A few new panoramic photos of the stadium construction via mgoblue.com.

Check out this auction of an ash tray dating back to the 1930s or 1940s.  The outside is carved out of wood.  The inside contains a raised carving of Michigan stadium along with the likeness of a Wolverine.  Check it out

A somber discussion on John U. Bacon‘s ‘Big Show‘ this afternoon, with Bacs spending much of the show reflecting on the fate of the Ann Arbor News. It made for some great radio. Here’s parts I and II of an interview with AA News hoops beat writer Jeff Arnold who was noticeably still a bit shell shocked from his meeting earlier in the day when he learned the paper would close its doors in July. They mostly talked about the changes at the News and the state of the print industry before closing with a little Michigan hoops. It’s worth a listen: [display_podcast] Update 3/24: Jim Carty interviews Tony Dearing, the man heading up AnnArbor.com.

An excellent press conference featuring Michigan wrestler Steve Luke, shortly after taking the NCAA championship at 174 pounds: So he wrestles at 174, that makes his “walking around” weight about 185? Is it too late to throw a winged helmet on this gent have him roam the secondary? Great interview, an impressive lad. Update 3/26:  Luke joined Sam Webb on WTKA: [display_podcast]

Head spinning a bit. Looks like a closure of the traditional newspaper and a rebranding as “AnnArbor.com”. A paper will be produced a couple days per week. From MLive: The Ann Arbor News will close in July and will be replaced by a Web-based, media company called AnnArbor.com, Laurel Champion, publisher of The News, announced in a 9 a.m. meeting with staff. “While this is an incredibly difficult decision for us, this is by no means the end of local journalism in Ann Arbor,” Champion said. Champion described AnnArbor.com as an innovative, community news and information service. AnnArbor.com also will produce a twice-a-week newspaper, published on Thursday and Sunday and a total-market coverage product once a week. The Ann Arbor News will continue publishing a daily newspaper through July, she said. Thoughts are with the many employees that produce the paper. I’m sure former AA News columnist Jim Carty will have beaucoup reaction on Paper Tiger No More. I’m guessing most of you in the area viewed the News through the prism of the sports page and judge the merits of the paper on the quality of that section. I’m guessing most of you aren’t crazy about the sports page and therefore not too broken up over this announcement. That’s fine maybe even fair, it’s not a charity case it’s…

Per Seth Gordon’s piece in the Sunday Ann Arbor News, Rodriguez is looking for a few good legs: Calling all kickers Three players – Bryan Wright, Scott Schrimscher and Jason Olesnavage – took turns kicking field goals and extra points on Saturday. Even after signing West Palm Beach, Fla., kicker Brendan Gibbons in his latest class, Rodriguez said he still hopes to hold an open kicking tryout after a recent attempt had to be postponed. “We have some solid kickers, we have some coming in, but we’re always looking for some more,” Rodriguez said. “So, anybody on the student body who can kick some field goals consistently, we want them to try out.” God I’d love to see that try-out. Here’s to hoping Sean at MSC has enough leg to get a try-out and make the team. The old Trojan Horse theory to getting insider access to the football program.

If you’re looking for an interesting read, definitely check out Jim Carty’s post last week. One of Carty’s themes is the state of the newspaper industry and in this post he questions the ability of the Ann Arbor News to react to rumored strategy shift (per the scuttlebutt, they’ll communicate a cut back in home delivery on Monday). As exhibit III of the reasons why he questions the ability of the News management to adjust, JC presents a seven failed projects spearheaded by the paper’s brass. Here’s #7: Book project 2: Management wants to do a “game-day” book on Rich Rodriguez’ first game at Michigan. Everyone in the sports department agrees it’s a horrible idea, because Utah could very well beat Michigan in that opener. Management doesn’t care. Utah beats Michigan in the opener. Management decides to make the “game-day” book about the first two games instead! The reporters and photo staff bust their asses to do all the content required for the book. Management runs ads advertising the book. No one will buy it, so management calls the book off. All that work for nothing. Not even a thank you to the staff involved. Umm, can I see a copy of that? I’ve got an uneven couch in the basement. The strong post attracted some equally strong comments, some…

What a great season for John Beilein and the hoops squad. The Sooners were just too much and hats off to Blake Griffin for taking over the game with his aggressive moves to the hole. We seemed to be keeping it together with smoke and mirrors through the first half as Manny sat. Beilein’s system amazes me. I thought the refs were inconsistent. Many coaches will tell you if nothing else, they want consistency from the zebras. At times it seems the refs were letting the teams play, at others times they were calling everything (maybe it was the blood). The foul trouble was obviously a big problem for Michigan but most of the fouls were deserved. One big exception was the last foul on Manny which looked ridiculous to me but oh well. It wouldn’t have mattered: Griffin did a great job taking to the bucket and converting. And they hit their free throws. Here’s a clip of Griffin’s monster dunk, nicknamed the Sooner Boomer: I think that dunk was before he bought everyone two tickets to his personal Gun Show: “Smith. Wesson. Smith. Wesson. Smith…” Exciting days await. Here’s to hoping Harris decides to stick around next year, beef up a bit and make another run at this thing.