Michigan might not be a pushover...

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mesothelioma

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this year. Leading UCLA 38-35 with about half of the 2nd half left to go.
 

I'm about ready to put this game on mute. Cannot stand Dickie V! UGH!!!
 

You beat me to it, hey. I forgot how awful he is. He is mostly unintelligible, which is either the good part or the bad part...
 

Didn't he have laryngitis or something last year? I wish the recovery process was a little slower
 



I wonder if the Big Ten will actually be good enough to win the ACC-BT challenge (and in the process pick up another tourney bid or 2)?
 


mesothelioma said:
Michigan pulls off the upset! Is Michigan this good?
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I think it is a combo of Michigan maybe being a little better than people thought and UCLA being overrated. Doesn't take away from the magnitude of the victory though. Definitely good for our conference.
 

Manny Harris is a stud.

Michigan might finish highly in the Big Ten, but I think we've got to be afraid of Michigan, Harris could drop a ton of points any night.
 



Let's see where they are by Big Ten season time.

The buzzword for college hoops these days is parity. Anybody can win or lose on a given night.

Having said that, a nice win by the maize and blue tonight.
 

Manny Harris is a scary player the gophers and other big ten teams are going to have to look out for this year.
 

Having a competitive Michigan squad is a good thing for the Gophers--a stronger Big Ten will help at Tournament Selection Time. I still think the Gophers are way ahead of Michigan and Iowa (both of which are on their 3rd year with a new coaching regime as well). While the Gophers may struggle early in the year, a 5th or 6th place finish in a strong Big Ten puts us in the tournament discussion. Having Michigan struggle as they have the last few years doesn't help our chances. So long as they're not playing the Gophers, and particularly in the non-conference portion of their schedule, Go Blue!
 

Nice wins for the Big 10's "middle"

Michigan beats UCLA. The Illini win at Vandy. Win or lose, it's great to have those opportunities in November and December. If either Michigan or Illinois end up being bubble teams, these wins will be helpers for them.

And Michigan now assures itself of not 1 but 2 cracks at Duke.
 




Last night means two things to the Gophers:

1. The middle of the Big Ten might be better. Michigan looked like a totally different team last night in year two of the Beilein era. For the most part, Michigan was very disciplined and I still can't believe they ran a backdoor for a dunk to seal the victory. The thing about Michigan is that the offense is difficult to defend, but the matchup zone is just as difficult for opponents. When the Gophers play Michigan, they are going to have to deal with a defense they probably haven't seen before and, because of that, it is very difficult to duplicate in practices leading up to the game.

Almost as impressive as Michigan's win was Illinois' win at Vandy. I truly think that last year was the bottom for the Illini and they will be improved this season. I'm not totally surprised that McCamey and Frazier were good, but Illinois got good production out of their bigs Tisdale and Davis and won at a place where no one won last year.

2. For the Gophers, this means that the game against Louisville is a total must-win. If the Gophers don't beat the Ville, they won't have a non-conference victory as good as either Michigan or Illinois. If Minnesota loses to Louisville and want to get to the NCAA tournament, they are going to have to finish clearly ahead of either the Wolverines or Illini.
 

Good job michigan for taking advantage of a 17-9 turnover advantage and 8-1 steal advantage. They stole one. BIG BLUE SUCKS!
 

anonymous said:
2. For the Gophers, this means that the game against Louisville is a total must-win. If the Gophers don't beat the Ville, they won't have a non-conference victory as good as either Michigan or Illinois. If Minnesota loses to Louisville and want to get to the NCAA tournament, they are going to have to finish clearly ahead of either the Wolverines or Illini.
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No way is UL a "total must-win," they're the #3 team in the country! Of course we'll need to finish higher than Michigan or IL, that's a given. We're only a couple of games into the season...there are many scenarios that could play out come March that could get us in.

Calling a game a "must-win" only 3 games into the season against one of the top teams in the country is a little rash IMO...
 

If the Gophers beat Michigan and Illinois twice it won't matter if they lose to Louisville.
 

No, I don't think I'm being rash at all. The reality of the situation is that the Gophers have a non-conference schedule that is extremely weak. They have one true opportunity to make a mark and that is in the game against Louisville.

If you look back at teams that have been on the bubble and been left out on Selection Sunday, the common thread is that they didn't have anything resembling a marquee non-conference victory.

Because of that, the Gophers have zero margin for error in the non-conference season. They can't afford to lose a game they shouldn't -- and I think that there is at least a possibility that they drop a game one of the next three Saturdays -- and they need an attention-grabbing victory.

That was made even clearer by what Illinois and Michigan did last night. The Gophers are going to have to differentiate themselves from those two teams over the course of the season. While it is still November, the team the Gophers are going to have to worry about is Michigan. I say that because of two reasons. First, Beilein's teams tend to get better as the season goes along and if the Wolverines can look as good as they did last night in November, there is serious potential there. Second, the Gophers play Michigan twice in the final five games of the regular season. If Minnesota can't handle Michigan, that means the Gophers will also have a couple of late-season losses against competition that is roughly similar.
 

Bingo

"They can't afford to lose a game they shouldn't. ... and they need an attention-grabbing victory."

Well said. Bottom line is in November/December the Gophers' only chance for that attention-grabbing win is vs. Louisville. Because of the schedule, any other loss will be considered a bad loss, including Virginia because it's at home. Minus a win over Louisville, the Gophers must hold serve in the remaining 8 nonconference games, then do some significant damage -- 11-7 with some wins over the Big 10's elite -- in January, February & March.
 

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