MICHIGAN'S MEN'S BASKETBALL: 2015-2016

[Niffla]

But, 8-4 and 4th in the conference, and even with the performances being awfully unimpressive it's still 8-4 and 4th in the conference.

Actually 9-4 now

[hack]

It seems to me that teams can get the ball inside whenever they want. If you add that to an overall lack of intensity on defense, you are not going to do well against good teams.

Yeah. Basically any team can.

[WM Wolverine]

Recruiting insiders at 247, Rivals, Scout say incredibly little about which recruit/program is dirty anymore. Five plus years ago Rivals would imply things, I know from 'insider' chats that they know a lot more what is going on than what they'll say publicly. IMO if they came out and said some stuff they know, they wouldn't have a job, no recruits would talk to them.

[WM Wolverine]

Five games left, Northwestern (at home) is a must win in middle of a brutal stretch of @OSU, @Maryland, @Wisconsin then Iowa at home.

[*JD*]

I just got home from the game (friend texted me yesterday with a ticket in the blue!) and it was really enjoyable (save the missed FT's in the first half). Michigan played with heart and never got out of position to make that comeback. Big props to Irvin, who had to deal with the much bigger Swanigan all day and outplayed him down the stretch.
I'm also happy that Purdue's behemoth Haas didn't have as big a 2nd half as he did in the first half. Doyle looked like a child next to him.

Clutch play down the stretch by Irvin and Walton, who'd struggled the first 36 1/2 minutes of the game.

This puts Michigan back on the good side of the bubble and helps their B1G tourney seeding.

Other bonuses-
The return of Caris, if only for a cameo.
Mitch was in the house and was sitting a few rows away.
They honored players from both the '85-86' team and the '76-'77 team.
The ChadTough tribute.
I also talked with a photographer that I'd made friends with on-line and may get a chance to shoot a game somewhere down the road. That would be a really great opportunity.

[Niffla]

I also talked with a photographer that I'd made friends with on-line and may get a chance to shoot a game somewhere down the road. That would be a really great opportunity.

Cool!!

[*JD*]

Yeah. When I went down to talk to him during a timeout, he asked me if I thought I could do what he was doing and I said "Yeah, it would be great." and then he said something to the effect of it maybe being possible on a weeknight game. It might be a thing that would have to wait until non-conference next year, I don't know. I'm definitely going to follow up about it. He's a cool guy and we've chatted about photography for the last couple of years.

I shot an EMU football game last fall but a Michigan game would trump that by a ton.

[hack]

That'd be awesome!

Nice game to be at. Sounds like you had great seats, too.

[Cody_Russell]

I like how 11 players received playing time today for Michigan, even when it was a close and important game.
Chatman is supposedly working hard in practice to get time. Also, Donnal and Doyle being in foul trouble gave time to Wilson and Wagner.

It's nice seeing most of the players receive time.

[*JD*]

That'd be awesome!

Nice game to be at. Sounds like you had great seats, too.

They were solid. 15th row, section 112. Plus, they were free. Free is good.

[The Oracle]

Talent: Thoughts on Tuesday? You've been precariously quiet this whole year.

[WM Wolverine]

Buckeyes are already talking about next season in basketball.

[The Oracle]

Well, they should be, but they'll be favored on Tuesday. It's be a nice W for Michigan.

[The Oracle]

I would consider making the 16s as ``coming alive'' this year, if you want to be Pedantic Talent about it. It's not like '13 where in the back of my mind I knew the talent was there for a serious run. (Also, do you want to set a numerical expectation for ``not uncommon'' so you don't have to get upset like this?)

'14 is difficult to categorize. Outlier year in which they steamrolled the conference and were shaky in the tournament. Duke lost in the first round and was the #3 seed, so they got to the E8 playing great first halves and terrible second halves against Tennessee and Texas. (And still can't fucking inbound the ball when the other team really doesn't want them to). But you'll have to take my word for it that, that year, I did indeed see that ``oh great we're done with Big Ten teams'' bounce in their step. They wanted no part of the Big Ten tournament, that's for sure.

'11 was an interesting year. They massacred Tennessee and then were a Morris layup away from OT with Duke as a #1 seed. Mexed in conference. '12 saw conference success and a first-round upset.

And I don't know how this was missed, but they steamrolled Texas, so I don't know what that's about. Other than that....

[iam416]

Oracle:

This year's squad mercifully shat the bed early against the likes of Arlington and La Tech thereby making it clear I ought to invest my time in other endeavors. They're wildly inconsistent, though Marc Loving has been consistently awful the past 4-6 weeks. They're a credible team at home and hot shit on the road.

They don't play all that big. They're ok up front, but they're more like M than, say, Purdue. So, eh -- I mean, I wish I could comment more on it, but I've watched them about 50% less than I usually do -- e.g., I didn't watch or think about the Rutgers game on Saturday.

The game against M is probably their best chance to get to 9 conference wins. Nebraska is on the road. And their final 3 games are, for some inexplicable reason, MSU, Iowa, @MSU.