When Cheaters and Liars Collide, Nobody Wins
/Trivia: Who won the 2010 Penn State vs. Ohio State game?
Answer: Not Penn State. And not Ohio State.
Championship Sunday Picture Page
/Were we always this fired up about regular season titles? I guess I always thought of the Big Ten tournament champion as the Big Ten champion. I felt that way in '98, when Michigan won the inaugural Big Ten tourney. College basketball is a game predicated on tournaments. I'm pretty sure Kentucky didn't cut down the nets Sunday afternoon and declare themselves the regular season National Champion. In March, nobody cares about regular season championships. Nobody that is except a banner-starved fanbase that just wants to hang something from this century and get a ring for the fingers of a couple of un-recruited kids from Indiana.
Banners really mean something around here. We've hung our fair share, as well as unceremoniously taken a few down. The 1986 Big Ten banner and 1989 National Championship banner have remained. But that's getting to be an awfully long time ago. I can remember thinking it was a long time ago when I was here as a student. For a college student today, those banners might as well be from 1956.
But there will be fresh cloth to hang from the rafters now. 2012 Big Ten Champions.
It took this…
To beat this...
Before needing to find a way to root for this…
To beat this…
Hoping to cause this…
And place an order for this...
Somehow, it all worked out. But there's lots left to do. Plenty more banners up for grabs. Plenty more rings.
The Big Ten tourney bracket is now available. We're up on Friday at 6:30pm vs. the winner of Northwestern-Minnesota.
Wire to Wire
/
During this same week two years ago, Michigan lost back-to-back games at home to Penn State and Illinois, and while the dream was probably long since over, the two losses effectively left the 2010 Big Ten tournament's auto-bid as Michigan's only chance to get to postseason play. As disappointing as the season had been, I had delusions of Michigan winning that Big Ten tournament and dancing again...just as I had at the end of each season for the better part of decade. I thought since this team had received that NCAA Tournament taste in 2009, they might have the drive to make it happen. Needing a conference tournament run to salvage a season is the mark of desperation. It's the way you think when you're not good. It's how we'd lived our lives as Michigan Basketball fans since 1998. Ohio State, who at the time was the toast of the conference, needed a 37 foot prayer from Evan Turner to beat the Wolverines and end that season for the Wolverines. No tourney. No NIT. No post-season.
Now, just two years later, the momentum has swung to a place where the NCAA tournament is an expectation...the postseason even appears on the official schedule. This year, despite a slate that included a Maui Invitaional and a run through the what might be the nation's most powerful conference, they haven't dissappointed.
Michigan has been ranked in both polls for the entirety of the 2011-12 basketball season. Michigan hasn't lost for over a year on their home court. They split the season series with their two biggest rivals. They're not playing their way in anymore, they're playing for seed. And they did it all after losing a huge portion of their offense to the NBA in Darius Morris.
That's not to say it's been pretty the whole way. The road has been a huge issue, and Tuesday's game at Northwestern looms large as Michigan attempts to position themselves for their first Big Ten regular season championship in 26 years. Their lack of big men that are skilled around the rim, both in scoring and rebounding, sets them up for problems against most teams. And the John Beilein system (while effective) isn't pretty, and from an offensive perspective, it can be downright frustrating to watch even in victory, especially on nights where the threes aren't falling. But good systems evolve, and while the offense has basically consisted of Trey Burke drive-and-score and Trey Burke drive-and-dish...there seems to be a push (which was evident Saturday night) to get Jordan Morgan more involved in an inside out type gameplan despite his shortcomings. Trey Burke was decidedly "the show" against the Buckeyes, but Jordan Morgan might have played his best game at Michigan...and did it against one of the Big Ten's best players.
Michigan took a 6-0 lead to start the game, and while they found themselves looking over their shoulders the whole time and never really got a commanding lead...they never trailed...going tip to horn over one of the best teams in the country.
Three of the remaining four games on Michigan's schedule are on the road, and while they aren't against the Big Ten's best (Northwestern, Illinois, and Penn State) they are still decidedly not in Crisler. The Boilermakers are the lone home game remaining, and are the only thing standing in the way of a perfect home season (which would make us perfect at home in football and basketball!) when they come to Ann Arbor this Saturday for senior night. Michigan needs to win all four of these games if they want to end that 26 year drought.
From Other Places:
- MGoBlog goes muppets...there's been a run on muppets this year!
- UMHoops recaps and also gives us five key plays.
- AnnArbor.com poses the question: Do You Believe?
- Wojo uses "flummoxes" in his headline about the game.
- The Buckeye Blog is mad at Thad for not getting Trey.
Michigan 40, Ohio State 34
/
"You see those kids over there?" Brady said pointing at his celebrating seniors who had jumped into the first few rows of the student section. "That's their final legacy."
I've watched that ending a few times now. Still chokes me up. It was an emotional day. It was something I'd been waiting a long time for.
Michigan is back.
Brady didn't cry, but his voice cracked a little more than it usually does, and it reminded me of 1996, when Lloyd's bottom lip wiggled a bit after the Ohio State game. He uttered "It's a player's game, like most of these Ohio State - Michigan games are...and it was won...on the field...by a team that believed that they could win." And win they did, despite being 17-point underdogs that day.
I remember thinking then that Coach Carr really had developed an amazing relationship with these guys, and he was only their head coach for a couple of years. Brady Hoke has been here for 11 months, and the bond he developed with the seniors that he had no hand in recruiting, and had only coached for a few months, was extraordinary.
He is us, we are him. I love him. I love how he coaches. I love his leadership ability and how he does it. I’d do anything for him. - David Molk
It now looks as if he was the perfect hire for the situation. He surrounded himself with the perfect assistants, and most importantly, preached the Michigan tradition so well, that the team forgot it ever did anything but win. This was not the team that lost 22 games in the previous three years. This was THIS team. This was team 132, with navy seal's chains hanging around their necks.
We went through a lot to get here. It's so hard to imagine that less than a year ago I walked out of a bowl game in the 3rd quarter, that a week later I absolutely loathed the hiring of Hoke, that at the spring game I was certain we were in for a year of attempting a vanilla power offense with RichRod's mighty midget recruits.
I was wrong. So very wrong.
Sugar Bowl (likely) bound and ten wins is a big deal. It's even bigger when you've averaged five wins per season over the last three years. Offensively, we took a half step back for the greater good of the future installation of Power and Pocket, but maybe ended up building a better, if not more healthy, Denard. Defensively, we witnessed what has to be the greatest single season turnaround for a team...with nearly identical personnel.
The season wasn't perfect, as no season when little brother beats you is...and there are going to be a lot of questions going into next season. The questions however will pale in comparison to the expectations. Michigan is going to be a top 15 preseason team, top 10 if they win this bowl game. Michigan will likely be picked to win the Big Ten. And there will be a lot of weight on the shoulders of a senior Denard Robinson.
But I have the ultimate confidence in Brady and this staff to manage expectations. I'm done complaining. Sorry I'm so late to the party. Goals will be set. The expectations will be for the position. Hold the rope. Etc, etc, etc....
Just beat Sparty under the lights in 2012.
