Frazier is out for the BTT, possibly for the NCAA tournament as well. Now Illinois will use Calvin Brock, Alex Legion, and Jeff Jordan to guard Manny Harris. This from Erin Andrews.

Yeah, I read somewhere (helpful, hunh?) that he had surgery yesterday.

My prediction is we never trail.

sure hope so Avery.

Love to really stick it to Legion….

The loss of Frazier is bigger than most people would think. That guy is their heart and soul even if he doesn’t score… his defensive prowess inspires everyone on their team to step it up.

I would smile and laugh at the thought of Legion coming in and jacking up brick after brick, but he’s one of those guys that when he gets hot (if ever), it could be trouble.

Is it better is we lose today so we can snag the #10 or #11 seed? I hate that #8/#9 match-up, and (while obviously this is premature) a second round game against a #1 is never a good thing.

I think it is always better to win. I don’t care how many “experts” say Michigan is in the tournament – it won’t be a sure thing until the committee releases the bracket. A win today makes it that much harder for them to say no to UM.

Frazier out is good news for Michigan but there’s rumbling that Meachem is out for tonight’s game as well. We’ll see though. Michigan probably needs to win tonight just to be sure so that there’s no surprises.

Joey brackets has us in the 7-10 game vs BYU…then a possible matchup with duke. Wouldn’t that be interesting!!

Can we stop with this let’s lose this game crap?? The selection process is so random that actively rooting against your team so you can get a 10 seed instead of moving up the seed lines is stupid. very stupid. I can maybe MAYBE see this argument if there are two or three CLEAR CUT favorites to make the F4 but it is so wide open that there is not going to be much difference between a one seed or two seed matchup and both will be slotted into a favorable pod.

I don’t care about an extra 4-5% chance at making the sweet 16 (if it’s even that much). I want the highest seed possible. This team has come so far, at this point, whatever happens from here on out is gravy. (if you really want to talk percentages, the 8/9 game has produced more final four teams than the 7/10 fwiw) Hell if we win the whole BTT we might even slide up to a 7 so same result basically against a weaker opponent.

And let’s not forget that we’d have to actually, you know, win the first round game for any of this to matter. The lower our seed the better on average the first round opponent. so yeah, let’s win this today. go blue!

also, virginia tech just got jobbed by the ref there.

Is Lunardi’s bracket even possible? Would the committee schedule it so that Duke/Michigan would meet in the 2nd round? I thought they avoided that stuff if possible.

VT and Minnesota losing makes Michigan even more of a lock. I think I can finally relax. Even with some weirdness(Baylor and/or Kentucky winning their tourneys, U of M should still be set).

Hopefully they can give us an entertaining run this weekend.

yeah, we wouldn’t get put in a pod with a potential second round game against Duke. They would move us up or down a seed line if that were the case.

The thing about the BigTen this year is that seeds are going to get so messy. You can’t have BigTen teams meet before the sweet 16 I believe so that is going to priority number one. I know they “try” to not have rematches but I don’t think it is a set rule like the conference thing.

Travelingblue, I was thinking about that yesterday. Facing a 1 seed 2nd round is risky. But yeah that’s just fantasy. Got to win everything now.

VaTech and Minny losses are definitely good for Michigan. Virginia Tech’s bubble is popped.

We moved into the kenpom top 50 for the first time in a while. that 47 eFG% advantage yesterday probably has something to do with it.

Do we care who wins the wisco/osu game?

Kentucky’s loss should pop their bubble also. Only real “bubble” teams still playing are some of the MWC teams (San Diego St, New Mexico), the SEC teams (SC, Florida, Auburn), Penn State, and Maryland. I guess you could throw USC in there also. I’m probably forgetting some… (ok, maybe Temple too, and St. Mary’s if you want to count their “extra” game)

I agree on the dropping of the lose this one for the seed. Heck, if we keep winning like we are then there is NO ONE to fear in the tourney no matter what seed. I dare say that UConn, Duke, UNC and many more would have received a load of hurt from us yesterday. We are playing great basketball and I would like to see it continue.

This is a fun time that we should enjoy to the max. Even if we are one and done next week, we should celebrate it. This team has earned that right.

go badgers ldo

I’m glad our game tonight is on BTN. I’m so sick of ESPN.

I want as high a seed as possible. We’re getting ahead of ourselves, thinking about the second round of the tourney. Let’s get as winnable a first-round game as we can.

Digger was just ripping the B10 on ESPN, saying stuff like “I don’t get why they’re getting 8 teams in” and generally acting like its some great conspiracy. One of the other buffoons said he wondered if the conference would have any teams left after the first weekend.

