Monday Bracketology
Our disappointing loss to Purdue obviously hurt our tourney seed, but not by as much as you'd think.
The bracket matrix:
http://bracketproject.50webs.com/matrix.htm
has us as a 3 seed, albeit the worst of the 3 seeds. About half of the brackets that updated post-Purdue have us as a 4 seed, so we're right on the line.
Lunardi: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology still has us as a 3 seed, although he also has us as the worst 3 seed.
Our RPI took a hit, down from 10 to 15. IMO, we're unlikely to improve our seed at this point absent winning the B1G tournament, but losses could and probably would hurt. A loss to either Illinois or Penn St. pushes into 5 seed territory.
Other notes:
- both Lunardi and most of the recently updated matrix brackets have N'Western in, though in many of those, NWU is the last team in;
- losses from Baylor and G'town help us because we have similar profiles. That's also true of IU and Wisconsin to a lesser extent;
- 3 and 4 seeds will play in Columbus, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Portland and Albuquerque. Obviously, we'd prefer to be east of the Mississippi.
February 27th, 2012 at 1:53 PM ^
Lunardi's bracket looks pretty favorable for Michigan. Hopefully that loss to Purdue lights something with the team's 3 pointers
February 27th, 2012 at 1:55 PM ^
It was this week because a lot of teams around us, G'Town, Louisville, Florida, etc. took it on the chin too. If you look at the bracket matrix, we might be the lowest 3rd seed, but we are a full 1.2 better in average than Florida, the top 4 seed.
As long as we close out with two wins and finish no lower than second in the B10, there really isn't anyone (right now) that has the resume to challenge us for one of the 3s.
February 27th, 2012 at 2:04 PM ^
That was a really, really tough loss but given a choice I'd rather have the "who are these guys anyways" game now and not in a couple of weeks.
February 27th, 2012 at 2:09 PM ^
I believe we were the worst 3-seed before losing to Purdue, so that loss apparently didn't change things too much. (Admittedly I didn't look to see how many brackets hadn't updated since Saturday evening.)
February 27th, 2012 at 2:10 PM ^
i most brackets we were in the middle of the 3 seeds prior to the purdue loss.
February 27th, 2012 at 2:13 PM ^
I thought prior to the weekend our average seed was the worst of the 3s. Not so then.
Obviously we want to be the best 3-seed so as to hopefully get a nice landing spot, such as Columbus or Pittsburgh (hell, even Nashville).
February 27th, 2012 at 2:19 PM ^
It's going to be really annoying if Illinois turns out to have found itself just in time to give Michigan trouble. I also don't like the fact that Michigan has to travel to Illinois for a Thursday night game and then turn around and make it out to Happy Valley on Sunday. What's up with that?
On a happier note: I liked the idea that Purdue needed to beat Michigan to improve its tournament chances. It's nice to be the hunted at this time of year rather than the hunter.
February 27th, 2012 at 2:20 PM ^
February 27th, 2012 at 2:31 PM ^
Matta kicked his players out of practice on Saturday.
http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/stories/2012/02/27/promising-season-slipping-away.html
February 27th, 2012 at 2:36 PM ^
First, I *am* hoping UM is placed in Pittsburgh or Nashville (Columbus NO), so more of you can see the game in person. But if that doesn't happen, Portland would not be a bad location to be placed. Michigan hasn't played in Portland in the 32 years I've lived in Oregon, I know we'd have a good turnout of fans in Maize and Blue to cheer on the Wolverines. The last time Michigan played a tournament game in Portland was 1975, when UM had the misfortune of being paired with UCLA in the opening round; the result was a 103-91 OT win for the eventual champions. boxscore
February 27th, 2012 at 6:49 PM ^
My brother and dad and I were watching that game, it was late at night as we were still living in Michigan and I remember all of us bitching about the Bruins getting biased calls from the refs because of Wooden. My dad swore up a storm he was so pissed, he was fun watching a Tigers game with, we could be up 10 runs in the 7th inning and my dad would erupt if we made an error, aah good times they were,I miss you dad.
February 27th, 2012 at 2:39 PM ^
is more important than most people figure, at least in my eyes. A first round game against a 14 seed (Akron, Nevada) is a lot less threatening than a 13 seed, where it seems like a lot of the ubiquitous "dangerous mid-majors" are being projected (Iona, Long Beach State)
Not to mention that the second round game would likely be against a 6 instead of a 5 seed. Here's to hoping we close out the regular season with 2 more wins followed by more in the BTT!
