Bracketology Update

Figure I’d make a catch all thread since it’s getting close to that time.

We’re making some noise in ESPN’s latest Bracketology, currently among the next four out, meaning we are # 69-73 (at least 5 spots from making the Tourney). Hopefully we can win 5-6 games down the stretch and get a bid!

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

February looks like it’s going to be rough.

We’re going to have to get scrappy and hope our youth keeps us resilient.

…I just can’t see a team that lost to NJIT High School making the tourney haha Wouldn’t that be something!

February looks like it's going to be rough.

We’re going to have to get scrappy and hope our youth keeps us resilient.

…I just can’t see a team that lost to NJIT High School making the tourney haha Wouldn’t that be something!

I think @MSU, @Maryland, @IU, are games we’re most likely going to lose. Question becomes can we win out at home and steal one at either NW or ILL. Personally, I don’t think we’re going to win out at home, but I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility either.

FWIW NJIT could very easily finish 18-10 given its remaining schedule. They have a nice win over Yale and should finish in the RPI top 200 when all is said and done. Still an awful loss at home, but not as bad as it looked at time I suppose.

...I just can't see a team that lost to NJIT High School making the tourney haha Wouldn't that be something!

To be fair the NJIT loss seems far worse just because of the name of the school, than it really is. They are currently 12-10 and 183 in the rpi. If Michigan had lost to virginia tech, currently 191 rpi, it would barely get mentioned, but since it was NJIT it gets brought up a ton. Definitely a game Michigan should have won and it does hurt the resume, but I dont think it is a killer.

What really hurts is the lack of any marquee wins. There just is not a lot of beef to Michigan’s resume right now. Hopefully they can get a couple wins between the games at MSU, Indiana, Maryland, and at home against MSU, OSU. Maryland is the only real big fish there, but the others should be top 50 rpi wins.

Yep. Michigan needs wins and top 50 wins, the good news is that there are a lot of opportunities.

There are so many Big Ten teams flirting around 100 mark in RPI which should make it interesting in March. If teams can stay in the top 100 then you’ll see some gaudy top 100 win counts for teams that did well in the Big Ten, otherwise some very weak resumes.

For the first time in a few years the Big Ten isn’t the best conference in the country and isn’t very close.

February looks like it's going to be rough.

We’re going to have to get scrappy and hope our youth keeps us resilient.

…I just can’t see a team that lost to NJIT High School making the tourney haha Wouldn’t that be something!

I think @MSU, @Maryland, @IU, are games we’re most likely going to lose. Question becomes can we win out at home and steal one at either NW or ILL. Personally, I don’t think we’re going to win out at home, but I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility either.

I’m just hoping we don’t let a loss, or a bad loss, really affect us down the road.
End of February with MSU and OSU home would be opportunities for nice wins but we’ll have to play well.

I’ll take 5-4 to finish any day.

Does it matter where we finish in the big ten? For example, I was leaning towards OSU to beat Maryland tonight (I know, this is blasphemy) because that would even everybody out for a second place in the big ten.
But in a way, do we want Maryland to keep high rankings for us to maybe get a good win down the road? It’s all long shots I know, but I’m just not sure what to hope for while watching big ten games

Wonder if the EMU loss will look worse than NJIT when all the votes are tabulated?

As much as it’s supposed to be put out of the equation, recent success (I mean the last couple years) often goes far towards putting yourself ahead of otherwise equal bubble teams. I don’t have any statistic to back that up, but from my observations it plays a (small) part.

Does it matter where we finish in the big ten? For example, I was leaning towards OSU to beat Maryland tonight (I know, this is blasphemy) because that would even everybody out for a second place in the big ten. But in a way, do we want Maryland to keep high rankings for us to maybe get a good win down the road? It's all long shots I know, but I'm just not sure what to hope for while watching big ten games

Technically the Big Ten standings aren’t supposed to factor in. They look at a team’s resume as a whole.

Wonder if the EMU loss will look worse than NJIT when all the votes are tabulated?

It could… bottom line is they are both bad :slight_smile: But maybe not the worst losses ever.