BuckNekked

March 5th, 2018 at 1:01 PM ^

You keep saying this but by resume and RPI MSU is a 4/5 seed. Do you think MSU ends up there? Neither do I. So something else affects the committee.

J.

March 5th, 2018 at 1:10 PM ^

MSU is an interesting case.  They're currently the top 3 seed on the bracket matrix, and if they end up in that spot, it will be because the committee valued their lack of losses above their paucity of good wins.

They've got a typical mid-major profile -- gaudy record with few quality wins.  And the mid-majors are always the toughest to seed.

The biggest thing they have going for them is that their worst loss is vs. Michigan (or @OSU, but probably vs. Michigan because it was a home game).  That's... not bad.

Suppose Michigan and MSU swapped seasons.  A lot of people on this board would be pointing at MSU and saying "look who they lost to!"  It's really going to depend upon what the committee values.

To be honest, though, nothing from a 2-4 would surprise me for MSU.

MaizeBlue2323

March 5th, 2018 at 5:23 PM ^

Both UofM and MSU will receive 1-4 seeds one way or another.  We handled our business against little brother this year and NCAA tourrney has a way to ensure the cream rises to the top.  The variabliltiy of the Dance not withstanding, would not be shocked if MSU has troubles in the first or second round since the Sparty "team" has weaknesses that any team can exploit.

But we just have to focus on our own path and continue to work hard in every game no matter what the tourney seeding.  Personally, more worried about the lengthy break than anything about MSU.

Mike Damone

March 5th, 2018 at 12:41 PM ^

Guess we had some viewers over the weekend who were impressed.  Rightly so - but wouldnt have guessed that big of a jump.

Unfortunately, they are fickle in the press, and a few teams from other conference tourneys this week likely to take away our spotlight.

Kind of pisses me off that Sparty still #4.  Outside of our two double digit spankings of them, showing we are much stronger, they only have 3 Quadrant One wins - North Carolina on neutral site, Purdue at home, and Maryland on road.  That is it.  And Maryland barely a Quadrant One...

But I guess who cares.  We know we are a Top 10 team heading into tourney...

lilpenny1316

March 5th, 2018 at 1:17 PM ^

At least there's that.  I still don't know what people see in Sparty.  Their defense is okay and their offense is easy to guard as long as Miles Bridges wants to beat teams with his jumper.

People keep hyping the win over ND because their best player was available, but ND lost to Ball State and IU with Benzie Colson.  They went from ranked to unranked with a fully healthy team.  If ND gets in the tournament over Nebraska or PSU without beating Duke, UNC or Clemson, that's a shame.  And if MSU gets slotted over us because of the ND game, that's dumb as well.

Hail-Storm

March 5th, 2018 at 2:36 PM ^

won't be lack of quality wins, as they are in a major conference and the schedule just didn't fall their way.  It's that they weren't that impresive in their wins against ok teams.  Since January, 6 games were blow outs of double digits (2 were away games, 4 were home), 9 games were won by 8 points or less (most 1 or 2 possession wins), and 3 games were losses (1 each of home, away, and nuetral).

If you're schedule is weak, you need to make up for it with big wins.  When half of your wins are that close, I think it can deminish the win total.  I stil lthink they will be given a 2 seed based on the record and Name (MSU/ Izzo). I am not really concerned.  I think Michigan will do very well with a 3 seed in this tournament.  There are going to be some 1 and 2 seeds I'd prefer to miss though. 

Indy Pete - Go Blue

March 5th, 2018 at 12:29 PM ^

Just like last year, we were never even close to the top 10 until the B1G tournament was over and the cream had risen to the top.  This team is special...  it should be a fun ride in the tournament!

SpartyJon

March 5th, 2018 at 5:46 PM ^

But by the same token if Michigan wasnt "lucky", by your apparent definition of "close win", against Iowa in round 2 of the tourney, this is a dead issue. Good teams seem lucky because they win often, get this - by being good at basketball.

SpartyJon

March 5th, 2018 at 7:52 PM ^

And yes, you got jobbed by the refs vs Iowa on a possession call, but it's a still a close win, which makes it lucky, apparently.

Of course it wasn't luck, which is my point. Beating a team 3 times isn't easy, as UM found out with Iowa. Wisconsin/MSU was the 3rd matchup for those two teams as well.

Good teams win a lot of games. When you win a lot of games, you're going to win some close games. Go figure, a 29 win team had some close wins.

Perkis-Size Me

March 5th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^

They ask the same question about us in football. It's the pedigree of the program. It's Izzo and the tendency for his teams to do well in March. It's their blueblood status. It's the reason we got the Outback Bowl and they got the Holiday Bowl. 

