As a longtime college hockey fan (first "Frozen Four" I attended was in 1971 when it was played in a minor league rink in Syracuse, NY and only four teams made the tournament, two from the East and two from the West), this sequence in the 2009 NCAA men's hockey championship game was, as ESPN's Gary Thorne called it, "Unbelievable!"
Michigan players yet to be drafted are Drake Nugent, Cornelius Johnson, Trente Jones, Josh Wallace, Braiden McGregor, Karsen Barnhart, Gemon Green and James Turner. The Chargers had the 225th in the seventh round and chose USC wide receiver Brenden Rice, son of Jerry.
The Chargers still have the 253rd pick in the seventh round. If no other Michigan players have been drafted before then, I wonder whether Harbaugh would choose one of the Michigan players or just let all of them find free agent contracts with teams that would give them the best opportunity to at least have a shot at a practice-squad spot.
Michigan players yet to be drafted are Drake Nugent, Cornelius Johnson, Jaylen Harrell, Trente Jones, Josh Wallace, Braiden McGregor, Karsen Barnhart, Gemon Green and James Turner. The Chargers had the 225th pick and chose USC wide receiver Brenden Rice, son of Jerry.
The Chargers still have the 253rd pick in the seventh round. If no other Michigan players have been drafted before then, I wonder whether Harbaugh would choose one of the Michigan players or just let all of them find free agent contracts with teams that would give them the best opportunity to at least have a shot at a practice-squad spot.
UPDATING AS THE DRAFT GOES: Michigan will not come close to tying the record for most players drafted. With 253 draft picks in the books, nearing the end of the seventh round, only THIRTEEN Michigan players have been drafted.
Michigan players yet to be drafted are Drake Nugent, Trente Jones, Josh Wallace, Braiden McGregor, Karsen Barnhart, Gemon Green and James Turner. The Chargers had the 225th pick and chose USC wide receiver Brenden Rice, son of Jerry.
The Chargers took Cornelius Johnson with the 253rd pick in the seventh round.
With 220 draft picks in the books, and only nine Michigan players having been drafted through the first six rounds, it’s not looking good for Michigan to get as many as 16 players drafted.
Michigan players yet to be drafted were Drake Nugent, Cornelius Johnson, LaDarius Henderson, Jaylen Harrell, Mike Barrett, Trente Jones, Josh Wallace, Braiden McGregor and Karsen Barnhart. The Chargers have the 225th and 253 picks in the seventh round.
If they both have degrees from Michigan, then would Erick All be considered a draft pick from Michowa and would Joe Milton be considered a draft pick from Michessee?
The Jets currently have the last pick (257) in the draft. The Chargers have the 253rd pick. If Michigan has had 15 or 16 players drafted when the Chargers pick at 253, then it wouldn’t surprise me if Harbaugh chose a Michigan man at 253.
If Michigan has had fewer than 15 players drafted when the Chargers get the 253rd pick, then Harbaugh might want to trade with the Jets to get the last pick and then choose a Michigan man if only to have Michigan get Mr. Irrelevant.
Despite being in my 70s and not in the best of health, one of the advantages of being retired and having no children living with me is that I’m able to usually return my cart to the store regardless of where I’ve parked and I often try to park far from the store when practical (to get in those extra steps), even when having to push a cart with 600 pounds of river rocks from Home Depot or Lowe’s.
There are many times when I’ll return stray carts in the parking lot to the nearest cart corral or back to the store. Have you ever tried to maneuver around a parking lot on a windy day when stray carts are rolling around uncontrollably?
I saw The Baseball Project (with Mike Mills and Peter Buck from REM) in concert at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 13, 2012. Also in the audience that day was REM's Michael Stipe.
In 2010, The Baseball Project band wrote a song about the Phenom that was Steven Strasburg. The lyrics about him include, I just want to stick around for a while.
Seventeen teams turned down bids to this season's NIT. LINK Almost all of them were from major conferences and several of them had won 20 or more games this season. The two NIT finalists, champion Seton Hall and runner-up Indiana State were among the first four teams that missed bids to the NCAA Tournament.
