NCAA Tournament 2017 Sweet 16: Grading Each Team’s Title Hopes

Michigan Wolverines (7) – Midwest Region

Every year in March, we see a team that simply gets hot at the right time, for whatever reason. Maybe it was their time regardless, but it seems as if a plane crash on the runway before the Big Ten Tournament has made the Michigan Wolverines that team. They went on a dark horse run to win the conference tourney and now have pulled off two big wins against a dangerous Oklahoma State team and then the No. 2-seeded Louisville Cardinals to get the win.

What’s impressive about Michigan’s two win is that they were forced to play in completely different styles of games to get the victories. Against the Cowboys, it was basically a shootout where Zak Irvin and company were asked to just drop bombs from 3-point range all night long to keep up. They prevailed in doing so, but then were able to upset Louisville by slowing things down and attacking off of the slash.

Clearly this is a Wolverines team that thrives on their offensive abilities, but they finished with a questionable regular season record because of the simple fact that their defense isn’t even in the same stratosphere in terms of quality as their defense. Then again, when you have a hot team in March Madness, it’s hard to bet too much against them. As such, we’ll put them at middle of the road for their hopes of winning it all.

Chances: Middle of the Road