In Memoriam

There is a poster by the name of "WolverineBill" at the GBW Forums who also has his own fledgling blog.  His 20 year old son, Nick, who was born with a congenital heart condition, passed away Friday following an operation.

Here is a letter from Nick's aunt about him that Bill posted to his blog.

I'm sure all Wolverines join me in offering Bill their best wishes and prayers at this difficult time.

Helps put our sporting obsession into perspective, doesn't it? For whatever reason, it has me thinking of the words of the late Jim Valvano:

"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."

Yes, We Still Exist

Coming in the next couple of weeks:  a spring sports recap...and (look how the time flies by) fall football practice starts in a few weeks.

If anyone has heard from Austin lately, tell him to send me an email.

A Bittersweet Ending

photo from mgoblue.com

Kevin Porter won the Hobey Baker Award, college hockey's version of the Heisman Trophy, on Friday night. No doubt he would gladly trade it in for the chance to keep playing, but an ugly 5-4 overtime loss to ND on Thursday ended Michigan's season in terribly disappointing fashion. Porter joins Brendan Morrison (1997) as Michigan's only Hobey winners.

I'll have a season recap up in a week or so, once the disappointment starts to fade a bit.

The college hockey season comes to a close at 7pm Eastern on ESPN Saturday night when Notre Dame tries to become the first no. 4 seed to win the title since the tournament expanded to 16 teams. Boston College plays in its third consecutive championship game, and seeks its third NCAA championship (1949, 2001). ND has never reached the championship game before. Can Cinderella complete the game before the clock strikes midnight?

My hunch is that ND was too focused on Michigan and that they will have a hard time maintaining their focus. I could be wrong about that, though.

UM vs. ND preview

Michigan's hockey team comes into the national semifinal game ranked no. 1 in the polls and the no. 1 overall seed.  They were the CCHA regular season and tournament champions.  They face a Notre Dame squad that finished fourth in the CCHA regular season standings and gave new meaning to the term "offensively challenged," and which received the last at-large bid into the tournament.

Easy Michigan win, right?  Not so fast, my friend.

The teams played twice during the regular season.  In the first game, ND jumped out to a 2-0 lead, and hit at least two posts that could have made it 4-0.  UM tied it up and then scored the game-winner with 20 seconds left.  The following night at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Michigan won a fairly decisive 5-1 victory.

Particularly in that first game, ND was effective dumping the puck into Michigan's zone and coming out with an aggressive forecheck as the Wolverines tried to bring the puck out of their own end.  Logic would suggest that ND will try it again.  The ND gameplan will be to try to frustrate Michigan, force mistakes, and try to capitalize on them, while at the same time trying to contain the high-scoring Michigan offense.

Billy Sauer will probably not be called upon to make 40 saves.  But - and this can be more difficult for a goalie - he may face fewer shots, but better opportunities. 

The other danger for Michigan:  history, which has shown that Michigan has been much more successful as a Frozen Four underdog than as a favorite.

North Dakota and BC face off at 6:00 EDT.  Michigan is scheduled to face off at 9:00,  or 30 minutes after the first game ends.  Both games are on ESPN2.

NOTE:  if you are in the Columbus area, the UM Alumni Club of Central Ohio is having a watch party at Fitzgerald's Sports Tavern, 2640 Bethel Rd.

Go Blue!

Denver Bound!

Billy Sauer was amazing.  12 months ago you'd have been committed if you thought you'd ever get to use that in a sentence.  But despite a never-ending procession of guys to the penalty box, Michigan downed Clarkson 2-0 to advance to the Frozen Four in Denver.

Both Colorado College and Denver were upset in first round games, so there will be no home-ice advantage in Denver.  Michigan will play the winner of the Michigan State - Notre Dame contest tonight.  Aaron Palushaj scored a power play goal late in the first period, and Kevin Porter scored an insurance goal in the first minute of the third.  Sauer had 27 saves and was generally amazing.

Bring on Clarkson!

Kevin Porter had gone without a goal since he scored late in the 10-1 wipeout of UNO, his only goal in quite some time.

The drought is over. His 4 goals paced Michigan to a 5-1 opening round victory over Niagara.

Tomorrow's game against Clarkson starts at 7. Once again, the game will be broadcast on ESPNU.

No. 4 seed Notre Dame knocked off No. 1 seed New Hampshire in the West regional 7-3.

Go Blue!

Reminder - Tourney Starts Tomorrow

UM plays the late game in Albany, which starts about 30 minutes after the early game between St. Cloud and Clarkson. Officially scheduled start time is 7:35. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU for those fortunate enough to have it.

I'll post a recap after the game. Hopefully our Icers can give us some good news.

