MBB schedules home and home with UCLA

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on May 9th, 2016 at 8:29 PM

Michigan won't be in the Gavitt Games, but they will head to Pauley Pavilion in 2016-17.

They last played in the 2011 Maui Invitational with Michigan taking the 3rd place game, 79-63.

Last played at LA a decade ago when UCLA was ranked #1.

UCLA and Michigan will begin a home-and-home series next season in Westwood, source told @CBSSports. Return game in Ann Arbor in 17-18.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) May 9, 2016

2016-17 non-conf schedule will include

2K Sports Classic with 2 games against either Marquette, SMU (sigh) or Pitt
at UCLA
12/17 at Cincinnati
Home B1G/ACC Challenge game

2017-18 non-conf will feature-

Maui Invitational
vs UCLA
vs Cincinnati
Road B1G/ACC Challenge game
vs Air Force

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BigBlue02

May 10th, 2016 at 3:08 PM ^

We are 2 years removed from that happening. You make it sound like there has been extreme roster turnover since our B10 championship, which was a whopping 3 seasons ago. We lost Stauskas, McGary, GR3, and Morford, then lost Walton and Irvin. That first year we were bad because we didn't have our top 7 players from the year before and we replaced most of them with true freshmen. You even said it would be tough to reload after that scenario....which we didn't and had 1 bad year, like you suggested.. The next season was this past year, which we went 10-8 in the B10 and made the tournament. Next year we return every starter and have some talented freshmen coming in. And McGary was coming back before the suspension. So that tells you anything can happen with regards to the draft. How were we supposed to know they would all leave after their sophomore year? What if JB thought he'd have them until their junior year? And you act like knowing in their freshmen year that they might leave the next year is plenty of time to replace them. In the middle of the fresh five's freshmen year, McGary wasn't starting and Stauskas couldn't do much other than shoot. GR3 was the only one we knew might leave early, and even he looked like he might stay until his junior year. It's crazy to think JB should think all of them would leave after the next year

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WindyCityBlue

May 10th, 2016 at 8:54 PM ^

McGary was the #2 recruit in the nation at one point...

...so him leaving early was definitely a possibility. We found out retrospectively that he wanted to come back. Maybe I can give you mcgary, but it's suspect. Overall, my point still stands: the whole "players leaving early" excuse is a poor one at that. I guarantee you'll be using it this coming year.

However, you don't really address my core point. In that we are a few seasons past our success and we haven't reloaded. I don't care about what happened the year after or a year ago. I care about now. All good programs with elite coaches can reload in 2-3 years. We can't and we haven't even come close. That's the issue. And the core of that is pretty much the sub-par recruiting over the past couple classes.

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BigBlue02

May 10th, 2016 at 10:29 PM ^

Reload with what? A team that can challenge for the B10 championship next year, the third year after we won the B10 by 3 games? Because I think we will be. I don't give two fucks what the recruiting rankings said because we return every major contributor from a 10-8 B10 team. Beilein won the B10 starting Novak and Morgan so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. But I'm sure you know the future, so I will defer to your expertise.

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WindyCityBlue

May 10th, 2016 at 11:22 PM ^

...so I don't know why you said that. I will reiterate, but hopefully with more clarity. Most (if not all) good/elite teams do a much better job reloading than we do. In fact, are still in the process of reloading because of some very sub-par recruiting. I can agree, rankings mean squat, but I can tell from watching film, that X is really the only person who has the ability to contribute this coming year. The rest are development projects. Granted, a couple will have to play if we cannot fill our roster spots appropriately over the summer, so maybe they turn out to be serviceable. We'll see I guess.

And I have said this to you in the past:

1. You can't expect people to just get better because of an extra year of experience. I think Irving and Walton have already hit thier ceilings. MAAR has some room to improve. Wagner has the most potential to improve. Donnal is barely serviceable now - maybe he makes a jump to something decent, but not really all that good. Duncan Robinson I bet barely improves next year unless he develops another part of his game.

2. And even we do get better, you assume that no one else in the conference will as well. We are not a particualrly talented team as of now.

I think we finish 4th in conference at best this coming year and we will get blown out several times in similar fashion as we did last year. But I guess since this is better than what Ellerbe accomplished, we should be grateful.

Also, I could be wrong here, didn't JB miss the tournament with Novak starting as well?

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