MBB Remains at #2 in AP Poll
The good guys still at #2 in the AP poll behind Duke, with voters giving us nine first place votes.
Should be noted that Duke has played zero road games this season – but that is going to change quickly. They are at Wake Forest tomorrow night, and at #13 Florida State on Saturday. Let’s see how well the talented freshmen play in a hostile environment
With Kansas and Nevada losing, Sparty has now moved up to #6. Looks like a couple epic match-ups coming with our in state brethren in late February.
Go Blue!!!
January 7th, 2019 at 12:53 PM ^
Finally Duke will hit the road and pick up that elusive Graham Couch vote.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:37 PM ^
LOL That guy needs his vote taken away. I get it, Duke hasn't played a road game yet, that means they aren't one of the best 25 teams in the country? If they lose their first game on the road, does that mean they still don't deserve to be ranked or will they jump into his top 25 just because they played a road game?
He also has Tennesee ranked #1, ahead of Michigan and they have played a grand total of ONE game on the road, a 10 point win against Memphis who is ranked #93 on KenPom. Meanwhile Michigan has beaten Villanova(KP#24) and Northwestern(KP#51) on the road. What a goddamn moron.
January 7th, 2019 at 12:53 PM ^
Is State actually good, or are they overrating Little Man Izzo?
January 7th, 2019 at 12:56 PM ^
They look pretty good. Winston is playing well, although I think we have an advantage since Simpson typically outplays him head to head.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
The Transitive Property, which is never wrong, says we are clearly better than MSU!
Michigan beat Indiana
Indiana beat Louisville
Louisville beat MSU
January 7th, 2019 at 1:23 PM ^
We are better than them - period. We match up very well vs Sparty - their strength is at guard (Winston and Langford), and with Z on Winston and Poole/Matthews on Langford, they are going to have a tough time.
They are good - we are better.
January 8th, 2019 at 9:44 AM ^
Yesterday erased a lot of my doubts. We will be ferocious at the Crisler Center.
January 7th, 2019 at 12:57 PM ^
I'm no expert, but they seem more cohesive than last year. A road win against OSU is impressive as is their dismantling of Northwestern.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
MSU this year is a really good case of addition by subtraction. Both Bridges and Jackson were/are really good players but Izzo had very little idea what to do with either of them. They were not players in the MSU "mold" and to try to make them that was to take away why they were good in the first place. Really bad fit. Izzo dipped his toe into the one-and-done pool because he desperately wants a second title but he really can't coach those kind of players.
January 7th, 2019 at 12:57 PM ^
Hate to admit it - but they looked pretty darn good beating OSU on the road with Langford out. Winston is a very good point guard, Ward has not went into his "Big Ten soft swoon" yet and looks solid, and the supporting cast is playing their part.
I think we are better - but Sparty is holding their own.
January 7th, 2019 at 12:59 PM ^
KenPom says they are good. Could be a possibility to face them 3 times in 3 weeks in Feb/March.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:02 PM ^
I just hope it isn't 4 times. I like playing them and winning, but in that same breath, Izzo has beaten Beilein his fair share also, including that 2014 year where we beat them both regular season games and then lost the BTT title game. The games just give me too much anxiety lol
January 7th, 2019 at 1:09 PM ^
A Michigan v. Michigan State basketball Final Four or National Title Game would be a serious pressure cooker for fans, that it for sure.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:12 PM ^
I really thought 2014 was a collision course for a Michigan/MSU title game. I put that in my bracket, and both teams lost in the E8 in close games to the title game participants.
January 7th, 2019 at 4:27 PM ^
When we have a strong team, we don't lose to them too much. Most of Izzo's wins against Beilein came when we were down. We went 6-3 against them from 2011-14 and 3-1 the last two years.
January 7th, 2019 at 5:18 PM ^
True. But he still had wins against those good teams that Michigan fielded. 13 and 14 were the two best Michigan teams I've seen (last year was a very good team, but those other ones were better) and Izzo did snag victories against them. And I firmly think this year is a split in victories, not a sweep. I just think that playing MSU on senior night after we have already faced them will be really hard to win.
