Previously:

February 2009

March 1 - Sunday

We start off with a live blog of the basketball game against Wisconsin. However, it’s not really a live blog because there’s a growing belief that live blogs curse the basketball team.  

March 2 - Monday

An update on the situation with basketball. The team is on the bubble but in decent shape. Maintaining a .500 record should be enough, but the best mid-majors holding serve on the automatic bids will be helpful.

An update on the situation with hockey. The team just swept Ferris State, and they are in a strong position to make a run to the Frozen Four.

March 3 - Tuesday

Unverified Voracity Bursts Like Appendices. Red Berenson signed a one year extension, but he “didn’t want to make a five-year commitment.”

2009 Recruiting: Isaiah Bell. YMRMFSPA - Prescott Burgess.

The non-live blog live blog from the Wisconsin game appears to have had ramifications in other parts of the world.

A hockey game at Michigan Stadium is in the works. Opponent is yet unknown.

March 4 - Wednesday

A reminder that the 2010 recruiting board is live.

Penn State is generally listed ahead of ‘M’ in brackets, but should they be? Brian takes a look at their resume.

March 5 - Thursday

Unverified Voracity Owes Georgia a Beer and others because things are looking good on the bubble.

2009 Recruiting: Brandin Hawthorne. YMRMFSPA - Ian Gold(?).

March 6 - Friday

Mailbag. How many scholarships can be given out? A song for Denard Robinson (lifted from Denard Spahn)? Also some information about people named Shegos.

Minnesota basketball game preview.

March 7 - Saturday

A win over Minnesota should have sealed a tournament bid, so muppets! (#6).

March 9 - Monday

Minnesota game column.

Bubble update.

March 10 - Tuesday

Tuesday Recruitin’. Lots of eventual signees added to the board like OH DE Jibreel Black, MD LB Josh Furman, OH WR DJ Williamson, and PA CB Cullen Christian.

Unverified What Voracity Jay Bilas What. More good news from the bubble as Gonzaga and Siena win their games.

March 11 - Wednesday

Unverified Voracity Curses Cleveland State. Another deep dive into the state of the bubble.

MI QB Devin Gardner plans to announce on Monday...and things look good!

March 12 - Thursday

Unverified Voracity: The Final Countdown. A brief preview of Iowa in the Big Ten tournament.

Hello: Devin Gardner.

Looks like ‘M’ beat Iowa and the tournament bid party continues.

March 13 - Friday

A brief recap of the Iowa game and another look at the bubble.  

2009 Recruiting: Will Campbell. YMRMFSPA - Gabe Watson.

March 14 - Saturday

One last bubble update.

March 15 - Sunday

First tournament bid in eleven years! Muppets (#7).

March 16 - Monday

Recap of all the good feelings from the selection show.

Recap of the hockey team’s weekend sweep over WMU.

Pairwise update...doesn’t look good.

March 17 - Tuesday

Hello: Antonio Kinard.

Unverified Voracity, Scarier When Bald. DT Will Johnson had an impressive day at the combine.

March 18 - Wednesday

Preview of the matchup against Clemson.

March 19 - Thursday

Grosse Pointe Beilein. Michigan basketball and the NCAA tournament have a conversation.

Interview with recruit and eventual UCLA safety Dietrich Riley.

Brian tries to explain the anticipation of the first tourney game in eleven years.

The only explanation is that the idea Michigan will participate in this excessively large, bombastic, chaotic, sort-of-merit-based-but-also-kind-of-not American institution has been proposed to the brain and been rejected. Rejected like Andy Katzenmoyer's NFL career. Like the Michigan State student body's collective application to Michigan. Like sanity as it applies to Ekpe Udoh's decision as to where he should spend his college career. You get the idea.

This will evaporate a nanosecond after Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims share a split screen and "7 Clemson Tigers vs 10 Michigan Wolverines" is superimposed over the wide shot of the arena, and then I'll be terrified and angry for two solid hours. Woo sports! Looking forward to it.

‘M’ beats Clemson! Muppets #7.

March 20 - Friday

Clemson game column.

Unverified Voracity Sans Commas. The hockey team plays Alaska in the CCHA semi-finals.

March 21 - Saturday

A final look at the pairwise rankings.

Oklahoma preview.

‘M’ lost to the Blake Griffin led Sooners.

