Jalen Rose wants the Banners up

Mary Sue Coleman was quoted in the Michigan Daily saying she doesn't think the banners removed from Crisler Arena (not Center) because of the Ed Martin scandal "will ever go back up."

Jalen Rose responded via tweet (apparently I'm not blocked anymore)


























I don't think there is much of a case for putting those banners back up. All those records/results have officially been vacated, so it would be ridiculous for M to reclaim NCAA finalist, NIT or Big Ten Tournament Champions again. The only way those banners should go back up is like this:



















To show the shame associated with those banners. So we never forget!

My four years at Michigan (twice)

MGoBlog referenced this article from the Michigan Daily yesterday.

And at times, it has outright sucked to know that these last four years have rendered the football team a mess, the basketball team a mediocre success and the hockey team an incredible tease.


For those of us who have been here for four years, the first major sporting event we experienced as students was a loss to Appalachian State — the worst in the history of Michigan football. The last: Saturday’s national championship loss to Minnesota-Duluth — one of the toughest losses in the history of Michigan hockey.

It got me to thinking about how Michigan athletics fared during my years on campus.

In September of 1985, Michigan football was coming off the worst season in Bo's career, 6-6 with a loss in the Holiday Bowl that gave the MNC to BYU. My first game was a 20-12 upset over Notre Dame that put Michigan on a path for a 10-1-1 season, with the only loss in the #1-#2 game in Iowa City. Over my four years M finished 38-9-2 with two Big Ten Championships and 3 bowl victories.

Michigan basketball was coming off their first Conference Championship since 1977. They would follow it up in the 1985-86 season with their most recent Big Ten championship. They were still having trouble in the NCAA tournament going 1-1 in 1986 and 1987. They made it to the sweet 16 in 1988 before falling to UNC. In 1989 - they broke through for their only NCAA championship!

The Hockey team was in full rebuilding mode - they went 70-84-5 over those 4 years (but improved every year) and failed to make the NCAA tournament. But the 1988-89 team won the GLI for the first time since 1975 (and this was the first of 9 straight titles).

When I entered Pharmacy school in 1994, Michigan football was coming off a disappointing 8-4 season. 1994 wasn't much different. The 8-4 season included a loss at OSU, a crushing defeat on the Hail Mary to Colorado and Gary Moeller's firing in the off-season. 1995 and 1996's only bright spots were victories over heavily favored OSU teams. The 1997 team, of course, went 12-0 and won the National Championship in the Rose Bowl!

Basketball seemed to be doing fairly decently 3 NCAA tournament appearances, and NIT championship and winning the first Big Ten conference tournament. However 3 of those seasons are officially stricken from the record due to Taylor, Trailor and the rest.

For hockey this was their most dominant time since the 40-50s heyday. Red took the Wolverines to 4 final fours and won two National Championships.

Men's swimming also won a national championship on 1996!

So Michigan's revenue sports overall records in my 8 years of college:

Football 38-9-2 and 37-12 for 75-21-2 with 3 conference championships, one national championship and a Heisman trophy winner.

Basketball 104-32 and 87-45 (or 17-14) for 191-77 (121-46) with 7 (5 NCAA tournament appearances), an NIT championship (or not), an Conference Tournament Championship (or not) and a National Championship.

Hockey went 70-84-5 and 133-30-10 for a total of 203-114-15. With 4 GLIs, 4 Frozen Fours and 2 National Championships.

I'd say my 8 years stack with with some of the most successful in Michigan Athletic history - and I had absolutely nothing to do with it!

Was that the worst Championship game ever?

There has been a lot of griping about last night's U-Conn/Butler clank-fest. Butler managed to stay in the game for a good 30-35 minutes while shooting 18% from the field. But was it the worst Championship game ever?

I don't think so - Although it wasn't aesthetically pleasing, I'll take a close game over a blowout every time.

