UPDATE: Lunardi just updated his bracketology, Michigan is an 11 seed playing SD State
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketologyFinal bubble after overnight "scrub." IN: Temple, Michigan, St. Mary's. OUT: Monmouth, So. Carolina, Vandy. A... https://t.co/I4y3NjJ9Nq
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) March 13, 2016
March 13th, 2016 at 11:39 AM ^
For Lunardi (ESPN) and Palm (CBS) to have us in, I wonder how much insider info they had access to. Still, I hope there are no cameras on campus today and I hope they announce us within the first 5 minutes.
March 13th, 2016 at 12:08 PM ^
we will be the LAST team announced...it happens allllllllllll the time...Its like they want to keep all our eyes on the TV and our large fan base glued to then broadcast..lets see if thats the case again this year
Of course. If you were the network, you would do the same thing.
Which Bachelorette will get the ring and which one will go home crying in the limo? It makes great TV. Their job is ultimately TV, not basketball.
I remember the first time we made the tourney with Beilein they waited till we were basically on our last possible chance and then they got that nice shot of Crisler exploding
That was a cool moment. Definitely good TV.
Palm seems even higher on UM than most, so I'm wondering what might be up there. But Lunardi does this every year; I'm not sour on him for this year, only that I've watched enough college basketball and selection committees that this trend happens more often than not. He's paid to be on TV as much as make picks, and so I'm not surprised he plays up the drama. But its stuff like this that makes it hard to take anything he says with a great deal of faith.
March 13th, 2016 at 10:55 AM ^
All the college graduates here who hate everybody in the media, call them childish names, yet HINGE ON THEIR EVERY WORD.
March 13th, 2016 at 12:18 PM ^
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March 13th, 2016 at 12:56 PM ^
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March 13th, 2016 at 11:03 AM ^
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March 13th, 2016 at 11:10 AM ^
Somehow they managed to have a better conference record, more elite wins, and fewer bad losses than just about every other team on the bubble.
I get that you like bitching and moaning about our basketball team (as so many seem to nowadays), but your feelingsball hot take is completely irrelevant to this conversation.
March 13th, 2016 at 11:04 AM ^
March 13th, 2016 at 11:15 AM ^
March 13th, 2016 at 11:26 AM ^
Plus, you know, beating Sparty.
That's a rooting interest in and of itself, even if we had a #1 seed locked up.
Naw, the committe has made its mind up on UM. Purdue winning doesnt change it. Only matters if they have UM as one of the last ones in and Memphis steals a spot.
That said, root for Purdue bc eff MSU.
March 13th, 2016 at 11:19 AM ^
March 13th, 2016 at 11:22 AM ^
As several posters have noted, getting all but two teams right is not that impressive. Almost all bracketologists get to that point by the last day.
Here is a site that evaluates bracketologists based more on seeding. Lunardi's is fairly good, but far from the genius prognosticator that ESPN makes him out to be.
http://bracketmatrix.com/rankings.html
The same people have put together a chart of all of the bracketologists. Unfortunately, it has not been updated since yeaterday. Most people have M as an 11 seed.
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70%. If you hit that from the field, you'd be playing in April.
March 13th, 2016 at 11:26 AM ^
for UConn over Memphis...a Memphis win could very well knock Michigan out (assuming they are one of the last teams in
March 13th, 2016 at 11:28 AM ^
March 13th, 2016 at 11:44 AM ^
didn't he still have vandy and monmouth ahead of UM yesterday? then UM gets blown out by purdue. now he moves UM past those two teams. makes no sense. like people have pointed out, i don't think he really knows what he is doing but gets inside info from people on the panel.
March 13th, 2016 at 11:47 AM ^
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March 13th, 2016 at 11:54 AM ^
This cereal tastes better now as I read the news! :) Go blue! Fingers crossed for later tonight!
March 13th, 2016 at 12:14 PM ^
Jay Bilas mouth SHUT...GOD he is annoying and a blowhard...He talks as if HIS Opinion is the final word on any topic....I cannot stand listening to him ...and per usual he never misses a opportunity to talk negative about the BIg Ten....can we just call him Jay Bias
...ALMOST as much as Mel Kiper does leading up to the NFL Draft. ALMOST.
March 13th, 2016 at 12:34 PM ^
all of a sudden everyone who had us out now says were in INCLUDING Bilas...just moments ago ALL the ESPN game day folks all said were In....what a rollercoaster
Wow. Yesterday on College Game Day they all had us out. It was not even close. They showed a list of 8 bubble candidates and essentially had us as 7th.
Not much has really happened since then that would propel us upward. If anything, we should have fallen even further back after the Purdue beat down.
They just felt like changing their minds.
Great work if you can get it.
They received inside info so the reversal is to save face...what else can it be? Like you said they ALL said we were ut and not even close and then less than 24 hrs later it all changed? shows you they are just saving face
Maybe it was both . . . they may have already had the inside info but sandbagged yesterday, knowing our large fanbase would get riled up. Then today they do a 180 to make sure their final prediction is legit.
It makes them look like fools because they were so damn cocksure that Michigan had no chance to get in. Now they are recanting.
If you don't really know then don't strut around on National TV like you've just proven the existence of God. You have no idea what you are talking about.
I'm talking to you Jay Bil-ass.
Lunardi had it yesterday, but then he changed his mind. He must have gotten some inside info from Satan (Izzo).
Lunardi has the best job in the world. He only does it for 3 months, and nobody even pays any attention to it until the last 2 weeks.
And then after all of that, he does not even have to be right.
At 6:00 PM EST today, he is essentially done working for the year.
All hail Lunardi.
He does some other stuff for St. Joe's U. here and there, but Bracketology is his bread and butter.
Since 2011 (when the First Four thing began), here's the power conference teams with an RPI between 50-60 and 4 wins versus the Top 50 in RPI (let alone 3 in the Top 25) that missed the tournament.
...
Yep, that's right zero. Here's the list.
2011 Michigan: 20-13 (6-9 versus Top 50) - #8 Seed
2012 Texas: 20-13 (4-11 versus Top 50) - #11 Seed
2012 WVU: 19-13 (4-8 versus Top 50) - #10 Seed
2013 Cincinnati: 22-11 (5-9 versus Top 50) - #10 Seed
2013 Villanova: 19-13 (5-8 versus Top 50) - #9 Seed
2013 Cal: 20-11 (5-5 versus Top 50) - #12 Seed
2014 Kansas St.: 20-12 (7-8 versus Top 50) - #9 Seed
2014 Iowa: 19-12 (5-9 versus Top 50) - #11 Play In Game
2015 Purdue: 21-12 (4-6 versus Top 50) - #9 Seed
2015 Indiana: 20-13 (4-9 versus Top 50) - #10 Seed
And if you go back another 5 years, I still couldn't find an example of a team with an RPI in our range and with 4 really good wins that missed the tournament.
That 2012 Texas team might be the best comparison. We're at 21-12 (instead of 20-13), but they also went 4-11 versus the Top 100, but lost 2 games to "bad" teams. Their RPI was 50 instead of 59.
If Monmouth or Temple or San Diego State get in ahead of Michigan, it's a travesty and a major outlier in terms of the committee's history.
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It's a good thing we got run off the floor by Iowa or else we'd be in the First Four Out.