Spirits and the Final Four - Page 2 I actually agree with you that the media hyping the team as a national title contender may be doing a disservice to them. Not sure how many Big Ten games Michigan has left in the conference - maybe seven. The players probably need to take this approach themselves; no use in getting overanxious about the end of the season if they don't make the tourney. Also, as someone else pointed out, if they win their conference and get to the final four - the final step is far more important than the last step. I agree. Michigan had pretty much done its season-long thing. I think that is why we have seen so little focus on the final four. I suppose people want to make a big deal of things going one-and-done (or as of late - even better, two-and-done). There's a good reason Michigan can't play a high-majors team in the final four, as opposed to a mid major. If we wanted to do it, we should have beat Ohio State and gone undefeated in the Big Ten. This season was a lot of fun because Michigan has played so well against everyone, and we have been playing for a chance to play for a title as well. I think if Michigan gets beat in the first round of the tournament, they need to get over it and stop looking to the upcoming season and keep playing for next year. It will be hard because everyone is excited and hyped for the basketball season. I agree. Michigan had pretty much done its season-long thing. I think that is why we have seen so little focus on the final four. I suppose people want to make a big deal of things going one-and-done (or as of late - even better, two-and-done). There's a good reason Michigan can't play a high-majors team in the final four, as opposed to a mid major. If we wanted to do it, we should have beat Ohio State and gone undefeated in the Big Ten. Aside from being a bad team, this is why I think the OSU game was so important. I was convinced that Michigan would have lost to MSU if they lost that game, and it wouldn't have been close. I agree. Michigan had pretty much done its season-long thing. I think that is why we have seen so little focus on the final four. I suppose people want to make a big deal of things going one-and-done (or as of late - even better, two-and-done). There's a good reason Michigan can't play a high-majors team in the final four, as opposed to a mid major. If we wanted to do it, we should have beat Ohio State and gone undefeated in the Big Ten. I think Michigan State got their shot at a one-and-done and didn't even crack the door on the Final Four. It may have been that they got to play in the Final Four every single year, so they didn't want to take any chances. I also think that Wisconsin probably got into the Final Four this year and didn't crack the door because they didn't want to do well enough to ruin their resume. I think this is true for a lot of schools (and I think that the current NCAA rules were really hard on mid-majors and made mid-majors less likely to do well) It's not like Wisconsin took a terrible team and turned them into a national title contender. They were never really even close to a national title contender this year. Wisconsin had a nice run with a Big Ten title and top seed in the Big Ten tourney and finished 12th in a loaded Big Ten conference. I agree. Michigan had pretty much done its season-long thing. I think that is why we have seen so little focus on the final four. I suppose people want to make a big deal of things going one-and-done (or as of late - even better, two-and-done). There's a good reason Michigan can't play a high-majors team in the final four, as opposed to a mid major. If we wanted to do it, we should have beat Ohio State and gone undefeated in the Big Ten. Aside from being a bad team, this is why I think the OSU game was so important. I was convinced that Michigan would have lost to MSU if they lost that game, and it wouldn't have been close. No question. If Michigan beats Wisconsin in the semis, then I would bet that people start looking for a title game matchup with the Buckeyes. If Michigan wins, then there's no reason to look to that matchup. But if you have to get through teams like Louisville or Indiana first, you may as well keep that game in the back of your head for the last few weeks of the season. If anything, you want to take the focus off of that. The media can talk about beating OSU all they want, but until they have a reason to care, they won't care. There will be very little difference between our season and our tourney until we finish with a number one seed. The difference is that we won the Big Ten regular season and tournament and made the final four. That might get Michigan at least one mid-major to schedule a game. After that, the rest will depend on who else is in the field. The media hyping Michigan has put the expectations for this team way, way ahead of what they've accomplished so far this year. This team has to be as well-conditioned and mentally ready as it ever has been or will be. A team can only go so far before the season is done and, as has been mentioned in several other places, if we don't win the Big Ten and make the Final Four then people aren't going to care about this team. If Michigan can go 4-0 in their last 4 games, then I agree, you can't tell me it won't change someones mind about Michigan as a team. Maybe even the whole "mid-major" thing. You have to understand that this team has had the attention and acclaim that almost no other team had over a period of time that is longer than we've had with Ohio State. This year's team has been in the media almost daily since November 8th - the day after we won the Big Ten. Let's be honest, even though we made the final four, this is not a very good tourney year by Michigan standards. It's really a bit of a letdown after last year. MGoSports will have people looking at OSU games for weeks in advance. I think we have to look for this kind of buzz to be gone by the semis (and likely the finals). If you can just turn around and look at OSU's tourney schedule, you can't say anything about this game being one-and-done for Michigan. It's also true that the media hype machine will be on them all year, so it will be a battle. Right now I think Michigan is going to stick with the strategy of just playing the best game possible to give yourself a chance to advance. Then once they get to the finals, then they can really buckle down and see if they are still a contender in everyone's eyes. If I were to make a prediction I would say Michigan will win the final four and get into the title game, and that would mean they are still