Man, I hope the B10 has a strong showing so these idiots can eat their words. I don’t expect the conference to produce the national champ, but I’d like to see 3 or 4 in the Sweet 16 and maybe 1 or 2 in the regional finals.

Frazier had surgery yesterday to hopefully give him a shot to play in the big dance. Illinois is not confirming that the hand is broken.

Per Erin Andrews/ESPN

Andrews just confirmed that Frazier is out for the BTT. No word about Meachem. Is that a legit worry for Illinois tonight or a pipe dream?

Where did the Meachum rumor come from?

Yeah definitely want to see the B10 play well next week. It will hurt to pull for Sparty too, but ya gotta do it.

Beast1530 said it at 1:26 that there was rumblings? I assume that was out of thin air then?

Mississippi St up 7 on South Carolina, under six to go. lolsec

NM, Someone told me the wrong information. Meachem is playing.

We know that Frazier is out.

About an hour out from tip off… I’m just flat out excited for this one. Hopefully we keep looking good on offense, I have liked the rhythm and flow of the offense over the last couple weeks.

Looks like South Carolina is about to lose. I assume this pops their bubble as well, and thanks goodness. For some reason I really wanted SC to lose down the stretch. I have never disliked them before, but I’ve just inexplicably hated them recently. I think it’s because they were in the bubble talk over Michigan at some point, despite their patsy schedule, horrible RPI top 50 record, and altogether lack of basketball tradition. Boo Gamecocks. Have fun in the NIT.

Don’t worry ypsituckyboy… I’m sure the TV crews will figure out another “deserving” bubble team from the SEC. That is a 3 bid league at best.

It’s kind of awesome to be able to lay down some NIT jokes at the expense of OTHER PEOPLE. The last time I did that I was learning how to drive.

South Carolina is still on the bubble if they lose this game. They did finish 10-6 in the SEC, other than that their resume is crap.

I propose, since Michigan is all but a auto-lock at this point, we alter our bubble viewers guide to root against the SEC in hope they only get 2 teams in.

I don’t get why it’s so hard for Digger to understand. If you take a look at his conference three potential tourney teams absolutely sucked a fat one down the stretch in ND, GTOWN, and Cinci. If you look at the ACC you see similar behavior in Maryland for example blowing their chance at Georgia. Then you look at the B10 and Minny beats Wisco, PSU beats Ill, we beat Purdue and Minnesota. This is why are bubble teams are in and theirs are out.

And why doesn’t coach Digger recognize that while B10 might not be stacked with talent it’s stacked with coaches that would put him to shame. I cannot stand that man and his goddamn highlighters.

jgunnip,

I will totally second that. Let’s take out our hidden football envy of the SEC on their basketball teams. I’m more than willing to put all my cheering energy (that doesn’t get used up from 6:30-8:30) toward rooting for two bids for the SEC.

Oh, and one more thing. Since Izzo did the whole funny hairdo thing, I say we petition Beilein to do his best at copying Manny’s high school ‘do if we win the BTT.

See: http://mgoblog.com/content-61

Anyone feel bad for Virginia Tech? 74-72 loss to Wisconsin. 67-66 to UGA, 86-82 to Clemson, 67-66 to BC,67-65 to FSU and then today’s loss to UNC. A lot of close losses there…

BTW, I love the photo at the top of the post. Was that taken during yesterday’s game?

Yeah, it’s from the ESPN gallery from yesterday’s game.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/photos?gameId=290710130

To be honest Dylan…NO i dont feel bad for vatech. At some point you have to WIN your close games. I think they are still in the talk for a bid, but yea those close loses would have taken them to a LOCK.

your “LOL 2 bids for the SEC” bubble watch

Temple over Xavier
Maryland over Wake Forest
Baylor over Texas
SDSU over BYU
New Mexico St over Utah St
Duquesne over Dayton
Penn St over Purdue
Boston College over Duke
St. Mary’s over Eastern Washington
USC over UCLA

In the actual SEC itself I guess its Auburn over Florida and Alabama over Tennessee? Have to hope that LSU wins it all and Auburn loses in the semis I think. 2 bids is unlikely, but fun to watch for nonetheless.

I don’t think we are at the point where we can just root for the bubble to shrink and shrink. We are in a good spot but if things start going very badly we could be very disappointed on Sunday.

Frazier has a cast on his arm. They also just showed Michigan wearing the Queme Los Barcos shirts on the pre-game show. Getting close to tip off.

