U of M MEN'S BASKETBALL 2016-2017

[Whitley]

Yes, a strong finish and a high seed are what I expect. Sunday's game is huge. We are tied for 6th/7th in B1G with Gophers, and probably only 6 B1G teams get in. Equally important, we don't want to get in as a low seed and get bounced in the first round. Close strong.

One thing I like about this team are the personalities. very likeable group.

Lundari in his latest has 7 Big Ten teams in:

5 Wisconsin, Purdue
6 Maryland
7 Minnesota, Northwestern
10 Michigan State, Michigan

[hack]

This isn't the year to bitch about how the conference doesn't get the respect it should at seedings time, but those are awful seeings for each of those teams. Wisconsin was ranked 7, and lost to another ranked team. Then they went on the road and lost to us without their second-best player. Taking them down to a 5 seed is a serious plummet.

[Whitley]

This isn't the year to bitch about how the conference doesn't get the respect it should at seedings time, but those are awful seeings for each of those teams. Wisconsin was ranked 7, and lost to another ranked team. Then they went on the road and lost to us without their second-best player. Taking them down to a 5 seed is a serious plummet.

Not really. When the NCAA released their top 4 seeds in each bracket, there were no Big Ten teams to be found.

[Cody_Russell]

Minnesota had 41 FT attempts.
Too much to overcome.

[Niffla]

Minnesota had 41 FT attempts.
Too much to overcome.

Walton missed 3 FT's. Abdur-Rahkman missed 3 FT's. Wagner missed a FT. Robinson missed a FT. Irvin missed a FT.

9 altogether. That's why they lost.

[Kstat]

The officiating was a joke but the missed FTs did them in. Just shitty luck.

[Whitley]

The latest Bracketology (2 hours old) Big Ten seedings:


4 Purdue (trending up)
5 Wisconsin
6 Maryland
8 Northwestern (trending down) Minnesota (trending down)
9 Michigan (trending up)
10 Michigan State

[hack]

What a miserable wretch of a game. Technical on our bench? Good god Ted Valentine is such a fucking weirdo. Shame of it is they only have themselves to blame for not walking out of there with a 5-on-8 win.

[Cody_Russell]

Take care of business at Rutgers.
vs Purdue? M won vs a similar Purdue team last year, but Purdue is HOT right now. Watch out for Swanigan and Haas again...

[WM Wolverine]

Gophers played by different set of rules than M did. Refs even blew the whistle a couple times before contact was even made.

[Hannibal]

That's what you get with Beilein. The screwjobs flow to the path of least resistance.

Coach K would have made that "T" count.

[hack]

I thought we got our share of stupid calls. They obviously wanted to reward drives without giving out too many three-point-play opportunities, so therefore all the late whistles. I don't think we got screwed intentionally, though the bullshit technical calls that into question. Still, at one point Walton and Duncan missed 3 or 4 from the line. Maybe if Michigan was up by that much the calls would have been influenced by that. Dunno. It just is what it is though, and will be until there is accountability. I went to the Howard game today; Howard got royally screwed, and by a ref who works their home games regularly, and seems to decide on the call only after he blows the whistle. Might just be his body language, but he reminds me of Frank Drebbin calling his first few balls and strikes.

[hack]

FROM MGOBLOG:

Here is the full link: http://www.si.com/college-basketball...low_twitter_si



The nugget on Michigan is about halfway down. The most brutal parts are highlighted:



"Michigan: “Obviously they’re not great defensively, but they’re confident they can score against you. [Junior forward D.J.] Wilson and [sophomore forward Moritz] Wagner have emerged as premiere players. If [senior guard Duncan] Robinson is in the game you want to attack him defensively. Everybody knows that. Sometimes [senior guard Derrick] Walton just coasts on defense. The point of attack is where your defense has to be at its best. You have to keep Walton out of the paint. He can shoot it, but he does most of his damage when he’s breaking your defense down. If they’re not making shots, I don’t think they can beat good teams. Everybody that starts can make shots for them. [Senior guard] Zak Irvin is having a down year. He’s not shooting the ball as well. People have been keying on him a little more and making him take tough twos. I love Wilson, but he’s not a tough kid. I’ve seen guys punk him and he didn’t fight back. They’re real soft defensively. I just think they have to spend so much time and energy getting that offense to work that they don’t have a lot of time to work on defense. There’s nobody who runs better pick-and-roll offense than John Beilein. They get guys eight or 10 points who don’t deserve to score.”

[hack]

I just think they have to spend so much time and energy getting that offense to work that they don’t have a lot of time to work on defense.

That's basically it. Unlike the content I posted though, I don't think this assessment is ``brutal''. Is fair. We've seen others be a lot less charitable in describing their defense, effort and toughness.

[Whitley]

The effort on defense has picked up recently though. That jives with some reports that they have bought in the defensive concepts. That might be Dolan's influence.