Coast to Coasting

Junfu Han / Detroit Free Press

Not sure why there was any concern about not being in The D to start the tourney.  All things being equal, Michigan is going to have more people in any given arena than the opponents.  Michigan owned NYC a couple weeks back, sent a hoard to Wichita, and now owns LA.  Unfortunately, as I have spoken about before, the tenacity and vigor of the nationwide fan didn't inspire the locals to give 100% at Crisler this year.  But that shit is water under the bridge now.  The blue hairs will be charging through the snow in their rascals next year to get to the games.

Michigan dispatched of TAMU in about 5 minutes of real time, and I'm convinced refs called fouls to get to the TV timeouts, otherwise the whole game would have taken about 45 minutes.  TAMU flirted with getting the deficit under 20, and I think they actually did manage to cut it to 18 late.  They also had some huge powerful dunks, and each time they clung to the rim for an extra moment, flexed, or yelled, I could hear the echoes of John Beilein's voice reminding the team that no matter how colossal, those dunks are only two points.  Michigan would hang 99, and TAMU head coach Billy Kennedy looked absolutely shell shocked from tip to buzzer.  Michigan shot at a clip that TAMU had not experienced since 2001.

39-63 overall, 14-24 from 3, 7-8 free throws.  The offense showed up.  And when it does, there's nobody that can beat this team.  Nobody.

Michigan moves on to their 3rd Elite 8 in 6 seasons, a type of success that is rarified air, and to be respected.  In short, we don't appreciate John Beilein enough.  He is our basketball Bo, and with just 3 more wins, he'll accomplish something that even Bo did not.

This is friggin' fun.  

Go Blue!

Way Back When-sday Pic of the Week

October 30, 2004 - Captain Michigan wears an M&M suit before Michigan's 17-point 4th quarter comeback led to victory in 3OTs 45-37.  Gamepage is here.

The Best of the Bad

Listen, there’s no great brackets out there. Last years winner had 88 points, currently there are only 8 people that even have the possibility of hitting that number...meaning of the 32k+ combinations remaining, they would have to be nearly perfect to get to it. Wow.

Anyway, a shout out to Dave DeMaggio (no relation) for still showing the possibility of a century mark score. Here’s his bracket, which I would find quite enjoyable if it were to come to fruition:

Folks, in my bracket studying experience, I’ve found it’s in that second weekend's games that things get real ugly.  With the number of unpicked teams still floating around, you’d be stupid to assume that suddenly chalk is going to take over.

Two days until gameday.

This Baby Gorilla Has the Worst Bracket

101 brackets entered, and not counting the guy that literally let his two-year old select the picks in his bracket entitled "My Two-Year-Old's Picks," our worst bracket comes to us from an old friend, Baby Gorilla.  For those that do not know or remember him, before his manhood got clipped, Baby Gorilla endured several seasons of Michigan tailgating and was a road trip staple, where he was known for sleeping 23 of the 24 hours on any given day, and once forcefully vomited up a stack of Dinkytown blueberry pancakes into a ditch on the side of a road in Minnesota. 

Baby Gorilla doesn't really like Michigan State, but he likes their women, who typically have a moral compass that performs similarly to one you would find on the island in Lost.  He continues to pick Michigan State, year after year, even though they haven't won a National Championship since back when he was dealing rocks in Colonial Village.  He probably shows his bracket to his wife, she smiles and pats him on the head and gives him the big piece of chicken and rubs his belly.  He's happy, the Earth (that he is almost certain is flat) continues to be semi-circled by the sun, and all is well.

So here it is, in all its glory, the worst bracket through the first weekend:

Of note, for those participating in the UMTailgate.com tournament challenge, half the field still has a chance to take first place, so you might think your bracket is busted, but things are so jacked up in reality that you probably are still in it....so check the standings, particularly the best results.

Fun.

Also, Thursday vs Manziel.  Woot.

Go Blue!

Kids These Days

Getty Images / Sporting News

I took a little umbrage with resident cheater Kelvin Sampson's assessment that Houston won the game for 39+ minutes before the buzzer beater.  Sure, they played well enough to win, but to pretend like they dominated or ever had control is fake news.  Saturday was shades of Kansas '14, yes, though never quite as foreboding.  Trey had to carry us then, the 2018 iteration of the Wolverines carries each other.  A senior MAAR, who was just seconds away from walking off the court in a Michigan uniform for the last time, passed it to Freshman Jordan Poole to take and make the biggest shot of the season (probably the last 5 seasons) for the Wolverines.  Because when it's crunch time and the chips are down, you want the ball in the hands of the guy that blew confetti out of Jim Nance's hair on national television.  After realizing his shot went in, Poole would inexplicably sprint toward the wrong bench, before turning around and avoiding his teammates in what looked like an elaborate game of professional tag.  Yes, there's professional tag.  If he was not contained by media, fans, and chairs, Poole would have won that game of tag.

The last second victory over the upstart Houston Cougars wasn't the most amazing turn of events in the history of college basketball, but for a fanbase that has found itself on the business end of that type of situation sooooo many times (in so many sports, in so many ways) it was nothing short of miraculous.  It feels good to win when you should.  It feels better to win when you shouldn't.  And nothing feels better than when all is lost and you're packing up your shit angrily and only watching peripherally as the opponent misses two free throws and Livers throws a 90mph heater to MAAR who dishes it to Poole for a deep-ass all-net three pointer at the buzzer to advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the 2nd consecutive season.

This is typically where I'd go in to a few sentences about little brother and all their fans that dropped $300 per ticket to watch underachieving undeveloped high school talent completely collapse.  Not tonight.  I'm going stop my celebration lap and put my arm around a Spartan like Moe Wagner would.  Because this is not about them anymore.

The Wolverines head West to face Texas A&M in LA on Thursday.  Enjoy the ride.