Media Poll: Michigan Picked to Finish 5th in Basketball
The annual media poll was released. Sounds about right. LINK.
October 2nd, 2019 at 9:58 AM ^
5th in the B1G.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:07 AM ^
That should have been in the OP.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:52 AM ^
It should have. My bad, entirely. WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO EDIT AN OP!
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:58 AM ^
I knew exactly you meant.
October 2nd, 2019 at 2:12 PM ^
You're fine. Everyone knows we're not going to be ranked #5 in the preseason polls.
"Michigan Ranked #5" would have been deceptive, if you meant the Big Ten.
"Media Poll/picked to finish 5th" are good indicators this is conference standings. Big Ten always does a media poll and it's "5th" not "#5."
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^
Projected player of the year DJ Carton );
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:14 AM ^
No, just freshman of the year. Less sad but still sad.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:54 AM ^
John Beilein was great but his archaic/stringently rule abiding approach to recruiting is not going to be missed.
Good to see Juwan bring some energy on the crooting trail even if it’s a slow start so far.
October 2nd, 2019 at 11:10 AM ^
John Beilein's approach to recruiting had nothing to do with losing out on Carton.
Beilein had positioned Michigan as the favorite, but Holtman sold him on being their starting PG from day one. Carton knew that wasn't going to happen at Michigan with Simpson on the roster.
October 2nd, 2019 at 11:13 AM ^
Here you go again.
October 2nd, 2019 at 12:17 PM ^
Is "The Cube" the latest iteration of Maizen?
October 2nd, 2019 at 5:21 PM ^
It's not off to a slow start at all considering how far behind Juwan was starting with the 2020 class. Juwan has also kept Zeb in the fold for 2020.
Juwan also sealed the deal with Franz, so recruiting is off to a solid start.
October 2nd, 2019 at 2:29 PM ^
I think Ohio State is overrated here. Am I missing something. Kaleb Wesson looked slow and mentally soft last year against us. Carton might be good but no one knows. I think their coach has them going in the right direction but I don't see how they are 2nd in the B1G.
October 2nd, 2019 at 9:54 PM ^
It doesn't matter if anyone else is overrated or where they are ranked. All that matters is where the good team ends up at.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^
Looks like ncaa championship or bust for MSU this year.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:45 AM ^
they're gonna get sidetracked by more off court controversy. . .
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:54 AM ^
Doesn't wearing a blue ribbon make everything right?
October 2nd, 2019 at 1:30 PM ^
I’m guessing “bust”. Seems like they have had early tourney exits when ranked tops in the country.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^
Sounds about right. Same position as the football team.
October 2nd, 2019 at 1:23 PM ^
Something isn't adding up...when we're bad at football, we're supposed to be good at basketball. When we're good at football, we're supposed to be bad at basketball....sooo does this mean we are going to be mutually mediocre??
This weekend could help determine the fate of the basketball team....
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^
I fully expect a dude like Zavier Simpson to take offense at this and take out his anger on Cassius Winston.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:06 AM ^
If that were the case, you think he would have been slighted by some of the losses to them last year.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:15 AM ^
Not all of the losses but maybe two of the three.
October 2nd, 2019 at 2:02 PM ^
Have you been watching long enough to know that X kicked Winston's ass the year before? This year brings the rubber matches, nothing more.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:06 AM ^
And there are two guys named Zavier/Xavier on the second team.
October 2nd, 2019 at 11:42 AM ^
No wonder he went from x to z.... great foresight and vision.
October 2nd, 2019 at 1:11 PM ^
X to the Z XZhibit
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:15 AM ^
I did not see the selection for Pre-Season Whiner of the year?
Is that going to Izzo, Pitino, McCaffrey, or Collins?
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:27 AM ^
I was going to say Collins if he ends up flailing on the floor like a fish out of water again but I think he's already slated into the Pre-Season Most Likely to get Fired award.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:25 AM ^
Haarms over Teske for second team? Not sure about that but then again I'm not sure about half the journalists who vote for these things.
