Four Best So Far: Duke, Indiana, Michigan, and ???

[uh_no]

I don't agree with the OP that we have established ourselves as one of the four best teams.
Florida, Indiana, Michigan are definitely top three. Order doesn't matter. Florida is crushing teams with it's stingy defense and I fully believe that they will make the final four if they keep that type of defense.
Indiana and Michigan have good offenses, although Indiana is still prone to inconsistencies every now and then.
Beyond these three, there is no sure shot 4th best team. It is anybody's slot as of right now.

not without kelly, surely.

we've lost our two games against decent opponents (albeit both on the road) and one in embarrassing fasion

we have had 4 wins against kenpom: 60, 80, 93, and 132...hardly world beating, despite certainly looking good this afternoon against wake.

we're maintaining our high position due to the excellent performances this team put in the first 15 games of the season, but we haven't yet done anything to demonstrate that the post-kelly team is anywhere near the top four...

we play NCSU on thursday, and of course that game will go a long way to demonstrating if the current incarnation has turned a leaf since the first loss (today's game being promising)...but we're 0-2 against top 25 teams since kelly went out, and for a fair amount of the time have looked like we would have trouble beating any top 25 squad, let alone the guys in the top 10 or 5.

[JNort]

I don't agree with the OP that we have established ourselves as one of the four best teams.
Florida, Indiana, Michigan are definitely top three. Order doesn't matter. Florida is crushing teams with it's stingy defense and I fully believe that they will make the final four if they keep that type of defense.
Indiana and Michigan have good offenses, although Indiana is still prone to inconsistencies every now and then.
Beyond these three, there is no sure shot 4th best team. It is anybody's slot as of right now.

I feel very confident that we could beat Michigan easy enough because of match ups and Indiana would be a good game but I think we would win that by 6+. Florida I have yet to see enough to know. The only teams that scare me is Miami and KU. I think we are a top team for sure! Duke, Michigan, Indiana, Florida, KU being the only solid ones with a good chance at a Naty this year.

[ice-9]

It's a top four and a half.
- Indiana, Florida, Michigan, Louisville and Duke with Kelly
- Indiana, Florida, Michigan, Louisville without Kelly

[noworries]

I feel very confident that we could beat Michigan easy enough because of match ups and Indiana would be a good game but I think we would win that by 6+. Florida I have yet to see enough to know. The only teams that scare me is Miami and KU. I think we are a top team for sure! Duke, Michigan, Indiana, Florida, KU being the only solid ones with a good chance at a Naty this year.

just watched the first 8-10 minutes of the duke game and the indiana game from saturday and the matchup would be nuts...
most every spot is even...with kelly back that is

[NashvilleDevil]

Florida will continue to look impressive because the SEC is really weak this year. I think at Kentucky is the next time they have a tough game.

[mgtr]

It's a top four and a half.
- Indiana, Florida, Michigan, Louisville and Duke with Kelly
- Indiana, Florida, Michigan, Louisville without Kelly

I can't argue about the apparent top four, this list looks good. However, there are plenty of teams which, by tournament time, will be there. So I would look for 8-10 teams which are going to be very competitive in the tournament -- those four plus Michigan State, Duke, Butler, Gonzaga, Kansas, Miami, Arizona plus a couple others I cannot think of right now. Every year we talk about parity and this year is closer to that than we have seen. Should be an exciting tournament.

[Saratoga2]

Indiana and Michigan put on a good game tonight. Indiana looked better, more balanced. But, of course, the game was at Indiana. Both teams are very, very good.

One thing about Michigan, John Beilien is a great basketball coach. I love the fact that he has coached, successfully, at every level - high school, small college, mid-major, big college, bigger college. The man has a system, but he also knows how to get the most out of his talent.

Both teams are really good. Indiana has no real weakness with excellent rebounding and scoring from other players than their two two. They seem to have a weakness though in that they rushed the ball up the court and their PG turned the ball over several times late, when the pace cried for slowing things down. Oladipo also took an ill advised 3 (open) with less than 10 seconds off the clock with the game winding down. So perhaps the weakness I see is judgment.

Michigan is strong at all positions and I am impressed with McGary as a freshman. They lost to an excellent Indiana team in away game. It happens.

I would rank Indiana, Florida and Michigan as the top three teams. As far as where Duke sits now, too many flaws without Ryan to put them as a clear 4th. Kansas, Louisville, Syracuse and probably Michigan State are also in the hunt. Don't know much about Arizona but they have a good record as does Ohio State. Get Ryan back and have him playing at a high level and I do think we are in the top 4. Right now we are a 6 man team with Amile making great progress as a starter and with Tyler as the 6th man. After that, we are not so deep, with Josh only okay and both Marshall and Alex looking lost.