How many of those teams would have accepted a bid to play in a 16-team tournament played in Las Vegas if the travel and hotel costs weren't being paid for by the tournament sponsors or their own conferences?
Is it certain that both Nimari Burnett and Terrance Williams will return to Michigan?
Since the 2020-21 season, Nimari Burnett has been at Texas Tech, Alabama and Michigan. He left a team that will be playing in the Final Four to play for a team that finished 8-24 and last in the Big Ten. He "walked" on Senior Day. He's working on a Masters degree in Social Work at Michigan. His hometown is Chicago. (Don't know whether he's wearing sunglasses and is on a mission from God. LINK)
Northwestern is losing two or three guards -- its program's all-time leading scorer and unanimous All Big Ten combo guard Boo Buie, grad student Ryan Langborg and possibly Ty Berry. If Chris Collins called and suggested that Burnett could enroll in Northwestern's Masters program in Counseling and get credit for his Michigan courses in Social Work, would it make sense for Burnett to consider to playing for his fourth college team and be living closer to his hometown next season?
If Cornell and Boston University win today, then they'll meet in the Frozen Four semifinals. Cornell beat Boston U 2-1 this season in late November at Madison Square Garden. BU also split with North Dakota at home in early November, winning 3-2 and losing 5-4 in overtime.
Most of the Boston College and Boston U games have been on ESPN+ this season, thanks to the Hockey East contract with ESPN, so I've seen both of them play on TV several times. BC looks to be unbeatable.
One of the great moments in Sports Illustrated history came when the magazine published an article about Sidd Finch written by "Paper Lion" George Plimpton for the magazine's April 1, 1985 issue.
Rough ending and a sad collapse that made me think of how the men's team struggled to keep games close after the first half this season. Michigan was outscored 37-19 in the 4th quarter and overtime as if the women were channeling the men's team while Juwan Howard watched from the stands.
But credit to the women for getting into the NCAA Tournament and earning some points for the Directors Cup standings.
Taking a look back at his recruiting profile, besides Michigan, he had interest in and offers from Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue, among many others.
He's from Missouri. He should have lots of schools interested in him again, and if he holds out long enough to learn about Michigan's new coaching staff and the players they're planning to bring in, then he (and maybe Dug McDaniel) just might have some reason to return to Michigan.
For those looking for the list of players in the College Basketball Transfer Portal, here's a LINK.
Somewhat OT: Whomever Michigan selects as its next head basketball coach (and let's assume that Becky Hammon and Dawn Staley aren't interested), won't that person want to have a good idea of the roster he'll have to work with next season before he accepts that offer? I'm thinking of how Mike Rhoades went from VCU to Penn State late last March and then had to get nine transfers to build his roster for this season.
Tray Jackson, Terrance Williams II and Olivier Nkamhoua are out of eligibility. Jace Howard now has a good reason to play elsewhere.
Do Dug McDaniel, Nimari Burnett and Tarris Reed want to stay?
Does Jaelin Lllewellyn who started and played 21 games at Princeton in 2018-2019 have another graduate year because he missed the 2020-21 season due to COVID 19 shutting down the Ivy League season and he missed most of the 2022-23 season at Michigan due to injury?
Will the two recruited point guards, Christian Anderson and Durral Brooks who signed letters of intent ask to get out of their commitments? Will Dug McDaniel's cousin Khani Rooths decommit if McDaniel decides to leave?
In the metropolitan NYC area where I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, they called them Scooter Pies. Now they're known mostly as Moon Pies. I remember them as a lunchbox staple.
Then there's the smaller, single-cracker version that those of us who grew up in the metropolitan NYC area have known as Mallomars. Boxes of Mallomars fly off grocery-store shelves when they come back in September. They're available only from September through March because Nabisco won't ship them due to the risk that the chocolate will melt during warmer weather.
Whether Moon Pies, Scooter Pies or Mallomars, they've all been the victims of shrinkflation. Curse you, Nabisco!