Gus!

Two misses for Peedi to start the game… Not quite as glorious of a start.

ok clearly we aren’t as hot as we think we are. maybe we can work the offense a little?

OK DeShawn, let’s try going inside.

that’s better.

Pretty good ball movement by Illinois against the 1-3-1. Peedi is taking too many perimeter jumpers though. Need to get him going inside.

Kelvin could provide a spark tonight… mark it down.

my god that was pure

Looks to me like they are pretty much just letting them play inside. Mike Davis is just a problem for Michigan, he’s such a good midrange jump shooter and Novak just can’t challenge him.

Stu with “incredible athleticism” per Gus Johnson? C’mon Gus……He’s no Bobby Sura!

Manny is looking so much better than when we played Illinois at Assembly Hall. He’s aggressive but not throwing up bad shots.

BTN’s scoreboard and clock issues are annoying!

double teaming tisdale seems pretty effective

McCamey looking like an All-American yet again when he plays us…

Gibson’s an underrated athlete for a big guy.

We are hanging in there but need to do a better job on Davis and on the glass. McCamey is also hitting some huge shots, getting some wide open looks too.

That lineup stayed out there for a long time. There were four subs waiting to come in forever.

McCamey is that big thick strong guard…he gives a lot of teams issues, he is a very good player. You always want one of those types on your team because of the matchup issues they can create.

Yeah, reminds me a lot of Chauncey Billups. Plays very smooth like Chauncey.

so much for feeling comfortable shooting with a game under our belt.

Well… Not much scoring there. Didn’t hit many shots and we’re only down 1. We won the game when we were losing by one, lost the one when we were winning. I guess that is a positive?

I’ll take being down 1 shooting 9/30

9/30 shooting; Manny and Sims 3/15. Down 1. At least we are doing the little things and working hard on defense.

30% shooting is holding us down right now

Given with how poorly our shooting is going right now, being down one, you need to be optimistic with our current position. They’re playing real solid defense, rotating the schemes effectively.

Catch fire a bit, and Blue wins by 6.

7 fouls in the first half… That qualifies as letting them play.

Michigan only has one turnover, Illinois only has two. Davis and McCamey have scored basically all of Illinois’ points, Keller added 2, Meacham added 1.

6 offensive boards for Illinois as well.

No one with more than 2 FGs in the first half. At least we are spreading it around.

We seem to be doing the right things just not making the shots. I think we need to stick with Sims. He’s obviously not shooting well but has been getting pretty good looks down low (as did Gibson).

I guess we forgot how bad we seemed to play on the short rest games. 4-10 on games where we have 3 or fewer days to prepare and our 4 wins? Northeastern, Indiana, Florida Gulf Coast and Duke. Hopefully we pull it together in the second half.

Hey guys, anyone know how to stream the game on an iPhone?

anybody find this game online? In Florida and no BTN

Not a good start. Come on boys. We believe in you!

baffled by our performance right now

Well, not a good second half start. Whenever they pan to the stands, there is a lot of orange.

We just can’t hit anything. We need hit some shots to get back in this game.

I thought yesterday the crowd was def PRO UM. but today it isnt. Illinois travels pretty well.

Gotta get out of this lil funk and keep shooting

Illinois is just shooting wide open shots now.

Stupid shot by Douglass there. That will kill any hope of a run.

BL11: The crowd was basically just non-existent yesterday. Not a lot of U-M fans or Iowa fans.

Right now we’re playing like a team that went 6 OTs last nite.

at least in the first half we looked like we were playing well just not making shots. now it’s stupid shots, turnovers, and defense lapses.

I know we’re not making shots, but the biggest problem with the start of this half is the defense. I thought we played pretty solid D in the 1st half and it has completely disappeared in the 2nd. Meacham and Tisdale getting wide open jump shots, they will knock those down.

Typical of the 1st rd…I remember being shocked the last time I attended the tourny at how the 1st rd is just empty.

These guys just need to buckle down and ball…..felt this same feeling about a week ago when we were in a funk against MINN….then we showed some fire and came back…same thing applies here!

We just can’t buy a basket.

We clearly don’t have our legs tonight. Oh well.

3 pointer should do it. We’re STILL proud of you this season!

Illinois shooting the lights out in the second half. 8 for 11. A blow out is probably the worst case scenario in terms of tournament/bubble talk as well.

if we get smashed tonight should there be some concern? Digger seemed to think that we needed this win for some reason

Still, watch this team. Even down 20, they won’t quit. They’ll keep fighting to the end. Unlike previous coach’s teams who mailed it in the first sign of trouble, coach Beilein’s teams never quit.

