Thursday night, 9 p.m.
Would’ve loved to not have a game until this weekend… I guess it’s good we get two days of rest instead of one.
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Yeah, this will be the third game in 6 days (and then there’s a fourth game on day 9 – after which it eases up a bit).
This wont be an easy game.
Pretty glad that Nebraska hit that prayer last night against Illinois. Think it changes their mindset coming into the game Thurs, to our benefit.
Here we go with the mindsets again… MSU was so fired up after that weak showing against Rutgers on Saturday 
Nebraska probably remembers last year’s home game against Michigan more than anything. Embarrassed them on their home floor.
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I wouldn’t have thought (and didn’t comment) that MSU’s mindset would have been affected by the Rutgers game. I just think brutal wins/losses have a slight affect on the psyche. I think not only would Nebraska have been hungrier had they lost in brutal fashion last night, but we would be too if we had lost to UMD. I do agree with you though that these things are probably overblown.
I think more important is that Beilein has dominated Tim Miles (I can’t recall him losing to him) and Michigan has played well @ Nebraska.
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Wasn’t directed at you entirely, that was just a common line of thinking among Michigan fans.
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Nebraska is 4-1 at home this year against kenpom top 100 teams, the 1 loss being a 73-72 loss to Kansas. This game scares me.
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I’m with you but it’s such an easy thing to do and fun too! Nice being able to figure out entire team mindset based on previous games. Even the illustrious Coach Beilein delved into this with his talk about M being more ready for Maryland if they lose the MSU game.
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Man, I don’t know anyone on this Nebraska team except for Glynn Watson. It feels weird that all those Nebrasketball guys are finally gone.
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Fun fact (that may not be true, but I think is) - UM is the only Big Ten team not to lose at Pinnacle Arena or to Nebraska at all since they joined the Big Ten. Which kind of scares me. The comforting part is that Nebraska’s offense seems pretty bad.
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I was worried but my nerves were calmed some yesterday seeing them fart out a win at home against Illinois
I think Michigan is going to need Brooks or Simmons to put in a solid 12-15 minutes in one of these next 2 games for Michigan to go 2-0. At his size, I’m not sure Simpson can hold up to a physical 4-games/9-days NBA-style grind if he has to carry the PG/defensive duties for 30+ mins in games 3&4 of that stretch? His legs seemed a little lost on him in the 1st Half last night, but he battled well in the 2nd Half.
Poole & Robinson provide some productive options to wean minutes off MAAR, Matthews, Livers…hoping someone can step in to that role for Simpson at least one of these next 2 games.
I don’t think we need to worry about the rest. These kids can play 30+ minutes on 2-3 days rest no problem. I just think yesterday was a problem because it was literally just one day to rest AND do game prep. Maryland had a big big advantage there with 3 days off to rest and prepare compared to 1. They call that a schedule loss in the NBA.
Winning this game, which is the only one of the next 5 that has less than an 85% of victory (or loss), would set up the rest of the season really nicely. The following four are three fairly easy ones (home vs Rutgers, Northwestern, Minny) and @PU, an all upside game. If we go 4-1 over the next 5, we’d be sitting at 9-3 in conference and 6-4 road/neutral when the schedule toughens up – the final 6 include 4 road games and vs OSU. We’d have a little leeway over the final stretch with the opportunity to put up pretty gaudy conference and road/neutral records.
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What are the percentage chances for victory for the next 5?
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So only a 38.7% chance of winning out the other 4 games. About what I was expecting. Definitely a huge stretch, hope nobody freaks out over an upset loss in one of these games.
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Yeah, I don’t think there should be any worrying about the team long-term if we drop a game. But you’ve gotta win out if you want a shot to get the B10 regular season title. I imagine the formula for that is:
Beat Purdue
Beat OSU
Only lose one other game