True, maybe intensity is the wrong word. And no doubt Nick Ward will have his way with us down low from a physicality/motor standpoint. I don’t think there’s a guy on the MSU roster though this year that would come out and say “I hate Michigan we’re not losing this game” the way a Draymond or a Valentine would in the past. And I think our experience in these games could come in handy
3-3. Lose two on the road, win all at home except Wisconsin.
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I stand corrected, really should have said more than two. This is something I have seen the press comment a number of times, but really should have looked it up. Anyone know where the records for the last few seasons are? I’m not sure how I would compare with other teams or coaches, anyway, but I’m pretty sure that we do very well on that score.
Agreed the last 4 games against MSU have been quite ugly. At Breslin the fans and Izzo get one another into a hate filled lather that really gets the players going and it shows in their performance certainly recently.
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The three before that went well. (For us, not you).
And 2 of those 3 went down to the wire. I doubt we will ever see Michigan lay it on MSU in Breslin like what happened last year in Crisler. Michigan had some good teams a few years back that was able to split with MSU for the most part and that’s fine. When will the time come where Beilein can get Michigan to the level of the rivalry Duke/UNC have? There’s nothing stopping Michigan from doing that he’s been here 10 years now.
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Does going “down to the wire” count for only half a win?
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Could have been all kinds of reasons; the last official break was slow in coming, he might have been experimenting with something on D. They definitely were tired, but also don’t play again until Thursday. . .
Since '08, North Carolina is 7-12 vs. Duke and Michigan is 6-10 vs. MSU. Just saying.
I know you also mean intesity, hype and rankings. But I’d say since Stu’s shot the intensity for the games have been pretty good. MSU has taken it to us a few times recently, but that also involved some beat up Michigan teams.
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Really don’t see the need for trolling references. Does nothing but incite and provoke. But I’ll let Dylan do his job.
2-4 is my guess. Think we lose to Indiana 2x, v Wisconsin and @ MSU. No matter how good/bad we are, Tom Crean and the badgers just seem to have our number.
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I’m going to cheese it here and say 3-2 in the next 5. That Wisconsin game is really really hard to get a feel on, although I’d lean loss.
Indiana scares me because I agree with @Burke_Does_Work, Indiana and Wisconsin find ways to beat us more than not recently (obviously except B1G tourney game). I think we win Thursday though, and if we do, I kind of have a good feeling about the @MSU game.
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If they ever reach their potential and all play well at once this team could get hot and beat all those teams. For one reason or the other they just can’t get it together and get a good consistent effort. With how good dj has been I really look at this as a wasted season, and a huge underachievement. There is no reason they should have lost to Illinois or Iowa. They also should have beat Wisconsin with how bad Wisconsin player. Instead they choked the season away,
I am no longer optimistic this unit ever figures it out. Praying that this team figures it out in 18. I’m pretty confident they will
Really tough for me to make a prediction, as only 3 games of the 6 have outcomes that are predictable with reasonable confidence.
Could go anywhere from 1-5 to 4-2 in my opinion. Definitely think we lose at MSU and Indiana.
The IN game at home is winnable with their injury situation and I think we beat OSU for sure.
I’d lean toward the 2-4/3-3 range but 4-2 is possible. Need to find a way to beat one of IN/Wisc at home and hopefully steal one on the road
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Irvin against Wisconsin: 20 pts, 9/16 shooting, 2/2 from three, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 turnovers, 1 block.
Irvin against Illinois: 15 pts, 6/15 shooting, 1/5 from three, 2 rebounds, 0 assists, 4 turnovers, 2 steals.
I really don’t follow your logic here.
Agree. When he put Simpson in with like 10:00 left, we were up big, and two minutes later the lead was still huge. Honestly, I would have let him finish out the game unless they started cutting into the lead.
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Well, one of those games was an overtime loss at Breslin two years ago with a completely undermanned team. And I think we only played them once last year. So 0-3 in regular season games lately, and 6-2 from 2011 to 2014. One loss in the Big Ten tourney. So 6-6 over the past five years. Doesn’t seem horrible to me.
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I don’t think we’ve been horrible though JB’s average win is only by 4.5 points and his average loss is by 13.
Seems like when we win, it’s in a close one (4/6 were within 5 points or less) while when we lose, it’s often double digits (8/9 were by 10+ points).
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Just speculating here, but I think the manner in which the wins/losses occur loom large for most. In other words our wins are generally by small margins whereas their wins are beatdowns. All counts the same of course, but it may speak to the fact that we need to play a near flawless game to win whereas MSU is better than us by double digits when they’re operating at peak capacity (which they generally do against us).