The Journey Ends...

Still a Great Read….

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/moritz-wagner-michigan-basketball-airplane/

I wasn’t ready, as I’m sure you’re not, to write about the “Last Game of the 2017 Season” for the Michigan Men’s Hoops Team. 

Nope, nope, nope….

Wasn’t going to happen.  Wasn’t supposed to end this way.  Michigan was the feel good favorite that everyone in the country was pulling for and even had non-basketball fans intrigued by their scrappiness and the storyline behind what could be a magical finish to an ordinary season.

Unfortunately, Michigan came out a little flat, a little tight (perhaps?) and statistically played their worst game in their last 12 attempts.  And they were still within 1 point of winning…But the Basketball Gods that decide such things simply said, “Not Tonight, Wolverines.  We’re going to bless someone else in this tourney. 

In the movie, that shot will go in and Michigan will move on…  In the movie, the Northwestern Miracle is avenged…In the Movie, Trey Burke’s Miracle against Kansas is shown in a dream sequence right before Walton’s shot drops…

Unfortunately…This isn’t the movies.  While many can and will consider this a successful season, I’ll always be left wondering what could have been….

IF Wagner would have hit anything last night

IF Walton would have had more of his shot last night….

IF MAAR would have just let those GD pink shoes take him to the hole a couple of times last night…

IF Wilson would have grabbed one more rebound or made that bunny Lay-up that HE SHOULD HAVE DUNKED…

IF Irvin would have taken a step backwards about 3 times and launched for 3 instead of the 2’s he was hitting from just inside the arc…

IF anyone wearing Maize and Blue pulls down that rebound..

IF Walton didn’t hesitate ever so slightly on the last shot…

Yeah, I’ll be wondering a lot.  There were just too many “IFS”…

Still, I enjoyed this season as much as any season I can remember and I’m going to miss these guys.  I have a feeling that everyone who can come back will come back and the NBA will have to wait (for Wagner and Wilson). 

At least we can remember it being close and we can dream that it might have all been different with the exception of a couple of things. 

Perfection was in their grasp.  No one can argue that.

Unlike Purdue

I believed that Purdue had a better than average chance to beat KU last night based on a couple of things:  1.  I thought Purdue would neutralize the KU bigs.  2.  I thought KU was way over rated.  This team lost to TCU in the Big iiX Tourney fergodsakes!!!  And 3.  Sparty didn’t do anything to slow KU down and I felt they simply made KU look good as this is not a classic Izzo team. 

I was extremely wrong on all 3 of those reasons.  If you have Kansas in your bracket winning it all, right now, you have to be a very, EXTREMELY happy person.  I’m not sure what stops that team.  And when it turned into a “Fun Fest Playground Let’s Humiliate Them” Game, well, that’s when I realized I had underestimated Kansas. 

Is this what the dance is turning into?  Ignore what the truly great teams do in their conference tourneys or at the end of the season and just go with what you know from mid season?  Kansas has turned it up a notch.  For sure.  If good teams can start doing this…Look out.

I told you about Xavier

Early in February, I watched Xavier play someone and I commented about “Teams to think about taking deep into the NCAA bracket”.  Xavier was one of those teams.  But when they lost their PG and went 7-8 over their last 15 games, well, I wasn’t as impressed anymore.  Nobody was.  The Pre-Season Top 10 team wasn’t the same team. Until last night.  Then Xavier came into their own and the Wildcats of Arizona didn’t know what hit them…

I liked WVU and Huggy Bear…

But the Zags are also proving to be more resilient that previously thought.  Can they take down Xavier?  Time will tell.