On another topic, I don't want to steal any of Austin's thunder, but here's a Columbus-specific piece of info to pass on. Most of you have heard that Justin Boren left the football team on Tuesday, and yesterday had some not-so-nice things to say on the way out the door. Anyway, yesterday on 1460 The Fan here in Columbus, Chris Spielman were fairly critical of how Boren left. A relative of Boren's (I thought it was his mom but apparently not) called in to offer her thoughts. You can hear highlights from the show, by going here, clicking on "Thursday," and clicking on "Thursday Fan Flashback." The phone call is about 26:45 in.

Odds and ends: the softball team finished the pre-season schedule at 25-3 and starts Big 10 play at Indiana tomorrow. The baseball team has been plagued by weather issues and spotty play but starts Big 10 play at the new Wilpon Complex against Iowa on Saturday. The wrestling team finished 7th at the NCAAs. There is a huge number of other Michigan teams that are having great seasons and that are ranked in the top 10 of their sports.

To all of them, a hearty Go Blue!

Just checking in..

It's been a long week, but I'm planning on having a very, very extensive post up at the end of the week.

Stay tuned.

No. 1 Overall Seed

photo from MGoBlue.com

I was on an airplane when it ended, but the Wolverines rode a stellar performance by goalie Billy Sauer to defeat Miami 2-1 in the CCHA Tournament Championship game last night at Joe Louis Arena.  The highlights of both UM games at Joe Louis Arena can be seen in the multimedia section at www.mgoblue.com, which can be accessed here.

Aaron Palushaj scored midway through the second period, putting Michigan up 1-0 after two periods, even though Miami was outshooting the Wolverines 21-12 at that point.  Halfway through the final period, Tim Miller made a beautiful move on a face-off in the Miami end, pushing the puck between Miami center Nate Davis' legs, then getting around him to send the puck to Brandon Naurato, who put the puck into the open net.

Miami made it 2-1 with 40 seconds left with the goalie pulled and Michigan shorthanded, but Michigan's defense prevented any further shots, and that's where it ended.

The win gave the Wolverines their first CCHA tournament title since 2004-2005, when they also completed the regular season/tournament double dip.

NCAA Pairings Released

This morning, the NCAA released the NCAA tournament pairings.  Michigan was given the no. 1 overall seed as a result both of its CCHA championship and the fact that all of the other contenders for top seeds struggled over the last week.  North Dakota and Colorado College both lost in the WCHA semis, and New Hampshire lost in the Hockey East semis.

Michigan is the no. 1 seed in the Albany, NY regional, where they will face Niagara, champion of the CHA.  Also in the regional are St. Cloud St., out of the WCHA, and Clarkson, which won the ECAC regular season, but which could not make it out of its conference tournament quarterfinals.  It's about as good a draw as Michigan could have hoped for.

The other no. 1 seeds are New Hampshire, which must play in the West Regional hosted by no. 2 seed Colorado College, North Dakota, which plays in the Midwest Regional hosted by no. 3 seed Wisconsin, and Miami, which plays in the Northeast Regional at Holy Cross in Worcester, just an hour's drive from Boston (so you know it will be a pro-BC crowd there).

The fundamental problem for setting up this tournament is that Michigan and Miami, the top two overall seeds, had no regional sites anywhere near them, and Colorado College and Wisconsin were both hosting regionals on their home ice but by seasons' end, not worthy of no. 1 seeds (and considering Wisconsin's losing record, one wonders how they got a no. 3 seed).  All in all, there doesn't look to be a whole lot to complain about.

The WCHA has six teams in the tournament (North Dakota, St. Cloud, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Colorado College, and Denver), and the CCHA four, including the top two overall seeds (Michigan, Miami, MSU, and Notre Dame, which squeaked into the tournament as the last at-large team).  The ECAC had two (Clarkson and tournament champ Princeton), as did Hockey East (Boston College and New Hampshire).  The CHA (Niagara) and the AHA (Air Force), as usual, placed only their conference champions in the tournament, and received the bottom two seeds. 

But don't feel too smug about that first game, Michigan fans.  Just a couple years ago, top seed Minnesota suffered one of the great upset losses of all time with an opening-round loss to AHA champ Holy Cross.  As they say all the time in the basketball tournament coverage, in a one-and-done scenario, anything can happen.

Michigan opens play on Friday, March 28, at 7:30.  The second round game will be Saturday at 7:00.  Both games will be televised on ESPNU.

Happy Easter, and Go Blue!

Michigan Wolverines: 2008 CCHA Champions

Congratulations, boys.

I'm sure there'll be a more in-depth post later.

Great season so far, lets keep it going!

On to the Finals!

I had hoped to have a preview of tonight's game against Northern up earlier in the week. Unfortunately, my fancy-schmancy hotel here in Biloxi was charging $12.99 a day for Internet access. Now that part of our group has left, the rest of us have decamped to a Holiday Inn that offers free Internet access.

