Michigan Monday: March Madness and Un-Ring a Bell

I am concerned about the Michigan Basketball team.  They have played solid defense and shot the ball well most of the year.  Now they are looking lost on the basketball court.  

They lost to Purdue on Senior night to snap their home winning streak, went on the road and beat an Illinois squad that was imploding and then lost a big lead to Penn State to squeak out a win to finish the season.  Trey Burke carried the team on Friday against Minnesota and Saturday nobody showed up.   Don't get me wrong, Michigan has over achieved this year and I am proud of this team.    I just don't think they are playing their best basketball right now. 

The experts are saying that Tre Burke and Tim Hardaway are the keys to Michigan advancing in the tournament.  I agree and disagree.  If those two lays eggs, Michigan is in big trouble but I believe the key to the team advancing is getting scoring and better defense from Zack Novak, Stu Douglass and Evan Smotrycz.  It wouldn't hurt if Jordan Morgan pulled down a few rebounds either.

I do know one thing, March is a much better month with a relevant Michigan Basketball team.  The game against Ohio is at 7:20 on Friday on TNT.

• Just to recap the weekend from a recruiting standpoint, Michigan got a verbal commitment from a big Ohio corner in Gareon Conley.  He is 6'2 and 170 pounds and is Michigan's 15th verbal commitment to the 2013 class.    He is a bit under the radar right now and is a 4 star to scouts, not rated yet by Rivals and ESPN and a 3 star to 24/7.   His offer list included the likes of:  Northwestern, WVU and Toledo.   Many other D1 schools were showing interest like Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Indiana and others.   It is clear Michigan likes his film and wanted to snap him up early.   This is the second CB/DB in the 2013 class and probably the last.   Michigan is in on some top DB's in the country and if a 5 star corner or safety wants to jump on board, I think the coaches would say Yes.  The coaches like Gareon's size/frame and I assume would like to redshirt him a year to add some weight.

• Speaking of Ohio DB's:  Isaiah Bell has left the program.   Bell was on the roster this year but Brian at Mgoblog says he wasn't active during Fall Practice due to the maximum numbers of players participating.   Which means the writing was on the wall.   He never saw a snap at Michigan and wasn't going to.   Some recruiting experts thought  Rich Rod recruited too many MAC type players and Bell might have fit that criticism.   With Bell not being active, I don't expect he will effect the total number of spots available in the 2013 class, which I predict at 20. 

• Ty Isaac's visit went very well from a few accounts.  Ty isn't talking much but the last I heard he was planning to still visit USC.   Th interesting part is that Deveon Smith another highly ranked RB is expected to visit Ann Arbor this weekend.  Deveon is a 4 star recruit to Scouts and has an OSU offer.