What's Up This Weekend? Taste it again for the Third Time Edition

Tonight (Friday 2/8/13):

• Ice Hockey (7-13-2, 10-16-2) at #12 Notre Dame (12-7-1, 16-11-1):  Your fair Wolverines have moved out of the basement and up to an 8th place tie with Bowling Green in the CCHA standings...yet the Wolverines 96 goals-against leads the league (in the bad way).  Notre Dame is in third place in the conference and #12 nationally, but is coming off a win-less weekend in Columbus.  Puck drops at 7:35pm in South Bend.  It's live on your TV if you have the CBS Sports Network.  Live audio lives here. 

Tomorrow (Saturday 2/9/13):

• Basketball (8-2, 21-2) at Wisconsin (7-3, 16-7):  For the third time this season, a Michigan win means a #1 ranking on Monday.  We're 1-1 in such games so far this season.  Someday we'll not care about such trivial things in February...we're not quite there yet, this is still new (relatively) and fun.  The Badgers are coming off a Wednesday night win over Iowa, and a big win Sunday at Illinois (which is more than I can say for Indiana).  The Badgers also beat Indiana...at Indiana.  Anyway, in a perfect world where I didn't have to work today and tonight, or where the game wasn't at 11am locally, I'd be making this trip.  I miss Madison.  This is a big road game. I feel like Wisconsin is just barely outside of the top tier in the Big Ten this season, which means this is a VERY losable road affair.  Tipoff is Noon here in the east.  It's on ESPN, so its also on Watch ESPN.  Live audio will be here. 

• Ice Hockey (7-13-2, 10-16-2) at #12 Notre Dame (12-7-1, 16-11-1):  See above.  Puck drops at 7:05pm.  Live audio here.   Televised in A2 on Comcast local (channel 900).

Sunday 2/10/13

• Women's Basketball (6-4, 17-6) at #13 Purdue (7-2, 18-4).  Noon tip on BTN.

OSU: An Uneducated Couch Potato Bullet Point Recap

We Beat Ohio.  76-74 in OT.

The Good:

• Huge win.  Nearly a must win for staying in the conversation for the Big Ten regular season championship, at least as must win as must win can be on February 5th.
• Amazing that games like this are happening in Ann Arbor.  This conference is the shit.  This team is the shit.  Where we've been to where we are....just wow.
• Good birthday present for the 60 year old fearless leader of the Wolverines.
• It's weird the way we typically go the way Hardaway goes.  Tonight, Hardaway was scorching hot.  He single handedly kept us in this game.
• McGary.  He's probably the third best player on this team.  He's getting better every game.  It goes beyond just basketball...his youth and exuberance are always a spark.
• Stauskas and G-Rob both made valiant comebacks after poor showings in the IU game.  Stauskas made two more 3's on the same amount of attempts, and Little Dog hit double figures after Saturday's 40-minute, 2 point performance.

The Bad:

• Our uniforms. That's not maize, that's highlighter.  The inability to see names and numbers brought me back to the Outback Bowl.
• While it was great to have Timmy nail 5 straight 3's, the fact that we may have very well been run out of the gym (our own gym) without them is a bit concerning.
• The play to end regulation, or lack thereof, was frustrating.  Yes, Trey Burke is a spectacular talent, but the Buckeyes kept him somewhat in check (at least by the eye test).  We didn't need a fade-away three.  We needed an offensive play.  We needed something more than Louis Bullock tapping his head as the clock ran down. 
• McGary:  Should be starting.  If someone could explain to me why he does not, that'd be great.
• The officiating:  They missed offensive goaltending in the first half by the Buckeyes.  Also, that was a flagrant foul by Craft.  And Craft was fouled on the  final shot.  The last two cancel each other out I guess, but that doesn't make it any less craptastic.
• The next two are on the road.....at the Badgers....at Sparty.  

Recaps:

• MGoMuppets
• UMHoops
• ESPN
• Maize N Brew
• Eleven Warriors

Happy Birthday Coach

Coach Beilein turns 60 today.

Coach running the show at Canisius back in the early 90's

Dave Brandon and Gene Smith got him a clown show for a present.  Michigan plays Ohio State in a few hours and it will be this...

...hosting this...

Big home game.  Must win.  WE ON.  When everyone operates...

Weekend Roundup, This is Just the Beginning Edition: 2/4/13

Here's what happened this weekend while you helped put Denard on the cover of the next NCAA Football video game.

• Big lights.  Big stage.  Big pooping of the pants.  Oh well, there's more games ahead.  Big ones.  Bigger ones.  And we're gonna win some of them.  We're still growing.  Still learning.  Kids.  And we've still got Trey.  There's time, a lot of it.  6 weeks...9 regular season games followed by the most competitive conference tournament in America.  Then it starts for realzies.   ESPN recap here.   UMHoops initial reaction.  Detroit News recap.

• These internets were a buzz with DB's announcement that we hired a group to catfish our own players.  Then there was some blowback.  Then we denied that it actually happened.  The whole thing came off as weird, but I gotta tell you, I'll take that kind of weird over this kind of weird any day.

• Signing day (February 6th)  is approaching, so if you are into that kind of thing, here's a ESPN-centric schedule.  We have the makings of a pretty good class, which sometimes means a lot, and sometimes means very little.

• AnnArbor.com covered Denard's signing appearance at the MDen, which had a pretty big crowd.  

• Hockey had it's first weekend sweep of the season, and it came against Michigan State, which is nice.  Friday night was a 3-2 victory, and Saturday's matinee was 5-2.

Weekend Roundup, #1 Edition

So, we've reached that time of year where I make that post where I tell you that rumors of this website's demise have been greatly exaggerated.  So there's that.  Apologies, I'll do better, missing pictures are coming, more content, etc., etc., etc...  You can't trust me. That you can trust.

Roundup?  Roundup.

• It's Super Bowl week, so there will be a Michigan player in action.  Also, a Michigan Man will coach Michigan....er, I mean San Francisco...and Baltimore I guess.  Jimmy Hardballs was my first love in Maize and Blue.  I pretended I was him (and at 9 years old, I probably already weighed as much as him) as I snapped the ball to myself in a one-on-one tackle football game I'd play with a friend on the cement floor of my basement, dodging my dad's rusty iron weights that were laying around.  It was a barbaric 10-yard fight, and we were both lucky it didn't end in cracked skulls.  16 years later, I got a new appreciation for Jim, as at around 40 years of age, he still was pulling tail at Rick's.  He was my idol in youth, and my mentor as I approached the "inappropriate to go to Rick's" age.  Also, he did this...

• It was a good week.  Very good.  We can only go downhill from here...  Running back Derrick Green committed to a teary eyed Brady Hoke, resulting in creative uses of the Spartan trademarked color, such and Maize + Blue = Green.  Great.  I think he should change his name.  MGoBlog Hello post  |  New Blue from Maize N Brew  |  Hat Presentation from Maize and Blue Nation  |  Touch the Banner updates recruiting  

• Hoops held serve at home against Purdue, and had a big road win against Illinois.  MGoBlog Recap  |  ESPN Recap  |  UMHoops Recap  |   ....which resulted in Michigan climbing to the top of the AP poll for the first time since baggy shorts became cool,  though still #2 in the Coaches Poll (fuck you Tom Osbourne)...  Eleven Warriors updates it's Big Ten power rankings.  Also, Bacari Alexander is weird.

• It wasn't all rainbows and unicorns though.  Michigan Hockey sucks, and Denard, well, Denard will always have his smile.

• But let's not end there, here's a Winter Outlook of Wolverines Football, and a coach really jamming the idea of the extra pass home.