2008-2009 Men's College Basketball

gdennis59 wrote:

I would like to announce now, that I pick Duke to at least make the Final Four, and they are my pick to win the National Title.

I don't really like Duke.....I guess I like them better than UNC though.

My mom's boyfriend is a Duke graduate. He's so old though he said when he went there their basketball team was awful.

Michigan loses to Penn State...that's 3 straight losses

Same old Wolverines I guess

catbox_9 wrote:

Michigan loses to Penn State...that's 3 straight losses

Same old Wolverines I guess

Same old gonna miss the NCAA tournament Wolverines

Michigan blows out Penn St.

Michigan wins by 20. I'd have guessed they'd lose by 20. That's a huge win. They're currently a bubble team but I'd say that for the moment they are in. They have UConn next in Connecticut which is almost certainly a loss. If they pull off a miracle there they are in barring a complete meltdown at the end.

Big Ten Conference Standings - 2008-09
3-1-09

Standings	Conference				Overall
	W__	_L_	_GB_	_PCT_	_W_	_L_	_PCT_
Michigan State	13	3	-	.813	23	5	.821
Purdue	11	5	1½	.688	22	7	.759
Illinois	11	6	1½	.647	23	7	.767
Penn State	9	7	3½	.563	20	9	.690
Wisconsin	9	7	4	.563	18	10	.643
Minnesota	8	8	4½	.500	20	8	.714
Ohio State	8	8	4½	.500	18	9	.667
Michigan	8	9	4½	.471	18	12	.600
Northwestern	7	9	5½	.438	16	11	.593
Iowa	4	12	8½	.250	14	15	.483
Indiana	1	15	11½	.063	6	22	.214

catbox_9 wrote:

Michigan blows out Penn St.

Michigan wins by 20. I'd have guessed they'd lose by 20. That's a huge win. They're currently a bubble team but I'd say that for the moment they are in. They have UConn next in Connecticut which is almost certainly a loss. If they pull off a miracle there they are in barring a complete meltdown at the end.

Michigan ain't getting in

Which is a shame

Since they haven't been in since 98

I think?

BIG TEN TOURNEY
U-M routs Iowa, 73-45

By JON MACHOTA • FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER • March 12, 2009

Here's our game blog of Michigan's 73-45 win over Iowa in the Big Ten tournament. Michigan advances to play Illinois tomorrow.

Overview

This was a must win game for the Wolverines. Michigan has put together a solid tournament résumé thus far with wins over Duke, UCLA, Illinois and Purdue, but a loss to Iowa could have pushed them out of the field of 65.

Iowa and Michigan split their regular season games with each team winning at home. In late February, the Wolverines shot under 30% from the field in the second half of the teams’ most recent meeting. The Hawkeyes won that game, 70-60 in overtime, behind 23 points from guard Jake Kelly. Iowa never got any momentum from that contest as they finished the season losing three of its last four.

First half

15:02: DeShawn Sims setting the tone early for the Wolverines. Iowa has no answer for Sims down low and he is capitalizing, netting the Wolverines first eight points. Other than Sims output there hasn’t been much offensive flow for either team.


13:55: Sims again! This is a good sign for Michigan. This is reminiscent of his dominant performance against Duke. Sims 10, Iowa 7.


12:20: Two more baskets for the Pershing grad. Perfect from the field, Sims now has the Wolverines first 14 points. Scoring with his back to the basket and facing up for mid-range jumpers, Sims is showing his entire arsenal early. He’s on pace to give Kentucky’s Jodie Meeks, who scored 54 against Tennessee this year, a run for his money. Iowa calls a timeout and John Beilein elects to give Sims a breather.

11:00: Sims gets back in the game and what do you think he did? Yeah, he hit another field goal. He’s now 8-for-8 from the field. Laval Lucas-Perry did get in the act though, hitting a three. Michigan 19, Iowa 9.


9:50: Lucas-Perry knocks down another three and Manny Harris converted a three point play to extend the Wolverines lead.

