Will Michigan Basketball Make The NCAA Tournament?
After beating Purdue by 24 points, it looked Michigan might've finally figured everything out. The talented freshmen were playing like five stars, Hunter Dickinson looked like a bonafide All-American against other really good bigs, DeVante' Jones had shored up his issues and was playing like the former Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and roles felt more defined across the board.
Then Michigan lost to Ohio State by 11 in Ann Arbor.
Now, we're past the halfway point in February and Michigan has seven regular season games left to bolster its resumé. Unfortunately, every team left on the schedule is ahead of Michigan in the standings. Michigan finishes out the regular season with games against No. 2 Wisconsin, No. 3 Illinois, No. 4 Ohio State, No. 5 Rutgers, No. 6 Michigan State and No. 7 Iowa (twice). The Wolverines are currently 1-5 against that remaining crop. That doesn't bode well for the maize and blue.
Or maybe it does. Obviously playing good teams night in and night out means the potential for losing is higher, but it also means that each win helps Michigan's resumé that much more. It's now up to Juwan Howard and his staff to get the team ready and impart the urgency necessary to make a run down the stretch.
I personally don't think it's going to go well enough for Michigan to get into the big dance. I just think the issues that we've seen all year are the norm and not the outlier. I'd love to be wrong, but unless the team defense and three-point shooting improves in a major way, I see 3-4 being the most realistic finish to the regular season, which would put Michigan 16-14 overall and 10-10 in the Big Ten. That regular season mark alone won't be good enough to get into the tourney. At that point, it would all come down to the Big Ten Tournament, which Michigan would probably need to win to get in.
