MBB Silver Linings - reasons to look on the bright side
So last night sucked, we all know that. But I am seeing a whole lot of negativity and despair from some people on here over one bad loss. So I feel we should look for the positives on this team and focus on the good things that are coming up ahead, rather than dwell on negativity and hatred.
Here are my silver linings in the wake of last night's loss, what are yours?
- We went 1-3 in a brutally tough stretch of the schedule, a stretch many were expecting us to finish 2-2 at best. In that stretch we faced 3 top 10 teams.
- We are still undefeated at home.
- We are still undefeated at neutral site games.
- We are not eliminated from B1G title contention.
- We can and will still win the conference tournament, because it is neutral site.
- The rest of the month should allow the team some time to rest, heal, and regroup with only 3 games in the next two weeks, two of which are against Penn State.
- We won't have to worry about road games in the B1G tourney or NCAA tourney, they're all neutral site, where we are currently undefeated.
- Last year's team lost on the road as well, and went 13-5 in conference.
- The past few games probably guaranteed that GRIII will be back next year.
- We won't have to deal with B1G refs after March 17th.
- MSU still sucks as a school.
- Both Duke and Florida, two other teams that may be one seeds, suffered embarrasing losses as well, to Miami and Arkansas respectively.
Cheer up people, it's just a bad loss, it's not the end of the world!
February 13th, 2013 at 12:40 PM ^
Why exactly is this comment trolling?
Unless the wheels completely fall off, it's unlikely Michigan will fall below a 2 seed and outside of last year's craziness with Missouri and Duke both going down, 2 seeds rarely lose to 15 seeds. Our only losses are on the road in the Big 10, three of which came to Top 15 teams. The other loss was made possible by a miracle half court shot to send the game into OT.
Could a dangerous 7/10 seed upset Michigan? Sure. Could a dangerous 8/9 seed upset Indiana? Sure. There is no 2007 Florida or 2012 Kentucky this year. There are about a dozen teams (Indiana, Florida, Michigan, State, Ohio, Syracuse, Louisville, Duke, Miami, Kansas, Gonzaga, Arizona) who could win the title, but have serious flaws. It's that kind of year.
February 13th, 2013 at 1:10 PM ^
it's either trolling because they realized that I was making a funny on the previous poster's typo about a 3 seed losing to a 15 seed (when he obviously meant two) and didn't like my joke, or it is my phantom neg-banger who has been following me all week and downvoting everything I post, regardless of merit. I even got downvoted for wishing a guy who had twins congrats on his announcement post saturday.
February 13th, 2013 at 10:07 AM ^
Agreed, but losing by 30 to anyone is pretty damn embarrassing. The "young team" and "hostile environment" excuses apply but still . . . it was not cool. I'm not ready to get over it just yet.
February 13th, 2013 at 10:09 AM ^
Someone, other than the coaches, needs to rip the entire team a new one about effort on D. I doubt anyone on this team will do that.
February 13th, 2013 at 10:57 AM ^
...it worth remembering that the kids just played 4 games in a 10 day stretch. 3 of them on the road in three of our toughest opposing arenas. And 3 of them against top 10 teams.
That is an absolutely brutal stretch with little opporutnity to catch a break. The kids are probably dealing with mid-term exams by now too. No wonder they got gassed at Breslin. Even if they had cruised through the previous three games with easy wins they probably would have still hit a wall last night.
It's disappointing to lose but this is also the perfect time to regroup and start working towards a big finish.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:34 AM ^
Maybe so but I'll say this: All of the truly good teams go through this kind of thing. The truly great ones emerge at least somewhat unscathed. They are kids and they have so many things to worry about (practice, school, social life, etc.) but its the same at every program. I think many of us just got our hopes a little to high coming into this brutal stretch. That said, I'm still confident about a #2 seed at least.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:48 AM ^
Like when McGary hustled to keep the ball in bounds in the 2nd half, no one had gotten themselves into a position to grab his save. They were on their heels and reacting instead of being aggressive and anticipating.
Earlier in the year, we had some games in which the kids were dominant and assertive, and some games against inferior competition in which the kids played meh but would end up winning by 15 anyway.
They need to play more intense defense, which leads to transition opportunities, and for their talents, easy, easy baskets. Not enough D and too much settling for jump shots.
February 13th, 2013 at 10:09 AM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^
I understand all the frustration about lack of leadership/drive/fire/etc. What's hard is that with this team, the highs are really high and the lows are unfathomably low. Think about how we felt after the Ohio game just a week ago. The players and coaches have to have short memories if we expect them to improve, and so should the fans. We have to wait and see how they'll respond the rest of the season.
I also have to say, getting blown out against a main rival is extremely shitty, but most of my anger came out on Saturday after the Wisconsin loss. That doesn't excuse a lackluster performance last night, but as most of you have observed, we seem to get teams' top efforts, and when teams are making virtually every shot (I swear the statistics are wrong....48.4 team FG% my ass), losses will happen.
Thanks for this thread...the game threads for losses get so unbelievably negative that it's important to remember why we love this team and why we will absolutely continue to watch every game.
Go Blue.
February 13th, 2013 at 10:17 AM ^
It will be important to win most of the up coming games. If we can beat IU and MSU at home, the team will gain confidence and I think we will get to the sweet 16, possibly the final four! However, if we keep playing poorly, lose at home to both IU and MSU, then we may only win one or two games in the NCAA tournament!