October 2nd, 2019 at 11:10 AM ^
Haarms was very mediocre last season, hard to imagine he passes Teske. Wonder if this has something to do with offensive philosophy change in Ann Arbor? Hope we still see Teske putting up 3s
October 2nd, 2019 at 12:02 PM ^
as long as most of them aren't 6" short......
October 2nd, 2019 at 12:27 PM ^
I was to see him raining three's and dunking inside like a rabid lumberjack felling other B1G trees.
October 2nd, 2019 at 1:48 PM ^
haarms was pretty damn good down the stretch last year. he was a totally different player from Nov than March.
October 2nd, 2019 at 2:04 PM ^
Was gonna say. . . simply speaking through your hindcheeks seems to be carrying the day here. Haarms is hard to look at, almost the epitome of the whineybigboy. But unfortunately he's matured into a strong player.
October 2nd, 2019 at 12:40 PM ^
I'm expecting Teske to have an Ndamukong Suh like year (except for basketball, obviously) where he dominates every game with his defense and deserves to get Big10 player of the year, but gets passed over by someone with better offensive stats.
October 2nd, 2019 at 4:55 PM ^
Yeah that's dumb. Teske was better than Haarms last year. He'll be better this year
Howard has said Teske is turning into a monster. Wouldn't be surprised if Teske averaged 13/10/3
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:52 AM ^
Sounds about right.
The team is pretty much one giant question mark at this point. Lost quite a few players, the offense wasn't that great to begin with last season, new coach, new system, new everything...
A win over MSU in his first season and making the tourney will be a successful year in my book.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:55 AM ^
It’s amazing how different the expectations are for football vs. basketball. Not that it’s wrong, just that I feel the same way.
I think the tournament lends itself to that too because hey, if you get in, maybe you make a run. Where football, it’s sorta like you have to be the absolute very best or bust.
October 2nd, 2019 at 12:31 PM ^
I was thinking about that recently, too. It's also the shear amount of games - if you get blown out by Wisconsin one night - oh well, you play them again two weeks later, and then in the B1G Tourney...
October 2nd, 2019 at 2:49 PM ^
Sheer number.
October 2nd, 2019 at 1:13 PM ^
These are my feelings too. No real stress watching basketball until the tourney. Football, it's stress every game, since a couple missteps ruin your season.
October 2nd, 2019 at 1:43 PM ^
I agree....I think more of a reason for that perception is the fact that we need to beat OSU to have a good season. Which at this point is 100% true. we see what OSU is doing on Saturday and our prospects for beating them look grim. You can potentially survive a loss against a lesser team during the season but losing to your rival, who is in your division, in the last game of the season, is unrecoverable.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:55 AM ^
They could be anywhere from 3-5 in my opinion. I also think Illinois will finish higher than this poll, probably 4th or 5th.
October 2nd, 2019 at 10:59 AM ^
I could quibble a bit with Purdue, but about right.
I do think MSU underwhelms this year. I know people are all like "they return all of this talent", and they do, but they also lost a number of senior contributors and, I'll be honest, Tom Izzo has a shitty record working with younger guys without a lot of experience around them. I wouldn't be shocked if Winston regressed a little bit and we see Izzo screaming at the belly-button of his players by mid-January and talking shit about them in the media.
October 2nd, 2019 at 12:32 PM ^
I can see this. Izzo seems to do best with less talent and no expectations.
October 2nd, 2019 at 1:29 PM ^
They were a #1 seed preseason a couple years ago and lost to MTSU in the first round. Winston is a great asset to have and he'll be key for them, but Izzo's best teams are the ones that rely on everyone just being in sync with each other, and young guys don't usually have that same balance.
October 2nd, 2019 at 1:50 PM ^
This is true. His ability to coach up young talent has always been his problem. That being said, he only lost Goings and McQuaid, technically they were younger last year than they are this year. He’ll play less freshman this year than he did last year. So while I agree with your point, I don’t think it applies until next year when they are young again. They do underwhelm when the expectations are high though.
October 2nd, 2019 at 5:53 PM ^
They lost Ward too. Though this could be argued as beneficial