Michigan to face Toledo on Tuesday night in NIT opener

Does Vandy still have that goofy raised floor? Didn’t we play there with a Beilein team and lose while shooting terribly?

3 Likes

It appears they had every 2/3 seed wrong

1 Like

No, just seems like they didn’t realize the bracket was wrong.

All of the 2/3 seeds are backward.

Other teams with scheduling issues are just playing on the road (like Oklahoma State).

2 Likes

Yeah, with benches on the baselines.

If you told me before the season that we were going to get a #3 seed and a first round matchup with a MAC opponent, I would have felt pretty good. :man_shrugging:t5:

8 Likes

That’s annoying about the 2/3 thing. Hopefully Tuesday isnt the last game at Crisler. Go Yale!

3 Likes

Sophomore Guard Jace Howard?

4 Likes

Normally I feel pretty good going into a tournament where we aren’t facing a B10 team that has scouted us to death. Can Toledo prepare for Hunter on two days notice?

But this team has been such an enigma all season that I have no clue how they will play…and that’s even without considering whether the program is going to take the NIY seriously. We could have a chip on our shoulder and make a run to Vegas or we could play like the second half of Rutgers and head into portal season by mid week.

2 Likes

Good catch. He’s actually listed as a sophomore on the roster now. I assume from the COVID year? But TWill and Dickinson are still listed as juniors. Barnes was updated to be listed as a RS freshman.

2 Likes

What’s Vanderbilt’s team sheet? They’re so far behind on KenPom. Do they deserve a higher seed?

Should be points available on Tuesday:

image

2 Likes

More Q1 wins and better Q1+Q2 record

1 Like

The best part is ending the year with a win, and not having to spend the whole summer wondering how a ref could call a foul on a clean block, or how a scholarship athlete could not know his team had no timeouts remaining, or how a power forward could not block out on a free throw or… well, you get it.

Winning an NIT with only one senior in the rotation used to guarantee a high rating in the preseason polls the following year, but now - who knows?

3 Likes

Wow. Could you imagine the NCAA tournament announcing the wrong bracket?

Though to be fair, I guess they do have to scramble to do this in a couple of hours after the NCAA has made its picks.

1 Like

Go anyone but Vanderbilt and Clemson!

There are 2 NIT championship banners hanging in Crisler. I guess we are bragging about those.

1 Like

Just got this in my inbox. 26 hour window for the non-season ticket holders to purchase gen admin tickets.

Men's Basketball NIT First Round Tickets on Sale600x750
The Wolverines have accepted an invitation to play in the 2023 National Invitation Tournament and will host first-round action on Tuesday, March 14. Michigan will play Toledo with tip scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Crisler Center.

Tickets will go on sale to the public starting at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, March 13. Tickets are $25 each.
ACCESS TICKETS STARTING AT 5:00 PM

2 Likes

69th place exhibition tournament.

sarcasm-thumbs-up

1 Like

Dude, no one is forcing you to watch. I think you’ve made it abundantly clear your position on this tournament.

13 Likes

To me the reason that an invitation to play in the NIT is important is that it allows young teams to continue working, developing, and growing. It allows more practice time and more game experience. It can allow a team to gain some momentum that can carry them through the summer and into the next season.

Sadly, the two most talented of our young players may be stolen by the NBA to, most likely, be stockpiled for a year or two before they’re ready to play and become rotation players in the NBA. So, I’m less enthusiastic about the opportunity this NIT invitation provides for our young team. If we thought both Kobe and Jett, or at least one of them, were going to stay at Michigan for another year, that would certainly increase my enthusiasm, but we DO have other young, and some older, players at Michigan and they, too, have much to learn.

Of course, this opportunity also allows these young men to do what they most love to do, play basketball. It allows coaches the opportunity to do what they most love to do, which is to teach the game they love and the lessons sports can teach our young people. For fans it provides us with the opportunity to watch the team we love play a game we love. That’s what I intend to do, and I hope to have the privilege of watching this team play for, hopefully, several more games.

I know many folks have a different view than I have. Perhaps that “different view” applies to most fans. I’ve always thought scholastic athletics were really for the kids, for the opportunity to play and to grow, and not just as athletes, but as people, too. And to hang out with other guys who love to do what they love to do, to be part of a special group of people called the TEAM. Honestly, seriously, that was my motivation in coaching. I did it for the love of the game, for the love of teaching, teaching the skills I could teach and the life lessons I could impart to kids. I did it because I loved hanging out with a bunch of kids who WANTED to be there. There were so many days that practice was the best part of my day. I wasn’t in it for the money and neither were the kids. We just loved being there, doing what we loved, doing what we loved to do…together.

So, I guess I’m in the minority now. Sports seem to be about television contracts and dollar signs. Sports is big business, while I still want it to be about the players and the lessons they can learn and the experiences they can have. It’s certainly no longer just for the players. It’s about so much more ($) than “just” the players. And to me it really should be about ALL of them, not just about those who will someday make it in the NBA. It’s, sadly in my view, now so much about this huge business enterprise that has grown up around the game, and about opportunities for so many people to make a boatload of money off of what these kids do and the game they play.

The world has passed me by, but that’s OK. I prefer the position I’ve always taken about the value of sports, and I will not abandon that position. You can say I’m just a foolish old man living in days long gone by, but I know what “sports” has always meant for me, and what the privilege of coaching has provided for me in my life. For me, it will always be about the “kids,” and about teaching and coaching them, and about the lessons we can learn from sport.

This then, the NIT opportunity, at it’s best, in my humble opinion, is an opportunity for our young team to grow and develop and to learn whatever lessons these practices and games, with the guidance of our coaches, can help them to learn. And it’s about them doing what they love to do…play ball! :Go Blue! blue_heart:

28 Likes