8:29: Kelly made a 24-foot trey to get the Hawkeyes within 10, 25-15. For some reason the Wolverines haven’t gone back to Sims. I say feed this guy until he misses. TV time-out and Sims gets another breather.

5:53: Iowa finally has more points than Sims. Jarryd Cole converts a layup for the Hawkeyes. Michigan 28, Iowa 17.

5:09: Manny officially just punched in! Harris drove baseline, got free and threw down an aggressive one-hander. The Wolverines have all the momentum right now, and are looking like a strong NCAA Tournament team right now. Michigan 30, Iowa 17.

3:10: This first half is flying by. Stu Douglass hits a triple to extend the Wolverines lead. Iowa has no offensive rhythm and shooting 6-of-19 from the field certainly isn’t helping. Sims hasn’t touched the ball since that early spurt. He’s not really needed at this point. Offensively, Iowa looks like this is the first time the Hawkeyes have ever played together.

Halftime

Not a bad way to enter the break. Michigan ended the first half on a 15-2 run. Iowa missed its last six field goal attempts and look as if they don’t belong on the same court as the Wolverines.

The 40-19 halftime score is the largest halftime deficit for the Hawkeyes this season.

Sims has eight first half field goals and the entire Hawkeye team only has six. Beilien told ESPN’s Erin Andrews that Sims’ practice habits have been so good lately that he isn’t surprised at all by his offensive dominance thus far.
Second half

18:56: Sims is human - he missed an 18 foot jumper. And Iowa seems to have found some offense. A pair of layups and a triple have the Hawkeyes within 16, 42-26.

17:00: Sims hits a baseline jumper for his 20th point of the afternoon. The shots Sims is hitting have all come on good looks. Other than one jumper he forced, Iowa has allowed him to get whatever he wants.

15:50: Stu Douglass adds a three and Sims gets a dunk. TV timeout and Michigan looks as good as they have all season. The way the Wolverines are playing right now they look to be a handful for whoever they see in the first round of the tourney.

13:30: Zack Gibson gets into the scoring column with an easy lay-in. It’s almost getting to the time where Beilein can give a little rest to Harris and Sims for the next round.

12:00: Iowa still looks lost on offense and is trying to get back in the game with some long range bombs. They aren’t falling though. Sims added a three to his game stats. He now has 11 field goals, the same as Iowa’s entire team. Michigan 56, Iowa 32.

10:00: Iowa players are going to have nightmares of Sims for a long time. Even when they try to double down on, Sims is able to score a nifty lay in. 27 points now.

7:00: Steve Lavin and Brent Musburger have become so bored with this contest that they have shifted their focus to talks of expanding the NCAA Tournament and having a different system for the play-in game. Musburger believes the play-in game should have a pair of bubble teams square off for a possible 9-12 seed. Sounds like a good idea to me. Oh yeah, there’s a game being played… Michigan 61, Iowa 36.

4:42: Harris wants Iowa to know that their season will be over very shortly. He knocked down a pair of three’s and subs are starting to work their way in. Clear the benches!

3:23: Iowa’s Cyrus Tate makes a 7-foot jumper and finally the Hawkeyes have scored as many points as the Wolverines had in the first half. Michigan 69, Iowa 40.

0:47: Gibson and Douglass make a pair of lay-ins to cap the Wolverines scoring.

Final score: Michigan 73, Iowa 45.

Postgame

Sims finishes with 27 points on 12-of-16 shooting and Harris was 7-for-11 with 18 points.

ESPN2 has shown a couple different clips of Beilein’s pregame speech today. It was a pretty basic, “you know what you have to do” speech, but it's still nice that he lets the cameras in the locker room. I wonder if Mike Krzyzewski or Roy Williams would do that? Probably not.

Iowa finished 4-of-16 from long range and 15-of-44 from the field - that’s not going to get it done against a low-end mid major team.

