Wojo talks MBB Tourney Talk
February 13th, 2011 at 3:22 PM ^
If this team can pull the upset at Illinois, they are basically over the hump and a tourney bid (which I think is a done deal at 9-9 with an opening round win in the conference tourney) becomes more likely rather than less likely (they'd have to beat Iowa and just one of MSU/Minn./Wisc.). We'd likely be sitting alone in 4th place in a league that could very easily get 6+ bids to the dance considering the conference RPI and the weakness of the SEC, Pac 10, ACC, and Big 12 when it comes to producing tourney teams.
February 13th, 2011 at 4:16 PM ^
unless it includes a win over Wisconsin. The last time I looked at the RPI, Michigan didn't have a win over a top 50 RPI team (MSU is on the bubble of being a top 50 team, and may have moved in at this point). If they close out with wins over Illinois, Iowa and MSU, it's likely that Illinois would be their only top 50 win. At that point, I think teams that finished lower in the Big 10 standings would get in over Michigan.
It really would have helped to win one of the OSU/Syracuse/Kansas games.
February 13th, 2011 at 6:27 PM ^
Which teams would those be? if w beat Msu twice they won' get picked ahead of us. Ditto for PSU. That leaves Ill who we beat and Minn as the only teams that could possibly get picked ahead of us.
February 13th, 2011 at 6:41 PM ^
on the strength of their wins over UNC and Wisconsin. Depending on how Minny finishes, could easily see them getting in over us as well.
February 13th, 2011 at 9:28 PM ^
February 13th, 2011 at 10:08 PM ^
it's possible that a 5th place team can get in over 4th place team. It's all about resume and they put more weight on quality wins.
UNC and Wisconsin are quality wins. Wisconsin is a quality win whether you like it or not.
February 13th, 2011 at 10:42 PM ^
Quality wins sure
But @Illinois and @Clemson are quality as well
And sure 5th can jump 4th place teams, but they have a hard enough time taking a team with a sub .500 conference record as is, they wont take one over a .500 conference team that owns the head to head.
And again, a loss to UIC looks REALLY bad. They are 7-20 and last place in the Horizon league.
Not to mention looking at how a team finished. We would be 8-3 in our last 11. Illinois would be 4-7.
February 13th, 2011 at 10:56 PM ^
I think our friendly pessimist is also overlooking the fact that if it ends up this way and we did not make it in, the B10 would only send 5 teams. That is fucking ridiculous. Unless you are putting PSU and MSU in over us which, if it plays out this way, we would have taken all 4 head-to-head games against the two. I would love to see a 5th place team jump a 4th place team when the 4th place team took both games during the season from them. If we beat MSU, Iowa, and one of the other 3, we are in no matter what happens in the tourney.
February 13th, 2011 at 11:06 PM ^
5th over 4th as an example. Head to head wins does not matter to the committee's mind. My point is resume, quality wins, matters more than head to head wins.
For example, team A finish 5th and has a record of 20-11. That team has 4 quality wins and 3 bad losses.
Team B finish 4th and has a record of 20-11. That team has 1 quality wins and 2 bad losses but beat team A twice in head to head.
Assuming that both teams has similar SOS and RPI. If it's for one spot for the last 4 in type team. The committee will take team A over team B because team A have better resume than team B even though team B beat team A twice. Team A has more quality wins and quality wins is weighted more than you think.
February 13th, 2011 at 11:16 PM ^
February 14th, 2011 at 12:21 AM ^
I have said none from the posts that you are replying.
February 14th, 2011 at 12:45 AM ^
February 14th, 2011 at 9:41 AM ^
That's not necessarily true. Whoever wins the game gets the head-to-head tiebreaker. Michigan and Illinois are both 10-3 OOC, so assuming they both finish 19-11, both would be 9-9 in conference, but Michigan would be ranked ahead of Illinois.
On that note, they would likely be ranked 4th and 5th, which means they would play against each other in the first game in the tournament. That would probably determine which one got into the NCAA tournament anyway.
February 14th, 2011 at 12:18 PM ^
Yes we would be ahead of them for seeding at that point, but is that really jumping a higher ranked team? At that point they are the same, and had to go to the 3rd factor to decide the seeding for the BTT.
