Amaker and Michigan lose again, looks like it is back to Crisler for NIT SALINE, MICHIGAN MARCH 9, 2006 NCAA Tournament bid? Ha! Not for these guys. Michigan made lowly Minnesota look like the Pistons. Another Tommy Amaker team will be denied an NCAA Tournament bid due to a complete collapse at the end of the season ruined a promising season for the Wolverines. Michigan will be able to “redo” the Senior Night disaster against the Indiana Hoosiers last Saturday as Michigan will be one of the NIT favorites and play another game at home. The silver lining: the last Michigan play on the first Senior Day was Graham Brown doinking his desperation full court pass off of the Crisler Arena scoreboard. Funny, because I threw the TV remote at the television right about the same time. Now we’ll both get a chance to retrieve our dignity as the Wolverines prepare for a memorable NIT run.
-
-
MSU, Izzo, Shows Who is Boss
Spartans coast after Hot Michigan Start SALINE, MICHIGAN FEBRUARY 18, 2006 Michigan State withstood a quick Michigan start and slowly crushed the Wolverines for their 9th straight victory over the Blue at Breslin Arena. Shannon Brown was the player of the game, epitomizing the gap in talent the Spartans have over Michigan. Brown tossed in acrobatic lay-ups and dropped deadly threes to keep the game out of reach. The struggling Blue now need an upset win over Illinois and/or Ohio State to be considered for a NCAA berth. This is shocking considering where they sat just a couple weeks ago, firmly planted in the Top 25. But loss to a very weak Purdue team and bad losses to Ohio State and Iowa have left the Wolverines wondering what could have been. For the Spartans, they have struggled as well but have enough quality wins to give Tom Izzo a lock on another NCAA bid. State seems to have the tools to engineer another solid tournament run if he can get consistency out of Brown and Maurice Ager. They certainly had it working today, as they rung up 90 on the defenseless Wolverines. Had they broke 100, that would have meant half-off big rigs at Paul Revere’s Tavern in East Lansing. More takes: Son, Clean up Your Act – For those…
-
Malone, Herrmann Out at Michigan
Offensive and Defensive to have new leadership in 2006 SALINE, MICHIGAN FEBRUARY 12, 2006 It is confirmed that Terry Malone and Jim Herrmann are out as Michigan’s head coordinators. Both men will leave to take jobs in the NFL. Here’s what you won’t hear anyone admit, but they were basically fired. Coach Lloyd Carr has always provided little info when firing his assistants, and in this case, just basically said they were moving on to bigger opportunities. Sorry, but O and D coordinator at Michigan is bigger than one of the assistants on any NFL team. Carr huddled with both men after the season (and Herrmann is a close friend) and clearly told them it was time to move on.
-
Matt Gutierrez Ends Michigan Career
BACK-UP TO HENNE WILL GO TO DIVISION I-AA IDAHO STATE SALINE, MICHIGAN JANUARY 8, 2006 Somewhat surprising news this morning as back-up Michigan quarterback and high school phenom Matt Gutierrez has announced he will leave the Wolverines to play for I-AA Idaho State. Basically his comments were classy but left a sense of frustration with his inability to get some playing time. Gutierrez was reported to say, “I feel like in my four years I’ve done everything I could have done and was asked to do to earn an opportunity. Unfortunately the opportunity didn’t come when I was finally healthy and ready to play.” One has to assume that Gutierrez expected some playing time after Henne struggled early in the season, probably after starter Chad Henne’s performance against Notre Dame. Or at least given a chance. Certainly that was the sentiment of the sports radio callers and many M fans around the country. One has to assume that Gutierrez has a desire to go to the NFL, and without significant playing time (even on Michigan) feels that he’ll need some guaranteed snaps. Memo to the guy that thought he was in line for the Idaho State QB job: sorry Charlie. So this leaves many questions for Michigan regarding the back-up role. Should Chad Henne falter or be injured next season,…
-
Alamo Bowl 2005: Huskers Drop Michigan, Near-Miracle Final Play
