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.
Penn State Stuff
/Lost in the shuffle of the devastating loss was a spectacular tailgate. The 5th iteration of the annual RV trip was a resounding success, and included tons of great food, including three giant stuffed Chicago style pizzas from our friends at Fat Rickey's. Thanks to them and to the fellas that came together to make the trip great.
Pictures are here:
Slim Just Left the Building
/The cagers fell to 2009 NIT champion Penn State tonight. Right. The turning point came when the student section began chanting "WE OWN PENN STATE" in Zombie Nation fashion when Penn State had the lead. Never underestimate the stupidity of an arena DJ. That improves the Nittany Lion's record to 10-16 on the season overall, and a glorious 2-12 on the year in the Big Ten. It was also Penn State's first victory in Crisler since 1999. It moves the Wolverines to 13-13 (6-8) on the season, and increases both the number and severity of the questions surrounding this team. There seemed to be some momentum gained in the past week with the two road wins...that's all gone now.
Following 12 straight losses to start the Big Ten season, the Penn State men's basketball team has its first conference winning streak of the season, as it beat Michigan, 55-51, at Crisler Arena.
Prior to this embarrassment, there was a little buzz floating around on the internet about Beilein's magical West Virginia team that finished strong, made their way into the tournament as a 7 seed, and ended up in the elite 8...and how if Michigan just finished strong, if they just...ya, no. We just lost to Penn State, the remainder of the schedule is brutal with road trips to MSU and Columbus. The season is over. And in reality, it was over before the Big Ten slate began. I mean, Boston College, Alabama, and Marquette...in a row? Done. The problem is this whole conference tournament thing, which allows for shitty teams to continue to control their own destiny. With about a month to go until the NCAA tournament, every school in the country still has a chance to win their conference championship...and then of course the National Championship. The combination of these auto-bids and George Mason has given hoards of college basketball fans false hope...it's made us all delusional.
Each game I listen to announcer after announcer, and the analysts at halftime, talking about how Michigan needs to "go inside" more, that their troubles reside in their systemic rigidity. They say less 3's are the answer. I think they should just make 1 or 2 more of them each game. (Note: 2 more made threes each game would give us 5 more wins, and force 2 more overtimes) The hard truth is that Michigan Basketball, not unlike Michigan Football's defense, is simply not very talented. Â There is not a single player that checked in for the Wolverines on Saturday night that will ever check into a NBA game. Now, that doesn't mean that I love those fellas any less, or that they are not exceptional Big Ten basketball players, it's just that I know the Detroit duo's future is likely to be played out in Europe. Manny should stay. He should stay as long as he can. Peedi's game doesn't translate to the next level for his size. And really, all of that is fine for our purposes here. The problem with Michigan really resides in the supporting cast of a player (or two) that seems to be losing his talent with each passing day and each missed three-pointer, and a couple of kids that wouldn't be on the scout team for most teams in the top 25. Outside of that, all we have is a Freshman guard that seems to be progressing well. That's not enough.
We simply don't have the horses for this race. That is why, on selection Sunday, you will probably be learning what the name of "that other tournament" is...the one that is not the NCAA or NIT...the one that takes under .500 teams.
The Thin Line Between Love and Hate Should Be Thicker
/The bulk of the Michigan faithful stayed around longer than I expected them to, no doubt clinging to the hope that Tate might have another rabbit left in that winged hat. The one redeeming quality of losses of this nature? When games are over just a couple of minutes into the second half, you have a couple of hours to wallow around in it, to make your peace with it before it's actually done. It's cathartic to have to sit in a cold light rain and see two small, white-clad sections of the stadium exchange their "WE ARE"s and "PENN STATE"s. I sat there, wondering how this could have happened...not the 35-10 drubbing, but how I let my expectations change so rapidly after that 4-0 start. More amazing is how I never let them fade after barely nipping Indiana, then falling to MSU and Iowa.
There's something that everyone needs to understand. This is not a very good or even good football team. This is an average football team. They're too young, too inexperienced, and too thin at nearly every defensive position. But being average means that this is certainly not a bad football team, and it is a country mile ahead of where they were last year. Being average means we can beat teams like Notre Dame, we can blow out teams from the MAC, and we can be competitive with the best this league has to offer. Being average also means that we can have our ass handed to us on occasion. Saturday was such an occasion.
Immediately following the loss, those that cheered the new coach after the 4-0 start, and admitted they were wrong for their snap judgment after last season, quickly went back to wanting the return of Lloyd-ball. The haters who had been patiently waiting for...and even wanting a loss like this dusted off their soapboxes. Suddenly the piped in music was hurting their ears, the spread offense became a passing fad, and *gasp* Rich Rod yelled at one of his coaches on the sideline indicating obviously that this whole house is about to come crumbling down.
Someone really needs to shut this whole internet thing down, or at least gag Drew Sharp.
These knee jerk reactions from game to game and this over-analysis of a season, a program and a coaching staff based on a single contest is getting really ridiculous. It was ridiculous when it we were 4-0 and had just beaten an Indiana team that we convinced ourselves was good, and it's ridiculous when we're 5-3 and we just lost to a Penn State team that we had convinced ourselves was not so good. You see, the thing is, Indiana is not so good, and Penn State is good...I think. So that makes things confusing, beyond your understanding, and if nothing else it should widen that thin line between praising Rich Rod for a turnaround and anointing Tate Forcier as the next coming of Christ, and wanting Rich Rod to step down and say that you can't wait for Devin Gardner to get here. Come to grips with the fact that you just don't know, that you can't predict the future. There's a pretty big damn difference between 5-7 and 9-3, and there's a pretty big damn difference between "Rich Rod is the man for this job" and "Rich Rod should be fired."
We all need to spend some more time finding that gray area, exercising patience, and waiting to make broad analysis of the direction of the program until the season has ended. Bonus points if you wait until after 2010.
