Michigan Basketball #17 in AP Poll, #16 in Coaches Poll
Michigan moved up a couple of spots in the polls to #17 in the AP and #16 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, despite the loss to Villanova.
Notables from the AP Poll: Wisconsin #2, Ohio State #14, Michigan State #19, Maryland #21 Illinois #24.
December 1st, 2014 at 3:46 PM ^
Also Maryland at #21.
December 1st, 2014 at 3:47 PM ^
Oops, my apologies. I'm still living in a world where they aren't in the B1G.
December 2nd, 2014 at 9:33 AM ^
Take me to this world of yours.
December 1st, 2014 at 3:47 PM ^
December 1st, 2014 at 3:53 PM ^
The Duke bet is yours to make as they play each other in two days.
December 1st, 2014 at 3:55 PM ^
We'll know a lot better in 2 weeks what these teams are. UK is in their own class. Duke did not impress me vs MSU at all. Okafor is scary good though. Kansas is way down this year - 1 prime time player. Arizona we'll see vs UM in a few weeks. The ACC v Big 10 challenge will show a lot.
A lot of the name programs outside UK lost a lot to the NBA last year and have not reloaded at the same level. Wisconsin not only has 3 prime time players but 3 non freshman prime time players wheras a lot of the name programs are relying on freshmen.
December 1st, 2014 at 4:07 PM ^
The beauty and the curse of NCAAB is that it only takes one loss at the wrong time to end your season. Maybe we see the opposite with Kentucky this year and they start off strong and peak too early.
They're very good but I'm sure some enterprising team can knock them off their perch if enough goes that team's way. Right now though yeah they are a cut above the rest. It's also nice to see the Big Ten get some respect but yeah we got to do our part as a conference and win the ACC-BIG Challenge again to keep the conference competitive. It is in our benefit to be in a good conference because as we've seen with football if you are in a bad conference and still don't perform then that's a double whammy. Instead if you're in a good conference even if you aren't the best you still can have a good season by knocking off some of the good teams.
Agree that we'll know a lot more by the end of December where conferences and Michigan stand.
December 1st, 2014 at 4:33 PM ^
I still think Wisconsin is overrated. Played 3 good weeks last year
Wisconsin went 30-8 last season. It would probably be more accurate to say that they were a good team that had three bad weeks in January.
December 1st, 2014 at 3:49 PM ^
We had a very good Villanova team on the ropes. I was at the game.
The coaches and press got this right.
BEAT SYRACUSE!
sjw
December 1st, 2014 at 3:51 PM ^
Don't sleep on Maryland - they have a star freshman leading them in scoring, and 3 other freshmen in their top 8 from a loaded class. Counterbalanced by a few seniors. Evan S is barely even playing nowadays. They smoked a pretty damn good Iowa State team. Their game vs Virginia Wed should be a doozy.
December 1st, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^
Evan was injured to start the year so his role will be bigger than you would guess but the freshman for maryland have really stepped up and melo trimble is the real deal. The also have a 7 footer freshman that is like Doyle in that he shows flashes but will foul himself out of making a difference.
Dez wells, Marylands leading senior is going to be out 4 weeks with a broken hand though, its a real shame since they had a real shot against uva but now it looks like they are going to have to ride that iowa state win and a strong conference season.
December 1st, 2014 at 4:26 PM ^
I thought we were criminally underrated in the preseason polls, despite all we lost. Either way, it's clear that this team is very good and will only get better as the year goes on. Could be another deep run in March.
December 1st, 2014 at 4:46 PM ^
We're still a big ol' question mark at the 4 and 5. It's good that Doyle is emerging, but at this point I doubt we're top 20. End of season? Yeah, I bet Beilein will get us there. But at the moment I doubt we're that good
December 1st, 2014 at 4:56 PM ^
So the media underrated us again at the start of the season for the 4th straight year?
December 1st, 2014 at 5:11 PM ^
Michigan has won 7 straight games when ranked #17.
They were last ranked #17 on 2/18/2012, when Michigan upset #6 Ohio State 56-51 at Crisler Center in their College Gameday game.
December 1st, 2014 at 7:14 PM ^
are a crazy person. +1 for sheer esotericness of that stat.
December 1st, 2014 at 5:23 PM ^
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December 1st, 2014 at 5:48 PM ^
December 1st, 2014 at 5:54 PM ^
December 1st, 2014 at 7:57 PM ^
December 1st, 2014 at 6:35 PM ^
December 1st, 2014 at 7:25 PM ^
...pretty accurate actually. A step down from the top 2-3 tiers*, but very competitive with almost anybody and a neutral-court toss-up with any team worse than Kansas, even with our defiiciencies.
*Not based on anything other than eyeball analysis, but here is how my brain is organizing top-25 teams right now. There's a clear dropoff in "likelihood of winning national championship" between each group:
Tier 1: Kentucky
Tier 2: Duke, Wisconsin, Zona, Louisville
Tier 3: Texas through Kansas
Tier 4: Carolina through Maryland (Michigan is in this group)
Tier 5: Oklahoma through Utah.
A couple of teams outside the top 25 have a chance to make deep runs in March-April, but not really. Never count out UConn, as we learned last year during the Most Enraging National Championship Ever.
December 1st, 2014 at 9:05 PM ^