***Official 2026 NCAA Tournament Thread***

I think we could have given Michigan a game if we had a fully healthy Jefferson - I still we're as good as any team in the nation when we had our full lineup. But watching this today, with Jefferson injured, even if he played some spot minutes, this wouldn't have ended well.
Pretty sure the players thought this too. I know I can't help thinking the reality of Jefferson's injury (likely out for remainder of tournament) took its toll and affected their play.
 
Duke is very good. Illinois is very good.

But AZ vs MICH kinda seems like the defacto title game to me.
Duke is getting healthier which is a big wild card, they should have enough to beat UConn and that gives those guys a lot of time to get better since they are already getting mins
 
I'm more disappointed today after watching this first half. If we had a found a way to suck just a little less at rebounding it would be us playing today.

That, and/or sucked a little less at the FT line in the second half. It seemed like every time we made a big defensive stop they'd foul us, we'd only hit 1 of 2 (average), and they'd go back on offense and hit a big bucket. We could never catch up that way.
 
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Duke is getting healthier which is a big wild card, they should have enough to beat UConn and that gives those guys a lot of time to get better since they are already getting mins
Yes. The 4 #1 seeds were deeper and better than everyone else. Still don’t know how FL lost to Iowa. Play that game 10x and that could be their only win.
 
Yes. The 4 #1 seeds were deeper and better than everyone else. Still don’t know how FL lost to Iowa. Play that game 10x and that be their only win.

I'll agree with you on the top 3 1 seeds, but florida was pretty overrated as a 1 seed. ESPN went all out with their propaganda machine to make sure the SEC was represented.
 
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Pretty sure the players thought this too. I know I can't help thinking the reality of Jefferson's injury (likely out for remainder of tournament) took its toll and affected their play.
This. Once he (JJeff) tried things out at shoot around and everyone saw there was no way he could possibly go, reality really set in.

We didn't have the same energy we had vs Tenn St & UK. Keeping things optimistic with regards to his injury was as much for team morale than anything else, I believe.
 
I slept through the first half. Did Tennessee do that, too?
Yep, they have barely showed at all. An utterly pathetic effort in the Elite 8.

ISU isn't beating Michigan w/o JJ, but I have no doubt we would've put up a much better fight than this stinker of a game.

Tennessee might wake up a little to make final score look more respectable, but Michigan could've probably won by 40-50 pts if they wanted to.