OTish: I want no smoke from this Oklahoma State team
Every time I've seen this Oklahoma State team play this year (which is 4-5 times now), they are doing one thing - beating ranked teams (always higher-ranked, mostly on the road). They've got gumption.
They remind me a lot of Carmelo Anthony's Syracuse team - a superstar freshman surrounded by capable scorers. The Cowboys, like the '03 Orange, will likely end up a 3-seed. If they're not upset in the first weekend, I'm pegging them for the Final Four. I do NOT want to see them in Michigan's bracket.
I have heard it both ways including just a minute ago: are they eligible for the tournament, or not?
I could've sworn they weren't. Apparently, they appealed the ban and won't receive the final answer before the tournament, and thus will be able to compete.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/01/26/march-madness-bracketology-oklahoma-state/
How convenient for the NCAA since OK State has a superstar (possible top pick in the draft) freshman.
I think they appealed the postseason ban and have yet to hear back from the ncaa.
Yeah from what I have heard if the NCAA doesn’t respond back they are eligible and a lot of people think the NCAA is waiting till after march madness so they will most likely be in
I can picture the week before Final Four...
NCAA: OK State is found "not eligible" this year. But since they didn't make it to the FF, the suspension is waived. Also, we just found a Michigan basketball player was given 'good luck shoelaces' from a former football player, so Michigan forfeits all games due to NCAA gift violations.
Okie State loses in the first round and puts themselves on suspension for the rest of the tournament.
Many teams would be tough to beat, can't play scared, you have to show up and take care of business, plain and simple.
You can't always get a charmed run to the title game like we did in 2018. Gotta beat the good teams sometime.
Houston was a pretty decent team, A&M was really good and most "experts" predicted them to beat us, we just happened to kick their asses. FSU was a damn good team with a giant, athletic front line.
Winning 5 games to get to the final is always an accomplishment.
When did it become trendy on MGoBlog to trash the 2018 run? This is the third time in a couple of days someone made a comment like this.
Makes even less sense now that it's clear that Loyola-Chicago is just a quality program, it wasn't just a flukey run to the F4.
My own two cents on the matter is there are still a couple of people out there that don't love Beilein the way 99% of us do so they're looking to get their talking points in. I don't know if it stems from trying to prove Juwan is already better than Beilein (which who gives a crap, they're both awesome) or if they're trying to be the smartest guy in the room, but either way it makes about as much sense as criticizing Lloyd's coaching from 1997 to 3/4 of the way through 2004.
C'mon. It has NOTHING to do with ripping Beilein. He was a great coach.
Our path to the Championship game in 2018 was 14 seed, 6 seed, 7 seed, 9 seed, 11 seed. It isn't rocket science to determine that that is a charmed run.
How many other teams have made the final of the tournament never having faced anyone higher than a 6 seed? I would bet almost none.
I'm a pretty big Michigan homer, but I can't really comprehend how much of a homer you have to be to look at that run of games and not think Michigan caught a big break in the way the tournament played out. Villanova had to play a 1 seed, a 3 seed and a 5 seed to get there. Kansas played a 2 seed and a 5 seed to make the FF.
We were a good team, but the tournament fell pretty much perfectly for us.
Caught a break getting there, but didn't catch a break with someone taking out Villanova. What a loaded team. I feel like M could have beaten anyone else, but we all knew that'd be a tough one.
6 seed Houston: 27-8 overall record, finished the year ranked 18th per Kenpom, AAC runners-up (regular season and tournament), marquee wins over Wichita St. and Cincinnati (in conference) with OOC wins over Providence and Arkansas.
7 seed Texas A&M: 22-13 overall record, finished the year ranked 29th per Kenpom, only a middling performance in the SEC conference, but the SEC had four very strong teams that year (Auburn, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida), marquee wins over aforementioned Auburn and Kentucky with great OOC wins over West Virginia, Oklahoma State, Penn State, and USC. And of course this Texas A&M team had to beat 2 seed UNC to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
9 seed Florida State: 23-12 overall record, finished the year ranked 27th per Kenpom, only a middling performance in the ACC, but of course the ACC was the best conference that year. Marquee wins over Florida, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, and Clemson. And this Florida State team beat the 1 seed Xavier AND the 4 seed Gonzaga to advance all the way to the Elite 8.
