AP Poll, #4. Coaches Poll, #5.

Submitted by robbyt003 on

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings

 

AP Top 25
RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Indiana (26) 21-3 1,559
2 Duke (20) 21-2 1,515
3 Miami (FL) (17) 19-3 1,499
4 Michigan 21-3 1,428
5 Gonzaga (2) 23-2 1,371

 

USA Today Coaches Poll
RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Duke (18) 21-2 744
2 Indiana (6) 21-3 717
3 Gonzaga (1) 23-2 681
4 Miami (FL) (5) 19-3 674
5 Michigan (1) 21-3 663

Willhouse

February 11th, 2013 at 12:11 PM ^

Another top 10 matchup for Michigan tomorrow night. So, it's pretty much a must win at this point, right? I love this team, but not feeling our chances at the Breslin. That place is gonna be rowdy.

snarling wolverine

February 11th, 2013 at 12:23 PM ^

I think we can afford one more loss this season, but no more.  If we finish 6-1 I think we'll at least share the Big Ten title.  That would put us at 14-4.  MSU would have at least three losses and I think they'll drop another somewhere, and IU probably will drop two more.  

Tomorrow's game is big from the standpoint that if we lose, we have zero margin for error.   But it's not absolutely essential for the conference title.  We should be favored in all of our last six games, so we can get to 14-4 without winning in Breslin.

 

CollegeFootball13

February 11th, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^

I'm actually very confident (albeit cautiously) about tomorrow night's game.

We played absolutely awful basketball for the first 15 minutes of the Ohio game, the first half of the Indiana game, and really the whole Wisconsin game (our worst game of the year IMO). We barely lost all three of those games. It's also POSSIBLE (althought I hope not) that we were looking past Wisconsin to MSU.

I think the team will be very pumped up for this game, and even if we only play at 90% of what we're capable of I think we have a great shot at beating this Spartan team. If we jump out to an early lead and take the crowd out of it, I think it can be a relatively scare-free game that we come out of with an 8-10pt victory and put ourselves in a great position to win at least a share of the Big Ten.

saveferris

February 11th, 2013 at 1:00 PM ^

I hope you're right, but everything you state in your post highlights the one unfortunate trend for this team; we struggle against quality competition on the road.  Here's to hoping that we buck that trend tomorrow.  Be nice to get through this 10 day, 4 game gauntlet at 2-2.  We'll be well positioned to take the conference title under those circumstances.  Go Blue, Beat State.

Darth Wolverine

February 11th, 2013 at 12:24 PM ^

The rest of the games are must win and I don't care what Ira Weintraub says. He thinks we can still lose tomorrow and at least get a share of the conference title. While mathematically that's possible, it's not probable. This is why we needed Ohio to beat Indiana but of course they shit their pants in the second half. Granted we should have defeated Wisconsin and it took a lucky miracle half court shot to send the game to over time, but still, even with that win we should have had, an Ohio victory would have helped even more.

coastal blue

February 11th, 2013 at 12:13 PM ^

I feel we should be #3 behind Indiana and Miami. Duke may have only two losses but they got blown out by 30. We've lost our three games on the road by a combined 14 points. Losing after a half-court miracle in Wisconsin is more impressive than being taken to the wire by BC.

WolvinLA2

February 11th, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^

Duke should not be up there.  Who have they beaten?  Unranked Minnesota and NC State?  Yeah, they beat OSU, big deal so did we.  They've also taken an absolute beating, and all of our losses have come down to the wire.  Meanwhile, we've beaten #s 10, 13 and 16, and have only lost to #s 1, 13 and 20. 

Duke should have lost to fucking Boston College!  Michigan hasn't kept it close with anyone who isn't elite, certainly not this late in the season.

WolvinLA2

February 11th, 2013 at 1:33 PM ^

I forgot about Louisville, and didn't realize UK was back to being ranked.

