ESPN Bracketology - UM #2 Seed
Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology is out - he has Michigan as a #2 seed in the East, with possible matchups against #7 Gonzaga, #3 Duke/#6 Umass, with #4 Oklahoma and #1 Syracuse (and #5 Wisconsin) in the top half.
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology
#2 is the highest projection I've seen so far, but hey, it's January. Beilein has another 6 weeks to work further magic.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:15 AM ^
We'd also have a first round matchup against Beilein's old team Canisius.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^
Strange to see that we might end up ahead of Duke in the seedings. Things change quickly in college sports I guess
January 30th, 2014 at 11:29 AM ^
I also find it very strange to have us ahead of Duke. You could argue we're playing better lately than they are, but you can't just ignore early season results either.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 1:19 PM ^
Boom: Tom Izzo'ed
January 30th, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^
the committee does not look at H2H wins but look at the season overall. If it's even, then H2H may be served as a tiebreaker.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 5:52 PM ^
We have to have something to talk about in January during such a win streak!
January 30th, 2014 at 11:18 AM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 12:32 PM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 2:28 PM ^
Michigan had the top 5 hardest road to the NC game out of all teams in the history. Correct me if I'm wrong. Not surprising considering that the teams listed are all on KenPom top 25 last year.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:18 AM ^
finish off January with a win over Purdue at Crisler tonight.
Next, continue to win in February---don't forget, we have Gauntlet #2 coming up in mid-February.
Finally, concentrate on first winning the B1G regular season and conference tourney.
If they can do all of the above one-step-at-a-time, a #2 seed shouldn't even be part of the discussion
January 30th, 2014 at 11:35 AM ^
I feel like we sports fans have this discussion every season. It's too early for the players and coaches to care. They're the ones that have to take things one game at a time. It's never too early for fans to talk. It has precious little impact on anything what Lunardi or other bracketologists or fans think and discuss. I'm going to dream big. I'm not going to not think about our potential seeding because it's still only January. It's my right and prerogative as a fan.
And sure, it's too soon to have 2014 football rankings, but so what? It's fun.
January 30th, 2014 at 12:43 PM ^
I said the same thing in another thread. We are not the players or coaches. We can do what ever the hell we want and look ahead as far as we want.
January 30th, 2014 at 12:43 PM ^
naw, man - you could lose your focus.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^
meh. Focus on getting better each day, with a chance to win B1G regular season. Always the goal! Could not care less about B1G tourney after that.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:24 AM ^
he's got OSU as an 8 seed. they're barely hanging on.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:27 AM ^
Why are they even there? They have one RPI top-50 win, against #45 North Dakota State. Yes, their most impressive win is at home against North Dakota State. Don't worry, their next best win is a home win over Delaware.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:31 AM ^
Deleware has some pretty sweet helmets though.
January 30th, 2014 at 1:59 PM ^
I would think helmets get in the way of a jump shot. Maybe that's why they lost to OSU.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:56 AM ^
I don't understand how they're in at all, except by name only. Do a blind resume test and they shouldn't even be up for consideration.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:25 AM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 11:30 AM ^
Living in Omaha I see a lot of Creighton. Yes, they are good, but I'm not as scared of them as everyone else seems to be. They play HORRIBLE defense, far worse than "bad Michigan defense" and they struggle with any team with decent athletacism. If they hit 60+% of their threes (as they have done), they will be hard to beat, but who wouldn't be at that point?
January 30th, 2014 at 11:46 AM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 11:55 AM ^
They were up by 40 at one point and ended up winning by 28 I believe. But they shot 325 threes and hit 83% of them.
January 30th, 2014 at 1:22 PM ^
I think they were 21-33 from 3. If they shoot a normal 3-point percentage, like 12-33, it's basically a tie game.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:37 AM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 11:45 AM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 11:56 AM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 11:40 AM ^
Harvard would play in-state UMASS, then their coach's college team Duke, then their coach's former employer Michigan.
Also, IU was #1 last year, G'Town #2, Miami #2, and at this point none would even make the tourney.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:41 AM ^
I like staying away from UM being a #1 seed, just cuz I don't like the pressure that goes with it. I'm perfectly happy with the 2 seed. BUT, if UM continues to improve and play to the potential we've seen them have over the last month, a #1 seed is certainly a possibility. Seeing some teams go wire-to-wire as an expected #1 seed is, to me, bad juju. But UM being under rated until recently, building momentum...I'm fine.
