MICHIGAN MEN'S BASKETBALL- '23 -'24 Season.

[THE_WIZARD_]

preemptive fuckin' refs

[Hannibal]

The team was fool's gold. A lot of the excitement that we got by beating teams like Wisconsin, Minny, Northwestern, etc. was because those teams were overrated. We only played the other teams in the Top 5 of the B1G once each in the regular season. We also played a bunch of total cream puffs in the non conference. Probably more like a legitimate 4 seed than a 1. I assume that we'll get a 1 but I see us as maybe a 50/50 shot to get to the second weekend and a zero% chance of winning that S16 game, if we get there.

[THE_WIZARD_]

regular fuckin' refs

[iam416]

M with Livers is really good. I don’t know what they’ll be without him. Today was probably wasn’t representative. They’ll have a more concrete idea as to how to play next weekend.

But, he’s a pretty damn important piece.

[Niffla]

The team was fool's gold. A lot of the excitement that we got by beating teams like Wisconsin, Minny, Northwestern, etc. was because those teams were overrated. We only played the other teams in the Top 5 of the B1G once each in the regular season. We also played a bunch of total cream puffs in the non conference. Probably more like a legitimate 4 seed than a 1.

I dunno, man. They certainly peaked and were probably playing above who they actually were (which was the #2 or #3 team in the country for a long stretch), but...with everyone healthy they're still a top 5 team nationally. Illinois eventually figured things out by season's end to show they were actually the best team in the B1G, but Michigan (again, with a healthy roster) is/was elite this season.

But they needed all their big minutes rotation pieces to make it all work, and without Livers they drop a tier. Maybe two tiers. Livers is their senior captain and an all-B1G performer. You can't replace that a week before the NCAA tournament.

They were a legitimately excellent, top tier team this season.

[froot loops]

Smith had a very good look on that last shot, he got himself open and was in rhythm but he just didn't hit it. Most of the time that iso dribble at the end of the game doesn't get a good look but that wasn't the case today.

[Whitley]

Having Brown being able to step into the lineup for Livers is big. Going to need Johns/Williams to be good or better off the bench in the minutes they are going to get now. Johns has shown ability to do that in the past.

[Mike]

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[Mike]

Smith had a very good look on that last shot, he got himself open and was in rhythm but he just didn't hit it. Most of the time that iso dribble at the end of the game doesn't get a good look but that wasn't the case today.

That was one of the dumbest plays in the history of sports.

[Cody_Russell]

You had to get the ball to Dickinson in the post there. Dickinson got you back in the game. He deserved the shot. Just like Purdue did with Trevion Williams.

When healthy, I honestly believe this was a Final 4 caliber team. Top 10 offense and defense. Well rounded. Can shoot the ball. 3 of the 4 losses are due to a starter being injured. Depth and lack of high end players is the achilles heal. Loss of one starter is brutal.
Similar to if you took away any of Billups, Hamilton, Prince, R Wallace, or B Wallace... not the same team.

[Whitley]

You had to get the ball to Dickinson in the post there. Dickinson got you back in the game. He deserved the shot. Just like Purdue did with Trevion Williams.

When healthy, I honestly believe this was a Final 4 caliber team. Top 10 offense and defense. Well rounded. Can shoot the ball. 3 of the 4 losses are due to a starter being injured. Depth and lack of high end players is the achilles heal. Loss of one starter is brutal.
Similar to if you took away any of Billups, Hamilton, Prince, R Wallace, or B Wallace... not the same team.

Yep. The good thing is that the Livers loss is probably not going effect them until they reach the Sweet 16. Then it becomes about matchups--the margin for error has been greatly reduced. Time to see if a deep bench ala Jordan Poole can step up and provide something with expanded minutes.

[Niffla]

So today we find out what Michigan's tournament path will look like (for however long they can navigate that path). And later on tonight what day & time they'll be playing either Friday or Saturday.

Looks like virtually all the bracketologists still have Michigan on the 1 line, as the lowest 1 seed. Some interesting potential first round matchups are Iona (where Pitino has resurrected himself from the grave) and possibly Appalachian State (I'm sure the media would have fun playing up this one for obvious reasons).

Livers has said to "not count him out" as far as returning, and a handful of posters over at m go blue are trying to talk themselves into him returning if Michigan were to advance to the 2nd weekend. Personally I think we need to forget about that. Livers isn't going to miraculously be close to 100% by then. Before he made his exit during the Maryland game, the 4 or 5 games prior to that he was a shell of himself. Even if he somehow attempts to give it a go at some point in time (again assuming Michigan is even still alive by then), he will almost assuredly remain the shell of himself that we saw leading up to the Maryland game a few days ago.

It's largely up to Johns now to shine. And I'm pretty skeptical. He did some positive things in the first half yesterday but I still think by in large he is who he is at this point.

Also, interesting unrelated side note -- Morsell and Dickinson were going at it a little last night over twitter. Apparently Morsell sub-tweeted "karma is a MF" or something along those lines after Michigan lost to Ohio State, and then Dickinson responded with a sarcastic "DPOY" tweet and then posted a picture of Mike Smith's stat line from the Maryland game. Morsell then responded "stay in your lane young buck" and told Dickinson to come over so they can both watch the Big Ten tournament championship game together from the couch. Predictably Maryland and Michigan fans both invaded their twitter pages to relentlessly trash each other. All because of a couple of barely yet adult basketball players. God I swear Twitter is one of the more toxic cesspools of humanity the human race has ever produced.

[Jeff Buchanan]

If the medical report that Livers has a "stress fracture in his foot" when you have a mechanism of injury that is an inversion type injury, it puts stress on the tendon that attaches to the fifth metatarsal. It is the most commonly injured bone of the foot. A stress fracture implies its similar to a crack instead of complete break. These are induced from mild, repetitive injury to the bone. When the tendon is pulled off the bone, its called an avulsion fracture. If it a complete fracture, then it has to be immobilized with a cast or more commonly a boot to keep the bone aligned and promote healing with proper alignment of the shaft.

Continuing mobility risks a more problematic fracture condition but it is entirely possible to do what Livers does on the basketball court with proper taping. Steroid injections for pain control are inappropriate. If you play, you play in pain as that is an indicator of when to ease up. I could see him playing limited minutes. I had a stress fracture in my fibula, continued to train on grass and ran a 6k road race. It felt fine for the first 2 or 3 miles but I quit the race before finishing. I delayed recovery with this approach. It took a long time to fully heal so I was pain free. It wasn't worth it and that's what Livers and team Docs will be dealing with.

[hack]

Fucking terrible, but even if the worst- case seeding happens and you're a two seed, if you can't get to the second weekend then Hannibal is right. I missed yesterday - my mom's birthday - bit it sure doesn't look like the team has responded yet to adversity. Seems still teetering. Very strong '19 vibes. But, still - you have time in practice and two very winnable games before you start to play top teams again.

But, fucking terrible. Part of it is on Warde. Follow the fucking CDC guidelines, and don't put your team through this shit. He won't be held accountable and that's a shame.

Other part is on the team. Start making your damn shots. Quit it with the dumb fouls.

[hack]

That said, strong '19 vibes in terms of postseason but unlike '19 this team is the outright conference champion. Illinois can fantasize all they want about us dropping one of those three games we didn't play against the dregs of the league. No matter. Even if this team has lost its mojo and can't get it back, they're still conference champions.