Michigan A Two In The Midwest
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Michigan lost the Big Ten title game but did get to Indianapolis as a two-seed in the Midwest region. Their first round opponent is Wofford. The local bracket:
2. Michigan
15. Wofford
7. Texas
10. Arizona State
Should Michigan reach the Sweet 16, Duke is the 3 with UMass the 6, facing down the worst possible Kenpom 11 in the Iowa/Tennessee winner. Potential elite eight matchups include Wichita State, Louisville, and Kentucky.
So… positive early, ramping up late.
Wichita, Duke, Louisville and throw in dangerous teams like Kentucky and St Louis to boot. Like Sparty's draw a lot better.
Wichita will not be able to handle the pressure of a #1 seed.
We got a very tough draw, but Sparty didn't get off easy either. They are going to have very difficult back-to-back games against Cincy and UVA. Those games are going to be smashmouth, grind-out, affairs where the team that can drop a few shots late is going to win 50-46. Not saying that MSU can't play that way, they certainly can, but they will not have an easy path to the Final Four by any means.
Louisville is a good team, but let's remember that they didn't go 29-5 in the old BEast, they did it in the AAC- essentially a mid major conference. Are they a tough 4 seed? yeah, but so is MSU. And so is UCLA out of the toughest Pac12 in years.
hell, if arizona can complain about OkSt in the 2nd round, this is a deep tournament.
A great regular season after the loss of McGary for the year and a great seeding in the tournament. Sure, the 1 seed would've been incredible but it seems fitting after the loss to MSU. It's all about the tourney.
Lunardi.
I too want to be bitter, but I just can't. In all fairness, this probably was not a charge either:
but if you think that one play determined the game or had anything to do with Louisville, you're just making pathetic excuses.
Louisville fans can always play the video clip of Chane Behanon getting fouled 4 times on one play with absolutely no whistles, where McGary literally was sprawled over him, THJ and Burke both hit him in the face and arms reaching in, and he still got 3 rebounds and still scored.
March 17th, 2014 at 10:19 AM ^
Plus, the Burke "foul" happened with 5 minutes left, not five seconds left.
We got beat by a team slightly better than we were. In the NC game. No regrets.
Go watch that game again, see the 10-20 other times the refs botch a call in favor of louisville, this was the worst officiated game of all time in order to give broken leg guy a ncaa championship because its a better story.
The combined Kenpom ranking of the top four seeds in the Midwest is 28 (2, 5, 7, 14).
The other four regions:
- 41 (1, 8, 11, 21)
- 43 (3, 9, 15, 16)
- 43 (4, 6, 10, 23)
No worries. We got this.
March 16th, 2014 at 10:10 PM ^
is blowing teams out left and right in their schedule like a top team should.
Noteworthy: Every single talking head on ESPN - five of five - just picked Michigan State to not only make the Final Four, but to win the National Championship. Five out of five.
That bandwagon is really rolling.
I've never seen a team get so much hype for winning three games in a row. Virginia is considerably better than MSU and should end their season.
+ all the 1's.
Sometimes, the committee really sucks at creating even regions.
Looking at Texas v ASU, ASU is guard oriented (top 2 scorers guards- one near 20 ppg) with a big lumpy center, while Texas is balanced with 4 guys between 10-13 pts, and two of them imposing physically 6-8, 240 F and a 6-9 280 lb C.
With our donut hole defense and lack of depth after Morgan, ASU seems like the far better matchup.
Not going to worry about the next round after that at this time, since UM needs to win and who knows which of those teams comes out the other side.
I'm just glad Wofford isn't one of those senior laden teams that sometimes give the higher seeds the fits: http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2014/03/get_to_know.html
March 16th, 2014 at 11:10 PM ^
March 16th, 2014 at 10:01 PM ^
Michigan and UVA on different days, in the evening, on totally opposite sides of the bracket, and in championship-level seeds.
I would've liked to beat Sparty today and maybe have U-M not in quite such a bracket of death, but Wichita State is preferable to Arizona or Florida at any rate. Life is so utterly perfect right now. The only thing that would make it better is a glass of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey in my hand.
Oh wait. I have that too. I'm good.
March 16th, 2014 at 10:20 PM ^
March 16th, 2014 at 10:46 PM ^
March 16th, 2014 at 11:37 PM ^
Wofford, then Texas, then get revenge on Duke,
revenge on Louiville,
revenge tonight;
finally finish off Kansas or avenge AZ's escape earlier this year (SDSU would be gut-wrenchingly bittersweet),
and viola,
Championship.
A gauntlet, to be sure, but man! would that Victory taste sweet.
my little fantasy...
I think we can do it.
All.
Wichita State will be in a game versus Kentucky but if they win that who in their right mind is picking Louisville over WSU?
These are the same two teams that met last year in the final four that WSU was winning until a late rally by Louisville... except Louisville lost their star players and WSU returns EVERYONE. And they're pissed off no one is respecting them. And they want revenge for last year's final four.
Think twice before following the talking heads that are saying MSU/Louisville final is all but ceremonial at this point.
March 17th, 2014 at 10:14 AM ^
March 17th, 2014 at 10:28 AM ^
We never go six games in a row without at least two really hot games and two reallly cold games.
I wish we could pre-schedule our hot and cold games so that we use up the cold ones in the winnable first round games, and save the hot ones for Duke and Louisville. I'll take my chances after that. Here's to a hot Sweet Sixteen weekend.
March 17th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^
Focus on Wofford first. Last thing we want is a turrible 1st round upset.
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