Jan 1, 2002: The four-man crew that made it's way to Orlando to watch Michigan fall 45-17 to the Tennessee Volunteers in the last Citrus Bowl (now called Capital One). We drove back after the game...straight through to Michigan. Dear basketball team, AVENGE ME!!!
Is it me, or are there only about six different advertisers for all three of the channels broadcasting the NCAA tournament. Shit is getting repetitive. Here's what happened around the internet while you got a hole in one, a 5-card royal flush, and won the lottery in the same day:
Also, happy Mike Legg goal (3/24/96) anniversary!
48 games are done, and Frydaddy is in the lead, both in points (4-way tie) and in possible points. Dude is killing it. Unfortunately for him, we've never had someone lead after week one and end up the winner. His bracket sure is pretty though:
We've got plenty of not-so-pretty brackets too, including our last "Thanks for your $20" bracket of the day of week one...
Good luck the rest of the way, and Go Blue!
As a Michigan fan, I'm coded to find flaws. I am supposed to hail all losses as the end of the world, and find faults in nearly every victory. When the Longhorns cut the lead to six, I was certain this team was not good enough...for anything. When them game ended, I saw that we hit 14 three-pointers and thought we should have probably only really hit nine or ten of those, that those four or five extra constitute luck, and would have effectively removed the amount of points we won by.
Then I saw Syracuse and Villanova lose.
It reminded me to heed a recent UMTailgate.com study that concluded that single elimination tournaments are determined by about 30% pure basketball, 30% matchup draw, and 40% how good your team responds to tournaments. Of course at Sparty it's 80% injuries and 20% referees, but that's a unique case.
Michigan has won it's two tournament games by solid margins, and they've done it with a not-as-porous-as-advertised defense that held Wofford to it's lowest point total of the season, and Texas to it's 4th lowest point total this season.
Jordan Morgan proved more than serviceable against the giants down low despite the bevy of Texas-sized offensive rebounds, and notched yet another double-double...as I reaffirm my apologies to him and his family for the horrible angry thoughts I've had throughout the season :) I mean, honestly, aside from Mitch McGary's breakout games against VCU and Kansas last year (21 point, 14 rebounds and 24 points, 14 rebounds) Jordan Morgan's 10/10 and 15/10 the last two games stand up to anything Mitch has done in his career.
Seriously, this guy's name is Jake Ryan. Coincidence? I think not.
Michigan makes the sweet sixteen and marches on to Indianapolis for the regional finals, where they will have the advantage of Duke being back in Durham, and me and The Cakemaker in attendance. The latter will certainly inspire the team on to their second consecutive Final Four, though whether they will be able to hear me from my football seats at a basketball game remains to be seen. The former is nice, but allow me to refer you to the 30/30/40 rule outlined above. While Tennessee and Mercer are not our Blue Devil nemesis, there can be no complacency in the NCAA tournament. The chalk lines point to Wichita State matchup on Sunday, but I'm inclined to think we are going to be seeing a 2013 Championship rematch with the Cardinals instead. And with that I broke my old friend Norman Dale's rule: Don't talk about the next step until you've climbed the one in front of you.
Tournament Challenge Update:
Digger's Maize Highlighter maintained it's dominance, and stands at 35 picks correct out of the 40 games played. However, at this point it might be advantageous to look at who has the most possible points remaining. A shout out to Robby Araujo, who has a completely clean bracket moving forward as of noon on Sunday. Pretty impressive.
And finally, our "Thanks for your $20" bracket of the day goes to our boy Vik Bhatia, who has the elusive Syracuse - St. Louis championship game:
Relax and enjoy some basketball on this beautiful Sunday. Really take it all in...ya know, like Aaron Craft is.
GO BLUE!
While it rarely translates to overall greatness, first round game picking greatness is something that should be revered. And yes, I'm aware that the powers that be are attempting to shove the idea that the play-in games are round 1 and what we witnessed on Thursday and Friday was round 2. But there's literally no one that thinks that isn't stupid. Anyway, a shout out to bracket entry "Digger's Maize Highlighter" for getting 29 of 32 in a round of 64 that was complete madness. His bracket has a two-point lead on the entire field. He picked all three 12 seed upsets...and even picked the one 5 seed (St. Louis) that advanced. He also had all the 7-10 match ups correct. So, ya, raise a glass. some other bullet points:
And finally, our "Thanks for your $20" bracket of the day is the only participant that lost two Final Four teams in the round of 64, as the Duke vs. Oklahoma matchup in Dallas just isn't going to happen. This bracket is also starting the day today having lost 12 of the sweet sixteen before the teams even take the court...
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