Okay – The celebration of becoming one of the last 16 is
over and it’s time to get back to business.
In a few short hours, the Madness renews itself with the road to the
Elite 8 and the subsequently, the March to the Final Four. Like you need any reminding of that here. Michigan is a 1 point favorite over Oregon,
but after watching Oregon and Rhode Island go at each other, I’m not so
sure. As a fan, I think I’m nervous
about either one of those teams, but Michigan got the Ducks and Dorsey, the
2017 NCAA Tourney best player through the first two games…
Game
Time: 7:09
PM EDT
Line: Michigan by 1
My
guess is that Oregon is going to have problems with Michigan’s versatility on
the offensive side of the ball. But, a lot like Okie State, Oregon simply
won’t give a shit and they’ll be putting it up early and often in an effort to
outscore the Wolverines. So far, that
strategy hasn’t worked by anyone willing to try it. Try to slow the game down and you play right
into the Wolverines hands. I’m
really not sure how you game plan for the Wolverines. Pitino decided that, If the Cardinals were
going to lose, it was the “bigs” that were going to beat him.,..and they
did. Walton was covered and more or less
taken out of the offense, but it didn’t matter. “Mo Baskets” just kept
doing what he does best. Again,
if you’re Oregon, what do you do?
God knows I don’t have an answer for Michigan’s versatility and I’ve
been watching them all year. Oregon
coaches should be pulling their hair out about now.
Managing Oregon defensively will be a task, however. Granted, there are times when this team will
fall asleep (go back to an earlier blog where the ducks only scored 16 – 16!!!
– in the 1st half against Oregon State and came back and
scored 52 in the 2nd half to win by 1!!! Yep – this team can score and when they’re
on, they’re on. But they also fall
asleep from time to time.
But I have faith in the Beilein….and the Donlon…
Re-Seeding
NONSENSE!!!
The latest talk, for the last couple of years, is
re-seeding the bracket in the Sweet 16 after the early “sins” of the committee
have been revealed. This is
stupid, asinine and just plain impossible with respect to how millions of fans
would manage their brackets after that re-seeding (tongue slightly in cheek here).
Pools would shut down because pool –
coordinators would go nuts, unless they were managing them on line. But still, I don’t want to re-seed for a
couple of other reasons.
1. Teams
that have the resources and opportunity to look ahead at who their 3rd
and 4th round match-up might be have already done so (probably the
Monday or Tuesday after the brackets come out.)
That gives those teams a little extra edge and time to prepare.
2. Whatever
mistakes the committee made early should be the penance or the reward for those
teams that are paying for that error or reaping the rewards of it. Right now, if you were to re-seed based on
Sagarin, KenPom and the other dynamic metrics (updated through the 2nd
round of the NCAA Tourney), you’d have, in this order:
a.
Kansas
b.
UNC
c.
Wisconsin
d.
Gonzaga
e.
Michigan
f.
Arizona
g.
UCLA
h.
Florida
i.
WVU
j.
Kentucky
k.
South
Carolina
l.
Oregon
m.
Butler
n.
Xavier
o.
Purdue
p.
Baylor
I color coded the current regions to make
this easier, but suffice it to say, you want to be HIGH RANKED with more of YOUR color
lower on the seeding. Right now,
according to metrics, Purdue and Oregon are the first two teams to show up in
any region. Meaning Kansas and Michigan
got lucky. But I still think Purdue is
better than their stats and will give Kansas fits not to mention that Kansas
shot way up with its first and 2nd round opponents basically sucking
(Thanks Sparty)….If it was re-seeded: Meaning
Michigan would be a 2-Seed in the Kansas Bracket along with WVU as the 3-Seed and
Butler as the 4-Seed. I’m not saying it’s
a bad idea, I’m just saying let’s leave it as what did we really change besides
making certain, higher seeds roads easier or harder than they are now?
3. How on
earth would you ever make travel plans?
Granted, there’s a boatload of Louisville and Duke fans cancelling
reservations, but at least they could make them!