Here are a ten(+) Championship games that I would say were much worse:

2009 NCAA Men's Basketball - UNC 89 - MSU 72 (final score not as indicative of how bad it was)
1990 NCAA Men's Basketball - UNLV 103 - Duke 73
Super Bowl XXII - Redskins 42 Broncos 10
SB XXIV - 49ers 55 - Broncos 10
SB XXVII - Cowboys 52 - Bills 17
SB XXIX - 49ers 49 - Chargers 26
2001 Orange Bowl (BCS) - Oklahoma 13 - Florida St 2
2008 BCS - Florida 41 - OSU 14
2005 Orange Bowl (BCS) USC 55 - Oklahoma 19
All three Bowl Alliance Championship games (1996-1998) Nebraska 62 - Florida 24; Florida 52 -FSU 20; Nebraska 42 - Tennessee 17

People on twitter were actually suggesting that a BCS like Kansas - OSU game would have been better. U-Conn won 11 straight games (over 10 tournament teams) to win the championship. Butler had won 14 straight before losing last night.

These were very good teams that had a bad night. Lets not scrap the system that game us a 41 point TOTAL difference between the champs and runners-up in the decade of the 1980s

Go Bulldogs!

One year ago today, the match-up was set for the NCAA basketball final. Perennial power Duke would be facing local underdog Butler. The expectation was an easy victory for Duke. Butler took them to the brink. Gordon Hayward's half-court heave rattled out securing Duke's 4th title.
Even with this close a match-up, had the question been asked which of these teams will be back in the final next year. I would have expected the answer to be Duke more than 9 out of 10 times.

And yet Butler is the team playing for the championship tonight. Hayward was their best player last year and is now in the NBA, but somehow, they made it back anyway.

I've heard callers on the local radio complaining that they prefer when the big names teams are playing rather than these small schools. I've heard national "experts" say the TV numbers will be down because no one cares about Butler. Strangely enough, Saturday's match-up were the most watched semi-finals since 2005. I would expect similar numbers tonight.

I think Butler's coach, Brad Stevens, has to be considered the top young coach in the game. I would think any school with an opening will be trying to convince him to leave Butler for greener (like $$$) pastures. I hope he stays.

UConn is facing punishment next season. Jim Calhoun will have to sit out 3 games next season for recruiting violations. Combining that with his rant a couple years back when asked about justifying how much he makes in this economic crisis, makes it easy to root for the under(Bull)dog.

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!

Basketball Heartbreak (Make your free throws)

Crisler Arena was ready to explode last night. Denard Robinson was sitting amongst the Maize Rage and had moved down a few rows - he was anticipating the rush of the floor. And then this happened...

(photo credit Daniel Mears / The Detroit News)

The closest I can remember to the feeling was football vs. Colorado in 1994. But this was worse, as an underdog that desperately needed this win for tournament chances, I victory here was certainly less anticipated.

I have no problem at all with the strategy on Wisconsin's final possession. Great job using the fouls-to-give. I heard someone suggest that maybe a good idea would have been not to give the last foul since Wisconsin was probably anticipating it. I could see that maybe being somewhat effective.

I would have liked Michigan's final inbounds to go to Novak, who despite his inability to make anything from the floor, is still solid from the line, instead of Morris. The Indiana game showed he's not good at making clutch free throws.

The biggest free throws in Michigan history would have to be Rumeal Robinson making both ends of a 1-1 in OT vs Seton Hall in the 1989 championship game.

The first big free throw I remember was by Keith Smith over Magic Johnson and the eventual National Champion Spartans in January of 1979.


IIRC my sister Sue was at that game. I'm not sure if it was at this game or not but eventually she got both Keith and Mike McGee to wish me "Happy Brithday" (sic)



(Not sure why this is sideways... I've tried posting the original several times - making 90 degree turns to the original each time - and nothing seems to change...)

Michigan Basketball - better than expected

I'm pleasantly surprised by how well the Michigan Basketball team has done this year. John Beilein seems to generate the same kind of belief/hatred that RR did. The tone may be similar but the volume is quieter since it is Michigan Basketball not Michigan Football.

