Curse of the first week of February
An annual tradition.
Feb. 3, 2011 - A few days after the Aneurysm of Leadership, Michigan loses at OSU, dropping its record to 13-10. Team goes on to make the tournament and nearly knock off #1 Duke.
Feb. 5, 2012 - Michigan loses at MSU. Team goes on to share Big Ten title.
Feb. 2, 2013 - Michigan loses at IU. Team goes on to reach national championship game.
Feb. 2, 2014 - Michigan loses at IU, Team goes on to win Big Ten outright and reach Elite Eight.
Feb.1, 2015 - Michigan loses at MSU in overtime. Team . . . well, that year was tough with no backcourt.
Feb. 2, 2016 - Michigan loses to Indiana at home. Team goes on to upset IU in the BTT and make the tournament despite no LeVert.
Feb. 4, 2017 - the game that made the board call for Beilein's head. Michigan loses at home to OSU and falls to 14-9 on the season. Team goes on to win BTT and reach Sweet Sixteen.
Feb. 6, 2018 - Michigan loses at Northwestern. Does not lose again until the national championship game.
The good news is that we almost always rebound and finish the season strongly.
February 2nd, 2019 at 10:39 AM ^
Lose Chris Evans as well? I hope not!
February 2nd, 2019 at 10:42 AM ^
Unverified veracity alluded to this a little while back didn't it?
February 2nd, 2019 at 10:49 AM ^
Did it? I don't think I saw that, but I was thinking yesterday that we always seem to drop a game right around this time and looked it up . . . and we do, in fact.
February 2nd, 2019 at 10:49 AM ^
I think under Beilein this the part of the season when his teams start gelling.
This year we are going to have more issues because the freshman are going to start hitting that wall and we have no depth. We could go far in the NCAA but next year is really when we should have the depth and experience to overcome penalties and be a legit Final 4 contender.
February 2nd, 2019 at 10:56 AM ^
We only start one freshman and I think he hit the wall already in January, and has been bouncing back, though he (like the rest of the team) had a bad second half yesterday.
There was a reason we were projected to be a #1 seed before yesterday's game. Let's see where we are in March.
February 2nd, 2019 at 10:57 AM ^
Unusually, yes. The team looked great early this year - not the usual.
I guess we’ll see if they get their shooting back.
February 2nd, 2019 at 10:55 AM ^
I don’t think any rational fan is writing this team off, but they are having some doubt creep into their heads. We had so many opportunities to get back into the game last night and just made stupid, stupid plays. Maybe I’m the only one, but I loved seeing castleton, Johns and ddj out there. Johns had troubles but I’m okay with it because he’s a freshman. Let him learn!! What I’m sick of is Charles Matthews. Dear God JB please get his ass off the floor. Freshman Wieskamp owned his ass last night. Senior leader should have their best games in a hostile road environment, not shrivel up and make me want to turn my tv off.
February 2nd, 2019 at 2:13 PM ^
Matthews defense is good enough to keep him on the floor.
The problem is our lack of a true backup 5. Austin Davis is not a D1 basketball player and I have no idea why he was recruited here.
February 2nd, 2019 at 2:23 PM ^
Matthews hasn't quite lived up to his recruiting hype (though he didn't exactly do much at Kentucky, so perhaps we should have adjusted our expectations accordingly when he arrived at Michigan), but I think your take is a bit too harsh. He's a reliable defender and a key component of our elite defense. His shooting and ballhandling leaves a bit to be desired, but even in that department, he's not awful. He's just inconsistent.
February 2nd, 2019 at 5:51 PM ^
There were a couple of late possessions when Matthews looked like he wanted to make up a 12-point deficit by himself on one possession. I think he's pressing and not letting the game come to him.
February 2nd, 2019 at 10:58 AM ^
1. This team is scary thin in depth and is vulnerable to additional losses and an early tourny knockout if games are officiated tightly or if they get an untimely injury to a starter.
2. This team plays elite defensive and if they get even average shooting will be difficult to beat and has enough talent to deliver Beilein his first NCAA championship.
