MBB Drops To #5 in AP

Submitted by Mike Damone on January 21st, 2019 at 12:55 PM

Tennessee takes over the top spot, followed by Duke, Virginia and Gonzaga.

We are still ahead of Sparty, who is at #6.  With their unbeaten conference record - I can only imagine the bitching at the RCMB right now...

Lot of basketball to be played this season - going to be fun to watch as teams shift in the Top 10 throughout the year.  Hopefully, our upward shift begins tomorrow with Minnesota at home.

Go Blue!

BoHarb

January 21st, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^

Ranking shouldn't mean anything to us or frankly to msu.  Conference record, big ten championship, conference championship, and then favorable seeding are all that should matter.  Msu has a tough stretch starting tonight playing Maryland for top conference record.  We should be ranked higher anyway given w/L records. 

UM Fan from Sydney

January 21st, 2019 at 1:22 PM ^

I have been stating this forever. Well put. Basketball rankings are so meaningless. This isn't football. If Michigan wins the conference and/or conference tournament, they will be a 1 or 2 seed.

northernmich

January 21st, 2019 at 1:01 PM ^

#5 is exactly right. All 4 teams above them are currently better than them right now. Make a statement and run Minnesota out of the gym.

MichiganStan

January 21st, 2019 at 1:15 PM ^

How is Gonzaga without a doubt better than us? They lost to UNC by 13. We beat UNC by 17. Gonzaga has two losses and we only have one. Gonzagas last 9 games have been against super weak teams like Pacific, Denver, and San Francisco 

northernmich

January 21st, 2019 at 1:22 PM ^

Just my assessment. When you lose matters too. They lost two tough road games earlier in the year, while we just lost to a not very good Wisconsin team in the road. They continue to win the games they should.

TrueBlue2003

January 21st, 2019 at 6:20 PM ^

When you lose shouldn't matter when you're comparing Gonzaga, whose only tough games are early in the year, and Michigan which is playing in an extremely difficult conference.  That they're beating terrible teams right now means nothing.  This is why the NCAA did away with the "last 10" criteria.

Wisconsin is a top 20 team by every unbiased ranking system you can find.  Playing at Wisconsin is like playing a top 5-10ish team.  It absolutely qualifies as a "tough road game", which btw, the Gonzaga game against Tennessee wasn't a road game, it was a neutral site game.

I'm not even arguing that M should he ahead of Gonzaga, although I do think Michigan would win on a neutral floor (Gonzaga isn't good enough on defense) more often than not.  Just saying that blindly looking at when losses occur without any context is a poor way to look at a resume.

ijohnb

January 21st, 2019 at 2:19 PM ^

Right now?  No, I would take Duke?  A month ago, Michigan by ten.  Teams evolve several times throughout the season.  We are not playing great right now but it isn’t a bad time to not be playing great.  A lot like 2013, came out like gang busters, chilled for a while, and then put on the afterburners.  Duke is playing better right now but that isn’t an indication that they “are” better.

CLion

January 21st, 2019 at 1:04 PM ^

Surprised MSU is still behind us seeing as they won @ Neb and we obviously lost a comparable game. Irrelevant though.

BlueLava009

January 21st, 2019 at 1:09 PM ^

Really does not matter at this point in time.  A lot of good basketball yet to be played.  Quality home and home vs both Maryland and MSU, OSU and Wisconsin still at home, and this Friday at Indiana.  Running the table was highly unlikely, I just hope the team continues to play at a high level while improving.  Realistically I see no reason why this team should drop a game against an under whelming opp., cough looking at you @PSU...Big Ten conference could very well come down those two home and homes we have left.  

Team still has a lot of prove and it would appear as though some defenses have figured out how to stop Beilein's European freshman phenom.  Time to improvise, the team will adjust and hopefully go on another run to end the season.  Wisconsin is a good team and ALWAYS a tough game away from AA.  Michigan sure didn't play their best and we know what can happen when the 3pt shooting is off.  Still went down to the wire in a rough environment.  Although, I do feel that odd call (not calling it a bad call) at the end of the game really put Michigan out of it yesterday. Oh'well, onto the next one.  

MichiganStan

January 21st, 2019 at 1:12 PM ^

Gonzaga should not be ahead of us

They lost to UNC by 13 who we beat by 17. And this was a week after they lost to Tennessee

Gonzaga last 11 games: L Tenn, L UNC, W UTA, W Denver, W UNA, W CSB, W SCU, W Pacific, W SF, W LMU, W Portland

Gonzaga has a CUPCAKE Schedule. I don't even know half of these teams abbreviations unless I google them. 

 

Monk

January 22nd, 2019 at 10:50 AM ^

Have you actually looked up how good or bad Gonzaga's schedule is?  According to net (again which the committee uses), San Francisco is 38, St. Mary's is 49, pretty respectable.  Their non-conf schedule is probably the best in the country - Duke, Tennessee, UNC, Arizona, Washington.

If they win out, they're getting a one seed, no doubt, they're 3 in the net, MSU is at 5, UM at 6.  The big ten is stronger and winner of the big ten should also get a one seed as well, but right now, unless one of UM or MSU sweeps the other, they're not going to overtake Gonzaga. 

 

Monk

January 21st, 2019 at 1:48 PM ^

In the net rankings UM dropped to 6, with MSU at 5, they seem to be a day off wrt updating so Sunday's results won't be in till tomorrow.