosopher King.
Best FOUR days since the real Depression!
And now, the sky is the limit!
Great observations from Brian on how the team performed and how the 2-point shooting kept things moving when the distance dried up.
What's remarkable about this run to me (ok, a lot of stuff is remarkable, this is one of the things that stands out) is that Michigan didn't ride one particular strength through the entire B1G tourney. It wasn't one player getting hot, or the 3-point shooting falling in every game, or even the star PG carrying the team all the time.
Stuff went wrong constantly. The offense kept dying out. Walton and Wagner both had tough games against the #1 conference seed, Purdue, and still they won. Minnesota roared back and tied the game with fresher legs, and still they won. Wisconsin brought health and size and defense, and still they won.
This isn't a case where the team might win a tourney game or two if the shooting is hot or if Walton is otherworldly. This is a team that can win tournament games when the shooting is cold or if Walton has a rough night. This is a really good team.
Somehow, the plane accident is underplayed in this column. What a story this tournament was.
Tbh, I think the plane accident has been overplayed as part of this teams success by the media. So I am glad that Brian overlooked that bit as he explained where this team was actually built.
As far as the plane accident effecting the games, maybe the team would have been mentally unprepared to play Thursday. Instead they blew the doors off Illinois. Or maybe physically (aches/pains/Walton's leg) but that was proven wrong by the players winning 4 games and 4 days and Walton not looking worse for wear. If anything the plane accident would have hindered this team. It didn't.
Outside of that, the team that played in the tournament was the same team it has been for a month. Killers. And I'm glad the hard work and determination it took to right the ship back in January was paid in full with a Championship, because those guys deserve it. I'm just glad they got back on a plane under 24 hours after an accident to do it!
It wasn't a cause. I might have hardened their resolve a bit, but Michigan won the B1G tournament because as this past week has shown they are currently the best team in the Big Ten.
So I don't put much stock in any stories that say something like "New Outlook On Life Gives Michigan the Perspective to Win Games." They're winning games because they're the better team.
Nonetheless, that was no small thing that happened to the team, and they had serious discussions of not evening playing in the tournament at all. Then they did indeed step onto the floor straight from the bus, in practice uniforms. That's pretty epic.
This, to me, is something worth remarking on and remembering. Michigan has had more talented teams, but from the Maverick Morgan comment to this has been an amazing string of stories and basketball.
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