The Biggest Gain:
Teams that endured a difficult first two games as a lower seed that
prevailed may be the beneficiary of a better seed draw after the re-seed, and
vice versa. But I say: Leave it alone….
More
Refereeing Idiocy
According to reports, there was an NCAA apology issued for the
Gonzaga vs. Northwestern Goal Tend that wasn’t by the NCAA head of
officials. And I have to ask,
“Why?” Why apologize for something after
we all know what happened? Why not
instead state, “Hey, this is a problem and we’re looking at a rule change to
address the problem.” Like instant
replay on really stupid or non-calls. I
don’t know where you draw the line, but there were way too many games (with
Yahoo Sports website listing the worst ones – which didn’t even include some of
the garbage Michigan endured!) where the refereeing definitely impacted the
game. That should not happen. In this day and age, there’s gotta be a
better way. Plays included in the Top 5
were the Gonzaga – NWU, UNC Charge and the Seton Hall flagrant that wasn’t, all
of which I witnessed.
I know that refs are human and referees will make mistakes
and that’s just part of the game. But
this level of incompetence should get somebody over at the NCAA off their dead
ass and figure out what can be done.
Generate a list of lessons learned and figure out if adding a 4th
ref helps things? I dunno….but
fergodsakes, do something.
A
Guilty Pleasure
I have to admit, I enjoy reading about the Wolverines
locally now as I don’t have to suffer through an article by the now deceased Drew
Sharp (RIP), who probably would have written a headline after Sunday’s
upset that would have read something like,
“Overachieving
Wolverine Squad Wins Again, But It Can’t Last” or
“Wolverine’s
Win, But Another Crash Possible!”
“Beilein’s
Job Saving Run Continues!!!”, or even,
“Michigan
Getting Everything Out of Their Rag-Tag Squad and Catching the Real Elites Off
Guard!”
Yep – There’s some guys I don’t miss…And he’s one of ‘em.
The
Best Coach in the State of Michigan?
On Tuesday, there was a great debate on Sirius Channel 84
between Rick Pizzo (BTN announcer), Dan Dakich and one of the clueless tools on Sirius
who I was going to leave nameless (Childers) who stated that, you could “Almost”
make an argument that Beilein was the better coach in the State of Michigan. Both Pizzo (who I have a lot of respect for)
and Dakich jumped all over Childers with a litany of reasons that they both believed
that Beilein could be argued as not only the best coach in the B1G, but maybe
even the country! Part of the
reasoning being, “How do you want to measure the success of a coach?”
The
reasons stated:
1. Michigan
rarely
gets the “Super AAU Level” top recruits. Beilein recruits kids like that from time to
time, but he generally gets “kids” that can play pretty well and they can also
shoot. A lot of those kids end up making
it into the NBA. Michigan actually has just as many players still playing in the NBA as
Michigan State over the last 5 seasons.
2. Measuring
a coach by his “success” of National Titles is only one way to measure them. Nobody expects Michigan to do anything year
in and year out with the recruits it gets and Beilein improves players on his
watch every single season. Not only
that, but how many times has Michigan started outside the Pre-Season Top 25 and
finished inside the Top 25?
3. If you’re
a player that’s looking to play in a system that will develop all your skills
and give you the best chance to play at the next level, you would want to play
for Beilein.
4. Pizzo
also stated he thought Beilein’s offense was one of the better ones in the
country and he would put it up against anyone’s offense. Michigan’s ability to change from a perimeter
to an inside game and still be effective is unique. They’re going to get you one way or
another. And now with Donlon on board, they’re
defense, will probably continue to rank highly in Kenpom and Sagarin
for seasons to come.
5. Dakich
stated that if you’re a “big guy” in the Izzo system, for example, you’re going
to be relegated to playing a very specific role that
won’t give you a chance to develop all your skills.
Childers made some lame arguments that Izzo was getting
just as many players to the NBA, and he had a National Title, but both Pizzo and
Dakich fell back on, what criteria do you want to use? And both stated that a National Title could
easily be in Beilein’s future!!! And if
he wins one, well than who IS The Best in the State of Michigan?
Loved every minute of it!!!
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