Check the video from warmups last night on Mark Snyder twitter. There is Spike in the layup line and he’s still not close to himself. He looked like a 60 year old attempting a lay up. I would be surprised if we see Spike being a tangible contributor.
https://www.instagram.com/p/-h-q9UhebX/
Does this look like a guy ready to make an impact?
There are really only 4 teams in the Big Ten that look above average: MSU, Maryland, Purdue, and Iowa. I’d bet a lot of money that the Big Ten gets more than 5 bids. The teams vying for those bids have struggled as much or more as Michigan has (Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio St., Illinois). It’s too early to draw “missing the tournament” conclusions.
I tend to agree. Way too many recruiting misses the last three years and eventually that catches up to you.
This post should be left here season-long as a monument to knee-jerk, abandon ship the second you hit rough seas thinking.
So you’re happy with their start to the season and happy with how they did in this tournament?
Well, this thread started out with “this is a bad team…” based on the losses to Xavier and UConn. We crushed Charlotte. OK, Charlotte actually is a bad team. But they lost to Syracuse by 13, lost to us by 55. We handled Texas tonight. Out rebounded them even. Wagner is coming on. Irvin is getting into game shape. Robinson hit 4-5 threes, had 4 assists and 4 rebounds. Walton was solid. Caris was Caris. Would I like to have played better against Xavier and UConn? Yes. But I can’t change that. We are definitely not a bad team, IMO.
I think they will be playing like a top 25 team by the end of the season. Now? Eh, one win doesn’t do it for me, we’ll see how Texas ends up before drawing conclusions. If we can win on the road vs. NC State and SMU I’ll change my opinion.
I also think that Wagner will be a solid Big Ten center by the middle of the conference schedule (Which is far, far better than anything we saw in the first 4 games).
Saying that this isn’t a “bad team” doesn’t mean we are happy with losses to Xavier and UConn. Strawman less next time.
Charolett is one of the worst D1 basketball teams. Texas is not a tournament team. I’m glad we got 2 wins. I’m glad Wagner is getting more minutes. We still have a long way to go.
We’ve been ran off the court by 2 solid but not great teams. One of those games at home. We are a major work in progress. Luckily, it appears most the big ten is too.
I don’t think anyone would argue that we are a finished product or that we’ve looked good. But to say we’re done after two bad games…pretty myopic. This isn’t football where your dreams can be dashed with one or two losses. Long season. More opportunities to improve to come.
We are 6 games in to the season. This is a team still finding themselves and still healing. 4 of their top players (spike dwalt LeVert and Irvin) were hurt in he offseason and 2 of those guys still aren’t 100%. As of now I have no concerns because they don’t play a hard non conference schedule. Once B1G season rolls around they will be a completely different team. If you do not like what you see and think this season that’s your opinion but it’s only 2 losses, 2 losses won’t end our season.
Ecstatic over our play last night! That was a living tutorial on how JBs offense can flow and produce when you move the ball and hit open shots. We had ALOT of open looks and that’s all you can ask for. Wagner is going to be some kind of player before he’s done. He’s not and never will be a true 5, but if you can play, you WILL play.
Does this exorcise all of our pre-season concerns? Of course not, but it’s great to see the team meld together and get those two wins, cause I think it bodes well for their future development.
Congrats guys. Keep it up.
A question: could Michigan realistically crack the top 25 before Big Ten play if they win the rest of their non-conference games? Or is the remaining schedule simply too weak?
Looking ahead, given the Big Ten’s underwhelming performance so far, there won’t be many opportunities for a marquee win all year. I would circle MSU, Purdue, and the home-and-home with Maryland. Honestly, the way things are shaping up, wins in Madison and Columbus would not be a huge deal this year.
My issue is they weren’t even competitive against Xavier/UConn. I never said they wouldn’t improve but most likely that was their only shot at quality non conference wins. I guess that depends on your perspective of NC State because they haven’t played good ball this year. How many wins do you think Michigan grabs collectively against MSU/Maryland/Purdue?
I don’t believe Albrecht will be able to contribute at any time just look at how he warms up he can’t move.
Maybe if Michigan can make top 25 teams look non competitive and put it on them it will make me think differently. Those two losses were really really poor though.
Bad may be a bit over the top
Yea we probably aren’t a bad team but we may not be a very good team either barring some major development over the next couple months.
I guess if we are getting down to semantics then we aren’t looking at the big picture. We can discuss a win over Texas but is nobody concerned about Texas shooting 50%? Michigan will face better teams than Texas the rest of the year. Is it just going to be hope they can get enough stops instead of relying on the defense as a strength?
No. I think saying we’re a bad team and going to get worse is idiotically negative, and looks particularly stupid two games later when the team is beginning to gel.
“Going to get worse” is referring to next year. And yes, we will be worse. We haven’t recruited well enough to be a better team.
We lose Caris. And Spike, but it remains to be seen how much he’ll be able to do this season. Probably no one else who we care to keep. Wagner will be a year better and stronger. We will still have Walton, Dawkins, Robinson, Irvin on the perimeter. Wilson could step up. Simpson should be a good back up PG, depending on his learning curve. It is just too early to say that we are bad this season and will be worse next season.