MBB Drops To #5 in AP
Tennessee takes over the top spot, followed by Duke, Virginia and Gonzaga.
We are still ahead of Sparty, who is at #6. With their unbeaten conference record - I can only imagine the bitching at the RCMB right now...
Lot of basketball to be played this season - going to be fun to watch as teams shift in the Top 10 throughout the year. Hopefully, our upward shift begins tomorrow with Minnesota at home.
Go Blue!
January 21st, 2019 at 12:59 PM ^
Nice! Good to have a top 5 team. Gooooo Bluuuueee
January 21st, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^
Ranking shouldn't mean anything to us or frankly to msu. Conference record, big ten championship, conference championship, and then favorable seeding are all that should matter. Msu has a tough stretch starting tonight playing Maryland for top conference record. We should be ranked higher anyway given w/L records.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:22 PM ^
I have been stating this forever. Well put. Basketball rankings are so meaningless. This isn't football. If Michigan wins the conference and/or conference tournament, they will be a 1 or 2 seed.
January 21st, 2019 at 6:34 PM ^
‘and’ is preferred
January 21st, 2019 at 1:01 PM ^
#5 is exactly right. All 4 teams above them are currently better than them right now. Make a statement and run Minnesota out of the gym.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:14 PM ^
I am not sure we will know how good Gonzaga is until the NCAA Tourney. Certainly their "big game" against Santa Clara this week is not going to give us any indication...
January 21st, 2019 at 1:19 PM ^
Their conference schedule is weak, but they have NBA level players and beat Duke. If there was one I would argue Michigan should be higher it would be Gonzaga.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:15 PM ^
How is Gonzaga without a doubt better than us? They lost to UNC by 13. We beat UNC by 17. Gonzaga has two losses and we only have one. Gonzagas last 9 games have been against super weak teams like Pacific, Denver, and San Francisco
January 21st, 2019 at 1:22 PM ^
Just my assessment. When you lose matters too. They lost two tough road games earlier in the year, while we just lost to a not very good Wisconsin team in the road. They continue to win the games they should.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:25 PM ^
Illinois would be winning against the dog shit tacos Gonzaga is playing in their conference.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:39 PM ^
Dog Shit Tacos...
January 21st, 2019 at 1:59 PM ^
And a +1 to you sir.
40 years old, first time I’ve heard anyone referred to as a “dog shit taco”
January 21st, 2019 at 2:33 PM ^
Thanks for the great biz idea! Soon Dog Shit Tacos will be beating the shit out of Taco Bell to use as the source of their own product and then flushing them down the moon hole.
January 21st, 2019 at 3:04 PM ^
Sounds like something they'd serve at the Kohl Center
January 21st, 2019 at 4:53 PM ^
With extra cheese of course.
January 21st, 2019 at 6:56 PM ^
will be incorparitng Dog Shit Tacos into my vernacular, thank you
January 21st, 2019 at 6:20 PM ^
When you lose shouldn't matter when you're comparing Gonzaga, whose only tough games are early in the year, and Michigan which is playing in an extremely difficult conference. That they're beating terrible teams right now means nothing. This is why the NCAA did away with the "last 10" criteria.
Wisconsin is a top 20 team by every unbiased ranking system you can find. Playing at Wisconsin is like playing a top 5-10ish team. It absolutely qualifies as a "tough road game", which btw, the Gonzaga game against Tennessee wasn't a road game, it was a neutral site game.
I'm not even arguing that M should he ahead of Gonzaga, although I do think Michigan would win on a neutral floor (Gonzaga isn't good enough on defense) more often than not. Just saying that blindly looking at when losses occur without any context is a poor way to look at a resume.
January 21st, 2019 at 2:40 PM ^
Their second best player was out injured against unc
January 21st, 2019 at 9:27 PM ^
Totally. I think the Zags would have their hands full at Wiscy, just like we did.
January 21st, 2019 at 3:15 PM ^
LMFAO Gonzaga is ass. UVA and UT and Dukie all overrated.
January 22nd, 2019 at 12:52 PM ^
Interesting - who are your top 5 if the teams you mentioned are overrated?
January 21st, 2019 at 1:01 PM ^
A little too big of a drop in my opinion, but who cares. Just work on improving like Belein's team always do and we will be just fine.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
I tend to agree. Couldn't convince me that Dukes loss to Cuse is better than Michigans loss to Wisc. Whatever, though. Doesn't matter.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:15 PM ^
You also couldn't convince me that Michigan is a better team than Duke, or that you would favor Michigan in a match up against Duke on a neutral court (or even a Michigan home game).
January 21st, 2019 at 1:42 PM ^
That's fair. I just find the standard for these polls tends to ping pong between using resume and eye test depending on the week. Hard to keep track of which standard they're using.