February 14th, 2011 at 2:33 PM ^
conference seed or standing has to do with NCAA tourney?
February 13th, 2011 at 7:21 PM ^
Michigan has two top-50 wins right now, but that is sort of beside the point. You have to go all the way to number 34 in the RPI (Illinois) to find a team with more than three top-50 wins. People are making way too big a deal about this "signature win" stuff (yes, it would be a nice resume booster, but it isn't a requirement).
Lunardi has a number of teams in his bracket and just on the edge of the bubble right now with a lower RPI and fewer top-50 wins than Michigan has right now (and we play four top-50 teams down the stretch). He has the Big 12 getting 6 bids, the SEC 6, and the ACC getting 5. I don't think any of those are going to happen. He also has all 11 Big East teams that can even make a case for admission getting in. Even with that he has the Big Ten still getting 6 bids. Finish ahead of any of Illinois, Minnesota, or MSU and that puts us in the top 6. We're within a half game of each of those teams and play them all down the stretch.
Looking around the country and at what it would take to get to 9-9 I just can't see any way that a Michigan team with that record in this conference is going to be left out of the dance.
February 13th, 2011 at 9:33 PM ^
Clemson is top 50, aren't they?
February 14th, 2011 at 12:22 AM ^
They're #73 according to realtime RPI.
Harvard and MSU are on the fringe of RPI top 10. 2-7 against RPI top 50 isn't going to cut it for Michigan.
February 14th, 2011 at 1:17 AM ^
Did you actually read the post above yours by purplestuff? You have to go well into the mid 30's in RPI to find a team with more than 3 quality wins. Also, you are right, 2-7 isn't going to cut it. That is why everyone on the board is saying we need to win a couple more. If we lose out, I don't think a single person is saying we will make the tourney.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:45 AM ^
We have 4 RPI top 50 games left on the schedule. We are saying we need to be 3-2 and some are saying we need a win in the tournament. That means we would have at least two RPI top 50 wins going into the tournament and we would likely play another one in our first matchup of the tournament. 4-5 top 50 wins would probably get us in.
February 13th, 2011 at 6:54 PM ^
How is 9-9 with a single BTT win a done deal? That's what we did two years ago and it only got us a #10 seed.
And oh yeah, the out-of-conference portion that year saw wins against UCLA and DUKE.
February 13th, 2011 at 7:39 PM ^
3 more bubble teams get in the tournament this year now that it has moved to 68, so we can have a marginally less impressive resume and still get in.
February 13th, 2011 at 7:42 PM ^
since there are tons of medicore teams vying for the NCAA tourney spot. By my estimate, there are 27 bubble teams vying for 7-9 spots which is not a good odd for Michigan.
February 13th, 2011 at 7:40 PM ^
the reason you all are forgetting is the commitee looks at how teams finish the year. if we were to finish 9-9 in conference with one big ten tourney win. that would be a 9-5 finish in one of the toughest conferences in america.
additionally, the Harvard win looks better each day, clemson is defending their home court, take out the indiana and northwestern home losses and we have only lost to teams in the rpi top 50, we have must better road wins than the 2008 team.
How i see the season finish
@ ill- illinois is struggling with leadership issues, have a much bigger lineup and a tough place to play. i give the boys a 25% to win that game.
@ Iowa- any big ten road game is tough but we will be ready to play and have a chip on our shoulder if we lose to illinois. 80% we win
Wisc- if they defeat purdue and penn state, they will be a top 5 team heading to ann abor. They will have a ton of confidence and will be eyeing the march rematch vs osu to decide the conference. It during break for most schools. Crisler should be packed and have an atmoshpere similar to duke. Wisconsin has lossed road games to MSU and Penn State so maybe we can get the signature win. 25% chance
@ MInn- without al nolan, there guards are weak so its strength vs weakness in the matchup of the post and the outside. I dont see a player on Minn who can mark Darius or a hot Tim Hardaway. Morgan plays big and i think we can win this game. We also want revenge for a loss earlier in the year. 50% win
MSU- season finale. if go 2-2 crisler will be jammin. The rivals will come to town and hopefully the saturday crowd will be mostly maize. MSU has struggled mightly and if MSU slips up before this game, then michigan will have much more to play for. 70% win.
