#1 in basketball does not matter

It's exciting to see your team number one whether it's basketball, lacrosse, beer pong or football. But hey, haters gonna hate.

If you are not trying to be the best team in the country, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PLAYING FOR? Yeah it doesn't matter AS MUCH in the middle of the season, but I want to be the best, always. Period.

Don't tell me it doesn't matter.

You wanna know what matters?

OP, I appreciate your condescension and congratulations on going to graduate school at Duke. I hear it's a decent school. 

Clearly, however, this experiencel has not afforded you the capacity for analysis. Is it not important for Dave Brandon's all important "brand" to lead the nation? Does this not impact recruiting and long term success?

Jeebus, stop drunk and/or arrogant posting brah...and leave Coach K alone.

what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul....

for me, there isn't an in-between. Either we win tomorrow, and probably automatically become the number 1 team, or we lose, drop a few spots, and have a hard time climbing back up, while Ohio will climb some. So, really, there's no reason winning wouldn't be good.

Wow. You really suck at life.

In 1989 the state of Michigan became the center of the basketball universe. Michigan won the national title in March and the Pistons won the NBA title in June. A couple years later a phenomenon came to Ann Arbor that affected a generation both in terms of their attachment to baskebtall and culturally. White suburban kids who loved Michigan were being shaped by a group of college students from the city (Chicago and Detroit mostly). We didn't know or think anything of it, we loved basketball the way they did. Those kids saw that group become the number 1 team in the country. 

Ten years later, when that generation who watched the Fab 5 was college age those freshmen became indicted in a scandal that was called one of the worst in history. For a couple year we couldn't even go to the tournament. It hurt when those banners came down. To make matters worse, we became so paranoid about cheating that instead of being Michigan we tried ot become Duke.  But, every year, in the back of our heads, we thought; we remembered, that it only took one class to get Michigan Basketball where it belonged. Every year we waited, knowing it could happen, that it should happen. 

Beilien, first with Manny and then with Novak, showed us that we could be respectable. We could compete agaist the best, but it didn't feel like it should. We were still the underdog upsetting someone better, a team being dragged down by its past rather than one that reveled in it.  This team is something that people born in the mid-80s have been waiting for. Being number 1 in the country means something. Beating our major rival on the road to do it is even more meaningful.

It's been too long.

Beat Ohio.

#1

#1



It matters.

"If you're not first, you're last!"



Go Blue!

Tell Tim Hardaway that #1 doesn't matter:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=190933057716552&id=100...

The Game tomorrow is now the biggest game of my life, Number 1 means everything to me and im gonna give it everything i got tomorrow, lets get this win blue

Your OP sounded more braggy than anything else, which hurts your credibility. I didn't read all of these comments, so sorry if this has been said:

Horse Shit. Take your dookie ass and go, it matters to me. Especially the Big Ten titles. We get banners for those, and they look nice.

This Opost was hilarious.

That's all.*

*He actually is kinda right - the #1 seed in January means little.

Son, don't do this to yourself. It's not going to end well.

Kyle Singler's career.

making a final 4 and winning the national championship matter when you have a child with leukemia? Fuck no. It's all relative my friend, and being #1 matters for a lot of people, and some people don't give a shit. It's a positive thing for the university and many people gain happiness from this, so yeah, it does matter.

You're right. I'm not watching basketball again until March.

CI have to agree with everything he says actually...because as a Michigan fan, i have a great deal of respect for Duke...in summation:
1 - 1 seeds have no higher chance of winning than other seeds. Hell, I like the number 7, so hopefully that's our seed.
2 - The middle of the season is as irrelevant as the start! I don't even watch!
3 - No team has ever gone undefeated and it's actually impossible to, and we will lose on the road so it's best to not even care.
4 - B1G championship? Psh! Irrelevant, they dont even give banners for those, and in this part of the country noone even cares about conference play/record.
5 - Conference tournaments are irrelevant! We already played those teams anyways, and the team doesn't even get a trophy or the experience of cutting down the net.
6 - Heck we could be the worst in the country at this point! As long as we eek in the tourney, all that matters is March.

To summarize that summation, I thought Laettner was an overrated p*ssy.

Earning the #1 spot is huge not in the grand scheme of the season, but in what it means to this Michigan fan. It is a big middle finger to those that thought that Michigan basketball could not rise above the ashes. It's a Nelson Muntz-esque "Ha-Ha!" to the folks in E.L. that not only suffer from severe short term memory in regards to Michigan's success as a basketball program, but also reaped the benefits from it's downfall, and is  now ironically enough, being force fed it's share fare of humble pie.

