Hey, I’ll be on Ann Arbor’s 1050AM WTKA with John U. Bacon this evening on his prolific‘Big Show’. We’ll be talking about a bunch of interesting stuff no doubt. Hopefully it won’t turn into a sports nerd version of Antiques Roadshow. I’m hoping they’ll have one of those pre-produced intros for me from the guy that sounds like Duff Man. Before the gig I’m going to try to sell station management on changing the name of the Victors Lounge to the MVictors Lounge for the Delaware State game next fall. Wish me luck. I believe on I’ll be on in the 5 o’clock slot so dig it.

Gordie Howe and Mark Mitera Another fine, at times scrappy, night up at old Yost as Michigan closed out the regular season by dominating Ferris State 4-0. The presence by Mr. Hockey would have any night a special one, but the fans were also treated to the home return of captain Mark Mitera (who tallied a nice goal) and well earned shut-out by senior Billy Sauer. A few notes: Seniors Travis Turnbull and Tim Miller were tossed out of the game for their involvement in a heated scuffle at the conclusion of the second period.   A double pisser for them as not only were they sent packing in their final regular season game at Yost, they couldn’t literally hit the showers because they needed to skate out after the game as part of the Senior Day festivities.   In my mind’s eye I picture the two of them making tape balls and snapping wristers around the lockerroom as they waited for the third period to expire.  Update: Here’s a short video of the end of the incident. Billy Sauer didn’t see a lot of shots, but he had to make at least three very nice saves to preserve the shut-out, including a wide open breakaway (and rebound) for the Bulldogs. Before the season I sold a few of my games, including…

They had to have it and they got it.  Manny ‘Fresh’ Harris and DeShawn ‘Peedi’ Sims carried the load (and then some) in this one, as the huge win over Purdue moves M to .500 in the Big Ten with two to play.    Michigan built a big lead in the second half and at one point it looked like it might get out of hand.   Poor decisions with the ball coupled with atrocious free throw shooting in the clutch put the outcome in question with a couple minutes to go, but in the end Purdue was in too deep of a hole.  Great win for the Blue on senior night. A couple sights and sounds: The alumni pep band played O Canada prior to the national anthem in honor of senior forward Jevohn Shepherd. Former WDFN radio drive-time host Mike ‘Stoney’ Stone was on hand.  When asked when he’ll be back on the air, Stone shook his head and asked, “Who knows?”.  That’s journalism, baby…compelling and rich.   Stoney’s old partner Bob ‘Wojo’ Wojnowski was on the press table as well. Times are tight, man.   They did a t-shirt toss in the second half and I swear there was maybe one t-shirt per cheerleader fired into the crowd.  It lasted about 25 seconds. Rich Rodriguez was on hand along with…

A brilliant package put together by the great WolverineHistorian. Here’s defensive highlights from Michigan’s national championship run a dozen years ago, hat tip to MSC: Elsewhere: Former WDFN morning show host Jamie Samuelsen, on his Freep blog, makes his case for Bo Schembechler being included on ESPN’s stupid Mt. Rushbore, err Rushmore. He’s right, and thankfully he took a swipe at the ESPN series: And can we please now retire the “Mt. Rushmore” concept? It has been around for years, and now ESPN is trying to brand it as an original idea to get more airtime for Rick Reilly. Next, they’ll probably try to do the Mt. Rushmore of Mt. Rushmores.

Coach Beilein went back on WTKA, in cleary a little better mood than in recent interviews and press conferences.  He’s lightened up a bit on the Iowa, Manny Harris didn’t play incident, but is holding to his standard line (which he acknowledges people are growing sick of) that you’d have to be at every practice to understand why he makes the decisions he does. [display_podcast] A couple notes: Beilein talks about the importance of the next three games, and implies that the opportunity to into the NCAA tournament is on the table (if they win the next three).  Agreed, I think 2 of 3 would do it. When talking about Manny, he said Harris had his best day of practice yesterday. He talks about the importance of this year’s seniors, who will be honored at Senior Day Thursday against Purdue. [poll=28]

An interesting nugget this evening on WTKA as Brian Cook of mgoblog was on for an hour (audio’s not up yet).   One of Cook’s insiders revealed that Rodriguez met with Steve Threet and basically told him he’s decided frosh Tate Forcier (pronunciation guide) is getting all the snaps this spring.    Thus Threet bolted.   If this was posted on mgoblog I missed it (and maybe the info wasn’t solid enough to post). If true, it certainly explains the timing of Threet’s heated exit, a few weeks before spring practice where he could have practiced and competed and then, if he thought things weren’t looking good, left.    It was puzzling to me why he didn’t at least go that far.  I figured something was up between he and Rodriguez. Beyond that you can take this a few different ways.   Most of you assume Rodriguez knows what he’s doing and if nothing else, at least knows what he wants.   It could mean Forcier is what he wants, that Threet isn’t going to cut it, or a little of both.    Again, if true, the cynics would question why/how Rodriguez could put all these chips on the table without actually seeing the kid throw a pass with a winged helmet on his skull. Maybe it’s Rodriguez being a super nice guy, giving…

I caught about an hour of WTKA this morning, and in the aftermath of the Iowa debacle we had a full on football season-esque panic from the callers.    Most of it was directed at Coach Beilein, who never gave a good reason why he benched star player Manny Harris (through whom Beilein readily admits most offensive plays are run through) for the entire overtime of a must-win game. Callers accused Beilein of being stubborn, dumb, and short-sighted to name a few.   What wasn’t directed at the coach was directed at the refs, who sucked again.    If nothing else, it shows that people out there care about basketball and the possibility of a NCAA tourney bid have got folks excited. Mark Snyder of the Free Press was on hand in Iowa City and called into WTKA to offer his perspective on the game and aftermath, here’s the audio: [display_podcast] Notes from Snyder’s call: Sam Webb asked him if there was something we missed (“did many say or do something?”).   Per Snyder, no one in the locker room said anything,  Harris said “he had no idea” and that he hadn’t talked to Beilein about it.   None of the players claimed to know anything. Beilein told Snyder it was because Harris “wasn’t fresh and hadn’t played”.   Of course Harris had played all but…

Chapter 3 of Craig Ross’s wonderful tome Obscene Diaries of a Michigan fan starts this way*: The average person, when he walks into his doctor’s office, does not assume he knows as much or more than the physician. Even if the patient reads about medical issues in the NY Times, has an uncle who is a physician, and once won an insurance dispute with Blue Cross, he is unlikely to make the leap that he knows better than the doc. Yet, somehow, the casual football fan often thinks that he (rarely she) “knows better” than the coach. That schmuck. Putz. Fool. Moron. Corso. Beano! I won’t say Michigan fans are worse in this regard than other fans. But they are definitely not better. Earlier this week coach John Beilein called into the WTKA morning show.  Host Sam Webb asked the coach essentially what’s been on everyone’s mind: why’s C.J. Lee starting at point over Kelvin Grady?   Listen to the beginning of Beilein’s answer, a message to those that question his decisions: For those who can’t hear it, after Webb suggests fans are asking about playing time at the point, Beilein offers this: Beilein: “First of all, anybody with questions about this..would have to watch every practice, every day, for the last 32 years to find out why I make decisions…”…