Michigan surrendered another double-digit second-half lead and lost the Alamo Bowl to Nebraska 32-28 late last night. The game featured several twists, bad calls, and nearly one of the greatest plays in college football history. No matter how you look at it, this loss was reflective of a sad season that will sting throughout the winter, spring, and summer up until the 2006 Wolverines take the field. If Lloyd Carr doesn’t do something to stop this trend, Pam Ward will be calling Michigan games for ESPN2 next season. Here are the takes on this game: – Final Play. See the diagram above. Listening to the radio in the morning and reading both the Detroit Free Press and News in the morning, you’d think that the final play was not a big deal. ESPN, fortunately, thought otherwise, breaking it down several times after the game and today in between breaks. This really makes this one a bitter pill. After watching it several times on ESPN.com, it looks like Tyler Ecker thought he could turn the corner on the Nebraska defensive back and score. He was pushed out of bounds at about the 14. Stevie Breaston, who played a great game on special teams, was trailing Ecker the whole time begging for the ball. Had Breaston got the ball, M would have…
-
Buckeyes Stifle Michigan Again in 2005
Dominant Ohio State D makes the difference; Troy Smith completes the comeback ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN NOVEMBER 21, 2005 Oh the pain. Jim Tressel continued his mastery over Lloyd Carr’s Wolverines as the Buckeyes took down the Michigan Wolverines again, the second time in Ann Arbor. Since Tressel arrived, the only Michigan win was the classic 100th meeting between the two teams (thank goodness!). Before the game, Carr said a loss would make this season a disappointment. It happened and it is. While clearly overrated as pre-season #4, there really is no acceptable terms whereby this team can lose four regular season games (three at home!) and consider it a good season. It is very disappointing for everyone. Here are the takes on this game:– Buckeye Bamboozle Poor Schlimmy! Tailgate legend Scott Grow fell victim to the eBay Buckeye Ticket Bandit. Earlier this year Schlim locked into tickets to the big Michigan – Ohio State game on eBay to a seller with a high rating. The tickets were to be delivered 2 weeks before the game. Payment was rendered and nothing ever showed up. Turns out Scotty wasn’t the only one burned by this deadbeat: there have been over 70 complaints to the Ohio Attorney General. It turned into a big news story, here’s one update. – White Whale. The sweater-vested…
-
Big Ten Conference Tie Break rules
Here’s the rules for every Big Ten BCS tie scenario SALINE, MICHIGAN OCTOBER 31, 2005 It’s another tight Big Ten football race for the championship and to determine the team that will receive the Big Ten’s automatic BCS bid. Here are the rules: • If there is a two-way tie, the winner of the game between the two will represent the conference. If the teams did not play each other, it is then based on overall winning percentage. • If there is still a tie, the most recent team to earn a BCS automatic selection is eliminated. • If three teams are tied and if one team defeated both of the others, that team is the representative. • If two of the three teams defeated the third team, that team is eliminated and the remaining two teams revert to the two-team tie procedure. • If two of the three did not play each other, the BCS representative is determined by winning percentage in the overall schedule. If all three have the same winning percentage, the most recent representative is eliminated and the other two revert to the two-team tie procedure. • If four or more are tied … if one team defeated each of the other three, then that team is the representative. • If two of the four teams…
-
Second Half Shutdown of Wildcats
Trip to Chicago topped off with another Big win EVANSTON, ILLINOIS OCTOBER 30, 2005 Despite being up 16 late in the fourth quarter, few of 10,000+ Michigan fans that attended the Northwestern game Saturday night could relax. Not after watching the fate of the previous five games being settled in the final seconds. Only when the Wildcats exhausted their timeouts and Michigan picked up a well earned first down did the maize and blue fans breathe easy. In fact, the only group that really seemed relaxed the entire game was the Michigan sideline. Sitting three rows behind the bench for this crucial 33-17 victory, one of things I took away from this was how calm, poised, methodical and perhaps unemotional the Michigan machine really is. The only real excitement out of this team was after Grant Mason’s outstanding interception late in the second quarter, and of course when the game was over. Overall, this was a much needed win and continues a stunning revival of a team that was left for dead four weeks ago. Here are the takes on this game:– Depth. Lloyd Carr consistently gets criticism for not challenging for national titles despite having highly ranked recruiting classes year after year. This is certainly a valid discussion point, but I hardly ever hear Carr praised for delivering the…
