10 reasons to smile heading into this Tourney.
1. Nik Stauskas is a Student/Athlete at The University of Michigan.
2. Michigan has a battle-tested team with a tremendous amount of positive momentum surrounding the program.
3. Michigan has Belein. Belein is a top 10 coach.
4. Michigan will likely face DoOk in the round of 16. (barring an upset obviously) Who would you rather knock off? We owe them one....for Darius.
5. This team has and will continue to defy odds and surprise.......as a 2 seed!
6. State plays Cincinnati next Saturday. I predict the analysts won't like that result. Virginia is also a more athletic version of Wisconsin and is a tough matchup for State.
7. Michigan will not see a "Bruiser" in the MidWest unless we draw Louisville. We also owe Louisville one.
8. The MidWest is loaded....but there isn't a team that we cannot beat. Duke and Wichita don't have a style mismatch in their favor. We can run with both and neither are elite defensively.
9. This tournament will provide even more experience for our young club and IF we avoid a mass Sophomore exodus....we will be a top 10 team with 2 years of terrific tournament experience next season.
10. We just spent the past 3 days playing 3 outstanding defensive teams and ground out 2 of 3 victories. Our kids are ready for this challenge.
Bring on the PrEdiCtiOns. I've got Michigan losing to Arizona in the Final Four.
March 17th, 2014 at 12:58 AM ^
11. Someone has to win the Midwest. Why not us?
Weak interior defense, poor rebounding, and offensive inconsistency from a select few underclassmen? I keed, I keed.
GR3 has been bipolar at times this year. I really feel that it is in his best interest to return next season and get on the Stauskas Summer Plan of Ass Kickery. Imagine what he could become!
Unfortunately their name was the only thing good about them. I was a lousy IM player and regret that I missed our game against them, one of my team's few easy wins. The team of non-basketball jocks beat them 122-8.
Michigan should at the very least be a sweet 16 team. We won the big ten seasonal championship and made it to the championship game in the tourney. All without our "best returning player". I'm happy about this season no matter what happens in the NCAA tourney
I guess all the ESPN analysis have bought the injury BS spewing form E Lansing. Were they really healther when they lost to Illinois a week or so ago and could not string together 2 wins for most of the big ten season?
Guess what --gt in foul trouble in a game without the refs in your back pocket and you have those weird guys back on the court.
i tend ot agree with this..http://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2014/3/16/5516046/2014-ncaa-tournament-most-overseeded-teams and don't see MSU getting to the Sweet Sixteen. I like a consistent and Hungry Iowa State team with lengtch to beat them pretty easily.
But I get it ESPN. MSU is a afe bet simply because the East is a garbage bracket to begin with. How they came up with that is beyond me
March 17th, 2014 at 10:56 AM ^
To the Final Four. Mark it down
12. We've got the home crowd advantage to the final four.
....and I like it. This team is ready for this. We had a step back today but next week the country will see that we are back in form. Playing in Milwaukee is a definite plus.
Agree, most of the "experts" are writing us off already.
I like the underdog role.
March 17th, 2014 at 11:10 AM ^
Not sure if that would be true against Duke. Duke has a lot of "subway alumni." Against anyone else, we probably will.
ESPN is talking about them as if they are the odds on favorite lol. Maybe to save face for picking them to be #1 to start the season. State is playing well this week but they've lost to UNC @home....Illinois @home @Ohio with their "utopically healthy and practiced" squad. We beat them twice without Mitch McGary and would play them anyday of the week with or without him. This Spartan love is going to flame out next Saturday. We will go farther in this tourney than they will. Only certain refs allow you to beat up your opponent. Good luck beating up Cincy! Good luck beating up UVA!
The Sparty dick sucking on ESPN is making me vomit. Won't be watching for a few days.
Mike Davis is in the tournament though. That oughta give IU fans a fun little kick in the pants.
This happens every year. Before the season, the experts pick a team that will win it all and then they slurp them all through the season. Last year it was Indiana. This year it was Kentucky until they started losing to the likes of South Carolina and LSU.
There's no reason MSU can't get to the final four. They are in one of the weakest brackets if not THE weakest bracket. Michigans going to have to play lights out basketball to get into the elite 8 or final four.
they need t shirts and this should be the rally cry throughout the tournament
As usual, I look at these brackets and it's really tough to pick some of the games. I just hope for a good M showing, and love the Cinderella stories every year. I would like to see Wichita thump some skulls, just not ours.
Let the fun begin!
tastes good to the media
great
we are a #2 seed, and should have a chip on our shoulder for al the love going to #4 seed MSU, who lost 2 of 3 to us
They've given some decent teams trouble.
I'll be smiling because we are playing in the Big Dance. We have a chance to win it all, and that's the awesome part about March.
Of course hoping to see tons of upsets, because that makes the tourney awesome. I've never been too interested in Michigan State's basketball program and their results don't affect us til the hypothetical final, so I'm not concerned with their potential matchups. Maybe a cinderella team will take them out.
March 17th, 2014 at 10:01 AM ^
Getting to the Sweet 16 should make this a successful NCAA Tournament. Anything after that, and there well might be games for UM after the Sweet 16, is all bonus success.
I'm so looking forward to this weekend.
March 17th, 2014 at 10:51 AM ^
7:10 pm gametime on Thursday!
March 17th, 2014 at 11:24 AM ^
we're NOT sparty.
EW.
March 17th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^
3. Michigan has Belein. Belein is a top 10 coach.We have Beilein. "E" before "i" twice.
There offense is just as good as ours but they have shown that they can D us up if they need to. UM has not shown they can D up anyone let alone Duke. Advantage Duke.
Coach K will NOT let Staukas beat them. More importantly, they can stick athletic guys with more quickness and relatively the same height on Stauskas ( T. Thorton is 6'4''). They don't have to put small 6' guys on Stauskas...
Finally, Duke practically invented the 3ball game. They know how to stop 3s. They will give up drives and penetration all game long but that does not play to our strengths.
It will take a very hot night from 3 from the likes of Walton and Irvin to beat Duke. Levert will drive on them like crazy again bc Duke will give us that. Stauskas will not be able to drive and will have to shoot contested 3s or get backdoor cuts.
Duke is like the worst matchup IMO.
If Michigan goes cold shooting and gets lazy handling the bal, then it's good night gracie for them. Otherwise, Michigan will destroy everyone that gets in their way! Oh, forgot that the D isn't really that special either so maybe we'll only destroy if they outfit laser beams on every player's head.
Giving them a burden to their team. Really dissappointing. ledgrowlightsonline.com