Informal poll- Is interest in winning BTT generational?
Brian's comments about treating the BTT as an NFL preseason game rang very true with me. I don't want to see heavy starter minutes and would rather have them back home getting rested up (particularly when I watched Caris go down late in the game last night with what I swore was going to be a knee injury).
However, my lack of concern with the BTT is directly related to the fact that I did not grow up with the BTT and it only started after I left college. For me, it is just a thing that doesn't mean anything so I don't care if we don't win it nor do many of my friends with whom I went to college. The obvious exception to that comment being if we need to win it to make the NCAA tournament.
Does the rest of the board care about the BTT? Does it resonate more with younger people who grew up watching it? I am interested in perspective not a debate on the merits of someone being right since there is not a right answer.
Means very little to me, honestly. Enjoyed myself when we won the first one, but my interest pretty much ended there.
Or I just think the whole thing is kind of pointless in general, win or lose. In '98 it was a novelty, but it quickly became apparent it doesn't really mean much unless you're a cinderella team shooting for an autobid to avoid the NIT. For teams that are actually going to make the tournament, it's just a trap to get your guys injured or get yourself on bad momentum entering the tourney if you get embarrassed by the Northwesterns of the world.
Or maybe worn out from playing multiple games on consecutive days with less than a week to recover for the NCAA tourney.
FWIW, I just turned 30. So I didn't grow up with it exactly, but I was still young when it started, and I don't really give a damn about it. Unless, like others mention, Michigan is on the bubble and needs it to cement a spot in the real tourney. Amazingly, that might not even be a concern for the rest of Beilein's tenure.
I think that we are so far inside MSU's collective minds these days that I would feel pretty confident going into a championship game against them.
I'm 26, so the BTT has been around for as long as I can remember watching Michigan basketball and I don't care if we win the whole thing or lose in the first game as long as the loss isn't embarassing in nature.
Don't care. Want guys healthy for a run.
Just wondering does this also mean you don't want to see starters play more than a half against indiana either? It carries the same amount of importance in terms of actually mattering to the season. Not an attack just wondering if people who don't care about the tourney also don't care about the last game either.
You know I didn't really consider that.
Part of me wants to score 100 on IU and then after the game, I want Jordan Morgan to go all Kane on Crean and give him a solid chokeslam.
That said, we have an outright title. I wouldn't be pissed if we rested guys and lost but I'm overly risk averse. JMO.
Why do you care what Wisc and MSU fans try to argue when we went 3-1 against them and have a Big Ten Championship banner?
20-year old University of Michigan student here. I do not care about conference tournaments.
because its something this program has not done recently...not going to lose any sleep over not winning it though
I don't put a large amount of stock in it. The only problem with not winning it is that we inevitably would have to lose to a team that is fairly beatable (Nebraska, Penn St, Minnesota, etc.) or a team I loathe greatly (Wisconsin, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Wisconsin, IU, or for the sake of argument Wisconsin) which sucks. But I really just want to win one game and escape with no major injuries.
Wisconsin four times".
feel winning the B1G regular season title is much more significant. It requires playing at a high level over a much longer period, dedication, consistency, and toughness while winning on the road as well as at home. The tournament has it's purpose I suppose, but I will always look at our outright conference title as THE big accomplishment this year - unless we win the NC of course.
In the past I wanted to win it to get the the NCAA tourny. But, we don't need to do that now so I don't care as much.
Ony because I don't want to hear MSU fans start barking again if they happen to beat us by 20 points, even if they do it with Max playing 10+ minutes.
Can you imagine the "all is right now" from MSU fans, writers, etc. if MSU were to blow out M and march to the Big Ten Title?
28. Only care about the tournament in years we aren't already a lock for the real tournament.
18 game championship > 4/5 game championship
Middle aged fart here. If we don't have much to gain from the tourney (ie we don't need an auto bid this year, and it won't help/hurt our seeding too much) then I really don't care. However, the only thing I worry about if you don't place emphasis on the tourney, is what it does to your team chemistry and "killer instinct". Can you bow out early and then take March seriously or do you get rusty? That's something the coaches need to feel out I guess. Obviously "win all the games" is important, but not risking injury is more important.
Conference title should be goal 1, 2, and D.
Winning the B1G Tournament title is merely window dressing.
Regular season champ is the real champ.
