This is a bad team and its only going to get worse.
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I think a lot of faith was put into the fact that last year was lost due to injuries and it was easy to gloss over losses to NJIT and EMU. You need talent to win consistently and a lot of talent to compete with the likes of Xavier and UConn. They won’t have any marquee wins coming into B1G play unless the committee considers SMU a quality team even though they aren’t eligible.
I would be surprised if they made the tournament and even if they did they don’t have an upside eg. elite 8/final four. That alone should make this season unacceptable.
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I’m sorry but this might be the most uneducated thing about the team somebody has said. We are 4 games into an early season. Key players are still finding their way back from injury (Spike and Zak). Key players are also getting there first real play time (Moritz, DJ, Duncan) if you give up on this team this early great but you are making a big mistake this team has talent.
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Also JB still isn’t sure of what lineups to use because they have so many quality players. If you have any complaints it should be DW and Dawkins did not get there touches and it was all levert or the starting 5 wasn’t on the court together a lot. All I’m saying is wait for the team to get comfortable and injures go away for ZI and spike and it’s a different team. Also B1G season means much more then non conference play come tourney time.
When I said it’s only going to get worse, I meant in the coming years. I fully expect this team to get better but the ceiling isn’t high. The ceiling will be even lower next year. We need high level athletes in the worst way.
Let’s get a W tonight and build on it.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with our talent. I think it’s definitely good enough. Only weak position talent wise IMO is the 5. But I actually think Wilson and Wagner could be pretty good there (just not this season). There is a problem with how the talent is playing and being utilized.
I’m not too worried about the future. But my expectations and what I’m content with are probably lower than others’.
Check the video from warmups last night on Mark Snyder twitter. There is Spike in the layup line and he’s still not close to himself. He looked like a 60 year old attempting a lay up. I would be surprised if we see Spike being a tangible contributor.
https://www.instagram.com/p/-h-q9UhebX/
Does this look like a guy ready to make an impact?
There are really only 4 teams in the Big Ten that look above average: MSU, Maryland, Purdue, and Iowa. I’d bet a lot of money that the Big Ten gets more than 5 bids. The teams vying for those bids have struggled as much or more as Michigan has (Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio St., Illinois). It’s too early to draw “missing the tournament” conclusions.
I tend to agree. Way too many recruiting misses the last three years and eventually that catches up to you.
This post should be left here season-long as a monument to knee-jerk, abandon ship the second you hit rough seas thinking.
So you’re happy with their start to the season and happy with how they did in this tournament?
Well, this thread started out with “this is a bad team…” based on the losses to Xavier and UConn. We crushed Charlotte. OK, Charlotte actually is a bad team. But they lost to Syracuse by 13, lost to us by 55. We handled Texas tonight. Out rebounded them even. Wagner is coming on. Irvin is getting into game shape. Robinson hit 4-5 threes, had 4 assists and 4 rebounds. Walton was solid. Caris was Caris. Would I like to have played better against Xavier and UConn? Yes. But I can’t change that. We are definitely not a bad team, IMO.
I think they will be playing like a top 25 team by the end of the season. Now? Eh, one win doesn’t do it for me, we’ll see how Texas ends up before drawing conclusions. If we can win on the road vs. NC State and SMU I’ll change my opinion.
I also think that Wagner will be a solid Big Ten center by the middle of the conference schedule (Which is far, far better than anything we saw in the first 4 games).
Saying that this isn’t a “bad team” doesn’t mean we are happy with losses to Xavier and UConn. Strawman less next time.
Charolett is one of the worst D1 basketball teams. Texas is not a tournament team. I’m glad we got 2 wins. I’m glad Wagner is getting more minutes. We still have a long way to go.
We’ve been ran off the court by 2 solid but not great teams. One of those games at home. We are a major work in progress. Luckily, it appears most the big ten is too.
I don’t think anyone would argue that we are a finished product or that we’ve looked good. But to say we’re done after two bad games…pretty myopic. This isn’t football where your dreams can be dashed with one or two losses. Long season. More opportunities to improve to come.
We are 6 games in to the season. This is a team still finding themselves and still healing. 4 of their top players (spike dwalt LeVert and Irvin) were hurt in he offseason and 2 of those guys still aren’t 100%. As of now I have no concerns because they don’t play a hard non conference schedule. Once B1G season rolls around they will be a completely different team. If you do not like what you see and think this season that’s your opinion but it’s only 2 losses, 2 losses won’t end our season.
Ecstatic over our play last night! That was a living tutorial on how JBs offense can flow and produce when you move the ball and hit open shots. We had ALOT of open looks and that’s all you can ask for. Wagner is going to be some kind of player before he’s done. He’s not and never will be a true 5, but if you can play, you WILL play.
Does this exorcise all of our pre-season concerns? Of course not, but it’s great to see the team meld together and get those two wins, cause I think it bodes well for their future development.
Congrats guys. Keep it up.
A question: could Michigan realistically crack the top 25 before Big Ten play if they win the rest of their non-conference games? Or is the remaining schedule simply too weak?
Looking ahead, given the Big Ten’s underwhelming performance so far, there won’t be many opportunities for a marquee win all year. I would circle MSU, Purdue, and the home-and-home with Maryland. Honestly, the way things are shaping up, wins in Madison and Columbus would not be a huge deal this year.
My issue is they weren’t even competitive against Xavier/UConn. I never said they wouldn’t improve but most likely that was their only shot at quality non conference wins. I guess that depends on your perspective of NC State because they haven’t played good ball this year. How many wins do you think Michigan grabs collectively against MSU/Maryland/Purdue?
I don’t believe Albrecht will be able to contribute at any time just look at how he warms up he can’t move.
Maybe if Michigan can make top 25 teams look non competitive and put it on them it will make me think differently. Those two losses were really really poor though.