I've been in Biloxi all week, and we took a day trip to New Orleans today. While the spirit of the folks down here is amazing, the damage down here - 30 months after Katrina - is simply indescribable. And they think that we're nuts up north to put up with all the snow.

Anyway, some thoughts on what I've been able to gather on tonight's action around the country.

• Tonight was the last time where Michigan will be able to get away with that sort of defensive zone play. One bad defensive zone turnover will get you killed; Michigan committed a bunch today.
• Kudos to Chad Kolarik, Scooter Vaughan, and Matt Rust for coming back so quickly from injuries.
• Notre Dame allowed Miami to tie Game 1 with 3.4 seconds left and then win it in overtime, which may well cost ND a shot at the NCAA tournament.
• North Dakota lost to Denver and Colorado College lost to Minnesota in the WCHA Final Five.
• Boston College knocked off New Hampshire in one of the Hockey East semis.

Only in the CCHA have the seedings held - and it took that last-second goal by Miami, and Michigan's third-period flurry to make that happen. Through two periods tonight, Michigan was outshooting Northern 30-8, but losing 3-2. For all of the things to be concerned about, you have to credit the Wolverines for the grit of guys like Kolarik, Vaughan, and Rust, and you have to credit them for staying on their game and not losing focus. this was the sort of game that Michigan usually loses.

Face-off against Miami is at 7:35 Eastern tonight (FSN Detroit). Tickets are available from Ticketmaster. Go cheer the guys on to victory!

Michigan beats Northern, will face Miami in Championship

What a game.

Hopefully Dan is back in time for a full recap and preview.

If that last goal had stopped short I might have died.

Congratulations, boys. Best of luck in the Championship.

Maize and Blue - Bits and Pieces: 3/21/08

Wow, it's been quite a while since we've done one of these. Not too much is going on right now, however, so it's time for another installment of Bits and Pieces.

---

This recruiting season is all but over, and virtually zero players of note are still undeclared after that one guy (his name escapes me at the moment) said he was going to a school that wasn't us a few days ago.

So it's time to take a break from recruiting until next February. Unless you're Brian Cook. In which case you probably want to draw up a 2009 Recruiting Board, position-by-position.

That man is amazing. Go check it out right now. I can't even do anything at all to better clarify our needs, wants, hopes, or possible commits than what he's already done.

---

Michigan Hockey is awesome. Not only are they the top ranked team in the nation, but their entire roster -- old and new, player and coach -- is filled with awesomeness. Case in point:

Head Coach Red Berensen, CCHA Coach of the Year.

Senior Forward Kevin Porter, CCHA Player of the Year.

Freshman Forward Max Pacioretty, CCHA Rookie of the Year.

Not much missing from that list. Best coach, best new player, best old player. A National Championship to cap it all off wouldn't hurt, though.

Catch Michigan's CCHA Semifinals game against Northern Michigan tonight, live from the Joe Louis Arena, at 8pm on FSN Detroit.

---

This is a very pointless article, as shown by the headline, but there's one sentence at the end that has me a bit intrigued:

The Lions are still short in one critical area in their plan to have a stronger running game. They do not have a short-yardage back.

I've heard from 'experts' such as Todd McShay say that a solid third round pick for Detroit would be none other than Mike Hart. This would be neat.

He wasn't a "short-yardage back" at Michigan, but the way he fights for those extra yards and won't go down would make him a great fit on the roster. We'll see at the end of April when everything shakes down.

---

Time to get back to the tournament. My bracket took a beating today.

Western Kentucky? Really?

Terrelle Pryor shocks world, will attend Ohio State

Terrelle Pryor announces his allegiance. Mom looks terrified, dad looks devious, brother looks silly. (Photo Courtesy: AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Uhh.. yeah. He's a Buckeye. Just like he was on signing day.

I'm not going to bash the kid. And I'm really sick today. So cut me a break if this isn't the most informative post.

He's a good player. Might need an attitude adjustment, which he may or may not receive in Columbus.

Only time will tell. I, for one, am looking forward to his first game starting at the Big House.

More in-depth post in the next day or two. I'm going to go vomit.

UPDATE: Video

It comes to an end..

Tomorrow at Noon EST, Terrelle Pryor will end this three-ring circus that his recruitment has become.

He's said he's down to two schools, however will not disclose who these teams are. It's been reported that Ohio State and Michigan are the only two left standing, however only Pryor knows for sure.

My hunch, however, is that he's made his decision already, and the whole "It's down to two teams" thing is just so there's at least some drama tomorrow when he makes his decision. It's silly, really. There's no point in not telling anybody what the two teams that he's deciding between are. It's not like it'll be a super surprise if he not only doesn't tell us who he's picking until tomorrow, but doesn't even tell us who he's choosing between.

