U of M B-Ball Article
Just saw this article on ESPN regarding the Wolverines being legit contenders to win the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I searched and did not see this posted yet, so I hope I am not to late.
February 26th, 2021 at 9:51 AM ^
I'm just focused on winning a Big Ten title. Anything can happen in March, but we are so close to a banner year, and I'd love for them to get that
February 26th, 2021 at 12:12 PM ^
We have a legit chance of hanging 4 banners! I’m gonna take it one step at a time with a win against IU!
February 26th, 2021 at 1:24 PM ^
Especially THIS year which may be the strongest the conference has ever been. To be the best of the best truly. This year would mean a lot.
February 26th, 2021 at 9:59 AM ^
That’s some solid reporting by ESPN right there.
February 26th, 2021 at 10:08 AM ^
It is a total fluff piece, but I do not mind getting the love. Anything can happen in the tournament, but I do believe we have as good a chance as anyone to win. Of course we will need some luck and a good draw.
February 26th, 2021 at 10:22 AM ^
They're not wrong. What I don't get is the constant love for Baylor and Gonzaga despite obvious lower-level competition.
February 26th, 2021 at 10:30 AM ^
Completely agree. Gonzaga plays in the West Coast Conference (who?) which has no other ranked teams, and struggled against St. Mary's last night. Baylor barely beat a 2-win Iowa St. team. Come on...
Edit: My bad, Santa Clara.
February 26th, 2021 at 10:38 AM ^
Every team (but us, yay!) has looked pretty bad coming back from covid layoffs, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in that. Hopefully they lose to Kansas this weekend and we can slide up another spot, but Baylor has played well against a pretty tough schedule all year (though not as tough as being in the big ten)
February 26th, 2021 at 10:38 AM ^
It was Santa Clara... Gonzaga is undefeated and Baylor is very athletic. Michigan no question should be discussed with those top teams and its a bit of travesty they haven't been... What sucked was that even undefeated forever and they had been still outside the top 10. The rise in the rankings came very slow, and that was wrong, and since Gonzaga and Baylor were top ranked from the getgo, recency bias surely seeped in the voting.
February 26th, 2021 at 10:53 AM ^
Are you sure? I thought they played Santa Claus.
February 26th, 2021 at 11:57 AM ^
It's not as clear-cut as you think. The NET rankings provide a clear picture on this by breaking down opponents into quads (1-4). Higher-quality opponents are quad 1, lower quality opponents are in quad 4.
You can see the details for yourself here, but here's the breakdown for Gonzaga, Baylor, and UM:
- Gonzaga
- Quad 1: 7-0
- Quad 2: 5-0
- Quad 3: 4-0
- Quad 4: 7-0
- Baylor
- Quad 1: 6-0
- Quad 2: 1-0
- Quad 3: 5-0
- Quad 4: 6-0
- Michigan
- Quad 1: 7-1
- Quad 2: 4-0
- Quad 3: 4-0
- Quad 4: 2-0
To me, this reinforces that Gonzaga's ranking is legit. They've played the same number of Quad 1 and 2 (higher quality) opponents as Michigan, and have a slightly better record. The difference is that Gonzaga's higher-quality opponents are primarily comprised of non-conference games. Michigan will add more quad 1 opponents by the end of the year, Gonzaga likely will not.
This also provides a case that Michigan's resume is stronger than Baylor's. I think Baylor is ranked where they are based on the fact that they started high and haven't shown signs of breaking down. They have also benefited from multiple games canceled against stronger opponents. I think they will add more Q1/2 opponents by the end of the year.
February 26th, 2021 at 12:03 PM ^
I don't have the time or motivation, but my hunch is that Michigan's Quad 1 games are of much higher quality than Gonzaga's.
Away games are Quad 1 if the home team is ranked 1-75. I'd be willing to be that a good portion of Gonzaga's Quad 1 wins are away games against teams ranked in the 50-75 range.
Contrast that with Michigan's wins over OSU, Iowa, and Wisconsin...all top 10/15 teams.
According to Kenpom, our strength of schedule rank is #17. Gonzaga is 101 and Baylor is 109.
February 26th, 2021 at 12:24 PM ^
That's a good point, and I'm in the same boat as you in terms of not caring to put in the legwork to compare them. But I would agree that UM's quad 1 wins are likely stronger overall than Gonzaga's. And outside of maybe MSU, I think everyone on Michigan's remaining schedule is a quad 1 opponent.
February 26th, 2021 at 1:56 PM ^
Saw a stat earlier this week that every Big 10 team was in the top 25 for hardest SOS. Crazy
February 26th, 2021 at 10:35 AM ^
Gonzaga’s conference is terrible. they did show out in some early non conference games against solid competition, but your point still stands.
the big12 is the second best conference this year and Baylor’s best 4 or 5 wins were probably objectively better than UM’s - at least until the last week or so (having beaten Wisky, osu and iowa in the last week changes that). They haven’t played a soft schedule at all.
February 26th, 2021 at 10:37 AM ^
We also did more than “struggle” with Minnesota. Off games happen. At the level of those top 3, you’re splitting hairs to say who’s better and our loss is an easy data point to use to keep us below the other two.
February 26th, 2021 at 11:14 AM ^
We play in the best conference in basketball and have played against 7 ranked teams at the time of the game and are 6-1. Baylor has played against 5 ranked teams as of when they played them and are 5-0. We also have a lot more quad 2 wins than they do. In the end I’m fine with it, just decide it in the tournament with our play. It’s just dumb for the media to keep having the same discussion of “should Michigan be there with Gonzaga/Baylor”? Yes, yes they should, and are.
February 26th, 2021 at 11:38 AM ^
I agree with you - we definitely belong up there with those two (and have for quite a while). My response was more aimed at the statement that Baylor and Gonzaga have both played easy schedules. Gonzaga yeah, Baylor not so much.
February 26th, 2021 at 10:25 AM ^
Wow. Held Iowa to their 2 lowest scoring halves all season.
February 26th, 2021 at 10:35 AM ^
KenPom now has Michigan just the teeniest fraction behind #2 Baylor. Likely we flip into #2 on KenPom in the next week.
February 26th, 2021 at 10:54 AM ^
Thanks. Fun to read.
February 26th, 2021 at 11:05 AM ^
having Chaundee Brown come off the bench with the energy he brings is a huge and is going to be the edge that changes the game when we get into a real slug-fest with an opponent we aren't blowing away...... 6th man factor.
February 26th, 2021 at 11:17 AM ^
He had I believe it was Bohannon locked down and the dude was just moving laterally with no ability to go anywhere in the lane and finally shoved Brown away with his off arm and they called the foul on Brown. It was perfect defense and one of the worst calls.
February 26th, 2021 at 12:08 PM ^
If this is the play I think it is, you might want to watch the previous four or five seconds before the call. There was a lot of chippiness going on between the two, and I was not surprised to see Brown get the short end of the whistle there.
February 26th, 2021 at 11:53 AM ^
So difficult to compare our schedule with the other top teams. Luckily the rankings now mean next to nothing.
February 26th, 2021 at 2:52 PM ^
I’m hoping we can hang 4 banners: Big Ten Regular Season Champs, Big Ten Tournament Champs, Final Four, and National Champions.
February 27th, 2021 at 12:36 AM ^
To see Juwan putting up banners...
February 26th, 2021 at 4:27 PM ^
Probably the most interesting aspect of the article for me was that they said JH is the favorite for coach of the year. Hadn't heard that before, but he's totally deserving and I hope he gets it. If I remember correctly, didn't Beilein just miss out on that a few times?