Big Ten Tourney we will see what happens
February 13th, 2011 at 11:10 PM ^
have said that they will try not to look at last 5-10 games as part of their criterias because they want to look at the season as whole instead of last 5-10 games. If that's true, you may as well throw it out of the window because they're looking at resume as whole.
February 13th, 2011 at 11:32 PM ^
Yea, but when you are looking at a group of teams that are roughly equal (20ish wins, .500 in conference) are you going to take the team that finished the season 9-4 with 2-4 wins on the road or 4-7 with 2-4 losses at home?
February 13th, 2011 at 8:41 PM ^
Just not ready to do this yet.
If we take the next two I'd consider even broaching the subject of the tourney.
February 13th, 2011 at 3:28 PM ^
Would be nice to get a split out of the next two games. The last game against Sparty is shaping up to be a big one. This would be a nice game to bring in some recruits.
February 13th, 2011 at 3:29 PM ^
My bid formula is the following:
1. Beat both Iowa & MSU
2. Win one of the three others - Wisky, Illinois or Minnesota (preferably Wisconsin)
3. Win at least one tourny game
That would put them at 20-13 and squarely on the bubble. Win two in the tourny or two of three and I think they're a lock for a bid at 21-12.
And isnt it beyond awesome we're even HAVING these discussions right now? No way in Hell did anybody see this coming before the season started. What a nice surprise.
February 13th, 2011 at 3:35 PM ^
The run the last five games has been huge to reclaim a season that could have spiraled out of control. From 2-6 to 6-7 and squarely on the bubble (I think we're already there with a 58 RPI if you look at some of the 4th and 5th place teams in other major conferences) is a huge accomplishment in its own right.
February 13th, 2011 at 3:39 PM ^
If they win 2 of your 3 and we'll have a tiebreaker over MSU and Ill/Minn, there's not really any chance they finish lower than 5th, which means the probably face Ill/Minn/MSU in their first game. All are beatable, but we won't get the easy first win that you're hoping for.
The best opportunity for 9 wins + missing the bye is to beat Wisc and lose to Minn and Ill.
February 13th, 2011 at 3:42 PM ^
We'll know more about how the RPI shakes out if the team can pull off getting to 9-9, but I view the opening game in the conference tournament as more a "don't lose to a team that isn't going to the postseason and hurt your resume" kind of situation. I don't think an opening round loss to a quality team would be a killer if that is who we end up playing out of the gate.
February 13th, 2011 at 4:02 PM ^
I'm thinking we need 4 wins between now and the end of the tournament. 3 wins and a tourney loss to #4 might get us in, but 4 wins locks us, I think. 4 wins guarantees at least two wins on the road and at least 2 wins against top 5 teams in the Big Ten.
February 13th, 2011 at 3:35 PM ^
Illinois likely has two more losses @OSU and @Pur. MSU likely has another loss @OSU. PSU likely has two losses @OSU and @Wisc. That puts Michigan, MSU, and Minn at 7 likely losses, Ill at 8, and PSU at 9.
Wins over MSU and Ill give us the tiebreakers over those teams. Wins @Minn and against Wisc give us the tiebreaker over Minn, assuming that Wisc stays in front of or equal to Purdue.
MSU still plays Ill and Minn as well. So, there is a good chance that we end up 4th or 5th in the conference if we can win 3 of our next 5. Beating Ill would be huge, especially if they can beat MSU on the road. I don't think that will happen, but I could definitely see us getting 8 or 9 wins, finishing 5th or 6th, which would either give us a bye and a game against #4 (probably Minn) or a games against #11 and #3 (Indiana and Purdue). It looks like 7th is about the worst we'll finish right now. That would give us games against #10 and #2 (Iowa and Wisc), which still isn't a bad draw.
February 13th, 2011 at 3:41 PM ^
Or we can just win out, forget about the bubble, and be a lock to get in.
February 13th, 2011 at 3:42 PM ^
win out and win one BTT game. They're in. If you lose one game, you can still make it in. Two is bubble watch provided that they don't beat Wisconsin and Illini. Three is NIT.