Unfortunately for those of us who root for Michigan, the national championship in football continues to obscure what for the most part has been a down year for Michigan athletics. When reviewing Warde Manuel's performance as Michigan's Athletic Director, consider that as of March 14, 2024 this is how many of Michigan's teams have performed during this academic year:
Men’s Soccer (5-6-7; 2-1-5 and tied for 5th in Big Ten)
Women’s Soccer (7-7-4; 3-5-2 and tied for 9th in Big Ten)
Men’s Cross Country - 2nd in Big Ten championships
Women’s Cross Country - 3rd in Big Ten championships
Field Hockey (9-8; 3-5 and 7th in Big Ten)
Men’s Basketball (8-24, 3-17 and 14th in Big Ten; 0-1 in Big Ten Tournament)
Women’s Basketball (20-13, 9-9 and tied for 6th in Big Ten; 1-1 in Big Ten Tournament)
Volleyball (7-22; 5-15 and 12th in Big Ten)
Men’s Hockey (20-13-3; 11-11-2, 4th in the seven-team Big Ten and 10th in the Pairwise rankings that usually predict the NCAA tournament field meaning that Michigan should make the NCAA tournament if they finish in the top 14)
Men’s Gymnastics (11-2; 1-2 and last of five teams in Big Ten; ranked 5th in nation)
Women’s Gymnastics (11-5; 9-1 and 2nd in Big Ten; ranked 10th in the nation)
Wrestling (8-4; 5-3 and 6th in Big Ten; 2nd in Big Ten Championships)
Men’s Indoor Track and Field (8th in Big Ten Championships)
Women’s Indoor Track and Field (5th in Big Ten Championships)
Baseball (6-11)
Softball (13-10)
Men’s Lacrosse (5-2; 0-0 in Big Ten; ranked 18th in the nation)
Women’s Lacrosse (9-0; 2-0 in Big Ten; ranked 6th in the nation)
Men’s Tennis (6-9)
Women’s Tennis (12-3; 2nd ranked in the country and runner-up to top ranked Oklahoma State in ITA National Indoor Championships)
After finishing among the top ten schools in the final Directors’ Cup standings in five of the six years in which the standings were kept before 2023 (the 2020 standings were canceled due to the pandemic), Michigan finished 11th last year and was ranked 21st in the final fall standings.
_______________
To be fair to Warde Manuel, before last year and this year. Michigan consistently finished in the Top Ten in the final Directors’ Cup standings.
Final Directors’ Cup Standings for Michigan: 2023 (11th); 2022 (3rd); 2021 (3rd); 2020 (Canceled due to pandemic); 2019 (2nd); 2018 (6th); 2017 (4th)
Old enough to remember the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball championship game between Louisville and Michigan. This season, Michigan finishes last in the Big Ten with a 3-17 record and 8-23 overall and Louisville finishes last in the ACC with a 3-17 record and 8-23 overall. The times they are a -changin!
And Trey Burke cleanly blocked Peyton Siva's shot.
Going back to re-reading JFK’s Profiles in Courage along with Jon Meacham’s The Soul of America and (as I've been doing in every presidential-election year since I first read it for a college course in 1970) parts of Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
The 1988-89 year wasn’t too shabby. In Bo Schembechler’s 20th season as head coach, Michigan’s football team went 9–2–1 record (7–0–1 in the Big Ten), won the Big Ten championship, defeated USC in the 1989 Rose Bowl, outscored opponents by a total of 361 to 167 and was ranked No. 4 in the final AP and UPI polls. Four months after winning the Rose Bowl game, Michigan won the NCAA men’s basketball championship. The baseball team was 49-16 and won the Big Ten regular season title; the softball team was 42-20.
Despite the football team’s national championship, the wrestling team’s 24-11 upset of Iowa, the possibility that the hockey team will hang within the top 14 in the Pairwise rankings to get to the NCAA tournament and the lacrosse teams getting off to good starts (men are 5-1; women are 6-0), this is setting up to be the worst year in Michigan sports in a very long time.
After finishing among the top ten schools in the final Directors’ Cup standings in five of the six years in which the standings were kept before 2023 (the 2020 standings were canceled due to the pandemic), Michigan finished 11th last year and was ranked 21st in the final 2023-24 fall standings. LINK
Football has had to overhaul its staff and the worst men’s basketball team in 57 years just lost its successful strength and conditioning coach.
