Single games vs Minnesota and Penn St. is not ideal.
Depends on the situation. If you are a bubble team, those games don’t really help you.
If you are trying to win the league, then yeah.
OTOH, no Khol Center is ideal
Wow single game against Minn and PSU stinks.
No Maryland home game so Hunter won’t get a return trip in the outside chance he ends up at Maryland
I feel like this year was a great example that playing an easier Big Ten schedule isn’t always helpful.
I feel like Michigan has home games against 6 of the top 8 teams in MSU, Purdue, Wisconsin, Rutgers, IU, OSU.
That’s a good thing. Miss out on Maryland and Northwestern home games, but you want those “quality home games”.
Sure you play a lot of road games in there too, and would rather have a Minnesota single play away but its generally OK to have a tough Big Ten schedule IMO. Selection committee clearly analyzes the results and not the conference record.
Sometimes I get sad about Michigan basketball and then I remember that this is my point guard and everything suddenly becomes okay
In the very likely event that Michigan is a bubble team, they will definitely need those “marquee” win opportunities.
In what feels like a million years ago, I’d probably be annoyed that Michigan didn’t get an easy enough schedule in order to win the league.
Well said, I too dig Dug.
Goal #1, win the league.
Glad to see some love for Dug. Seems like all I see is “he’ll have to be a lot better next year” and we just gloss over the fact that, aside from Burke, he had the best freshman year for a PG in the Belein/Juwan era. Plus, he has all the intangibles you could ever want in a PG.
Goal #1: Have a team good enough to win the league.
Don’t try to figure out how to win the league by playing the easiest slate. Generally think that maximizing resume should be the top priority of any scheduling decision.
Derrick Walton may have something to say about that. But yes, I love me some Dug.
So hard to compare. Very little asked of freshman Walton.
Toughest draw for Michigan.
There’s always the small part of me that cares about having the best record possible. But ultimately having as many chances at Q1 wins as possible is what really matters. Piling up Q2/Q3 wins is fun and all but doesn’t always really move the needle. So yeah this schedule looks brutal but I think there’s a good chance we’ll appreciate it down the road. After all, a lot of Q1 games in the Big Ten end up roughly being toss ups anyways.
yep. Playing a hard schedule is almost always a good thing, even though it sometimes feels counterintuitive
The goal is to beat as many good teams and lose to as few bad teams as possible. Playing more good ones than bad ones helps.
Yeah, every year it just feels more and more like Q1 wins are the gold standard currency of tournament resumes. They shape/change everything.
Also, I feel like every year when the Q1 games finally do roll around in Big Ten play, they always feel like games Michigan can win, even if they aren’t favorites.
Especially at home. Q1 home games are gold.