[IBleedBlue]

Both teams are really good. Indiana has no real weakness with excellent rebounding and scoring from other players than their two two. They seem to have a weakness though in that they rushed the ball up the court and their PG turned the ball over several times late, when the pace cried for slowing things down. Oladipo also took an ill advised 3 (open) with less than 10 seconds off the clock with the game winding down. So perhaps the weakness I see is judgment.

Michigan is strong at all positions and I am impressed with McGary as a freshman. They lost to an excellent Indiana team in away game. It happens.

I would rank Indiana, Florida and Michigan as the top three teams. As far as where Duke sits now, too many flaws without Ryan to put them as a clear 4th. Kansas, Louisville, Syracuse and probably Michigan State are also in the hunt. Don't know much about Arizona but they have a good record as does Ohio State. Get Ryan back and have him playing at a high level and I do think we are in the top 4. Right now we are a 6 man team with Amile making great progress as a starter and with Tyler as the 6th man. After that, we are not so deep, with Josh only okay and both Marshall and Alex looking lost.

Indiana's PG looked like he wanted to make flashy passes instead of a simple pass. I observed several times that he tried to make a pass with one hand i.e. his left hand when he could have thrown a simple two handed pass. Needless to say, Michigan picked off his one handed passes quite a few times within the last 6 minutes of the game. If Indiana lost, that poor ball handling would have been a major reason.

[sagegrouse]

No real surprises for Duke in that Michigan lost only two spots through its road loss to Indiana.

Miami deservedly jumped into the Top Ten, gaining six spots to #8.

NC State is now unranked. Hey, Wuffies! You need to win at least some of these close games.

Virginia got a few votes, but overall - only four ACC teams received any votes by the writers.

'Florida is a solid #2, and I predict will soon have a long run as #1, given the weakness of the SEC this year'

sagegrouse

[subzero02]

No real surprises for Duke in that Michigan lost only two spots through its road loss to Indiana.

Miami deservedly jumped into the Top Ten, gaining six spots to #8.

NC State is now unranked. Hey, Wuffies! You need to win at least some of these close games.

Virginia got a few votes, but overall - only four ACC teams received any votes by the writers.

'Florida is a solid #2, and I predict will soon have a long run as #1, given the weakness of the SEC this year'

sagegrouse

I like where we are right now. We will know a lot more about this team's development in the next few weeks. Thursday's game against the wuffies beacons a raucous performance from the crazies and a ton of energy from our team... revenge. If we can get Ryan back in time for the ACC tourney I like our chances to reach the final four.

[sporthenry]

No real surprises for Duke in that Michigan lost only two spots through its road loss to Indiana.

Miami deservedly jumped into the Top Ten, gaining six spots to #8.

NC State is now unranked. Hey, Wuffies! You need to win at least some of these close games.

Virginia got a few votes, but overall - only four ACC teams received any votes by the writers.

'Florida is a solid #2, and I predict will soon have a long run as #1, given the weakness of the SEC this year'

sagegrouse

Surprised the Woofies fell out of the top 25. No starting PG, lost at UVA which isn't that bad and at home versus a top 10 team. Not sure they should have dropped out of the top 25 but I'd hate to see them in the NCAAT, luckily we won't see them until the F4 or possibly E8 most likely.

[DCGeneral]

Indiana's PG looked like he wanted to make flashy passes instead of a simple pass. I observed several times that he tried to make a pass with one hand i.e. his left hand when he could have thrown a simple two handed pass. Needless to say, Michigan picked off his one handed passes quite a few times within the last 6 minutes of the game.

This is incorrect. Indiana, as a team, only turned the ball over five times in the entire 2nd half. Two of those turnovers were by Yogi. In the 2nd half, he turned the ball over at the 13:18 mark, and committed one at the 4:59 mark. That's it.

In the last six minutes of the game, IU turned the ball over only twice. Not sure what game you and Saratoga2 were watching, but Michigan was not "picking off Yogi's one handed passes quite a few times within the last 6 minutes of the game".

http://espn.go.com/ncb/playbyplay?gameId=330330084

[IBleedBlue]

This is incorrect. Indiana, as a team, only turned the ball over five times in the entire 2nd half. Two of those turnovers were by Yogi. In the 2nd half, he turned the ball over at the 13:18 mark, and committed one at the 4:59 mark. That's it.

In the last six minutes of the game, IU turned the ball over only twice. Not sure what game you and Saratoga2 were watching, but Michigan was not "picking off Yogi's one handed passes quite a few times within the last 6 minutes of the game".

http://espn.go.com/ncb/playbyplay?gameId=330330084

Actually, you are correct. I didn't mean to say pick off but those one handed passes by Yogi did help Michigan by not getting the ball at the proper place to his teammate. That's what I meant...

[DCGeneral]

Actually, you are correct. I didn't mean to say pick off but those one handed passes by Yogi did help Michigan by not getting the ball at the proper place to his teammate. That's what I meant...

Yet you said, "Needless to say, Michigan picked off his one handed passes quite a few times within the last 6 minutes of the game." You can just admit that you made it up. It's all good.