Kansas played exactly one definitively better team than we did on their way to that FF. That was 2 seed Duke. Their other two opponents (RD 32 and S16) were very comparable to our opponents in those rounds.
Their opponents:
8 seed Seton Hall (22-12), finished at 26th in Kenpom.
5 seed Clemson (25-10), finished at 14th in Kenpom.
2 seed Duke, the clear hardest team Kansas played to get to the FF, finished at 3rd in Kenpom.
This narrative is nothing more than a retrospective smearing of the 2018 FF run.
You are merely looking at a team's seed and saying "oh well clearly a 5 seed and an 8 seed are so much harder to beat than a 6, 7, or 9 seed". Texas A&M and Florida State were very comparable teams to Seton Hall, while playing in tougher conferences, and Houston was very comparable to Clemson. And two of our opponents in this run beat the 1, 2, and 4 seeds in our region.
Take some time to actually evaluate a team outside of glancing at the seeding, although it may seem like rocket science to you.
You are, of course, conveniently leaving out the part where Kansas had to play Villanova in the Final Four while we were matched up against an 11 seed.
Look, I didn't say the teams we played were trash, but you just pointed it out. The highest rated KenPom team we played before Villanova was #18, which would equate to about a 5-seed. THAT ISN'T NORMAL. Generally you have to get through at least one or two top 10 teams to make the finals.
When Michigan won in '89 (no KenPom so I have to use the AP) they beat #3 Illinois and #5 North Carolina to make the final game. In '92, they had to beat #7 Ohio State and #13 Oklahoma State. In '93, which was a similarly charmed run to the title game consisting of 16,9,12, and 7 seeds , they still had to beat #5 Kentucky to make the final game. And in 2013, probably the most impressive run of tourney wins Michigan has ever pulled off, they beat Kenpom #18 VCU, Kenpom #8 Kansas, Kenpom #2 Florida, and Kenpom #9 Syracuse.
The run in 2018 was comically easy compared to all of those runs except for '93, and it was still easier because they played no one remotely as good as '93 Kentucky. Don't give me the "such and such beat the top seeds". Upsets happen--that doesn't magically make those teams super good. Any solid team can have a great game and beat someone they shouldn't.
So, I get that people are homers around here. But we need to be realistic. The 2018 team was a very good team that benefitted from the Tournament parting like the red sea for them.
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As a blog that constantly trashes the seeding of the tourney, you may do some digging into the accuracy of that seeding
March 11th, 2021 at 10:44 PM ^
I'd take the Lloyd Carr years right about now.
EVERY team ranked #13 or better in NCAA tournament is a good basketball team (l14-15-16 are usually much less talented) but 13 + are good teams
Far from an easy run ,we beat 3 top 30 teams FSU.Houston and Tex AM all LOADED with athletes and exp . Also best Loyola (which proved it was a top 20 team)
Anytime you beat 4 top 30 teams in row.on a Neutral floor is pretty damn good
Yep. Plain and simple.
Lots of pansies on this blog. Teams should be scared of the 19-3 Big Ten champion, not the other way around.
Particularly with the update that Eli's injury is probably not enough to keep him out of the tourney. The champs of the toughest conference in the country should not be afraid of anybody, sure there are teams you have to play well to beat but good god at the hyperbole on the blog right now from some. UM is still a title contender.
March 11th, 2021 at 10:54 PM ^
Yep. Fully functional, this team can play with anybody.
Pansies and Snowflakes
I fear no team, but I seriously doubt we can beat Baylor or Illinois.