Baseball’s 4-8; softball’s 11-9. Remember when those teams were pretty good, like 2019 when UM baseball went 50-22, was runner-up in the College World Series and UM softball went 43-11 and won the conference and conference tournament championships?
Freshman year of high school, the year of JFK’s assassination; wrestling practice; badly sprained ankle while wrestling the taller, stronger senior captain; doctor gave me an ace bandage and a crutch and told me to apply some ice when I got home. In those days, ice came from aluminum, ice-cube trays. It was long before I’d ever hear the RICE expression (Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation).
Aggravated in sophomore year during pre-season wrestling practice. Only thing different this time was getting TWO crutches while the injury lingered much longer – a sign to give up wrestling.
Damaged much worse just before senior-year soccer practice after stepping in a hole while running and twisting ankle badly, but not breaking it. End of soccer career. Little did I know then that I’d suffer from chronic Achilles tendinitis for the rest of my life. No more running on steep inclines on treadmills.
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As a longtime college hockey fan (first "Frozen Four" I attended was in 1971 when it was played in a minor league rink in Syracuse, NY and only four teams made the tournament, two from the East and two from the West), this sequence in the 2009 NCAA men's hockey championship game was, as ESPN's Gary Thorne called it, "Unbelievable!"
When you NEED a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the PORTAL!
Michigan players yet to be drafted are Drake Nugent, Cornelius Johnson, Trente Jones, Josh Wallace, Braiden McGregor, Karsen Barnhart, Gemon Green and James Turner. The Chargers had the 225th in the seventh round and chose USC wide receiver Brenden Rice, son of Jerry.
The Chargers still have the 253rd pick in the seventh round. If no other Michigan players have been drafted before then, I wonder whether Harbaugh would choose one of the Michigan players or just let all of them find free agent contracts with teams that would give them the best opportunity to at least have a shot at a practice-squad spot.
Would this be the time to be rooting for the Jets to make one of Michigan's currently undrafted players Mr. Irrelevant?
Michigan players yet to be drafted are Drake Nugent, Cornelius Johnson, Jaylen Harrell, Trente Jones, Josh Wallace, Braiden McGregor, Karsen Barnhart, Gemon Green and James Turner. The Chargers had the 225th pick and chose USC wide receiver Brenden Rice, son of Jerry.
The Chargers still have the 253rd pick in the seventh round. If no other Michigan players have been drafted before then, I wonder whether Harbaugh would choose one of the Michigan players or just let all of them find free agent contracts with teams that would give them the best opportunity to at least have a shot at a practice-squad spot.
If Mike Barrett hadn't been taken before the 253rd pick, I think that Harbaugh might've been happy to take him there.
UPDATING AS THE DRAFT GOES: Michigan will not come close to tying the record for most players drafted. With 253 draft picks in the books, nearing the end of the seventh round, only THIRTEEN Michigan players have been drafted.
Michigan players yet to be drafted are Drake Nugent, Trente Jones, Josh Wallace, Braiden McGregor, Karsen Barnhart, Gemon Green and James Turner. The Chargers had the 225th pick and chose USC wide receiver Brenden Rice, son of Jerry.
The Chargers took Cornelius Johnson with the 253rd pick in the seventh round.
With 220 draft picks in the books, and only nine Michigan players having been drafted through the first six rounds, it’s not looking good for Michigan to get as many as 16 players drafted.
Michigan players yet to be drafted were Drake Nugent, Cornelius Johnson, LaDarius Henderson, Jaylen Harrell, Mike Barrett, Trente Jones, Josh Wallace, Braiden McGregor and Karsen Barnhart. The Chargers have the 225th and 253 picks in the seventh round.
If they both have degrees from Michigan, then would Erick All be considered a draft pick from Michowa and would Joe Milton be considered a draft pick from Michessee?
The Jets currently have the last pick (257) in the draft. The Chargers have the 253rd pick. If Michigan has had 15 or 16 players drafted when the Chargers pick at 253, then it wouldn’t surprise me if Harbaugh chose a Michigan man at 253.
