Sorry for the delay – health issues and work
are annoying distractions that sometimes get in the way of life….
I still think of Maryland as an ACC Basketball elite
that used to always be in the discussion of winning ACC Championships in the
past. There have been a lot of “Big
Games” between Maryland, Duke, north carolina, and other ACC foes in the old
Cole Field house and now in the Xfinity Center that I’ve watched over
the years.
Ergo, I wasn’t expecting Michigan to go down there and pants
the Terps. But that’s exactly that
happened. I was expecting one of
those nail biter games where a missed free-throw or blown turn-over was going
to be the part of the game you looked back at, pointed to and said, “Damn. We shouldn’t have let THAT Happen…”
I shouldn’t have worried. This game was over in the first half. I can remember a couple of 30 point leads
happening in Michigan Hoops and the last one I can recall (without looking it
up – okay – I looked it up) was 2014 at Illinois. Which was Nik Stauskas’ last season, and he
had something like 5 consecutive 3’s in the first half. That was when Tirico was announcing with
Dakich and Tirico made a comment, “How do you defend these guys??”
Another game that comes to mind was in 2013
when Michigan came out on Sunday during the road to the Final 4 and blazed the
nets while destroying Florida.
That was also a great game with a huge early lead that only got worse as
time went on.
But this game showed me something else (Besides
the fact that MAAR can score 28 points):
Everyone is
contributing at this point.
Michigan is offensively
and defensively on a ROLL!
Forget stats, RPI, BPI, KenPom, whatever. Michigan is playing the best basketball of anyone playing
NCAA Basketball right now. Poole,
Livers and even Matthews scored a couple of buckets which he desperately
needed. This team has forgotten where
they were a month ago. It takes
awhile for the Beilein Offense to gel with everyone, but gelled it has!!!
They’ve arrived!!!
I know, there was Nebraska. At the end of a 2 week grind with never more than
3 days between games. And there was
that oopsy-daisy in Columbus way back in November.
Early season brain fart…
And two debacles with Purdue and that Northwestern mess…
THAT’S
ALL IN THE PAST.
This
team is a
TEAM FOR
THE NOW.
Beilein has these guys playing loose and
peaking at the exact time they need to.
I’ve completed my B1G Tourney Bracket, WHICH STARTS TODAY AT
5:30 PM BABY!!!
You may feel free to use this for your office
pool. This is money…
Sparty will be pesky, but I’ve stated it over and over this
season: Sparty turns the ball over way
too much against good teams. And
Michigan’s “D” will smother them and force the TO’s. Michigan then gets to atone for two losses
to the Boilers. Michigan cuts down the B1G Tourney nets two seasons in a row
for the automatic bid!!
And maybe a 5-Seed?
Games – Dates – Time – Result - Record
Illinois(H) January
6th Noon WON 79-69 14-3
Purdue
(H) January 9th 9:00 PM Lost 70-69 14-4
Sparty (A) January
13th Noon WON 82-72 15-4
Maryland (H) January
15th 6:30 PM WON 68-67 16-4
Nebraska (A) January 18th 8:00 PM LOST 72-52 16-5
Rutgers
(H) January 21st Noon WON
62-47 17-5
Purdue (A) January 25th 7:00 PM LOST 92-88 17-6
Northwestern
(H) January 29th 7:00 PM WON 58-47 18-6
Minnesota
(H) February 3rd 2:30 PM WON 76-73
(OT) 19-6
Northwestern (A) February 6th 6:00PM LOST
61-52 19-7
Wiscy (A) February 11th Noon WON 83-72 20-7
Iowa (H) February
14th 6:30 PM WON 74-59 21-7
Suckeyes
(H) February 18th 1:00 PM WON 74-62 22-7
PSU (A) February 21st 7:00 PM WON 72-63 23-7
Maryland (A) February 24th Noon WON 85-61 24-7
That’s a regular season in the bag…
So, the big question becomes how does
Michigan handle the down time and the extra week of not playing a game? Beilein’s actually done this twice and has a
pretty good method for keeping people sharp.
A couple day’s rest, 3 days of
practice, a 30-minute referee’d scrimmage, 3 days of practice, a little more
rest and, hopefully a Thursday game in order to not have the one additional day
off.
