'13-'14 Michigan Basketball Snowflakes/Posbang/Appreciation Thread

Let's keep Beilein on a healthy diet and exercise regime and give him a vehicle with hundreds of airbags and we'll high five lots more and hang more banners. The present and future is bright.

This loss is a lot less hard for me because my daughter decided three days ago--with a bunch of great schools to decide from--that she was going to Go Blue. Naturally, I am over the moon and am thrilled to send her to Michigan. Perspective matters and this team over performed this year, and they also embody much of what we are proud of: Grit, smarts, drive. We work. Go Blue. Here's to 2015.

I wanted to be purposeful with my thoughts so here goes: 1). I'm so damn proud of this team. They all grew up and became great players. This is just a game in the end and what has always made me so proud is who these men become. This coaching staff is instilling in these men a sense of purpose in life, how to tackle adversity and how to dedicate yourself to a cause and to your teammates. 2). Calipari has his methods and we have ours. But his kids wanted to win just as badly as ours and they wanted to win for themselves. Hats off to them for making great plays and hitting great shots. They deserved to win as much as we deserved to win. I have no issues with how they handled themselves or how they played. 3). I am so excited for Michigan basketball and I haven't said that in a long time. We are building an institution, one that breeds a sense of family and instills values that help boys be men. Every year I'm going to look forward to basketball rather than bad behavior, bad progression or bad motivation. 4). We can call out all sorts of things including refs but the truth is we lost the game for two reasons. They shot far higher from three both in quantity and conversion than they have all season and we didn't offset that with our own threes. It's almost as if we took the bait and went to the goal because shot blocking was limited. The corner three off penetration was open all game but we didn't leverage it well enough . That cost us the game. 5). My son, who is 4 and has watched every game, said "daddy basketball has ended. That's sad because I like daddy basketball and daddy's team". He paused for a few seconds, saw how crest fallen I was, and said "daddy if you play with me for a whole year it will time for daddy basketball again". You realize it's just a game but the memories it invokes stay with you forever. I love this team and the direction this program is going. But most of all I love the kids who are becoming michigan men in this program. Playing basketball with a purity and conviction that makes you realize that we recruited kids who love the game - not just kids who have to get theirs or are viewing this as a weigh stop to the NBA. The kids at Kentucky will always be one and done. But our kids will be memories forever. Go blue kids...thanks for making us proud. And to Jordan Morgan my son has a special message. "That's a man daddy. He's not as tall and he doesn't jump as high but he just seems like a grown up". Out of the mouth of babes.

If Nik, GR3, and Mitch come back, are we early favorites for title? Behind Wiscy?
PG- Walton,Albrecht
SG- Levert,Irvin, Wilson
SF- Stauskas, Chatman,GR3
PF- GR3,Donnal, Doyle, Horford
C- McGary, Horford
Yes please.

Was ranked number 1 to start the season.  They beat Louisville twice, beat Wichita State, and gave Florida all it could handle.  This was no 8 seed.

Michigan proved that they were every bit as good.  Jordan Morgan, he who has been overlooked his entire career, hung tough and at times even doimnated what is probably the most talented frontline in college basketball.  GRIII came to play too.  Everybody left it all on the floor.

This stings but the future is very bright.  Even if Stauskas, McGary, and GRIII leave, there are good recruits coming in and young talent already on the roster that should develop.  Caris, in particular, looked like a different guy in the second half.  He was everywhere, hustling, diving. He looked devastated after the game.  I think this will fuel another big improvement.  Add another 15 pounds and work on that mid-range game a bit...and this kid looks like he could extend Michigan's streak of B1G POY to three.

Irvin and Walton should also be much better.  Walton is still figuring things out, but he is really quick with the ball.  An offseason and more time with Lavall Jordan should make him an All-B1G contender next year.  Irvin already shot 43% from three and it looks like he should be able to create his own shot when needed too (though with Walton and LeVert back, he won't have to do so all the time). 

Add to that Kam Chatman, Mark Donnal, Ricky Doyle...the team is going to be stacked again.  And if McGary, GRIII, or Stauskas decide to come back...the sky is the limit

than last year because it kept us from the final 4. Having said that, I never expected to get a sniff of the  B1G title much less outright. nor did I expect to get this far in the tournement. At the beginning of the season after losing the 3 best players on this team I would have excepted a year like the one we had with Morris a couple years back. This team, if it were to stay together it would be the favorite I assume to @ least win the B1G and go very deep in the tournement, with real good odds to win it all. What a shame we will possibly lose the heart and soul of this team to the greedy NBA and not graduation save J-Mo. Another reason I love football more than basketball, I will never get used to teams having to reconstruct at the beginning of every year, there are just far too many ways you can go from hero to zero in one year. It was an unbelievable run baby but its over before I was ready to let it all go, but lets just see what next year brings like some well deserved MSU beatdowns to be handed out to Iggy oops I means Izzo and co. See you all @ the UM spring game, one of my personal favorite things to do to kick off the summer discgolf season. Go Blue!!!

Compare him to any other coach out there.  Who else would you  want to lead this program.  He wins and he loses with class.  He recruits with ethics, runs his program cleaner than Mr. Clean.  So proud to have him as the head coach of the University of Michigan Basketball team.  Thank you coach and your entire staff for a truly enjoyable run.