U of M MEN'S BASKETBALL: 2018-2019

[Hannibal]

How did Indiana find the secret sauce?

I'd be delighted if we faced them in the tourney. It would mean a Final Four matchup against somebody besides Duke.

[Niffla]

Yeah. They knew exactly what was coming all three times and couldn't stop it. MSU is clearly the better team. If they meet in the tournament, I would expect to lose again.

I think M is every bit as good as State...except for the finishing part. Which is admittedly a pretty important part, lol. State proved it emphatically by doing it three times in a handful of weeks that they're are superior to M when it comes to that last stage of a basketball game.

[Cody_Russell]

Gotta get there first. I have watched Florida a few times but I don't know much about Nevada. Gotta get by Montana first, for that matter.

[Niffla]

I'm not worried. I'm not taking Montana for granted either, but I'm not worried.

Montana is indeed returning a lot of guys (not everyone though), and it's looking like they're going to be minus their top big. Over the season Montana hasn't had as good of a season as last year's team. Michigan clearly remembers the slow start to Montana last season (they've been talking about it). I'm betting that won't happen again. And after that 10-0 start, Montana had incredible difficulty scoring on last year's Michigan team -- and this year's Michigan team is head and shoulders better defensively than last year's roster.

They'll be fine.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Fear the Grizz

[iam416]

Fear the Wizz

[hack]

I think M is every bit as good as State...except for the finishing part. Which is admittedly a pretty important part, lol. State proved it emphatically by doing it three times in a handful of weeks that they're are superior to M when it comes to that last stage of a basketball game.

Yeah, exactly. Beilein can and should do better micromanaging the first two sections of the second half, but, past that, it's on the players. You just can't win if you throw away 10% of your possessions.

[WM Wolverine]

And give the opposition extra possessions too.

[hack]

Re Montana, last year they had 2 6-8 guys and this year none. I guess their defense has gone from ~55th to ~160th.

[Hannibal]

I'm sure that there are some 15 seeds who could beat us, but I don't think that Montana is one of them. They are vastly worse than the lowest ranked B1G team.

[crashcourse]

14 seed will win one this year

15/16 will be ofer

[THE_WIZARD_]

Fear the Wizz

Seconded, Thirded, Fourthed and Fifthed.

[hack]

I have a bracket that assigns points based on the seed, so it incentivizes upset calls. I still think the right call in that one might be backing the frontrunners. Probably easier to rack up points a few at a time rather than picking the right upsets and screwing yourself if you don't. But I don't see very many obvious-upset candidates this year, and discount the ones that come from my own conference. Wisconsin could easily take down UVa, and LSU may be in turmoil and match up poorly against Maryland, assuming Fernando's out there to block a ton of shots. I haven't seen any of Kentucky this year but Wofford? Can't be sure of Buffalo over Texas Tech because Michigan has a stake in that outcome, and Texas Tech has a nice track record having beat Purdue last year. Murray State will have the best player on the floor against FSU. Anyhow, those are my ideas so far. Who's got others?

[iam416]

[hack]

So if a number 1 seed loses to an eight or nine in the second round, you still get 16?