B1G First Team, Second Team and
All Defense Awards
I almost wasn’t going to post
anything on this, but then my pissed off side got the better of me.
Moe making the 2nd team was fine, Duncan
Robinson getting the 6th man award was AWESOME, and MAAR getting an
honorable mention is nice, but I think he could have been on the 2nd
team.
HOWEVER, NOT ONE MICHIGAN PLAYER ON THE
DEFENSIVE TEAM when Michigan ended the season leading the B1G in Scoring
Defense?
Seriously?
There’s your WTF moment for the day…
The NCAA’s –Update
Michigan is pretty much on everyone’s 6-Seed
line, with a couple of outliers moving them up to the 5-Seed.
The best possible match-up? Michigan playing Witchita State in the 2nd
round, recreating what should have been the 2013 National Championship!!! Lunardi pays attention to stuff like
that…
Remember when I said Lunardi pisses me off
sometimes? Right now
he has both Baylor AND Texas in the Tourney and Nebraska as part of the First 4 out. That’s kind of annoying as Nebraska is
playing just about as well as anyone in the middle of the B1G and has 14 (FOURTEEN!!!) B1G
wins. I know the conference is
down and unbalanced schedules and all, but still. 14 conference wins and you don’t make the NCAA’s?
That’s nuts.
And it means that Nebraska
is going to need to win at least 1 game in the B1G Tourney and that will have
to come against – check the Bracket above – Michigan. Ain’t going to happen. Michigan vs Nebraksa overall record is
8-1. I’m gonna guess that Michigan makes
that 9 wins on Thursday. Michigan should
easily beat Nebraska on a neutral floor with appropriate rest.
So I guess the Huskers
are NIT Bound.
Other things you should
know:
Arizona also lost key offensive
players and will not be a good pick to go too deep with this season –
not to mention the Head Coach is GONE – more below...
Auburn also has an injury to a key player and may
not be a smart pick to take too deep…
Va Tech earned it’s way in (IMHO) with Monday
Night’s win over Duke.
And Buzz Williams gave us this:
And right AFTER I slam Kentucky, they
get Vanderbilt back and they look like the REAL K-Cats. Could be a sleeper team that makes the Sweet
16!
FBI Probe Update
Sean Miller from Arizona has probably coached
his last collegiate basketball game. Much
like Pitino’s case, I really don’t see how that one “undoes itself”.
Bridges threw $40
at a charity (or his half of a meal that was bought for him) and the NCAA said,
“Okay – you’re clean on that one for now.” Still haven’t heard about the $400 his old
lady got...
Everything else is at least
forcing the NCAA to have a discussion it doesn’t want to have. Which is:
When we can’t police the bad stuff, maybe we should at least
acknowledge that some of the bad stuff we think is bad really isn’t and maybe
we should change our rules to recognize that.
Yes, maybe, FINALLY, the NCAA
will visit the “Amateurism” rule and at least let these kids sign agents (as
collegiate Hockey and Baseball players can already do) and also let them get an
endorsement deal or two with any shoe or shirt companies that they’d like. Hell, more kids might actually stay on longer
if they had some extra scratch in their pocket from an endorsement deal. Notice I didn’t say the schools or
universities have to pay ANYONE or ANY PLAYER. I’m saying that student athletes should be
able to make money in their chosen profession (and if that’s a sport, so be
it), just like and Engineer can go be an intern somewhere using their training
from school.
Maybe some good will come out of
all this.
Men’s Hockey Sweeps Arizona
State!!
And while that’s a good thing, not
everything fell the way it needed to over the weekend to make Michigan a LOCK
for the Frozen 4. However, Michigan
should be in based on what everyone is saying. Win the B1G Tourney and that will help their
case.
Softball IS STRUGGLING
Don’t ask me why I
follow Michigan Women’s Softball. I just
do. And they are having a tougher time
than usual this season. It would appear
that Michigan has one pitcher, Beuabien, and that is ALWAYS a
problem. You need two and would ideally
prefer 3. But you need two.
And one that can come into a
crunch game and throw strikes for you. Hutch
as some work to do this season.
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