#1 in basketball does not matter

Thx info.

Agreed, but dang would it be awesome to see a #1 next to the Block M.

#1 in a random poll of people that likely don't watch 10% of games doesn't matter. That's blasphemous!!

Agree with points #2-6, but not the first.  Getting a #1 seed significantly increases your chances of making the Final Four - it means that every team in your regional, on paper at least, is weaker than you are.  If you're seeded any lower, there's a good chance you'll have to go through one of the four best teams in the country to make the Final Four.

And some of it is rather convincing, but when you are a program that has been what we have been since the scandal and are finally digging your way back to being on an elite level exposure matters. Being number 1 puts you on the radar of everyone who watches basketball. 

Look at NDs football success in recruiting just from going undefeated and showing up in the BCS Championship game. Sure they recruit well but this is another step up and that exposure counts. 
 

after "current duke student"

blech!

Way to ruin the parade

For the Basketball blue bloods, Duke, UNC, Kentucky, UCLA is does not matter.

But for a team like Michigan, it does because it increases the profile and generates tv interest on ESPN etc.  It allows us to say to recruits to come here and you can be the best in country.  Something we haven't been able to close to be saying for 15 years, which is longer then most of the new recruits can remember.

Agree with the rest of your points.  I'm thinking 4 regular season losses.  @ IU, @ minny, @ MSU and some crap loss no one sees coming, that causes a melt down on the board due to refs, horrible shooting, or  red hot opponent shooting.  I may be thinking at Wisco where the refs think they are playing at Camp Randall.

nobody is saying basketball = football. Are you saying the only thing that matters in college bball is winning the national championship?

Being the #1 ranked team in the country looks good for the program, and puts us on the radar of budding superstars who will soon be entering the recruiting scene.

In any case, being number #1 means beating Ohio. And I fucking hate Ohio.

Just ask Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen

I disagree, #1 does matter.

Does anyone know the last time Michigan won a basketball game in Columbus?

but standing back a bit and looking at where our program has been for the past 20 years, it's a real milestone. We're truly nationally relevant in a way that we haven't been since the mid-'90s.

My penis has a face and it likes to bark at Germans

1. 5 of the last 6, 6 of 8, 10 of 14, 17 of 23 of the last national champs have been one seeds. It matters. Even if Duke finds a way to stub their toe with the easiest region every year.

2. A football midseason #1 doesn't matter either. It only matters at the end. But it's fun.

3. Uh, duh?

4 and 5. Mostly true. Final Four > Conference Championship. But a lot of people in ACC country think the conference tournament matters more than the regular season championship. They are stupid.

6. You don't have to be the best team, ever. You just have to be hot for 3 consecutive 2 game tournaments. It's rare that it goes like last year and the true best team wins.

Postscript- not sure how none of this really matters and you can take one game at a time. Either the next game doesn't matter that much, or it's all that matters; not both.

It certainly matters to me. Michigan has not been ranked #1 in basketball yet during my lifetime.

Neg you, bro...not at all....but its effing Ohio.

Beat Ohio.

I want to be #1 damnit!

Try to come off a little more condescending next time, and the maybe people will be more receptive.

And the somehow incomprehensible leap that it "makes your point." Rather than just meaning "the is a shitty, obvious, yet condescending post, even though it has errors."

For winning the national title this year it does not matter. Obviously.

But in terms of program prestige it does matter. Duke will be Duke whether they're ranked #1 or #2 or #13. Michigan after Fab Five years is trying to re-build that prestige. Being #1 helps. It helps with peoples' perception of the program, including those of recruits.

It's basically just cool to see #1 next to the block M.

But considering that I've yet to see anybody on mgoblog thinks that #1 in basketball matters as much as it does in football, you're basically trolling with false outrage and this is quite a dumb thread.

basketball snowflake threads.

Your post should not have been hit so bad, in my opinion.  The one point that was made in decension that you cannot overlook is that this is OHIO week.  We don't want to hear anything resembling concession before the game.  Go Blue!