Terrelle Pryor looking absolutely enthralled by the Michigan basketball game taking place before him. (Photo Courtesy: AP)

In my mind, there's a 95% chance he picks Ohio State. Unless something happened to hurt his view of the Buckeyes considerably, like Jim Tressel mugging his grandmother or something, he'll be in Scarlet and Gray next season.

What does this mean for the world of college football?

For one team, it means a highly-touted quarterback with a bit of an attitude problem will be suiting up with them next season. He's got the potential to be great, but he's got the potential to be busted for aggravated assault during his freshman season and be kicked off the team (unless he goes to OSU, where he'd be nailed with a one-game suspension).

For the rest of the college football world, it's one massive sigh of relief. Message boards across the Internet will stop the ridiculous amounts of "Terrelle Pryor rumor!" threads, and blogs will be forced to cover something else.

Whoever lands Pryor will be more than confident in the fact that he will bring four straight National Championships to his team, and he will bring home four consecutive Heismans back to his dorm room (that's right, he'll stay for his Senior year, because he's a team player.)

Teams that don't land him will be confident in the fact that he'll end up off the team because of disciplinary problems, or academic problems, or he'll end up not being that good after all, or he'll break his foot and never be the same player again, and there will be a statue erected at the end of the bench where he used to sit every game of him with crutches and a cast on his foot. Or something.

Regardless of if Michigan gets him, or if Ohio State gets him, or if Penn State gets him, or if Oregon gets him, or if he decides to become a man of God and move to Israel, tomorrow will be the end of an era for anyone that has followed recruiting for the last year.

"GET OFFA ME!" (Photo Courtesy: Lake Fong/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Terrelle Pryor wasn't like #1 prospects of years past.

He played the media, he played the fans, and he played the analysts.

He got the entire football world to pay attention to National Letter of Intent Day, and pissed the entire football world off when he didn't even sign a Letter of Intent.

He said after his basketball season was over that he was going to go on a few more unofficial visits, and an official to Penn State (and maybe Oregon). He went on one unofficial visit, to Ohio State, and nothing else.

He was the topic of discussion in thousands of news stories and blog posts, from speculation to support to opposition. From love to hate. From 'a skilled dual-threat quarterback' to 'a self-centered thug'.

He's caused as much sleep loss amongst Michigan fans as the coaching search did, only he's stretching this out for much longer than RichRod did.

He's even caused fans to doubt the recruiting prowess of their entire program.

One thing's for sure, however. After tomorrow, I'm not going to make any more posts about him. He's not that important in the broad scope of things.

Besides, of course, the post after he makes his decision.

And obviously if he picks Michigan, there will be quite a bit to post about him.

Or any sticky situations he may get into.. I'll have to report on those.

But yeah, nothing too much to post about Terrelle after tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it.

UPDATE: Pryor is actually down to three teams. Oregon is out for sure.

UPDATE II: Who really care's how many teams he's down to?

UPDATE III: Something that may be of interest, from the same article:

One source who only spoke on condition of anonymity, but is very close to the situation has informed us that Michigan has made up a lot of ground recently and could be the wild card in this situation.

On To The Joe!

I'm posting this now because I'm not on my vacation yet. I should have been landing right about now, but right around noon today I got an email from Skybus, my "hometown airline," that they had canceled my flight. No explanation, no apology, and they won't rebook you on anything other than another one of their flights. And since they have one flight a day to my destination, I'll be short a day on my vacation. But I'm not bitter, just mad at myself for being a cheapskate.

Since I'm sure you're not reading this because you care about my travel difficulties, I am pleased to announce that Michigan swept the series against UNO with a 2-1 win tonight. My sources tell me that Referee Matt Shegos did his best to keep the game close with a never-ending procession of Michigan trips to the penalty box, and Max Paccioretty was ejected for fighting in the second period (which I believe will mean he's out for the next game). Other than that, I have no details about the game because neither the video or audio feeds from mgoblue.com nor the CSTV Gametracker were working. Video clips of the game (though not of the fight) and Red's post-game speech to the team (along with their super-charged version of the Victors) can be found in the "multimedia" section at MGoBlue.com.

Michigan's opponent on Friday remains to be determined. The Notre Dame - Ferris St. and MSU vs. Northern Michigan series are both going to a game three tomorrow night. Miami swept Bowling Green and is also through to the Joe.

Mike Hart and Jamar Adams are some really nice guys

Former Michigan Football players Mike Hart and Jamar Adams were at Fanatic U in Garden City today signing autographs, so of course I decided that two hours in the car was absolutely worth meeting the soon-to-be NFL stars.