My second favorite part was the color guy saying Griffin had a "quiet" 32 and 15 or whatever when the announcing team couldn't go 15 seconds without suggesting Griffin be elected president of Awesomeonia.

March 23 - Monday

Oklahoma game column.

Halftime was spent in shocked contemplation of what had transpired. A brief attempt to calculate the probability of "Anthony Wright is Michigan's leading scorer at halftime of a second-round NCAA tourney game and the team is down one" was abandoned when one particular exponent was too large to fit in a 32-bit integer. A similar calculation for "Manny Harris plays five minutes in the first half and the team is down one" met a similar fate. ("Tim Brando is an abomination" came out to 1.)

The Ann Arbor News is dead...ish.

Deshawn Sims and Manny Harris are planning to return.

Culture shock in the football program. The good: the spring game is going to be fun. The bad: Rodriguez is saying they are going to bring music into the stadium and do some stuff with the scoreboard.  

March 24 - Tuesday

WR Toney Clemons is going to transfer.

Spring practice roundup with tidbits from Craig Ross and Touch the Banner (I think that’s the first mention I’ve come across of Magus’ blog). It looks like the defense is practicing with a rush DE/LB or “spinner”.

March 25 - Wednesday

The hockey bracket has been released. ‘M’ got a good draw, starting with Air Force.

Wednesday Recruitin’. Things look positive for GA QB Blake Sims and MI CB Dior Mathis. Also, MN OL Seantrel Henderson came for a visit.

March 26 - Thursday

Unverified Voracity Visits the Glue Factory. Rumors that Nick Sheridan might have a broken a leg.

Hello: Tony Drake. A surprising commitment.

March 27 - Friday

Unverified Voracity is Generally Petrified. Sheridan’s fracture won’t require surgery, and he’s only expected to miss 4-6 weeks.

The hockey team loses to Air Force 2-0.

March 30 - Monday

A TomVH interview with RB Stephen Hopkins.

Mailbag. How will Rodriguez handle Facebook? Is Tate Forcier too small? Will ‘M’ play a night game soon? Why is Rodriguez issuing the same number to multiple players?

March 31 - Tuesday

Unverified Voracity Desires Wagers. I think this had David Cone’s music video foray, but it’s not included anymore.

Tuesday Recruitin’ . Brian is ecstatic that ‘M’ leads for LA QB Munchie Legaux.

April 1 - Wednesday

2009 Recruiting: Anthony LaLota. YMRMFSPA - Alain Kashama...except good.  

April 2 - Thursday

Unverified Voracity Braces for summer hockey shenanigans.

PG Kelvin Grady will be transferring.

April 3 - Friday

Aaron Palushaj has signed with the St. Louis Blues.

More and more news about the defense moving to a 3-4. Brian tries to figure out what that will look like.

Informative Hello post for Devin Gardner.

April 6 - Monday

Another spring practice roundup. Excitement for Vincent Smith! Concern for the safeties!

A Brief Summary Of My State Of Mind

Look: we're not going to be good. There is a true freshman quarterback who, while as ready as he can be, is still not ready at all.

Should you root for MSU in the championship game? Cats with the answer.

Unverified Voracity’s Girlfriend is a Cake. There is a website to track if East Lansing is in a state of riot or not.

April 7 - Tuesday

Tuesday Recruitin’. GA QB Blake Sims won’t be visiting ‘M’ because he committed to Alabama.

Unverified Voracity Plans a Disaster. No riots in East Lansing.

April 8 - Wednesday

Spring game schedule. This was when they started doing locker room tours and flag football games.

Unverified Voracity Briefly. Chris Summers has been named captain of the hockey team, so it appears he’s coming back. Also, ‘M’ has started Twitter accounts for all of their sports.

Mailbag. A reader asks, will the tourney run help with recruiting, because Beilein has been pretty bad at it? Brian insults the reader.

Beilein's not the sort of coach to upset the instate balance of power or hire some random AAU guy for the privilege of getting your one-and-done kid. He's not that guy. He is a guy who will bring guaranteed respectability, likeable teams, and a host of tourney bids with some fun runs to the Sweet 16 or whatever. Michigan basically abdicated on being a powerhouse when they hired Beilein.

David Komer, who seems like a dick, might not like this.

April 9 - Thursday

TomVH interviw with CJ Olaniyan.