The Wolverines move on to face Illinois tomorrow which I’m sure will be a much better opponent. The biggest thing about today’s contest is the Wolverines punched their ticket to the dance. Celebrate Wolverines, you’re going to the tourney for the first time this decade!

gs78 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

Michigan blows out Penn St.

Michigan wins by 20. I'd have guessed they'd lose by 20. That's a huge win. They're currently a bubble team but I'd say that for the moment they are in. They have UConn next in Connecticut which is almost certainly a loss. If they pull off a miracle there they are in barring a complete meltdown at the end.

Michigan ain't getting in

They are now (probably)!

catbox_9 wrote:

gs78 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

Michigan blows out Penn St.

Michigan wins by 20. I'd have guessed they'd lose by 20. That's a huge win. They're currently a bubble team but I'd say that for the moment they are in. They have UConn next in Connecticut which is almost certainly a loss. If they pull off a miracle there they are in barring a complete meltdown at the end.

Michigan ain't getting in

They are now (probably)!

Michigan will have to win the Big Ten Tournament

Or at least get to the Final Game to have a chance

Michigan is in!

They play Clemson in their first game.

NCAA TOURNAMENT | ROAD TO FORD FIELD
MSU No. 2 in Midwest, Michigan No. 10 in South

POSTED BY KIRKLAND CRAWFORD • FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER • March 15, 2009

Michigan State will travel to Minneapolis as the No. 2 seed in the Midwest region of the NCAA tournament to play No. 15-seed Robert Morris, the Northeast Conference champions on Friday.

The Spartans (26-6) would play the winner of the Boston College/Southern Cal winner if MSU wins Friday.

Michigan got the No. 10 seed in the South region and will go to Kansas City, Mo., to play No. 7 Clemson. The winner of that game will see the winner of the 2/15 matchup between Oklahoma and Morgan State.

Robert Morris (24-10) won the conference championship over Mount St. Mary's.

Clemson (23-8), ranked 17th in the nation, was upset in the ACC tournament by Georgia Tech. But, the Tigers started the season 16-0.

Both Clemson and Michigan have something in common, a victory over Duke this season. The Tigers' came win the Blue Devils were ranked No. 1.

The four No. 1 seeds are Louisville (Midwest), Pittsburgh (East), North Carolina (South) and Connecticut (West). In the national semifinals, April 4 at Ford Field, the Midwest region winner will play the West and the East will play the South.

Go Michigan (State)

catbox_9 wrote:

Michigan is in!

They play Clemson in their first game.

I don't believe it

Spartans will defeat Robert Morris


Clemson will defeat Michigan

gs78 wrote:

Spartans will defeat Robert Morris

I predict Elite 8 or better.

gs78 wrote:

Clemson will defeat Michigan

Probably...but maybe not. I predict no better than the Sweet 16 for Michigan. Mostly likely is one and done

catbox_9 wrote:

gs78 wrote:

Spartans will defeat Robert Morris

I predict Elite 8 or better.

gs78 wrote:

Clemson will defeat Michigan

Probably...but maybe not. I predict no better than the Sweet 16 for Michigan. Mostly likely is one and done

Spartans could be upset in the next round; depending on who they play

Michigan is one and done

But they should be happy they made the big dance

Saturday, March 21, 2009
NCAA Tournament: Oklahoma 73, Michigan 63
U-M's season comes to an end
Second-seeded Oklahoma marches to Sweet Sixteen dispatching Michigan
Angelique S. Chengelis / The Detroit News

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Michigan's NCAA Tournament is over, but the Wolverines believe they proved plenty this season.

A year removed from a dismal 10-22 showing, coach John Beilein led his team to the second round of the tournament, where Michigan faced No. 2-seed Oklahoma and its spectacular sophomore, Blake Griffin, on Saturday in the Sprint Center.

The Sooners -- specifically Griffin -- were too much for the Wolverines, as they advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 73-63 victory. Griffin, arguably the best player in the nation, recorded his 28th double-double of the season, scoring a game-high 33 and grabbing 17 rebounds.

