This will be a fun year for filling out tournament brackets. I think we'll see a lot of Duke and Indiana in people's Final Four predictions, but beyond that there really should be a lot of variation. Even those two feel very beatable.
going tonight, even if Miami has taken the regular season ACC title.
Great reminder that any team, any where can go down. (Perhaps we should have kept that fixed in mind after the admittedly disappointing (sigh) Penn State team.) Still some season to go with the tourneys and a #1 is definitely in play.
win against Indiana and win the BTT and get some help from UNC tonight and the # 1 overall seed might be on the table. Who would have thought that when Michigan lost to Penn State.
Gonzaga probably would have to lose as well.
Gonzaga losing before the tournament would be a huge upset even in this season of upsets - I don't think it's likely. We have to hope for a Boise State kind of scenario where they get passed as other teams get quality wins. They would anyway be in the West bracket and would not hurt our chances at getting the Midwest even if they are ahead of us - just need to stay ahead of Indiana/ Kansas and maybe State.
I was talking specifically abou the overall #1 seed. I agree that it is unlikely Gonzaga loses. I really only think the only way they lose the overall 1 is if they lose or if Duke/Indiana wins out and then wins their tourney. Otherwise I think the voters will see that they only have two loses and say "Oh wow! They must be freaking amazing!"
You love the surprises, but you hate them all the same because so much is up in the air. Especially this year, no one is unbeatable & so we should have a lot of surprises.
New Mexico just lost too, so that's another potential top 2 seed losing.
If we were to beat Indiana tomorrow and then again in the BTT, wouldn't we almost have to have a higher seed than them?
Yes. Easily. Question is, if we beat Indiana tomorrow and both of us lose early in the BTT then who gets the #1?
Probably whoever had the tougher schedule, whoever had the "better" wins.
This was a game I thought Kansas would have a tough time winning - they have been shaky on the road and have had more than a couple shaky wins in which they scraped by through good coaching/ questionable officiating. Baylor was desperate and got the big win!
We win tomorrow and we are almost guaranteed a 2 seed. Win 3 games in total (tomorrow + btt) and we will likely have a 1 seed.
Not only did they lose but they got beat down by 23 points to a team that is on the bubble
Shall this be the evening B-ball thread?? I actaully picked Baylor 3's over KU's winning margin for Streak for Cash, not thinking Baylor would come out and beat that a**. The win from earlier in the year became more impressive as the year progressed, we beat the co-Big 12 Champ.
Duke - UNC game without a title on the line is like Prince without a pickup basketball game agaisnt Charlie Murphy, "This bores me..".
Not that they appeared to be in line for a 1-seed. But it never hurts. This year has been crazy.
I changed the title to reflect the final outcome - hopefully the OP does not mind.
The glaring stat - Kansas did not shoot like Kansas. Indeed, their effective FG% was 42.9% compared to Baylor's 63.5%, and add this to Kansas having more turnovers and Baylor playing some spirited defense, and there it is. I believe that was the last Big 12 regular season game for both Kansas State and Kansas today, and as I did the math right, that makes them both 14-4 in their conference.
I'm not saying Michigan wins it all or even goes to the Final Four but with no dominant teams, why not us? There is no team in the country we can't beat.
Lest we forget, we are 20-0 in Home/Neutral court games this year. Our struggles have been on the road in the toughest conference in America with one of the youngest teams in the country.
On a neutral court the best and most talented team with great guard play should win. Yes, we could bow out early but we could easily make a deep run.
Edit: Oh and we have the best player in the country at the most important position (PG)
There's also no team in the country we can't lose to. At least in the tournament. After 20+ years of watching Michigan, I can guarantee 1 thing: bring your Tums for the tourney. You'll scream, cry, and elate all at once.
Yup but you could say that about any team. TCU-Kansas? Difference with Michigan is that we have all the talent in the world, we're just young and have struggled in raucous away environments. There are no more road games
And Kansas doesn't??? Come on now, we have no more talent than they do.
I'd also argue that we'd have much more fan support wherever we go, making the neutral site less neutral, in the good way.
maybe its sad but I only watched this game because I'm a redskins fan and I wanted to see hoe RG3 was walking and jumping out of his seat.
my statement or my avitar?
I wish we could negbomb you for more than just -1
Yep. Win tomorrow and we are almost certainly a 1 seed.
That loss to Penn St is gonna hurt us more than you think
We're not the only top ten team who has that kind of horrible loss on our resume.
Kansas lost to TCU who is currently 10-21.
Georgetown lost to South Florida who is currently 13-17
Miami lost to Wake Forest who is 13-17. They also have losses to Indiana State and Florida-Gulf Coast.
If we're going to be hurt, I guess those teams will be too.
A month ago. Until yesterday, they hadn't lost since, and they've been winning by double digits. Georgetown lost to USF in mid January, and they're 12-1 since, with wins over ND, Marquette, Louisville and Syracuse (twice, the last one a beat down).
The point is, these teams are playing hot, and we aren't. Even when we win any more, we have to sweat and struggle and cross our fingers, even against mediocre opposition. We have no played a really strong game against a top notch team in a long time.
Correct me if I'm wrong but haven't we been in the Top 5 all year except for 2 separate weeks?
This is the case for both polls, AP and Coaches.
The most current poll had us at #7 and #8 in the AP and Coaches' poll respectively.
The week of February 18th, we were #7 in both polls.
All other weeks, we have indeed been at least #5 in both. We've actually been #2 in various weeks more than any other rank.
So why is everyone on here so confident we'll lose early in the tourney?
Yeah weve had 5 losses in conference on the road but this isn't football. It happens to everyone in basketball. Maybe because we haven't been in this position in 20+ years and our fanbase doesn't understand college basketball very well?
While I'm not one of those people, I think most are worried about our defense when we run into a mid level team that suddenly gets hot.
I agree with that. I just think teams need to worry about us if we get hot.
Once we get out of conference play everything is going to open up. My only real concern is if our guys are too exhausted from B1G play
remember this article? http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130118/college-basketball-early-warnings/index.html
and that was back when our defensive ranking was slightly better. we didn't get any better over the course of the year.
we can obviously still make a deep run in the tourney, especially this year. but our defensive woes are a huge red flag in actually expecting this to happen.
And our defense is the worst by far of any team likely to be a top 4 seed. Add to that, our offense is one-dimensional now, and we have poor rebounding and inside scoring, and we're just plain not playing well.
I'm beginning to see how UMHoops got tired of you.
I raised substantive issues that you know are a fact, but you'd rather just ignore them and fling poo. This team is not playing well right now. Their offense has regressed to everyone standing around waiting for Trey Burke to make things happen by himself. Their defense is weak, and is not going to win them any games in the tournament.
Didn't we start the year ranked 6th?
delete
Carolina playing some quality basketball down 12-0
both lost on the road to "bottom" teams.
Everyone does it, so it must be right!
Damn just sat down to watch and I see Duke must be strokin', 14-1 at the first tv timeout...
26-9 now. Duke can't miss.
I think we'll make the elite 8 at least.
Gonzaga losing.
Does it really make sense to hold for the last shot of the half when you're down 18 points?
As long as you have an agreement with the opponents coach that he won't hold it for a last shot after you shoot.