Heās not god but heās damn good. I agree 5-1 is possible. Tough, I unlikely even , but possible. They are going to have to maintain this level of play but with even fewer silly mistakes/ turnovers. I think theyāre going to hand Rutgers their first home loss actually and get us our first good road win on the year. The lack of good road wins is glaring and holding our resume back for sure. If they somehow beat Nebraska and wiscy at home, which I think they will, then beat Rutgers and Ohio st ( I think with livers we get our revenge for that ridiculous flagrant) , and then Purdue or Maryland weād be looking good
If we are just talking about what is possible, not likely, why limit it to 5-1? If we can beat Purdue or Maryland, we can beat them both too. Why donāt we just go 16-0 for our next games and call it a day?
Edit: This might have come across snarkier than I intended. I believe in this team. And if we can keep this up - realize there is also room for improvement given that Teske has been slumping - I donāt see why we have to chalk any of our games up as Ls.
I think thatās a great idea! As Mitch McGary once said, er wrote on a whiteboard, āJust win the game(s)!ā
Mentioned this on the pod but I think some of you guys gotta remember that the schedule really impacts how you perceive how good a team is. Michigan could be exactly how good of a team it looks like it is right now and still likely to drop a couple games down the stretch because it has to play 4 road games vs NCAA Tourney teams.
You comparing tomorrowās Rutgers game to the 2017 Northwestern game (which was also on a Wednesday night even) gave me some bad feelings
Maybe Marylandās game at the RAC is actually that game?
Letās go with that. And tomorrow is like NWās game at home against Maryland on 2/15/17 (a wednesday night).
Now I feel a lot better
Yeah, the 5-1 talk is getting out over skis, lol. 1-1 this week would be great. Reevaluate after that.
I know, I know. I remember you getting so frustrated with BQ on an earlier pod when he didnāt understand your point about MSU having not played any road games yet. Getting Northwestern and Indiana can make teams look better than they are, I get it. But weāve seen this team play teams like Gonzaga and Creighton already. And we arenāt just beating Northwestern and Indiana, we are blowing them up. I like us to put that first blemish on the RACās perfect record and then continue on our winning ways.
I think our only losses with Livers are our rookie head coachās first road game against a buzzsaw in Louisville, a tough out at Illinois and an OT heartbreaker vs. Oregon. I donāt think it is a stretch to assume that these three were partially a product of a young coach finding his legs and a few players not yet tapping their potential. (Recall that you also mentioned in this pod that none of MSUās guys had really developed; meanwhile, a blind man can see Michiganās depthās (and startersā) development over the course of the season.) Three of our losses without Livers, meanwhile, consist of a last-second dagger from Ayo and ridiculous officiating at Iowa and vs. Ohio State. I likewise donāt think it is a stretch to assume a healthy Livers flips those three losses.
Under these two reasonable assumptions, I donāt think we need to caveat what weāre seeing with whatās been on our schedule recently.
I think the point is: donāt freak out if we lose a bunch of games down the stretch irrespective of how the team plays in those games.
Iām still a die-hard Lions fan, man. We can fall apart for the next two and Iāll still know that Juwan will be holding the trophy in April.
The point is just that a 3-3 finish would be very good. A 4-2 finish would be pretty spectacular.
It isnāt that 5-1 or 6-0 is technically impossible, it just isnāt how you should go about thinking about this final 6 game stretch IMO.
The RAC is going to be really tough; Mackey, however, may be too tough. To echo @ReegsShannon, 1-1 would be great this week.
My point is that a 3-3 finish would be very good for the 14th ranked KenPom team with away games against the 8th, 9th and 26th ranked KenPom teams without any additional context.
But if you think that this team is different than what its record and rankings say for compelling reasons, a 3-3 finish would be pretty good or expected. For the approximately 5th ranked KenPom team, on the other hand, very good would be 4-2 or 5-1 with away games against the ~8th, ~13th and ~26th ranked KenPom teams.
If we go 3-3, Iāll be happy, but I think we have an opportunity here to redefine very good.
If Michigan is 100% healthy I believe they are the best team in the B1G. My unreasonable expectations are 4 - 2 at least, 5 - 1 good and 6 - 0 will be an expected, excellent outcome. Maryland is suspicious in my opinion they played close to Northwestern and Nebraska at home with a big advantage on the free throw line.
I think itās time to redefine very good!
Beat Maryland on the road in the last game of the season to get a share in a 5 way tie?
Do folks rest players at the end of the conference season for the conference or NCAA tournament? Is that a thing? If so, I could see Maryland having the banner locked up.
No.It isnāt.