I should probably put “analysts” in quotes as well. 3 out of 6 BR writers say Michigan will have the “most disappointing” season. This is out of all teams, not just the B1G. Really??? Titus at Grantland labeling Michigan as the most overrated team. I’ve seen it other places as well. Is this just what you get when you make a deep tourney run?
I acknowledge that losing Burke and Hardaway is huge, especially not knowing who our go-to guy is going to be in pressure situations. On the other hand, Caris, GRIII, and Stauskas look to have improved dramatically. We’ll likely (hopefully… please… knock on wood) have McGary back when it matters. Irvin is a pretty damn good replacement for Hardaway. And as long as Walton can take care of the ball and distribute to one of our many talented shooters, we don’t have to worry about him putting up as many points as Burke.
I also have a feeling we’ll be more competitive at OSU and MSU as long as our freshman can stay composed. Burke always seemed to have a hard time going back to Columbus and Hardaway could just never play well at MSU.
Time will tell, but I’m really looking forward to this season.
I felt like the preseason attitude last year was more optimistic than pessimistic (Esp with Trey coming back and McGary coming in), but maybe I’m remembering wrong.
I should probably put "analysts" in quotes as well. 3 out of 6 BR writers say Michigan will have the "most disappointing" season. This is out of all teams, not just the B1G. Really??? Titus at Grantland labeling Michigan as the most overrated team. I've seen it other places as well. Is this just what you get when you make a deep tourney run?
I acknowledge that losing Burke and Hardaway is huge, especially not knowing who our go-to guy is going to be in pressure situations. On the other hand, Caris, GRIII, and Stauskas look to have improved dramatically. We’ll likely (hopefully… please… knock on wood) have McGary back when it matters. Irvin is a pretty damn good replacement for Hardaway. And as long as Walton can take care of the ball and distribute to one of our many talented shooters, we don’t have to worry about him putting up as many points as Burke.
I also have a feeling we’ll be more competitive at OSU and MSU as long as our freshman can stay composed. Burke always seemed to have a hard time going back to Columbus and Hardaway could just never play well at MSU.
Time will tell, but I’m really looking forward to this season.
BR? Please don’t tell me BleacherReport
But I did think Titus’s point about teams that lose the POTY was interesting although I disagreed that losing Burke wouldn’t give a lot more opportunities to different players.
Losing the best player in the country and overachieving in the NCAA tournament are two easy “standard keys” for plucking overrated teams when doing preview-type stuff in offseason though.
Haha I go anywhere and everywhere for my basketball fix, including the lowly BleacherReport. Anyway, it’s not like any of these predictions matter, but it still surprised me. And it’ll make it more fun when the team surpasses everyone’s expectations again.
I think we are a team that can have their season go quite a few different ways. If Walton turns the ball over or GR3 is too passive and McGary is never near his full capabilities then we could have a mediocre season. If Walton is more than ready and Levert shows his versatility all season and GR3’s skillset is majorly improved and we have a healthy McGary then we could another amazing season. So yeah, there’s a chance we are overrated. I think we are by a smidge just because of some unknowns. But there aren’t alot of “sure thing” teams out there this year so I think you can justify our ranking.
I felt like the preseason attitude last year was more optimistic than pessimistic (Esp with Trey coming back and McGary coming in), but maybe I'm remembering wrong.
Outside of Dick Vitale, most people thought we were rated far too high.
Once the tournament came, everyone thought we were a first round exit.
Losing the best player in the country and overachieving in the NCAA tournament are two easy "standard keys" for plucking overrated teams when doing preview-type stuff in offseason though.
But I don't think we overachieved in the tourney. I believe we were undervalued (under seeded) because we underachieved for few games in the B1G. Assuming McGary can play with at least near full effectiveness, I think we'll be a very dangerous teams when the games really matter. But it will be a longer process than last year.
Honestly, I think our seeding in the Tourney was a product of Big Ten officiating (or lack of), the refs simply swallow the whistle unless a foul is so blatantly clear that to do otherwise may bring into question competency. And even then, at times B10 refs swallow the whistle. Think last year’s game at OSU, we were in the midst of a huge comeback and I believe THJ was coming down the middle on a fastbreak and an OSU player literally grabs his entire are and swings it downward and the ball goes out of bounds. The whistle blew and the refs gathered - at which point I thought the discussion was whether to assess a flagrant or just a standard foul - 1 minute later no foul call and M ball on the sideline. We’re simply not going to win many slugfests against teams with a similar talent level considering our personnel.
Tourney is officiated much like the NBA, freedom of movement is desired, and refs will generally blow the whistle when appropriate (other than the game against Louisville obviously).
As flat as we looked during the B1G tourney last year, I don’t think that analysts could be chided too much for thinking we might not go anywhere–Gary’s surge (of which we ourselves had only had glimpses) made all the difference. A superficial glance at the roster might make you think the same thing this year, with Hardaway and Burke leaving, although “overrated” is a funny term to apply to a team at the beginning of a season when we are presumably rating for the first time, anyway. Also, given the way Beilein has overachieved, you might–again, superficially–just assume his teams aren’t going to be that good.
At our improvisational best, I think we might be every bit as good as last year, as the two exhibitions showed. But you really need leadership in the half court, and the first half against UMass-Lowell made it clear that while our D will be solid, we will sometimes struggle on offense. Especially given that a number of guys will lead (good thing in the long run), clear patterns may be slow getting sorted out.
Pretty clear we’ll be a fun team and a decent one, though, so we can ignore some of the chatter.