Also, how poetic would it be to go down into the heart of Michigan's biggest rival, where they haven't won in a decade and win to ascend the the #1 spot? That would be friggin awesome.

Really what i mean c mon man

Of course being #1 matters. I want us to be #1 so it matters greatly.

Yawn.

when you are number 1, you get to go around, holding up your index finger, and say "we're number one" at the top of your lungs, and it is TRUE.

also, wtf with the "edit" ?

Attending Duke tarnishes your soul.

So if not having a number one seed doesn't matter (point #1) would you rather be #6 come tourny time and have a harder path to the final four? I'm sure Mizzou and Duke would have loved a number one seed and not have to play Norfolk State and Lehigh last year.... 

Thanks for putting that in. The rest? not so much.



Go Blue! Lets beat those guys today!

M grad and Duke grad* here too.  For a program like Duke being number 1 in the middle of the season means nothing.  For a program like Michigan, it means a ton.  Just like it meant a ton for ND to be #1 in football for a few weeks.  Yes, a national title would have meant more, but being #1 meant something to them.  Your points make sense for a team like Duke that has had the kind of success they have had over the last two decades, but it doesn't apply to Michigan.  All of our expectations have been raised and we all want a National Title this year...but lets not get carried away.  A #1 ranking in January is hella meaningful to this program.  Lets go get it!

The 4 biggest games Michigan will (could) play this year are as follows: Tourney game to get into the final four, the final four, the title game, and today at OSU.  Only one of those games is promised.

* I HATE Duke hoops

Being #1 is relevant, especailly to all those people who bought those giant #1 foam fingers.  They can finally pull them out from the back of the closet and wear them again.

Wait a minute.  I just noticed your handle.  Are you a Duke fan?  That would explain your post that much more.

To each their own...and I truly mean that.  I don't want to judge you, but I will never understand how someone can go to undergrad at a school with a legit athletic department, and then go to grad school somewhere else and become a true fan of that athletic department.  I mean, I get it if you went to a small liberal arts school and then landed at Duke...knock yourself out and become a Duke fan.  But I went to grad school at Duke with UVA and Texas grads that became Duke hoops fans.  I just don't get it.

If your point is that being #1 mid season is an imperfect predictor for the absolute final result of the season, then... yup. This is no grand revelation.

If your point is that we, as M fans, should only care about the absolute final result of the season and discount all else, then "Cool story, bro."

They play the games for a reason. You don't wait until the final minute of a game to tune in, and you don't wait until the National Championship game to start paying attention, correct? I'll assume so. So, why tune in? Why care? Answer: it's more fun when it matters. Have fun.

Most bagel places give you 13 instead of 12. Maybe Coach K was hip to this common practice? Also, let's try: "sesame," "cinnamon," and "apparently."

Like to see the #1 next to the Block M, so it matters to me. If you're telling me that being #1 in January doesn't automatically equal a national title, thank you for imparting that pearl. My follow up question relates to the stock market. I own shares of a company that is up 27% YTD. I always assumed that guaranteed me at least a 27% return at the end of the year. Can you help me out with any holes in this logic ? Thanks in advance...I'll hang up and listen.

So, a Michigan grad and 4 years at Duke. I am guessing, then, that you are getting your PhD from Duke. Know that you are going to have a lot of difficulties in your career if you display this level of pomposity and lack of self-awareness to your peers in that arena. 

From a marketing prospective, being #1 in the polls means a lot. More exposure on TV and the internets (not that Michigan has been lacking exposure this season). Dave Brandon is excited.

For the record, I think sesame bagels are fu**ing exciting bagels. 

...but didn't U-M used to have a banner hanging in Crisler for being No. 1 in the final AP and/or UPI poll? I believe it may have been from the 1965 season.

"A michigan #1 midseason rankings really does not matter. Seriously. This is not college football where only the 1 gets to play the 2."

At least for the AP Poll, the last time we were #1 at any point in this poll, if I am reading their data right, was the 1992-1993 season. So, for those who have almost literally been waiting about 20 years to see #1 next to "Michigan" in a major poll (could not find organized Coaches' data admittedly), this is a considerable psychological boost and a significant benchmark in the program's progress. I don't think you can say that it doesn't matter, at least not to the fanbase, especially after spending some of the intervening years, as we did, not even sniffing these rankings.

If you're talking from the perspective of there being plenty of basketball left, combined probabilities of independent events (i.e., wins) and the like, then ranking doesn't matter quite so much, but even then, our projected chances of being a #1 seed as of right now would not be insigificant (about 15%, in some projections, which is nice to think about with a considerable chunk of the conference schedule left) right now based on a few models. 

Number one only matters in March. See ya there