Well Digger is a moron. But if we get blown out, it is at least cause for concern I’d say. Michigan’s resume still stacks up and there won’t be much of an RPI dip but it is still not ideal to get blown out when there are so many other teams on the bubble.

Yes, this is a bad performance and it is the last taste in the committees mouth….need to pick it up…this is a joke.

well this was about the exact opposite of what i was expecting. guess we should be fresh for the tourney.

Agreed Dylan, but your first sentence is the important one. Digger is a moron

temple hangin with xavier,
maryland playing tight with WF,
baylor still in it with texas,

This team really plays well when the chips are down, but struggles with prosperity. Part of the maturity process I suppose.

It’s funny looking back now at some of those posts about ‘might be better if we lose for seeding’. There is nothing remotely ‘good’ about losing like this.

10 mins to turn things around, but I can’t see this getting under 10 the rest of the way.

Sims is playing so terrible.

yikes this is plain ugly

terribly*

Its funny how much this team goes as sims goes….its manny’s team but sims is the key….and it was obvious when sims starting chuckin jumpers to start that he didnt want to bang down low today…gunna sweat a lil on sunday now…really didnt want to have to.

well hopefully we can get some damage control here

Anyone else think maybe we should have rested a few guys yesterday rather than attempt to win by 30. A lot of short jump shots…which usually means tired legs. Frazier out and Manny still can’t shake a defender….a great player finds ways to get his. Lets at least get the score around 10 so it doesn’t look like the blowout it is. Here’s to bid come Sunday!
Go Blue!!

Let’s get it to 10 with 5 to go!

We need to learn to bring it every time down the court, offensively, and defensively…regardless if we are up by 10 or 15, or down by 10 or 15. We need to match their aggressiveness, That will come with experience. That coupled with our lack of size is attributing to the way this game is being played out.

i hate to say it…. but I feel like JB had some real questionable rotations throughout this game … as in there wasn’t any rotation. I think Perry/Shep/Grady all needed to get minutes tonight and so far they havent

good run, but too little too late. at least it looks respectable and we showed what we can do. hello waiting for sunday.

They never quit. I love this team

I don’t think you can blame it on “not resting guys” yesterday or the rotations. This team was a bit gassed but they were also just missing a lot of shots.

anyone else find that foul by tisdale where he slapped stu on the top of the head pretty funny?

frustrating 2nd half to say the least… they looked like they came out with the deer in the headlights look to start the 2nd half

And yes… it is great to see this team never quit. They aren’t going to win but an 11-0 run when you are down 20 still shows heart, and the power of the three pointer.

Yeah that was hilarious Avery

in the tournament if this team wants to make the sweet 16 there will have to be a better rotation

Bruce Weber just seems like a weirdo.

oh well…. here’s to sunday…. still will be a little nervous

What would you like to see rotation wise Bentley?

I never have and never will understand why anyone would want to see Shepherd or Wright on the floor over Novak. Maybe LLP coulda got a couple more minutes in the 2nd half with Stu broke as he was but who cares. We sucked and we looked surprisingly tired, so here’s to 6 days of rest, a 10+ bid, and hopefully 8 B10 teams representing in the big dance.

We lost, but it didn’t end up being a blowout. With the number of games being played right now, and the way we played yesterday, I doubt the committee was paying too much attention to this one.

Either way, I just don’t see us left out. With the poor play of so many other bubble teams, we’ve done a pretty good job to finish the season, and I expect us to hear our name called as an 11 on sunday.

Don’t look now but Temple up 3 on Xavier with just seconds left

I dont think there will be any consideration of leaving us out. We have done everything we needed to do. It would be thievery if we were left out. GO BLUE

Avery you have been a season long supporter on the Novak train..i always mention I wouldnt mind seeing Wright or Shep get a few minutes when we play bigger teams because of there size. Yes Novak has heart but he still has the body of an undersized Freshman guard playing forward. Ant has contributed here and there lately, and Shep we all know aint no hope for the future BUT he is more athletic. Im not saying bury Novak, but spell him sometimes, he isnt irreplaceable!

