The sky is not falling.

Yes, the Penn St. loss is disgusting. This is the first bad loss of the year for us. I don't know how much you guys have been following college basketball, but this has been happening to top teams all year. Michigan had been lucky enough to avoid the upset bug up until last night.


Rankings going into this week and key losses and (rpi)
1. Indiana - No bad loss.
2. Gonzaga - No bad loss.
3. Duke - (71) Maryland, (63) Virginia, Loss by 27 @ Miami
4. Michigan - Loss by 23 @ Michigan St., (185) Penn St.
5. Miami - (109) Florida Gulf Coast, (70) Indiana St., (150) Wake Forest
6. Kansas - (227) TCU
7. Georgetown - (133) South Florida
8. Florida - Loss by 11 to (81) Arkansas, (53) Tennessee
9. Michigan St. - No bad loss.
10. Louisville - (56) Villanova
11. Arizona - (45) Cal, (96) USC
12. Syracuse - (42) Temple, (56) Villanova

Teams Michigan will be fighting for a 2 seed have lost to teams like Indiana St., Florida Gulf Coast, TCU, South Florida, and Temple. If Michigan finishes the season 2-1 (Win over MSU+Purdue or Indiana+Purdue), I don't think them falling to a 3 seed.

Really . Thats not the issue . This team is not prepared for the toughness of a NCAA run. They should be, but they are not ! They are comming down to the stretch and the competition, is the same that they will be facing for the NCAA's its a good test and they are failing.

I think we will have a fine March. Trey Burke and THJ are both as good as gone after this year and I don't think either want to lose their final game against MSU and flop in the tournament, again.

And I guess my point was more that I can count the number of teams that are "prepared for the toughness of an NCAA run" right now on one hand.

Is Indiana prepared? they have lost 2 games to projected 8/9 seeds (Illinois/Minnesota) in the past 2 weeks.

Is Gonzaga prepared? They play a garbage schedule and are not battle tested.

Duke? No..

Kansas? No..

What teams, in your mind, are prepared for the toughness of an NCAA run? Or do you expect Michigan to be the only team to look "prepared"?

I don't think it's the Penn State loss by itself that is the issue, but the general trend over the last month. While they are still a very good offensive team, the defense has been really bad for over a month now, too long to deny that it's not a trend. I was hoping that getting Morgan back would help, but he played a lot against Penn State and their defense was atrocious in that game. They just seem to have a bunch of players who are primarily offensive players at this point in their careers. The three main freshman are really struggling with the concept of team defense right now.

The other thing I'm concerned about is he's basically playing Burke every minute of every game now. With the amount of the offense that rests on his shoulders, that's an alarming trend. If he is worn down come tournament time, we're in deep trouble. I'm just praying that with him being a year older and stronger he'll be able to weather it better than he did at the end of last season.

Well, the first half of the Ohio St. game Michigan looked flat. 2nd half they looked great.

The first half of the Indiana game, they looked flat. 2nd half they looekd great.

Looked flat @ MSU.

Looked flat vs PSU.

The first half of the Illionis game, they looked flat. The 2nd half they looked great.

Looked flat @ PSU.

I think they are playing uninspired. There was no reason for half of those turnovers to be made @ PSU. It seems as if sometimes it takes them a foot in the ass to get things going in the 2nd half. I hope that can be fixed by coaching, but I don't know how you'd go about fixing that. I hope Beilein does.

jjabilene wrote:

I don't think it's the Penn State loss by itself that is the issue, but the general trend over the last month. While they are still a very good offensive team, the defense has been really bad for over a month now, too long to deny that it's not a trend. I was hoping that getting Morgan back would help, but he played a lot against Penn State and their defense was atrocious in that game. They just seem to have a bunch of players who are primarily offensive players at this point in their careers. The three main freshman are really struggling with the concept of team defense right now.

The other thing I'm concerned about is he's basically playing Burke every minute of every game now. With the amount of the offense that rests on his shoulders, that's an alarming trend. If he is worn down come tournament time, we're in deep trouble. I'm just praying that with him being a year older and stronger he'll be able to weather it better than he did at the end of last season.

Very well put. My vote for post of the day.

I also agree with JJ. BUT the PSU game in of itself IS an issue. Up until now, whether they have come out flat or not they have not had a truly bad loss until PSU. Even getting their asses kicked in EL is somewhat justifiable.

So while the slow starts are concerning, the loss at PSU threw this whole season into doubt.