#2 West vs Montana
And so does the front page... Duh
Beat Montana!! Go Blue!!
Michigan will start off in the heartland against Montana, beat a mid-major, head out to SoCal to beat a team from Texas, and then beat Florida St. to go to the Final Four. I know this because I have already seen this.
In the same region as Gonzaga again no less
March 18th, 2019 at 10:30 AM ^
I think being out in LA for the regional final is a big advantage for us. There are very few teams actually from the west coast in the "West" region, and as we saw last year, Michigan has a lot of alums out in California. Yes, Gonzaga is from the west, but it's a 19-hour drive from there to LA. Considering Gonzaga at "home" would be like considering Michigan to be at "home" if we played in Florida, so I'm not too worried about that potential matchup.
March 18th, 2019 at 10:34 AM ^
Yes, totally agree!
I live in Los Angeles and just bought two tickets (if we don't make it I can sell the Sweet Sixteen and I'd still go to the Elite Eight to watch good basketball). Go Blue! West Coast Wolverines are ready to rock it again.
Surprised we got them in the first round for the 2nd year in a row. That potential match-up with Nevada in the 2nd round terrifies me.
Texas Tech vs. Michigan in the Sweet Sixteen would be one hell of a defensive battle!
New season starts NOW! Let's Go Blue!
Going into the BTT these seemed to be how it was going to shake out. Given how the last few weeks we couldn't ask for a better situation
I'm loving the MSU whining about drawing Duke. It cushions the blow from today.
Brace yourselves for the tortilla memes if we end up against TTech. It will be fun though.
Don't worry. We won't be playing Nevada.
Agreed. We'll play Florida, then Buffalo.
I think TTU will choke out UB. UB is a sloppy team. They can beat anyone if they get hot, but they had a number of close calls vs crappy MAC teams
nevada plays no D. give me them any day; especially when they have just one day to prepare. we look sluggish at times against BIG teams because we play them multiple times, but we will get much better looks on offense in the tourny.
Z will have a field day (or weekend) and pick apart our two opponents in the first two rounds. don't care who they are.
i want to believe every bit of what you wrote, but after our third loss in 3 weeks, each a collapse in the second half, i am not so sure. some teams are great at adversity. this year, i don't think that's us. hope i am proven dead wrong. like everybody, i did not like so much of the last 10 minutes, last 2 in particular, of our game today. so many errors on our side, forget the refs, our fault, our mistakes were the reason we lost. correctable? probably, but this late in the year that stuff shouldn't be happening.
I don't think the team is "bad" at adversity; they haven't lost 2 games in a row all year, something few teams can claim. That's a sign of a team that can handle a bad beat and bounce back. They've struggled against MSU and that's a credit to the Spartans. But we're also talking about a sample size of 3 games. And it feels like we magnify errors on one side while ignoring others, which is understandable but not necessarily instructive. I mean, MSU had 9 turnovers and anyone not named McQuaid couldn't get a shot from outside to save his life. This game plays out differently and we're maybe talking about how guys like Goins and Winston underperformed in a big game and cost their team.
Michigan probably won't win the NCAA tournament; that's true for 67 teams. They've got flaws that can't be papered over. But I also think that they have had a big MSU problem these past couple of weeks that may not be as prevalent against other teams they'll likely see this post season.
March 17th, 2019 at 10:42 PM ^
Fuck the Spartans. I long for normality!
March 17th, 2019 at 10:46 PM ^
3rd loss all to one team. We match up poorly with State, who is a 2 seed. End of story.
Chances are we won't play State again this year....
I like your optimism after the 3rd dong kick in 3 weeks. I'm not so confident, especially with our inconsistent offense. Hope you're right.
I’ll take it
Better than I expected after that choke job today
And espn bracketology kicks off with Bilas and crew crying over msu being Duke's bracket. Had to turn it off
Are they afraid of Izzo?
Very unlikely. Coach K pretty much owns Sparty and Izzo. I believe he has lost to them only once/twice and beaten them several times.
March 17th, 2019 at 10:23 PM ^
Izzo is 1-11 against Coach K
Refs will not favor Izzo over K. That has to scare the crap out of MSU.
ZION!
Sorry... a conditioned reflex by ESPN at this point.
March 17th, 2019 at 10:03 PM ^
ESPN loves single words that its idiotic audience can easily digest. Zion is very much in the tradition of Tiger, Kobe, et al.
msu likely has to get by louisville first. may not make it out of the first weekend...again.
What scares Sparty is that Izzo is 1-389 against Coach K.
March 18th, 2019 at 12:32 AM ^
I think LSU or even Louisville may beat MSU. they got a really bad draw for winning both the big ten conf and tourney.
Bilas is such an ass
Thats a pretty good bracket. Nobody we cant beat in that region.
How do you have points? Seriously, every post you make gets downvoted, yet your total climbs.
UM Fan from Sydney = Brian
And now you know the rrrrrest of the story.
Nevada is very good. I've seen them play this year and they're very athletic. A win over them is an accomplishment. Hope to see the team in Anaheim!
So annoying, all year I was thinking I didn't want to see them in the tourney. Nevertheless, it is a winnable game.
March 17th, 2019 at 10:09 PM ^
They're old (22/23-year-old 5th-year seniors, all transfers) and tall (6'6" or greater) across the starting line-up. Very odd team.
But, we have three guys (Iggy, Matthews, and ... Poole{!}) that are often listed ahead of all their guys in NBA draft projections.
I saw them play Loyola earlier this year. I wouldn't be surprised if Michigan loses to them, but I wouldn't count on it, either.
Trivia: One of their players (Jordan Caroline) is the son of longtime NFL player Simeon Rice.
Maybe playing 3 games in less than 72 hours will prove to be a good "tightener" for our team, which is not extremely deep. 28 wins so far. No. 2 seed in the West. Hope to see Michigan in Anaheim as well. Onward and Go Blue !
Like a stinkstar tightener?
Montana is tough. If we win that though the next round vs. Nevada is not an ideal matchup.
Good thing we're gonna be playing Florida then
And Beilein already has plenty of scouting material on them from last year.
Today sucked, but getting the draw we did and watching MSU draw Duke makes everything feel better. No way in hell they’re making the Final Four.
I hope they fall early just for the Lol's, but if they do make the FF, they will have earned the hell out of it.
No doubt.
Thank goodness Zion came back.
Absolutely. If MSU makes the Final Four, they’ll have earned every inch of it. I just don’t think it’ll happen.
This may be Duke’s greatest team ever assembled. And that’s saying something.
It is a weird season. Such a success yet feels like a complete failure going 0-3 versus MSU.