The Weekend Roundup, Oscar Edition: February 25, 2008

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Winner Winner

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Fifteen minutes until tipoff. No tickets. Ahhhh, but this is Michigan Basketball. Tickets can be had at the box office my friends. Even on Jalen Rose Day, you too can garner blue level seats.

It was an odd celebration. It was more about Jalen's charity, the Jalen Rose foundation, than it was about the man himself. But when halftime hit, the PA announcer rattled through Jalen's resume, full of statistical top 10's in nearly every basketball category. Then Jalen spoke. He took the crowd back to a time when things were good in Crisler arena. He gave thanks to the coaches that had a profound effect on his career: Perry Watson, Steve Fisher, Bo Schembechler. Watson and Fisher evoke mixed feelings for most Michigan fans. Perry Watson, whose involvement in the recruiting of the Fab 5 is well documented, also had links to  Ed Martin. Steve Fisher, the lovable old man, the Barney Fife that took us on the magical run in 1989, and had an even more magical run of recruits through the early 90's. It's unfortunate  it was all tarnished by money.

Jalen then individually called out the names of the other members of the Fab 5. Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King (who was in attendance), Ray Jackson. It's been a long time since those names have been uttered in public. Chris Webber is not allowed to be associated with the University in any way until 2013. Even more amazing, Jalen revealed that he had not been inside Crisler since he last donned the jersey. Now, with his NBA career coming to a close, Jalen promised to be back often. Roars of applause followed Jalen's final statement, which was that he would be back to see "those banners" go back up, referring to the missing final four banners from 1991 and 1992.

Maybe this is the beginning of the rebuilding of the past in Michigan Basketball. It was certainly an emotional time for those in attendance that had memories of the way Michigan Basketball used to be. Whether that will be enough to have us look past the black mark that accompanied the black socks remains to be seen.

As for the game...pretty much the worst shooting I have ever seen. The final was 49-43, and the score wasn't even indicative of how poor the execution was on the floor. But winning is what it's all about, right? OK, game over...on to the Joe.

With no respect for the law, or for human life, we made our way to the home of the Red Wings to exact revenge on Sparty for the ass-handing they gave us the night before. The goal was to see the end of the basketball game, and the drop of the puck at the hockey game. We came very close. Missed the drop by 30 seconds. But we arrived in time to see the #1 Wolverines take an early 2-0 lead on their way to reversing the previous evening's score. Michigan wins 5-2.

2 for 2 on the day, not bad. Here's the pics.

If You Want Something Done Right...

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​...you do it yourself.  So for today's two-sport double header action, instead of watching from the couch, a limited crew from UMTailgate.com will be in the stands.  Both Michigan Hockey and Michigan Basketball are coming off of disappointing losses, and play back to back today/tonight just 40 miles apart.   Tip off for the Jalen Rose festival is at 4pm, Michigan-Michigan State is scheduled to start at 7.  With pregame pageantry, the games should be separated by about 45 minutes.  So with some speedy driving, the A2 to Detroit trek should fall nicely between the Crisler buzzer and the drop at The Joe.

Full coverage tomorrow.

For now, watch Bo give a tour of the Big House courtesy of The Wizard of Odds, and try to hold back the tears (Dennis).

Michigan vs. Kate: Sort of Live Blog...

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​Life is full of difficult choices. Tonight, it was Kate vs. Michigan. Michigan wins. Kate and I will meet up in TiVoLand this weekend.

Thanks to Rhode Island vs. UMASS, which was a sweet matchup  12 years ago, we missed the tip live from the barn. No matter, because as they switched to the action in Minnesota, the announcers welcomed us with "the Gophers are on an 8-0 run. It was 15-4, and it felt a bit like old times. Old times being two weeks ago, that is.

Michigan battled back and eventually took the lead, at which point the announcer made the obligatory poke...

Remember that Michigan Final Four team (referring to the 1991 squad)? No. No you don't. Because it never happened."

Yep. The NCAA got out the big eraser on that one."

But that's not the best quote of the first half. It's this one:

Minnesota has lost 2 in a row. Michigan has won 3 in a row.Something's got to give."