Michigan played about as bad of a game as they could against Illinois, it does not mean they can't beat them based on a one game sample size. After all worse teams than UM beat them. A UM team with Brooks that plays well can beat anyone in the country.
So Michigan is clearly worse than Missouri, Rutgers, Maryland, MSU, all teams that beat Illinois (and maybe Nebraska which went to OT)?
I'm not saying it will happen again by any stretch of the imagination, but in Michigan's 1988-89 title season they lost to Illinois twice in the regular season and beat them in the Final Four. This included an 89-73 loss at Crisler.
Might not work out that way, of course; I think the 1975-76 Michigan team lost three times to that undefeated Indiana team.
I hated Frieder's pre-game comments before the Illinois games. It appeared that he didn't think they were good enough to beat Illinois and telegraphed that to the players.
Yes! This! We have a quality team here, and a coach that's burnishing a quality product with each game. I think the fan base is so used to the annual torching we receive at the football side, that most can't believe the fact that UoM has a basketball team that's at the cusp of a National Championship.
I'm a straight hibiscus bruh
Oklahoma State is currently eligible for the NCAA Tournament while their appeal to the NCAA is under review. The NCAA likely won't have an answer for another few weeks.
So yes, it looks like Oklahoma State will be in the NCAA Tournament.
It's the NCAA tournament. You can't dodge all the good teams to the final. You're going to have to go out there and take those wins.
They got swept by a 12-14 TCU team, but it's your bracket I guess
They have the best player in the country and a decent supporting cast. As a 4ish seed I definitely could see them knocking off a 1 in the Sweet 16
If it were Illinois, it would be glorious. More shit from their faces and I might be changing my Mgoblog name.
LOL. They absolutely do not have the "best player in the country.'
19.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.5 apg, 1.4 spg, 0.9 bpg
45 FG%, 42 3PT%, 85 FT%.
He may not be the best player but he's pretty damn good. There's a reason he's being slotted to be the #1 overall pick. I think many will tell you that he'll likely have a better NBA career than 2x NPotY Luka Garza.
And if a player is good enough to shine in the NBA, he's good enough to do serious damage in college especially if he gets hot.
They have the best NBA prospect, but not the best college player. He is not better than senior Luka Garza and several other more experienced players. As good as Cunningham is, he still has freshman moments. Obviously he has way more potential at the next level than Garza but he isn't better right now.
I thought okie state peaked with Brad Underoos as coach
They've beat a lot of teams in OT/close scores. So on one hand that's really impressive because they win close games, but on the other hand it perhaps shows a team that isn't all that disciplined and would struggle against better teams. We'll see.
It’s typical of the NCAA to drag their feet on cases like this. They’ll allow them to play and then they’ll beat teams along the way while everyone gets to see Cunningham play and after the season they’ll rule they were ineligible and vacate all those wins.
Coward SZN
I do NOT want to see you pegging them for the Final Four.
Okie dokie.
You must have some Cowboy cousins, Larry.
Cade is insane but if this team has a strength on defense it's wing defense. He's good at drawing fouls so Franz will have to watch out, but he's not an uber-athlete and I think we can turn him into a passer. Of course he is an absolutely elite passer, but his teammates aren't really that great at hitting shots (why he's averaging just 3.5 assists despite drawing comparisons to Luka Doncic, if you watch their games and see how many open shots his teammates brick it becomes pretty apparent why there's a disparity).
There are other teams I'm more afraid of. Namely, teams with athletic wings who can either double Dickinson and recover effectively that has athletic wings AND can single up Dickinson (this is really only Illinois).
If you don’t face them, you’re going to have to face some other great team to advance. That’s how the tournament works.
If you want to make the Final Four, you’re inevitably going to have to come across and beat at least one team that can legitimately knock you off.
That's not necessarily true.
There are times when a path is cleared pretty well for a team. Look no further than Michigan a few years ago when the highest seed they played was a 6 before getting into the natty.
Normally, yes, you will likely have to play a team that may be better than you. But that's not always the case.
Well just tear your bracket up!