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.
The announcer (dakich) is just terrible. He was anti-michigan the ENTIRE game pretty much.
I think everybody thinks Michigan's in. Maybe not some talking heads on ESPN.
Also, take a look back at this board as of 2-3 weeks ago. You won't find many postings re how Michigan was a tournament team. The Wisky game was considered by many to be the death-blow, and not unreasonably. The media, in this case, is more or less in step with the fans.