Since we were advised to come a bit later as to miss the crazy lines that were sure to ensue once the doors were opened, we showed up at about two thirty to the building where the signing was to take place. The lines at this point were only wrapped 3/4 of the way around the entire (decently-sized) building.

I had my dad and brother in line with me, so while they held our position in line, I went into the shop. It was an odd process, by the way. Anyone that was waiting for autographs had to wait in this line that wrapped around the building, however if you wanted to go "browse" in the shop for something to buy, you could be let in without question. Needless to say, I did my fair share of browsing to catch a few glimpses of Hart and Adams.

About an hour and a half after we had arrived, it was our turn to be let into the building where the signings were taking place. Another five minutes in line, and we were standing at the table before Mike and Jamar. An amazing feeling.

Hart was first, and he asked us how we were doing, and we gave him the stuff to sign. He must have noticed the pictures were unique, because he asked about them, and we told him that we took them from the stands at the Purdue game this past October.

Mike Hart at Fanatic U signing pictures of himself for me.

"Yeah, that was the game that ended my season, man." he said as he signed them.

"Not exactly, you still got to send Lloyd out on top", I said. "How must that have felt?"

"It was amazing," he replied with a grin. "It was amazing."

He was just the nicest guy you'll ever meet. Jamar was really cool as well. He was just a laid back guy who was really well-mannered, and he looked you in the eye when you shook his hand an thanked him.

All in all, it was an incredible experience. Easily worth the two hours in the car and another hour and forty five minutes in line. These guys have been my heroes for the last four years, and I just got to shake their hands and talk to them for a minute. Unbelievable.

Something like this really wakes you up in a mostly uneventful off-season in the world of Michigan Football.

I wish the best of luck to both Hart and Adams in their NFL careers, as well as the rest of the Wolverines that will be getting paid to play next season. Do us proud!

He's Okay!

Well, Scooter Vaughan may have a broken jaw, and Matt Rust may have a broken tibia, but it appears that Chad Kolarik is just fine.

Kolarik played for the first time in a month tonight, scoring a hat trick in Michigan's dominant 10-1 victory over UNO that saw the Blue chase not only UNO's starting goalie, but the backup as well. All-everything forward Kevin Porter added a goal and an assist as Michigan jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period. It was 5-0 after two. For the game, Michigan outshot the Mavericks 40-15.

Game two is tomorrow night at Yost at 7:35. Look for UNO to put up a better fight tomorrow.

photo courtesy mgoblue.com

Michigan advances in Big Ten Tourney, plays Wisconsin Friday

No, really.

Michigan will play Wisconsin in the quarterfinals on Friday, coming off of a dominating performance today against Iowa. Only Michigan didn't really dominate Iowa.

Michigan led 44-29 with 15:51 left in the second half. Nine nail-biting minutes and eleven heart-racing seconds later, Michigan still had 44 points, and Iowa had climbed all the way to 35. It was 44-35.

That's just six points scored in over nine minutes. That's what happens when two not-so-fantastic teams face off in a Big Ten battle for the ages.

Why does it always seem like these boys try to give the game away? The scoring droughts are consistently enormous, including a notable one in the season-finale against Purdue that completely took Michigan out of a game that they were very much a part of up until said drought.

It's like "We're ahead by a bit too much. Let's let them back into it a little."

Ten minutes later, Iowa kindly informed their opponents that they didn't really want to move on to the quarterfinals and embarrass themselves. So we traded baskets for the rest of the game and won, 55-47.

Player of the Game.

Hm. I guess it'd have to be Manny Harris, as he led the team with 19 points and 3 assists (yeah, that led the team), going 5 for 6 from the charity stripe. Although DeShawn Sims' double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds) was a great effort as well.

What'll we do against Wisconsin?

Same thing we always do, most likely. Start off well, it'll be close at halftime, and we'll have a scoring drought of at least 3-4 minutes and lose it in the middle of the second half before going into panic mode and finishing off the game shooting twelve straight three's and making two of them.

Prediction: 78-65 Wisconsin

Prove me wrong, boys. Prove me wrong.

Go Blue!

Photo Courtesy AP/Michael Conroy

Hockey Regular Season Recap

How quickly the months fly by...I can't believe it's playoff time again already. Anyway, as we come through Michigan's bye week, and get ready for the weekend series with Nebraska-Omaha, which was taken not only to three games, but to three overtimes in the third game by Alaska, I thought it would be a good time to take a look back at the regular season just completed.

