Weekend Roundup, You're Either With Us, Or You're With the Terrorists Edition: March 30, 2009

​Lots of talk around the 'sphere about whether you, as a Michigan fan, should have been...or should be...pulling for Michigan State during their run in the NCAA tournament.  The simple answer is: you can do whatever you want.  I'm not your dad, so if you want to get all teary-eyed when you recreate memories of the Flint-Stones, bump chests with your buddy over the dominating play of war-torn Bosnia survivor Goran Suton, embrace ESPN's assessment of Michigan State as the team that saved the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit, or even name your first kid Mateen...I really don't care.  If you want to play the Big Ten unity card, that's awfully nice of you.  GO BIG TEN!  Wooo hooo!  In the end, what you are really asking is if being a fan of Michigan State basketball, or rooting for them in some capacity, makes you less of a Michigan fan.

Yes, it does.

You can slice it any way you want to, you sleep with the enemy.  Pardon the old joke, but you should have three favorite teams: Michigan, the team playing Michigan State, and the team playing Ohio State.  And if the Big Ten sucks, or the perception of it sucks, there is a simple solution...you root for YOUR OWN TEAM to win more games.  You don't root for Sparty or the Buckeyes to make it better.  And when Sparty and the Buckeyes take the field, court, wrestling mat, or ping pong table to play each other...you root for injuries and recruiting violations.

Pulling for Michigan State is the easy thing to do.  It's exciting, this Final Four.  And it's right down the street.  The word "Michigan" is in the name of their school!  But Michigan is not there.  And you shouldn't be either, unless you've got UCONN gear on.

From Genuinely Sarcastic:

In the end, it's all equal. There is strong dislike on both sides for the other, and personally, I think it's an abomination for a Michigan fan to cheer for Michigan State to get to the Final Four. Not because of anything that may come of this in recruiting, but because MSU fans aren't going to do the same for UM. I cheered for Kansas, I cheered for Louisville, and I'll be cheering for Connecticut. I'm a Michigan fan, not a Big Ten fan,and a Michigan fan doesn't cheer for Michigan State.

This debate covered en masse and other stuff from the internets...

• Anti-state weigh-ins: MSC, Genuinely Sarcastic.


• Pro-Sparty positions: WLA, Maize and Blue Nation


• CJ Lee posts his final words of the season on MGoBlue's Court Vision.  Best wishes CJ, you were one hell of a walk-on.


• Denard can't get here fast enough to shore up the QB depth.  Actually, he probably could get here fast enough...if he ran.


• 11 questions for Big Ten spring football from the Chicago Tribune, including: Can Michigan survive with another green quarterback?

Weekend Roundup, Douche Edition: March 23, 2009

​The internets you missed while watching the ultimate douche coach his team to the sweet sixteen.

• The Prez had a slip of the tounge on Jay Leno, dropping a "special olympics" joke when referring to his bowling game.  This prompted the guy that bags my groceries to challenge Obama to a bowling match.  Seriously, this guy actually bags my groceries, and now he's on TMZ. [Deadspin - Special Olympian]


• Spectacular flashback article in the daily on 1989.  Would have been a bit more meaningful before we got eliminated by the gingerbread man, but it's nice nonetheless.  [Michigan Daily - 1989 and Beyond]


• Ann Arbor was ranked the city with the 5th highest quality of living by MSNBC.  [Ann Arbor Chronicle - A2:Ranking]


• Michigan got the one-seed in the East in the NCAA Hockey Tournament.  They'll face off against Air Force on Saturday at 3pm in Connecticut.  [Maize N Brew - NCAA Hockey]


• I've always wanted to be a Jayhawks fan.  Here's the Thursday/Friday schedule:  [Maize and Blog - NCAA Tournament Times and Announcers]

24 Hours From Now...

​...302 other NCAA basketball teams will wish they were us.

...32 teams that were invited to the dance will be on planes back home.