Unverified Voracity Meets Supervillain Punting Duo. OL Mark Huyge is making a move for a starting position at Right Tackle. This is seen as a good sign for the OL over all.

Hello: Evan Smotrycz. There are two spots left in the 2010 class. PF Will Regan and SF Trey Ziegler are likely candidates.

April 10 - Friday

Mailbag. What do players do between spring and fall practice? How involved will Tate be in the run game? Denard has some good QB skills and will see significant snaps by the fourth game. What impact will there be from a lot of the ‘07 recruits transferring?

2009 Recruiting: Craig Roh. YMRMFSPA - Shawn Crable.  

Info on the MGoTailgate happening before the spring game.

April 13 - Monday

Spring game recap. Forcier is good! David Cone was good too! Wait...that was against the first team defense so scratch the exclamation mark. Also, Roy Roundtree can see now!

Hello: Stephen Hopkins.

April 14 - Tuesday

Tuesday Recriutin’. FL OL Torrian Wilson says ‘M’ is the only school on his list.

April 15 - Wednesday

Graduated Duke PG Greg Paulus is considering grad transferring to ‘M’...to play QB?

Unverified Voracity Seeks Reins. Lots of grand predictions for next year’s basketball team, like #11 in the country and 2nd in the Big Ten.

Mailbag. Maybe the defense just isn’t that good? April 15th is the football solstice; we’re now closer to the next game than we are to the last one.

April 16 - Thursday

Columbus: the home of the Public Works Congress.

What is Beilein’s tenure going to look like? What is his ceiling with recruiting and tournament runs?

April 17 - Friday

Brian is exasperated with how the Greg Paulus story is blowing up.

Hello: Marvin Robinson.

And the Greg Paulus story dies.

April 20 - Monday

The Alex Legion saga continues with an arrest in Illinois.

nverified Voracity Says “Wow,” Desires Hot Dogs and a video of Forcier highlights that Ace compiled.

Vote for the Name of the Year.

April 21 - Tuesday

A retrospective on the Ann Arbor News, and MGoBlog’s role in the wider sports media world.

I have the feeling that other people are in competition with me, and with Dylan and Tim (x2) and Paul and various others, that they resent the thriving Michigan blogosphere as a thing that reduces the need for their services. But I don't feel like I'm in competition with them. It's a strangely unbalanced situation. Their content helps me. Their lack of content helps me. Whatever happens, traffic goes up and my mom becomes incrementally less petrified at the career path I've chosen.

Tuesday Recruitin’. FL CB Lo Wood visited ND and is no longer looking like a strong commit possibility. But, MI RB Austin White doesn’t seem likely to follow his brothers to MSU.

April 22 - Wednesday

Unverified Voracity Bursts Like a Cyst, but in a Good Way. Promising reports are rolling in about Evan Smotrycz.

April 23 - Thursday

2009 Recruiting: Michael Schofield. YMRMFSPA - Jeff Backus.

April 24 - Friday

Thad Matta pulled a scholarship from a long-time commit. Brian is glad that doesn’t happen at ‘M’, but some of Rodriguez’s practices are iffy.

Highly recruited G Jack Campbell still plans to commit to the hockey team.

Harris and Sims still are planning to stay for next season.

April 27 - Monday

Unverified Voracity Eyes the Jugular. Brian is going to appear on John U. Bacon’s radio show, with Jim Carty. Further down there are some interesting numbers about MGoBlog readers compared to Ann Arbor News readers.

April 28 - Tuesday

Tuesday Recruitin’. Maybe there’s a commitment from FL CB Travis Williams?

There were rumors that the dedication game for the stadium renovations would be against UMASS. The athletic department has shot those rumors down.

April 29 - Wednesday

Mailbag. Why don’t we have better non-conference games? A better offense will probably help the defense (time of possession and all that), right? Can the Maize Rage be expanded?

Unverified Voracity Feels the Soil Falling Over Its Head. Brian is no longer writing for AOL. This is an interesting point (or this period of time, maybe summer of ‘08 into ‘09) for the blog because it’s now self-sustaining and supports his career.

April 30 - Thursday

TomVH interview with Daniel Easterly.

2009 Recruiting: Taylor Lewan. YMRMFSPA - Jake Long!

Hello: Drew Dileo.