The season started out with UM ranked ninth in the polls, and a lot of questions to answer. Could the team overcome the graduation losses of seniors such as T.J. Hensick, and the early departures of stars Jack Johnson (aka JMFJ) and Andrew Cogliano? Could goalie Billy Sauer recover from his disastrous outing against North Dakota in the NCAA tournament that closed out the 2006-2007 season, or would the arrival of phenom Bryan Hogan have him looking over his shoulder? Almost from the get-go, there were encouraging signs about the answers to these questions.

Opening at the Ice Breaker Invitational in St. Paul, Minnesota, UM opened with a 4-3 overtime win over second-ranked Boston College. Although BC scored two late goals to force overtime, it then gave up a fluke goal in OT a BC defender trying to clear the puck inadvertently bounced it off a teammate into his own net. It's hard to really describe the play; all I can tell you is to go to the hockey team's section of mgoblue.com and click on the "more videos" tab of the "multimedia" section (they make it very hard to link to, so that is the best I can do). It was an early sign that perhaps this season Michigan would get its share of the bounces.

The following night, UM fell to Minnesota, 4-3. In the loss, Michigan displayed that it could skate with a team that has dominated them in recent years. It would be nearly two months before Michigan lost again.

The preseason questions began to be answered. Kevin Porter and Chad Kolarik picked up the scoring load, and it was almost immediately evident that this Michigan team was much more sound defensively than recent editions. The improvement on defense was mirrored by the improvement in the play of goalie Billy Sauer.

Although Red Berenson's plan to platoon his goalies was put on hold by Hogan's bout with mono, Sauer would have made it difficult in any event with the high level of his play.

The team roared through October and November, sweeping its first three CCHA series, along with a pair of games with Boston University (the sound of the Yost faithful chanting "Yip, Yip, Yip" every time BU forward Brandon Yip had the puck was something to behold), and games with Wisconsin and Minnesota at the College Hockey Showcase had the Wolverines flying.

UM suffered a letdown against Ohio State when the lowly Buckeyes came to town and scored a narrow 3-2 win. The second game of the series saw Bryan Hogan's first start in net for Michigan, and the Wolverines took revenge in game two, winning 4-2.

Despite being down 4 players who were at the World Junior Championships, Michigan shut down Providence (6-0), and Michigan Tech (1-0 in two overtimes) to win the Great Lakes Invitational for the first time in a decade. The dramatic win led to CCHA Player of the Month honors for Sauer, and sent Michigan into 2008 with an 18-2 record. After sweeps of Western Michigan and Notre Dame (featuring a dramatic Friday-night win at Yost keyed by a Louie Caporusso game-winner with 20 seconds left), Michigan was ranked no. 1 at 22-2. But then things went a bit sideways.

The following weekend saw MSU come to Yost, take an early 1-0 lead, and then lock down the game into an unwatchable sludge of clutching and grabbing. It was effective, though, as Michigan was shut out for the only time all season. The following night, MSU again took an early lead and tried to strangle all life out of Michigan, the crowd, and the viewing audience. With Michigan on life support, MSU let UM back into the game when Spartan defenseman Matt Schepke tried to swat the puck out of the air from in front of the MSU goal and somehow knocked it directly into his own goal.

The following weekend saw two disappointing ties at home against Northern Michigan, leading to the highly anticipated series against no. 1 Miami in Oxford, Ohio. The RedHawks showed off their new arena by giving up four goals to Michigan in the first period, and although they made a game of it (with help from the hapless referee, Matt Shegos), Michigan won, 4-2. The second game saw Michigan take a 5-3 lead in the third period, only to have Miami pull off an Arena Football-style play off the netting (which Shegos, of course, missed), leading to a 5-5 tie. The game also featured the classy Miami fans pounding on the glass so hard that the glass spider-webbed. Miami evidently spent so much on the arena that they lacked any spare panes of glass, so play continued.

Michigan wrapped up the season with a sweep of Lake Superior, a split against MSU (including a 5-2 win at a sold-out Joe Louis Arena), and a split against Ferris State.

So what to make of it all? There was the good (the 22-2 start was by far the best in Michigan history), the bad (Michigan was just 5-3-4 after that incredible start), and the ugly (defenseman Kevin Quick was kicked off the team in midseason for the proverbial "violation of team rules;" it subsequently came out that he had stolen his roommate's credit card and bought a few luxury items with it). A night after scoring all 4 of Michigan's goals against Lake Superior, Chad Kolarik pulled his hamstring in the Saturday rematch with the Lakers.

One definite bit of "good" was Kevin Porter being named the CCHA Player of the Month for February, to go along with the award he won for November. Although Porter tallied only four goals during the month, two came in the first game at Miami, and he had ten assists during the month, giving the Wolverines some badly-needed scoring balance.

