Today's Rooting Guide / Latest on Brackets
There's no way around it, outside of A&M and Virginia Tech (I think the latter was already in), yesterday was a great day on the bubble for Michigan. Losses by SMU, St. Louis, and Dayton were massisve.
So, where does that leave Michigan? Here's what I'm seeing this morning:
- As of last night's Bracket Matrix update, we're in 116 of 125 brackets
- We're listed as the 2nd 11th seed (which would basically be the last team to avoid Dayton)
- Interestingly enough, I went to the Bracket Matrix rankings and, I'm happy to report that the top 5 rated bracketeers all had Michigan in! In fact, most had them avoiding Dayton but a few didn't.
- Our NET ranking stayed at 34.
- We're still 26 on KenPom
The one concern I'm seeing is, if we get sent to Dayton, quite a few brackeeters have us playing Texas A&M. I personally would like to avoid that at all costs. They're playing amazing right now. I'd much prefer a matchup with Notre Dame or Wyoming but alas here we are.
So, the rooting guide is simple today:
- (1pm EST on ESPN) - Texas A&M vs. Tennessee - We want Tennessee to win this one. This game could have a big say on if we get sent to Dayton or not. If A&M wins, they're guaranteed to stay out of Dayton (conference champions can't be sent there). I guess the one good thing about A&M winning is we'd avoid them? Either way, Go Vols!
- (1pm EST on CBS) - Richmond vs. Davidson - We're rooting hard for Davidson. No way around it, if Richmond wins, they're going to steal a bid from someone. We are close-ish to the cut line no matter how you look at it, so a Davison win today would be a relief. Thanks for knocking out TWO bubble teams but you gotta go, Richmond.
Thanks everybody for the compliments and feedback on these posts. They were actually super fun to put together! Go Blue, let's go dancing!
Um, not looking good here. $#@! Spiders!
This is unbelievable. Somebody cursed our basketball program. Watch this be the game to knock Michigan out.
No one cursed our basketball program.
Somebody sold their soul for football
jk.
We'll be fine.
Lol. Some people, I tell ya!
So if Richmond finishes this off it is basically us versus Wyoming for the last spot.
That whistle blew on the first bump and then he spun and there was contact. That was some nba and one crap
The shot shouldn't have counted.
Fuck you Foster Loyer.
That’s the shot?
Thanks, Loyer.
Foster Loyer kills Michigan's hopes. How fitting.
Well the NIT is a postseason tournament and we may actually win a couple of games so good job Richmond....
/Sadface
Davidson really blew it... up 2 and allowed an and one. Then settle for a 3 pointer down 1???
It would only be fitting for a Loyer missed shot to keep us out of the tourney
Everyone chillllllll.
And I can't believe I have to be the one that says it.
Probably to Dayton now, but that's Michigan's fault, not Davidson.
Yep. This result all but confirms Michigan will be in Dayton for the First Four. The team(s) likely to be out due to this is ND or Rutgers.
CBS, after the Richmond win, was firm that it was likely Xavier out of the First Four, not us.
Dammit Foster Loyer.
That's a shot that should have been taken by Mennanga or Mike Jones.
Hello, NIT!
So much effort to get the ball down the court just to come up with...that.
Of course rooting for Foster Loyer is a harrowing experience.
crap the sharpshooters were not sharpshooting today and honestly Davidson did not play well down the stretch, the problem when you think you're a 3-pt shooing team is you keep chucking up bad 3-ptrs down by 2, but at least A&M lost.
Why should Davidson get in? What does their resume look like?
Only lost 5 or 6 times and mid 30’s on Kenpom is tough to leave out, even if it’s the A10.
Leave it to Foster Loyer to knock Michigan out of the tournament with his ineptitude in the clutch.
I was thinking the same thing.
I love to rag of Foster, but that was some really shitty play-calling by the Davidson bench the last two minutes.
Really sick of watching teams shoot for 3 when they only need 2 to win the game.
Screw you Davidson.
What a shit show by Davidson. Hopefully they play us in Dayton
They are probably a 7/8 seed
Great game. Michigan is still in. Everyone just grab a beer and chill.
Agreed, the basketball gods are smiling on Richmond right now. They earned it, knocking out 2 Cinderellas and the conference champ. Doesnt mean we can't get a little shine here by the committee. All we need is Dayton, just look at UCLA in '20.
Would be pretty ironic if Richmond ended Texas A&M’s hopes of making the tournament
One thing I have learned reading these threads is that there are people here who enjoy wallowing in the worst expectations for UM sports AND seem to not understand that other college basketball teams can be worse than UM and might have been hurt more by an upset by Richmond.
It is just at the point now that we are totally at the mercy of the committee. Without that, it was essentially certain we were going to get in. Now they have to shave off somebody and we are as likely as anybody to be that team.
Or Michigan could have been comfortably in the whole time.
There's one thing for certain- we have no clue what the committee will value this year.
It is here where I disagree that a bad overall record doesn’t come into play. If I had to pick between “comfortably in the whole time” or “never really in strong consideration” it would be the second of the two.
Oh I agree- I think they are on the fringes.
But the committee has made decisions that have left the world scratching their collective heads- ya never know.
I keep seeing people argue that UM is on the same fringe group as ND, Rutgers, A&M, Wyoming, etc. but by any metric except overall record UM is significantly better than them and would likely be ahead of them on the chopping block.
Could UM be left out? Sure. But that would mean putting teams with NET ratings of 53 (ND), 50 (Wyoming), 42 (A&M), and 77 (Rutgers) ahead of Michigan (34), who is nestled between projected 4 seed Providence and projected 7 seed USC and ahead of teams like MSU, Davidson, Seton Hall and a slew of others. I do think UM has a better-than-average chance to be shunted to Dayton first but it would be incredibly atypical for the #34 team with a winning record in the #2-best conference in the country to be skipped over for a bunch of middling teams with far worse resumes.
The first year of NET rankings they snubbed NC State, whose NET was in the low 30s, in favor of St. John’s (NET 73). I don’t think it should happen this year, but get enough people on a committee and one of them will suggest something stupid and it has a nonzero chance of happening.
Alright he just convinced me give me my dollar back.
There has certainly been a lot of….
Foster Loyer is ass
This is what I both love and hate about the tournament eligibility…teams that are half ass all year get hot for a few games and they go to the tournament. I love watching it when my team is comfortably in and hate it when they aren’t.
But the beauty of the tournament, unlike football, is that if you are a team on the bubble that gets left out you have way less room to complain.
I think Michigan is a tournament team. But...barely. And I'm pretty biased, obviously.
There's a good argument against Michigan - even if we don't agree with the Palm-type haters. Advanced stats like Michigan...but...Michigan is barely above 0.500. We're on the bubble for a reason.
At the end of the day, I have a feeling the committee is loving the opportunity to put Michigan in a first four game against a team like ND, for ratings reasons. They did that with UCLA vs. MSU last year, and it turned out to be a good (and extremely consequential) game.
Fuck Davidson. They looked like shit. Michigan has some deficiencies, but I would not be worried a bit if we played them in Dayton.
Davidson is not in any jeopardy of going to Dayton