Michigan Basketball: Ohio State loss drops Wolverines in bracketology
Michigan basketball suffered two costly losses this week to Wisconsin and Ohio State and as you’d expect, the Wolverines took a hit in bracketology.
Just when everything seemed to be going right for the Michigan basketball team, the Wolverines lost back-to-back games, one at home against Wisconsin and another on the road against Ohio State.
Eli Brooks missed the game in the first loss to the Badgers, but he returned against Ohio State with a broken nose and a mask Sunday, however, it didn’t make a huge difference. He played fine, but Michigan basketball still couldn’t knock down a 3-pointer.
The game was right there for the taking as Michigan only trailed by three points at halftime, yet guys just couldn’t make shots, while Ohio State caught fire from deep as Duane Washington and Kaleb Wesson knocked down nine 3-pointers, compared to just seven total for U-M.
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The Wolverines are now 9-9 overall in the Big Ten conference and even though Michigan doesn’t seem to be in jeopardy of missing the NCAA tournament, they took a hit in bracketology projections.
Joe Lunardi of ESPN dropped his bracket Monday morning and he placed Michigan as a six seed. Jerry Palm of CBS, who for the most part has projected Michigan basketball a little higher than Lunardi, projected the Wolverines as a seven seed in his latest bracket.
It’s not the end of the world, but just last week, Michigan seemed to be pushing towards that 4-5 seeding line with the Big Ten tournament approaching and now the Wolverines seem closer to being an eight seed than a five.
Thursday’s home finale against Nebraska will be huge. Michigan has a solid resume and with all the quality wins, a loss shouldn’t be enough to knock Michigan from the bracket, but the Wolverines don’t even want that conversation starting.
They also could really use a win or two before the start of the NCAA tournament to help keep them in that 6-7 range at least. Michigan will get a chance to score another very impressive win at Maryland next weekend, which could help move U-M up again.
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Either way, the Wolverines cannot go into the postseason on a four-game losing streak so getting at least one win is essential and avoiding a bad loss to Nebraska will be even more important.