Rankings
So, a few weeks ago we were unranked and I made a post suggesting it was out of order. I knew this team was better than it was being projected. This is definitely a top 10 team. Had we been ranked appropriately back then we’d be a top 5 team. There’s like 2 or 3 teams with 2 losses ahead of us. I know, I know rankings don’t matter but still... Go Blue!
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:31 PM ^
Username checks out
January 4th, 2021 at 7:39 AM ^
No, "username checks out" in this case only if The Mayor is giving a speech about what it took to open the new shopping center as someone plows their Subaru into it.
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:31 PM ^
Shankings
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:31 PM ^
Justin Feagin
[Am I doing this right?]
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:46 PM ^
No. An appropriate mock title would be "Playoffs" or "Media".
Justin Feagin can only be invoked for someone putting a name as the title with no other context.
Rules is rules.
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:01 PM ^
Gotcha!
Thanks for the clarification.
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:34 PM ^
Our rankings have been fine. A few weeks ago we struggled against Oakland and PSU. We've gotten better as the season has gone on and our ranking has gone up as well.
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:51 PM ^
Indeed. And the logical point was brought up in the game tonight that before tonight, every Big Ten team had played at least two ranked opponents and Michigan had played none. So the rankings have been fair. (They've been stupid for some other teams but fair for us.).
Tonight we started a brutal stretch of games that are only going to get more difficult. That's what I'm more focused on. The rankings will work their way out.
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:34 PM ^
A case study in anchoring: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_(cognitive_bias)
In the end, the only 2 things that matter are Big Ten Standings and Tournament Selection Committee Seeding
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:49 PM ^
Just for fun:
We're now #10 on KenPom and #8 on Torvik after the win today
January 4th, 2021 at 2:54 AM ^
That may be, but we are #1 in our ?.
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:35 PM ^
Just keep winning, especially in the tourney. It all works itself out in the end.
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:38 PM ^
Just. Win.
January 4th, 2021 at 7:46 AM ^
The Game.
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:39 PM ^
Rankings are cool and all, but last year didn't we just literally go from being unranked to 4th and then back to unranked in like a month? I want this team to get respect, but I don't want it to motivate opposing teams to knock off highly ranked teams
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:40 PM ^
Agree about just keep winning.
But with the way this team plays such a pretty brand of basketball, multiple guys can shoot the rock, FT shooting is great, defensive effort is strong, this team is definitely top 10 caliber.
Just hope they keep it up.
January 4th, 2021 at 12:41 AM ^
We’ve lost a step on the 3 pt shooting and 3 pt defense from a typical Beilein team, but the post game, rebounding, and agressiveness toward the hoop MORE than make up for it.
January 4th, 2021 at 11:15 AM ^
It's also nice to see offensive rebounds generating a few easy buckets each game.
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:41 PM ^
This team is ranked appropriately. They will be top 10 tomorrow. They need to prove themselves against another upper echelon team. Haven’t had the opportunity yet but it’s coming soon!!
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:58 PM ^
Well, we just played the #19 team in the polls tonight.
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:14 PM ^
Northwestern is a try hard team with decent players at best. Their KenPom ranking is 54. Let’s see how we play against Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. That will tell us what kind of team we have.
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:42 PM ^
Honestly, there were a lot of questions with this team going into the year, so I can understand being unranked at the start of the year.
Michigan was a pick and roll heavy team and they lost X and Teske... adding two new guys that might or might not work out, with Smith running point?... and who would have though HD would have turned out to be as good as he is.
Not too concerned about rankings as Michigan is fully in control of where they end up...NW was the first ranked team they played; i suspect that the people doing the rankings don't do deep dives into Kenpom or Torvik to assess the quality of the opponents.
There were people here that doubted them after Oakland and PSU too...
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:44 PM ^
We are 8th on Torvik (just ahead of Nova and Iowa) and 10th (with a sizeable gap behind us) on KenPom. Both sites have 4 B1G teams in the top 10. The B1G should get a couple 1 seeds this year, and if we keep playing like this, one of them will be ours.
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:50 PM ^
There would have to be two teams that only lose like three times or less for that to happen. More likely that there will be a bunch of 2, 3, and 4 seeds from the conference instead of anyone being a one
January 4th, 2021 at 12:58 AM ^
In 2019, the ACC had 3 1-seeds. Duke and UNC had 5 and 6 losses, respectively. I think a 15-5 B1G runner up, in this insanely deep conference, could easily be a 1 seed, especially if it’s Iowa (only nonconference loss to Gonzaga) or M (undefeated nonconference). Hell, according to Torvik, the easiest game left on our schedule is projected to be the home game against Sparty. It’s also possible that the Big 12 top teams cannibalize each other, or Nova drops a few (they always do), and with the ACC and SEC looking weak, there aren’t a lot of other options for 1 seeds.
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:48 PM ^
This was the first ranked team Michigan has played this year and while they looked great, it has been pointed out many times that the upcoming schedule is heavily back-loaded. Let's see how they do before we anoint them as a top five team.
