Michigan Basketball: With favorable Sweet 16 path, the time is now

Could Michigan basketball make a run to the Sweet 16? The path is there for the Wolverines. 

Phew. We can all collectively exhale. Like I said in prior articles, I never fully doubted Michigan basketball making the tournament, but I was really surprised at where they were ranked and placed in the NCAA Tournament.

For one, the fact that they made it in as an 11-seed really surprised me because I thought that they would be a Last Four In team at best. Instead, they made it in as a Last Four Byes, which is the 11-seed.

Here’s the official bracket:

People are (understandably) upset in some other fanbases like Indiana, and Texas A&M, because Indiana has a play-in game, and Texas A&M, is out of the field, but as a fan, you have to look at a team’s entire body of work. Michigan’s strength of schedule was much harder than both of those teams (4th-hardest), and they had a combined 8 wins against Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents.

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None of the other teams could boast that. The Big Ten conference was deep this year. Everybody could see that. That is one of the reasons why nine Big Ten teams made the field of 68 this year. I get the 14 losses thing, but Michigan basketball more than passes the eye test. They have proven that they can play with anyone and only had one bad loss this season (at home against Minnesota).

Michigan basketball has a great matchup as an 11 seed

Believe it or not, but despite having 14 losses, Michigan basketball actually has the easiest first-round opponent of any of the other 11-seeds. Colorado State plays in the Mountain West, a very solid, but unspectacular conference.

In the Midwest region, Iowa State is an 11-seed and they play LSU in the first round. Very tough matchup for Iowa State, even with the recent firing of LSU’s head coach.

I don’t think LSU will just bend over and give in just because their coach got fired.  Looking at the East region, Virginia Tech has to play Texas, which is another very tough matchup as Texas plays in the rugged Big-12. Lastly, in the West Region, the winner of Notre Dame and Rutgers has to play Alabama, a team that beat Gonzaga earlier in the season.

Obviously, nothing is guaranteed, but if Michigan basketball can just score and play solid defense, they should get by Colorado State. Colorado State is nowhere near as battle-tested.

The Rams will play inspired, but I don’t think they’ll win. They do have one really good player in David Roddy, who averages 19.4ppg, but the Rams are definitely undersized, as their average height as a team is 6’4, and they only have one player over 6’8, a center who is 6’10, but who only plays 30% of the team’s minutes.

The most likely scenario is Michigan will face Tennessee in the second round as I just can’t see Longwood upsetting Tennessee.

For now, I’ll stick with going as far as the Sweet 16, but a potential date with Villanova or Loyola Chicago or Ohio State could be in store for Michigan (assuming it can string together some dang wins for once).

All in all, the path to the Sweet 16 isn’t so crazy that it looks completely unattainable. Michigan was honestly lucky to have the committee think so highly of it and for the Wolverines to get put in a favorable region. Getting out of the Round of 32 might end up being tougher than winning in the Sweet 16, but hey, the path is definitely there.

I can’t say the same for Ohio State and Michigan State though. Ohio State has to play Loyola-Chicago in the first round, and Michigan State has to play Davidson in the first round. In my opinion, those are much tougher first-round draws than what Michigan got.

We can forget all about Michigan’s wins and losses during the regular season. Those are in the past. It is time to focus on the path forward. I know Michigan’s players (and coach Juwan Howard) are dying to prove the doubters wrong, so let’s see what this new Michigan team is made of. It’s March, the time is now!

Michigan fans, how do you feel now that Michigan has made the tournament? How far do you have them going? Drop your reactions down in the comments below!

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