Breaking down the season into sections:

Off season - team lost two best players from a team that couldn't make the NIT - they'll be lucky to beat out Indiana/Iowa for 9-10th place

Pre-season trip to Europe - M finished like 1-4 or something like that. General tone was, this is evidence the team is not very good - although some signs that Tim Hardaway Jr. might be a decent player in a few years...

Non-Conference Season - somewhat surprising success - albeit against light competition - M went 10-3 out of conference (10-2 in the real "pre" conference season). With respectable losses to Syracuse and Kansas. The best victories would be against Oakland, Clemson and Harvard. Public reception is "Maybe this is an NIT team."

Early conference season - after 7 conference games, M is 1-6; their only victory against Penn St. with "poor" losses at Indiana and Northwestern overshadowing decent efforts against OSU, Purdue and Minnesota (and Kansas). There was a lot of "Beilein must go" calls into WTKA.

The season turned back to the positive with a surprising victory in East Lansing over MSU. M hadn't won there since the early 90s and MSU's mid-season collapse wasn't obvious at game time. This win lead off an 8 game stretch where M has gone 6-2, with close loss to OSU and a one-possession loss to Illinois, with 2 shots to win/tie the end. There has certainly been very little "Beilein has to go" talk on the radio. But I wouldn't say he has great support either. I think victories quiet the detractors, but don't win them over.

M has 3 games remaining before the B1G tournament. Wednesday they host Wisconsin, then go to Minnesota on Saturday before having the week off and hosting MSU to close out the season.

Michigan is still on the outside of the NCAA tournament. A win over Wisconsin would go a long way to helping their cause. Outside of that M would need to win the other two games an probably a couple tourney games to have much chance to make the Big Dance...

The team can be annoying to watch, they still have long stretches where they don't score. Am I the only one who thinks Darius Morris dribbles too much? They have almost no offensive rebounding. Zack Novak is still playing the 4 most of the time and taller teams just eat him up... I don't have a problem with "settling" for 3-point shots, as long as we have decent shooters. Douglass and Novak have struggled the past few games and need to get it turned around. This has been offset by the amazing couple of weeks Hardaway was had. He's really on a tear, he's set and reset his career scoring high a few times in the past week.

This is still a very flawed team, but I don't think that falls solely on the lap of Beilein, as much as M's football failures were RR's responsibility.

Last season was supposed to be a step forward after M finally made the Tournament in 08-09. The team fell apart, presumably because Manny Harris wasn't interested in Beilein's system. Whether this team makes the NCAA or settles for the NIT, Beilein can't afford M to fall back again after a second positive season.

New 68 team NCAA Men's Tournament

I like the restraint the NCAA showed in limiting the expansion to 68 teams instead of 96 originally thrown around. What I don't like is putting teams that earned their way to the tournament by WINNING their conference treated like they red-headed step children in their own little mini bracket in Dayton on Tuesday.

Way not have the last 8 at large teams compete in the play-in games instead of 8 conference champs? Wouldn't there be more interest in the games if they were Virginia Tech vs. Cal instead of Arkansas Pine-Bluff vs. Winthrop? Instead of getting teams people would be interested in seeing play - more TV money and better attendance in Dayton, we settle for keeping the little guy down.

96 team field for the NCAA tournament

It has become pretty clear that the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is expanding to 96 teams in the near future. Here is a transcript of the press conference when the rolled out "how the theoretical structure of the 96 team tournament might go." The Q&A section gets pretty nasty. AA.com has implied that John Feinstein is the lead questioner.

It took me a while to figure out how their plan works. It looks like there would be 16 games each on Thur/Fri (the 9 seed vs 24 seed, 10 vs 23 etc.). The winners would take on the 1-8 seeds who got byes (9 vs 24 winner faces 8 etc), in 16 games each on Sat/Sun.

Then the winners would play again - 1/(16/17)winner against 8/(9/24)winner - Tue/Wed.

From here the tournament stays the same with the Sweet 16 games are Thu/Fri and Elite 8 Sat/Sun and the final four the next Sat/Mon.