Michigan, who should have been satisfied just getting there...was not.  Despite a valiant attempt to give back a game that was decidedly all-Michigan, they persevered.  Manny was Manny, and with backs against the wall, he threw down an "and-1," solidifying an ending to a Clemson run and a victory that was, in a word, "iffy."  But I'll take iffy all day.  If iffy wins, then tattoo that shit on the warmup shirt right underneath Queme Los Barcos.  Some will use the phrase "they live to play another day."  But it's so much more than that.  They get to play again.  As gut wrenching as it sometimes is...we get to watch again.

As for Clemson, well, I can't be the only one that wasn't impressed with Clemson.  This is a team that beat Duke 74-47 six weeks ago.  Whether they played poorly or we made them play poorly is certainly a point of debate.  What's not debatable is that we were the better team...be it coaching, Manny, or whatever intangible you can come up with.

Tonight was not a miracle, but it does create the opportunity for one.

Clemson Basketball Blog Notices Our Optomistic Schedule

​Dude...have I ever posted this much in one day?  For those used to just one post per day...or every other day...or every other week...scroll down.  There's lots of content added since your last visit.  2009 UMTailgate.com Tournament Challenge information is available here.

Back to this post...

The OP, a Clemson basketball blog, has noticed that we've got a game scheduled for Saturday...which in some circles may be misconstrued as cockiness.  Well, sorry to "big boy" you fellas, but you have 8 total NCAA appearances and have never seen past the sweet sixteen...ever.  I laugh at your mediocrity, and I do so despite being on an eleven year tourney drought.

This is Michigan Basketball.

Thursday: Michigan vs. Clemson is PRIME TIME... 7:10pm!!!!

Sitting Pretty at #10...The Selection Special at Crisler

​2009 UMTailgate.com Tournament Challenge information is available here.

***UPDATE***:  Thursday: Michigan vs. Clemson is PRIME TIME... 7:10pm!!!!

We came...we saw...we crapped our pants...then we celebrated...and then Baby Beth sat in Zack's tourney chair.

The Selection Special event at Crisler arena was a great idea that almost wasn't.  I shutter to think about how bad things would have gotten if we hadn't received that bid.  As luck would have it, our regional was the last to be announced, and you could feel Coach Beilein, the team, and the crowd start to really tighten up as seed after seed went by...without mention of the Wolverines.  But the anticipation and trepidation made it that much better when we were rewarded with the #10 seed in the closing minutes of the bracket reveal.  And then...chaos.  I've seen countless selection shows in my lifetime, and always wondered just how authentic the surprise was for players and coaches when they saw their names on CBS.  I can tell you, I was watching Beilein like a hawk, and he didn't know.  He went back and forth between Sims and Harris as it came down to the final bracket, probably going over with them exactly what the rest of the experienced tournament followers already knew.  If they're taking 7 from the Big Ten, it's us vs. Penn State, and we are probably in.  If they're taking 6, we're not in, as Illinois has yet to be announced. I watched the cameraman, hoping to see some kind of signal that he needed to be ready with a shot.  I watched the cameraman's assistant, who seemed to be on a direct line to headquarters via his earpiece, to see if he was getting some kind of word about readying the feed.  Nobody knew.  Either that or they are great secret keepers with tremendous poker faces.  Poker face...yes, please cue more Lady GaGa.

That Wisconsin bid at #12 made us all nervous.  They beat us twice, and they, at a 12-seed, were one of the last in.  But then Minnesota came in at #10...and we beat them twice.  Oh the confusion.  But in the end, we got what we wanted, minus maybe the chance to play in Dayton.

Coach Beilein was the host and emcee, and spoke to the crowd both before the show and after.  This is a class guy.  He said all the right things, and he loves Michigan.  He wanted us there, the Michigan fans, not as some promotional idea, or to get more ticket sales or bolster support, but because he wanted us to share in this moment, together, as a Michigan family.  In short, I fell in love with Coach tonight.  I'm in...not that I wasn't before.

Here are some pics from the event.  Thanks to tailgaters Baby Beth and Zoe for going with me and smuggling me in to the student area, even if everybody around us thought I was their dad...or maybe an uncle.  We had a great and close vantage point, and I've got some great video footage of all of this that I will certainly try to youtube tomorrow.

Thursday bitches!  Thursday!