- Australian expanding basketball game and horizons at Lake Forest Academy
- Tribune on Angus.
- Boilers prepare for struggling Wolverines
It is probably bad news that Hummel is practicing for the first time since early January - On Men’s Basketball: Michigan can’t fall back into old ways
Daily - How Michigan can make NCAA Tournament
“You try not to look at it … but you want to make it to the tournament so bad, you have to look at it to see what you have to do,” Manny Harris said Tuesday, a day before the Wolverines lost at Ohio State. - Iowa Game Recap (1/29/08)
MSU has exceeded their total number of road wins for the past two seasons - Tubby Smith says he’s not leaving Gophers despite rumors
- Big Ten tourney tix
Might be Michigan’s last shot. (HT: Spartans Weblog) - Detroit preps for big hoops
If you are going to the Final Four you better bring your binoculars. - The All-Underrated Team: Ten Names You Should Know
This might come in handy this March - Regression Toward the Mean: Michigan Falls, and Falls Hard, at Ohio State
Maize N Brew with a pretty drastic take on the OSU loss - Illinois’ 20-game winning streak against Minnesota ends
Minny 59 – Illinois 36. Yikes.
UM Hoops.com
University of Michigan Basketball News, Analysis, and Recruiting
This relates to both the Angelique blog as well as the Maize N Brew post…
For a while, I thought that the reason we were losing games recently was simply due to shots not falling (happens to all teams at some point) and mismatches on defense size-wise. But that 1st Half at OSU was a different story… you could really tell that we lost that mental edge that we had at the beginning of the year. The “we’ve got nothing to lose and we’re gonna shock the hell out of people because we know we’re capable” edge.
As much as Beilein warned against it, everyone – including the players – bought into the hype after the UCLA and Duke wins, and believed that this was a Top 25 team destined to make noise in the Tourney. Nowadays, it seems like the team is playing more like they’re scared to lose rather than excited to win. They’re nervous because they feel like these games are “must-win” now because they’re expected to make the Tournament – they didn’t have that same feeling in the UCLA/Duke games because the only hope/expectation for the year was to see improvement.
Not sure what it will take to get that edge back, but tomorrow would be a welcome time to see it.
Dylan,
What is your feeling on Brandt? He seems to always mention Michigan towards the top of his list. I initially thought we wouldn’t have a spot for him and that we were just staying in contact in case something unexpected happened and a scholarship opened up. Seeing Gibson’s lack of playing time even when we need size badly this year makes me beleive that a fifth year is not a lock and that we will have a spot for Brandt. Do you think Brandt is a long shot, a complete toss up, or a strong possibility at this point?
Dylan,
I don’t know if “drastic” was the take I was getting at. Just that this team looks to me like it’s struggling under the weight of its own expectations after some early season wins. They’re really not a deep team, or a particularly good defensive team. They’re about average. Which unfortunately is not where we, or they, want to be or believe they should be. As a result they’re pressing and taking some really bad shots. Confidence is gone. Shots are bricking. etc. They look like an NIT team right now, not a team that will last even a half in the NCAA tournament. I hate saying that, but their performance the last few weeks validates that sentiment. I’ll co-sign Giddings take above.
However, if you’re talking about Novak, I’d respectfully disagree. A one game suspension is fine, but two games would demonstrated (in my mind anyway) that Michigan was serious about taking the high road on incidents like these. I know the Kampfer incident shouldn’t matter because hockey and basketball are two separate sports, but public cheapshots leave everyone looking bad. While Michigan fans are calling for Tropp’s head after the Kampfer hit, I don’t think we can say “well, no harm no foul” on Novak’s ‘bo to the grill. Just my opinion, people are welcome to disagree.
after reading stuff on brandt today…….he is a must get….it seems as if he really wants to come to michigan…..lets get the good players that want to come to michigan…..im sure there is very few, however if this happens to be the case, then for the 2010 class it needs to be a zeigler/mccallum focused recruiting process after that or a casey prather/any other player that can create and penetrate….these are must get players
i dont care what anybody else says, after seeing the struggles as of late, we need more versatile players period.