Temple 55, X 53

In a situation like a tournament where you are playing multiple games in short periods I like to give my guards as much rest as possible. I would have loved to see LLP get some more minutes… I know he didn’t play well in the first half (had a wild shot and some lapses on defense). However, I thought Lee, Douglass, and Nowak looked tired in the 2nd half. And it was apparent about 5 minutes in that they looked tired. I would love to see anyone spell those guys just a little more. I think that probably Manny should be the only guy getting more than 30 mpg in the tournament. I would love to see the minutes spread like so:

Lee 24-28 minutes
Grady 12-16 minutes

Douglass 24-28 minutes
LLP 12-16 minutes

Manny 28-34 minutes
Shep/Wright/anyone else 6-12 minutes (usually more towards 6)

Nowak (because he plays undersized its probably key to limit his minutes, but we know the roster doesn’t allow for that) ideally he gets 20-24 minutes, but with our roster he plays 30-36 minutes, not a whole lot you can do, unless you want to try and steal minutes with gibson and sims on the floor at the same time

Sims 28-32 minutes
Gibson 8-12 minutes

My biggest gripe is the rotation of the guards. When Lee looked tired and made that poor pass on the sideline that led to Davis’ breakaway dunk, I thought “great time to give Grady a few minutes”, Illinois was playing pressure D and we all know Grady can break pressure fairly well.

Oh well hopefully were still dancing. Can’t win em all.

Jay, I understand what your saying, I myself have thought it would be nice to have at least Wright in there more, but I think it boils down to a confidence thing with JB. I think he feels more confident offensively with Novak in there.

It’s not that I think Novak is amazing, he is definitely a mismatch half the time on defense, but it’s more that I think Shepherd and Wright are really bad at basketball.

So guys are we in or out, I still think we are safe.

i hate to beat a dead horse, but it would have been nice to see Grady get some minutes! –Remember the Min game, anyone?

i agree avery, wright more so than shep. Every time wright gets the ball I get nervous. I wouldn’t mind seeing shep get 6-12 minutes a game. He can finish inside and is ultimately athletic, but his shot is flat out awful.

RPI holds at 42. SOS pops up to 9.

We did pass Wisconsin in terms of RPI, they are now 43 with 11 SOS.

Root for UCLA to win the Pac10 so they can sneak back into the RPI top25. We want Purdue and Illinois to do well as well but they are going to likely play each other.

bentley – i think that’s fair. i agree that shepherd at least sometimes makes a head turning play out of nowhere. but he seems to usually cancel it out immediately though.

I hate to root against PSU but feel like maybe we should just to be safe?

definitely rooting for purdue… not necessarily to root against psu, but I would love to see purdue make a run and finish inside the top 25 rpi… that late season win over purdue would look very impressive

I am nervous about getting in…I don’t see Blue on the last four in our first four out…good sign right?

I didn’t see the game but I can’t say I’m surprised. Tisdale torched them in the 2nd meeting in Champaign, and Mike Davis is MUCH better than him. Am I imagining that Davis didn’t play the first time in Ann Arbor?

JOE LUNARDI ON ESPN SAID WE ARE A LOCK, JUST SAID IT 5 MINUTES AGO!!

AG2: Davis played at Ann Arbor, but wasn’t really prominent. He did have health problems in the middle of season. Now he’s 100% and it showed.

Illinois fan here, by the way. Good on your Wolverines for their little run, because the Illini were definitely smelling blood in the water for a while there. I, too, think that you guys should dance, but you never know with the upset bug going around.

Oh, might I point out an oversight in the game preview?

“think we will see a lot of zone, the 2-3 seems to be the zone of choice when opponents have a lot of size.”

Live and learn: Bruce Weber almost never zones. I’m not actually sure I ever remember him doing it. The man-to-man has good help and permits some switches, but no zone. Man, I hate to think how poor the Illini rebounding would be if we did zone. Ugh.

I was talking about Michigan running the 2-3 zone. I guess it wasn’t really that clear but I was referring to how Michigan will deal with Illinois’ size.

We’re in, there is no doubt about that.

I’m hoping to win one, and getting to the sweet 16 would be a dream!

What time is the selection sunday show on?

Dylan, thanks for excellent coverage of the Big Ten season and BTT! I look forward to your coverage and comments of Um in the big Dance!
Thanks

cbs at 6pm I believe.

Next year Cronin will stalemate most of the other bigs on our schedule. He will make it much more difficult for guys like tisdale, mullens, jujaun johnson…ect to score down low. He wont win every battle but we will be much better off.

Dylan

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/basketball/index.ssf/2009/03/ums_anthony_wright_brightens_y.html

Make sure you include that in amongst your links in your next blog if you haven’t already. Great story about Ant Wright. That is all legit because I am his facebook friend too and I saw the convo. I gained a lot of respect for Ant because of this.