Both can be true.
February 2nd, 2019 at 11:34 AM ^
Spot on. Nicely said to what I was referring to last night in the perspective piece. I really really worry about our depth. We have 6 guys who should ever see the floor, that doesn’t give much flexibility to dumb fouls or BS fouls.
February 2nd, 2019 at 11:00 AM ^
I fear another cold shooting night looms in the Sweet Sixteen.
February 2nd, 2019 at 5:31 PM ^
Why it's important to be no lower than a 2-seed
February 2nd, 2019 at 11:05 AM ^
I love this team but it's hard to see them going far with that offense. We don't have good shooters and scorers that can just go off. Lack of depth clearly hurts us as well. We'll see tho. In the big ten, these coaches and teams kno how to expose each other and are so familiar w each other. In the NCAA tournament, I'll take John B over any coach in terms of game planning with less familiarity.
February 2nd, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
11,12, and 13 were all against really good teams.
All those teams earned #1 seeds
February 2nd, 2019 at 11:30 AM ^
Not the last two years though. 2017 OSU went 17-15 and 2018 Northwestern went 15-17.
In any event, if you look back you can't find a Beilein team that was peaking at this time. This has always been part of the pattern. Just have to hope the pattern holds.
February 2nd, 2019 at 12:01 PM ^
That's fine, but several of these teams were bounced in the tourney in the first round or didn't even make the tourney.
They finished strongly, but I'm not sure what to make of it.
February 2nd, 2019 at 12:23 PM ^
Other than the two years where our backcourt was hammered by injury (2015 and 2016) we did well in the postseason pretty much every year in this stretch. Sure, if we have that kind of injury luck again we're probably screwed, but a healthy Beilein team pretty much always plays well in the tourney.
February 2nd, 2019 at 11:27 AM ^
The real curse has occurred in November...beat the bucks please.
February 2nd, 2019 at 11:36 AM ^
Wow, that's a helluva stream, did not know of this!
February 2nd, 2019 at 11:50 AM ^
One guy who can hit threes at an average rate is all this team needs. The depth issue is common in college bevause most teams use 7 or 8 players.
February 2nd, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
Livers is shooting 42% from downtown. He needs more usage.
The other thing that would help would be better ball movement in general. Too many times the ball just stops in one guy's hands (especially Matthews, Iggy and Poole) as he tries to do everything and ends up taking a contested shot. We need to work it around more to get better looks.
February 2nd, 2019 at 3:05 PM ^
The guys are shooting a really low percentage in our 11 B1G games though
Poole and Livers in B1G play are like 30%
February 2nd, 2019 at 1:13 PM ^
Wow! That's a crazy stat. I told myself after the 2013 loss at PSU I wasn't going to freak out about mid-season conference road losses, but every year it's hard. I'm really not sweating the two losses against two good conference opponents. Might make it tough to win the conference. I'm a little worried about the offense, but it could just be a midseason slump from guys playing major minutes/roles for the first time. I trust Beilein.
February 2nd, 2019 at 1:13 PM ^
Very interesting. Thanks for posting. Let’s hope it turns out like some past years.
February 2nd, 2019 at 1:47 PM ^
It's a blip I say. A blip!
February 2nd, 2019 at 1:47 PM ^
this team was way ahead of the curve due to the summer trip - they came out in mid season form when everyone else was still finding their way. Honestly we're a year ahead of what people expected given the losses from last year and the youth of the team.
20-2 would be a stone cold take for everyone before the season, especially with those losses on the road to tourney locks. The depth and quality of the B10 means the team who wins will go 16-4 IMO, maybe 15-5. Losses happen, especially on the road in the top conf in the country.
The other thing is no one considers the circumstances of the loss - M ended Iowas season last year. post game quotes indicated that was a HUGE factor motivating Iowa esp when you consider this is the only time they play M this year. Also, Iowa had top 10 MSU a week ago and came away with a loss. Iowa wanted this one big time.
February 2nd, 2019 at 3:11 PM ^
Good Shit!