I never want to lose the first game. That's embarrassing pretty much always. If we got to the final (and I don't know what that feels like), I'd probably end up rooting fairly hard for us to win it.
But Saturday's semi-final? I just can't give a shit about it and I don't think that will be different this year.
I want us to win it, in the same manner I want us to win every game. Plus, it would definitely help for seeding. That said, a loss in the BTT won't annoy me any more than all losses annoy me by default. They're just kinda another game to me (obviously excepting years for when we're a bubble team and need to do well/win it to make the NCAAs, then I care greatly).
I'd love to win it because winning is fun but with the real tournament just around the corner it always has an anticlimactic feeling to it. Unless winning gets us in to the tournament or something. Oh and I'm 27.
I'm 44 and I agree completely. It's fun, but doesn't mean anything. I never want to see M lose, but I don't lose any sleep if it happens in the BTT.
I'll cheer heartily during the BTT, but I'm not passionate about it. It would really only matter to me if (a) we were a true bubble team and needed to make a BTT run to squeak in the NCAA's or (b) if we lost a #1 seed due to a 1st round flop in the BTT.
Tirico and Dakich hit on this point during yesterday's telecast (BTT vs. other conference tourneys). I did a grad school stint at an ACC school, and I loved the pageantry of the ACC tourney. It was magical. But I don't feel that way yet about the BTT and wonder if I ever will. I take great satisfaction in a grind-it-out B1G regular season championship.
^^^This.
I think the BTT does get you ready for a one-and-done environment. But you don't have to win the whole thing, just a game or two against a tough persistant opponenet that needs to win it, to get the message.
27 yr old alum.
Only cared about the BTT when we needed it to get into the tourney.
Reg. Season >>> Tourney
In my opinion. Goal number 1 for next weekend is to stay healthy at all costs.
33.
While I don't want our players wearing themselves out, I relish the opportunity for another win over OSU (because I live in Columbus) or Wisconsin (to steal their 2 seed).
If we beat Wisconsin on a neutral site, maybe the seeding committee forgets they blew us out in AA .
I'm 26 and graduate May 2009 and I don't put too much stock in winning the tournament. It becomes more important if there is a tie for 1st. However, winning the B1G Regular Season means so much more.
I don't care about the BTT title. I care about winning one game. The end of season tourneys serve three purposes:
1) Make money
2) Get more teams from power conferences into the big dance
3) Help justify seeding
Lose your first game and there is a history of moving down in seeding. Win at least one and you basically justify what your earned during the regular season. Win it all, you may move up one seed level. For Michigan that would potentially gain a 2 vs. 3 this year. Eh, it would be nice, not neccessary.
If Michigan is on the bubble or definitely not going to be an at-large bid I'm more invested in them winning the BTT because I want them in the big dance. When Michigan isn't on the bubble I care so little about the BTT I don't even follow it.
I'm interested and I'm old. I can't get enough of this team.
It means nothing really, unless you were desperate for resume wins. Otherwise, being the best team in a conference over a 4-day period and being the best team in the conference over the course of a season are completely different things. One, obviously, is more of an accomplishment than the other.
Hell, if a 4 game stretch decided who the best team in the conference would be, we'd have 5 different conference champions based on this season lol.
It's fun to watch the BTT, but I'd much rather have a very well rested and fully healthy team heading into the NCAA's. I suppose there's something to getting the team in a tourney mode that the BTT would help with, but if it didn't matter last year for the big dance then it won't matter this year.
Like others here, I tend to put more stock into the winning the conference as we just did than the Big Ten Tournament. The Tournament was instituted while I was at Michigan, and it was fun to watch the games (even travelled for and attended a few), but it always seems like the conference title is the primary achievement and that the BTT is simply a way to potentially build a slightly nicer pedestal for that achievement should you win both, so to me it isn't quite as vital.
When we needed the BTT for our March lives, yeah, I would tend to pay much more attention to it. I suppose that's the heart of my opinion - the BTT has utility value given one's performance in the regular season perhaps, but as for being amped about it, I have a difficult time typically.
I am in my mid 20's. It means nothing to me
I'm early 20s
Something like 9/12 last tournament champions won their conference tournament. The BTT matters and we should want to win it. No one is significantly hurt (Morgan?) and these guys have young legs. It will also help us with seeding and potentially avoiding nightmare matchups in the round of 32.