Detroit Tiger season Predictions

Although the Tigers trail in the 7th against the Yankees on opening day, I think they'll have a decent year again.

There is no reason they shouldn't compete for the division title. As long as Cabrera isn't planning to be "Duh Winning" all season, he's too talented to fall off that much.

I predict they'll be in the division chase throughout the season, with the White Sox and the Twins. I think they'll pull it off, finishing 92-70 1 game ahead of Chicago.

A quick loss in the playoffs to the Red Sox closes out a relatively successful season.

I like this team

What a great effort by the Michigan Basketball team today. They had a couple opportunities to fold, but held on and made Duke sweat until the final trip up the floor.

This was done without a single senior on the roster, with the majority of their starting line-up on the on bench for a large part of the first half with foul trouble.

This was done with huge size mismatches on defense. The 6'4" Novak, as he had all season, was generally guarding a playing 5-6" taller than he is.

This was done while getting out-rebounded 33-23, 10-4 on the offensive end.

Duke's coach may have gotten the victory and many more victories overall, but I think he was out-coached by John Beilein in this game. Switching to the 1-3-1 zone trap didn't produce many turnovers, but it changed the way Duke operated on the offensive end, slowed them down and allowed M to battle back.

In those final minutes, while Michigan was furiously fighting back, they got key plays from several players:

Darius Morris made Free Throw - 58-45
Zack Novak three point jumper - 58-48
Tim Hardaway Jr.made lay-up - 58-50
Jordan Morgan Dunk - 58-52

Then Duke pulled away again - but M fought back once more

Morris made jumper - 66-56
Morgan layup - 66-58
Morris jumper 66-60
Morgan dunk 66-62
...
Hardaway jumper 70-64
Hardaway jumper 70-66
Hardaway 3-pointer 70-69

This goes without adding the 13 points Evan Smotrycz chipped in early. Douglass was steady, if not his best effort. Jon Horford chipped in a 3-point play in limited minutes. Matt Vogrich was not a factor against Duke, but his late first half effort was key to the victory over Tennessee.

The future is bright for this team. It was supposed to be bright for the 09-10 team after a similar 08-09 season and they fell on their face. I would be surprised if the same fall occurred next season.

It's great to be a Michigan Wolverine - Go Blue!

Blocked by Jalen

On my Twitter feed today, I noticed someone had retweeted a post by Jalen Rose. I thought, "That's weird, why didn't I see his tweet in the first place?" So I checked and saw that I didn't follow him. Which, again, is weird, because I know I had been following him.
I figured, maybe with everything that had occurred with the Fab5 documentary, maybe he had thinned some of his followers. So I tried to follow him again.

When I clicked to follow him, I got an error message that I was blocked at the request of the user. Wow! Had I done something that offended him?

I went back and checked my own tweets and found this:

@jalenrose

#NCAA Fisher/Dutcher left Michigan & in 12 seasons built an irrelevant SDSU program into a top 10 squad-National Coach of the Year! #salute

in reply to ↑

@jalenrose who's SDSUs Ed Martin?


hmmm, Not sure that really qualifies for a total blocking, but I don't hold any grudges.

I've played basketball at Burns Park with Mark Hughes, played IM basketball against Demetrius Calip and Sean Higgins (and won - by forfeit since they were ineligible) and now been blocked by Jalen Rose...

Go Blue!

Tressel

So much has already been said in regards to Jim Tressel that I can't really add too much, but what the heck...
I think this is definitely a case of the cover-up being worse than the crime. The players are suspended 5 games for their part in Tat-gate. I have some difficulty with people not being allowed to sell/trade things they own, but it is an obvious area where trouble can occur - "Here's $10,000 for that old sock..." But these are college kids, surrounded by people who want a piece of them and basking in their admiration.
Tressel is an adult with decades of coaching experience. He apparently lied to his boss, his bosses boss and the NCAA when the investigation finally came to light in December (8 months after he knew about it). His press conference statement seemed to have been co-written by Charlie Sheen.

When I first heard about this, I thought it was something that would not have a major implication on Tressel or OSU's future. But it has become apparent that is not the case.

• I think he will be lucky if he keeps his job. Of the coaches hit with bylaw 10.1 violations, only one kept their job.
  
• If Tressel isn't fired, his suspension should certainly be as long or more appropriately longer that the players involved.
• I don't see how OSU doesn't have to vacate wins from last season. (it likely wouldn't be forfeits, what does that do to my database?)
  
• They will be hit with probation, likely including a bowl ban - this would also keep them out of the first B1G championship game.

If Michigan's practice gate was a major violation, this seems to be a MAJOR violation. It would seem the NCAA will get better evidence than usual by getting info from the federal investigation that Tressel was so worried about in the first place - see M basketball and Ed Martin numbers racket.