What They’re Saying: Preseason magazines weigh in on Michigan’s 2019-20 outlook

I love it when Michigan’s underrated, myself. Time to hunt.

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Broadly speaking, Michigan at #5 makes pretty good sense to me. I’d probably say #4 myself, because I’m not as enthused by Illinois. Torvik has them at an 8 point jump in offensive efficiency with basically identical personnel…which I’m skeptical of.

I spent all summer looking mostly at the talent on the roster. Maybe this is just a reaction to football, but Michigan’s football HC came from the pros and struggles, and it has a first-time playcaller. It’s been a reminder of all the uncertainties about Juwan Howard. This is not to say that Howard is going to struggle, but that you really just don’t know, and the learning curve could be steep.

But I too like Zavier Simpson going into the season with a real chip on his shoulder.

Maybe he has a relative in the media or maybe think they can get teams not to pay so much attention to DJ Carton. Who knows?

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I’ve been agreeing much too much with Hack lately.
X will definitely be motivated this season that’s for sure. Sometimes if not most times it’s much better to be the hunter than the hunted when the talent is there. It just needs to come to reality and brought out by the coaches in some cases. Re: BJ and DDJ.
Confidence can be all it takes sometimes.

Sorry, and let me help you balance things out a little bit. Here are some things I believe that you might disagree with.

Beer should never have fruit in it.

All the best restaurants in Ann arbor have no table service.

Everyone other than me is a shitty, inconsiderate driver.

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im interested to see what they would have had us if coach b stayed.

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This isn’t an inaccurate take, but it seems to make the assumption that the teams rated above UM don’t have serious question marks too. IMO teams 2-6(7?) are all very close with some having higher floors than others(OSU with Wesson seems like a higher floor team?) but the only team that is clearly ahead is MSU.

Absolutely. That’s a major contributor to our wide range as well. But most of those teams are returning primary scorers, whereas we lost our top three scorers and have a new coach. So I’m not surprised at all that we are ranked below some teams because I can’t argue “we are definitely going to be better than them because X, Y and Z.” I can argue that we’l be better than them because I believe X, Y and Z will happen."

Personally, I think our ceiling is higher than everyone in the conference except for MSU and Maryland. But our floor is lower than alot of the other top half teams.

For people that think there’s no chance that Michigan misses the NCAA Tournament… I just disagree.

There are very few teams that have no chance of missing the NCAA Tournament. I don’t think Michigan is a roster with that kind of margin for error. On the other hand, there are also a lot of reasons why Michigan could be much better than that if things fall into place.

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Yeah, I think I agree with both you and Dylan on this. Things could go terribly for this team this year, but the pieces also have the potential to fall into place and result in a formidable retool. I can’t wait for the season to start, it’s going to be a very interesting year.

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Here we go again JB is in Cleveland. LET IT GO AND MOVE ON!

LOL.

I gotta say, it still surprises me how well Ohio State basketball recruits despite their history the past decade-relative to Michigan with multiple national title appearances.

Do they really have superior facilities? I suppose the Dollar General Arena; wait is it Value City or Family Dollar? Is nicer than Crisler but what else does do they have more attractive to offer?

Money, cars, tats, etc. ??? :grin:

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OSU’s arena was one of the worst I have attended. Crisler vastly superior for sight lines and atmosphere.

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? What are you ranting about? You missed the point of my question entirely . Im interested to know where they would have had us ranked so I can find out if the drop off in ranking is due to the talent level they think Michigan has or a major drop off in x and o that is being predicted.

I saw at least one site ( ESPN) take us from ten or around there to out of the rankings. Coach b was great and elite but that seems ridiculous. I’m interested to know if that’s where a lot of the pessimism is coming from from other outlets.

Gotcha.

I can’t compare the venues from sight line perspective as I’ve only been down there for one single game.

I’m speaking from a more creature comfort perspective, the seats themselves were more comfortable and enjoyable to be in for a few hours relative to Crisler’s offerings IMO.

The location of the venue itself, exterior/architecture, vibe within the arena, concessions, all felt superior to ours.

Back to the original question; why do you think Ohio is able to recruit at/above our level without any recent success? Especially under the current coach? That’s what truly irritates me, the venues be damned but the last 5- 10 years (what most of the kids being recruited would remember watching) I’d argue Michigan’s had more success, yet despite a coaching turnover and no real NCAA traction lately, they still seem to overcome those shortcomings with very competitive recruiting.

To piggy back that idea is be much more concerned about the coaching change if z wasn’t quarterbacking this squad. I think that’s going to be a life saver for coach Howard and the team. Should really soften the blow.

I’m pretty Happy that Michigan is being slept on. Let’s hope Howard can continue the trend of Michigan far outplaying the predictions. I’m very confident they finish in the top 20. I think. It’s more likely they finish second then fifth or sixth.

I also think the big ten is going to have a big year as a whole.

That drop out of the top 10 had more to do about Poole and Iggy leaving. They were assuming they’d be back at that point. Then add in Beilein leaving and no one was gonna leave us in the top 25

Because recruiting is relationships. OSU has some recruiting wizard guy on staff as an assistant. Don’t know his name. But he’s known as an elite recruiter and has followed through on that.

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Yep, recruiting is about how good you are at recruiting not how cushy the seats are in your stadium.

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