Actually sir, no. Nothing HAS to give. In fact, if Michigan wins, nothing has "given." Both teams will have continued their current streaks. Try that again sometime when the two teams are on winning streaks, or the two teams are on losing streaks. That way, no matter what, somebody's streak is coming to an end. Come to think of it, that doesn't even make sense. OK, I've got it. If Michigan had the #1 offense, and Minnesota had the #1 defense, or vice versa....then something would have to give.

Michigan leads 35-34 at the half in a game that is not unbearable to watch so far...aside from ESPN being too cheap to send the HD crew to Minneapolis.

Offensive rebounding at both ends keeps the game close for the first 10 minutes of the second half. Michigan, however maintained their halftime lead until Minnesota tied it at the line with 10:30 remaining. The announcers then take a shot at the Michigan facilities as CJ Lee makes a quarter quart dish to Gibson for an and-1. It's amazing how the world loves to hate Wolverine nation. 'Sota takes it's first lead of the second half on an alley oop with 9 minutes to go.

Timeout sends us to highlights of American Christian vs. St. Anthony. It's a slow night in sports out there folks.

Things appearing to begin to unravel as we got to the 8 min officials TO. Minnesota up 55-52.

A bad call is followed by two big Gopher threes, one of which is flat out stupid. Really starting to unravel, but lots of time to go despite the fact the jackass announcer would like you to think this 6 point lead is insurmountable with 5:12 to go. This asshole would like to give Tubby a Marcellus Wallace.

Hmmmm. Unravelling continues. TV timeout with 3:44 to go...63-55 'Sota. Keep the faith?

In an impromptu review of Ohio State's tournament resume (because that's what I was dying to see), Michigan was listed as one of Ohio State's "bad losses." That's where we are folks. We're a bad loss. A three-pointer makes it 11, and then, as I have a flashback of Louis Bullock tapping his head, Michigan violates the shot clock. 2 minutes to go.

Should've picked Kate.

CJ Lee just got blocked so hard that his mother felt it. As we trade turnovers and the game comes to an end, the announcer reminds you that we have 6 points in the last 13 minutes. Ugh.

Michigan is 5-24 from three. That, as they say, is not good.

69-60 Minnesota. Final.

Now get over it and go see Jalen Rose at halftime on Saturday.

More Link Fun:

Basketball. Petway. Basketball.

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​Thanks to MGoBlog for turning the Michigan world on toUMHoops.com. There's some great stuff over there and they obviously have a thankless job covering what is considered these days to be the "other" sport...so, ya, props. While visiting I couldn't help but notice the words "dunk contest" and "Petway" in the same sentence. It caused flashbacks to so many great memories of bad Michigan teams whose best moments came during warm-ups...and most of those moments featured Air Georgia. Well, Air Georgia has moved on to the league now...the D-League that is...and has once again made a name for himself as a circus act dunker.

Deadspin had remote coverage of D-League all-star weekend through Hardwood Paroxysm

, which is genius on their part. The coverage had this to say about the former Wolverine 7th/8th-man:

But in the Finals, Petway killed him. After a massive lob East-Bay Funk dunk, he then place the ball on the ground under the goal, stood, leaned down, then jumped up and dunked it, standing. It wasn't impressive when you watched it. Then you thought about it. And realized how much leg power that took. The man's a freak of nature.

That he is. What'd Brent think? Well, he's got a blog, and his post regarding the evening is called "I Came, I Saw, I Conquered."

I always surprise people when I get under the lights because I show a completely different side of myself. What can I say l'm an entertainer and I love to put on a show. If you wanna see exactly how good our dunk contest was just go to YouTube and type in "dleague dunk contest."

OK...done. Then comes the challenge, or um...challege.
Also be watching YouTube in the upcoming week, I will b posting a challege to the NBA Dunk Contest winner Dwight Howard. I'm gonna do every dunk he did and put it up because I don't think my message got out that we wanna challenge the league. He's a Georgia boy, I'm a Georgia boy so let's set it up.

Hmmmm. Yes, perhaps that would be fun. Then maybe later you guys can PLAY ACTUAL BASKETBALL against each other.

Finally, in the interest of equal time for coach audio clips, I give you MLive.com's audio coverage of Beilein on WTKA on Wednesday. The program is on track? Maybe. Just be careful tonight on that weird floor in the barn in Minnesota.

Off topic...look at this crazy rap....Tressel's Cheating, but we knew that...Mike Hart combine news.