Feinstein Points out there is no chance for winners will go to any class that second week. He makes a strong point of comparison on how the NCAA couldn't possibly have a football playoff because of how much school the players would miss yet there is little concern for the missed class here.

I know you're shocked, the main issue is making money!

MSU Basketball

I don't like Tennessee, I think Bruce Pearl is a crook (but I like that style of basketball) so I'm rooting for MSU!

Gladstone loses regional final

Gladstone lost pretty handily to Petoskey last night. Phil Griebel, "Griebs", (who now coaches the jayvees) said Gladstone put up a good fight, but Petoskey was too good a team.

I got an e-mail from Joe Madden, "Madds", saying he feels a little like Mercury Morris every time Gladstone loses in March. Last regional champs were his 1985-86 team that lost (for the second year in a row) to Mark Macon's Saginaw Buena Vista team.

Gladstone District Champs!!!

The Gladstone Boys Basketball team won the district last week and play tonight against Ogemaw Heights in Cheboygan, wanna go?

Michigan Basketball

One great come back traded for one humiliating defeat...

Bad Michigan 16 25 41
Opponent 31 40 71

Good Michigan 37 48 85
Opponent 28 24 52

Above is a scoring comparison of the first half against Penn St and the second half against Northwestern (Bad Michigan) vs. the first half against NU and the second half against PSU.

I didn't watch much of the PSU game, I flipped over and saw M was way behind then watched the BCS football game. I switched back and saw M was closer, then switched back again and saw M up by 5-6 and watched to the end. From what I read, they started making shots and causing turnovers.
From what little I saw of the NU game, it looked like turnovers were the problem. Manny Harris has always been loose with the ball and Darius Morris seemed to have quite a few turnovers as well.
This team can only succeed when they get more shots per possession than the opponent. They will seldom win the rebound battle so they need to take better care of the ball.

Basketball timing rules question

I went to the Michigan Basketball game today. Midway through the second half Darius Morris got surprised by a double team while bringing the ball up court. Prior to crossing mid-court stopped his dribble and pivoted a few times looking for an outlet pass. The coaching staff called a timeout. The 35 second clock was at 27 seconds (I know the 35 second clock is not official for the 10-second count to cross mid-court) When Michigan inbounded the ball after the timeout they still took 4-5 seconds to cross mid-court.

Does calling a timeout reset the 10 second count? Should it? I guess calling time on an inbound resets the 5 second count, but then it doesn't reset the shot clock. Why the inconsistency?

Michigan Basketball

So far I've been very disappointed in the free throw shooting of this team. Last season I think they lead the conference (76%), Manny Harris shot 86%. So far this season the team is shooting only 69% and Manny is down to 70%. The weird part is their opposition has only shot 48% from the line so far.
Michigan should/would have beaten Creighton in regulation had they shot a decent percentage from the FT line.
I don't doubt this team is better than last year - they're starting a scholarship player at point guard for instance - but they're not good enough to give away points...

Michigan 75, Marquette 68

Derrick Rose and the NBA

So the latest NCAA scandal involving Derrick Rose having grades changed and someone taking the SAT for him to me points to the problem with the NBA's 1-year out of high school rule.
This kid (like many others) has no intention of getting an education - he just wants to play in the NBA.
Bob Knight has pointed out that the 1 and done rule is stupid because kids essentially only need to attend fall classes and enroll in the winter term to stay eligible. They don't have to attend a class in the winter term if they know they're headed to the NBA after the season.
His mistake is he thinks they should change it to a 2 or 3 and done rule. That just delays the problem. I think the opposite. Let kids who don't want to go to college play in the NBA right away. Basketball recruiting with the AAU problems and agents has enough problems. Let's get rid of kids who don't want to be there anyway.
Oh and why not require during term verifications that student-athletes are on the way to passing their classes?
There is a kid skipping his senior year of HS to play in Europe. Good for him. And good riddance from which ever college would have had his sham of a 1 and done service.