Good Night Courtney

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​Nice run fellas.

The Michigan Wolverines fell tonight to the Florida State Seminoles by a mere 21 points, 87-66, in case you missed it live on ESPN The Ocho. The cagers showed a bit of mercy on the Wolverine faithful by making a graceful exit from the most embarrassing post season event in all of sports. After a half-hour search, I was able to find the elusive NIT box score on ESPN.com. Not sure if it's some kind of misprint, as 

The Worldwide Leader In Kool-Aid  has yet to give out any type of story, but I think Kendrick Price started. Lester Abram, Dion Harris, and Courtney Sims did not. Interesting coaching move...or did our senior cagers stay out past curfew in Tallahassee? Perhaps they pulled a little Adrian Arrington.   Either way, the next time you hear about Courtney Sims, it will most likely be in regards to his job as the 7th man on some shady team in Israel. Perhaps he'll just be the next
Jerod Ward, wearing out his welcome at Rick's over the next several years. Either way, I bid adieu to a senior class that accomplished next to nothing...which makes them no different from the senior classes of the last eight years I suppose.

In tournament challenge news, as of a little after 10pm on opening day, the biggest upset has been the lack thereof. Aside from VCU sending Tommy's alma mater home early, the chalk pickers are able to rejoice. Congrats to the 10 of you that called the Blue Devils' early exit...and a Golden Sack award to the three of you that took Virginia Commonwealth to the sweet sixteen. Good luck with that.

There will be no perfect brackets in the 2007 NCAA Tournament Challenge. The best of our bunch are sitting on at least one incorrect pick already.

Let's Go

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​Tourney is underway. Stat page is here.

Stats for the UMTailgate.com Tournament Challenge will be updated as often as I can manage throughout the weekend. But with real life today and tomorrow and St. Patrick's Day Saturday...don't hold your breath.

To see anyones picks, click on Player Picks and use the dropdown menu in the upper-left corner.

Best of luck to all of the participants. Hope everyone made their donation. If not, I'm having the Godfather call you drunk at 4am.

Last Chance to Dance...and a Web Roundup

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​

Just a reminder to everyone that Brackets are due today (Thursday, March 15) by noon along with your donation.

**UPDATE*** Entry Now Closed

Click here to see picks and standings.

Meanwhile back at the Little Dance, the Wolverines outlasted Utah State 68-58 behind 14 points from "The Sims that is not Courtney." Perhaps just a little bit of a bright spot as we look in the the deep abyss that is the future of Michigan Basketball. Michigan continues their undeserved vacation with a trip to Tallahassee to take on Florida State tonight at 7pm. A win gets the Wolverines into the NIT's Elite Eight. That's craptacular!

Rounding up some interesting tidbits from around the internets....


  • It's easy to be good at sports when you aren't actually a University. [Poor Performance on SI.com]

  • The latest ESPN "without sports" commercial...not exactly suitable for work. [Youtube...created by the MZone]

  • Here's a movement you can get behind... [Hire Rudy T]

  • Adrian Arrington and friends have been misbehaving. Looks like it will be a lonely bench during the Spring Game. [mgoblog]


That's all for this morning. Good luck with your brackets!

Utah State Breeds Deviants

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​Ahhh, Utah State.  The first round draw for the Wolverines has a nice past.  Remember Larry Eustachy? He coached the Aggies, doing God knows what all over campus undetected, before before getting picked up by Iowa State. It was at Iowa State that Larry flew a little to close to the fire. Damn digital cameras kept him from living the dream.

Notable alums are few and far between, but there are a couple of Michigan ties:

How 'bout Eric Hipple? The 4th round pick out of Utah State in the 1980 NFL draft, he was the Detroit Lion's quarterback for 9 years. That's quarterback longevity at it's finest in the Ford era. Speaking of Ford, the son of beloved Michigan alum Gerald Ford, John Gardner Ford, also graduated from Utah State.

Get your tickets yet? Ya, me neither.

But they are available, and they are cheaper than your average night in the Huron League. $10 gets you in the blue, $8 gets you in the gold, and $5 gets you in as a student.

If none of that interests you, you could always:

Reunion approaching...March 31st...Ann Arbor...

Back to Crisler

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​No matter how much Michigan Basketball underachieves, how disappointing the season is, and how much I wish death upon 3 of the 4 starters, there is always seems to be "just one more chance" for redemption for this team. There always seems to be a game coming up that can fix everything...if they could just find some way to be a team for 40 full minutes. So you get excited, you watch the game, you root on the team in the hopes that this is the turning point. But it never comes. And let me let you in on a little secret, it's not coming anytime soon.

The Wolverines run in the Big Ten tournament ended today with a loss to Ohio State, 72-62. A win would have most likely have put them in the NCAA tournament, as would have a win against Ohio State last Saturday, as would have a win at North Carolina State early in the year, at Illinois, at MSU...at anywhere for that matter. Perhaps if we had only lost to UCLA by 17...instead of 37.

Woulda. Coulda. Shoulda.

Rosenberg said it best in his article written prior to today's loss:

...there remains a perception that Michigan's ceiling is Michigan State's floor.

MSU, with arguably its worst talent in a decade, is heading to another NCAA tournament. Michigan, with four senior starters, needs to beat top-ranked Ohio State to even get on the bubble.


The truth hurts. And while you try to settle yourself down with regards to Michigan State...think of this: In the last three years of football and basketball, Michigan is 0-9 against Ohio State.

The bright side? Getting to watch Courtney Sims play at Crisler again.