February 27th, 2012 at 3:43 PM ^
I had a nice write-up on this that deleted itself. I'm not re-writing it. But the gap in regards to quality of teams is much bigger in seeds 13 over 14 than seeds 3 over 4; 13 >>>> 14, 3 > 4. Off the top of my head, over the past, say 5 seasons, there have been some quality 13 seeds and have shown themselves to be dangerous Tournament teams. Any team would find itself much rather wanting a 3 seed than a 4 seed. The difference between a 5 and 6 isn't as big in my mind; it's the first round where overlooking can take place.
February 27th, 2012 at 2:50 PM ^
Possible outcomes in my estimation:
2 seed- not likely possible- only can happen with split BIG 10 title and tourney title and likely another likely 2 seed losing in their tourney early
3 seed- Win out regular season, make it to semi-finals to have good chance- to Big Ten championship game definate- if we lose game left in regular season need to make it to finals and maybe win it
4 seed- Can probably have one regular season loss and make it to semi finals
5 seed- If we win out regular season not likely. One/two losses to end season and don't make big ten semis then we get 5
February 27th, 2012 at 3:11 PM ^
February 27th, 2012 at 3:16 PM ^
They're allowed to play in the same city or a nearby city as long as it's not at their home arena.
February 27th, 2012 at 3:41 PM ^
Why hasn't EMU suddenly had a bunch of rennovations and mysterious political support to get a NCAA hosting gig?
February 27th, 2012 at 3:40 PM ^
But I assume Ohio is able/eligible to play in Columbus? i.e. I assume they have a different arena they'd play in than the one on campus??
February 27th, 2012 at 3:43 PM ^
According to StubHub, they're playing at Nationwide Arena, as opposed to their home court Value City Arena.
February 27th, 2012 at 3:55 PM ^
Is that the Blue Jackets' arena?
EDIT: Let me Google that for myself. It is indeed the home arena for the Blue Jackets.
February 27th, 2012 at 3:57 PM ^
Interestingly enough, Ohio just signed a contract to manage the facility and make it a "sister arena" to Value City. I wonder if that affects their ability to play there in the Big Dance.
February 27th, 2012 at 4:10 PM ^
in Nashville in the 2nd round wouldn't be a lot fun.
February 27th, 2012 at 6:02 PM ^
They are the host school in Columbus - which means they can't play in cbus. They will likely play in Louisville or Pittsburgh.
I really want UM to play in Pitt or Cbus - I think we would have huge crowds there.
February 27th, 2012 at 6:28 PM ^
Hopefully they come to Pittsburgh, so I can go and watch them.
February 27th, 2012 at 8:13 PM ^
February 27th, 2012 at 9:53 PM ^
February 28th, 2012 at 5:26 PM ^
Here is Florida's resume:
22-7 (10-4) 2nd in SEC # 16 in AP poll
Key Wins:
Vs. Vanderbilt (20-9)won by 8 points
Vs. Florida State (19-9) #22 won by 18
Good losses:
@ Ohio State (23-9) #10 as of now and they lost by 7
@ Syracuse (29-1) #2 they lost by 4
@ Kentucky (28-1) #1 they lost by 20 so kind of a good loss. Actually maybe not.
Bad losses:
@ Tennessee (16-13) lost by 11
Vs. Tennessee (16-13) lost by 5
@ Georgia (13-15) lost by 14
Strengths:
Great perimeter shooting, and an expierienced backcourt.
Weaknesses:
No consistent low post scorer.
Key players:
Kenny Boynton:
6-2 189 lbs
17.3 ppg .467 fg% .735 ft% .431 3pt% 2.6 apg .8 spg 1.4 To 1.8 Ast/To
Erving Walker:
5-8 177 lbs
4.8 apg 1 spg 2 To 2.4 Ast/To
Bradley Beal:
6-3 207 lbs
14.7 ppg .438 fg% .778 ft% .324 3pt% 6.5 reb 1.2 off 5.3 def .9 bpg
Patric Young (No I did not forget the "k")
6-9 247 lbs
6.4 reb 2.4 off 3.8 def 1 bpg