Holy shit a completely Nihlistic post.   And if none of it matters why the Hell are you posting your epinions on a sports blog?  Cause I'm pretty sure that matters even less.

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.

1. School record

2. First place in Big Ten

3. Number one ranking

MOST IMPORTANT. Beating those worthless fuck nuts and shutting up an entire state of morons

"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.

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.

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" ?

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.

It matters as a fan to be able to say, Michigan and #1 in the same sentence. Why? When is the last time you could say that phrase in basketball of football? Its been far too long. Living in Ohio I'm tired of the in-state in-breds being able to use the program I happen to love as fodder to made fun of. These fair weather fans in Ohio don't even care about their basketball team right now, but if they beat Michigan they sure will.

It's a great thing as a fan to be able to hold our head high and say our team is #1. As for the team itself it's important right now, as long as they are on their unbeaten streak it continues to build confidence and makes them believe that they truly are unbeatable.

Lastly as someone else pointed out, being a #1 seed greatly inhances their likliehood of winning the National Championship. That's good enough for me to want to be #1. Getting tired of seeing these threads/posts wherein said Michigan fan is trying to ease the pain of losing today. I believe we won't lose!!!

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

No shit that being number #1 doesn't win the NCAA tourney. But also no shit that it's better being #1 than #2, and it is a milestone that would show how far the program has come. It also means we beat Ohio today, so "yes please."

ITT: a fairweather fan 'rediscovers' his alma mater's team and proves his loyalty by trashing their accomplishments. His experience with a superior basketball school has given him perspective beyond our ken. 

Why not stick to your new team's board? I'm sure they'll love your user name.

I'm not going to quibble with the original post, as that's already been done quite effectively.  Bottom line is that, to a program like Michigan's, #1 does matter.

What I'm more upset about is your condescension toward what are, actually, non-boring bagels.  A dozen plain or egg bagels would be a much more boring bagel order.

sets up for big dramatic fun. WhyouwannaB a killjoy?

not to neg, but being #1 does matter. it matters to fans who want to be able to say it, but maybe more importantly, it matters to recruits that want to come to a top program.

Winning your conference does matter. I don't get you younger crowd. I want to beat the rest of the Big Ten every time in every sport. To hell with the rest of the country until championship time rolls around. 

-Ernie

You won't find anyone on this board who would feel that a #1 ranking in basketball is as important as a #1 ranking in football.  We all have made that conclusion ourselves independent of your condescending post.

However, what you may not realize are benefits of being ranked #1.  Duke is a basketball school, but, why?  Because they consistently find themselves at the top of polls!  Of course, that isn't the only reason, but if Michigan wants to build a program that will complete on a national level for years to come it starts with sitting consistenly atop the polls.  That's how achievement is rewarded.  The exposure, public opinion, and opinion of undecided recruits are impacted by that #1 ranking.

In short, being ranked #1 in basketball does absolutely nothing bad for Michigan.  Only good.

This has to be one of the stupidest threads ever. I should know, I started one of the other stupidest threads sometime back in the past year. Hence why I stick to comments and making wallpapers for the board. Maybe you should stick to what you're good at, which is making only-slightly opaque Duke butt-hurt comments on the relevance of what your real team just lost by losing to a team Michigan beat. Go Blue.

You are wrong. In its current state, for a program like Duke, you are correct. They have the national spotlight whether they are #1 or #15(Michigan fans can understand, because this is how our football team is). They will still get great recruits and will still have a lot of the spotlight which is due to their great history in bball and, and even more importantly, the fact that they have been very good in recent history.

However, for a program that has been struggling for about 10-15 years, the #1 seed and rank does matter. In a way it shows a progession and is a kind of symbolism of a triumph of getting out of that 10-15 year slump. It also gets more of the national spotlight on them, this in turn can help in recruiting and other aspects of the basketball atmosphere (more people going to games and being more into it, which turns to a better home court advantage.)