They started the stretch 17th in KP and ended it 40th so yeah not great
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man I wish we got Minnesota twice. dangit
Michigan does play Minnesota twice. We gotta get @BigBoutros a schedule so he can start some 3-17 schedule predictions.
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oh crapp. now that Iâve said it we will lose to them at home
I feel really good about Rutgers but 13-7 is about as high as I would go with them. You know there will be a few games where they just canât score.
UNDER: Illinois (I think they are toast), Maryland, Nebraska, NW
OVER: Michigan (yupâŚI said it), MSU, Penn StâŚmaybe Minnesota (they have to win more than 3 games, right???)
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I think the 11-9 for Michigan seems light. Perhaps I am just an optimistic homer that forgot that the CMU game was ever played.
@Slyboogie has wore off on me.
I am booking Final 4 tickets, flights, and hotels.
Not really, but I would bet that 11 ends up being lightâŚI think.
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The thing with Michigan at 11 wins is that they already have 3 in the tank. I get having to go on the road and all that but they gotta have at least 8 more wins on their schedule.
I see a few pretty winnable road games too.
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They have the kind of defense that will keep them in every game, and the kind of offense that will keep them from winning. Yeah, 13 wins may well be their ceiling.
Their game in Madison will be incredibly ugly.
The defense they play leads to a lot of open three pointers. When it works it looks great but pretty soon someoneâs gonna get hot and shoot 40% or better in a game. The 25% opponent three point percentage is an obvious regression candidate. There are things they do to to keep this number low â switching up defenses from one possession to another or even within possessions, and they generally wreak havoc to disrupt offensive flow â but I see a very good defense, not an elite defense. On the flipside I think the offense pretty much is what it is.
I do hope Iâm wrong. Theyâve been extremely good since Mulcahy and McConnell got healthy. The offense is more democratic which leads to more complete defensive efforts. Last year the defense was good but Harper and Baker needed to take some defensive possessions off because of the load they carried on offense. I do think theyâre more likely to stick as a top 10 defense than Northwestern, for instance. But their sky-high KenPom rating is heavily influenced by blowing out cupcakes. I think thereâs some slippage going against Big Ten athletes twice a week.
I think Iâd rather be in Michiganâs shoes right now than Illinoisâ, which is wild.
Thereâs probably some Michigan bias in there since I still think Illinoisâ ceiling is higher, but they also feel like theyâre another couple losses away from spiraling into a no floor scenario. And especially if we can beat MSU and play a good defensive game, itâll start to feel like weâve fixed some of our glaring issues and are rounding into form.
Also Underwoodâs conference record without Kofi is vomit inducing, which is biased since his first few teams were bad, but doesnât help inspire confidence.
The Wisconsin game for Illinois is huge. You have them at home. No real excuse for losing that one. Then you have @ Nebraska, MSU at home, and @ Minnesota. Suddenly youâre 4-3 in conference and feeling good with home games vs. IU and OSU to really keep things going.
But if you lose that game to Wisconsin⌠youâre 0-4 in conference and a team that is seemingly having some sort of locker room issues could spiral and the next 3 games become must wins or your season is off the rails
As much as it pains me, Iâll be rooting for Wisconsin on saturday
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I still hate Illinois more than Wisconsin, so Iâm fine with rooting for them. The interesting one for me is the Illinois-MSU game, especially if we beat MSU and Illinois loses to Wisco. Then youâre looking at both teams really wanting a win, and Illinois this close to imploding.
Iâm stumped with Illinois too. Way too much talent to be losing these games. At least in Michiganâs case you can argue that we lost our PG, weâre relying on freshmen, TWill < Hawkins, our bench is unproven, etc.
Iâm also further surprised at the level of Underwood screaming at people in the middle of games. Heâs even past Izzo levels this year. Pretty wild. Iâm sure that will help him get high level transfers in the future.
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yeah the talent level on Illinois is silly. they have 9 starter quality guys. 0-3 against that schedule is very weird.
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Itâs not as surprising when you remember that they all hate eachother and the coaches. I forget that sometimes too but I wonât again after last night
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100-year event
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I liked the Kaminsky era Wisconsin teams. Was pulling for them vs. Duke/UK
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Same. Apart from a love of cheap shots and charges, I had a ton of respect for how they just go out there and play mistake-free every-possession basketball. That was before Brad Davison, of course, and before last yearâs masterclass in baiting.
But, even back then, I knew that VT and NY cheddar is far less rubbery and more flavorful.
I loved their frontcourt (Dekker, Hayes, Frank) but just couldnât cheer for their guards. I canât remember, did Jackson get injured that season?
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