<p>I know that right now there is a ton of hoopla over football (GO BLUE!), but does anyone know how good the bball team is? I've always been a carolina fan (I'll change though I swear!), so I've never really had to worry about them being at the top, but how does michigan do? I think a couple of seasons ago they almost made the NCAA cut (and maybe even should have?), and are behind Big 10 heavy weights like Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Illinois and Michigan State when they're not rebuilding, but are they in general a strong team?</p>
<p>always are competitive in the big 10, but haven't really cracked the top 3 for nearly a decade...just fired a true gentleman who really cleaned up the program, but couldn't get UM into the tourney (he's now at Harvard)...John Beilein is the new coach from WVU, supposed to be one of the best minds in the game. Mich lost some talent (Dion Harris), some lesser talent (Courney Sims), and a human highlight reel (Brent Petway), but the younger players are going to be expected to step up this year following a pretty solid recruiting year despite the loss of Tommy Amaker as coach. Because of weak non-confrence schedules, Michigan has won 20+ games more often than not over the past few years, but that doesn't fool the tournament committee.</p>
<p>In terms of the bball program itself, Michigan is the only team in the Big Ten without a practice facility, and the athletic department is making moves to upgrade. There are only a couple of sellouts per year, but it usually looks nice on tv because the Maize Rage (poor man's Cameron Crazies) go nuts in the courtside seats. On a side note, the 2007-2008 season will be Michigan's last season in Nike uniforms, as the entire athletic department signed a huge deal with Adidas, saving the university around ten million dollars a year.</p>
<p>And Maize Rage is pretty much a humorous attempt at emulating the more devout student sections of other elite basketball programs (like the Cameron Crazies). If you want good academics and basketball, go to Duke. We pretty much copy them in every area (or try to). They have a really sick team coming in next year with some of the nation's top recruits.</p>
<p>I once asked this question and I was told that basketball and Michigan shouldn't be said in the same sentence unless the "Fab Five" was somehow involved.</p>
<p>Yes, and the Fab Five (christened as the 'greats' of Michigan b-ball) lost in the final rounds of both tournaments to Duke (71-51) and to UNC (77-71). Two consecutive years of defeat to the two heated rival schools of the ACC. We not only made ourselves look bad, but also embarrassed the entire Big Ten Conference.</p>
<p>If you're a UNC fan, I wouldn't switch entirely. It's not like they'll be playing each other anytime soon.</p>
<p>I think Michigan would've had a decent shot at making the tournament last year had they not choked away the final OSU game (seriously, how do you miss a dunk?). They would've been a 15/16 seed and lost their first game horribly, but it would've been a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>I think I should wear my Fab Five shirt to every basketball game I go to this year.</p>
<p>They wouldn't have been a 15/16 since those go to the tiny conference autobids. If they had just won the OSU game and lost the next round to Purdue, they would have probably been a 12- then lost, being Michigan Basketball and all.</p>
<p>Michigan isn't really good at Basketball, relative speaking of course. As bahamutscale, if Basketball is your thing, UNC or Duke are a better option. At Michigan, academics > Football > Hockey > Basketball, so in the end, Basketball really takes a backseat.</p>
<p>2 corrections in this thread. First off, how dare you mention MSU, O$U, Illinois, and UW as heavyweights, but leave out Indiana, who will win the Big Ten this year and has more national championships than all of those schools combined.</p>
<p>Second off, Michigan also loses Lester Abram, who was a talented player and a starter. Injuries hampered his entire career though.</p>
<p>UM basketball is definitely about to turn over a new leaf so by the time the class of '11 graduates, Michigan could be competing for the Big 10 title and be playing well into the 2nd week of the NCAAs.</p>
<p>Top 10ish shooting guard Harris coming in for class of '07 along with 2 other solid recruits. Coach Belein did great work at WV and is known as a good XO coach. Amaker, despite his coaching shortcoming, did clean up the UM basketball image and placed it in a good position for the future.</p>