Burke says Indiana, not Michigan State, is the toughest team Michigan's played this year
The Wolverines dropped a hard-fought eight-point decision at Indiana earlier this month. At Michigan State? The Wolverines were pounded, losing by 23 points, their worst loss of the season by far.
But who is the toughest team Michigan's played this year?
Michigan sophomore point guard Trey Burke was asked that very question Thursday on the Big Ten Network. His answer?
"Probably Indiana," Burke said. "They have a really good team, they have a lot of pieces. They have a good point guard, good wings, a good big man and a good coach.
"And they have a lot of good bench players. It was tough going in there (trying to get) a win. Obviously we didn't, but we have another shot at them."
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2013/02/trey_burke_says_indiana_--_not.html
February 22nd, 2013 at 12:06 PM ^
February 22nd, 2013 at 1:55 PM ^
but I am having a hard time putting some thoughts together because I keep staring at JimBob's awesome gif and the legs of the girl in the red T-shirt who is in my ad panel. Laughter and Legs, they go together like lamb and tuna fish.
February 22nd, 2013 at 10:53 AM ^
I agree with his viewpoint. I think that indiana is a tougher team than msu. We just played absolutely horribly against msu. I bet nix will get asked about this and he will rant about how burke thinks that the #1 team in the country is better than the team they swept (msu) and how unfair that is to msu.
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:03 AM ^
NIXRAGE
February 22nd, 2013 at 12:47 PM ^
Nix has punched people in the balls for less than that.
February 22nd, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
Burke gives reasonable answer to trolling question; it gets spun. This plus "Fragel, Michigan fan and - iirc - son of Michigan alumnus would have picked Michigan SIX YEARS AGO if Carr hadn't retired" just seem like something rather desperately not journalism.
February 22nd, 2013 at 2:37 PM ^
"Trolling hard" is right, pharker. A thow-away line, in a story about an NFL draft prospect's experience before the big day(s). Gets turned into an MLive headline.
Let's be clear -- Reid Fragel was recruited by Michigan, and could have come to Ann Arbor. By all accounts that I am aware of (and this story only adds to), Fragel and his parents absolutely fell in love with Jim Tressel. Fell. In. Love.
Now, that doesn't bother me. And Fragel's case never bothered me. I'm one of those guys -- like Rich Rodriguez -- who like and respect Coach Tressel. And we know that Tressel liked and respected Rodriguez too. The fact that a semi-Michigan kid like Fragel might like Tressel just doesn't bother me.
Recall also that Fragel was recruited with the insistence that he play as a tight end. He had no wish to play tackle. He played his first three years as a tight end, with substitute duty for the most part. He only switched to tackle under Urban Meyer, who didn't recruit Fragel (at least not as far as I know), when Meyer told Fragel in no uncertain terms that the way he'd help the Buckeyes was as a tackle. Tressel had promised Fragel that he'd be a tight end. If Reid Fragel is now saying that he has Coach Meyer to thank for the brilliant idea that Fragle move to tackle, where he just might get a chance to play on Sundays, well, uh, okay. Things have changed if that is the case. There has always been some doubt in my mind whether the problem that Fragel had with the Rodriguez staff was that they were not completely sold on Fragel as a tight end. And may have recruited him with there being some question about playing him as a tackle.
Anyway, just leave it to the state of Michigan press corps to get on the RichRod Train to moar page hitz. We see how it works.
February 22nd, 2013 at 5:40 PM ^
I have to say, you're consistent at mentioning Rich Rod at every opportunity you get...
February 22nd, 2013 at 7:25 PM ^
Consistently, I don't open the topic of Coach Rodrigeuz. I almost never start those conversations, but I do try to end them, with the last word on the subject. I didn't raise the subject of MLive.com's trolling headline today about Reid Fragel and Carr's departure. But I think MGoMember pharker's comment was an excellent one. And so I added my own comment.
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:02 AM ^
Obviously I don't play college hoops but man both MSU and IU are really really good teams. It's gonna be interesting when they come to A2 to play.
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:12 AM ^
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:19 AM ^
I talked to Heiko and he said Al Borges would be willing to hold your hand.
February 22nd, 2013 at 1:46 PM ^
I figured you were the tall lady in red and were certainly a D1 basketball player
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:02 AM ^
This shouldn't be news.
