Um I think we were preseason #7 in both 12-13 and 13-14. We've definitely had expectations before.
Yeah, we were loaded in 12-13 especially. There were definitely some pre-season doubters (who mainly cited youth and front court depth), but few teams in recent memory have had that kind of offensive firepower.
Um I think we were preseason #7 in both 12-13 and 13-14. We've definitely had expectations before.Yeah, we were loaded in 12-13 especially. There were definitely some pre-season doubters (who mainly cited youth and front court depth), but few teams in recent memory have had that kind of offensive firepower.
Yeah, starting back to back seasons in the top ten (with one year coming off of a trip to the National Championship) generally qualifies as high expectations.
In neither of those seasons were we even close to being the favorite even in our own conference. Even after coming off a trip to the NC game, we didn’t get a single first place vote in next year’s preseason poll, while State got 22. In the preseason 2012-2013 poll, Indiana got 43 first place votes to none for us, and OSU was also ranked ahead of us. That was the point. We always seem to be playing catchup to the other programs that WindsorBlue mentioned.
Agree that they need a player with an edge, ala Novack, Burke & Stauskas and it probably won't be LeVert. Maybe Dawkins can fill that role.
Walton is that guy.
Incidentally, sounds like Wagner will be in due time.
Still not sure what to think of this team. There isn’t a lot of turnover and they hope health will be the biggest difference maker. Of course relatively speaking it’s the same group that laid eggs against NJIT and EMU. They really need to be a better rebounding team and I don’t think anybody knows what to expect from Donnal, Wilson and Wagner. I think 9th is definitely low end but I see teams like Maryland, MSU, Purdue, Wisconsin, Indiana being better. I see being 4th in the conference as best case scenario, not an easy schedule.
What is your definition of the word “relatively”? Because the way I know the word, I’d say that while the players on this team are the same, it is relatively different. For example: Aubrey Dawkins played a combined 5 minutes against EMU and NJIT. That is not relatively the same as what we will see this year from Dawkins.
I’m just don’t get what people see in Wisconsin this year. And spare me the whole “Bo Ryan has finished in the top 4 13 of 13 years”. I live in Wisconsin and I’ve heard that enough. My question is when has Bo Ryan ever returned such little experience? This has got to be the least amount of NCAA minutes he returns. His system thrives on experience and Wisconsin will be one of the least experienced teams in the conference.
My expectations as noted before are very high. I’m the opposite of a few posters before. I’m saying sweet sixteen minimum. Also I don’t see a reason we can’t win the big ten. This is assuming we don’t get anything bout of chatman and Robinson. If those two and Wilson give us quality minutes then wAtch out.
Irvin levert and Walton really have to concentrate on hitting the boards and doing dirty work. Is that ideal? No, but I saw Irvin start to improve on it late and he was really hustling and trying to rebound/ d up in the post.
With just the rotation of Walton,spike,levert,rahkman,Dawkins, Irvin, Doyle I expect huge things. Ie the guys who showed they can play last year. Now imagine you get a improved chatman, Robinson and Wilson in the fold and imagine what these guys are capable of. If they can blend levert back in to what they had going late that offense could be tops in efficiency again. They just need to concentrate on defensive rebounding and play hard and scrap, so as to not get beat to bad downlow like 12 and 13 rosters did.
There is no teAm I fear in this league if they share the ball and have good chemistry. There’s to many shooters/scorers you can’t guard them all. I’m putting in a long shot title bet just because the odds are so good and I see us going second weekend no matter what. We get there and with our shooters anything is possible. Plus knowing coach b and recent years someone we aren’t expecting might give us much better minutes then we ever knew.
I’m not sure why anyone would fear Wisconsin. I love Hayes and Bronson too but we have to much talent for them. I also think we match up well with the Hoosiers. They look like they could go small around Bryant. That’s a perfect match up size wise for us. Purdue with the big men are tough, but just as we can’t guard them low how are they guarding us outside? State will be scrappy but I don’t see a match up nightmare there either.
Walton healthy is going to be huge. Kid can finish at the rim when he can plant and I expect him to grab four boards a game as he’s a great rebounder for his size. Teams will not be able to focus on Dawkins and I really expect him to make teams pay. Levert Irvin wton Dawkins and spike. You can’t play off any of them. Lots of space for Doyle or to put it on the wood. Irvin was much improved off the bounce. Levert Walton and Irvin all can utilize this space. I could see Dawkins improving greatly here too. Rahkman has shown this too. All I’m saying is the injuries last year were a blessing in disguise. These kids will be ready
Interesting thing with Wisconsin is that they lost a lot, but Hayes and Koenig are easily top 10, potentially top 5 players in the conference. Two studs can still take you pretty far in the Big Ten usually, especially with Bo Ryan at the helm. Ethan Happ is a kid that has gotten a ton of buzz and is one to watch.
Koenig a top ten player in a conference as good as the Big Ten? Idk about that. Dude was basically just a spot up shooter last year on a stacked team.
No way I take him over
Valentine
Eron Harris
Caris
Walton
Zak
Hammons
Ferrell
Blackmon
Hayes
Trimble
And that’s just off the top of my head.
