ESPN very kind to U-M in latest bball recruiting rankings
Michigan jumped four spots to 15th thanks to DeJulius jumping into the updated top-100. Beilein Bump alive and well
http://insider.espn.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/classranki…
April 18th, 2018 at 12:16 AM ^
April 18th, 2018 at 12:20 AM ^
Unlike football, basketball non-conference schedules aren't finalized until the summer. Last year's final announcement was July 17th.
UMHoops has a short list here: https://umhoops.com/information/future-schedules/
They'll obviously get a game in the Big Ten / ACC Challenge -- that hasn't been announced either.
April 18th, 2018 at 10:01 AM ^
April 18th, 2018 at 10:17 AM ^
considering Pitt hasn't won a conference game and they were fucking terrible last season. I bet it might be Michigan/Duke game which would behoove Michigan to take advantage of Duke's inexperience and their bad defense if they goes man to man.
April 18th, 2018 at 12:07 PM ^
Since Duke may lose it's entire starting five, November would be a great time to face them.
I wouldn't mind playing UVA or Clemson either as those will be better for our tournament profile than playing NC State or Boston College.
might be irresistable, what with their recruiting overhaul...the Fab ive all over again but this time Duke has the Fab Five...of course, I personally think that Michigan-Duke should be a protected matchup in the B10-ACC Challenge
It'd be a hell of a fun game to watch Michigan @ Cameron with the Crazies and all those stud freshman. I think it'd be a very winnable game and would really be a big time chance to impress.
with the new 20-game conference schedule which is awesome.
Other than a November tournament in Connecticut with ok teams (GW, Providence and South Carolina), I think the only game known is the first leg of a home and home with Cincinatti (per UMHoops).
Hopefully for entertainment sake, we have none of the usual SWAC and MEAC glorified scrimmages, but the RPI impact was always overstated (as the 16-17 season was probably the only one in which it hurt seeding significantly).
I'm glad they've expanded the conference schedule, but it's still going to be very unbalanced. We'll play seven teams twice and six once. That's an improvement from five and eight, respectively, but far from ideal.
Yeah, I don't care so much about the conference schedule being unbalanced (even though this is a nice improvement as it reduces single plays by 25%) as I do about adding two quality games to the schedule. If those two additional conference games replace two MEAC/SWAC teams that we had been scheduling (hopefully that's how we approach it), it's a more entertaining and stronger overall schedule. Especially since we now have MSU twice gauranteed.
That is a decidedly blah set of teams for that tournament. GW was terrible this past season, SCar was barely .500 and Providence was a 10-seed and lost in the first round. I don't like making these kinds of declarations but this really seems like a tournament Michigan should win.
Interesting that Michigan could play South Carolina twice within like a month's time (UMHoops lists a home game against them).
You know, I wouldn't mind beating them twice in a month's time. There's a reason why I want to beat them specifically, but I can't remember why...
Beat those gamecocks!
April 18th, 2018 at 10:00 AM ^
April 18th, 2018 at 10:29 AM ^
...wait...what?
brings back a pretty good big in Chris Silva (assuming he withdraws from the draft) and a top 20 recruit from 2017, Brian Bowen, who got wrapped up in scandal at Louisville and transferred to SC. They'll be an intriguing team.
How the hell is Brian Bowen eligible to play? NCAA is a joke. Yes, I know...breaking news.
Is Bowen expected to be cleared? At this time he hasn't but of course we're seven months away from the beginning of next season so lots of time yet.
Also, their shooting (and offense in general) is going to have to dramatically improve. Their Kenpom profile on the offensive side is crazy red (aside from OReb and FGA/FTA), including their mark of 14.8% of all shots being blocked, good (bad) for second-worst in all of D1. Obviously Michigan loses its share of offense but with the D they will have their offense can flounder a bit and still be okay in the early going. Carolina's 161st-ranked offense would have fits with Michigan's D.
April 18th, 2018 at 12:33 AM ^
April 18th, 2018 at 12:49 AM ^
I feel like Michigan and Beilein are due. But I also worry at setting my expectations too high because it takes so much luck to get really deep in the tournament. We evaded all the top seeds on our side of the bracket, because,while they were great teams, they had off nights before we had to play them. We might have a better team basketball wise that doesn't make it out of the first weekend.
April 18th, 2018 at 10:43 AM ^
He seems to have the similar skill set as Moe and a pretty fluid game. Based on what I've seen, his ability to space the floor and also attack closeouts would be great for Beilein's system.
But I assume he'll still need some time to bulk up and get used to the competition. So in the meantime, I am eager to see Teske's improvement on his elbow jumper. It started to come on later in the season pretty well. Obviously it won't be as good as Moe's 3 point threat, but if it's reliable enough, it should still force defenses into difficult decisions. That plus his defense and rebounding and I am pretty enthused to see him in the lead role. Bring on the Big Nasty!
he better be shooting 500 threes per day; and another 100 5 ft right handed and lefthanded jump hooks.
April 18th, 2018 at 11:08 AM ^
April 18th, 2018 at 11:29 AM ^
April 18th, 2018 at 11:09 AM ^
Never say never . . .there's been some practice buzz that he's working on shooting threes.
I dont know how MSU is ranked ahead of UM in those recruiting rankings. I think player to player Michigan has a stonger class than MSU.
Unusual thing. MSU always get near unanimous picks from every expert that they will win the entire tournament.
I was stunned that in the same bracket with Kansas and Duke, literally every expert was very confident in MSU taking the crown. And all you had to do was point to their garbage Big Ten competition and how they looked to prove otherwise.
they said it but they were not as committed to the Sparty pick as they had been in passed years, 2006 specifically. This year they were more like "I guess Michigan State, maybe..... probably." I think how this passed tourney went down kind of exposed to the national guys that State is really not what they have thought they are anymore. I don't expect them to be the "sexy" pick for a while now.
Different broadcasts. They were confident. No more or no less than they've always been.
just remember seeing Bilas and Vitale, really. I heard other people picked them too but only saw those two live. Bilas almost seem to pick them because he didn't know who else to pick and Vitale was quite a bit more reserved in his enthusiasm. In any case, I don't think they will be that team anymore going into the tournament.
They will still have that mystique about them. Even if analysts are hesitant to pick them to win it all now, they'll see the name, they'll see Izzo, maybe somewhere between the 2-4 seeds, and get that itch again.
April 18th, 2018 at 10:53 AM ^
I officiated a game this year with Marcus Bingham (MSU recruit) playing and he was getting pushed around by a bunch of 6'2" football players and lobbying for foul calls.
He was able to score, because he is 6'10" and could just jump over them, but I was thinking this guy is going to have a rude awakening in the BigTen next year if he cannot handle a little contact from some below average 6'2" high school players.
This man.
April 18th, 2018 at 10:19 AM ^
but he is raw as hell.
And also Jeter wasn't a rape enabler
April 18th, 2018 at 11:29 AM ^
No he wasnt, but I heard he has herpes.
He has finished in the top 2 in ESPN's recruiting rankings for 10 straight years. But he only has one national championship -- from his first season when it wasn't his guys.
Winning six tournament games takes a lot of skill but also a decent amount of luck. Also, Kentucky won in Calipari's third season (2011-12) so they were definitely his players (three frosh and two soph starters). His first three seasons went Elite 8, Final Four, National Champs and he's made four Final Fours in nine seasons (with two title game appearances).