MBB Remains at #2 in AP Poll

Submitted by Mike Damone on January 7th, 2019 at 12:50 PM

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!!!

Maison Bleue

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.

ijohnb

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. 

Mike Damone

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.

footballguy

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

footballguy

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.

footballguy

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

footballguy

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.

 

TrueBlue2003

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.

Non-preferred …

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?

charblue.

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.

footballguy

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

TrueBlue2003

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.

footballguy

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. 

outsidethebox

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. 

charblue.

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. 

MGoBlue96

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.