Agree. With respect, Caris, Walton, and Irvin are all better than Koenig.
I like Hayes a lot and agree that he might be a top 5 player but I think both of those guys get exposed without Kaminsky and Dekker to overwhelm opponents. The loss of Gasser will hurt them also.
On the other hand, nobody is talking about Ohio State. They have a stacked recruiting class and Tate is really good. I think it will be much harder to win in Columbus than in Kohl this year.
Hayes is easily a top 5 player in my book. Koenig was really good last year, maybe it was because of playing with Kaminsky, but he was just a really productive offensive player and a lot of that was from ISO/PNR type of scenarios.
Definitely agree that they’ll take a major step back. Seems like the sort of Wisconsin season where they lose 2-3 games in the non-conference and everyone says they are done and then they win something like 11 games in the Big Ten.
Not sure on Ohio State.
They lose D’Angelo Russell, Shannon Scott and Sam Thompson and replace them with Lyle, Grandstaff, Mitchell, Giddens and Harris? I love Jae’Sean Tate’s motor, but you aren’t going to run an offense through him.
I think there’s also a bit of dissonance among Michigan fans, who are somehow both excited about the trajectory of the program while also seemingly resigned to being consistently worse than Maryland, MSU, Indiana, OSU, and Wisconsin. Personally, I have trouble getting excited for anything other than a conference championship contender – luckily I think we might have one this year.
Well, the fanbase knows that Beilein usually puts a quality product on the court. But the reason we’re always feeling like we have to play catch up with those other programs is that, possibly with the exception of Wisconsin, they regularly land the kind of elite recruits that we always seem to strike out on. That does a lot to dampen enthusiasm. Say what you will about one-and-done players not being what this program wants, but I guarantee you that if we were bringing in someone like Diamond Stone or Caleb Swanigan, people would be touting us as one of the money-on favorites in the Big Ten this year. Instead, we’re relegated to the status of dark horse, as we always seem to be. We have to hope (again) that someone like Burke or Stauskas or Levert emerges unexpectedly as a star to help us close that talent gap. So far, that’s worked out pretty well, but it always puts us in a wait-and-see, finger-crossing mode at the start of the season. If you stop and think about it, no Beilein team here has ever gone into a season with really high expectations, the kind that Maryland has this year or Wisconsin had last year. Even when we’ve done really well, it’s always been somewhat of a surprise. Hence the typical lack of full-bore enthusiasm from the Michigan fanbase around this time of year.
In a conference of heavyweights, somebody with high expectations will have to struggle. I think those riding the struggle bus this year will be Purdue and Ohio State.
I think Purdue struggles because their best player is AJ Hammons, the guy who puts up 20 and 20 one night and 4 and 2 the next. BTN has loved the guy for years and I just don’t see why. Sure he’s huge and has soft hands, but he plays soft in general and gets pushed off the block easily.
OSU is really young. I agree with Dylan that they can’t possibly run the offense through Tate. Those freshmen will have to step up big time and with all those question marks, they will certainly face some adversity. The question becomes, how will they respond?
Oh and I wholly agree with the one-and-done comment earlier. If we had gotten Jaylen Brown, we’d be talking national championship right now…
It may be a little early to start not worrying about teams, but I am definitely not worried about Purdue. They have size, but no shooters. We probably have at least 3 guys who are better 3 point shooters than anyone on their roster, maybe 4 or 5. Winning consistently in the BT without a least a couple guys who can chuck it is very, very tough. Of all the teams people are talking up, they are the one I can most easily see falling to 6th or 7th.
@MChem83 Purdue has also been unable to generate positive production out of hte PG position for a while now.
9-4 non-con
11-7 con
Far to many questions about the defensive glass abilities of this team, as well as the inability to have a rim protector. Their post defense needs to improve greatly to have any shot at an upper tier finish in the B1G. Second shot attempts are killers.
Interesting thing with Wisconsin is that they lost a lot, but Hayes and Koenig are easily top 10, potentially top 5 players in the conference. Two studs can still take you pretty far in the Big Ten usually, especially with Bo Ryan at the helm. Ethan Happ is a kid that has gotten a ton of buzz and is one to watch.
Koenig is not “easily one of the top 10 players in the conference”. He is an above average offensive PG but tremendously bad defensively. I don’t even consider him great offensively because his elite efficiency numbers are likely inflated by playing with such a loaded roster last season. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see Derrick Walton have a better season than Koenig.
You put Spike Albrecht on 2014/2015 Wisconsin and his efficiency numbers are every bit as good as Koenigs (if not better). Does that make Albrecht easily a top 10 player in the conference? Idts.
It may be a little early to start not worrying about teams, but I am definitely not worried about Purdue. They have size, but no shooters. We probably have at least 3 guys who are better 3 point shooters than anyone on their roster, maybe 4 or 5. Winning consistently in the BT without a least a couple guys who can chuck it is very, very tough. Of all the teams people are talking up, they are the one I can most easily see falling to 6th or 7th.
Purdue should have one of the best defenses in the country. They aren’t going to be an easy out for anybody and I have them finishing 5th in the conference (behind Michigan). They will struggle offensively with underwhelming ballhandlers and shooters, but their defense is going to give teams a lot of trouble.