March Madness in Michigan is usually a wild and crazy affair.
Michigan State is a lock to make it every year. Usually a good bet to make an extended run through the bracket, too.
Over the last handful of years, Michigan has mirrored that success. John Beilein has transformed the Ann Arbor cagers into a tournament heavyweight, challenging Tom Izzo’s bunch for in-state hoops supremacy.
Oakland and Detroit sprinkle in the occasional NCAA berth, as well. True, their stays are generally short, but it still adds to the fun having more hometown representation in the big dance.
The directional Michigan schools (Eastern, Western, Central) have each had some exciting moments in March as well.
Unfortunately, this year is shaping up in such a way that it could be the first time in a very long time that the field of 68 is without any squads hailing from the Mitten.
All is not lost yet, however. Hope still remains at a few of our in-state institutions.
Let’s go team-by-team, starting with those still posing a real threat and then advancing down to the groups that will likely spend March watching the dramatics on television.
Michigan State (15-8 overall, 6-4 Big 10)
Tom Izzo’s teams almost always follow the same pattern. They crawl out of the gates slowly, begin to pick up steam during the meat of the Big Ten season, and by the time the NCAA Tournament rolls around, they are a full-blown championship contender.
The 2014-15 Spartans are not really sticking to the script.
Things looked to be heading in that direction after a trouncing of Rutgers in New Jersey, then by holding off a hungry Michigan team in overtime at Breslin.
But then came a grimy, nasty 54-point effort against middling Illinois at home, a loss that sapped whatever momentum the club had going, and put another dent in what were already relatively sketchy NCAA dreams.
Senior guard Travis Trice continued his struggles, sinking just 2 of 10 shots. It’s becoming a trend -- he’s hit on 50% or better from the field just once in the last 14 games.
There is still plenty of time to right the ship, obviously.
Eight conference games remain, then another chance to leave a mark in the Big Ten tourney. Going .500 the rest of the way should be good enough, putting them at 19-12, 10-8 in conference. But that record does scream “BUBBLE,” not the most comfortable position to be in when CBS starts rolling through the regions on Selection Sunday.
It is imperative that Izzo and Co. get healthy tonight with a win at Northwestern. The Wildcats play hard and make you earn whatever you get, but they almost never win basketball games. They have played nine games in the year 2015 and lost all of them.
The Spartans should make the NCAA Tournament. Whether they present a real threat once they get there, that has not been shown as of yet.
Oakland (12-13 overall, 7-3 Horizon)
The Golden Grizzlies have been on fire the last month in the Horizon League. Before dropping a very close affair to conference-leading Valparaiso over the weekend, Greg Kampe’s underdog crew had ripped off seven straight wins.
Not much was expected from Oakland this year after losing one of their all-time greats in sharpshooter Travis Bader. But the diminutive Kay Felder (5’9”) has almost doubled his scoring output from 9.5 to 17.1. His long range game still needs improvement, but Felder gets to the free throw line a ton, and is near-automatic (86%) from there.
He is complemented by lumbering center Corey Petros, who is rounding out what feels like an 11-year career at Oakland. The big fella has the rare distinction of being a player shooting almost 20 percent better from the field than he does at the stripe. He cashes in at 60% when heavily guarded and surrounded by other large gentlemen, yet converts just 45% of the time when it’s just Corey, unbothered from about 15 feet.
The rough part of the schedule is done for Oakland, meaning they could shoot up the Horizon standings in the final few weeks. The Grizz are only one game out in the loss column, so if they can get another streak going, it could be plenty of time at the O-Rena in the conference tournament. Kampe knows that when you play in a league that generally only sends its tournament victor to the dance, home court in March is not preferred -- it is mandatory.
Michigan (13-11 overall, 6-6 Big 10)
It’s been one injury after another in Ann Arbor this year, and the losses are now starting to pile up. It’s four out of five L’s after the defeat in Indiana on Sunday, putting the Wolverines in a supremely precarious position in terms of NCAA Tourney qualification.
Keep in mind, this was a team that would have struggled to make the tournament with its full arsenal of players. The last game that team leader Caris LeVert did play was a nip-and-tuck two-point win over hapless Northwestern at Crisler. Beilein’s crew was going to be sweating it out till the season’s final day regardless.
But the injuries have simply been too much for them to handle. To their credit, they have scrapped hard in games and fought Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Indiana right down to the wire. Ultimately, though, they were all losses and now the Wolverines must reel off a number of wins to even think about finding a spot in the field.
The game Thursday night at Illinois serves almost as an elimination game. The winner will have some momentum heading down the stretch, the loser will likely start making plans for the NIT.
(Moderately interesting stat: Spike Albrecht has turned it over 3 times in each of the last two games, the first time in his UM career he’s committed 3+ TO’s in back-to-back games.)
Central Michigan (16-5 overall, 6-4 MAC)
If you haven’t been following the exploits of Chippewas’ guard Chris Fowler, you’re missing out. The junior from Southfield leads the team at 16 PPG and recently dropped 42 on Bowling Green in a game the Chips somehow managed to lose in overtime. Fowler is still very much a work in progress perimeter-wise, but he is a demon getting to the basket and earning trips to the line.
Central will generally get to the big-boy tournament once every 10 or 15 years, so they are due. Their tourney history shows appearances in 1975, 1977, 1987, and then the Chris Kaman show in 2003. After a dozen-year hiatus, it might be just the right time for Fowler and Co. to finally make it back to the game’s grandest stage.
Western Michigan (14-9 overall, 5-5 MAC)
The defending MAC Tournament champions have fallen off of late, losing 4 of 5, including road defeats to both Central and Eastern.
The Broncos boast an experienced duo in senior guard David Brown and junior forward Connar Tava, but somehow, a bit of that 2014 Kalamazoo swagger has been lost.
The MAC is another one of those “one bid” leagues for the most part, so scuffling during conference play is not the end of the world. They still have about a full month of games to try and get the thing straightened out.
Tonight will present another major test for Western, a road date at conference co-leader Bowling Green. It could be the perfect time for this year’s ho-hum club to start resembling last year’s champions.
Detroit (11-15 overall, 4-7 Horizon)
Just not the year that Titan followers had hoped for.
With team leader Juwan Howard Sr. entering his senior season and a host of other talented pieces surrounding him, big things were expected for the city’s college team. Instead, it’s been mostly disappointment.
Over the last two weeks, the Titans played home games against the Horizon’s three bottom teams. The results? A double-digit loss to Wright State, a miracle overtime win against cellar dweller Youngstown State, and worst of all, a ten-point loss to the 5-19 UIC Flames.
The upcoming schedule is daunting, which likely means more losses to come for Ray McCallum’s squad. Ray Sr. is now firmly on the coaching hot seat.
He’s in his 7th season at Detroit, and unless he can somehow coax little Ray to come back and use his final year of eligibility, then successfully convince the NCAA that such a thing ought to be permitted, it might be time for UDM to take their program in a new direction.
Eastern Michigan (14-9 overall, 3-7 MAC)
It’s been a very rocky MAC slate thus far for the EMU Eagles, and a relatively surprising one after their stellar non-conference record that included a victory at Michigan, one of the program’s biggest wins in years.
That dizzying 2-3 zone that Eastern used to hold Michigan to just 42 points has not been as stout of late. The Eagles surrendered 80 points/game in a pair of losses last week.
This team is talented and probably should be sporting a better conference record than they do now. With three consecutive home games upcoming, Mike Talley and friends have everything they need to put a late-season run together.
With a little momentum on their side and that Boeheim-ish zone clicking the way it was in December, the Eagles could still be a frisky pick in the MAC tournament next month.
