AP Poll has U-M #7

Seems about right to me. Hopefully we can win out and bump ourselves back into a number one seed.

Based on their recent games, a 7 ranking seems about right.  Win a few games, they could be back at or near the top. Just a crazy year for college hoops. 

has moved back up in the standings as well, hovering just outside the top 25 at 29th in the points total. That game might not be the pushover that some are expecting it to be, especially if we play the way we did this past week.

I'm sad we're outside the top 5 for the first time all season, but falling only 3 spots after the week we had was not as bad a fall as I had feared.  Still, we're 22-4 on the season, which if you told me a couple years ago that in the near future Michigan would be a top 7 team all season long and only have four losses on their season, I'd have looked at you like you were smoking something.

Now if we can just get the defense to show up, everything will be complete.

I thought we would fall more, to be honest. And if Sparty is a 1 seed, I'm not a very good evaluator of basketball.

This is about right.  Michigan has some time to regroup, and get ready for the next stretch.  All part of the plan!

Here's the weekly distribution and updated running average data for my AP tracker:

We did get one 2nd place vote actually, from Steve Wiseman. The rest of the voting went as follows:

- 2 votes for 4th place

- 10 votes for 5th place

- 17 votes for 6th place

- 24 votes for 7th place

- 7 votes for 8th place

- 4 votes for 10th place

Can any entry level bracketologists here discuss what the odds are that UM plays as the 2 seed in the DC regional if Indiana takes the 1 in Indianapolis and MSU the 1 in LA?

Seems odd to me that Wisky only jumped one spot while OSU stayed a spot ahead of them. After that beating?

The lowest Michigan has been ranked this year is #7.

Man that feels great to say.

Maybe a bit high actually. We need to pull our heads out of or asses. Good to see GR3 return from the abyss at least.

than 7 the way we've been playing of late.  But on the bright side, we're still in striking distance of a #1 seed IF:

1.  Morgan gets back to 100% in the next week or so.

2.  We re-learn how to play good defense

3.  We win out at home

4.  GRIII doesn't take any more games off

5.  We get a little help from other teams in the conference by beating MSU and IU.

No problem. 

Here's a little info on being the #7 ranked team.

Michigan is 30-4 all-time when ranked #7 and the last time they were ranked 7th was back on December 8, 1996 in a 62-61 win in Durham over #10 duke.

all day right now, shows that we still have respect from folks.

Now we need to re-group for a great late February, all March and early April run!

Let's turn March Madness into an Awesome April, no fooling!

This is about right..I think this week off is going to be huge for the team to re-group, rest up, and focus on fundamentals. The biggest thing we have lacked the past three weeks is defensive fundamentals.

Does it seem the AP does whatever it can to keep Notre Dame in the Top 25? They move to Low 20's and lose to a 6-7 conference foe Providence by almost 20 and stay Top 25. Add in losses to teams like St. Johns, St. Joes,UConn (at home), Georgetown (at Home) and a home win against DePaul in OT (team has a losing record) .. And only 1win against a current Top 25. I don't get it

It seems this year all the 1-3 seeds are almost interchangeable week to week. It also appears to be a big dropoff between the 3-4 seeds.

Now that they have earned the #4 rank watch them screw up and not beat Indiana this week making it tougher for Michigan.

Not bad of a ranking, UofM hasn't been playing well as of late because of the brutal schedule. Offense has been pretty stagnate, just watching Trey dribble the ball around the court. The defense is pourous since one mistake usually compounds to more. I think they will get their act together for the tournament to make a good run.

#7 is good after the 1-3 sequence.  Besides, unlike in football, everybody who could actually win gets a fair chance to determine where they really belong at the end of the season.  

Michigan at #7 is fair for this week.  If we can take care of business against Illinois on Sunday, expect the rankings to look different come next week.  Miami is a strong #2 in the polls and looked awful @ Clemson last night.  Clemson wouldn't allow themselves to pull the upset by missing free-throws (they shot 5-13) and missing lay-ups down the stretch.  Michigan isn't the only team that looks bad sometimes.  We looked bad @ MSU and they took it to us.  We looked bad against Penn St. and won because they suck.  Same is true for Miami.  They were fortunate to be playing a shit team last night or they would have lost.  Sparty plays Indiana and @ OSU this week.  There is a fair chance that they lose twice and most-likely once.  That will change the rankings.  Also, Florida @ Missouri could be a big payback game.  Missouri is a much different team at home.  Gonzaga probably won't lose again but it will be tough for them to get a #1 seed unless other teams lose multiple games since their schedule sucks.  Michigan could play their way to a #1 seed if they win out the regular season and make it to the B10 Tourney Final.  If they win the final, they would have a #1 for sure.  If they don't, they still might but would get no worse than a #2.  Best case scenario would be a #1 seed in the Mid-West Regional in Indianapolis unless Indiana gets the #2 there.  Otherwise, #1 or #2 seed is fine.  Would be awesome to play the first 2 rounds at the Palace.

Before the team can advance, they must embrace the truth. They are in a regressive phase right now. They are not getting better. This is somewhat alarming. Alarming from the point of view that the deficiencies as I see them, are related to coaching.

Exhibit A: Defense. Good defensive teams get that way because the coach demands it or you sit. See Bobby Knight, Tom Izzo. Tolerating sub par defense feeds it. A dog chasing his tail, will be busy. Figure it out coaching staff...and quick.

Exhibit B: Agression. The team needs to embrace being the bully. Beat somebody up. Stop trying to protect your lunch money. Start taking the opponent's lunch money and their girls too. From the opening tip we need to see every player in a Michigan uniform in full attack mode. Feed them gunpowder, chain them to their dorm rooms, do whatever it takes to make them play angry and fierce. That is all.

have hit a wall - give them a little time and they will come roaring back - # 7 seems about right