"We tried everything we could to stop Blake," Beilein said. "The residual effect was we couldn't stop him obviously the way we would like to stop him. Our guys played as hard, as well as we could, and I think we're a better team than we played, but it just didn't work that way."

Griffin certainly was a factor, but so was Michigan's foul trouble

Leading scorer Manny Harris was on the bench for most of the first half with two fouls, but the Wolverines (21-14) fought back from a seven-point deficit to go into halftime trailing by one point.

DeShawn Sims and Anthony Wright, who came off the bench in the first half to spell Harris and sparked Michigan, led the Wolverines in scoring with 14 points apiece. Manny Harris and C.J. Lee each scored 11 before both fouled out with about two minutes remaining.

While the Wolverines have said repeatedly during the season there are no moral victories, they had to admit they played hard, were scrappy and exhibited toughness against a force like Griffin and the Sooners (29-5).

"I'm real proud," Harris said. "A lot of doubters, a lot of people expected us to do worse than we just did. We just proved some people wrong. We still fell short of our goal, but our team fought hard and showed toughness."

Michigan's slow start in the second half proved costly.

The Sooners went on an 8-0 run in the opening three minutes to take a 38-29 lead.

"They came out with some momentum, they executed and we had some turnovers and missed shots coming out of the half," Sims said. "We battled back, and they kind of took it away."

Oklahoma's lead swelled to 13 when Griffin scored on a devastating one-handed dunk over Michigan freshman Zack Novak, sending Novak toppling to the court. Griffin milked the moment. He stood and faced his bench as Sooners fans erupted in cheers. He completed the three-point play for a 58-45 lead with 9:23 left.

"That was a heck of a play," Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. "It was a big, big-time play, big-time finish, and I think he just enjoyed it. He was sharing that moment with his teammates."

But the Wolverines responded.

They went on a 10-0 run, including two 3-pointers by Lee to pull as close as they would get, 58-55, with 6:04 left. The Sooners regained a 13-point lead before the end of the game.

"Being in foul trouble and adjusting to coming back hard against a team of that caliber I think had some factor in our starting the second half," Beilein said.

Even with that foul trouble, even with Griffin, who at 6-foot-10 and 250 pounds is a powerful presence, the Wolverines kept applying pressure. Remarkably, the were outrebounded by only one, 35-34.

"We scrapped for everything," Wright said. "The way we scrapped today was incredible."

You can reach Angelique S. Chengelis at angelique.chengelis@detnews.com.

Sunday, March 22, 2009
Michigan State 74, Southern California 69
Michigan State moves on to Sweet 16
Eric Lacy / The Detroit News

MINNEAPOLIS -- Michigan State went big, small and everything in between Sunday night to earn its eighth Sweet 16 appearance in 12 years.

Against a Southern California team boasting at least three potential NBA prospects, the Spartans overcame foul trouble from their starters with a variety of lineups to pull away for a 74-69 victory at the Metrodome.

Tom Izzo's team will next face Kansas on Friday in a Midwest Regional semifinal at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

MSU beat the Jayhawks 75-62 on Jan. 10 in a nationally televised game at Breslin Center.

In Sunday's game, Izzo was forced to experiment with his substitution patterns because starters Goran Suton and Raymar Morgan both had four fouls midway through the second half.

Late in the second half, Izzo used a three-guard lineup of Kalin Lucas, Travis Walton and Chris Allen, played 6-foot-6 freshman Draymond Green at center and used Morgan at power forward.

Ironically, it was Green, a potential redshirt candidate before the season started, who helped put the game away.

The Saginaw native buried a free throw with 12.7 seconds left for a 74-69 lead.

With four fouls, Suton built the lead to four with his a pair of free throws at the 1:19 mark.

Walton led the Spartans with a career-high 18 points.

You can reach Eric Lacy at elacy@detnews.com.

Go Spartans