Tonight at the Palace they are announcing the 30 member all-time Detroit Pistons team. Representing his deceased father Jimmy Walker will be my classmate, fellow Michigan graduate Jalen Rose. Walker died last year due to complications related to lung cancer.
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BTN won’t be airing Spring Practice
Full story on the great Michigan Sports Center. They did some digging and got confirmation from BTN brass that they won’t cover the game, rather, they’ll have a crew there and grab some highlights. Bummer. So grab your tree stand and head out there early. Is anyone planning on trying to sneak a peak? Would love to hear your plans.
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Coach Rod Responds to Tressel (audio)
Coach Rodriguez responded (again) to the accusations that he violated the unspoken gentleman’s agreement between Big Ten coaches. Jim Tressel fanned the smoldering coals the bit last week by basically saying the Big 10 is composed of 10 gentleman and Rodriguez. From the Free Press today, Coach Rich Rodriguez appeared on Doug Karsch’s ‘Michigan Sports Weekly’ 97.1FM/1270AM yesterday: “Huh … well, maybe I’m not a gentleman,” Rodriguez said. “I never heard of that (gentlemen’s agreement). In that regard, I would be guilty as charged. I know as soon as I took the job, there was a commitment to the University of Michigan who changed his commit and went to another Big Ten school. I didn’t blame the coach for doing that. Until the guy signs, he’s out there, particularly if he visits. “If the young man is committed to your school, yet he’s still visiting other schools, he’s not truly committed; he’s just very, very interested. You have to understand the difference in that. I’ve been doing this a long time, (and) I never heard of such a thing. I don’t get caught up in all the he said, she said. One thing I’ve had to learn to develop, thick skin over the years as head coach. I’m proud of the way we recruit. We certainly aren’t going to break…
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When Tear Gas fell on South U.
2008 Pulitzer Winner for Feature Photography – State News Ah yes, all of the Michigan faithful stood up and had a good chuckle over the great MSU riot (officially deemed so by the local authorities). The shots are sharp and quick around the nerdosphere: see Autumn Thunder, M zone, Maize & Blog, Michigan Against the World . Takes: 1) You’re slightly Jealous. Deep down all of us M blogging nerds are jealous that we didn’t get to experience ragers of this magnitude. BiggieMunn, oh wise one of Spartan Avenue, please educate the Wolverine fans on what it feels to be at ground zero of Cedar Village. Did you see Elvis? No one wants to be a part of people getting hurt, destroying property or stomach-pumping levels of booze consumption, but come on, part of you wishes you were hoisting a Das Boot on a balcony Saturday night. 2) It happened here, but not really It was April 6, 1992, back when hoops mattered, almost 16 years ago to the day. The Fab Five had just dropped the championship game to Duke and a bunch of numskulls including moi migrated down South University. I found a random mention of it on this site: April 1992: Four people are arrested as Ann Arbor police use tear gas to break up an unruly…
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Judge Hears Martin’s motion to dismiss Shand suit
A quick update on Dave Shand’s suit against Michigan athletic director Bill Martin. Per Shand’s attorney Nick Roumel, Martin’s motion to dismiss the case was heard on March 31st and the judge will issue a decision soon.
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OK, Maybe Rodriguez should just pay the $4M
Check out this brilliant statement from Coach Rod’s lawyer: “It’s like back before the Civil War when slaves had the right to buy their freedom,” said Marv Robon, one of Rodriguez’s lawyers. ” A penalty of $4 million is almost like a slave from Africa trying to buy his freedom in America.” Yes, it’s just like slavery Marv. Seriously, I don’t even get what he was trying to say. Glad to see that Coach Rodriguez is in good hands. Memo to Coach Rod: If this is the kind of folks you have defending you, I’d hold off on that house in the Hamptons.
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1933 and the Dickinson Formula
Michigan’s 1932 and 1933 national titles were determined by the most widely recognized method at the time: the Dickinson System. Illinois economics professor Frank Dickinson developed a formula used to rank college teams based upon the quality of their results factoring for the strength of their opponent. The formula was pretty simple. Each game outcome (win, loss or tie) earned a score based on the quality of the opponent. The total of points for a season was then divided by the number of games to arrive at a common rating metric. Dickinson added a factor to adjust for games that involved teams from different parts of the country, which contained a heavy “Middlewest” bias: “differential points” would be factored in for an “intersectional game”, with ratings of 0.00 for East schools, higher points for “Middlewest” (+4.77) and Southwest (+1.36), negatives for the South (-2.59), the Big Six (2.60) and the Pacific Coast (-2.71). The strength of your opponent was a huge factor in the Dickinson system. A loss against a ‘first division’ team earned you 15 points, while a win against a ‘second division’ team earned you just 20. Michigan actually earned more points for tying Minnesota than did Princeton for pummeling Amherst 45-0. I mention the Tigers as they were the only unbeaten, untied team but only received sparse…
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Tressel Rips Rodriguez
Per a blog posted on cleveland.com, the online home for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and a sister site to MLive. Coach Jim Tressel was taking a few questions during an Alzheimer’s benefit, check out the exchange: “Is there a gentleman’s agreement between Big Ten coaches that once a player verbally commits to a school, the other coaches are supposedly hands off?” This was Tressel’s answer, after about a one-second pause. “I guess only between the gentlemen.” This of course was in response to the stink raised by Joe Tiller after losing a ‘committed’ recruit in the 11th hour to Michigan. The author suggests that if there are “Michigan fans who wish to interpret the following as “Tressel rips Rodriguez,” well, I can’t stop you.” No, you can’t stop the truth man and that was a rip. So what are we to do with this? Instead of breaking this down into small little pieces I’ll simply draw upon the classic movie Caddyshack and share this exchange from inside the halls of Bushwood CC, as Rodney Dangerfield tries to steal a dance with the wife of his adversary: Al Czervik: You’re a lot of woman, you know? You wanna make 14 dollars the hard way? Judge Smails: You! You! You’re no gentleman! Al Czervik: I’m no doorknob either, alright?