But as people have said, seeds aren't as important as the team clicking at the right time. And JB is a master at it.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^
Over at BracketMatrix, there were a fair number of folks who selected Michigan as a #2 seed, but among the major sources, #2 is the highest I have seen as well other than NBCSports having us also as a #2 playing IPFW. I think CBS last had us as the #3 against Delaware. The common theme apparently is that a lot of folks see us making a little trip to Milwaukee in March.
January 30th, 2014 at 1:25 PM ^
Buffalo is closer than Milwaukee, and the only team we'd be fighting for that pod is Villanova, who is about equidistant from Buffalo and Raleigh. Makes more sense to put Nova in Raleigh, M in Buffalo, and MSU and ISU or Wisconsin or Cincinnati in Milwaukee.
Also, Lunardi put 3 pods in Orlando. You'd think a guy who has one job to do, once a week, could get that one thing right.
January 30th, 2014 at 1:46 PM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 1:53 PM ^
As a #1 seed, the B1G winner, if it's Michigan, could play the first two in Buffalo and the regionals in Indianapolis. Syracuse will get Buffalo and NYC for its two sites. Michigan State is probably going to Milwaukee either way.
January 30th, 2014 at 11:47 AM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
It's remarkable that this team is slated to finish about 8 slots higher in the tourney seeding than last year's team. Just goes to show how magical the tourney run was last year
January 30th, 2014 at 3:03 PM ^
Tourney seeding was fickle, UM got barely bumped from a 3-seed due to tournament not wanting rematches. And Michigan only missed a one-seed because of the Brust 3 pointer and the indiana rollout. Without those two losses (hell, throw in the meltdown @PSU), Michigan is the outright B1G regular season champs and on the 1 line.
There's no way Michigan can get to the 1-line this year. It's way too crowded. 2-seed is the ceiling.
January 30th, 2014 at 3:09 PM ^
I think they got bumped down because there were 5 big ten teams on the bottom halves of brackets (#2 OSU, #3 MSU, hypothetical #3 M, #7 Illinois, #11 Minnesota), so someone had to move. If Michigan was a true #4, by last year's rules they would not have been allowed to have a major home-court advantage over VCU.
January 30th, 2014 at 3:19 PM ^
True, we were literally a couple of bounces away from at least a 2/3 seed. Regardless, when I think back to last yera's team I remember the tournament forget how rough the middle patch of the season was. Hopefully we can avoid that patch here in the next few weeks
January 30th, 2014 at 12:01 PM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 12:10 PM ^
To be fair, their non-conference resume is a good bit more impressive than ours. Had we beaten Arizone I'd be more inclined to share this sentiment
January 30th, 2014 at 12:02 PM ^
but boy would it be nice to end up on the 2/3 line in March.
January 30th, 2014 at 12:22 PM ^
And upward!
January 30th, 2014 at 12:31 PM ^
Have Michigan play in Milwuakee. I live in the suburbs there and would drag everyone I know there for these games.
January 30th, 2014 at 12:43 PM ^
2 or 3 seed in March would be spectacular.
January 30th, 2014 at 1:04 PM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 1:57 PM ^
Even with Michigan's difficult conference schedule, 15-3 means 23-7 overall. Arizona, Syracuse, and Wichita St. are going to have fewer than 7 losses combined, and one of ours was to a team out of the RPI top 100. Kansas has the same record but more good wins and better losses. We would need some help from those teams losing, plus Villanova and Florida dropping a game or two. Maybe with a conference tourney championship you could make the argument, but if we want a 1 seed we can lose 1, maybe 2 games to have any shot.
January 30th, 2014 at 2:29 PM ^
I don't see them getting a number one seed. Yes, they're undefeated and have a good rpi, but their strength of schedule is 90th and probably not likely to improve. Interestingly, Syracuse's strength of schedule is only 89th, but I'm guessing that'll get a bit better as they go threw ACC play.
I do agree that UM's chances of a #1 seed are probably kind of slim but there's still 6 weeks of games and who knows what will happen to UM and the other teams.
January 30th, 2014 at 1:05 PM ^