Weekend Roundup, Hold the Phone Edition: March 9, 2009

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​I have fallen victim to another social network, so it is with great malaise that I utter type these words:  FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER.  I digress...

Huge win.  Colossal win.  Program making win.  While you can't say that Michigan did everything they could in the Big Ten to make the NCAA Tournament, you can say that they did everything they could on Saturday.  It was gritty, gutsy, clutch, and any other word you can come up with that portrays a comeback when all, including the season itself, looked lost.  On the road, against a team that needed it and wanted it as much as we did, we showed that we belong...that we are better.  You cannot take the Gophers and not take us.

And if you could somehow take out that loss at Iowa, when Manny was pulled for the duration of the overtime collapse, when we were certain we were NIT bound, then it would be time to talk seeds...to dream of brackets.  But we lost that game.  And because we lost that game we cannot rest on our laurels.  This team, with their new found focus and "us against the world" attitude, needs to shut off ESPN this week.  They don't need to see that we are no longer appearing as the last four in or the last four out, and that as far as Joe Lunardi and the rest of the world is concerned, Michigan is a lock to return to the dance.

The problem is, I don't think we are.  Some say seven, and perhaps as many as eight, teams will be in from the Big Ten.  But would it be the biggest surprise in Selection Sunday history if they only took six...or even five?  Despite the out of conference record of the bulk of us, I can't help but think that some bean counters from the selection committee saw Penn State vs. Illinois and said, as we all probably did, "hey, that's some shitty basketball."  And that's fine.  But if that is the case, then to be certain a week from tonight that Bill Martin will get a call before 8pm we have games yet to win.  We need to be playing on Saturday.

The rest of the internets that you missed while combining nipples and beer.

  • Someday, somebody will realize that there are more Michigan bloggers than there are other college sports bloggers combined.  And guess what?  9 out of 10 of them are really f'n good.  And while I myself am probably #10 in that gorilla math survey, it doesn't stop me from admiring the rest of the M-'sphere.  Before the Minnesota game, Dex of the Wolverine Liberation Army took us back to his youth, and a time of extreme youth in Michigan Basketball history.  More impressively, he does it without a single reference to fornication, which is odd for a man that can only be described as the Peter North of Cover it Live.

  • MVictors covers a great man in Michigan history, Red Simmons.  I spent a couple of seasons about two rows behind Red at Michigan Basketball games.  Red was there before me.  Red left after me.  And Red fielded fans throughout the game coming to catch a glimpse of a Michigan icon.  Seriously...he was hired by Fritz Crisler.

  • Dylan offers up the Big Ten tournament bracket  There's not a team in our half that we haven't beaten.  There's also not a team in our half that hasn't beaten us.  Iowa Thursday + Illinois Friday + Purdue Saturday = Dancing the following Thursday.

  • Fanhouse says that Michigan State is in a class of their own.  Fill in your own "class-less" joke of your own, and be sure to include riots and couch burning.  Then remember that this is MSU's first outright Big Ten championship in 10 years.  Ha.

  • This year's spring game is what the media calls "intriguing."

Confirmed...and Sorta Confirmed, but Shady

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Hockey confirmed in the great outdoors.  MSU confirmed as the opponent.

Maurice Clarett's blog confirmed as his, but there seems to be some question as to how the words actually appear on the webpage, as there is no internet for inmates in Toledo Correctional.  Word has it that he dictates it to a relative that keys it in.  Sounds shady, but at least it explains the lack of misspellings and the grammatically correct prose.

We Laugh At Your Attempts At Hockey Crowd Records

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​Hard to believe, but Michigan played Michigan State in hockey, outside at Spartan Stadium, over seven years ago.  They billed it as the Cold War, and it drew 74,554 fans, eclipsing a record (55,000) held previously by an area that played a part in the real Cold War...Moscow.  It was an amazing event (minus the cement laden venue in hell on Earth) right up until the end, where it ended in a tie.  Everybody knows a tie is like kissing your sister, and in this case it was even worse because it was like kissing your little brother.  So epic, yet so unsatisfying.

Enter the Wisconsin Badgers, who have decided to drum up a limited skirmish in Madison next February featuring the fair Wolverines.  The contracts are all but signed, and let me tell you, as Madison is my imaginary second home, that they will fill that stadium.  The drinking abilities and spirit of that town, coupled with the rabid traveling posse that would follow the Wolverines anywhere...even Columbus...and you've got yourself a recipe for a record crowd watching a hockey game.  That's going to take the record away from Sparty, and there's nothing wrong with that.  They'll be left with their record low number of Big Ten football titles, so ya, nice.

While we the Wolverines will have enjoyed participating in the two largest crowds ever to witness ice hockey, we also enjoy filling our own stadium with 100,000+ every football weekend.  Ahem, that's every weekend since 1975.  So we've decided that we will allow Badger Stadium to enjoy their record crowd...for 10 months.  After 10 months, when we're coming off of a seven game home football slate showcasing our new stadium, and making plans for a BCS bowl game, we will host our own hockey game, capacity 108,000.  When the ice dust has settled, Michigan will once again be #1, and unbeatable until they find a way to host a hockey game at MIS.  Michigan will have played in front of the #1,#2, and #3 largest crowds in ice hockey, which basically reminds the sports world that WE ARE THE SHIT.

Mini-Roundup, Hightower Edition: 3/3/2009

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​I know that Johnny Cleveland and I aren't the only people that have noticed that Ed Hightower referees every basketball game that appears on television.  I mean seriously, dude is everywhere.  Most recently, he did the MSU-Illinois game on Sunday, and followed it up with an appearence at Texas vs. Baylor tonight.  I could site in more detail his amazing schedule, but it is just too broad and too large to fit in the space of a blog post.  The internets are beginning to take notice of this phenomena, and the love/hate relationship between college basketball fans and Ed is burning up blogs across the nation.  No one, however, is supporting my contention...which is that, a la WWF referee Dave Hebner, there are two Ed Hightowers.  I hope I don't need to remind you that the Hebner twins cost Hulk Hogan his belt...

What then took place was (history has since proven) one of the most brilliant wrestling angles in the annals of the "sport." Twin referees, a bogus pin, the World Title wrongly changing hands -- twice -- and some of the most entertaining "rasslin" the world had ever seen. When "evil twin" ref Dave Hebner (or was it Earl?) cost Hogan his belt, ending Hogan's four-year long first WWF title reign, with Dibiase then immediately trading Andre (and his manager, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan) a briefcase full of cash for the WWF strap, the fans in attendance -- as well as those watching at home -- were enraged.

So the breadth of the wrath of Hightower has yet to be revealed.  Somehow, I thinkMoses Hightower is involved as well.  Yes, he's too big to be the twin, but he is a Sparty, and most of them are crooked bastards.  Someone needs to take a hard look at Spartan basketball over the last 10 years and cross reference it with games refereed by either of "the Hightowers"....or Bubba Smith.

Bullets...


Non-Hightower links of interest...