... and musings, as the Dance commences in earnest…
• So No. 1 seed Michigan, the Big Ten regular-season champion, everybody’s darling three weeks ago, is suddenly getting treated like the leprosy victim of the brackets. Smile and wave, because it won’t be long…
Don’t get us wrong. Senior captain Isaiah Livers is a good player. A really good player. He’ll find his way into the NBA, if his body stops betraying him.
But Michigan didn’t lose Michael Jordan in his prime when Livers showed up in a walking boot. And Michigan didn’t lose a shot at the later rounds of the tournament, either.
It’s fashionable to say the Wolverines can get to the Sweet 16, but if Livers doesn’t suddenly become Lazarus, Juwan Howard’s team is dead itself. Not buying it.
There’s way too much talent remaining for that to be the case, even granting the anything-can-happen nature of the NCAAs. Freshman center Hunter Dickinson didn’t suddenly shrink to 5-1. Sophomore forward Franz Wagner didn’t catch the midnight train to Munich. Grad transfer guard Mike Smith isn’t consigned to perpetual 1-for-11 shooting performances, just because he experienced one.
You get the idea. There’s a general mental malaise when it comes to Juwan Howard’s crew, because of recent disappointments — the blowout by Illinois, the letdown at MSU, injuries and the near miss against Ohio State.
The tough losses mean nothing now. The injuries do, but they’re not fatal.
Dickinson — a defiant sort, if you haven’t noticed — might have put it best, going into the tournament. Told that Michigan suddenly isn’t a popular choice in the Dance anymore, he deadpanned a more-polite version of screw that.
“I think we’re the popular choice in this room, and in my opinion, that’s all that matters, really,” he said. “I don’t really care if the public thinks we’re going to win.
“We’re going to go out there and do the best we can to take each game one at a time, slow grind. Coach Howard is always talking about grind it out. That’s something we’re really trying to do.
“Especially for me, to take it one game at a time. It’s easy to look forward to the Final Four and the national championship, but you can’t get there unless you win the first game. After that, you’ve got to win the second game.
“I think we’re doing a good job of not focusing on what the media has to say. I don’t think we really care. If we’d have cared what the media said at the beginning of the season, we would have been in sixth place in the Big Ten and not ranked in the top five.
“We’ve got to continue what we were doing, focusing in on ourselves and believing in ourselves.”
Good point, on the pre-season dismissal. We know a lot more now, and Michigan isn’t the only imperfect crew fighting for the state championship of Indiana. At this writing, only one Big Ten team has played its way out of the tournament, and that formerly prominent program clawed in by a midget’s fingernails to begin with.
Competitors only, from this point on.
• Okay, now the gripe. We’ve seen Michigan’s entry into this tournament cast as a referendum on Howard’s ability to guide a team through the fierce battles of the tournament, the quick turn-arounds, etc.
That’s fine. But to add the annoying tag of “like John Beilein” is, well, annoying.
Let’s preface this by declaring — like we did well before it was fashionable — that Beilein is the best head coach in the history of the program, at least for now. He did amazing things in Ann Arbor, all above board, in a below-board college basketball world.
But Beilein was in his 18th year of college coaching when he first made the NCAA Tournament. Of course, he wasn’t going to make it at Erie Community College or Le Moyne. But the point is, he’d tucked a ton of college coaching experience inside his whistle before he guided Canisius to the Dance. He got there with Richmond and West Virginia as well, before he ever hit Ann Arbor.
He’d coached in four NCAA Tournaments by the time he came to Michigan, including the Elite Eight at West Virginia. Howard is in his first NCAA Tournament — making the Dance the initial time it was available to him as a college coach.
Not bad for starters.
So forget those comparisons, at least for now. Forget also the columnist who also wanted to make this a Howard versus Tom Izzo in the NCAAs showdown. Izzo didn’t make the NCAA Tournament the first year it was available to him as a head coach.
Or the second, for that matter.
Howard doesn’t need a run to the Final Four to justify his Big Ten Coach of the Year status, or somehow prove he’ll be like Iz, The Great and Terrible, when March rolls around. Howard has already set himself up for many NCAA opportunities to come, in a very short time.
Nevertheless, it’s easy to get distracted.
Some Michigan fans are fretting about whether Beilein might take the Indiana job, or coach at Notre Dame. It says here we don’t care if he heads to Bloomington, South Bend, East Lansing or Moscow to guide the Russian National Basketball Team in the 2024 Olympics.
He coached at Michigan, accomplished great things, and didn’t want to coach at Michigan anymore. Thanks. Best of luck.
It’s Howard’s turn, and Howard’s time. He’s already shocked the college basketball world in two short years here. It’s a good bet there are many more shocks to come, although they’re less shocking all the time.
Competitors only. Howard isn’t going to take his foot off that gas pedal until he drives through every wall.
