My guess is that Big Ten coaches don't love the Big Ten Tournament. If you get a first round bye and you continue to win, you will play 3 games in 3 days. Then you add the fact that you could be playing in the NCAA Tournament in 4 days. That is a ton of high pressure basketball in a short matter of time.
I'm guessing John Beilein is one of those coaches, that doesn't love the BIG Tourney. He seems like a guy that likes to prepare his team properly for a game, not watch an hour of tape and then send his team to a shoot around. To keep his team fresh, I'm guessing we see a lot more Irvin and Bielfeldt then we have during the season. I also like the look of Spike and Derrick on the floor together. It gives Michigan another ball handler and I would like to see Spike get some more shots.
Most are predicting Michigan as a #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. There is a chance they move up to #2 with a strong Big Ten Tournament and others fall in the ACC. If Michigan makes a run in either tournament we need to see GR3 become this years McGary.
So the next question is, what about the NBA Draft and where do the experts see Michigan's 3 PRo's:
- Most NBA predictors have Nik anywhere between 10-20. Draft Express has him #20
- GR3 and Mitch seem to be trending to the second round. DE has GR3 at #44 and Mitch at #37.
It is really going to be difficult for the NBA guys to rate Mitch unless he gets healthy between now and the draft. If he can't work out, he will continue to drop. Teams are always worried about big men and back problems. I don't think you leave if your a second rounder, on the other hand we did see Hardaway jump up many boards after his work outs and combine. The success that Trey and Tim are having this year has to help other Beilein players with NBA executives.
- This is late but the Eagles released Jason Avant. I hope he finds another team but if he doesn't, he has been a stand up pro and I will never forget that one handed catch at Northwestern!
3 comments:
Michigan never does anything in the B1G Tourney. When was the last time we won two games in that? This season will be no different, and we'll end up with a 3 seed (same logic applies to why "experts" need to stop drooling over Wisconsin--Wisconsin almost always has good seeds in the NCAA Tourney and never does a damn thing). Michigan will be fine in the NCAA Tourney as long as Stauskas stays aggressive shooting the ball and other guys keep stepping up, whether it's GR3 or not. GR3 has long shown us we can't count on him, and we've gotten by just fine.
Coaches who have one of the top three or four teams in Conference don't love the Big 10 tourney... however, most likely coaches who are outside of that group are probably pretty happy to have that one last shot to get a tourney bid.
I'd love to see the bench get the majority of the minutes Saturday...
GO BLUE.
Unfortunately Michigan is looking like a Sweet 16 (if not earlier) bounce from the dance this year. Not enough on the interior and when your best scorer struggles to score against athletic defenders that usually spells and early exit.
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