January 7th, 2019 at 7:04 PM ^
You can make a case for 2013, but 2014 Michigan was all offense, very little defense. I think the '18 team beats them.
January 7th, 2019 at 2:53 PM ^
Are our less than stellar performances against over-matched competition dragging us down that much on kenpom? I mean we dominated UNC which kenpom has at 6.
January 7th, 2019 at 4:25 PM ^
Yes they are. But that's how it should work. Picking and choosing the moments to play well, as Michigan has been doing this season, is not what great teams do. It's not a good habit to get into, especially with Illinois coming up on the road who have played some really good teams tough
January 7th, 2019 at 4:31 PM ^
Picking and choosing the moments to play well, as Michigan has been doing this season, is not what great teams do.
This is ridiculous. We're 15-0 and 13 of those wins are by double digits.
January 7th, 2019 at 4:50 PM ^
You are completely disregarding game flow and just looking at the box score. Our worst basketball of the year has come against our worst competition, and that's a fact.
If you don't think that, then you either don't watch the games, or truly believe that the means to the end of the game are irrelevant and have no issue with being up by 3 against Binghamton with 10 minutes left in the game, or getting our first lead against Western at the buzzer of the first half, etc.
Eventually, this will catch up to us, especially on the road. We need to have complete games against lesser opponents. There's a reason why the computers are ranking us lower than MSU - we aren't playing like the #2 team when we play bad teams.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^
KenPom has them as #4 overall and essentially a bizarro version of #5 Michigan. They have the #3 offense and #17 defense. Michigan has the #20 offense and #4 defense.
January 7th, 2019 at 2:15 PM ^
Fortunately its defense that travels
January 7th, 2019 at 1:01 PM ^
They're good. And they actually are ranked lower by humans than by computers, so I just don't think they can be considered overrated.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:59 PM ^
They look really good and the computers (which I trust far more than the humans) say they're actually underrated by the humans.
As others have mentioned, it appears to be the case of addition by subtraction with the two stars leaving. They are now playing a bit more like a classic Izzo team in the sense that there isn't a single guy with no-brainer NBA talent, but they play their roles extremely well and the sum is greater than the parts. Unlike classic Izzo teams, they're really skilled on offense, and shoot the rock extremely well.
January 8th, 2019 at 9:44 AM ^
The media has been drooling over MSU ever since they destroyed Northwestern last week. Beating OSU this past weekend will no doubt elevate their status to the greatest team of all time.
That's what happens when Izzo is your coach.
January 7th, 2019 at 12:54 PM ^
Beilein is a special coach, and our team is loaded with character and talent. Enjoy it
January 7th, 2019 at 1:10 PM ^
I go back to the days of Johnny Orr and his hyperactive, disheveled assistant Bill Frieder. And Beilein is a far better coach than anyone we have had in likely forever.
January 7th, 2019 at 5:39 PM ^
I had a professor who was Frieder's freshman roommate at Michigan. He had some pretty funny stories about how spaced out Frieder was all the time.
January 7th, 2019 at 12:55 PM ^
Duke taking the Alabama approach on how to avoid road games!
January 7th, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^
Exactly. But ACC conference play has started - so you can run, but you can't hide.
January 7th, 2019 at 12:59 PM ^
They might be little brother, but they're #NotMyBrethren
January 7th, 2019 at 1:01 PM ^
First road game coming halfway through the season. Good job, Duke.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:04 PM ^
Michael Spath, Inside The Huddle, just said there is some breaking news that isn't positive for Michigan. He wouldn't elaborate. Does anyone know what the hell he is referring to?
January 7th, 2019 at 1:07 PM ^
Washington to OSU
January 7th, 2019 at 1:10 PM ^
Harbaugh to Pistons?
