MBB - Overlooked and underappreciated
I know that Lunardi has them in, and that they are appearing on most bracket predictions, but does anybody else feel like Michigan is not getting a fair shake in terms of the overall analysis of teams deserving a birth? Yesterday during the M game, when it was stated that MSU was listed a Last Four In, the announcer said "well that must mean that Michigan is all the way out then, right." What has transpired in the last two months of this season that could possibly lead him to that conclusion? 20-12 overall, an MSU sweep, a PSU sweep, a really solid strength of schedule and quite a number of significant wins. Michigan was the 4 seed in the conference tourney for god sake! And they took care of business.
Still after the win against Illinois, it just seems as though Michigan is not being recognized as a solid tourney team. Still on the bubble? Now? Then what is criteria for getting off the bubble? How many more "win and their in" games can Michigan win before they are IN, period?
I think the only question there should be about M right now is what seed they are going to draw. I would give them a 10 seed right now, forget about this first four talk.
Does it not just seem that the national perspective is that Michigan is somehow less deserving of a bid for some unidentified unspoken reason?
Pundits, Michigan is in the tourney. Deal with it.
its early, have a cup of coffee and read something.
That's the kind of stuff you write when you drink coffee, lol
What kind of "coffee" do you drink?
"Pundits, Michigan is in the tourney. Deal with it."
I'm confused about the purpose of this rant. Lunardi has them way beyond the First Four. B101 has them as a 10 seed. The Matrix is updating frequently and isn't getting a lot of changes but Michigan's an 11 seed trending upward.
Other then Dan Dakich on the broadcast yesterday, who by all accounts in multiple threads is an idiot, everyone seems to have them right where they should be.
Fairly difficult to get a "birth" in the tourney - don't think any are expecting; however, very likely that they will have a berth.
.....it is entirely feasible for someone to give birth during the Tourney, possibly a stress-induced birth depending on which team they are cheering on.
I am convinced we are in, as are probably the majority of people on this board. But people OUTSIDE this board might disagree with your statement "quite a number of significant wins."
March 12th, 2011 at 10:20 AM ^
With MSU and PSU continuing to rise in the RPI, Michigan now is 6-9 against the RPI top-50. Only 19 teams in the country have more of those "quality wins". Not to mention Michigan also has wins over #52 (Oakland) and #54 (Clemson, who could still move up with a win today).
The resume is looking a lot better than I think anybody could have expected even a week or two ago.
kansas, syracuse
We beat Syracuse, didn't we?
No, we lost to them by 3. We beat Clemson.
ESPN listed us as #7 on it's list of "Top 10 Giants who could be upset early". They think we're giants. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
If you've got a date in Constantinople, they'll be waiting in Istanbul.
to any They Might be Giants references.
unless you're a Turk.
March 12th, 2011 at 11:08 AM ^
Even old New York was once New Amsterdam.
We aren't getting any love with the media, except from the actual bracketologists. Sportscenter didn't even show highlights or talk about the fricken 4-5 matchup in the big ten tournament last night. I mean really?
March 12th, 2011 at 10:53 AM ^
I noticed that as well. Pretty ridiculous...guess that's what we get for being a "football school".
excuse me. Not really a rant, just an observation. I do not think Michigan should be identified as a "bubble" team any longer. I don't think they are a bubble team, but they are still mentioned as bubble team, and are consistently referred to a team "trying to keep their tourney hopes alive." I just don't get it.
Haters gonna hate, and all that crap.
Don't sweat it. We're in. But "in" is now the low hanging fruit. We want that sweet juicy stuff at the top of the tree.
Gators gonna gait....that's my favorite
March 12th, 2011 at 10:59 AM ^
My favorite has got to be
March 12th, 2011 at 10:03 AM ^
It seems to mean any team that isn't one of the top 40 teams that make the tournament or worse than the 100th-best team (assuming teams 100 and on will all miss the tournament). Thus, there are more "bubble teams" than there are non-bubble teams, which sort of defeats the point of calling them bubble teams. (isn't a bubble an expression for a very thin layer on the edge of an object?)
I'm equally confused. The last time I felt we were "overlooked and underappreciated" was about the time of Illinois game #1. Since then I've felt we were both looked and appreciated about as much as a relatively hot 20-12 team from a power conference should be.
What am i missing?
March 12th, 2011 at 10:40 AM ^
I think the answer to your rant is that they have not beaten an elite team. Yes I don't consider Illinois or MSU and elite team. If they would of beaten any one of the games of Kansas, OSU, Purdue, Syracuse, or even Wisconsin, I think than you would get what your asking for, more so called experts predicting Michigan to make noise in the tourney. However Michigan is in the tournament and being that they are under the radar, it may just work in their favor.
Grammar Nazis, unite.
/s
The idiot announcer yesterday notwithstanding, I think most people count UM in the tourney. They just don't talk them up as much because there are legit bubble teams still playing. 20 wins and a .500 record in a top-2 conference means you are in.
That and a lot of people discounted us completely when we were 1-6 in conference play and looking ready to implode.
9 wins in 12 games later, we're a tournament team but a lot of people still think of us as that team from mid-January.
No, we are not overlooked and underappreciated. This is a good, young team, and the media recognizes that. Frankly, we're nothing special -- just a good team that deserves to be in the tournament (and the bracketologists have us in the tournament).
There's 68 spots to give out and hundreds of teams competing for them -- the media can't discuss Michigan basketball in every TV/radio segment.
No.
