Michigan Daily nails it

That was as good a read on the team as I've seen this season.  I rarely agree 100% with an article, but I saw nothing disagreeable here whatsoever.

Thanks for posting!

I can't believe it's over for this group. I will never forget that last sequence on offense to tie up the game. The effort and will to win was on full display by everyone in that sequence.

Great article. Teared up a little.

My heart aches for this team. I miss Morgan already...

The last three years of Michigan basketball have been the most enjoyable stretch of Michigan sports since...I dunno, maybe the 96-98 hockey team or 97-99 football team. 

I'm down today because the ride is over, not because team didn't get the brass ring of making it to the Final Four.  I'd like to watch this team play forever. 

Michigan Daily sports writers absolutely killing it these last few years. Big props to Zach Helfand and company. Doing an awesome basketball team justice with awesome writing. 

Great summation of the season. I wanted this team to win not for myself and my own satisfaction, but for their own. My feelings are shit compared to what they went through. I think this is why I like college sports more, it's a much less selfish excercise. Trade off is that the lows are so much lower...but the highs...oh man the highs exceed anything in professional sports.  

JMo win a title and this is such a likeable team. It's made easier because last yeaars team was likeable also and I'm sure next years team will be too. It's the character of the players that John Beilein recruits. The selfish me hopes McGary, Stauskas and GRIII watch the finals and say that it could well be them next year. I can't blame them if they decide the financial risk is too great.

What makes me happy is that John Beilein is the coach and that I have every confidence in the team he will put on the court year in and year out. In addition we have talented assisstants who will hopefully take over on that sad day that Beilein has had enough. I hope that is well down the road.

This team should be proud of how they represent the University of Michigan and themselves. That's something no Championship can give them.

Five of Michigan’s nine losses this season were to teams that made the NCAA Sweet Sixteen (Iowa State, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Kentucky); four of those teams advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight: Three of Michigan’s other losses were to teams that were in the NCAA Tournament field (Duke, Ohio State and Iowa.)

Of Michigan’s last three losses this season, two of those were to teams that have reached the NCAA Final Four and one lost in the NCAA Elite Eight.

If Michigan had advanced to the Final Four, it would’ve been the only team that had made both the 2013 and 2014 Final Fours, and it would’ve meant that the Final Four would’ve included Florida and the last three teams that had beaten Florida (Michigan, Wisconsin and Connecticut.)  Instead of Michigan, Florida gets Kentucky, the team that it beat by a single point in the SEC championship game on March 16.

Michigan’s 2013 and 2014 seasons ended in the NCAA Tournament against teams from the Bluegrass State who were playing without a key member of their regular rotation due to leg injuries – Louisville’s Kevin Ware (out with a broken leg) and Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein (out with a possible stress fracture in his ankle.)

Through the tears and sadness of ending the season after losing on a miracle late-game shot to the nation's pre-season top-ranked team, I hope that everyone associated with the 2013-14 University of Michigan men's basketball team will be able to look back at this season and smile about and be proud of what they accomplished.  Well done, men!

(Agree that The Michigan Daily's Zach Helfand often has written the best articles published anywhere about the University of Michigan's sports programs.)

I'm so proud of this team, and of coach B. He has really left a footprint on this program, and he's just getting started. Yeah yesterday's loss sucked, but that was one HELL of a game, and those boys didn't quit. The effort and will they displayed on their last bucket was goosebump inducing. Now that I've recovered at bit, I can look back on this season and what this team has accomplished and do nothing but smile. I love this team. I hope that Nik, Mitch, and Glen return because I think something truly special can happen. If not, thank you and good luck. To all my Mgobrethren, let not your head hang low. Seaons like the last two are going to be the norm around here.

Loved the article - excellent summation of this year's team.  I will never forget this team and their effort this season.  The incredible chaos that occurred when the ball got tipped in to tie the game was mindblowing.  Bodies flying everywhere with LeVert going all Superman not to be denied.  Just unbelievable.

Congratulations to the Wildcats.  Fare thee well, 2013-2014 Michigan Basketball - one of the greatest teams in Michigan history.

Poetic. What a great summation of what so many people are feeling on this Monday morning, the first Monday morning after the last game for this team. I also hope Mitch, Nik, and Glen see this photo before making their decision. I hope they decide together to make just one more run at a national championship. But, I will of course support and cheer for anyone who decides to leave. Just like with Trey, I am grateful these men picked Michigan and wish them the best no matter what they decide.

good if they all stayed.  

Nik, Glenn, and Mitch should all submit w/o hiring an agent.  Listen to the committee and the Michigan coaching staff and make an objective decision.  Unless you hear "sure-fire 1st rounder, possible lottery pick," you come back to school.  If this is what these kids do, I expect Nik to go pro and everyone else back.

I love the writer's description of the final six minutes. And I'll miss watching these guys play together (like I miss seeing Trey and THJ).  

Even when they lose, they do it in way that just makes you like them even more. Kentucky, a team that ranked near the bottom of D-1 in three point shooting, won by hitting 64% of its threes. Most of them were contested. In other words, Michigan overcame its size disadvantage and forced Kentucky to try to win the game from the outside. It just so happened that Kentucky went ahead and did it.

We can always go back and say if only we had hit just one or two more shots, but strategy-wise, I can't find any fault with how the coaches or the players approached this game. This truly appears to be a case of things just not going Michigan's way.  

It seems unreasonable to be down today given the expectations toward the beginning of the season, but it definitely still hurts.  I would've liked to see this team hoist at least one more trophy.  

It sucks that JMo is leaving, but I think it feels even worse knowing that this was most likely Nik's last game with us.  It's the same feeling I got with Trey last year.  Only two seasons with those guys is unfortunate.  I'm going to miss that 100% certainty whenever Nik launched a 3, his ability to take people off the dribble, his ridiculous passing ability and of course swagger that is off the charts.  

It's a good time to be a Michigan basketball fan.  Already counting down the days until next season.