M jumps up to 5th in Final Winter Director's Cup standings
That's more like it. The Final Winter Director's Cup standings were released today, and Michigan has jumped up to 5th (from 19th at the last update), thanks to strong showings in three of the four now-included sports: men's hockey and men's & women's gymnastics (we'll ignore women's bowling). Unfortunately, Ohio State is still in first by a wide margin.
Going to be very difficult for Michigan to attain its usual top-5ish finish, since the final standings MUST include Men's Basketball and Women's Volleyball, two sports in which we historically do well but will get zeros this year. Also must include Baseball (where we likely won't get many points, if any) and Women's Basketball (fine). Hard to stay near the top when you have to count several donuts.
April 20th, 2023 at 11:12 AM ^
We're #5! We're #5! We're #5!
If that's the shape of the basketball team's hands it's no wonder they turned the ball over so damn much.
April 20th, 2023 at 11:36 AM ^
5 is still better than 6
April 20th, 2023 at 11:37 AM ^
if ya ain’t first you’re last
April 20th, 2023 at 12:13 PM ^
two sports in which we historically do well but will get zeros this year.
Basketball sure, but in what world are we good at women's volleyball? We haven't won a conference title in >40 years and have made the semis once, over a decade ago.
Conference results are irrelevant in this case. We usually make the national tournament, and often win at least one round when we do, so we get points. In the last 10 tournaments (prior to this season), we only missed twice. Over that span, Women's VB on average contributed 40 points per year towards our final score, including a 3rd place finish in 2012-13. Not necessarily lighting the world on fire, but consistently contributing nonetheless.
Not winning the B1G is mostly because the B1G is ELITE as a volleyball conference.
Michigan has made the tournament 18 times since 2000 (meaning we earned points towards the directors cup). From 2006-2021, we missed 1 tournament. I’d say 18/23 years making the tournament makes you at least “good.” Especially considering 32/64 tournament slots are taken by autobids.
Better than I expected.
(I’m commenting because I know everyone’s eager to learn my expectations.)