The '17 team’s draw was especially cruel IMO. They were cooking at that point in the season.
Pretty crazy that I think Oklahoma, Duke, Ohio and Notre Dame were the only NCAA Tournament games Beilein lost to teams that didn’t make the Final Four and most of those were the early years.
Blake Griffin Oklahoma the only other that I know of, but still nuts!
I remember being super pissed after selection Sunday about Michigan only being a 7 seed after how they ended the season, let alone the fact that their 10 seed opponent was a 6 seed in goodness per Kenpom.
It gave us a killer game though 
You are asking to get a bad seed when you do nothing for the first 25 games of the season. 
The truthers among us knew we had it in us after SMU and Marquette 
Only if they didn’t watch the South Carolina game.
Just noting that we’ve had a top 7 team in KenPom in at least 4 of the last 9 years, with either an offense or a defense in the top 5 in at least 5 of the last 9 years per the chart. We’re #blessed to be Michigan basketball fans.
It’s still amazing to me when I think back to the pre-Beilein years that this program has gotten to this level. Which is to say I’m definitely on board with the statue BQ always says they should have of JB
IIRC, we had better/similar resumes (IE RPI Top X wins) than teams multiple seed lines above us, but we got hurt by poor RPI gamesmanship with OOC. Like I think we had more Q1+Q2 wins than Minnesota two seed lines above us.
In my mind, the 2012-2013 team is the best of the Beilein era. They are the only team that I remember thinking “this is the best team in the country”. Not this team is playing the best basketball (2017 and 2018), or this team could beat anyone on any given day (2014, 2017-2019). To this day, I feel like that team was the best in the country that year and an unlucky loss to Louisville won’t change my mind. Now, if Aaron Harrison doesn’t hit that 3, Michigan would have been the best team in the Final Four that year. Alas… sometimes you have Burke or Poole and sometimes you have Harrison and a missed box out on a free throw.
The biggest heartbreak of all remains the Burke block “foul” call. NPOY and still didn’t get the big moment call he earned by reputation and absolutely proved by replay. And years later their banner drops due to NCAA violations - reminding many UM lifers of the inequities that have befallen us at the worst possible times. We never seem to get that one lucky call or lucky play - and then there is Jordan Poole supporting all of the opposition stating “don’t tell me you haven’t had your share of good fortune!”
I lean towards 2013 but yeah, there were so many coinflip moments over the years that could have changed things.
Interesting that our raw AdjO number this year is closer to 2019 and '18 than to '13 and '14. It feels like we’re much improved offensively this year. Maybe it’s just that college basketball offense in general is a bit lower since the 3pt line was moved back out?
(EDIT - or maybe it’s due to playing a lot fewer non-conference games this season?)
If I’m trying to build a championship team, this current team is what id build. Senior leaders, nba talent, 5star freshman (Dickinson playing like it). Scoring from all three levels. This team has the least holes and best balance out of the bunch. It’s almost as if this team was so good and dominating the league they said “let’s get rid of the four easiest game stretch on your schedule, not let you touch a basketball for two weeks and then have you play six of the top seven teams in the league. Oh, and we may sprinkle in a few of those easy games in between those six as trap games…try to win a b10 title now!”
They had so many NBA talent on one team. If Michigan only had Yak coaching defense for JB, I bet they would’ve won it all and they were damn close at it.
Sounds good to me but you better leave room for a more bigger Juwan statue after his 3rd or 4th Natty.
2019 defense makes me giddy still
I think I see what you’re getting at…but…
PG - you’d take Burke every day over Smith
SG - you would want Eli’s defense…but take the NBA starter in THJ
SF - take Franz over freshman Nik
PF - senior Livers over GR3
C - interesting debate…can’t go wrong
Then you would take Stauskas, Brooks, GR4, and the other center. Smith, Spike, Brown, Levert don’t make the team.
I like your breakdown. I was thinking more looking at the team as a whole today and from overall “team building” and how the pieces fit together. Combining the two teams makes an all-time super team. I may lean to starting a senior Eli over junior THJ for the defense. THJ would be killer as a six man hunting shots. With Eli starting, you’re looking at a top 5 offense and defense in ken pom.
Excited to have GR4 in the program
Young kid. I heard he reclassified.