Two More

There’s something profound to be said here, something that someone with writing talent should probably be penning instead of the fat guy that makes your food on football Saturdays.  Michigan has reached the Final Four.  It is an amazing and rare feat.  It results in a t-shirt that is OK to wear, unlike those "Sweet 16" or "Elite 8" shirts, which are only passable at schools in leagues that survive solely on auto-bids.  It brings national attention, and has once again introduced America to John Beilein.  They seem to always forget about him.  That's probably because we do too.  

Probably not anymore.

Michigan plays basketball, winning basketball, but more often than not this year, that basketball has been ugly to watch.  I know this because I lived through the frustration of watching it a Crisler Arena all season.  It is not the same as Duke-North Carolina (of course, they're at home now).  And I would say it's just ugly to the casual fan, but that would give the impression that the basketball elite like it.  They don't.  When Michigan slips by a team holding them under 60 points, the defense gets praised in a backhanded complement kind of way.  Defense wins, but I guess it's not great to watch.  Tell you what though, I'm getting used to it.  For many years of the Beilein regime, wins and losses were predicated on hot and cold shooting.  Ugly meant a loss.  The 2018 version of the Wolverines can overcome cold and ugly.  And if they happen to get hot, they are unbeatable. 

I will say this and this is important:  There are two more wins to get.   The Final Four is not a final destination.  Sparty will tell you otherwise because of their abysmal record when they arrive there.  Final Four shirts are cool.  National Championship shirts are forever.  They don't age.  Michigan has to defeat a group of miracle workers on Saturday and a Blue Blood juggernaut on Monday.  We've got another net to cut down.  

Still enjoying the ride.

Go Blue!

Coast to Coasting

Junfu Han / Detroit Free Press

Not sure why there was any concern about not being in The D to start the tourney.  All things being equal, Michigan is going to have more people in any given arena than the opponents.  Michigan owned NYC a couple weeks back, sent a hoard to Wichita, and now owns LA.  Unfortunately, as I have spoken about before, the tenacity and vigor of the nationwide fan didn't inspire the locals to give 100% at Crisler this year.  But that shit is water under the bridge now.  The blue hairs will be charging through the snow in their rascals next year to get to the games.

Michigan dispatched of TAMU in about 5 minutes of real time, and I'm convinced refs called fouls to get to the TV timeouts, otherwise the whole game would have taken about 45 minutes.  TAMU flirted with getting the deficit under 20, and I think they actually did manage to cut it to 18 late.  They also had some huge powerful dunks, and each time they clung to the rim for an extra moment, flexed, or yelled, I could hear the echoes of John Beilein's voice reminding the team that no matter how colossal, those dunks are only two points.  Michigan would hang 99, and TAMU head coach Billy Kennedy looked absolutely shell shocked from tip to buzzer.  Michigan shot at a clip that TAMU had not experienced since 2001.

39-63 overall, 14-24 from 3, 7-8 free throws.  The offense showed up.  And when it does, there's nobody that can beat this team.  Nobody.

Michigan moves on to their 3rd Elite 8 in 6 seasons, a type of success that is rarified air, and to be respected.  In short, we don't appreciate John Beilein enough.  He is our basketball Bo, and with just 3 more wins, he'll accomplish something that even Bo did not.

This is friggin' fun.  

Go Blue!

This Baby Gorilla Has the Worst Bracket

101 brackets entered, and not counting the guy that literally let his two-year old select the picks in his bracket entitled "My Two-Year-Old's Picks," our worst bracket comes to us from an old friend, Baby Gorilla.  For those that do not know or remember him, before his manhood got clipped, Baby Gorilla endured several seasons of Michigan tailgating and was a road trip staple, where he was known for sleeping 23 of the 24 hours on any given day, and once forcefully vomited up a stack of Dinkytown blueberry pancakes into a ditch on the side of a road in Minnesota. 

Baby Gorilla doesn't really like Michigan State, but he likes their women, who typically have a moral compass that performs similarly to one you would find on the island in Lost.  He continues to pick Michigan State, year after year, even though they haven't won a National Championship since back when he was dealing rocks in Colonial Village.  He probably shows his bracket to his wife, she smiles and pats him on the head and gives him the big piece of chicken and rubs his belly.  He's happy, the Earth (that he is almost certain is flat) continues to be semi-circled by the sun, and all is well.

So here it is, in all its glory, the worst bracket through the first weekend:

Of note, for those participating in the UMTailgate.com tournament challenge, half the field still has a chance to take first place, so you might think your bracket is busted, but things are so jacked up in reality that you probably are still in it....so check the standings, particularly the best results.

Fun.

Also, Thursday vs Manziel.  Woot.

Go Blue!

You Lost One of Your Final Four Teams by 2:40P on Thursday

The battle for worst bracket is peaking early...

We Believe....or We're Stupid

Maybe one of the best deals you can make in sports is to enter a pool with a bunch of homers and pick against them.  101 entries in the 2018 UMTailgate.com tournament challenge, 19 have Michigan winning it all, 46 have them in the Final Four. 

The four one-seeds COMBINED were picked in 38 brackets to win it all.  A roundup of the champion picks, again out of 101 brackets:

Michigan 19
Villanova    16
Virginia    16
Duke    9
Arizona    9
North Carolina    8
Michigan St.    6
Purdue    5
Kansas    4
Gonzaga    4
Cincinnati    2
Xavier    2
Kentucky    1

And yes, I am one of those homers.  Best of luck to everyone, and GO BLUE!