I don't really care. Beilein and Co's results speak for themselves. His team whupped Izzo's alleged best team ever by double digits both times they played. With neither game being at home. Unless we miraculously meet them in the tournament, the results of this year will forever read 2-0. 

buddha

March 5th, 2018 at 1:08 PM ^

What is there not to understand?! Geez...all this whining on the board about MSU makes us look worse than Sparty fans.

We are the highest ranked 7-loss team in the country with the chance of moving up after all the conference tourneys are completed. MSU has four losses, of which two are to UM. That's great...we still have three more losses than they do; and, although we have better wins, we also have worse losses.

You're upset the polls reflect an entire body of performance across the season as opposed to a single game. MSU hadn't lost a game since January until this past weekend. On the other hand, we lost to a BAD Northwestern team and got smoked on the road at Nebraska. That's on us - not on MSU.

We have the #13 SOS; MSU has #20. That's not some significant gulf or divide; that's reasonably close when there are more than 100 teams in college basketball. Our RPI is #13; their's is #15. Again, not a major gap between either school.

There's still a lot of basketball yet to play and - no doubt - all the current predictions are going to change. Rather than throw out "conspiracy," and "NCAA is a bunch of idiots," chill out. Rather than be so obsessed with MSU - who has been ranked in the top 10 the majority of the season - celebrate UM for cracking the top 10 after a season of hovering around the 20s or unranked!

 

charblue.

March 5th, 2018 at 2:02 PM ^

for why Michigan should get a better seed and placement in Detroit. And the reason is head to head competition and a better record against better teams on the road. Not like MSU didn't struggle against NW in Evanston. They won there with a pretty incredible comeback after being significantly down. What is their most impressive road win? And when did it come?

I mean if you are talking about SOS or quality wins or head to head competition, the only victory that MSU has that is significant to me over Michigan, is their win against UNC, and that's because they match up better in the paint.

buddha

March 5th, 2018 at 4:42 PM ^

Thank you for sharing this. I hadn't actually seen the in-conference RPIs and our respective rankings.

Out of curiosity, if those numbers are true, why are the overall RPIs and SOS rankings between the two teams so close then? Their OOC schedule was better than ours - floated heavily by both Duke and UNC - but two games doth not make an RPI / SOS score. I wonder what's driving that equity in our rankings? Maybe it's because we played a couple terrible teams? IDK...

buddha

March 5th, 2018 at 1:33 PM ^

Ugh...why exactly do they lose credibility? It's as if people forget rankings and seedings reflect the performance of a team across an entire season - not a single weekend.

MSU is the lowest ranked P5, 4-loss team. We are the highest ranked 7-loss team. Our SOS and RPI is very similar to MSU as well. Our two recent losses, NW and Nebraska, were BAD losses for us! In contrast, MSU hadn't lost a game since January.

If we won the games against NW and Nebraska, only had 5-losses, and were still ranked behind MSU, then I think you'd have an argument. But we didn't.

Also - check out the teams around MSU and us as well...Save a few mid-majors, all the big names are losing. Duke, UNC, Kansas, etc. The only team that may have a case to make for jumping MSU this week is Gonzaga, and they've played NOBODY the past several months.

Again, be thankful that we are the highest ranked 7-loss team. Be thankful we find ourselves in the top 10 after hovering either top20 or unranked all year. The more you complain about MSU, the more you just look delusional.

LSAClassOf2000

March 5th, 2018 at 1:34 PM ^

While it is crazy really to sit at #7 while having beaten the #4 team both times that you faced them, I tend to think that the voters are probably looking at things - which may or may not matter, of course - like record, our shitty losses, the fact that MSU hadn't lost since, well, their first loss to us and other things. I am not saying that I agree with the AP poll or that anything the voters are looking at is supremely legitimate, but merely guessing at their rationale here. 

ijohnb

March 5th, 2018 at 12:48 PM ^

I think we are getting carried away with the 2 seed talk.  I said before the BTT that if we won it I think we would get a 3 seed and that is still what I think.  I think we could arguably deserve a 2 seed but I don't think we will get legitimate consideration for it.

Ali G Bomaye

March 5th, 2018 at 12:42 PM ^

Because they're 29-4. Their schedule is garbage, but that's still a very good record. Gonzaga is 28-4 and ranked #6, so that's about the ranking a good record and bad schedule gets you, because there are no dominating teams this year.

No team ranked above Michigan has more losses than us, so our accomplishments have been pretty well recognized. At least until RPI ranks us 30th or something because we played Alabama A&M back in December.