That said, Duke has had fewer tough tests than we have, certainly fewer tough road tests, and they only have one fewer loss. I'd like our odds against Duke if we played them today.

Leonhall

February 11th, 2013 at 1:07 PM ^

This but I'm not sure we are a top 5 team right now, at least until we can beat a quality team on the road. The last 3 games, albeit, tough and without Morgan, have really opened my eyes on this team. A win against a quality opponent on the road might change my attitude but lately our youth as started to show.

OmarDontScare

February 11th, 2013 at 4:35 PM ^

Good thing you're not a Duke fan. Duke lost at Miami by 30. Miami is traditionally quite a hostile environment when they can get 200-250 fans to attend.

Our losses on the road were all close and to #1 Indiana, #13 OSU and #20 Wisconsin.

My Sparty buddy sent me a text on how Big Ten road games are statistically more difficult than any conference in the nation. Within Home and Home series in Big Ten play, Home court advantage is worth 4.79 points vs the national average of all conferences being worth 3.4 points.

San Diego Mick

February 11th, 2013 at 5:29 PM ^

I think they are a total fraud that benefits from playing in the conference they do.

They lost at home to a team we beat on the road by 14 and that team considers us a rival of theirs.

Zaga ain't gonna do squat in the NCAA's, lucky if they make the sweet 16, the teams they will face will be way better and tested than the ones they've been feasting on all season.

When they played decent teams, they've lost.

MichiganManOf1961

February 11th, 2013 at 12:14 PM ^

Gonzaga: 1-2 vs. ranked teams, beating Oklahoma State while losing to Butler and Illinois.  Not playing another ranked team for the rest of the season.  Also, they've played a remarkable number of teams who I've never heard of before (Campbell, Lewis-Clark St., Southern Utah).  I've never understood the love-fest with a team who plays the easiest schedule I've ever seen.

PS-Can we please just stay ranked #2 for the rest of the season?  I don't want to risk being #1 going into either Tournament.

~Herm

ghost

February 11th, 2013 at 1:10 PM ^

Miami's 3 best wins  are MSU at home, Duke at home without Kelly and at NC St. by a point without their PG.  They lost by 12 to Florida Golf Coast and got destroyed by Arizona on a neutral court.  The ACC is awful.  Its Miami, Duke, NC St. and the other team that looks to be near the bubble is Virginia, who lost to 3-21 ODU and two other mid pack CAA teams.  They also beat BC by a point.  I fully expect Miami to lose at Duke.  

TheTruth41

February 11th, 2013 at 1:38 PM ^

Their basketball program seems to recruit (maybe not lately) a lot like their football program.  Highly athletic players with suspect fundamentals and technique.  Granted they did take a Duke team known for fundamentals and technique out to the woodshed but teams like that can either be very streaky or very off.  Based off the eye test, Miami doesn't scare me.  At every position we either beat or match what they can provide at any given time.  As we've seen on various occassions this year, home games can offer a big advantage no matter who your team is or who you're playing.  All those close losses on opposing campuses should sway a bit into close victories on a neutral floor.  Conference tournaments can give a glimpse into how a team will fare leading further into March.

Darth Wolverine

February 11th, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^

There is no need to worry about rankings and I don't understand why there is a thread every Monday to report our ranking. This isn't football; rankings don't mean nearly as much. The only ranking we need to concern ourselves with is our seed in the tournament.

mGrowOld

February 11th, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^

IMO tomorrow night we're playing for being on the #1 seed line in the B1G and the NCAA tourny.  After the MSU game the gauntlet is over and all our difficult games are at home plus Morgan should start to return to health.  Win tomorrow and it is possible - no probable - we don't lose again until the Indiana game to close the season.  That would put us at 27-3 heading into the season finale and in all likelyhood, an undisputed B1G regular season championship.  And if we win tomorrow we could even suffer an unexpected loss (either MSU or Indiana at home) and still claim a #1 seed in the NCAA's.

