Time Off Before the Buzzsaw

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​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

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​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.

OOOoooooooooh... See Ya!

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​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.

Weekend Roundup, Super Sweep Edition: 1/25/09

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What you might have missed this weekend around the internets while ingesting some minor league cuisine and scratching your balls elegantly...

  • An article made the rounds about RichRods compensation, claiming that with the buyout money and his coaching pay, he garnered about $6.6 million, or 2.2 million per win.

  • Our Honor Defend, a Buckeye blog, is starting to preview their incoming class. They start with the brother of a worthless piece of crap turncoat asshat, Zack Boren.

  • Maize and Blue Nation reminds you that Morgan Trent sucked.

  • Hockey beat Michigan State 5-3 on Saturday, getting a victory over Sparty for the second night in a row, and for the FIFTH TIME THIS SEASON.  It's the first such sweep in the history of the series, which dates back to before John Dogan's birthday.

  • Some extra curriculars took center stage at the hockey game, as Michigan State got dirty and took multiple cheap shots at icer Steve Kampfer.  MGoBlog's Brian Cook had a ring side seat to the unfortunate events, and is leading a call to arms against those assholes from East Lansing.

  • In lieu of my crappy and hastily made list of Michigan connections in the Super Bowl, here's a comprehensive list of Big Ten players making an appearance.  We have the most...by far.

  • We're embarking on another giant construction project related to athletics, as regents have approved a new practice facility and development center for hoops.  If you build it...they might come.

  • Fun with West Virginia legalese continues, as the Mountaineers now claim that Mike Barwis owes the athletic department $50,000.  Ya, why don't you try to come and take it from him.

  • Minnesota has added an interesting home at home for the 2010 and 2011 seasons...with USC.  I would really like one of these cool matchups to land on the Michigan schedule, but east of the Mississippi would be preferred due to our problems converting those west coast road trips.

  • Michigan came in at #8 in the all-time college football prestige rankings, which used statistics and results starting in 1936.  Ohio State came in at #3 behind #1 Oklahoma and #2 USC.  I would complain that the data set misses out on the bulk of our National Championships and our early century dominance...but I would rather leave the complaining to OSU, who is obviously pissed that any data is mined from the years prior to Tressel.

  • New DC Greg Robinson answers some of my questions about why he decided to stay in college football and how he came to know RichRod.