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The college basketball regular season has come to an end for the Michigan Wolverines, but they’re hoping to play games late into March and beyond. The No. 25 Wolverines lost their season finale on the road to No. 9 Maryland, and now they’ll be hoping to bolster their NCAA Tournament resume at the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis this week.
In order for Michigan to rise up the seeding ladder in the NCAA Tournament, they’ll need to make a deep run in the B1G Tournament, which begins for them on Thursday vs. Rutgers, a team they beat on both occasions this season.
As it stands now, though, here is where some outlets have the Wolverines at today:
ESPN: 6-seed in East Region vs. No. 11 East Tennessee State (Albany, New York)
NBC Sports: 7-seed in East Region vs. No. 10 Florida (Albany, New York)
USA Today: 6-seed in South Region vs. No. 11 Texas Tech/Stanford (Albany, New York)
CBS Sports: 7-seed in Midwest Region vs. No. 10 Utah St. (St, Louis, Missouri)
Bracketville: 7-seed in East Region vs. No. 10 Florida (Albany, New York)
Bracket Matrix: Composite 6-seed appearing in all 122 brackets
Michigan is currently the only team in the AP Top-25 that hasn’t reached 20 wins on the season, and because of that along with the loss against Maryland on Sunday, a few outlets dropped Michigan down to a 7-seed when they previously had them as a 6-seed.
The road to a higher seed than 6 or 7 in the tournament won’t be easy. If Michigan beats Rutgers on Thursday, they’ll have to take on No. 1 Wisconsin, who earned a double bye, the following day on Friday in the quarterfinals. Michigan lost to Wisconsin 81-74 on Feb. 27 at Crisler Center. If the Wolverines make a deep run in the Big Ten Tournament and rattle off wins versus the Badgers and other higher ranked teams, they’d likely move up to at least a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The seeding situation is still a fluid one for Michigan and far from decided. This is the time of year where you better get hot and stay hot or your season is over. The 19-12 Wolverines have gotten piping hot around this time under former head coach John Beilein, with Big Ten Tournament championships propelling them to extended runs in March Madness. However, this is a new era, Juwan Howard is in his first year at the helm, and it remains to be seen how a Howard team performs when the lights start shining the brightest in March.
Selection Sunday is on March 15, and you can catch where Michigan is seeded starting at 6 p.m. Eastern on CBS.
Where do you think Michigan will be seeded?