Michigan Basketball ranked #25 in AP Poll
December 14th, 2020 at 12:29 PM ^
Probably 5 to 10 spots too low. Keep dunking Hunter. Keep winning.
December 14th, 2020 at 12:33 PM ^
Rightfully so. Good job men. Work on better decision making and protect the ball better, and this team could have a really good season!
December 14th, 2020 at 12:42 PM ^
Definitely need to clean up the turnover issue. 16 to and zero steals....not good.
Love watching this group play, should get better as the season progresses.
Go Blue ??
December 14th, 2020 at 12:50 PM ^
I really like the team as well, it's just really frustrating watching some of these seniors make such bone headed decisions. The shot selection is terrible sometimes. Smith yesterday put up a terrible shot when we were up 2 with nearly a full shot clock with under a minute left in the game. Livers did the same thing against Oakland. Then at the end yesterday passing the ball to a 40% FT shooter? Stuff like that will cost you games eventually! Hopefully Howard can get that message across!
December 14th, 2020 at 1:01 PM ^
Yep. That Smith shot was inexplicable -- he takes a contested mid-range jump shot instead of kicking it to a wide-open Livers at the 3 point line.
And I almost jumped out of my chair when I saw Williams get the ball. I understand passing to him -- PSU was pressing and he was the outlet; but Brooks should have streaked over to the middle, loudly demanding the ball in the back court before Williams crossed over. That's what guards do at the end of game--make sure they either have the ball or get the ball to someone who can shoot FTs.
December 14th, 2020 at 1:06 PM ^
Glad someone else noticed. The situational awareness needs to improve a lot if this team is going to reach it's full potential. The seniors are the guys you really need that out of, and it hasn't been good thus far!
December 14th, 2020 at 1:42 PM ^
Williams should not even have been in the game on offense. The substitution strategy for this game was bewildering.
December 14th, 2020 at 1:48 PM ^
His defense was good so I'll take him being in the game there. No FTs to be had if you don't first get a stop.
December 14th, 2020 at 12:46 PM ^
We need to clean up sloppy passing. John Belein would be doing passing drills after this game. Fundamentals are important to prevent stupid turnovers.
December 14th, 2020 at 12:59 PM ^
I like John Beilein. Great coach. But he is no longer coaching this team. Stop saying what he would have done. Honestly, you don’t know. I am sure the current coaching staff will address the situation. This is like comparing your old girlfriend who left you to your new girlfriend.
December 14th, 2020 at 1:16 PM ^
The majority of the players on the team were recruited by and played under Beilein. Your analogy is bad and you should feel bad about it
December 14th, 2020 at 1:48 PM ^
User name checks out.
December 14th, 2020 at 2:09 PM ^
It is not bad.. Beilein left Michigan and left us at a less than optimal time. Still people want to bring up what Beilein would have done. Just because they are his recruits has nothing to do with the coaching strategy now. He is gone, change your username. Basketball cannot follow the same fate as football. Coaches cannot be compared to Beilein in the same way every coach is compared to Bo. Sometimes change is good. Don’t be afraid of it.
December 14th, 2020 at 1:01 PM ^
Livers drives me crazy with some of his passes
December 14th, 2020 at 12:48 PM ^
Don't really care where they're ranked right now - I suspect this team will get demonstrably better through the season. Once they clean up the turn-overs and defense, They'll prove to be a force in the tourney.
December 14th, 2020 at 12:58 PM ^
Agree - I thought they were pretty decent last year but now they're legitimately good and could be dangerous if they keep getting better. Juwan is really coaching 'em up. They can beat you in a variety of ways and if they cut out the mistakes they are going to win a lot of games.
December 14th, 2020 at 1:06 PM ^
Defense wasn't much of an issue yesterday (other than perhaps around the perimeter, but a couple of the threes that PSU hit were tough, contested shots). There has been noticeable improvement on defense since the beginning of the season.
December 14th, 2020 at 10:03 PM ^
In December, their last 4 games, Michigan has allowed 63 points per game while averaging over 79 themselves.
For my own comfort, I would prefer they jump out to an early 15 point lead and continue to hold a double-digit lead throughout the game. But then we would have nothing to complain about-yeah right.
December 14th, 2020 at 12:56 PM ^
I guess we'll continue to be underrated, that's fine. KenPom has us at #14 right now btw
Lazy ass AP Voters and poll inertia can fuck off
December 14th, 2020 at 1:52 PM ^
Eh...it's not that bad. Maybe we should be a couple spots higher (e.g., North Carolina is only ranked based on rep, not on performance or results), but most other teams have more impressive resumes due to the fact we haven't played a tough schedule.
For example, I haven't followed Clemson's season, so I was surprised to see them ahead of us. I check their schedule. They are 5-0 with 4 wins over big conference teams (including Maryland and Purdue). So while I have no idea whether we are better than Clemson, I completely understand being ranked behind them.
https://clemsontigers.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/
December 14th, 2020 at 2:51 PM ^
UNC, UVA, Duke, Rutgers, OSU, Illinois and Wisconsin all being ranked ahead of UM is laughable.
December 14th, 2020 at 12:59 PM ^
At least 2020 is giving us Duke and UNC barely hanging in the Top 25. I am OK with this.
December 15th, 2020 at 2:08 PM ^
Coach K has invalidated this season. Don't get too excited.
December 14th, 2020 at 1:03 PM ^
Our relatively soft nonconference schedule is probably what's weighing us down (coupled with the fact that Michigan Basketball tends to fly under the radar in general). Glad that the poll rankings really don't matter in college basketball.
