I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but if I were I would be looking at the Mountain West conference as prime territory of interest after yesterday. Going into the conference tournament there were two teams n the conference – New Mexico and BYU – that were stone cold locks to make the NCAA tournament. UNLV and San Diego State were both in pretty decent shape as well, but both could have used one more win to solidify their case and take away any nervousness on Sunday. Given their conference and accomplishments, the seeding for New Mexico and BYU is probably relatively secure regardless of what they did in the conference tournament. It just seems a little too perfect, then, that in conference tournament action on Friday UNLV beat BYU and San Diego State beat New Mexico. The two winners got the wins they needed, and the two higher seeds get an extra day or two of rest before unleashing what could be long tournament runs. The administrators of all four schools couldn’t have set up a more perfect scenario if they tried.
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Tag: Michigan Wolverines
I’m later than normal writing this because that incredibly dull broadcast of the Oscars put me into a coma and I am just waking up. That was a lot of things tonight, but entertaining is not one of them. The Hurt Locker was a good movie, and I am glad it beat Avatar wherever it mattered, but I thought that Up in the Air was better and should have won more. Or at least it should have won something. This is the second year in a row that my favorite movie got totally shut out – I liked Frost/Nixon best last year. Oh well.
Chris Bosh scored 44 points and 12 rebounds in Milwaukee last night. No other starter had more than 13 points, and the Raptors lost to the Bucks by six. Note to the Raptors – hanging your best player out to dry like that is not a very good way to get said best player to stick around once he becomes a free agent.
There was a lot of good sports action yesterday. Here’s a look at the biggest stories to come out of the day:
1. Detroit has a long, long, long way to go. There were a couple of good things going on in their game against Green Bay, but not many. Matthew Stafford looks like a deer in the headlights, and I can’t imagine that getting chased around the field before throwing yet another interception is helping him become a better quarterback. I’m not writing the guy off yet, but this isn’t positive.
I didn’t watch much of the Florida game today because Michigan was playing at the same time, but what I did see was less than thrilling. It was a typical SEC defensive battle. Maybe it’s a personal fault, but that style of football generally bores the hell out of me. TimTebow didn’t look particularly good in his return to action after his concussion, but he was far better than his counterpart and he got the win. Florida finally proved themselves against their best opponent yet, but I still don’t believe that this is the best team that there is.
Holy Freaking Crap!!! As a Michigan fan that first half yesterday against Western Michigan was the second best thing to happen to me in the last few years (And I only say second best because I’d get grief from my wife if I didn’t at least pretend my wedding mattered more). It has been a very rough year and a half since we beat Florida in the Capital One Bowl, so the 31-0 drubbing we laid on Western Michigan in the first half yesterday was tremendous relief. For the first time in too long there was something beautiful on witness when we played – competence. Our defense was smothering, our offense looked pretty good and true freshman Tate Forcier threw three touchdown passes and looked far beyond his age. Glory days. So much for all those reports of division in the locker room and incompetence by Rich Rodriguez. I hope I’m not the only one who took the over on Michigan’s season win total this year.
This whole Detroit-Free-Press-started, ESPN-fueled scandal about possible NCAA violations at Michigan is quite possibly the stupidest thing I have ever seen. The basic story is that a couple of journalists (or should I say ‘journalists’) at the DFP talked to several current and former Michigan players and allegedly discovered that the players were practicing far more than they are allowed to NCAA rules. Instead of applying a little bit of rational thought and a bit of investigative journalism, the writers ran with it for all it is worth. Unfortunately for them, there are several reasons why their story is thoroughly ridiculous:
As you probably know if you have read this blog much I am a diehard Michigan fan – the kind that bleeds maize and blue.Given that you’ll have a sense of how much I have enjoyed the last year or two of football, and the last decade of basketball. I’m optimistic now, though – In Rod I trust. The being said, the press conference by coach Rich Rodriguez today pretty much terrified me.
It has been more than 60 hours since it happened, but it still hasn’t entirely sunk in – Michigan is going to the tournament. Probably. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. For the first time in a long, long, long time. It would obviously help if we won a conference tournament game or two, but I think it would be a massive travesty for us to get bounced now given what we have accomplished so far and given the last win at Minnesota. Now I’m nervous. Not about how the team will do, mind you – I’m just thrilled we are there this year, so I’ll take whatever I can get. I’m nervous about how to act when your team is in the tournament. I was a much younger man the last time the Wolverines danced, so I feel lost.
So much for my theory that Matt Kenseth’s Daytona 500 win was a fluke. After not winning a race all of last year, and mostly looking pretty useless, Kenseth has two wins in two races this year. Last week he won thanks to some bizarre circumstances, but this week he was just plain faster than anyone else. He’s driving with a new aggressiveness, and is benefiting significantly from a new crew that brings a much more positive attitude to his operation. Kenseth was particularly strong in the pits. It will be very interesting to watch how long he can maintain this momentum. Kyle Busch also had a very good weekend. A historic one, in fact. On Saturday he became the first driver ever to win two NASCAR events on the same day when he won both the truck and the Nationwide event on the same day.
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