January 21st, 2019 at 2:19 PM ^
Right now? No, I would take Duke? A month ago, Michigan by ten. Teams evolve several times throughout the season. We are not playing great right now but it isn’t a bad time to not be playing great. A lot like 2013, came out like gang busters, chilled for a while, and then put on the afterburners. Duke is playing better right now but that isn’t an indication that they “are” better.
January 21st, 2019 at 4:10 PM ^
Duke is top to bottom a better team. We don't have anywhere near the talent. Could still definitely beat them, but they are clearly better.
January 21st, 2019 at 4:28 PM ^
1) We have a lot of talent, 2) There is a lot more to the game than raw talent level.
January 21st, 2019 at 6:04 PM ^
Kentucky has more talent than anyone. Every year. Yet never do they have a semblance of a game plan.
January 21st, 2019 at 7:37 PM ^
Isn't that part of the recruiting pitch? Come to Kentucky, you play for one year and you don't have to think?
January 22nd, 2019 at 1:59 AM ^
Or go to class...
January 21st, 2019 at 1:04 PM ^
Surprised MSU is still behind us seeing as they won @ Neb and we obviously lost a comparable game. Irrelevant though.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
This will matter in 6 or 7 weeks, but it really doesn't now.
Onward, GO BLUE
January 21st, 2019 at 1:09 PM ^
Seems about right and doesn’t really matter. Just win the games.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:09 PM ^
Really does not matter at this point in time. A lot of good basketball yet to be played. Quality home and home vs both Maryland and MSU, OSU and Wisconsin still at home, and this Friday at Indiana. Running the table was highly unlikely, I just hope the team continues to play at a high level while improving. Realistically I see no reason why this team should drop a game against an under whelming opp., cough looking at you @PSU...Big Ten conference could very well come down those two home and homes we have left.
Team still has a lot of prove and it would appear as though some defenses have figured out how to stop Beilein's European freshman phenom. Time to improvise, the team will adjust and hopefully go on another run to end the season. Wisconsin is a good team and ALWAYS a tough game away from AA. Michigan sure didn't play their best and we know what can happen when the 3pt shooting is off. Still went down to the wire in a rough environment. Although, I do feel that odd call (not calling it a bad call) at the end of the game really put Michigan out of it yesterday. Oh'well, onto the next one.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:12 PM ^
Gonzaga should not be ahead of us
They lost to UNC by 13 who we beat by 17. And this was a week after they lost to Tennessee
Gonzaga last 11 games: L Tenn, L UNC, W UTA, W Denver, W UNA, W CSB, W SCU, W Pacific, W SF, W LMU, W Portland
Gonzaga has a CUPCAKE Schedule. I don't even know half of these teams abbreviations unless I google them.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:42 PM ^
You are right on! But I recommend that you replace the word "Cupcake" with "Dog Shit Tacos", quoting DMill above. Adds so much more color to the description of that schedule...
January 22nd, 2019 at 10:50 AM ^
Have you actually looked up how good or bad Gonzaga's schedule is? According to net (again which the committee uses), San Francisco is 38, St. Mary's is 49, pretty respectable. Their non-conf schedule is probably the best in the country - Duke, Tennessee, UNC, Arizona, Washington.
If they win out, they're getting a one seed, no doubt, they're 3 in the net, MSU is at 5, UM at 6. The big ten is stronger and winner of the big ten should also get a one seed as well, but right now, unless one of UM or MSU sweeps the other, they're not going to overtake Gonzaga.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:18 PM ^
We need to find more consistent offense and display the same defensive intensity that we did at the beginning of the season. Go Blue!
January 21st, 2019 at 1:27 PM ^
Michigan dropped to #6 in the Coaches Poll while MSU jumped to #5.
Tennessee is #1, Duke #2, UVA #3, and Gonzaga is #4.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
No love from the coaches poll? Color me surprised.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:43 PM ^
This probably isn't a popular opinion but I think it's fair for MSU to be ahead of Michigan. I'm surprised the media didn't have them that way.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:50 PM ^
It's really hard to take the Sports Information Director Or Duly Authorized Representative Poll terribly seriously.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:37 PM ^
Seems reasonable. Not as though its a bad loss.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:48 PM ^
In the net rankings UM dropped to 6, with MSU at 5, they seem to be a day off wrt updating so Sunday's results won't be in till tomorrow.
January 21st, 2019 at 1:49 PM ^
January 21st, 2019 at 3:18 PM ^
I'd be fine with even splitting with MSU. I'd prefer to win the game in East Lansing, though.
January 21st, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
Ooops.
January 21st, 2019 at 2:11 PM ^
Let’s start another streak tomorrow
January 21st, 2019 at 3:18 PM ^
and this time not lose the game that matters more than all of them.