Will the real Michigan team show up?February 13th, 2013 at 10:25 AM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 10:29 AM ^
The biggest takeaway I have from this is that it's just really hard to win on the road in the Big Ten. We've played all the tough conference teams on our schedule on the road. The only one to come to Ann Arbor so far, we beat. Still plenty of time left in the season.
February 13th, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 10:39 AM ^
our young team learned what it takes to get fired up and defend your home court.
also, can we design some plays to get easy baskets? three man weave around the three point line is the best we have.
February 13th, 2013 at 10:43 AM ^
for some reason the Wisconsin loss is still harder to get past than last night's for me. I think the guys were just plain tired. They went down by 6-8 early and didn't have the emotional or physical reserves to fight back. We can talk about all the numbers and statistics we want...but there's also the reality of hotel rooms, bus rides, plane flights, away crowds and some fairly decent teams stacked back to back to back.
I think that accounts for the lack of hustle, driving to the bucket, etc, etc.
Let's be careful about writing these guys off before we see how the next couple of weeks go.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:02 AM ^
4 games in 10 days, 3 on the road and 3 against top ten teams
Brutual...but good prep for a March Madness tourney run!
February 13th, 2013 at 10:48 AM ^
and calming down I feel similar to your write up. Though, I think the Wisconsin game just sucked a lot of energy out of this team and we could have been seeing the ol "Wisconsin beating us twice factor". We were just exhausted last night and on top of that, sparty was going all crazy with their shooting percentage.
Still love this team, still can be very good, the longer break we have now in between the PSU game is much needed. Hopefully the guys can get a day off or two and just rest, re-focus.
Hold court at home and we can be in the hunt for the B1G.
Also, I think most of the comments about giving up on the team was largely due to the fact it was against sparty, we all hate them and we all hate losing to them.
PS. sorry for all my stupid comments yesterday in the open thread, emotions were getting a hold of me.
February 13th, 2013 at 10:53 AM ^
I'm still having a hard time finding any silver linings after that debacle.
February 13th, 2013 at 10:59 AM ^
The past 3 SuperBowl winners illustrate that in a one and done situation, get in and you have a chance to win 4 in a row and win it all. Given that a lack of experience and some toughness that has been exposed all of the freshmen that play except McGary, I would be more than happy with 4 wins and a final four appearance. Where before I was dillusioned to think this team was a serious National Title contender, I think it's more likely that a MSU or even Ohio passes the eye test of a team poised for a deep run with they way their athletes on defense can make life difficult. That said, Michigan will enter the tournament no lower than a 2 seed and I would not be surprised if they win 4 in a row. Unfortunately, today I am resigned to this position and not as optimistic as I was a week or so ago.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:00 AM ^
They are freshmen playing vs alot of seniors... and played very soft, as expected. It sucks that 'sophomore' Burke couldnt get the team to step up and block out the atmosphere... now watch us turn around and crush msu at home... it'll show you how rattled these 18 year olds get.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:09 AM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 11:19 AM ^
Ok, but if we beat them in Crisler, then it will prove to be the atmosphere (and thus, softness).
February 13th, 2013 at 11:03 AM ^
how was the play?
you make some good points but i was quite glad to not have television last night. it was ugly enough checking the score on the computer.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:14 AM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 11:22 AM ^
We are a good team but we have some major issues. Those issues don't just go away when we play at home or a neutral site.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:46 AM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 12:02 PM ^
Spin this fucking loss however you want to but this game was flat out embarrassing. This loss falls on Beilein. Watching him taking a seat calmly and watching this game go down without saying anything to the players out on the floor speaks volumes. The coach is the leader of the team. Yes they're are players that are leaders also but the coach is the one that makes adjustments and makes the right substitutions. He is the one that directs the team as they are playing. He should have sub GR3 for not putting anything into the game. There are kids on the bench that would have given a much more effort. He should have at least stood up and gave a fuck when shit turned ugly. He needed to light a fire under them and get on their asses when they were on the floor. Where are these kids supposed to get their motivationon the floor on a road game? Beilein had no motivation as he just sat there and watched. This is ayoung team and they need to be coached.February 13th, 2013 at 2:14 PM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 12:11 PM ^
One thing that is nice about coming off what really was a meat grinder of games for us is that this teams has seen the tougher defenses and has a basis for making adjustments in that regard. Going 1-3 in that stretch definitely stinks, but the team learned volumes that it can use to its own advantage later.
Indeed, the next three games hopefully will be used as an opportunity to test some the adjustments, and while playing Illinois and Penn St. is not going to be like playing Indiana and Michigan State, you have three likely wins coming up where you can work with what you now know about this team if you're the staff. It could certainly be a springboard for preparation for the final week of the regular season, as it will not be a picnic for the most part even if it is mostly at home.
The Big Ten is, by most measures, the toughest conference. Those people who predicted a 13-5 or 14-4 conference record in all of the preseason threads stand a good shot of being correct yet. The good news is that this is a good team overall and it seems like it can only get better going forward with the experience gained in this stretch.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:12 PM ^
Also, you're playing a bunch of freshman and expecting them to compete at the highest level against a bunch of upperclassmen on their court in the toughest conference in basketball.
All I can say now is thank God we have Penn State next. This team is in dire need of a breather.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:22 PM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 12:33 PM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 12:57 PM ^
At least we didn't lose by 30.....or 40.
February 13th, 2013 at 1:22 PM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 2:25 PM ^
Time to sit the rest of this one out, Champ. In the PGB household, we call it a "timeout." Your points will return next month.
February 13th, 2013 at 5:47 PM ^
in the big ten you can get away with just about anythign on defense at home... we won't have to deal with that any more... And come tournament time these games shoudl help us prep. Should...