• So No. 1 seed Michigan, the Big Ten regular-season champion, everybody’s darling three weeks ago, is suddenly getting treated like the leprosy victim of the brackets. Smile and wave, because it won’t be long…
Don’t get us wrong. Senior captain Isaiah Livers is a good player. A really good player. He’ll find his way into the NBA, if his body stops betraying him.
But Michigan didn’t lose Michael Jordan in his prime when Livers showed up in a walking boot. And Michigan didn’t lose a shot at the later rounds of the tournament, either.
It’s fashionable to say the Wolverines can get to the Sweet 16, but if Livers doesn’t suddenly become Lazarus, Juwan Howard’s team is dead itself. Not buying it.
There’s way too much talent remaining for that to be the case, even granting the anything-can-happen nature of the NCAAs. Freshman center Hunter Dickinson didn’t suddenly shrink to 5-1. Sophomore forward Franz Wagner didn’t catch the midnight train to Munich. Grad transfer guard Mike Smith isn’t consigned to perpetual 1-for-11 shooting performances, just because he experienced one.
You get the idea. There’s a general mental malaise when it comes to Juwan Howard’s crew, because of recent disappointments — the blowout by Illinois, the letdown at MSU, injuries and the near miss against Ohio State.
The tough losses mean nothing now. The injuries do, but they’re not fatal.
Dickinson — a defiant sort, if you haven’t noticed — might have put it best, going into the tournament. Told that Michigan suddenly isn’t a popular choice in the Dance anymore, he deadpanned a more-polite version of screw that.
“I think we’re the popular choice in this room, and in my opinion, that’s all that matters, really,” he said. “I don’t really care if the public thinks we’re going to win.
“We’re going to go out there and do the best we can to take each game one at a time, slow grind. Coach Howard is always talking about grind it out. That’s something we’re really trying to do.
“Especially for me, to take it one game at a time. It’s easy to look forward to the Final Four and the national championship, but you can’t get there unless you win the first game. After that, you’ve got to win the second game.
“I think we’re doing a good job of not focusing on what the media has to say. I don’t think we really care. If we’d have cared what the media said at the beginning of the season, we would have been in sixth place in the Big Ten and not ranked in the top five.
“We’ve got to continue what we were doing, focusing in on ourselves and believing in ourselves.”
Good point, on the pre-season dismissal. We know a lot more now, and Michigan isn’t the only imperfect crew fighting for the state championship of Indiana. At this writing, only one Big Ten team has played its way out of the tournament, and that formerly prominent program clawed in by a midget’s fingernails to begin with.
Competitors only, from this point on.
• Okay, now the gripe. We’ve seen Michigan’s entry into this tournament cast as a referendum on Howard’s ability to guide a team through the fierce battles of the tournament, the quick turn-arounds, etc.
That’s fine. But to add the annoying tag of “like John Beilein” is, well, annoying.
Let’s preface this by declaring — like we did well before it was fashionable — that Beilein is the best head coach in the history of the program, at least for now. He did amazing things in Ann Arbor, all above board, in a below-board college basketball world.
But Beilein was in his 18th year of college coaching when he first made the NCAA Tournament. Of course, he wasn’t going to make it at Erie Community College or Le Moyne. But the point is, he’d tucked a ton of college coaching experience inside his whistle before he guided Canisius to the Dance. He got there with Richmond and West Virginia as well, before he ever hit Ann Arbor.
He’d coached in four NCAA Tournaments by the time he came to Michigan, including the Elite Eight at West Virginia. Howard is in his first NCAA Tournament — making the Dance the initial time it was available to him as a college coach.
Not bad for starters.
So forget those comparisons, at least for now. Forget also the columnist who also wanted to make this a Howard versus Tom Izzo in the NCAAs showdown. Izzo didn’t make the NCAA Tournament the first year it was available to him as a head coach.
Or the second, for that matter.
Howard doesn’t need a run to the Final Four to justify his Big Ten Coach of the Year status, or somehow prove he’ll be like Iz, The Great and Terrible, when March rolls around. Howard has already set himself up for many NCAA opportunities to come, in a very short time.
Nevertheless, it’s easy to get distracted.
Some Michigan fans are fretting about whether Beilein might take the Indiana job, or coach at Notre Dame. It says here we don’t care if he heads to Bloomington, South Bend, East Lansing or Moscow to guide the Russian National Basketball Team in the 2024 Olympics.
He coached at Michigan, accomplished great things, and didn’t want to coach at Michigan anymore. Thanks. Best of luck.
It’s Howard’s turn, and Howard’s time. He’s already shocked the college basketball world in two short years here. It’s a good bet there are many more shocks to come, although they’re less shocking all the time.
Competitors only. Howard isn’t going to take his foot off that gas pedal until he drives through every wall.
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