The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/447116
MICHIGAN BASKETBALL in by unexpected and catastrophic losses to NJIT Dec. 6 and Eastern Michigan Dec. 9. The two ranked 161st and 179th in CBS' RPI rank- ings, respectively, with NJIT No. 158 and EMU No. 191 in ESPN's. Michigan also has losses to Vil- lanova (No. 5 in CBS' RPI ratings), Arizona (No. 11), SMU (No. 23) and Purdue (No. 130), the latter coming Jan. 3 after the Wolverines held a 33-25 halftime lead in West Lafayette before falling 64-51. "What they really need to do is stop screwing up," Palm said. "The last couple weeks have been better, and then they need to start beating some of these teams that you need to beat to distinguish yourself in the minds of the selection committee. "Michigan has a lot to overcome. Arizona destroyed them. They lost to SMU at home, which may end up being a team they're competing with for an at-large berth. You have three terrible losses beyond that. They have a lot to clean up." The good news for Michigan is there are plenty of chances to move up the RPI rankings. U-M faces Wis- consin (No. 8 in CBS' RPI), Mary- land (No. 19), Michigan State twice (No. 35), Ohio State (No. 51) and Iowa (No. 52) before the end of the regular season. The Maize and Blue need to beat a share of those teams, ideally one of them on the road, and then take care of business against the middle- and lower-tier teams in the Big Ten: Overall Record: 10-7 Big Ten Record: 3-2 Record from Dec. 10-Jan. 14: 4-4 overall, 3-2 Big Ten Best Win — 73-65 in overtime over Illinois in Ann Arbor: The Wolverines turned impending doom into con- tinued celebration at Crisler Center Dec. 30. Down 13 points with 11:23 remaining in the game, John Beilein's crew mounted a furious rally to send the game into overtime, the Wolver- ines eventually pulling out the win in the Big Ten opener. This one proved big on a number of fronts. The Wolverines were still reeling from losing four of their last five non-conference contests. They wanted to start league play out on the right note. Also, the upbeat afternoon in Ann Arbor had already featured the announcement of Jim Harbaugh as head football coach, and Harbaugh made a brief appearance on the court at halftime. Michigan showed up in the second half as well, led by the hot shooting hand of freshman forward Aubrey Dawkins. Seeing extended minutes for the first time this season, Dawkins poured in 20 points on 6-of-7 shoot- ing from three-point range. Junior guard Caris LeVert scored 19, and the Wolverines managed to pull away in overtime. They tightened down on defense, limiting the Illini to 2-of-8 shooting in the extra period, while connecting BASKETBALL REWIND: DEC. 10-JAN. 14