Wolverine TV podcast: Rutgers loss, NIT (?) and what comes next for Michigan basketball
TheWolverine.com‘s Clayton Sayfie and Anthony Broome recap Michigan Wolverines basketball‘s 62-50 loss to Rutgers in the Big Ten Tournament, where U-M will go from here and what the big picture state of the program are.
Michigan led by three at halftime but completely fall apart in the second half, making only 1 field goal in the first 19 minutes, in a disastrous loss to the Scarlet Knights. Now, U-M finds itself facing a likely NIT bid, missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.
We discuss if Michigan should accept the NIT bid and what it would mean either way. High profile teams in the past have declined — a slew of teams did, most notably, during the pandemic in 2021 — but most accept. Michigan has appeared in 10 NITs and won two NIT championships, most recently winning in 2004.
Regardless of what Michigan does this postseason, head coach Juwan Howard will have to assess every aspect of his program after this year’s failure to make the Big Dance, make necessary changes and move forward. We break down our thoughts on what tweaks he needs to make. It starts with some NBA Draft decisions, and it’s just so hard to predict what this roster will look like when practice starts next October, with the rise of the transfer portal being a big factor, as well.
The pressure is beginning to mount on Howard, and there are a lot of questions about the future of the program. He has the chance to make sure this season was a one-off, but it’s not going to be easy. We discuss where he goes from here.
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