As for this weekend, the Michigan Daily promises an update tomorrow about Kolarik (UPDATE: it's buried at the bottom of the story, but apparently Kolarik WILL be playing this weekend), and indicates that freshman defenseman Scooter Vaughan is likely out this weekend after breaking his jaw wrestling with a teammate off the ice(!). The leading candidate to replace him this weekend is Eric Elmbad, a walk-on sophomore who has never played in a game at Michigan. That said, Michigan swept the season series from the Mavericks in Omaha, which is always a tough place to play.

As usual, Brian at mgoblog has broken down the implications of the seeding for the NCAA tournament better than I ever could, so if you're wondering about that sort of thing, check it out. Personally, I don't really buy into the whole "we need the no. 1 or no. 2 overall seed to avoid playing in Madison" thing (historically, Michigan hockey never wins when they are the overall favorite), but I seem to be in the minority on that. Keep in mind that if you'd told almost anyone that Michigan would be worrying about things such as "number one overall seed" rather than "how many games do we have to win to clinch a spot in the NCAAs?" before the CCHA tourney even started, they'd have thought you were nuts.

So there you have it. I'm headed out on vacation this weekend so I'll have a Saturday morning recap of Friday night's game, and then it all depends on whether the internets work down on the Gulf Coast (and more importantly, in my hotel room).

Go Blue!

In case you were wondering..

.. what Michigan Stadium is going to look like come fall, boy are you in luck.

MGoBlue has been kind enough to show us what we're going to be looking at on opening day in Ann Arbor. It's not pretty, but not distracting, either. And hopefully it ends up being worth all the hassle.

Here's what it should look like when fans pile in to the Big House this fall:

 

Courtesy MGoBlue.com

In case you're thinking "What's the difference? That just looks like the regular Michigan Stadium that's been there for eighty years!", MGoBlue has some information for you:

The most obvious additions are the massive steel superstructures that eventually will support multi-story masonry structures as well as elevated concourses on the east and wide sides of the "Big House."

See any differences now? Yeah. Those huge rust-colored steel supports on either side of the stadium. Those weren't there before.

What will go on in terms of construction during the season, you ask? MGoBlue has you covered:

While the stadium will be ready in September to welcome more than 100,000 fans each game day, construction work will continue Monday through Thursday prior to home games. "We will use Friday as a clean-up day for the game," added Stevenson. "When the team is on the road, we are going to work seven days a week."

That's always good. My guess is that it'll still be a bit of a mess compared to Saturdays past, but who really cares as long as you get to go watch Michigan play in Ann Arbor?

And for the really, really observant readers out there that noticed the two buildings at the northern end of the stadium, here's the deal:

Visible in the rendering at the north end of the stadium are two new buildings. The one on the west (right) side will house a medical facility, the department of public safety headquarters and lavatories. The east building includes space for the M-Den (merchandise sales) and game operations as well as additional lavatories for men and women.

Also not a huge deal. They look nice in the computer projected image, and you can never have enough bathrooms. So I guess it's a good idea, all in all.

---

Now I'm not going to dive too far into this right now. At another time, maybe, but for now I'll just put my opinion out in as few words as possible.

I'm all for stadium renovations. I know there's the whole tradition aspect of the uncomfortable benches throughout the stadium, the one level of seating, nothing outstanding in the stadium but the scoreboards and the press box, etc.

But the Big House is known for it's lack of volume, and while we're the biggest stadium in College Football, Tennessee and Penn State are gaining on us. Imagine the big house with another level. 140,000 seats. More, even. It would hold in sound better, hold more people, and it could be a state of the art stadium like so many in college football are these days.

Michigan Stadium is obviously my favorite stadium in the world, and I'm not trying to take anything away from its magnificence, but it could be better. It might not be the good ol' one-leveled, steel-benched girl that we've come to know and love, but maybe with the old style of Michigan football should go the old style of Michigan Stadium.

Let me know your view on the topic in the comments.

Go Blue.

Hockey Regular Season Recap Coming Soon

I had intended to have a preview of this weekend's CCHA first round tournament pairings, but In all honesty, I really don't have anything intelligent to say about this weekend's upcoming CCHA playoff series, and I don't want to post a bunch of links to other blogs with their thoughts on the WCHA and Hockey East. Instead, look this weekend (EDIT: Monday) for a recap of Michigan's regular season, as seen through the lens of a guy who can remember the days when Yost was rarely half-full, and the hockey band was whoever showed up with an instrument. (How's that for a good excuse for "work got a little crazy and it's 9:30 and I haven't had dinner yet?").

For now, take a look at this nifty piece on what Yost has become today, from Monday's USA Today, including a video on Yost's history and a photo gallery. They cover it better than I ever could.

Go Blue!

