This was my first game at Northwestern. The crowd tonight was probably 70% Michigan fans. My favorite thing was the Northwestern students who were doing homework on their laptop during the game. Not the most intimidating road atmosphere.
I noticed that Bryant McIntosh is on the NW bench. Does anyone know whether he tried to play professionally?
For a twenty point win, there really was a moment when the game seemed to hang in the balance. Credit to Eli for burying some shots, DeJulius for stepping in for X and running the team out to a 10-0 run, and Davis for knocking down his bunnies.
Z has a very meh game, Teske worse, and the Wolverines win by 25 on the road. Even if it was Northwestern, that’s progress. On to Bloomington!
NOT on to Bloomington. On to Ann Arbor against the college team from Bloomington.
There was discussion in the preview thread about BTT seeding/being an 11 seed and playing these guys on Wednesday.
I think this team has potential to do some damage in the BTT. I came away from tonight hoping we get out of the Wednesday games because I don’t want to see us have to waste our time playing these guys again. Would not set us up for success the remainder of the week.
Yeah, there are going to be so many tiebreakers that it is tough to really project right now. Think the goal for U-M should be to get to 10-10. Wins over teams like Rutgers/OSU would be especially valuable for the tiebreaker because they are also potentially in that same area.
The next two games just feel so pivotal… if U-M can beat Indiana and Rutgers, they can really go hunting to improve their resume down the stretch.
We shall see if the committee uses its selective ability to look at teams only when at full strength. I say selective because there’s not a chance in hell they fully check that for every team. I don’t even think that’s possible. Just notable ones like Zion and Duke.
Hooray for having a positive efficiency margin in conference play again! Hasn’t been that way since before the first MSU game.
With a healthy Isaiah this team has lost @Louisville days after three games in the Bahamas, @Illinios, and in overtime against Oregon.
Yep. An almost undeniable top 15 team with him thus far. Something I’ve been espousing for a while, even while everyone was in outright panic mode after the home Illinois loss.
If we’re an 8 or 9 seed, whichever 1 seed gets us will be pissed. We certainly have a chance to improve our resume, but just have a much smaller window than we would have with Livers healthy all year. He missed some very winnable key games.
To what extent they actually move teams or can move teams can be hard to decipher. I believe it is only supposed to be one seed line.
The overarching issue is that so many Big Ten teams are going to be between the 7 and 10 seed lines that some teams are going to get screwed over and be pretty pissed with their draw. Maybe to alleviate some of that they move Michigan up? 
Really depends on the next month, but if U-M gets hot (and that means beating a couple NCAA teams on the road) then it would be a very interesting case.
It’s not just that Teske’s shots aren’t falling, it’s how he bad he looks. He never gets good position, and then he falls away as he taking the shot, which more accurately described as a chuck. You would think Howard would be able to coach him up, but he’s really regressing. At this point, it’s a wasted possession. Please save the post ups for Davis, Johns, and even Franz before Teske.
Also depending on draw, this is a year seed lines might not matter too much to me. There’s no Goliath I really want to avoid. If Michigan was an 8 seed and the season ended today, the potential draws would be Baylor and Kansas (tough but not dominant), Gonzaga (very good but beatable as we know) and San Diego State. Moving up seed lines would be nice of course but not an absolute need IMO to make a deep run
The four noted “runs” in the win probability chart add up to a combined 53-6 “run.” That’s intense.
Right now the teams on the 3 line on Bracket Matrix are Seton Hall, FSU, WVU, and Auburn. Those are so winnable I want a 6 seed badly. But I get your point, we certainly can beat any of the 1 or 2 seeds on a neutral court.
The one team I wouldn’t want to see if I am Michigan is Baylor. Sounds obvious, but they play a similar “no middle” defense to the one Michigan struggled against last year in Texas Tech. Leads to a lot of one-on-one offensive play, which is… not this team’s strong suit. Michigan should have a chance against basically any team on a neutral court, though.
Baylor is TOUGH and are a pick of mine to make a deep run in the tournament. Really similar ADJO/ADJD rankings on Torvik that Michigan had in 2018 and TTU had last year.