Penn State beats Minnesota, Michigan is a 4-seed
We knew we'd be playing Illinois on Friday, but Penn State's win over Minnesota in a "barn-burner" (get it?) puts Michigan in a four-way tie for fourth in the Big Ten at 9-9, but UM holds the tiebreaker over MSU, Illinois and PSU, so we are the four-seed. Michigan State falls all the way to seventh and will be playing a dangerous Iowa team on Thursday.
Yay, we get to wear yellow.
Normally I wouldn't care what colors we wear, but I like the maize unis. Might be good luck for us considering the Fab 5 doc is that weekend too.
I think we were planning on wearing maize regardless. It can serve as a road uniform (as in the MSU road game).
Minnesota's collapse is incredible. They've lost something like 9 of 10, and almost every single one of these was a winnable game that got away from them at the end.
Angry Minneosta Point Guard Hating God.
MAIZE, NOT YELLOW!!!
the jerseys aren't maize
just sayin
they are A'maize'ing
the jerseys aren't maize
Someone needs to look up the definition of "maize" in the dictionary.
Ugh. That bright yellow color most certainly is maize. We have some work to do to get the blue back to the original color, but the maize uniforms are very close to correct.
http://michigantoday.umich.edu/96/Fall96/mta13f96.html
Agreed, compared to the Michigan letters on the floor the jerseys are retina burning.
From projected last to 4th in the BT, and oh so close to punching a ticket to the dance. Our Friday afternoon BTT game is a perfect excuse to head to happy hour early to start the weekend. Prognosticators are like meteorologists - you can make a ton of bad predictions and still keep your job. Like, was it supposed to snow 4 inches last night?
To be totally fair, no one but the biggest homer could see us finishing in the top half of the conference. It's amazing that Morris and Morgan are playing as well as they are, considering that Morris was scoring four a game and Morgan was hurt and redshirted. Hardaway has been more than a pleasant surprise as well.
Right before the season I posted reasons I was optimistic for the season and predicted that this "might" be an NIT team. Half the commenters thought I was crazy.
I still do.
I come to this blog.
So does this mean we will be beating Wisconsin or Purdue in the final?
.....to be handed their you-know-what by us in that game. That bank shot is still burning in my mind. Revenge, I tell you....
Wisky is getting plowed to the tune of 75-50 right now in Columbus if you're interested. It was fun for awhile but I got tired of all the fawning and drooling, syncophantic commentary after 15 minutes.
That result would be more satisfying if the team administering the beatdown (OSU) wasn't even more loathsome.
Hopefully wisco. Honestly, Purdue is just a bad matchup for us. I'd much rather play wisco and much rather beat wisco as well.
I'm rooting for a third win over MSU at a third site.
It's a bit disconcerting, though, to know that we will be playing a team we lost to during the regular season allegedly as the higher ranked team.
Flip that game from Assembly Hall to Crisler, though, and I think it's a 5+ Point Michigan win.
It should be noted that we played as badly on offense as we have in quite a while and overall had a pretty awful game, but only lost by two points on the road. If we play at the level that we're at right now, a win is definitely a reasonable outcome. Illinois isn't very good.
We have to hit our shots and get defensive rebounds.
True, but for how we adjusted to their size for the second half and played better than they did, I think we're getting there.
they are the best defensive team in the conference and probably one of the two worst teams we could play in terms of matchups, the other being Purdue. Hard to stop 1 7-footer let alone 2.
I still have not been able to see the game because of work/living in NY and not being able to DVR it. Does anyone know of a link that I could see the game in its entirety? Thanks! Go Blue!
If you are familiar with torrents, there is one here: http://bigtentracker.com/torrents.php?id=271
You'll need to register if you haven't yet.
Thanks for your help. That will work out great!
PSU's RPI is above ours now, and I'd rather not have them anywhere near the bubble when they have a few big wins. I know we beat them twice, but head-to-head just isn't a factor the Committee looks at (nor is conference standings for that matter).
