so Now how confident are you with this team?

[cpatrocks]

well?

 

[SoBristol]

4th seed, but vulnerable in the second round.
Which Triche will show up?
No bench at all? No shooting against a zone?
Positives -- scrappy on defense; maybe Rak is getting better.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

I have us as a 2 seed, because of the many issues we face, but mitigated by the fact there doesn't seem to be any real great teams out there these days. I think our ranking of 7 is just about perfect. What the hell happened to college hoops?

 

[rrlbees]

4th seed, but vulnerable in the second round.
Which Triche will show up?
No bench at all? No shooting against a zone?
Positives -- scrappy on defense; maybe Rak is getting better.

3 seed. But which MCW will show up? Which Triche will show up? Which Southerland will show up? Which Rak will show up? Which CJ will show up? Which team will show up?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[Marsh01]

I think when it is all said and done we end up a 3 seed which is fine by me.

 

[Gabjon]

I have never seen us play this badly and win. We were out played in every aspect of the game except rebounding and foul shooting which is ironic since historically those have been our two worse statistical areas under JB. If this team can shoot it well they will go far but you need more than just rebounding and foul shooting to go far in March, although Tom Izzo would probably disagree with me.

 

[Gabjon]

Oh 2nd for me

 

[zhanjuzi]

Regardless of seeding a sweet sixteen would be a tough goal but doable .. beyond that is very dicey.

 

[armory]

:blah:

 

[kuethstheman]

3 seed. But which MCW will show up? Which Triche will show up? Which Southerland will show up? Which Rak will show up? Which CJ will show up? Which team will show up?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

At least we can be confident in which DC will show up.

 

[MyMeloMyMan]

I see almost no way we are not a 3 seed this year. Once we get to the round of 32...it will be a roullete spin. We dont really have anyone we can fully count on, cept maybe CJ. Then again, we have 3-4 guys who could also blow up at the same time and take us to the final weekend. Who knows.

I'd guess 3 seed with a tough ouster in the sweet 16 to a team that hits 12 3's

 

[Knicks411]

I think when it is all said and done we end up a 3 seed which is fine by me.

I'm looking at our page on Ken Pom, seeing the schedule and their ratings, I think a 3 seed is probably too low. Right now, we play 4 top 50 teams (Pomeroy ratings) for the rest of the season.

We have 15 BE games left; we're probably going to be favored in 13 of them, and 11 or 12 of those will be by 5 points or more. If we hit the Pomeroy projection, that's 26-5 (14-4). That seems like a 2 seed to me.

I also think whoever wins the BE is going to get a 1 seed, most likely. You can probably assume Duke is going to get one, Kansas, and whoever takes the Big 10. Then you might see competition from whoever wins the BE and the second best team in the B10. And we still have a really good chance to win the league.

 

[Marsh01]

I'm looking at our page on Ken Pom, seeing the schedule and their ratings, I think a 3 seed is probably too low. Right now, we play 4 top 50 teams (Pomeroy ratings) for the rest of the season.

We have 15 BE games left; we're probably going to be favored in 13 of them, and 11 or 12 of those will be by 5 points or more. If we hit the Pomeroy projection, that's 26-5 (14-4). That seems like a 2 seed to me.

I also think whoever wins the BE is going to get a 1 seed, most likely. You can probably assume Duke is going to get one, Kansas, and whoever takes the Big 10. Then you might see competition from whoever wins the BE and the second best team in the B10. And we still have a really good chance to win the league.

Our game next Saturday against Louisville basically is for a #1 seed IMO.

 

[Knicks411]

Our game next Saturday against Louisville basically is for a #1 seed IMO.

Yeah I was thinking about that on the commute in this morning. We still have Louisville coming to our place at the end of the year, but if we can find a way to win there again (which I'm hopeful of, but not expecting) we would basically take control of the BE race. Which, in my opinion, is already down to a 3 team race between us, Louisville, and ND, with ND as the outsider. I checked the schedules, ND has to play @ us, Lville, and Pitt.

 

[dasher]

I really, really hate to say this but I think right now we are a paper tiger. Any good team would beat us on the road. Ark., South florida and P.C. aren't good. We were very fortunate to win those games. Can we get there, yes. But right now...I just don't think we are all that good. And for the record, in 2010 I thought we were clearly the best team in the country and last year, a very close second.

 

[Marsh01]

Yeah I was thinking about that on the commute in this morning. We still have Louisville coming to our place at the end of the year, but if we can find a way to win there again (which I'm hopeful of, but not expecting) we would basically take control of the BE race. Which, in my opinion, is already down to a 3 team race between us, Louisville, and ND, with ND as the outsider. I checked the schedules, ND has to play @ us, Lville, and Pitt.

