Weekend Roundup, Signing Week Edition: February 2, 2009

​What you missed around the internet while you tried to become the next Sully...

• Lloyd Carr's (and my) alma mater, Riverview High School,  has hired a new coach with a State Championship pedigree and a passion for small town support, discipline, and a running game.  Good luck to Coach Jeff Stergalas...I look forward to seeing the changes this fall.


• The Super Bowl MVP is Santonio Holmes from Ohio State.  He's a real character guy, which, in Ohio State terms, means he's never brandished an automatic weapon.  He has however sold drugs, used drugs, and beat his girlfriend.


• Beilein educates the media about Manny Harris's unwarranted ejection.  It was complete crap.  However, even though the collapse seemed to come following his exit, I have trouble believing it was worth 18 points.  I guess you never know.  Either way, someone needs to take those officials to task.  Maize and Brew reviews the rule book.


• Michael Phelps hits the bong.


• Sammy the Owl got ejected from a game for roughing the referree.  This wouldn't be news, except that Sammy and I have a history.


• Signing day is coming this Wednesday.  Rittenburg says the late push might be huge for us.  Getting Denard Robinson would make us one step closer to never seeing Threet or Sheridan again.  Denard and his teammate CB Adrian Witty will announce at 11am on Feb 4th.


• Taj Boyd is not going to Ohio State.


• Nice local fluff on your favorite former walk-on cager C.J. Lee.


• Ian Gold talks about new Defensive Coordinator Greg Robinson.  He had a stint under G-Rob at Denver.


• Lloyd Carr speaks at an alumni club event in one of my favorite cities, Naples, Florida, and admits he's a closet Dolphins fan.


• If things keep going the way they are, Michigan hoops might find itself in the "other tournament."  No, not the NIT....the "other other tournament."

Time Off Before the Buzzsaw

​Michigan Basketball has lost five of their last six.  Three weeks ago, we sat at 13-3...today we are 14-8.  It wouldn't be so troubling if we had been competitive in any of the losses, but for the most part we have not been.  Each of the games had periods of shooting that caused even casual observers to cringe.  I can here the echo in my head of the announcers..."Michigan is 0 for 11 from 3-point range"...."Michigan is 2 for 15 from three point range"...."Michigan is shooting only 27% from the floor so far tonight."  We once "lived by it" and we are certainly "dying by it."  The margins of loss in the second half of January..14, 7, 15, 18, and 18.  Again, I live in a world where rational thought is clouded by visions of Rumeal Robinson, so I feel I must mention that there is a whole lot of season ahead of us.

Michigan gets a bit of a break this week, which Coach Beilein has said they have been looking for in order to practice their shooting.  I like the sound of that.  The problem is that when you are in the middle of a season that doesn't take a break, all time off is offset by a game-heavy period.  That game heavy period starts Thursday, when the Wolverines play a Penn State team that just got done beating Sparty at Breslin.  It will be the first contest of three that Michigan will play over six days.  They will get only Friday to prepare to play a Saturday night ESPN televised (6pm) non-conference game against UCONN in Storrs.  Then two days off to prepare for the Sparty invasion on Tuesday night...also on ESPN (7pm).

If Michigan Basketball was looking for a good time to get things back on track, this is it.  With Penn State poised to crack the top 25, it looks like it will be three games against three ranked opponents...one of which will likely be the #1 team in the country.  With two of the games on ESPN, the world (and the selection committee) will be watching, and that's no time to be losing by 18 points.

The End is What Will Matter

​These first half deficits are getting a little tedious.

These last two weeks have been horrible.

This Ohio State dominance in the two "money" sports has gone beyond pissing me off...now it's just, well...it just sucks.

There's a kind of "we've been figured out" feeling floating around, a feeling that goes back to the Big Ten opening spanking we took at the hands of the Badgers.  Not that the system we're running is futile, but is less than optimal with the horses we have in the race.  This coupled with our pre-Big Ten "superstars" often becoming mere mortals in the face of conference competition has given us the poor results we are enduring.  Results that seem more like the norm than beating Duke or UCLA.

But you can't take away the strides we've made.  You can't discard those victories.  Those are team builders.  And under Coach Beilein, maybe they can find a new way to get things on track.  Because if you start hot, and you end hot, no one will remember that you stumbled in the middle.

Nearly all of the big conference games are in front of us.  I hope, at the least, that it's an interesting ride.

No Really, See Ya

​Posts have been short and sweet and full of links this week...

Just know that the two thugs have now been kicked off of the MSU hockey team.  Justice is served.

UPDATE:  They actually "left" the team following the suspension.  Once actually left school as well.  Best decision of his life.

OOOoooooooooh... See Ya!

​This isn't getting much press outside of the 'sphere and an ESPN.com blurb, but two Michigan State hockey players have been suspended for the remainder of the season following their acts of retardedness on Saturday night.  I'm sure this story will pick up some steam soon enough, but for now, I would like to remind everyone that Michigan State is the enemy...in football, basketball, hockey, gymnastics, and table tennis.  You do not feel sorry for them.  You do not pull for them in the name of the Big Ten.  You do not wear green.  You hate them.  HATE.

The only problem with this whole scenario is that being dismissed from the  8-16-2 Spartans is probably a blessing for those two assholes.