There is one very distinct answer to this question that separates from the rest, and that is to WIN! Winning is not something that everyone thought was going to be Michigan’s biggest problem going into this season. They were ranked 6th in the country and actually had people predicting them to win it all. Now we are closing in on the final month, and they are in the debate of whether they will make the NIT tournament or not. It truly is astonishing to me. My biggest takeaway from them this year has been their chemistry. It’s been awful. I do understand that they are a very young team with players that have not played together on the same court before. But it is far worse than what everybody expected before this season started.
They are closing the season with games against Purdue, Ohio State, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois. In my opinion you need to win at least 3 of those tough games if you want to have a chance. There is also the big ten tournament coming up where they can make a name for themselves by making a run in that, but if they get on a losing streak to end off this year then I do not see them playing in March.
One last thing to add on, the coaching for this team this year has been surprisingly terrible. There are times when they would have 4 forwards on the court with only one guard. I am not sure what kind of offense Juwan is trying to run, but he should have noticed that it is not working after the first month of these players playing together. It seems like there is so much talent on this team that Juwan doesn’t know who to bench and who to play, so he tries to play them all at the same time. I know that there is a lot of potential among these players, so hopefully they can spark something up in the locker room and make a big run from here on out. GO BLUE!!