If Michigan has had fewer than 15 players drafted when the Chargers get the 253rd pick, then Harbaugh might want to trade with the Jets to get the last pick and then choose a Michigan man if only to have Michigan get Mr. Irrelevant.
It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.
Harpo Marx?
THAT'S what debating is? "Spreading" seems more like AUCTIONEERING OLYMPICS. "Very goofy" is an understatement.
Despite being in my 70s and not in the best of health, one of the advantages of being retired and having no children living with me is that I’m able to usually return my cart to the store regardless of where I’ve parked and I often try to park far from the store when practical (to get in those extra steps), even when having to push a cart with 600 pounds of river rocks from Home Depot or Lowe’s.
There are many times when I’ll return stray carts in the parking lot to the nearest cart corral or back to the store. Have you ever tried to maneuver around a parking lot on a windy day when stray carts are rolling around uncontrollably?
I saw The Baseball Project (with Mike Mills and Peter Buck from REM) in concert at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 13, 2012. Also in the audience that day was REM's Michael Stipe.
In 2010, The Baseball Project band wrote a song about the Phenom that was Steven Strasburg. The lyrics about him include, I just want to stick around for a while.
Seventeen teams turned down bids to this season's NIT. LINK Almost all of them were from major conferences and several of them had won 20 or more games this season. The two NIT finalists, champion Seton Hall and runner-up Indiana State were among the first four teams that missed bids to the NCAA Tournament.
How many of those teams would have accepted a bid to play in a 16-team tournament played in Las Vegas if the travel and hotel costs weren't being paid for by the tournament sponsors or their own conferences?
Is it certain that both Nimari Burnett and Terrance Williams will return to Michigan?
Since the 2020-21 season, Nimari Burnett has been at Texas Tech, Alabama and Michigan. He left a team that will be playing in the Final Four to play for a team that finished 8-24 and last in the Big Ten. He "walked" on Senior Day. He's working on a Masters degree in Social Work at Michigan. His hometown is Chicago. (Don't know whether he's wearing sunglasses and is on a mission from God. LINK)
Northwestern is losing two or three guards -- its program's all-time leading scorer and unanimous All Big Ten combo guard Boo Buie, grad student Ryan Langborg and possibly Ty Berry. If Chris Collins called and suggested that Burnett could enroll in Northwestern's Masters program in Counseling and get credit for his Michigan courses in Social Work, would it make sense for Burnett to consider to playing for his fourth college team and be living closer to his hometown next season?
SPOILER ALERT: It's the aliens!
If Cornell and Boston University win today, then they'll meet in the Frozen Four semifinals. Cornell beat Boston U 2-1 this season in late November at Madison Square Garden. BU also split with North Dakota at home in early November, winning 3-2 and losing 5-4 in overtime.
Most of the Boston College and Boston U games have been on ESPN+ this season, thanks to the Hockey East contract with ESPN, so I've seen both of them play on TV several times. BC looks to be unbeatable.
Does this mean that there won't be a fairy-tale ending to Michigan's men's basketball team's 2024-25 season?
Wolverine in a Bag
One of the great moments in Sports Illustrated history came when the magazine published an article about Sidd Finch written by "Paper Lion" George Plimpton for the magazine's April 1, 1985 issue.
For those who might not understand the "kitchen" reference:
The BC-BU game also is on ESPN+. BC has two power play goals to go up 2-0 after one.
BC looks formidable.
Rough ending and a sad collapse that made me think of how the men's team struggled to keep games close after the first half this season. Michigan was outscored 37-19 in the 4th quarter and overtime as if the women were channeling the men's team while Juwan Howard watched from the stands.
But credit to the women for getting into the NCAA Tournament and earning some points for the Directors Cup standings.
There will be some shuffling of the D1 men's lacrosse rankings. Top-ranked Army lost 14-9 last night at unranked Boston University. LINK
Greg now has plenty of time to spend in his local saloon like his cousin Buster Scruggs.
Scruggs might've left Michigan's football coaching staff Flat(t). Hope it won't result in a serious breakdown.
Michael Scott, formerly of Scranton, Pennsylvania has responded.