January 7th, 2019 at 1:14 PM ^
This made me laugh! I wouldn’t wish that reclamation project on Jim.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:58 PM ^
No, incredibly Mattison to Columbus as OSU's new DC replacing Schiano and likely the end of Larry Johnson's run as Dline coach. Wonder if Mattison would put in a word for Hoke on the staff there. This is some real greaseball shit.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:51 PM ^
In the ballpark...Mattison to the Buckeyes.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
Michigan and MSU are the top of the B1G. Indiana could get there if they get to full strength, but they just don't seem to quite have "it".
I think there is a damn good possibility the B1G will be decided in the final game in EL. I am hoping we are 16-3 and they are 15-4 going into that game
January 7th, 2019 at 2:01 PM ^
I completely agree that it'll likely come down to that last game. If M wins in Ann Arbor, it'll probably be what you hope: Sparty playing for a share and M playing for the outright title.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:32 PM ^
Basketball keeps giving us great news!! Go Blue! Beat the Illini!
January 7th, 2019 at 1:39 PM ^
Quick rundown of basketball polls/rankings:
- #2 in AP Poll (18 pts ahead of Tenn; widened gap by 9 pts)
- #4 in Coaches Poll (7 pts behind Tenn; lost ground by 2 pts)
- #5 in KenPom (MSU jumped M)
- #3 in Torvik
- #10 in ESPN BPI
- #3 in NET (thru 1/5)
- #6 in RPI
- #1 seed on Bracket Matrix (thru 1/5)
- #1 in Andy Katz's power rankings
- #4 in CBS' Top 25 (And 1)
January 7th, 2019 at 1:49 PM ^
I'm still not sold on NET. How is Houston 4th?
January 7th, 2019 at 2:03 PM ^
More than anything I'd say it's their 15-0 record. Once they have a few losses they will probably drop because their schedule is quite soft and the AAC is pretty meh this season.
January 7th, 2019 at 2:05 PM ^
They're 15-0, I guess is the reason? I am a little surprised they're that high because NET is (correctly) putting Duke ahead of UVA and M despite them having a loss so it's obviously not just looking at W-Ls.
NET does appear to be FAR better than RPI, so while not perfect (nothing is), it is so far an upgrade over the awful RPI, which has Kansas #1, Oklahoma #2 (wtf), Nevada #5, TCU (!!!) #10, all of which are way too high and it has M 6th and UVA 9th both way too low.
It will be interesting to see how NET holds up into conference play. The fact that it uses efficiency margins that are not opponent adjusted means teams in good conferences will get dinged for close games and teams in bad conferences will get credit for blowing out bad teams so we could see some teams like Gonzaga and Buffalo move up the list more than they should.
January 7th, 2019 at 5:16 PM ^
My issue is that we have humans putting Houston at 15 because of their record, we have computers putting Houston in the 30's, then we have this new ranking system that is putting them way ahead of a bunch of legitimate ways to rank the teams.
It's just odd.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:49 PM ^
Not so sure about FSU and Wake being hostile environments...FSU is a football school and Wake is a once in a generation school.
It will be very interesting to see if Michigan can at least hold serve against the boys who represent Rape State.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:54 PM ^
Yeah, when we play the Spartans with only four games left, it will be like Carolina-Duke's year-end matchups.
This team still has some serious growth potential before we get there. Let's see how we fare against Illinois later this week. That will be a different contest than even Penn State and Indiana. But I love how jacked our defense was starting out against the Hoosiers. Matthews was the major catalyst playing one of his best games ever as a Wolverine.
I have no real issue with Duke getting the No. 1 brand. They have to defend that ranking and their rep every time they hit the floor. I think that Saturday matchup with the Seminoles will be a major test for them on the road. Meantime, we have to prove we can go anywhere and win.
January 7th, 2019 at 2:04 PM ^
I mean if we are basing the rankings on actual resumes there is no argument for Duke at one over UM at this point. UM has beaten more quality teams and done so mainly by 10+ points.