If you pay attention to how the media works, you already know that programs that have been in the dumper for many years ALWAYS experience a lag in national perception when they improve, especially if their previous season was a massive disappointment like ours was in 2009-2010. If you're not considered one of the classic elite programs in that sport, the lag in perception will be even longer. If you haven't beaten a truly elite team in your "comeback" year, the lag will be especially pronounced.
The team has had a great season, and IMHO Beilein should get the BigTen coach of the year award. But all they've proven so far is that they're a much better team than most thought they were going to be, which is not the same thing as being a truly powerful team on a national basis.
Be patient. The team has to earn its respect, and it doesn't happen overnight. If they deserve it through their play, they'll get it.
And it doesn't really matter anyhow.
I believe the game announcer made an honest mistake yesterday. I don't think he realized that Lunardi had Michigan projected above the last 4 in line.So, that was the first thing that jumped out to him when they showed the last 4 in and first 4 out graphic. He sounded a little confused by it, as he was saying during a better part of the game that it feels like Michigan is in.
I agree he may have been confused but don't you think he should know where they stand? I mean him a Lunardi both work for ESPN. He maybe should have just done a little bit of research prior to tip off.
March 12th, 2011 at 11:08 AM ^
Everybody makes mistakes...and this was the second game in a row they were covering.
It's funny (or sad?) to see the perception of Michigan basketball among the talking heads out there. Was listening to some show on XM and the dumbass host was talking about how Michigan might be making a return to the tournament after an "extended absence." If by extended, you mean one year, I'd agree. This is the second time in the last week or so I've heard some knucklehead say something like this -- I think Lunardi may have been the other one. Unfortunately, it's just going to take some time to rebuild the perception that they once had, but with Beilein, I believe we are back on the right track.
Someone in one of the last few TV broadcasts actually brought up Michigan's "multi-year absence." Unless you're counting in terms of months since the last tournament, I'm pretty sure we didn't miss more than one tournament.
March 12th, 2011 at 10:10 AM ^
March 19, 2009 was the first-round game that Michigan played in its last NCAA tournament bid, and the latest Michigan can play its first-round game this year is March 16, 2011. That is 1.992 years away from eachother, which is understandable why people would round that up to 2 years. Thus, Michigan's multi-year absence.
March 12th, 2011 at 10:27 AM ^
The last three ncaa tournaments:
2009 - we were in
2010 - we were out
2011 - we are most likely in
That's a one year absence.
after we stomp OSU.
March 12th, 2011 at 10:05 AM ^
I see what you did there. lol
March 12th, 2011 at 10:15 AM ^
Win a lot of games for a lot of years in a row and you won't be overlooked and under appreciated. Until then nose to the grind stone and win.
March 12th, 2011 at 10:26 AM ^
I think if Michigan has been overlooked (and as others have pointed out, we're pretty much solidly in the tourney according to anyone who knows anything at this point so it can't be too bad) it is just because of the way the season has played out. This team came into the season with zero expectations and was in the Big Ten cellar nearly halfway through the year. They went on a ridiculous run to get to 9-9 and just won a huge game yesterday to get over that hump.
This team really wasn't in a position to demand attention/praise (from the national media) until just the last week or so and wasn't solidly in the tournament (as in no chance they even sniff the play-in game) until yesterday. A win or a solid performance today and you'll start getting loads of media members going gay for Morris and Hardaway and all will be right with the world.
March 12th, 2011 at 10:28 AM ^
Anybody else pissed that sparty gets to play psu? I was hoping nw would have knocked off osu so we could destroy nw again. Also, i thought for sure purdue would kill msu and put them in the nit to make yesterday the perfect day. i dont want to see msu again in the championship and give them a chance at redemption for the reg. season meetings
March 12th, 2011 at 12:39 PM ^
Not really. They beat 2 seed Purdue to get the opportunity for PSU. If we beat #1 OSU, then we will get the same opportunity.
March 12th, 2011 at 10:39 AM ^
Say what you will about Dakich (and he is a bit of a moron), but he gave Beilein about the biggest compliment ever at the start of the broadcast. Said his time at WVU, based on the shell of a team he came in with, was literally the best coaching job he had EVER seen. I'm willing to forgive his lack of research otherwise, since, you know, we're IN the tournament.
March 12th, 2011 at 11:04 AM ^
have you even been watching tv? Lunardi is pretty spot on usually with his tourney picks and we were in after the MSU victory.. I haven't heard them talk about us being on the bubble since after that game.
The big ten is stupid all they talk about is how michigan is still on the bubble even after they have 20 wins
March 12th, 2011 at 11:20 AM ^
I think it's been about right, actually. Until the last couple weeks or so, Michigan didn't seem like a viable tourney team. A lot of close but no cigar games. No big wins until they beat Sparty, which is a borderline team. Since then, the media has mostly supported the team's tourney odds.
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<br>You think they deserve to be higher? Based on what? Close losses don't count in a major way. They're about where they should be.
March 12th, 2011 at 12:07 PM ^
A win over TSIO tomorrow would get Michigan a lot of appreciation. This is a team that overachieved, but it isn't quite ready to take on the "big boys" on a regular basis yet.
What is important now is a good showing in the NCAA Tournament. If they win at least one game, they might begin next year in the top 25. They might, anyway. I originally wanted to see them in the NIT because I thought they needed to learn to win close games against better teams, but they have demonstrated that they learned just that in their last three games.
The Wolverines have grown faster than I thought they would, but the reat of the country hasn't really seen that yet, because Michigan started the season so far down the food chain.
If you crave seeing Michigan in the spotlight, just be patient. It could happen sooner than you think. And it will happen next year, even if it doesn't this year.