Thursday's Rooting Guide - Bubble Edition

Well, it goes without saying, tonight is a pretty massive game. If we lose tonight, we almost certainly need to sweep the final 3 games on our schedule and win at least one game in the Big Ten Tournament. As user M-Dog put it best, 'Our tournament started last Saturday. Win and advance'. 

Before we look at tonight's games, let's do a quick recap of last night and look at where Michigan stands entering the day:
 

• We had 7 games that were of interest to Michigan last night and we got 4 to go our way. In particular, Wake Forest & New Mexico losing helped quite a bit
• Michigan's NET ranking stayed the same at 62. 
• Not many bracket changes this morning to report 

Nice set of games tonight, let's dig in:
 

• Penn State at Ohio State (OSU by 2) - 6:30pm EST on FS1 - This one pains me greatly but we want the Buckeyes to win this game, for a few reasons. In most brackets, Penn State is just ahead of us. Their NET ranking is currently 57. A loss to OSU would help us to potentially jump them. Plus OSU's NET ranking is currently 67. If they drop below 75, that win will move to a Quad-3 win. Man, I hate the Scarlet and Gray but they could do us a solid tonight. 
• Memphis at Wichita State (Memphis by 2) - 7pm on ESPN2 - While Memphis is in the majority of brackets, they are far from safe yet. A loss to Wichita State would likely push their resume down a few slots. We're rooting for the Shockers here. 
• Towson at College of Charleston (Charleston by 9) - 7pm on CBS Sports Network - This is a fascinating game, on multiple fronts. The Colonial Athletic Association has a decent chance to be a bid-stealing league this year. Both Hofstra and College of Charleston are playing great ball. Michigan would VERY much prefer the CAA to be a one-bid league. Towson played Charleston really tough a few weeks back, only losing by 2 points. This would qualify as a Quad-3 loss for Charleston and would be a big help. Go Tigers!
• North Texas at Charlotte - (UNT by 3) - 7pm on ESPN+ - Really wish this game was going to be easier to watch because it should be a fun one. Anyone that follows the NCAA tourney will likely recall the North Texas Mean Green. They knocked off 4 seed Purdue in the 2021 NCAA tourney. They're on a roll again, with one of the longer current win streaks in college basketball (they've won 8 in a row). Right now UNT is on the outside looking in but Charlotte could pretty much end that with a win tonight. 
• THE game of the night is obviously Michigan at Rutgers - (Rutgers by 5.5) - 8:30pm on FS1 - Not much else to say here. In the wise words of Mitch McGary - WIN THE GAME!
• Northwestern at Illinois - (Illinois by 5.5) - 9pm on BTN - Man do those Northwestern wins look better and better each day! In fact, our home win against Northwestern is just 8 spots away from being an additional Quad-1 win, hence why we want them in this game. Plus, according to Illinois, we're their #1 rival. Go Cats!
• UCLA at Utah - (UCLA by 7) - 11pm on FS1 - Utah is another team that is flirting with the bubble. They have a nice overall record (17-11) however 10(!?) of those wins are against Quad-4 opponents. Their NET ranking is a few slots above Michigan, at 56. We can't afford them to get a big win over a top-10 team like UCLA. We want the Bruins.

So, there you have it. 7 games we'll want to focus on tonight. We're rooting for a number of underdogs tonight but the really good news is, if Michigan wins tonight, there isn't too much on here that will really hurt that much. Let's get that win at the RAC tonight! Go Blue!