Would it make the tourney at 500 in BIG10? That’s 6-4 in nonconference season, 10-10 in league and 1-1 in tourney. 17-15. That’s reallly, really mediocre. At this point, I think they need to win at least 13 Big games, including tourney, to be very confident on selection Sunday.
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I’ll take the under unless they quickly figure out how not to go brain dead for long stretches every game.
I think Michigan has to go 11-9 in conference to make the tournament. Probably.
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Way too early to say but to go 10-10 in the Big Ten they’d probably have to get 6-7 Q1 wins, I’d think. Probably good enough to make the First Four, but who knows.
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10-10 would have them at 16-14 going into the conference tournament, with zero Q1 wins outside of conference play (unless I’m missing something with home vs. SDST or at Nebraska)
There will be a ton of teams with better résumés than that. Gonna have to hunt the big games on the schedule like Purdue, Ohio St, Illinois, etc.
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Agree w this. DJ did NOT (sorry, crucial edit) seem like a major problem tonight. Unless we play zone to hide him. But I think there are other guys we are hiding. (Every coach in America wanted Houston.)
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At the end of the day, that doesn’t really matter though. It would all be about the quality of the Big Ten wins.
How they fare in the next four will be pivotal.
At Rutgers
Vs. Michigan State
Vs. Purdue
At Illinois
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Honestly 1-3 where I’d set the line for next four games
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Things are always worse after a loss Dylan…but Michigan has lost against every decent team they have played. Worse than that is the fact that we have effectively been blown out in most of those losses. Our star freshmen are still struggling to fit in. Our defense has fallen off a cliff. And our shooting isn’t good enough to overcome those things.
The only good news is that Jones is on a strong upward trajectory. But it is hard to find things this team is good at. They don’t look like a team that can finish above .500 in the league. Doesn’t mean they can’t turn things around, but it is hard to find signs that they can.
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That is probably best case. Could be 0-4 with how Rutgers and Michigan are playing respectively.
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There are plenty of games left. Just a very young team in a year when most teams are older and more experienced than ever before. Four freshman and two sophomores in the rotation. That’s tough. Not having a Junior or a Senior class is a huge problem. They lost so much there is little of the usual program continuity. They have also lost three games (UNC, Minnesota and UCF) where the opponent didn’t miss a shot. Element of luck in that. Are they good now? Not really. But it’s a long year.
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Houston isn’t playing aggressive, Jones is being unselfish but kind of not how he typically plays. Bufkin looked like he’s ready to go with scoring and being aggressive but just needs minutes. We arent physical and our crisp passing which has been a staple hasnt been around this year with a young team. Diabate needs to stop shooting from outside and Hunter wasn’t part of the game plan
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What I’m seeing is a team that plays a lot of first/second year players looking to replace seasoned players from last year. Team has not learned to get the ball to Dickinson consistently. Dickinson also needs to help this out by posting lower and not getting pushed away from the basket. When Hunter has the ball and the trap comes team needs consistent cutters which could help create more open looks on the perimeter.
Teams defense will suffer this year as it does not have the athletic and long wings we had last year that could man up and help erase mistakes. All teams are starting to follow the same script by taking and shooting over our small guards. No adjustments to crowd their shooters to force them to take shots inside the arc and when it does happen willing or able to block a shot. Still learning help defense.
Need to see more of Kobe and Zeb who at least have enough quickness and length to bother taller wings. And I will continue to say that you can’t always count on 5 star freshman to play like super stars. And finally there is no go to guy who can consistently create their own shot or make a play for someone else (or we have not been playing them).
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I agree, that was much worse imo. This was bad combined with some nice play from UCF.
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The positive part is they have the upside to win big games if the kids get it together
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If Caleb isn’t going to score then he needs to be playing some hard nose defense. It is way to easy for other teams to pass the ball or get the ball. No real man the man pressure to make teams uncomfortable. this may be because with the exception of Brooks and Jones no one can keep a man in front of them.
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