Friday matchup possibilities
Forgive me. I am at a conference and away from my laptop. Trying on my phone to find a Big Ten Tourney bracket has been unsuccessful. I can see what games are being played but not where the winners flow through to...
Could someone post a link for mobile or just say who Michigan’s potential or likely Friday opponents could be?
Northwestern v. Illinois in Round 1
Winner of that match-up plays Iowa in Round 2
Winner of that match-up plays Michigan in Round 3
So, either we play Northwestern, Illinois, or Iowa
Perfect. Thanks.
You got it. If you're a fan of Torvik (as I am), below is each of our potential opponent's current ranking:
Northwestern 74
Illinois 53
Iowa 40
I like our setup. I think we can take Purdue or Iowa. We should make it to the final.
Im more comfortable with Purdue than Iowa. Ya they are sucking bad right now, but we just dont matchup well with them.
But whatever, just win baby
Here is a link you can paste in with the entire tournament:
https://umhoops.com/2019/03/10/2019-big-ten-tournament-bracket-finalized/
The likely opponents:
- Friday, Iowa.
- Saturday, Purdue.
- Sunday, MSU.
I would dearly love to have Matthews back and thump MSU on Sunday.
March 13th, 2019 at 11:26 AM ^
Not so fast my friend, MSU has to play against their kryptonite in their first game if IU can beat OSU.
If you say that Michigan avenged the Wisconsin loss by beating the Badgers at home, Michigan could avenge each of their other losses through the BTT. Iowa on Friday, Penn State on Saturday and MSU on Sunday.
Could be quite the Revenge Tour.
If we lost to MSU for a third time, i am going to 1) throw up in my fucking mouth and 2) undeclare Michigan a 'basketball school'.
To beat them last year twice on nuetral court and away, with less talent than we have this year (and they had more talent last year) - to going to us being the more talented team, and losing potentially three times - ill be ready to bring on the football season!
Team misses Wagner in a bad BAD way.
He had 27 points alone in the first game against MSU last year.
Yes, we do miss Wagner. But this team has certain liabilities last years team did not. It's not a great shooting team. It's got a really short bench. Beside Iggy, we have not had a freshman step up and we needed Brandon Johns and David DeJulius to do so. I'm not down on those two but it would have been nice if we entered March with an effective backup point and an additional front court guy. Basically a seventh and eighth rotation player.
I really think the season, as a whole, shows a team that has over achieved. The experience and depth just hasn't been there.
Edit: Nevermind
Michigan misses Ward
Dude, please explain to me how last year’s team had less talent than this year?
Starting lineup of MAAR, Simpson, Mo, Livers, and Matthews with Duncan, Teske and Poole on the bench is a better lineup than Simpson, Poole, Teske, Matthews, and Iggy (with Livers, Castleton, Johns and DDJ on the bench).
Last year was a better team and played better team ball. This year we are rebuilding and have a much younger team. We really miss MAAR, Mo and Duncan.
March 13th, 2019 at 10:00 AM ^
Ehhh, less talent maybe, but better built with senior leadership.
Simpson still can't shoot but last year they could run P&R sets with MAAR who was just as good at getting to the rim but could also pull up. No one can really do that this year. Poole on occasion.
2017 - 2018 had 5 guys over 36% from 3 from 4 different positions, both starters and bench players.
2018 - 2019 has 3 guys at that level, but they're all wings and 2 are starters with Livers coming off the bench.
Defensive is great, but no defense can survive when your offense can't score a point for 10 minute stretches. I've said it elsewhere, your offense isn't going to be great if your PG can't shoot and you insist on running P&R sets till the cows come home. We've seen some back cuts and sets to get Poole layups, but no longer do we see Zack Novak running off a screen for a catch and shoot 3, or a bunch of down screens to get both wings running and curling for open looks.
Have to name it something other than “The Revenge Tour” seeing that the last one.... didn’t pan out.
2 out of 3, though, so not a disaster.
If we made 2 out of 3 here, we'd still be losing the one we want the most and the one that will hurt the most to lose.
3 out of 4, actually.
Speaking of football, that reminds me of a fun point when talking Beilein vs. Harbaugh as has been done here in concert with declaring us a "basketball school". Harbaugh's season would be done. Right now. No B1G tourney this weekend. No March Madness chance for success. Harbaugh gets the regular season only. How would we all feel about this basketball season if that clunker at MSU and blown chance at a conference title was the end? If we only had one more "bowl" game a month from now against Kansas State or something.
The answer is just as pissed as we were with Harbaugh, Don Brown and the football team. Or at least everyone here would be if they treated the programs the same.
Random thought, I know. Just worth a reminder now and again that Harbaugh is a good coach. He doesn't get the postseason lifeline that Beilein does.
I disagree. Beilein has won multiple B1G titles just recently. The football team hasn't won one since I was in 8th grade. It doesn't sting nearly as much in Basketball because we've actually had quite a bit of recent success.
You disagree with what, exactly?
Harbaugh has been here 4 years. In that time, he and Beilein have the same number of conference titles -- 0. During that time, Jim Harbaugh has a better conference win percentage. He has a better overall win percentage.
Which program has been more successful over the past 4 years? 100% of the fanbase would say basketball. That's true, and it's absolutely because basketball gets a postseason to redeem itself and football does not.
How many of those recent multiple B1G titles are because of the conference postseason tournament? Doesn't that fit with RD's point?
March 12th, 2019 at 10:56 PM ^
That's just the schedullng nature of their sports. Competition is also more widespread in basketball than football, with 351 Division 1 schools spread across 32 conferences in the NCAA compared to only about a third of those in football.
March 13th, 2019 at 10:09 AM ^
"That's just the scheduling nature of their sports."
Correct. That's the one and only point of my post.
Your competition point is irrelevant. Adding 200 football teams to FBS from the likes of the Horizon & Patriot leagues isn't going to make Michigan Football worse. Just more options for non-conference patsies that Harbaugh is already undefeated against anyway.
As mentioned above, Harbaugh has a better conference record since his arrival than Beilein. That's B1G specific. That has nothing to do with 250 doormat low-majors.
We did beat Penn State at home before losing the road game.
March 13th, 2019 at 10:18 AM ^
I had forgotten about that, must have been the post-holiday haze.
Full bracket below. All times listed are Central.
if the hoosiers lose..... i'll be rooting for a tie
Look at it this way. If MSU wins then we can still get revenge for the two regular season games. If OSU wins there will be maximum trolling of Spartan fans who still think Izzo is a March God.
Listening to the two fanbases in the conference who excel at being both sore winners and sore losers would be.....interesting.
That bracket trips my OCD. It has to be the strangest damn bracket in the country.
March 13th, 2019 at 12:09 PM ^
14 team conferences make for fun brackets...lol. Surely helps to be at the top and get that extra rest. Though Michigan won 4 in a row a couple times in 4 days. It can be done. Now let's do 3.....Go Blue!!
we are overlooking an important aspect of the first round game because they need to win it in order to clinch the longest BTT game win streak (9) in conference history
How bad were Nebraska and Northwestern this year? Sheesh Indiana really kind of pulled its shit together a bit.
The Nebraska team that played Iowa was not the same team that we drubbed, what a difference.
March 12th, 2019 at 10:06 PM ^
Who’s reffing?
Suffice to say whoever it is won't be giving UM any calls, per usual.