For the “it’s frustrating we don’t play hard every night” crowd . . .
This team has the third highest winning percentage in Michigan basketball history. This team (.864) is slightly above the 1993 team (.861) which finished 31-5. You have to go back to 1984-85 (26-4 record) - or 36 years - to find a team that won a higher percentage of its games. I would humbly suggest this is not the third most talented Michigan team of all-time. In fact, I don’t know if it would make the top 10.
The team achieved all of this in one of the best years for the Big Ten in recent memory. I would say only 2013 is on par with this year. And 2 of its 3 losses came without Eli Brooks, a key player. Moreover, many of the wins (including several over tourney teams like Wisconsin, Iowa, Rutgers, Maryland, Purdue, and MSU) came in blowout fashion. We haven’t been squeaking past people by 4-5 points for the most part.
Historically, the Breslin Center has been a difficult venue for us. We are 3-19 in our last 22 trips there. Of the 19 losses, only the 1998 game (80-75) was closer than this one.
You can go look at the resume for any other team in the conference and find some bad nights. No team plays up to its ceiling every game. Unlike the 1993 and 1985 teams (both predicted to do great things), this team was not even picked in the top 25 at the start of the year. In a guard dominated game, it’s pretty likely we do not have a future NBA player in our backcourt rotation. Heck, our starting backcourt averages 17.5 points per game - combined. This front court - while great - is (for example) not on par with Rice, Mills, Vaught and Hughes - and that team had Rumeal in the backcourt.
The point is, this team has overachieved by almost every metric out there, and has truly had a great season. So I’m going to celebrate that and see how they perform in the real tourney. If Eli is back, I believe they’re going to make a deep run.
This team has the third highest winning percentage in Michigan basketball history. This team (.864) is slightly above the 1993 team (.861) which finished 31-5. You have to go back to 1984-85 (26-4 record) - or 36 years - to find a team that won a higher percentage of its games. I would humbly suggest this is not the third most talented Michigan team of all-time. In fact, I don’t know if it would make the top 10.
The team achieved all of this in one of the best years for the Big Ten in recent memory. I would say only 2013 is on par with this year. And 2 of its 3 losses came without Eli Brooks, a key player. Moreover, many of the wins (including several over tourney teams like Wisconsin, Iowa, Rutgers, Maryland, Purdue, and MSU) came in blowout fashion. We haven’t been squeaking past people by 4-5 points for the most part.
Historically, the Breslin Center has been a difficult venue for us. We are 3-19 in our last 22 trips there. Of the 19 losses, only the 1998 game (80-75) was closer than this one.
You can go look at the resume for any other team in the conference and find some bad nights. No team plays up to its ceiling every game. Unlike the 1993 and 1985 teams (both predicted to do great things), this team was not even picked in the top 25 at the start of the year. In a guard dominated game, it’s pretty likely we do not have a future NBA player in our backcourt rotation. Heck, our starting backcourt averages 17.5 points per game - combined. This front court - while great - is (for example) not on par with Rice, Mills, Vaught and Hughes - and that team had Rumeal in the backcourt.
The point is, this team has overachieved by almost every metric out there, and has truly had a great season. So I’m going to celebrate that and see how they perform in the real tourney. If Eli is back, I believe they’re going to make a deep run.
