Can we please schedule UCLA next year....
The game last night left a bad taste in my mouth (probably like many of you) Can we please schedule them next year for a game.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:31 AM ^
Arent these things already locked in by now
March 31st, 2021 at 10:49 AM ^
If anything, this last year has shown us that sporting schedules are never as "locked" as people claim.
It's a little different when you have paying customers attending the games.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:32 AM ^
I remember when we whooped Villanova after they beat us in the finals. Just left me thinking “why couldn’t we have played like this in the finals?”
March 31st, 2021 at 10:39 AM ^
Most of their team moving on was one reason we whooped 'em.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:46 AM ^
In regards to the whole point of the thread, why we won the second is irrelevant. Winning a regular season game is never going to make up for losing a big game in the tourney. Playing UCLA in October with these players or different ones won’t make up for what could have been last night.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:52 AM ^
Yeah, I fear an empty feeling of beating them that will inspire a "I wish we would have..." remark that will accomplish nothing of substance.
March 31st, 2021 at 11:04 AM ^
Right. I’m not discrediting UCLA, who did what they needed to do to win, but knowing we would have won had we made a few easy missed layups or free throws (thinking of Smith missing those two will haunt me) makes me sick. Seeing this team play like we know they can next fall would probably be more frustrating than anything.
March 31st, 2021 at 11:54 AM ^
That was a UCLA thing. Same thing happened to Alabama and BYU. I don't know if the players were amped up but none of us did well at the stripe.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:57 PM ^
Agreed.
Smashing Villanova the year after did not make an iota of difference on how I felt about the Championship game.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:34 AM ^
An early season win against UCLA would quench your desire to appropriately avenge last night's loss?
March 31st, 2021 at 11:08 AM ^
No it wouldn't, and I didn't say anything about revenge game. I just would rather see us play them vs any small school.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:37 PM ^
+1. I'm completely on board with that sentiment.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:34 AM ^
Just like how we scheduled App St after they already won the game that ppl remember? Vintage Michigan move lmao.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:51 AM ^
Meh - no different than beating up some random MAC or C-USA opponent (and App St has gotten even more cache over the years). I'm ok with scheduling that rematch in the long run.
March 31st, 2021 at 11:37 AM ^
Yeah, it's not quite the same as avenging a loss in boxing.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:35 AM ^
frankly we would have won that game 8/10 times. what a huge statistical outlier in the negative.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:36 AM ^
we'll see them in Atlantis.... in a ballroom, at a casino resort!
March 31st, 2021 at 10:51 AM ^
Tired: Juwan Howard wiping off the floor with a towel
Wired: Mick Cronin taking off his shirt and wiping the floor with it
March 31st, 2021 at 10:55 AM ^
The beauty of the tournament is that only the game you are playing matters. Win and move on. Lose and done. UCLA got hot right at the right time of the year and has had a ton of luck that has helped them. Alabama and M missing free throws and Michigan missing their last 8 shots were gifts. MSU gifted them also and some easy games in there. That’s the tourney in a nutshell.
Michigan can only look in the mirror and blame themselves - coaches and players both. UCLA did enough but no one watching that game last night can say they did more to win it than Michigan did to lose it meaning M beat themselves and UCLA had one hit guy make some amazing shots.
But like their coach said “box score is for losers, winning is all that matters.” True and they are likely going to get destroyed by the Zags. They played great defense but feel it was more an off night for M than their defense. Michigan really missed an elite offensive player they could go to like UCLA had.
"Michigan really missed an elite offensive player they could go to like UCLA had."
It's no coincidence that Michigan's lone national championship featured the guy who still has the NCAA record for most points scored in a tournament. Consistent, reliable scoring in every game. Never disappeared.
March 31st, 2021 at 11:00 AM ^
If we played them next year and won by 40, it wouldn’t matter. It wouldn’t magically hang a final four banner in the rafters. It would just be more evidence of how we choked in the game that actually meant something.
March 31st, 2021 at 11:20 AM ^
How about we do something like this . . . . not try and hit game winning shots after midnight. Like always, the NCAA can go fuck itself for scheduling that game for purely financial purposes.
In what world does Vegas account for travel and time zones (essentially players biological clocks and chemical processes over the course of the day) and the NCAA pretends it doesn't exist when scheduling an elite eight game.
Fuck them and the clown car they ride in.
March 31st, 2021 at 11:23 AM ^
Considering we already wimped out of two games against them in football, why would we ever act like we have any sort of courage and schedule them in basketball?
Michigan's AD has decided to be chicken shit's in scheduling, may as well ride with the consequences.
March 31st, 2021 at 11:41 AM ^
That would be a great idea! M had a home and home series with UCLA in the early 2000s for six or seven years. Given that UCLA may be on the upswing with its latest coach, seems like it would be a real attractive measuring stick in the future along with the ACC challenge game.
Something else the two teams have in common: M alum Dan Dworsky designed both Crisler and Pauley Pavilion. I visited Pauley for a game years ago and could swear that I was in Crisler, it was so similar. No doubt Pauley has been updated since then and is even more different than Crisler now (especially given the Crisler updates).
March 31st, 2021 at 12:35 PM ^
I was in the nosebleeds at the renovated Pauley a few years back. It was garbage. Much prefer the Galen center across town.
March 31st, 2021 at 12:15 PM ^
Because that'll fix it!
March 31st, 2021 at 12:33 PM ^
Arent we supposed to be playing Kentucky in London, England? Or did that already happen? I'm not sure 100% what year it is.