Comments on: Monday Polls: Not Ranked

By: Ky Fox

Ky Fox — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:34:54 +0000

I think we should, and I would imagine JB is taking a Saban type approach to the season..meaning 1 game at a time, make sure we play the best we can in each and every game and people who make the those decisions will soon realize UM is a talented and dangerous team and we will eventually and respectfully get some love from the media. Yes it did surprise me on Monday when I didnt see us in the polls but there isnt much we can do about it other than continue to play very good basketball and win games….and hopefully we can continue to get decent crowds into crisler night in and night out, because we are really protecting Crisler and thats the way it should be…Crisler should be a tough place to play. We have to remember the state the program has been in. Beilein has done a wonderful job so far and I think we will only get better. If we win the games we are supposed to win(which now are a few more than what we originally thought) and steal a few big games on the road we will in fact see our boys in the top 25 and it will be a glorious sight and all it will be is a bi-product of playing well and winning games!!
GO BLUE!!

By: rlc

rlc — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:53:39 +0000

While I’d like to agree that polls don’t matter, they do. And as much as I wish that the team would be recognized for playing quality basketball over the remainder of the non-conference schedule, it won’t be.

There are only three ways to get ranked:
1) Be ranked and don’t embarass yourself.
2) Beat ranked teams.
3) Put up a long unbeaten streak while ranked teams lose.

So Michigan has done #2 and not broken into the rankings. What other chances will there be? I don’t see this team winning 10 straight in the Big Ten, so it will have to be more wins against ranked teams. With Bucky Badger having tunnelled his way out of the top 25, the remaining gamea against currently ranked opponents are: home and home against the Buckeyes and Boilermakers, at Connecticut and home to Sparty. If the team can avoid losing more than once before the 1/17 game against tOSU in Crisler, that’s probably our best shot to get into the rankings, and then it’s a matter of doing #1 above.

By: Giddings

Giddings — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:04:22 +0000

Agree with Go Blue… once you are ranked, every single one of your games will have highlights on Sportscenter, news stories on the sidebar of ESPN.com, and scores on the “tickers” at the bottom – even for games against the Eastern Michigans and Savannah States of the world. The instant boost in exposure is crazy really… and it has to have some impact on non-local recruits.

But I also agree with Dylan that it’s difficult to see where we’d fit into the rankings at this point since the only 2 loss teams at MSU, Purdue, and UCLA, and it’s very hard to drop out of the rankings from the pre-season Top 10 when you’re losing to ranked teams (ok, with the exception of MSU to Maryland and UCLA to us).

By: Ken in Vegas

Ken in Vegas — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:00:03 +0000

I’m with Go Blue and Ken in Vegas on this one. I totally understand and draw comfort from what all of you are saying. These polls do not hold a lot of water at this point in the season, but that doesn’t negate the fact that the pollsters acted unfairly, biased, and without reason. Not a good sign if we are a bubble team, which I’m almost certain we will be. I also just think it’s a slight towards our players and fans who deserved to be recognized for their acheivements so far. Yes, we can push ourselves into the rankings by taking care of business these next four games, but if we are to lose even 1 of our next 6 or 7 games, then we will probably be back to getting 20 votes each week in the polls. Clearly people are skeptical of us and are looking for any reason to brush us back into the chasm of mediocrity. We have one of the best resumes in the nation right now and should be treated like it. Oh the corruption. Still very pumped though and I can hardly wait to watch another game.

By: rob

rob — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:31:18 +0000

lets take care of these next 4 games guys. if we go through unscathed at 10-2 heading into the conference schedule, we’ll def. be a top 20 team. don’t get me wrong, i’m psyched we’ve played well so far, but let’s take care of business on a regular basis before we start to worry about rankings.

By: Kenny

Kenny — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:06:45 +0000

At this time of the year, the pool doesn’t matter at all. This Michigan team is not the one that dominate other teams with superior talents, and although we pulled down two big upset this season, we still don’t have the talent level to win a 7-game series against Duke and UCLA alike. If we manage to win the rest of the non-conference games, and get more than 12 conference wins, we will be ranked at some point. But more important goal is to get back to the tournament, and make a small run to Sweet 16 or even Elite 8. I have little doubt that we will see more improvement from the team as the season progress.

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:38:37 +0000

Don’t sweat the polls – they are meaningless, especially this time of year. Established successful programs get a lot of extra credit among the voters – UM isn’t in that category yet. I don’t think anyone who seriously follows college basketball put much faith in the polls.

Enjoy the moment – It was a great win, with the extra satisfaction that it was also a Duke loss. It was exciting to see so many fans again at Chrisler – I just hope they keep coming for the EMU, Florida Gulf Coast, and NC Central games. Keep up the momentum going into the first week of the Big 10 season and the polls, and more importantly, the the torunament bids will take care of themselves.

By: Latest Hoops Rankings: Why do you care? | MVictors.com: Michigan Football Blog

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:38:13 +0000

[...] of a few M fans who are very bitter that Sims, Harris and the rest of Beilein’s ballers weren’t ranked in the AP or coaches top [...]

By: Go Blue

Go Blue — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:20:25 +0000

I have to disagree with you guys on this one. UM deserves to be ranked and its a shame that a team like MSU has ZERO quality wins and 2 BLOWOUT losses and they are ranked???These idiots need to base their rankings on performance not perception. I also disagree about it being good for the team. It would be good for recruiting and perception of the program if every time a recruit watches ESPN he sees UM on the top 25 ticker. After all this program has been through the last 10 years, its obvious UM will not be getting the benefit of the doubt in March, so they better avoid anything close to a bubble! Im pissed, I hope the players are also.

By: jg

jg — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:12:21 +0000

also,

The importance of these four games before conference play starts up cannot be stressed enough. The Big Ten is shaping up to be an absolute dogfight this year. Purdue, MSU, and Wisconsin have underperformed so far but we know they’ll be there when it counts. Everyone else not including Iowa and Indiana have looked better than expected so far, even Northwestern has put impressive wins at home against Florida St. and Depaul. We need all the momentum we can get going into a favorable first half of the conference slate.