February 22nd, 2013 at 2:45 PM ^
It might not be news, but the print version of the story is the perfect size for framing and hanging on a bulletin board inside the Breslin Center. Timing is perfect, too.
February 22nd, 2013 at 3:30 PM ^
Shit. I was hoping they weren't going to try.
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:03 AM ^
is that they imply what we all know: Michigan was playing better basketball when we played Indiana than over the past week or so.
Given that Indiana has gone into MSU & OSU and returned victorious, I'd have to agree. And further, that lowers the likelihood of Mich winning a share of the B1G.
2012-13 Big Ten STANDINGS
| TEAM | CONF | GB | OVR | GM5 | GM4 | GM3 | GM2 | GM1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 Indiana | 12-2 | -- | 24-3 | @MINN | IOWA | OSU | @MICH | |
| #4 Michigan State | 11-3 | 1 | 22-5 | @OSU | @MICH | WISC | NW | |
| #19 Wisconsin | 10-4 | 2 | 19-8 | NEB | PUR | @MSU | @PSU | |
| #7 Michigan | 9-4 | 2.5 | 22-4 | ILL | @PSU | MSU | @PUR | IND |
| #18 Ohio State | 9-5 | 3 | 19-7 | MSU | @NW | @IND | ILL |
February 22nd, 2013 at 1:49 PM ^
It would suck if three more of their wins came against us.
February 22nd, 2013 at 5:30 PM ^
would have to be in the Elite Eight at worst, I could live with that.
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:21 AM ^
I tend to agree with Burke. I think MSU is still kind of puzzling, my girlfriend is an alum so we watch every damn game. It seems like this MSU team is great at winning ugly. They are terrible to watch, almost up there with Wisconsin but somehow I look up at the end of the game and they're usually up like 6-8 points. We always comment on how it seems like they are a worse team than they were a year ago but the record and ranking sure don't reflect that.
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:26 AM ^
Sorry for your luck dating an MSU grad...unless she's hot, in which case you overlook such shortcomings. LOL
I'm worse off...I'm dating an OSU grad/big fan. And yes, she's hot...so I grin and bear it.
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:30 AM ^
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:32 AM ^
or it never happened Teo!
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:38 AM ^
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:46 AM ^
She's definitely worth putting up with. Plus I have converted her to being a Michigan fan most of the time. I am just happy she watches sports. We met when I worked at MSU (for 6 years) so I was limited to basically dating Spartys.
February 22nd, 2013 at 1:50 PM ^
MGrowOld style
February 22nd, 2013 at 2:52 PM ^
My wife and I once got in a huge fight because she asked me, "Would you have married me if I was an OSU fan?" and I refused to answer the question.
February 22nd, 2013 at 3:16 PM ^
My girlfriend posed the same question to me. I just flat out said no. Keep in mind that we met before the Fartans went on the little winning streak they had. So when I started dating her I didn't expect to lose 4 straight, had I met her during/directly after Michigan lost that fourth one I may have felt differently about dating a Sparty.
February 22nd, 2013 at 3:30 PM ^
My wife recently asked what I would do if our 15 month old son brought an OSU grad home as a girlfriend one day. I said we are raising him to know better than to do that.
February 22nd, 2013 at 12:11 PM ^
To me, the difference in the outcomes of those games was about timing more than anything else. If we had played MSU when we played Indiana and Indiana when we played MSU, the Indiana game probably wouldn't have been pretty (and the MSU game would have gone much better).
In the three games immediately before MSU, Michigan played:
1. The most hyped game that had been played in college basketball this year (Indiana).
2. Arguably the best game that had been played in college basketball this year (OSU).
3. An overtime thriller at a brutal place to play (Wisconsin).
Aside from the physical exhaustion, it's really hard to get up for game after game like that. Honestly, I expected the MSU game to be ugly. That's as rough a stretch as I can remember and an insane path to a game against the local rival who hates us more than anything and resents that we're good this year.
February 22nd, 2013 at 12:20 PM ^
Indiana is number 1 and went 2-0 vs. MSU, so I suppose there are a few people that agree with him.
February 22nd, 2013 at 12:38 PM ^
Definitely agree, especially given Indiana's two wins over MSU. Timing is key, we played Indiana to kick off our brutal stretch. Faced Ohio State and Wisconsin. The stretch before that game was brutal and honestly I expected to lose by double digits because it's hard to go through what Michigan did and then step up ready to play that game. Had the games been reversed, we probably would've beaten MSU (or came close) and lost ugly to Indiana.