Regardless of what the committee says its official criteria are, head-to-head absolutely is taken into consideration. That's why Lunardi now projects us ahead of MSU in the pecking order.
Arizona went 8-10 in the Pac 10. Arizona State went 9-9 and beat Arizona twice.
Arizona got in and Arizona State didn't.
I'm not saying either team should get in before us (they shouldn't) or necessarily will (I don't think they will). I just don't want there to be any possibility of it, because the Committee has done it before.
You can find exceptions to any rule. A team like Arizona, that has been to like 20 consecutive tournaments, can get a little more leeway than a team like PSU.
doesn't take into account previous seasons.
And yes, I really do believe them when they say these things.
Arizona had the #1 strength of schedule that year.
many bad losses as well. Unless PSU wins the BTT, they are not getting in.
I heard Bilas say yesterday that the committee doesn't consider RPI. (If so, good for them - RPI rankings are beyond stupid.) It's impossible for me to believe that conference standings don't count unless you're talking about some technicality like conference standings not counting but performance in games in conference counting immensely.
There's no way that Penn State will get in ahead of us unless they tear apart the Big Ten tourney and we flame out. They hardly played anyone out of conference and were unimpressive against the decent teams they did play (L 63-39 to Maryland, L 79-69 to Virginia Tech, L 84-71 to Ole Miss, etc.).
the Committee doesn't care that Michigan finished 4th in the Big 10 while Michigan State finished 7th. It won't hesitate to take a team with a lower conference finish over a team with a higher one if it thinks the lower team has a better overall resume.
well, officially, MSU tied for 4th... they didn't place 7th, they placed tied for 4th in the league and received the 7th seed in teh BTT. so, yes, i'd believe that committee re: league standings
How is it that we hold a tie-breaker over Illinois if they beat us in our only game this season? I'm not disagreeing with you, just confused.
There is now a four-way tie for fourth place in the league. Michigan, Illinois, MSU and PSU are all 9-9. We went 4-1 in head-to-head meetings with the other three, which is the best of anyone, so we get the #4 seed.
and, of those 4 teams, Michigan has the best record against the other 4 teams. We went 4-1 (beat MSU and PSU twice, lost to Illinois). Everyone else lost at least 2 to the other 3 teams.
is dangerous if they catch fire in the BTT. However, Michigan has to see tremendous runs by Michigan State and Penn State before they are in danger of getting left out of the Tourney. I know it feels alien to pretty much all Michigan basketball fans, but I think you can breath a sigh of relief. I really don't even think we are on the bubble any more, truth be told. Tim Hardaway is an attractive name. Darius Morris has some game and it's clear. There is ratings to think about. M is in.
On the evening of 1/26 they were 16-4 and ranked #18:
http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310260135
Went 1-9 the rest of the way (after losing two guards, one to transfer and one to injury) ... d'oh.
Dear Tubby:
Hang in there. Sometimes your team gets off to a quick start and then injuries pile up and you're forced to play kids you had never planned on giving PT to. But you can rest easy knowing your fans and the athletic department are behind you and understand that there are some things the HC just cant control.
Wait till next year!
Your pal,
Rich
Nothing beats hijacking a basketball thread to throw Rich Rodriguez yet another MGoBoard pity party!
(And no, the situations aren't parallel. Tubby took Minn to the NCAA tournament the past two years, earning him some wiggle room this year.)
out of 347 Division I teams (18.7%).
22 football teams played on January 1st or later (not including the GoDaddy.com or Kraft Fight Hunger Bowls) out of 119 Division I teams (18.5%).
Are you like stuck in some Groundhog Day type of thing where RR has killed your dog every week or something? I just don't understand how your attitude changed so much.
With VCU knocking out George Mason out of the CAA tourney today and turning that conference into a 2-bid league, UM really needs to win this game to make sure that they don't get squeezed out by some upsets.