December 14th, 2020 at 1:17 PM ^
Correct, no wins over ranked or even close to ranked teams. It's not like there's much to complain about. Michigan's close home win over PSU was it's first over a team in the top 100 on any ranking. And they went to overtime with a team barely in the top 300.
The good thing is, that OT win does look to be a major outlier amongst a lot of otherwise good performances against not horrible teams. This is a very solid team.
December 14th, 2020 at 1:43 PM ^
Oakland just gave MSU a game, yeah MSU won in regular time but Oakland played with them.
Im over the sentiment that we shouldnt have gone to OT with them....its a basketball game agasint a scrappy ass team, and we won.
Keep underrating us though
December 14th, 2020 at 1:52 PM ^
MSU is overrated this year. That win over an overrated Duke team is really carrying them. Besides that, they haven't really beaten anyone. They struggled against Oakland like us until pulling away in the second half and only beat Detroit Mercy by 7
December 14th, 2020 at 4:33 PM ^
Did you see OSU struggle with 0-2 Cleveland State (now 0-3)?
December 14th, 2020 at 7:31 PM ^
Oakland stuck with MSU for 20 min, not 40. We underperformed expectations by 30+ points in those 40 minutes. Like I said, it clearly appears to be a fluke but when poll voters don't have data on us against a good team, it's fair to have us (gasp) only 25th. They tend to rate more on resume than quality.
December 14th, 2020 at 1:33 PM ^
In the end, the rankings don't matter. Especially this early. But they can still be annoying. I understand keeping Michigan down because of the schedule and the OT game with Oakland. But who has OSU beaten to stay at #20? They beat winless Cleveland State yesterday by 6. And Rutgers at #19?
Shouldn't the weak schedule argument be applied to everyone?
December 14th, 2020 at 1:49 PM ^
We have a better resume than like 4-5 teams ranked ahead of us right now
December 14th, 2020 at 4:46 PM ^
Which is why I'm glad that no one who matters gives a shit. The tournament committee doesn't consider the AP or coaches polls, and they don't factor into any of the rankings that the committee does consider.
December 14th, 2020 at 1:31 PM ^
Good to see them ranked, but not really pressing right now. Just have to keep playing well and hopefully get Davis back.
It is funny watching how lazy AP voters are. OSU beats an 0-3 Cleveland St. team yesterday and have 1 win against a top-100 KenPom team (ND) and they moved up 2 spots. Like, I get we don't have a ton of data points and OSU was down their top player but its still weird that they got a bump.
December 14th, 2020 at 1:41 PM ^
BTW Oakland gave MSU fits...can we stop looking at that game as some bad shit now. Oakland has become very scrappy
December 14th, 2020 at 2:40 PM ^
Our turnovers that game were, indeed, a bad shit show.
December 14th, 2020 at 1:43 PM ^
Also we are #24 in the Coaches Poll!! #GoBlue
December 14th, 2020 at 2:01 PM ^
NEW THREAD!!!!
December 14th, 2020 at 1:49 PM ^
I would love to say rankings do not matter right now, it will work itself out, just keep winning, blah blah blah.
But i would be lying. It is absolute fucking bullshit where this team is ranked. I could write a 100 page essay on why and back it up with statistical info, but most of you already know most of what i will pour hours into writing.
Its fucking horseshit. Just look at some of these teams ahead of us and their resume so far. Bullshit!
December 14th, 2020 at 1:51 PM ^
It will be interesting in this COVID year how much the B1G home court advantage will play out. Looking at the schedule, it's possible the team is 11-0 when Wisconsin comes to Crisler on 11-Jan, and then 17-0 when Sparty comes on 6-Feb.
I know it is not at all likely, but given no fans for the games and the schedule being so heavily back-loaded, who knows?
December 14th, 2020 at 2:01 PM ^
One of seven B1G teams in the top 25. This team is an elite shot creator away from being a title contender.
Need to improve ball security and find another offensive threat. Then we could make a deep tournament run.
December 14th, 2020 at 2:28 PM ^
Livers has elite shot creator moments, but he is inconsistent. Livers needs to be his best if we're going far in the tourney.
December 14th, 2020 at 2:17 PM ^
Its a milestone but I don't know how much it matters at this point in the season. Having said that, 25th-ish seems about right (maybe a 5 or 6-seed projection?)
They've beaten Nobody and have made mistakes that WILL be costly if repeated when they play Somebody. This team could be 4-2 right now with one of those loses to a team that hasn't otherwise won a game this season, so I don't know where all the "This is BS... we should be ranked higher" blowback is coming from. Let's see if they can win a couple conference games on the road that they "should" win.
This team is going to have some shining moments and will be included in "don't sleep on these guys" conversations; they're also going to lose a few while fans cringe in frustration over some Senior making Sophomore-level mistakes.
December 14th, 2020 at 3:49 PM ^
Kenpom rankings:
#4 - Iowa
#7 - Wisconsin
#14 - Michigan
#15 - Indiana
#16 - Illinois
#20 - MSU
#21 - OSU
December 14th, 2020 at 3:51 PM ^
I wouldn’t put Michigan above Ohio state or Michigan state just yet but we are definitely a top 20 team. Problem is so are 7 other big ten teams
December 14th, 2020 at 7:34 PM ^
Seven other big ten teams? Eight big ten teams in the top 20? Ok
December 14th, 2020 at 3:50 PM ^
Keep underestimating us and play with a chip on your shoulder! College basketball rankings mean absolutely nothing. Just something for people to talk about before selection Sunday. The big ten looks like a buzzsaw this year but remember if enough teams beat each other you can still share the big ten championship. 12 days off before Nebraska! Go Blue!
December 14th, 2020 at 5:37 PM ^
There aren't 24 teams better than Michigan right now.
December 14th, 2020 at 5:39 PM ^