We need to come out of the next 3 BE games no worse than 2-1. That would put us 5-1 heading to Villanova and Pitt. Two road games that will not be easy.

 

[Marsh01]

I really, really hate to say this but I think right now we are a paper tiger. Any good team would beat us on the road. Ark., South florida and P.C. aren't good. We were very fortunate to win those games. Can we get there, yes. But right now...I just don't think we are all that good. And for the record, in 2010 I thought we were clearly the best team in the country and last year, a very close second.

We will certainly see if you are right next Saturday. That will be our toughest road game of the season.

 

[dasher]

We will certainly see if you are right next Saturday. That will be our toughest road game of the season.

I am actually hoping that the ville has another injury (nothing serious) to help us in that one. If chase can't play plus lets say russ smith, I would like our chances more. Still not enough to pick us to win.

 

[OttoMets]

I really, really hate to say this but I think right now we are a paper tiger. Any good team would beat us on the road. Ark., South florida and P.C. aren't good. We were very fortunate to win those games. Can we get there, yes. But right now...I just don't think we are all that good. And for the record, in 2010 I thought we were clearly the best team in the country and last year, a very close second.

I thought we were the best last year, too.

But the rest of it, yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if we picked up the level of play and stayed around 2-seed territory in winning a bunch of games, but a three-game losing streak and a couple losses to bad teams is also a possibility. There are some weaknesses that haven't been there in recent years (even in 2011).

 

[Orangezoo]

if mcw takes the next step up in being a danger to score more we can be up amongst the 1 and 2 line. if he doesn't we are a low three , high four. loved what rak brought last night but that was no dieng and behanan guarding him.

 

[ORRange]

I have never seen us play this badly and win. We were out played in every aspect of the game except rebounding and foul shooting which is ironic since historically those have been our two worse statistical areas under JB. If this team can shoot it well they will go far but you need more than just rebounding and foul shooting to go far in March, although Tom Izzo would probably disagree with me.

You're usually spot on but I disagree with you that we were outplayed in every aspect of the game. The opposite is true. We were +4 in steals, +4 in blocks, +3 in turnovers, and +6 in points. As you pointed out we were better at the line and +14 in boards. We shot the same % from the field and were 3-21 from beyond the arc, so inside the arc we dominated the game. We attacked the interior of their zone very well, we just couldn't make a jumper. We even got good looks from beyond the arc but we have to stop hoisting up so many outside shots when they aren't falling. I thought our interior passing was very sharp. Don't push the panic button yet, this team will get better.

 

[cusetown1]

We will beat Louisville next Sat. I am really loving that game.

 

[Gabjon]

I really, really hate to say this but I think right now we are a paper tiger. Any good team would beat us on the road. Ark., South florida and P.C. aren't good. We were very fortunate to win those games. Can we get there, yes. But right now...I just don't think we are all that good. And for the record, in 2010 I thought we were clearly the best team in the country and last year, a very close second.

I think we are nowhere near 2010 or 2012, but no one in the country is. Kansas was taken to OT at home by Iowa St. last night. If you compare this years team with the field we measure up nicely. Michigan is the only out there that scares me with anybody else I like our chances.

 

[cusetown1]

I think we are nowhere near 2010 or 2012, but no one in the country is. Kansas was taken to OT at home by Iowa St. last night. If you compare this years team with the field we measure up nicely. Michigan is the only out there that scares me with anybody else I like our chances.

And we all know Jimmy's record against John Beilein.

 

[Gabjon]

You're usually spot on but I disagree with you that we were outplayed in every aspect of the game. The opposite is true. We were +4 in steals, +4 in blocks, +3 in turnovers, and +6 in points. As you pointed out we were better at the line and +14 in boards. We shot the same % from the field and were 3-21 from beyond the arc, so inside the arc we dominated the game. We attacked the interior of their zone very well, we just couldn't make a jumper. We even got good looks from beyond the arc but we have to stop hoisting up so many outside shots when they aren't falling. I thought our interior passing was very sharp. Don't push the panic button yet, this team will get better.

I'm not panicking at all, but with all that you stated if they hit their free throws we lose. That is being out played. Our defense was good last night but they attacked the zone better than any team this year. We are bigger and stronger and used those attributes to win the game. Our interior offense was not good if you remove the second change points our percentage would reflect that fact. Good teams find a way to win when they play poorly, so that is encouraging and no teams plays well every night. It shows a mental toughness needed to go far in the tournament. But that was not a performance that is going to beat a top tier team most nights.