Dear Coach...

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Hey.  How are you?  I often think about how tough this must be for you, riding this out, knowing what you know, and trying to find a way to articulate it at press conferences without betraying the previous regime or belittling the current players.  I think about how the words "you can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit" is on the tip of your tongue, right next to "if you assholes would just be patient and let me do my thing, I will take you to the promised land in a couple years."  But you can't say those things.  You need to pretend to live for today, even though you pine, like those of us that understand, for tomorrow.

We the fans have stood by as things have started to unravel a bit, the latest chapter being the unspeakable loss to a bad MAC squad.  But as complicated and rabid Michigan fandom is, our needs our very simple.  We don't work with people from Toledo.  We rarely spend quality time with folks from Champaign.  I've never met anyone from Utah.  However, Sparty Alums are everywhere.  We see them in our offices (cleaning up the trash), we see them in restaurants (serving us fries), we bump into them occasionally in social situations (starting fires and jumping on police cars).

They have been a dominant force in college basketball for several years now, while our program has seen the ultimate demise.  And we hear about it, usually starting sometime after the 1st quarter of the Michigan - Michigan State football game and going through to March Madness.

On the flipside, we have the best football program of all time, and they have less Big Ten championships than Northwestern.  This is where we own them.  Where we have always owned them.  Where we need to always own them.  You can fix THIS season coach....and it starts by understanding what this game means to all of us.  While the Big Ten championships and National Championships will require a year or two of work, the state championship requires only 4 quarters.  Simply put Coach...BEAT STATE.  I promise you that if you win, you can do whatever you want until November 22nd.  It is then that we'll have to have another conversation.  See you then.

We're gonna need more lights

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Michigan State will attempt to break yet another Michigan streak in this year of streak-breakers, that being not having won in Ann Arbor since 1990 (BTW, Desmond's 2-point conversion was good).  Kickoff has been set officially for 3:30pm.

Also of note, Bubba would like to remind you that THIS IS NOT MICHIGAN BASKETBALL.  In other words, DON'T BE DUMPING YOUR TICKETS TO THE GREEN AND WHITE FAITHFUL. If you find yourself unable to go to the game, then sell your tickets to someone wearing Michigan gear...and check to make sure that they don't have a green shirt on underneath it, because they are crafty couch burning little bastards these Spartans.  If I have to hear a GO GREEN, GO WHITE chant in the Big House that is unable to be drowned out by The Victors, I'm going to get Butters to start shooting people in the dick.

Remember who they are....they have 5 wins against us since 1988.  THEY ARE LITTLE BROTHER.

GO BLUE!

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).

The Weekend Roundup: To the VICTORS Go the Spoils Edition: 11/6/2007

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​Much has been made of the "war of words" between Mike Hart and Mark Dantonio. For the second time this season, a coach has responded to comments made by Mike Hart. Isn't that embarrassing for the coach? I mean, what kind of headway can you make as a leader of men when you are bantering back and forth with a student-athlete in a "I know you are but what am I?" fashion. Perhaps there's a case to be made that Mike needs to grow up. Fortunately for him, he's young and literally needs to grow up. As for Harbaugh and Dantonio...they ARE grown up, and they are acting like a couple of bitches more interested in winning a conversation with a 22 year old than winning football games. The Spartans and Cardinal(s) are basically lucky to get the national attention they are getting from Mike shitting on them. Get that fellas? Mike poops, and the location of his poop becomes news. You sirs, you are just toilets. Shut up and win.

Of course, this topic has been run through the ringer in the blogosphere. I will direct you to the post by MGoBlog, which continues my streak of linking to MGoBlog pretty much every time I write a post. He has a good take on it, and also links to the rest of the good takes across said blogosphere. (Spartans, Your Profession is Loser - MGoBlog):

But seriously folks, the one thing the Michigan State program needed was a monomaniacal focus on Michigan. It needed a coach who would install a countdown clock to their eighth straight loss in the series. It needed a man who would stand up and say "you know what, guys? All those other games we play are stupid and we shouldn't try very hard in them." It needed a guy who would teach his resilient troops to follow his example by bitching to the assembled media a full two days after his team blew it again. It needed a man who could forge them into a cohesive unit capable of picking up critical personal fouls at the very worst time possible. See, the problem with Michigan State is that occasionally they enter the fourth quarter of games leading. And Michigan State needs a man who can blow that lead, preferably in really, really painful fashion.

Friends, Mark Dantonio is that man.


I dream of writing shit like that. Damn you mgoblog! Other takes on Hart vs. Dantonio to look at when you are not on a quest to find every abandoned Chi-Chi's in the nation: 

The rest of the news around the internets that you missed while building your ownCharlie Weiss Jabba the Hut.