U of M MEN'S BASKETBALL: 2018-2019

[Jeff Buchanan]

[WM Wolverine]

Sparty is better, deeper and has a lot of experience.

[froot loops]

I'm not sure that game meant anything for the seedings.

[Cody_Russell]

[Cody_Russell]

Michigan given a better seed than MSU, wtf?

Also, Montana rematch! Made $$$ on the spread last year after Montana had a 10-0 lead / whatever that early lead was.

[Jeff Buchanan]

We have an NCAA Tournament Thread started by JD. I just stuck it to the top. I'll keep the M B-ball thread alive and stuck for now.

[Kstat]

Like I said, this game was utterly meaningless. We ran over everyone on our way to the B1G tour we last year the committee ignore that too and gave MSU the better seed. Fuck em.

[lineygoblue]

And for some reason the regions are sharing game locations. Both Michigan and MSU will play in Des Moines, but M is in the West and MSU is in the East.

I don't recall that being done before.

A rematch with Montana and could they play FSU like they did last year?

Not a bad seed considering they lost something like 5 of their last 8 games..

[Kstat]

[Masspartan]

Just making sure the refs were to blame for this loss ... read the last two pages and you've not disappointed. Good Luck in the Tourney. State got handed a shit sandwich for seeding. Delaney not doing the BIG10 any favors by having the game end literally seconds before seeding is announced. Can't blame the committee ... now do you change an entire tournament in just a second. Would prefer the region games UM was handed. #1 overall seed is Duke ... that means State was the #8 overall seed even after winning both sides of the BIG10.

Oh well ... you've got to beat everyone in front of you to win in all regardless.

[AlabamAlum]

Mich State was the #6 overall.

[AlabamAlum]

[hack]

MSU is the better team this year. Primarily because they can play 5 guys who will value every single defensive possession. Poole was not ready for games like this, and it just hasn't yet sunk in what he has to do. It doesn't matter if the refs took it over in Breslin, where they still are I think .500 against us this decade, or if they had some dumb luck and we had a lid on the bucket for whatever reason or that fate took Izzo's bad personnel decisions away from him in a way that I fear might make him favor players like Tillman over Ward for good. The bottom line is that they made their own luck and went 3-0 against us. They're the best team in the conference by a notable margin. And that should be no surprise when you give Izzo an elite scorer/facilitator and surround that guy with mostly seniors and juniors, plus a key injury to feed their martyr complex. That's the right ingredients for a classic Izzo team that's better than the sum of its parts.

As for seeding, well, that's how it goes. Last year MSU got the coveted slot for a 3 seed even though we swept them. This year they swept us and we got the coveted 3 spot.So it all evens out. Plus, well, fuck them. Sometimes you get lucky regardless of what your guys do on the court; sometimes you don't.

[lineygoblue]

I'm sure that the committee selected the two spots for M and MSU long before the game ended. The winner was going one way, and the losing team the other. The time the game ended had no effect on the overall brackets.

When Jim Delany straps on his golden parachute, he'd do the conference a favor if he took every fricking zebra from every sport with him. Nobody would miss them. He was in charge of officiating before he became the Grand PoohBah of the Big Ten, and his stupidity in running it has been evident even until this day.

I'd say MSU got what they earned. If they're truly the best the Big Ten has to offer, (I'm sure they'll be raising a banner that says so) then they're off to prove it. No better way than to go into the toughest bracket, and win their way to Minneapolis.

Odd that Michigan's path could have two rematches from last year's tourney. (Montana and FSU)

[hack]

Back to our game -- the second-guessing of Beilein is reasonable, IMO. I did not like that he didn't call a timeout before the under-16 whistle, right when MSU was waking up as it usually does. He needed to micromanage that part of the game. One more early answer during that run of theirs might have been all it took to play from 5-8 up for the balance of the game, and to get to force MSU to play flawless down the stretch. There were 2 possessions before the whistle that Beilein could have taken control of. Call a time-out and draw up a play. Everyone knew what was about to happen if you just sit there and let the pieces fall however they will.

I also wonder about Poole or McQuaid. I know you want Matthews in that cheater centre-field position, but you also can't have your space-cadet defender on the one guy you can't leave open. That's a "You Had One Job..." kind of thing. Michigan's two best perimeter defenders needed to be guarding MSU's two best perimeter players.