There are thousands of Michigan football-related items on the eBay and this time of year including all kind of items for on or for under your tree. This one has to be top of your list, Juwan Howard in Fab 5 gear dunking on your face: A while we’re on hit, how about this beauty of Jim Harbaugh:
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Tough Day! Blue fall to Amaker, Harvard
62-51. I had a double secret correspondent and Amaker hater at the game who should be reporting back a few details. Looks like Michigan was down at half, built a small lead midway through the fourth but sagged at the finish.
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On the Grand Valley State loss
On the morning of the MSU game, I just saw on Sportscenter that Tom Izzo & company dropped their exhibition opener to Grand Valley State in 2 OT. Immediately ESPN put a graphic up drawing comparison’s to the Appalachian State debacle. A few quick takes: – It is a huge upset, exhibition or not. My guess is that Izzo doesn’t like to lose at anything and teaches his players to take everything (practice, games, exhibitions) seriously. – Upsets in hoops really don’t scale to football for a many reasons. There’s only five guys on the court at a time, and one hot hand can make the difference in almost situation. Look no further than one of the greatest Spartan teams of all-time, Mateen Cleaves’s 2000 championship squad. They lost an early season game to Wright State. – If you see any idiots wearing Appalachian State gear you have full license to fight stupid with stupid by asking them where you can get some GVSU gear. – The net? This “upset” is not even close to the level of the Appalachian State loss.
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Jalen’s Billboard
The Free Press just ran a story on Jalen Rose and the Fab 5. I haven’t seen this before – check out this billboard that Jalen Rose posted at 7 mile and the Lodge: I love Jalen. There’s something about the guy that to me, all the negativity around Webber and the Fab 5 seems to not apply to Rose. While I’m still bitter toward Webber around the whole thing yet having been in school with these cats, I can’t say I regret the whole experience that these guys brought to Michigan. I was there for their first game together in Ann Arbor and I saw the last from about twenty rows behind the bench from where Webber called the timeout. It was an incredible time. For recent grads, picture for a minute huge lines of students waiting outside Crisler for general admission seats – hours before the game. As for why he didn’t put the billboard closer to campus Jalen told the Freep “I didn’t want to put it in Ann Arbor because I didn’t want people to think it’s me making a negative statement. Maybe it should be there, but it’s not.” Jalen did talk a little bit about the penalties put down on Michigan coming out of the investigation and he adds an interesting perspective: “Unfortunately, what…
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Oden the Explorer
Having spent time working in Indianapolis and Columbus, OH, I’ve heard many stories about how great of a kid Greg Oden is…how he’s well grounded, intelligent and charitable. All this aside for a moment, he’s still a Buckeye so I couldn’t let this beauty pass without a quick blast. The likely NBA #1 pick made this week’s Sports Illustrated “They Said It”. He was asked about the prospect of living in the Pacific Northwest given that Seattle and Portland have the top picks: “I know it rains a lot. I know it’s close to L.A., and I love that. I want to go to L.A. and go to the beach.” This from a dude that spent the last year in a town named after one of the world’s greatest explorers. To put things in perspective, the beach in Miami, Florida is just about the same distance from Columbus as Los Angeles is from Seattle (around 1150 miles).
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Beilein Making the Media Rounds
Coach Beilein has been pretty busy the past couple days with his press conference introducing the him to the media and public, to meeting the existing players, to conducting a short practice, to chasing down recruits Grady, Harris and Legion. I also heard him this morning on 1050 WTKA and this afternoon on 1130 WDFN and he was very impressive on both shows. He talked a little hockey on the 1050 show to the delight of former M and NHL skater Dave Shand, and he mixed it up with Stoney and Wojo on the Detroit drive time show on DFN. It’s hard to describe but the guy just comes off as so genuine and real, and focused on doing things right. It’s a big departure from a 35 year old (Amaker) who in his first week was probably a little scared and a little confused. Beilein has a plan. One of my favorite lines from the news conference that introduced him was the new’s coach asking “You have a track, right?” several times, implying that’s where guys go if they a) want to be ready to play in his system, and b) don’t follow his rules. Good stuff.
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Coach John Beilein ? Looks like it…
Well, many sources this evening are confirming that Michigan is going to hire John Beilein to take over the hoops program. Good enough for someone to update Beilein’s Wikipedia entry (sheesh). I don’t know much about the guy short of the pieces posted on him in the Ann Arbor News, particulary by Jim Carty. He sounds like a great coach which you could argue Michigan has had since Frieder, maybe since Orr. I wonder if Bill Martin will need to have a chat with Coach Carr and talk about how the basketball coach makes more (and not a little more, a lot more) than the football coach. Wow. BTW – Kudos to Carty. Although he’s a latte-sucking, NPR-listening pinko, JC has done a really nice job covering this. He was sharply critical of Amaker which can’t make life easy for a sports writer in Ann Arbor to knock one of the major coaches. And he used some of his East coast ties to talk to coaches in the Big East about Beilein. Finally, he really pushed for the guy in the News and looks like he’s getting his wish.
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Open Season!
Why’s everybody picking on the Blue? Have you noticed all the Michigan sports bashing in recent weeks? Here are few examples that I’ve seen, some of which I’ve already discussed: – ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd’s rant, ripping Lloyd Carr and the Michigan program in general. In sum, Cowherd trashes Michigan over the past 5 years and in particular, Michigan’s development of players. He points to recent NFL drafts and the lack of big time draftees. – ESPN.com’s Pat Forde, declaring Florida’s starting five as the true “Fab Five“. He starts out saying that the Florida crew is “Better. Cleaner (one would hope). Tighter…And much more accomplished.” (This despite that these guys aren’t freshman or sophomores, or even from the same recruiting class). There are also references to Thad Motta’s recruiting class as the ‘Thad Five’. One thing is for sure, 15 years after these guys took the court their place in college basketball lore is solid, despite the NCAA violations. – Collegefootballnews.com taking big shots at the Michigan football team, going as far as to reach back into time and challenge the 1997 national championship based upon recent bowl performances. – How about Tom Izzo knocking the overall athletic department and its handling of basketball program? – Then add in Jay Bilas telling anyone who would listen that Michigan isn’t…
