Michigan Basketball. bummer.

Submitted by swan flu on

Well that game was a bummer.  Virginia caught fire at the end.  Does this affect our season's aspirations?

LSAClassOf2000

November 29th, 2011 at 9:47 PM ^

If we're sitting here worried that a loss to Virginia (favored, incidentally) at the end of November is already costing us the tournament, then the conclusion we would probably have to draw is that we more or less stink. I am going to go out on a limb here and say Michigan doesn't stink, and we are good enough to make it into the tourney without help. 

Meeeeshigan

November 30th, 2011 at 4:53 AM ^

As the announcers alluded to, the ACC isn't terribly deep this year beyond the very top, so UVA may very well turn out to be an mid- to upper-half ACC team and get into the Tourney themselves. An early road loss to another tournament-bound team shouldn't sink our resume.

BTW, I didn't think we got much help from the refs tonight--anyone else agree? I felt like UVA got every touch foul called, and several nice drives with obvious +1's weren't called for us. Not really a good excuse for the loss, but, still.

EZ Bud

November 29th, 2011 at 8:48 PM ^

As long as we're perfect through the rest of the out-of-conference schedule, we'll be fine. You'd like to get to 10 wins before the Big Ten season starts. At Virginia will in no way be viewed as a "bad loss" this season. We just can't slip up against Oakland U or similar. 

HartAttack20

November 29th, 2011 at 8:50 PM ^

I was very impressed with Virginia's defense. Everything Michigan did on offense seemed forced and uncomfortable. This should be a great building experience for the team. They just couldn't get much going offensively. Plain and simple. Should be interesting to see how the team responds.

mGrowOld

November 29th, 2011 at 8:51 PM ^

Unfortunately I believe this officially ends all our dreams for an NCAA bid.  Our only hope now is to run the table and finish 28-2....anything less than that and we're toast.  I mean what two loss team has ever been given a bid to the dance much less win it.

s/

EZ Bud

November 29th, 2011 at 8:55 PM ^

When are we going to get a B1G-ACC challenge game in Ann Arbor? I believe this is 3 years straight we were on the road. It's getting old. 

tistonion wings

November 29th, 2011 at 8:57 PM ^

I was pretty disgusted with the effort, no one showed any emothion. Virginia is a really good team that we didn't match up well with, which is pretty big ten like, Hopefully the guys get their heads together soon.

translator82

November 29th, 2011 at 8:58 PM ^

We shot better than UVA (44% to 41.5%) but fouls killed us looking at the stats (20 for us, 12 for UVA). UVA: 17-22 for free throws while we were only 4-7. That pretty much is your difference maker. Also got outrebounded and they doubled us on assists.

crum

November 29th, 2011 at 8:59 PM ^

It was one of the poorest games this group has played but it changes nothing really. Virginia is not good but you can't be that flat on offense in a road game and expect to win. We will be fine.

TeamHokeuli

November 29th, 2011 at 9:08 PM ^

1) Burke will make us forget about D-Mo's "touch" from the outside.

2) I already miss Novak, even though he has a full season left.

3) I have never missed Douglass, and won't...ever.  He loves to miss critical, open 3s every game. He's like the Eric Karros of stats- solo bomb up 10-2 in the 9th.

4) Our offense is very easy to criticize, and incredibly frustrating when we lose.  We're going to have to have an ounce of success from the bigs, consistently, to be a top BIG contender.

5) THJ will be just fine, and will be around another year for our excitement.  He's not like Morris, who jumped a year too early without refining his weaknesses.

6) Michigan is back, relevant, and the fact that a loss like this is causing some to crack open the Nucky Thompson, shows how far we've come.

MGoBender

November 29th, 2011 at 9:14 PM ^

3) I have never missed Douglass, and won't...ever.  He loves to miss critical, open 3s every game. He's like the Eric Karros of stats- solo bomb up 10-2 in the 9th.

 

He's also our best on-the-ball defender and a great senior leader who has been integral in our basketball resurgence.  He shot about 2% worse than Novak from '3' last year.  He is asked to take and make much more difficult threes than Novak as well.

How about we not rag on a 4-year captain that's worked his ass off for our team.

TeamHokeuli

November 29th, 2011 at 9:19 PM ^

Apparently no questionable comments about individual players are accepted here.  People can blast refs all day long, make ridiculous comments about nothing significant, yet you can't criticize Douglass for the one thing he was supposed to do well- shoot the long ball.  I appreciate what he has done eating minutes and being a senior leader for this team, but I must be in the minority of people critical of his game.  My apologies to his #1 fan.

MGoBender

November 29th, 2011 at 9:25 PM ^

I'm not anybody's #1 fan.  My "favorite" player on the team beside Zack is probably Jordan Morgan, but I really don't have much of a favorite.

Douglass has done everything you can ask a student-athlete to do.  As a former fellow student and now a young alum I feel it is my duty to support the team and not say "I'll never miss them." 

Saying he can be better is one thing.  Saying "good riddance" to someone who's busted his ass for 4 years is quite another.  Basketball is a game with both offense and defense.  Douglass has been our best OTB defender for 3 years now.  That's huge.

Also, if you stick around you may find out that I'm one of those people who despises any bitching about the refs and routinely calls people out on it.