It was great to hear Jalen talk a little bit about the Fab Five, their legacy and even about a certain football recruit this morning on the Michigan Insider with Sam Webb on 1050AM WTKA. He’s in Ann Arbor this weekend to be honored at Saturday’s hoops tilt against Illinois and says this is a tremendous moment for him [my thoughts on this]. Rose also talked about his thoughts on the University one day having the entire Fab 5 back on campus, the day he hopes happens before he, Ray, Jimmy, Chris and Juwan are using “canes and wheelchairs”. Here’s the full audio of the interview: [display_podcast] Jalen even gave an unsolicited plea for Terrelle Pryor to make the right decision and come to Michigan. Sweet Jesus, I thought the coaching search was a Death March! That said, it’s great to know that busy guys like Jalen are concerned enough about the school (and a sport they didn’t even play) to chime in. He clearly also follows the basketball team and likes what Beilein is doing so far. UPDATE: Check out Eric Lacy’s piece and interview on Jalen in the Detroit News. And a take from Rosenberg.
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Yes Sir! Three Straight as Buckeyes Fall
Just great to see these guys starting to pull it together. What a win over the hated Buckeyes and such a great way to start wrapping up the season. The guys that stayed never seemed to waver on Beilein’s system but either way it’s great to see some of the struggle start to pay off. Coach Rodriguez addressed the fans at halftime and guaranteed that the team would be wearing Maize and Blue when they come out of the tunnel. Oh, and they’ll play real hard as well.
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University right for honoring Jalen
Glad to here that former Fab Fiver and current NBA analyst Jalen Rose will be honored later this month during the Illinois game. I’d love to make it out there on February 23 to see the ceremony, which is focusing on celebrating Rose’s charity work through his Jalen Rose Foundation which has given over $1M to Detroit area children. Major props to Jalen for all of this. He’s true role model for the kids and maybe more importantly, for the Detroit area athletes. Although his astranged father played in the NBA Jalen grew up in humble surroundings in the city. My buddy Rosey tells a great story from a class he had at Michigan with Jalen. When the class was asked to give their TV show, Jalen offered his was “Good Times, because I lived it.” For the university to look past the Ed Martin crap to honor him is a good move. While Jalen was never directly included in the names of players to which Martin gave money I believe he’s made it clear that folks like Martin helped him out from time to time when he was growing up.
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Relief: Beilein and crew down Wildcats
Congrats to the Coach Beilein and the hoops squad as they got off the schneid by taking down Northwestern 78-68 for their first Big Ten win. No word whether Coach Rodriguez did the mid-court shot at halftime. Apparently Beilein’s inspirational highlight DVD helped. Coach Beielin asked team manager and local guy Pete Burak to suit up for the game, but he didn’t play. Pretty cool. Seriously, what are you supposed to do about that? And in case the Indiana blow-out wasn’t out of your mind yet, the IU Blog Inside the Hall runs a little film session on Eric Gordon demonstrating the super frosh’s ridiculous range. The set? You bet: Crisler arena.
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Hoosiers Breeze in front of Coaches Carr & Rod
This is midway through the first half – this is real Made it up to the game last night and it wasn’t as close as the 78-64 final score. – It’s a little frustrating to sit and watch. The offense pretty much looks for an open three and then clanks it off the rim. The good news? It seemed like they were getting good looks at the rim before then tossing the brick. – The highlight of the game was DeShawn Sims’ three-quarter court heave to end the half. The place erupted and that was nice to see. – Newsflash: Eric Gordon is amazing. Michigan kept it relatively close near half because Gordon was on the bench with three fouls. – A few local AA-list celebrities at the game including: * Coach Carr with wife Laurie at mid-court. He got a huge cheer when they showed him on the screen. * Coach Rod with a few new staffers (see pic). Both coaches spent some time with Florida grad and supreme hotness Erin Andrews. * Joe Dumars courtside checking out the talent. * Sam Webb of WTKA. – As far as the arena, it was at best 40% full with large portions of the Maize section empty. Four of us walked up to Crisler without tickets. A few different fans handed…
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Hoosiers in town
IU comes to Crisler Tuesday and I’ll be up there. I always like checking out the Hoosiers having spent two years in Bloomington for grad school. To the left is shot of coach Knight I took during the January 12, 1993 game (I yelled “Hey Knight!” but he didn’t react). The one point Indiana win in Ann Arbor was one of the best games I’ve ever witnessed, with Chris Webber getting a shot blocked at the buzzer. Beilein is still looking for his first big win and I’m hoping it’s Tuesday. I’ll try to get a few pics from the game and get them up here. Should be interesting to see how many fans show.
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Michigan Alumni Association Podcasts
The Michigan Alumni Association has released a series of podcasts on a variety of topics, free to download. Many are tied to sports, including presentations by Tim McCormick of ESPN and Mark Silverman of the Big Ten Network. The McCormick presentation runs about an hour; here’s the abstract: Podcast 20: Never Be Average: A Slam Dunk Approach to Success Tim McCormick, former University of Michigan and NBA basketball player, NBA executive, and ESPN and ABC College Basketball broadcaster, shares his unique Game Plan for Success in the business world that focuses on the secrets that professional athletes use to achieve their highest goals. I’m not ready for success so I haven’t listened to the whole thing, but I downloaded it. You can get it here. You can review the entire set here.
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Carr at UCLA, Freep Special Report
Obviously it was a disappointing finish to the hoops game yesterday, as the UCLA wore down Beilein’s crew and pulled away easily in the second half. The turning point? When they showed the video of coach Carr in the stands. Note the time and the score at the time: And not to nitpick, but if you are going to put an end date on Carr’s coaching career, technically it’s 2008. Two interesting links from the Free Press today: 1. Wow, check out the exchange between Les Miles and Rodriguez, as described by Rodriguez’s mother. It kind of validates the cocktail party theory that the WVU/Pitt game basically determined our next coach: According to her, Miles thanked Rodriguez for losing the game against Pittsburgh. Miles then joked with Rodriguez that the loss cost Miles his dream job. “He told my son that if West Virginia had beaten Pitt, they would’ve been in the championship game, and that would’ve left an opening for him,” she said. 2. Definitely give this is a read. Shawn Windsor of the Free Press put together a special report on the days leading to the Rodriguez hiring.