When Cosmo Kramer was four years old, his mom, Babs Kramer, asked what he wanted for a birthday present, and that’s what he said.
Taking a look back at his recruiting profile, besides Michigan, he had interest in and offers from Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue, among many others.
He's from Missouri. He should have lots of schools interested in him again, and if he holds out long enough to learn about Michigan's new coaching staff and the players they're planning to bring in, then he (and maybe Dug McDaniel) just might have some reason to return to Michigan.
For those looking for the list of players in the College Basketball Transfer Portal, here's a LINK.
Somewhat OT: Whomever Michigan selects as its next head basketball coach (and let's assume that Becky Hammon and Dawn Staley aren't interested), won't that person want to have a good idea of the roster he'll have to work with next season before he accepts that offer? I'm thinking of how Mike Rhoades went from VCU to Penn State late last March and then had to get nine transfers to build his roster for this season.
Tray Jackson, Terrance Williams II and Olivier Nkamhoua are out of eligibility. Jace Howard now has a good reason to play elsewhere.
Do Dug McDaniel, Nimari Burnett and Tarris Reed want to stay?
Does Jaelin Lllewellyn who started and played 21 games at Princeton in 2018-2019 have another graduate year because he missed the 2020-21 season due to COVID 19 shutting down the Ivy League season and he missed most of the 2022-23 season at Michigan due to injury?
Will the two recruited point guards, Christian Anderson and Durral Brooks who signed letters of intent ask to get out of their commitments? Will Dug McDaniel's cousin Khani Rooths decommit if McDaniel decides to leave?
In the metropolitan NYC area where I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, they called them Scooter Pies. Now they're known mostly as Moon Pies. I remember them as a lunchbox staple.
Then there's the smaller, single-cracker version that those of us who grew up in the metropolitan NYC area have known as Mallomars. Boxes of Mallomars fly off grocery-store shelves when they come back in September. They're available only from September through March because Nabisco won't ship them due to the risk that the chocolate will melt during warmer weather.
Whether Moon Pies, Scooter Pies or Mallomars, they've all been the victims of shrinkflation. Curse you, Nabisco!
Unfortunately for those of us who root for Michigan, the national championship in football continues to obscure what for the most part has been a down year for Michigan athletics. When reviewing Warde Manuel's performance as Michigan's Athletic Director, consider that as of March 14, 2024 this is how many of Michigan's teams have performed during this academic year:
Men’s Soccer (5-6-7; 2-1-5 and tied for 5th in Big Ten)
Women’s Soccer (7-7-4; 3-5-2 and tied for 9th in Big Ten)
Men’s Cross Country - 2nd in Big Ten championships
Women’s Cross Country - 3rd in Big Ten championships
Field Hockey (9-8; 3-5 and 7th in Big Ten)
Men’s Basketball (8-24, 3-17 and 14th in Big Ten; 0-1 in Big Ten Tournament)
Women’s Basketball (20-13, 9-9 and tied for 6th in Big Ten; 1-1 in Big Ten Tournament)
Volleyball (7-22; 5-15 and 12th in Big Ten)
Men’s Hockey (20-13-3; 11-11-2, 4th in the seven-team Big Ten and 10th in the Pairwise rankings that usually predict the NCAA tournament field meaning that Michigan should make the NCAA tournament if they finish in the top 14)
Men’s Gymnastics (11-2; 1-2 and last of five teams in Big Ten; ranked 5th in nation)
Women’s Gymnastics (11-5; 9-1 and 2nd in Big Ten; ranked 10th in the nation)
Wrestling (8-4; 5-3 and 6th in Big Ten; 2nd in Big Ten Championships)
Men’s Indoor Track and Field (8th in Big Ten Championships)
Women’s Indoor Track and Field (5th in Big Ten Championships)
Baseball (6-11)
Softball (13-10)
Men’s Lacrosse (5-2; 0-0 in Big Ten; ranked 18th in the nation)
Women’s Lacrosse (9-0; 2-0 in Big Ten; ranked 6th in the nation)
Men’s Tennis (6-9)
Women’s Tennis (12-3; 2nd ranked in the country and runner-up to top ranked Oklahoma State in ITA National Indoor Championships)
After finishing among the top ten schools in the final Directors’ Cup standings in five of the six years in which the standings were kept before 2023 (the 2020 standings were canceled due to the pandemic), Michigan finished 11th last year and was ranked 21st in the final fall standings.