February 22nd, 2013 at 1:03 PM ^
"Those are some of the top teams in the country. ... To be able to go through that stretch and learn from it, we didn't finish it the way we wanted to, but we watched film on it, learned from it and got better from it." - Trey Burke
Worse, that four-game stretch took place in the space of ten days, so this team didn't really have much of an opportunity to sit down and think and learn from the Indiana game, much less the games which took place right after it, at least in while it was happening. The exhaustion shows up a little in the stats for the last seven games:
| MICHIGAN | ||
| GAME | EFFECTIVE FG% | BLOCK % |
| At Illinois | 56.78% | 3.23% |
| Northwestern | 57.14% | 5.88% |
| At Indiana | 47.86% | 6.00% |
| Ohio State | 58.33% | 6.90% |
| At Wsiconsin | 42.96% | 1.75% |
| At Michigan State | 45.28% | 1.61% |
| Penn State | 53.06% | 3.51% |
| OPPONENTS | ||
| GAME | EFFECTIVE FG% | BLOCK % |
| At Illinois | 41.94% | 1.69% |
| Northwestern | 41.18% | 4.08% |
| At Indiana | 59.00% | 7.14% |
| Ohio State | 57.76% | 11.67% |
| At Wsiconsin | 52.63% | 7.04% |
| At Michigan State | 54.03% | 5.66% |
| Penn State | 49.12% | 2.04% |
I have to think that, by the time you get to Wisconsin, you can see some of the issues against tougher defenses in effective FG%, but you can also see in the numbers this team struggling with fatigue, which is rather why I chose block percentage here.
The great thing is that the rest of the season comes at an overall slower pace and most of it will be played here at Crisler. That gives Michigan a much better chance to be fully rested for each of the remaining games, I would think.
February 22nd, 2013 at 1:07 PM ^
I heard Izzo and Hollis are upset
February 22nd, 2013 at 2:08 PM ^
February 22nd, 2013 at 2:29 PM ^
to combine that with the fact that two of their three losses are by last second shots to decent (Illinois) to good (Butler) teams. So even their "let down" is still pretty damn good.
February 22nd, 2013 at 2:31 PM ^
Indiana is a more complete and well rounded team than MSU and there is a reason that they are the number one team in the country right now. Is state playing better than they started the season? Yes, but they are still a very flawed team. Having played with two of the players on their current roster for awhile, I can personally tell you they are playing some of their best basketball I've seen from them and they still lost to Indiana at home, and should have lost by more.
February 22nd, 2013 at 4:43 PM ^
February 23rd, 2013 at 12:11 AM ^
Yes matchup wise they were more difficult for us in the first game we played because a) we didn't have all of our bigs healthy and ready to go and b) we never got into our offense and ran anything the entire game. When all you do is run into each other setting ball screens 25 feet away from the basket, of course you make yourself easier to defend. When you don't run an effective offense, that means the bigs can just sit in the paint and wait for you to drive and then help on D. When you don't create an mismatches on offense, the defense dictates where you can go and what you can do. We played like crap against state and played better against indiana. That doesn't mean that one game dictates which team is better, and, as a player, you can almost always tell when you're playing a team that is better and when you're just playing terribly.
February 22nd, 2013 at 3:30 PM ^
This doesn't really provide "bulletin board material," becuase MSU hates the Wolverines more than anything in the world, and they always play against MIchigan like their lives are at risk if they lose. It will be interesting to see if Nix's "groin incident" with Zeller means that they are even closer to fully adopting a 40-minute version of their football team's "60 minutes of unneccessary roughness."
February 22nd, 2013 at 6:20 PM ^
February 22nd, 2013 at 8:37 PM ^
February 22nd, 2013 at 3:44 PM ^
no respect meme from Izzo in 3....2......1.......
February 22nd, 2013 at 4:23 PM ^
I can see that, especially when you guys quit in the 3Q against MSU, so it wasn't really a full game.
February 22nd, 2013 at 4:45 PM ^
What sport are we talking about?
February 22nd, 2013 at 8:27 PM ^
You know, the period after the second. Before the shoot out and after the touch down.
February 22nd, 2013 at 9:26 PM ^
February 22nd, 2013 at 11:55 PM ^
*HINT*: I fucked up and cleverly tried to disguise it.