There is a LOT riding on tomorrow's game.  Lose and we put MSU in the drivers seat for the B1G title and #1 seed in our tourny (sorry Indiana - you're about to start your gauntlet now) and if MSU wins the B1G tourny they likely grab a higher seed than us in the big dance.

PB-J Time

February 11th, 2013 at 3:46 PM ^

Agreed. This is a discussion I'd like to have (and maybe in a few points I would create a thread), but I'd like to know how others interperet MSU as a basketball rival (we know they're not thought of highly on the gridiron). I also would rather wait to see the outcome of the game before we debate how important beating them is.

justingoblue

February 11th, 2013 at 4:01 PM ^

It would make a good thread, doing a poll for rivals order, going something like:

Basketball)

Hockey)

Other)

Honestly if we're playing the "if you can only win one game" scenarios, I'd take MSU in both basketball and hockey. I don't really have a preference for a forth sport because both are terrible at softball.

Anyway, here are the points you need. Make your thread, it's a good discussion to have, especially today. After posting the thread, you need to make sure to make one more post in the next twenty-four hours. It was only three points, so they expire tomorrow.

GOLBOGM

February 11th, 2013 at 12:24 PM ^

I think that seems about right.

Have we ever dropped out of the top-5 this year?  I don't thin kwe have which is pretty neat!

What I think is weird about rankings is the need to drop a team with losses and rise with wins regardless of context.  Duke barely beat a terrible BC team on the road and we lose to a very good Wisconsin team on the raod due to a buzzer beater- yet they jump us...  At least Indiana didn't drop- although that has more to do with so many other top teams losing.

Beefs- Miami is undefeated in the ACC and killed Duke who has two conference losses- Miami also beat MSU- they shoudl be ahead of Duke... Gonzaga- a little too high in my opinion- but ohh well- they will bow out of NCAA tournamanet early as usual- I nbever realyl worry about their rankings- just think it's silly they are so high.  Voters seriously think they are better than MSU?

MikeCohodes

February 11th, 2013 at 12:28 PM ^

we have not been lower than 5 at any point in the season, since that was where we started the year.  Our loss to OSU dropped us from 2 to 5, we got back up to 1 before losing to Indiana which dropped us to 3, and our loss to Wisc dropped us to 4.  A loss tomorrow risks dropping us out of the top 5, depending on what happens with everyone else at the top.

trueblueintexas

February 11th, 2013 at 12:46 PM ^

I wouldn't say Gonzaga will bow out early as usual. They have a couple sweet 16's under their belt. What I will say is, for Gonzaga and other mid-major teams the regular season rankings don't matter as much. Gonzaga has typically (except one year, I believe) actually been ranked lower in the tournament than their regular season end ranking.  i.e. If Gonzaga ends the year ranked fifth overall, I would not expect them to get a #2 seed in the tourney.  That's one thing I love about basketball, their is a committee which gets it 98% right without outside pressure influencing them. The last 5 years especially they have really honed their craft (yes, insert comments about Gene Smith being on the committee here).

LSAClassOf2000

February 11th, 2013 at 1:07 PM ^

The vote distribution for the AP poll for Michigan was as follows:

11 votes for 2nd place

13 votes for 3rd place

17 votes for 4th place

14 votes for 5th place

7 votes for 6th place

3 votes for 7th place

The week-to-week comparison, in graphic form (Week 14 to 15):

 photo APBallotsWeek14_zps828d8281.jpg  photo APBallotsWeek15_zps1798bf6e.jpg

The running average ranking:

 photo APBallotsAvgRating15_zps5045d0a5.jpg

JHendo

February 11th, 2013 at 1:08 PM ^

I can definitely live with 4th place. However, not getting a single 1st place vote when Duke has so many and even Gonzaga has a few is absoloutely ridiculous. Imho, Indiana and Miami are the only teams deserving of a #1 vote...for now.