Weekend Roundup, Now What? Edition: October 6, 2008

Here's what you might have missed around the internet while you divided your time between cursing the television and taking a candy bar quiz

• We lost, now take your medicine.  Here...and here.


• Beilein says there are better days ahead for UM basketball.  That's mainly because it cannot get any worse.


• But in his defense, we did get our third commit for the 2009 class, two of which are top 150 prospects.  It's a race to see which West Virginia coach pays off first!!!! Article with local flavor here.


• RBUAS writes like you wish you could...this time about a meeting with Coach Carr, TT, Mike Hart, the Wisconsin game, and finding people on this team to identify with.


• Rich Rod makes fewer excuses every week, putting responsibility on both the players and himself, and not using inexperience as an excuse...even though he could.  This week, he flat out says "we played soft."

A Carnival With A Dash of Hot Sauce

We were a tilt-a-whirl and a couple of carnies away from being able to sell tickets to this thing.  The carnival themed tailgate was once again our best showing.  Games, prizes, elephant ears, and a plethora of fried foods set the festive tone.  We blanketed the golf course in Cholula Hot Sauce, making friends with our tailgate neighbors and hundreds of passers-by along the way.  Special thanks to KT for creating the games and furnishing the prizes, from the duck pond to pin the sweatervest on Jim Tressel.  Thanks to KT (again) and Joe for making their way across the golf course to pass out sauce and recipe books.  Thanks to Julian Gonzales, Free Press photographer, for coming out and giving us some notoriety in the metro area.  Finally, thanks to Cholula for sponsoring our day and "spicing" things up.

Quick press linkfest:

• Article on Rich Rod's mom that is nestled next to an artsy black and white of your's truly holding up hot sauce bottles and looking like some kind of tailgate troll is here.


• Freep photos of the day, including two from our tailgate (#5 and #6) that include an action shot of steak sandwich building and our own Baby Beth and friend Drew in Cholula gear.


• Michigan Football Saturdays gives us a shout out...thanks.


• Our pics from the tailgate, courtesy of Tuba and Greg.

One more note...I'm pretty sure we are going to have an article on the tailgate pop up this week in the Freep, most likely in the Life or Food section.  I'll keep you posted.

Thanks to everyone for helping put us on the map!  GO BLUE!

With Every Passing Week, I Know Less

We all have expectations.  The problem with them is that they are ever changing.  Week to week...even game to game.  At halftime of the Wisconsin game, you expected Michigan Football to fold up shop for the rest of that game...and perhaps the remainder of the season.  At the end of the Wisconsin game, and moving into this week against Illinois, you had us improving our way through this transitional season, and sneaking ourselves into a Big Ten title chase like we snuck our way through that second half.  On the heels of the Illini's 42-6 run in the final three quarters of Saturday's game, expectations have changed again.  Admit it, you are worried about Toledo.  Ya, me too.

It's difficult to decide what is real, what is growth and improvement, from what is an aberration.  Was that ass-kicking we just endured the real 2008 Wolverines...or was that the product of a bad day, bad scheme, or over-confidence?  Was the amazing poise and fortitude we showed against Wisconsin the result of luck and circumstance?  If Wisconsin gave Ohio State its biggest scare outside of the Colosseum, can we make a game of it in Columbus?  Or with Juice racking up 431 yards in our house, can we expect Pryor to break an NCAA record in the Horseshoe?

We've played 20 quarters of football this season...maybe 5 of them could be considered complete or successful, but not quite completely successful.  That's 25% good, 75% bad based on my rough estimates.  Not exactly a bolstering of my confidence.

But if I told you we went toe to toe with an undefeated Utah team that is the second best flavor of the month in college football behind their neighbors in Salt Lake City and has clawed their way to a #14 ranking, and knocked off a team from Madison that was ranked #9 and by all indications was a challenger for the Big Ten title...maybe that would help.  Until Saturday (and thru most of Saturday) we found ourselves competing in every game.  And while we might be bringing a knife to these gun fights, we still are managing to get some good stabs in along the way.  I think we can play with anybody.  Unfortunately, I think anybody can play with us as well.  Someday, hopefully sooner than later, we will find ourselves with the defense we saw keep us in the Wisconsin game exist symbiotically with the offense from the first quarter of Illinois game and the turnover margin from, well, some other season.

This is still worth waiting for.

UMTailgate Carnival...Brought to You By Cholula

A reminder to everyone that this week's theme is the UMTailgate Carnival.  Elephant ears, cheesesteaks, and assorted carnival fare are on the menu.  The fryer(s) will also be in action with assorted delights.  In addition, hotsauce mavins Cholula are sponsoring our tailgate, and we will be distributing Cholula (we've got a lot of it) and Cholula cookbooks to our guests, passers-by, and neighboring tailgates.

On top of all of that, the Detroit Free Press will also be in attendance, taking pictures for an upcoming article on tailgating.

See you there!

Winner Winner

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.