_______________
To be fair to Warde Manuel, before last year and this year. Michigan consistently finished in the Top Ten in the final Directors’ Cup standings.
Final Directors’ Cup Standings for Michigan: 2023 (11th); 2022 (3rd); 2021 (3rd); 2020 (Canceled due to pandemic); 2019 (2nd); 2018 (6th); 2017 (4th)
I'm also old enough to remember watching THIS GAME in a black-and-white broadcast on a small TV.
Old enough to remember the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball championship game between Louisville and Michigan. This season, Michigan finishes last in the Big Ten with a 3-17 record and 8-23 overall and Louisville finishes last in the ACC with a 3-17 record and 8-23 overall. The times they are a -changin!
And Trey Burke cleanly blocked Peyton Siva's shot.
You might want to change that to JUAN HOAR
I love Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.
Going back to re-reading JFK’s Profiles in Courage along with Jon Meacham’s The Soul of America and (as I've been doing in every presidential-election year since I first read it for a college course in 1970) parts of Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
On the Shelf to Be Read: Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association by Terry Pluto; Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen; 1776 by David McCullough
Recommended for fans of Major League Baseball History: The First Fall Classic: The Red Sox, the Giants, and the Cast of Players, Pugs, and Politicos Who Reinvented the World Series in 1912 by Mike Vaccaro; Veeck As In Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck by Bill Veeck with Ed Linn
The 1988-89…
Understood.
The 1988-89 year wasn’t too shabby. In Bo Schembechler’s 20th season as head coach, Michigan’s football team went 9–2–1 record (7–0–1 in the Big Ten), won the Big Ten championship, defeated USC in the 1989 Rose Bowl, outscored opponents by a total of 361 to 167 and was ranked No. 4 in the final AP and UPI polls. Four months after winning the Rose Bowl game, Michigan won the NCAA men’s basketball championship. The baseball team was 49-16 and won the Big Ten regular season title; the softball team was 42-20.
Despite the football team’s national championship, the wrestling team’s 24-11 upset of Iowa, the possibility that the hockey team will hang within the top 14 in the Pairwise rankings to get to the NCAA tournament and the lacrosse teams getting off to good starts (men are 5-1; women are 6-0), this is setting up to be the worst year in Michigan sports in a very long time.
After finishing among the top ten schools in the final Directors’ Cup standings in five of the six years in which the standings were kept before 2023 (the 2020 standings were canceled due to the pandemic), Michigan finished 11th last year and was ranked 21st in the final 2023-24 fall standings. LINK
Football has had to overhaul its staff and the worst men’s basketball team in 57 years just lost its successful strength and conditioning coach.
Baseball’s 4-8; softball’s 11-9. Remember when those teams were pretty good, like 2019 when UM baseball went 50-22, was runner-up in the College World Series and UM softball went 43-11 and won the conference and conference tournament championships?
#FireWarde
I approve of “RICE, RICE, Baby”.
Freshman year of high school, the year of JFK’s assassination; wrestling practice; badly sprained ankle while wrestling the taller, stronger senior captain; doctor gave me an ace bandage and a crutch and told me to apply some ice when I got home. In those days, ice came from aluminum, ice-cube trays. It was long before I’d ever hear the RICE expression (Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation).
Aggravated in sophomore year during pre-season wrestling practice. Only thing different this time was getting TWO crutches while the injury lingered much longer – a sign to give up wrestling.
Damaged much worse just before senior-year soccer practice after stepping in a hole while running and twisting ankle badly, but not breaking it. End of soccer career. Little did I know then that I’d suffer from chronic Achilles tendinitis for the rest of my life. No more running on steep inclines on treadmills.
Voltaren gel also helps.
Now is the winter of our discontent . . . LINK
How did William Shakespeare know in 1592 what Michigan men's basketball and hockey would be like in 2024?