Rest of the Afternoon (Big Ten & elsewhere ) Basketball /Bubble Watch Thread
Add in snowflakes from that umm, performance, as well. Though I'm not sure I want to think much about it; not that I want to think about what lies ahead tomorrow, either.
On to Indiana and a squad full of athletes + Maxamillion "6th man of the year" Bielfeldt. Ugh.
Go Blue.
True, but Illinois would also have to get by Purdue tomorrow to potentially face us. I'll gladly take seeing Iowa crumble down the stretch again to risk that happening.
who are LITERALLY NAMED AFTER JALEN ROSE.
#Beilein
Patented late season swoon is in full force. What are they going to do next year without Uthoff, Gessell, Woodbury, and Clemmons?
Nunn and Jok should each get a tech for that exchange.
Duke and ND going to overtime.
Tie game.
next year. They have been coming on at the end of the season.
zing
This team is not that talented outside of Uthoff. They're experienced but not all that talented.
Oops, meant this as a new post.
Did you know that our 21 wins this year is tied for the 4th highest at Michigan since 1998 not counting a couple of Amaker teams that padded their win totals in the NIT?
Michigan has 21 wins, 3 wins against the top 25, no losses to a team worse than they are, and a winning record in a tough conference.....all without any meaningful contribution from their two senior captains. They are a decent team who can be counted on to win all of the games they should but struggle against the elite teams.
Why does that resume, especially in the context of injuries to critical players, result in a large portion of the fan base turning on the program? Why aren't we getting any extra bubble love from the prognosticators? The answer? WE ARE BORING.
- In Beilein's second year we finished 21-14 in the second round and we loved that team. They were underdogs, they played a bunch of no-names. But they still had Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims.
- In Beilein's fourth year we finished 21-14 and made it to the third round....and we loved that team. But they had Morris telling MSU to get off his court and Novak bleeding all over the place.
- Then we had a bunch of stars with Burke, Hardaway, Stauskas, Robinson, and McGary. They had personality. They were dominant. They took over games. But they also had bumps in the road.
- Michigan has no star players this year without Levert. They don't have Valentine, Utoff, Ferrell, Hammons, Trimble, or Hayes. Hell, even Spike had more personality than the guys on the current team. Walton and Irvin are just too erratic. Robinson was on his way to being a "story" until fatigue, competition, and scouting reports caught up to him.
- Hell, Michigan can barely DUNK the ball. In a given game we're lucky to have more than 3 dunks. We compound that problem by missing layups. There are no alley-oops, fast-break dunks, or even dramatic blocked shots. While Beilein's teams are never going to have the best athletes, we usually had someone who could play above the rim. Not this year.
- We got blown out in our biggest games too often. We would have been better off winning a couple big games and losing a bad one. At least then people would think "there's a chance for an upset". Instead they look at the odds and know exactly how we'll perform. We're predicable.
Being predicable doesn't grab headlines.
Being predictable doesn't make you an interesting high seed in the tournament.
Being predictable and mediocre apparently turns half your fans against your program.
Solid post. Lots of truth to it. The whole "losing to an inferior team but having an extra win over an Iowa, Maryland, or Xavier" is a really good point...and one that oddly would have us in the Tourney as we speak.
We were supposed to be a Sweet Sixteen type team this year. Instead we will more likely than not miss the tournament, were absolutely embarrassed at home by MSU and Indiana, in back to back games no less, and have shown no signs of improvement over the course of the season. The best thing you can say about this team is that we're "predictable and mediocre" yet you expect fans to be okay with that.
Fans aren't mad at Beilein because we're predictable. Fans aren't even mad that we're mediocre. They're mad that we were supposed to be a good to great team, and instead have fans getting on their high horses telling us how we should accept "predictable and mediocre."
The issue is how underwhelming we were this year, not that we were predictable. If we were supposed to be a bottom 4 B1G team, everyone would be ecstatic with this year. Expectations matter. As a fan base we should expect more than underwhelming mediocrity, and if we don't there needs to be a huge culture shift in this program.
Shouldn't we lower expectations when we have to deal with injuries? Losing Caris is one thing, I would have expected to make the tournament without him, but Spike too? If we had both of them the tournament would be guaranteed right now. I think making the tourney with our injuries would be a major accomplishment.
on with them. We're better, and in the tourney probably, but not to the potential we should be. So it's better, but not enough for this year not to be a disappointment.
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Can't believe we couldn't beat this trash iowa team at home.
Yeah I'm glad Iowa lost. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they lose in the first round of the Tourney, either.
Fran can't get it done.
that would be very bad for us as they might be an at large.
also need oregon to hold off washington.
I wouldn't mind seeing Syracuse out, only 19-13 and lost 5 out of last 6.
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with last year's probation with Syracuse. You're right, Louisville is out this year
We fucking sound like Minnesota, only worse.
Lets fire out crappy football coach, we can do better - aka Glen Mason
Let's fire our crappy basketball coach, we can do better - aka Tubby Smith
Maybe we can get that hotshot coach Tommy Amaker!
I think Belien has to do better, but he is a proven winner and comparisons to Hoke are a joke. We can do worse. Let's see what the next couple of years bring. If we get more of the same then maybe...
I remember Lloyd Carr being on the hot seat for losing 4 games his fiirst two years. Bo was reamed for not being able to win a bowl game. We're actually sounding worse than Minnesota, some on the board are approaching OSU like fervor.
What hot shot coach in the Big Ten would you trade for outside of Izzo? Fran or the asshole in Indiana? The guy at Ill? How about Richard at Minn? I've heard the coach at MD is weak. It's not Belien vs perfection is about Belien vs the alternatives.
If there was an obvious Harbaugh for BB then I would be all in, but what if all we can get is the Hoke version of a BB coach?
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People were worried about Jordan leaving for Xavier when Brad Stevens left. Fans loved talking about Camp Sanderson. The assistants don't determine substitution patterns or defensive sets. And they don't determine archaic Hickory High recruiting practices. We don't need Blue Chips™ recruiting practices either, but take the reigns off the assistants on the recruiting trail.
March 10th, 2016 at 10:29 PM ^
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Who's the Harbaugh of Michigan basketball? I really don't see one out there.
If Massey has anything to say about it, the rest of the evening in the BTT may go as you might have guessed anyway:
Ohio State - 70% estimated probability - projected score of 69-63
Wisconsin - 80% estimated probability - projected score of 69-60
Yay!
- SDSU holds on (bid theft averted)
- Pittsburgh lost (they are a lock, but maybe helps us if we win two more times)
- Butler lost (ditto)
- Washington lost (Win over Oregon might have vaulted them over us)
- Illinois beat Iowa (I guess? We probably want them to lose to Purdue though.)
- Vandy lost (could we jump them now even without an Indiana win?)
But Boo:
- Florida won
- GW won
- Texas lost
Not much going on now that matters. I guess root against Colorado in case winning twice could put us ahead of them.