Really has Been such a weird season...

Slightly off topic, but after yesterday Michigan looks scarier than Baylor at this point. The Wolverines are GOOD.

They’re deeper and have a legitimate physical front line.

I took Nova, Baylor and Michigan to win it all. That COVID break for Michigan and Baylor could prove beneficial. I’m not convinced that Zags have faced tough competition to make it through those close games with more competitive teams.

I think Michigan can win it all. I was very surprised when MNH thought we would match up well with them. I hope we get the opportunity to prove MNH right and me wrong.

I know I haven't directly said this on the forum, but I have been saying that Michigan is the best team in the NCAA since December.

You and Gary Parrish over at CBS hahaha, still bizzare how they dropped that game to the Gophers. Baylor hasn't gotten a fair wrap cause of the covid but I guess Mich was out for 3 weeks too. Impressive that they kept it together, they look really good.

I’ve been looking at Michigan hard lately and I just don’t buy into the hype of them as a legit contender to win the title.

Why?

Here’s a more detailed assessment:

1. For a top team, they are surprisingly lacking in raw athletic talent. Franz Wagner is their best athlete and his first round projection is based mainly on his size/skill set combination rather than his pure athleticism. You generally need at least one true motherfu*ker on your roster if you want to win a title. In fact I will say that unless Wagner has an amazing tournament, Michigan is not going to make the Final Four.

2. This Michigan team is nowhere near as talented as their previous two squads that went to the national final, which they lost both times because of not having enough mother*uckers to handle opposing motherfu*ckers.

3. This Michigan team is an amazing regular season team, kind of like a lot of those Virginia teams before they finally got over the hump thanks to — you guessed it — finally getting some legit motherfu*Kees on their roster.

4. Experience matters and Juwan Howard has never been on a tourney run. It’s a different beast than the regular season against teams you see on a regular basis.

5. Not convinced that little Mikey Smith is truly good enough to lead a team without great talent to a title.

6. Hunter Dickinson. Sigh. We have to endure at least one more season of the unwarranted hype. He’s a big stiff who gets his numbers because he’s big and therefore is hard to guard for teams that lack size. He can’t guard anyone with lateral quickness. He’s another George Zidek. Solid to good, but not a difference maker without lots of pieces around him.

7. Wagner I like, Livers is a great shooter. Dickinson is big. Smith is ok and all the rest are just a bunch of guys.

8. I’ve watched a lot of Big Ten this year. People talk about the PAC-12 being down, but the Big Ten is pretty overrated in my book. Just not very many high level athletes in that league this year. Which I think is one reason Michigan is doing so well.

9. So because of all these things, I think USC matches up better against Michigan than against Gonzaga, Baylor and Illinois. I forgot about Illinois! They are my pick to be the last Big Ten school standing in the tourney because in a one-game intensely focused playoff, its really hard to contain a determined Kofi Cockburn, Dosunmu and Frazier.

10. Am I suggesting USC would beat Michigan if matched up in the tourney? No. I’m saying we’d have a much better shot against them than against Gonzaga and Baylor and Illinois, because it’s hard to prepare to play an athletic freak like Mobley on a short timeline if you haven’t seen him before and you don’t have anyone freaky on your roster to counter . Mobley would give us a chance in a tournament setting.