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The Michigan Wolverines enter the final two weeks of the college basketball regular season as one of the hottest teams in the country. As recent as a month or so ago, it seemed that NCAA Tournament odds were slimming down with the team sitting at 11-8 on the season, but all this team has done is win seven of its last eight games since then. Not only are that seemingly a lock at this point, but now the question becomes just how high they can go.
Here is a look at where the major outlets have them projected to go at the beginning of this week.
ESPN: 5-seed in West Region vs. No. 12 Yale (Spokane, Washington)
NBC Sports: 4-seed in Midwest Region vs. No. 13 Akron (Sacramento, California)
USA Today: 7-seed in West Region vs. No. 10 East Tennessee State (Tampa, Florida)
CBS Sports: 5-seed in West Region vs. No. 12 Stephen F. Austin (Sacramento, California)
Bracketville: 4-seed in Midwest Region vs. No. 13 Akron (Sacramento, California)
Bracket Matrix: Composite 5-seed appearing in all 103 brackets
With four games to go and contests against Wisconsin (home), Ohio State (away), Nebraska (home) and Maryland (away), the Wolverines have a shot at 20 wins before the regular season ends and a chance to tack on one or two more in the Big Ten Tournament.
Assuming Michigan’s current resume has them as 4/5 seed, A 3-1 finish to the year might be enough to push them into potential 3/4 territory by the end of the regular season. Given that seeding is pretty much determined by the time the Big Ten Tournament championship game is over on Sunday, we should have a pretty good idea where this team stands by Saturday, March 14.
Won't happen this way because there's a ton to still figure out (especially from 2nd to 8th place), but this is what the Big Ten Tournament would look like if it started this week.
— Anthony Broome (@anthonytbroome) February 24, 2020
Indianapolis is going to be pure chaos. pic.twitter.com/EIk4DZzBLy
A top-four seed in the conference tournament would give them a double-bye right to Friday. Given the chaos the league has seen this year makes it an ideal scenario to bring fresh legs into a game where the team they play may have already been a game or two under their belts.
There still is a lot to be determined and the Wolverines find themselves only a single game out of second place in the conference with four to go. They could have as many as seven or eight games left before the tournament depending on how conference tournament seeding goes. These next few weeks are for seeding and should be a blast to follow.