Bball record in remaining games
With the win against Purdue, things look much more doable for the balance of the year. If we hold serve and win three of the remaining four home games, (Indiana, Illinois, and Purdue,) and two road games (Nebraska and Penn State,) we end with 21 wins and 10 losses. Should we steal a win against OSU, home or away, or win at Breslin, or on the road at Northwestern or Illinois, we end up with 22 wins and a better seeding. At this point, I continue to see Michigan winning 21 or 22 games. Thoughts?
January 25th, 2012 at 2:14 PM ^
lose to Ohio, win vs. Indiana, win vs. lil' bro, win vs. nebraska, win vs. illinois, lose vs. Ohio, win vs. Northwester, win vs. Purdue, win vs. Illinois, win vs. Penn State
January 25th, 2012 at 2:37 PM ^
In big ten tourney is what im aiming for. If we could land that and Ohio gets upset we could win it all in Indy. If that were to happen we get a great NCAA tourney seed. At least a 4
January 25th, 2012 at 2:59 PM ^
I'm not even going to try and predict the rest of the year. Too streaky of a team. Could go 8-2 could go 3-7. Just look at the last 5 games. If you would have told me we would have went 3-2 over that stretch I would have believed it, but I would never have guessed Iowa and Arkansas would be the two losses.
January 25th, 2012 at 3:32 PM ^
Michigan does not match up well against OSU. I'm hoping Novak & Stu beating them for the first time will be motivation enough to win one, but it will be tough. (0 - 2)
Despite only losing by 2 at Indiana, that team matches up well against Michigan also so I would not be so quick to pick UM in that one even though it is at home and IU has not been playing overly well lately. (0 - 1)
I think Illinois is also a touch match up for Michigan but they somehow never play as well against UM as they should. (1-1)
UM matches up well agasint MSU. I think Belein really likes beating them so we will have to see who has a stronger will in that game. (1-0)
They have already proven they can beat PSU, NW, and Purdue. (3-0)
I'm assuming they can handle Nebraska. (1-0)
I think that ads up to: 6 -4 the rest of the way.
January 25th, 2012 at 4:06 PM ^
20 wins would get Michigan in this year. I see a few more than that for this team.
I think they lose Sunday, beat IU, lost @ State and then go on a run to end the season.
I don't know what that will get them in Indy but atleast 1 win. On a neutral floor U-M can beat any B10 team this year IMO. I'm still pissed about the refs vs U-M in the osu tournament game last year and yes I think it happens again this year. Hopefully they get them in the Championship game this season.
January 25th, 2012 at 4:09 PM ^
21 wins. I don't really see us getting anymore than that. Every game from now on will be hard to win.
January 25th, 2012 at 4:17 PM ^
Still early for predictions, and I'd never underestimate the power of a team led by Zack Novak to overachieve, BUT . . . of UM’s last 10 regular season games, six are on the road, and two against Ohio State and one at East Lansing easily could be projected as losses.
For NCAA Tournament and RPI purposes, the Wolverines are 15-5 (Ferris State win becomes meaningless.) Three of those wins came against some of the worst teams in the NCAA (Towson, Arkansas - Pine Bluff and Alabama A & M are a combined 4-51 this season.) Evan Smotrycz and Tim Hardaway, Jr. are suffering through sophomore slumps; outside shooting has been bad; depth is questionable.
If 20 wins typically is the cutoff line for BCS teams that haven’t won their conference championships and three of UM’s wins came against teams that might lose to many of the top 20 high school teams in the country, it’s conceivable that any record worse than 6-4 down the stretch in the regular season could spin Michigan dangerously close to the NCAA Bubble heading into the Big Ten Tournament.
You don’t like to hear the Dreaded Committee saying, "Well, they might be 21-10, but let’s forget about those four meaningless wins, and consider Michigan to be 17-10. And even then, whom did they beat, when and where did they beat them and how close were those wins and losses?"
January 25th, 2012 at 5:25 PM ^
January 25th, 2012 at 6:14 PM ^
Here are my answers to the committee.
- Look at the record of most teams, and you will find some gimmes. For instance, Duke's second game was against the "Presbyterian Blue Hose." MSU played against the "Texas Southeran Tigers." North Carolina has played against the "Nicholls State Colonels." Now, perhaps those meaningless games should be taken out, but do it for everyone.
- Whom did they beat? Memphis, Wisconsin, Michigan State?
- There was a good article about how close wins and losses are for Michigan. I'm not looking for the link, but the essence was this: Michigan does not have the depth and talent to overwhelm ANY team, but they have the talent and the game plan to actually play competitively with any team. Putting this more simply, Michigan sometimes plays down to it's competition, but they are almost always in a position to win, even when they don't win. To wit, Michigan played competitively with Duke, with Indiana, and with Arkansas, all games they could have won. So far, there are only two games they lost badly: UVa and Iowa.
From my perspective, Michigan will easily make the NCAA tournament. The only question is their seeding, which will correlate somewhat to their remaining record. Should they win six more games, with one of those being a high quality win (Ohio or MSU,) and should they win another two in the Big 10 tournament, they would have a final record prior to the NCAA's of 24 - 10. My hope is that they do this or slightly better, so as to get no lower than a 5 seed.
January 25th, 2012 at 4:36 PM ^
So what if they do lose to osu and msu, they have a total of 1 bad loss on the season and they played in probably the best conference in the NCAA this year. Throw in a 1 point loss and a 2 point loss on the road.
I see 21 or 22 to finish the reg season plus 2 in the B10 tour.
Just stay away from the dreaded 5 seed.