Michigan Daily nails it
best sportswriting out there
http://michigandaily.com/sports/sportsmonday-column-how-much-fun-was?pa…
what he said
March 31st, 2014 at 10:15 AM ^
March 31st, 2014 at 10:38 AM ^
Damn, I hope they see this picture before they make their decisions about the NBA Draft. Just one more year...just ONE more.
Win a National Championship with J-Mo, THJ, Burke, Stu and Zack sitting front row watching and cheering us on.
One more.
Sigh - I can't fault or blame anyone who leaves, but I can dream/hope and be flat out selfish.
2012-2014 will NEVER be forgotten.
I remember the 2 years of the Fab Five...and no matter what I'll love those teams. However, the past 2 years have passed them as my all-time favorites. As much as I love the Fab Five, I hope the past 2 years are Michigan Basketball...FOREVER. I hope in 15-20 years we're playing "Michigan Basketball" and we're playing it just how we play today with the same type of kids.
One more year.
How quickly they grow up...
...oh wait that was like 18 months ago. Sigh - I am all for going and maximizing value but darn we barely have them to enjoy anymore. Nik for 4 years would be Glen Rice 2.0. Who knows what GR3 would be, or Mitch....etc.
this photo... led to some tears.
March 31st, 2014 at 10:17 AM ^
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!
It was fun to relive that last UM possession. LeVert was definitely beast-mode. However, the article fails to mention that Stauskas flipped the ball back to Walton for the 3rd shot, a missed 3 before the tip-in.
Otherwise, yeah I agree, great article.
were up 1 ... and the game likely ends differently. I hate basketball, sometimes. I loved watching this team play ball !
Go Blue!
March 31st, 2014 at 10:24 AM ^
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.
March 31st, 2014 at 10:26 AM ^
This article sums up my feelings about this game... this team... this season, better than I possibly could have summed it up myself. Well done Michigan Daily, well done.
March 31st, 2014 at 10:30 AM ^
that Michigan Daily article: Zach Helfund. I only occasionally click on The Michigan Daily (shame on me, I guess), but if Helfund consistantly writes at or near that level, he's got a bright future.
Is Brian still looking to hire a replacement for Heiko?
March 31st, 2014 at 10:33 AM ^
*Helfand
March 31st, 2014 at 10:48 AM ^
No excuse for me getting his name wrong. Either way, though, still a great article by Helfand.
March 31st, 2014 at 10:32 AM ^
I was over the watery eyes. I'm at work people!
Someone put NSFW on this thread. JEEZ!
Ugh. I can't handle this shit on a Monday! I'm not over it. Not sure I will be any time soon either - if ever.
March 31st, 2014 at 10:32 AM ^
March 31st, 2014 at 10:33 AM ^
My heart aches for this team. I miss Morgan already...
March 31st, 2014 at 10:41 AM ^
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.
March 31st, 2014 at 10:42 AM ^
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.
March 31st, 2014 at 10:42 AM ^
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.
March 31st, 2014 at 10:47 AM ^
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.
March 31st, 2014 at 10:51 AM ^
Of the way this team rallied around Morgan. Only leaving senior on the team and they truly wanted to win for him. Often said in press interviews, but rarely sincere.
March 31st, 2014 at 11:00 AM ^
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.
J-Mo did win a title. Two, in fact -- the shared Big Ten title from 2012 and the outright title this year (by three games!)
That's two more than anybody on the Fab Five got. I mean, I wanted this team to keep winning as much as anyone, but I don't want to fall victim to the trap of measuring the season by a single-elimination tournament at the end of the year. Fluky things happen, like a poor-shooting team hitting 7/11 3s. Winning the conference takes hard work and determination, day in and day out, and that's Jordan's legacy as much as anything.
March 31st, 2014 at 11:04 AM ^
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.)
March 31st, 2014 at 11:25 AM ^
March 31st, 2014 at 11:38 AM ^
Unable to edit the previous post, but it should've read:
Two of Michigan’s other losses were to teams that were in the NCAA Tournament field (Duke and Iowa.)
March 31st, 2014 at 11:20 AM ^
March 31st, 2014 at 11:33 AM ^
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.
March 31st, 2014 at 11:46 AM ^
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.
March 31st, 2014 at 11:59 AM ^
good if they all stayed.
March 31st, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^
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.
...not sure if you can do it more than once.
March 31st, 2014 at 12:29 PM ^
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.
Especially when you consider just how stacked that Kentucky team is.
To put things in perspective: Marcus Lee, the barely-used center who came in and wreaked havoc on the glass was touted by the announcers as "coming from nowhere", etc.
This was not Spike Albrecht coming off the bench to drop 17. Marcus Lee was a 5-star recruit last year and ranked 19th in the class (higher than Irvin, even). We went toe-to-toe with a team that had the luxury to bring someone that talented (if raw) off the bench.
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.
Helluva effort by our guys, and to parphrase a fellow MGoBlogger, we made Kentucky earn their paychecks.
now they have to go back to class, uh, campus, for another week before declaring