Michigan remains tied for first in the Big Ten

Submitted by MaizenBlue93 on

With Michigan State's loss @ Wisconsin today, Michigan and Michigan State remain tied in the Big Ten at 9-2. Michigan and Michigan State play again on February 23rd (Two weeks from today.) Seven games remain the the Big Ten, here are Michigan and Michigan States final seven games:

Michigan: @OSU, Wisconsin, MSU, @Purdue, Minnesota, @Illinois, IU

 

MSU: NW, Nebraska, @Purdue, @U-M, Illinois, Iowa, @OSU

turd ferguson

February 9th, 2014 at 4:51 PM ^

I'm curious about the "much better schedule" line. 

Let's take out the games that are identical (@OSU, @ Purdue).  That leaves you with these games, in rough order of difficulty for each team:

Michigan: MSU, Wisconsin, @ Illinois, Minnesota, IU

MSU: @ Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Northwestern

To me, that looks tougher at the top for MSU (having to play Iowa and in Ann Arbor) and tougher at the bottom for Michigan (with Nebraska-Illinois-Northwestern pretty soft).  Maybe MSU's schedule is easier the rest of the way, but it's pretty close.

America

February 9th, 2014 at 4:31 PM ^

Doom and gloom is commonplace with our fanbase as demonstrated by Exhibit A:

http://mgoblog.com/content/week-twitterverse-1

Here is a list of the "most reasonable" twitter opinions (as synthesized by BiSB) about our basketball team on February 12, 2013, which was less than a year ago, and 55 days prior to playing for the national championship

  • Fire Beilein
  • Bench Trey Burke
  • Bench everyone but Trey Burke
  • NO, FOR SRS, FIRE BELEIEIN
  • Deport Nik Stauskas
  • Sacrifice Vogrich to the Flying Spaghetti Monster
  • File war crime charges against Hardaway
  • Cut GRIII
  • Cut RGIII (not sure how this would help, but I suppose it’s worth a shot)
  • Forfeit the season and go caddy for the Dalai Lama

 

 

MGoBender

February 9th, 2014 at 4:00 PM ^

And Michigan owns the tiebreaker.

Not for the regular season championship, because there's no such thing.  They would both be B10 Champions.

Now if you're talking tournament...

1. Head-to-head (which would likely be a tie, since M-MSU being tied for the conference implies MSU beating UM in two weeks)

2. Record vs. #3 team (Iowa.  UM is 1-1.  MSU currently 1-0 and host them after playing us)

2b. Record vs. #4 team

etc.

3. Winning % against all D-1 teams (MSU)

4. Coin flip

LSAClassOf2000

February 9th, 2014 at 3:20 PM ^

On its face (statistically anyway), it isn't as bad as some keep saying, in my opinion. I would dare say that Ohio State is the last game on the schedule in which we are not at least a slight (key word perhaps) favorite when it comes to win likelihood. As I recall from the last look at Massey, the lowest estimated win after Tuesday is our game at home versus Michigan State at 55% or so. That number may change slightly tomorrow when the site normally updates, but I suspect not too much - MSU might be the next most difficult game, but it is at Crisler and we do pretty well there, of course. 

snarling wolverine

February 9th, 2014 at 3:29 PM ^

Payne scored a bunch but only grabbed four rebounds.  If we can keep him off the glass like that, I'll feel good about our chances.  Jordan Morgan has held his own defensively against the likes of Sullinger and many others . . . he can get it done. 

 

LS And Play

February 9th, 2014 at 3:11 PM ^

Those schedules are really similar in terms of difficulty. Three Tier 1/Tier 2 caliber teams, and 4 teams in the bottom half of the conference. I would guess the winner on February 23rd is close to a lock for a share and a clear favorite for an outright title. 

funkywolve

February 9th, 2014 at 6:23 PM ^

'I would guess the winner on 2/23 is close to a lock for a share and a clear favorite for the outright title' - that's going to depend on what UM does against Wisky and OSU.  If UM loses both of those games and is 2 games behind MSU heading into 2/23, an outright title is going to be tough. 

michfan4borw

February 9th, 2014 at 4:42 PM ^

Home court and timing.

 

I think both schedules shake out evenly the rest of the way.  Michigan has the challenging games now, MSU later.  The timing favors Michigan after the OSU game on Tuesday.  That's why that game is so huge IMO.

 

dc22

February 9th, 2014 at 3:13 PM ^

The schedules are very comparable but I think MSU's is slightly easier ... I feel that the most important games are MSU (obv) and Indiana.