February 13th, 2011 at 3:49 PM ^
This team is not going to the NCAA Tournament. They are not good enough. They may be next year, but right now they are not.
This team is Notre Dame under Charlie Weiss: beat bad teams, play a few good teams close, but lose and get punished a few times, too. They have beaten no one who is good. And while it gives me confidence for the future that they hung tough with Kansas, Ohio State twice and Minnesota, they still lost.
Looking ahead, it would be a good bet that they lose 3 of the last 5, and the Michigan State game is no gimme. Heck, for this team, no game is. So, they go into the Big Ten Tournament with a game against a middle of the pack team, and MAYBE win. "So what," says the NCAA Committee. Can you beat a good team? Then they play one of the good Big Ten teams and lose. NIT.
February 13th, 2011 at 3:56 PM ^
you stop it. the fact that we are talking about this right now is exciting for people who support michigan basketball. and whether you want to admit it or not, michigan controls their own destiny, which is fine by me with 5 regular season games left. this is fun.
February 13th, 2011 at 3:58 PM ^
I'm a terrible person for being realistic. I should be stabbed with a dull betterknife in the aorta.
February 13th, 2011 at 4:19 PM ^
If you want to be realistic, that's fine. Let everyone else be optimistic if they want to, though. Besides, a realistic person would admit that their is a chance that they make the tournament even if it is relatively small. You're just being pessimistic.
February 13th, 2011 at 4:37 PM ^
The realistic attitude to take is to say this: we're not likely to make the tournament, but it's not entirely out of our reach. You're flat-out stating it won't happen.
Out of curiosity: what "realistic" outlook did you have for our game at Breslin?
February 13th, 2011 at 4:51 PM ^
'cause it sure looks to me like MfaninOH introduced the "Stop It" command.
February 13th, 2011 at 5:00 PM ^
Was it not realistic for George Mason to do what they did in the tourney? It's sports. Anything can happen. If you don't want to at least hope the team makes it, and just act like an ass to everyone else saying "no chance", do it someplace else, cause you obviously aren't a real fan of Michigan.
February 13th, 2011 at 6:37 PM ^
mfan_in_ohio =/= MfaninOH. I do like the idea, however, of having an evil pessimistic alter ego as a foil for my overly optimistic attitude. This makes me want to have a second user name as Evil_mfan_in_ohio. Maybe that user name can grow the goatee that my wife won't let me have.
February 14th, 2011 at 10:13 AM ^
MfaninOH = 
mfan_in_OH = 
February 13th, 2011 at 4:01 PM ^
Gotta love when people compare a football team to a basketball team to make their point. They are NOT the same.
February 13th, 2011 at 4:02 PM ^
To claim that this team probably won't make the NCAA tournament is fine. Pomeroy agrees with you giving UM the highest probability of going 18-13(8-10) with 17 wins being slightly more likely than 19. However compaing JB, the only coach to win 20 games at pretty much every level of college basketball to Charlie Weis is idiotic. JB is known as an excellent tactial coach and in case you hadn't noticed, we have beaten many good teams with him as coach(UCLA, Duke, Purdue, OSU, and MSU @ Breslin). So in conclusion, while this team probably won't make the NCAA tournament, saying they absolutely won't is just as wrong as saying they definitely will because they definitlely have played well enough to give themselves a shot.
February 13th, 2011 at 4:10 PM ^
Hey, nobody here is expecting us to make it to the tourney, but it is not unrealistic to think we can possibly pull it off. Come on man, its just fun to talk about.
February 14th, 2011 at 12:30 AM ^
Shun the un-believer...shunnnnn!
February 13th, 2011 at 4:04 PM ^
So winning at Clemson almost by double digits who is 17-8 and 6th in the ACC, or winning at MSU who almost nobody comes away with a win, or having an RPI inside 60, or playing the 15th hardest schedule in the country doesn't mean anything? We're 16-10, the 2009 team that made the tournament was 16-10 at this time, it's very possible. Never compare the basketball team to Jaba the Hut's team. I agree win against MSU, Iowa, then win one of the ILL, MINN, or Wiscy we are 9-9 in conference, while winning 1 game in the BTT and we're dancing.