Wed, Jan 6 vs #21 Minnesota
Sat, Jan 9 @ Penn State
Tues, Jan 12 vs #6 Wisconsin
Sat, Jan 16 @ #21 Minnesota
Tue, Jan 19 vs Maryland
Fri, Jan 22 @ Purdue
Sat, Jan 30 vs Indiana
Wed, Feb 3 @ #19 Northwestern
Sat, Feb 6 vs #17 MSU
Thu, Feb 11 vs #15 Illinois
Sun, Feb 14 @ #6 Wisconsin
Thu, Feb 18 vs #14 Rutgers
Sun, Feb 21 @ #25 Ohio State
Sat, Feb 27 @ Indiana
Thu, Mar 4 vs #10 Iowa
Sun, Mar 7 @ #17 MSU
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:58 PM ^
If we can get through the rest of January at 5-2, maybe 6-1 we’ll be set up nicely for the stretch run
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:00 PM ^
Actually it looks less backloaded now than before, with Sparty and OSU looking like crap. Neither of them will be ranked in the new polls.
January 4th, 2021 at 12:06 AM ^
I wish we were playing MSU right now, before they start to figure things out. Could anybody on their team start for us?
January 4th, 2021 at 6:14 AM ^
Certainly not 5’8”, 150 pound Steven Izzo. Wonder how he got on the team?
January 4th, 2021 at 8:24 AM ^
He's taller than the coach?
January 4th, 2021 at 8:51 AM ^
Rocket has potential as a shooting guard (assuming he stops taking such God-awful shots).
Loyer wouldn't stand out at a pickup game the local Y.
I don't think they have the talent to pull it together. I realize Aaron Henry put up some gaudy numbers the other night against Nebraska's random piece parts but let's see him do that against Franz and Zay.
Sparty will have to dedicate so much to ensuring Dickenson doesn't put up 26 and 13 on them that our shooters will have open looks all over the floor. Just love how it only took the coaches about two game minutes to adjust to NW's approach -- in Juwan, err, Coach Howard, we trust!
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:03 PM ^
That's the definition of a gauntlet.
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:07 PM ^
I know basically all of those teams are tough, but Michigan looks so good right now that none of that really scares me. Illinois, at Wisconsin, and Rutgers is the toughest 3-game stretch for sure. Hope Davis can get back soon. We'll need more depth inside for Illinois and Wiscy especially. MSU before that, and sure they're not good, but it's still a rivalry. Only play Iowa, Illinois, and Rutgers once. That's 3 of the top 4 non-Michigan B1G teams according to Kenpom (though OSU, Indiana, and Minnesota right behind Rutgers).
January 4th, 2021 at 12:29 AM ^
I see maybe 4 potential losses in the remaining games if the team keeps up this level of play. I will take 21-4. Plus a decent showing in the B1G tournament, it should be no worse than a 3 seed in the tourney, I would think.
January 4th, 2021 at 1:57 AM ^
That is a really nice schedule. Of the top teams, the one-offs against Illinois & Iowa are at home. All of the other home and home’s have the first game in Ann Arbor. The only teams they have to go on the road without having seen already are Purdue and OSU which are most likely middle of the pack teams this year. Thank you Big Ten???
January 4th, 2021 at 11:19 AM ^
We only catch Iowa once? At home.
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:49 PM ^
I don't know why we weren't ranked. It's not like we lost a boatload of talent and had a solid cast plus recruits.
Our hoops program seems to be "reverse ranking" scenario with our FB program. In FB, we get over-ranked and then under-deliver every year (except for 2015). We seem to have the opposite effect in hoops, since people over-rank UK and UNC and don't realize we have both talent and coaching.
Kind of like this for hoops. The team is definitely following the Tom Allen LEO approach.
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:51 PM ^
I don't really care about the polls (lol Duke and MSU were ranked this past week). I do pay attention for KenPom ..... Where we are up to #10.
Like Chaundee said in the presser.....we aren't under rated yet until we play everyone. Next up let's go beat the angry smirk off of Richard Pitino and see how we stack up against our first legit center so far.
January 3rd, 2021 at 10:59 PM ^
We’ll be top 10 in the polls and I’m curious to see the first iteration of the NET rankings tomorrow.
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:13 PM ^
Awesome title - check
I told you so smarminess - check
No meaningful content - check
January 4th, 2021 at 12:04 AM ^
Lmao. My thoughts on the OP exactly.
January 4th, 2021 at 9:20 AM ^
IDK, it's short, sweet and to the point.
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:15 PM ^
That’s the beauty of basketball. So long as you get in the tournament, you can demonstrate that you are 1 or 2 or whatever. Who cares what early January rankings say? Better to be the underdog this time of year.
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:21 PM ^
Rankings are irrelevant at this stage but fun to talk about.
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:26 PM ^
Rankings mean fuck all. Just win baby.
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:41 PM ^
Rankings? We have beat 1 ranked team. How about we beat a few more before we thump the chest.
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:53 PM ^
Maryland will probably be ranked this week, but nw may slide out. Kinda hard to quantify ranked teams when the rankings are so fluid
January 3rd, 2021 at 11:58 PM ^
Keep winning and the team will keep rising.