Hockey Thoughts

With the CCHA title clinched, Michigan started backup goalie Bryan Hogan at Ferris State Saturday night.  Ferris scored on a bad-angle shot in OT, sending Michigan into the postseason with a bad taste in its mouth, and a 5-3-4 run to cap off a season that started 22-2. Michigan now gets a week off along with Miami, MSU, and Notre Dame while seeds 5-12 play best of three series at the higher-seeded teams.

Although the game meant nothing for UM, it was huge for Ferris.  The added two points moved Ferris from seventh to fifth in the standings.  Western Michigan is a far easier matchup than Lake State (though don't tell Notre Dame that - the Irish suffered an ignominious 3-0 loss to Western on Friday).

Here are the matchups:

Western Michigan @ Ferris State
Ohio State @ Northern Michigan
Lake Superior @ Bowling Green
Alaska @ Nebraska-Omaha

The teams will be re-seeded after this round, meaning that Michigan will play the lowest-seeded team to advance, Miami the second-lowest, and so on.

I have been reading some analyses of the Pairwise rankings that the NCAA uses as the basis for the tournament seedings.  From what I understand, it does not look good for Notre Dame to give the CCHA a fourth team in the NCAA tournament unless they win the CCHA tournament.  The WCHA looks to have as many as 7 teams in the tournament, and both Colorado College and North Dakota could conceivably wind up ahead of UM in the seedings unless UM wins the CCHA title.  More on that later in the week.

With UM having an off week, I'll post a midweek breakdown of likely tournament pairings, and then have a recap of the CCHA first round on Sunday morning.  I'll also be trying to handicap the race for the Hobey Baker Award

In other news, the 12th-ranked softball team improved its record to 17-2 with a 9-0 win over 16th-ranked Louisiana-Lafayette this afternoon to clinch the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Georgia.  2005 College World Series hero Samantha Findlay had a grand slam in the third inning to break the game open.  With the home run, Findlay becomes the all-time home run leader at Michigan.  The ladies now take two weeks off before resuming their schedule at the Louisville Tournament on March 14-16.

Things haven't started off quite so well for the baseball team.  Following a sweep of Villanova and an exhibition tie with the Mets, UM was blown out by no. 1 Arizona State, and then went 1-2 in the ASU Coca-Cola Classic with a win over Hawaii and losses to Portland and another loss to ASU.  The team heads to North Carolina this weekend for the Keith LeClaire Tournament at East Carolina University.

Go Blue!

More of the same..

Michigan played even with Penn State throughout the second half, but even wasn't enough as the Wolverines fell to the Nittany Lions 69-61 on Saturday night.

Freshman Manny Harris had a career game, scoring a personal best 29 points on 8 for 21 shooting in the loss, However Penn State's Taylor Battle has career highs in points (28), rebounds (13), and assists (6).

The story of this game can easily be told by looking at the three pointers taken and made. Penn State shot an incredible 55% (12-22) from downtown, whereas Michigan put up an incomprehensible thirty one three pointers, only making nine of them (29%).

Michigan would have been right in the thick of the game to the very end had they done better from the charity stripe (they went 12-20), however it's unfair to blame the loss on free throws or three pointers.

This team is very young, and very inexperienced. It was unrealistic to expect anything great out of this team this season. Manny Harris is just a freshman, and he should definitely stick around for a few more years, and hopefully the team will mature around him. The inexperience, miscommunication, and other intangibles aren't going to go away too soon, and until then, this team will be a bottom dweller in the Big Ten.

A win on Saturday against Purdue (televised nationally on CBS) on Senior Night would be huge. For the sake of the kids that do go out there day in and day out and give it their all, I hope we can end this disappointing season with a shocker. Go out and support our boys.

Buy tickets for the Purdue game here.

 Photo Courtesy: MGoBlue

Michigan vs. Penn State Preview

Coming off of a disappointing loss to Northwestern at Crisler Arena on Tuesday, Michigan will try to bounce back against a strong, but inconsistent Penn State team tonight (8:00est, BTN, Audio).

Penn State (13-14, 5-10 in Big Ten) is an extremely inconsistent team that, when playing to its potential, can dominate. The Nittany Lions beat Illinois in both meetings this season, and beat up the Spartans 85-76 in their first match-up before being pummeled into the hardwood two and a half weeks later in East Lansing, 86-49.

Michigan (9-19, 5-11 in Big Ten), however, has been just as inconsistent. Winning their first two games, then having three separate four, five, and six game losing streaks before winning four of five.

In terms of signature wins, there aren't many. A victory over Penn State in the first meeting and a ten point win over the Buckeyes are pretty much the highlights of the season so far.

As for tonight's game, it's anybody's guess. Penn State could show up as the team that beat Sparty, or the Wolverines could head to Happy Valley to face off against the team that lost to MSU by 37. The six game losing streak Michigan team could show up, or the "won four out of their last five" team could show up. No one knows.

Let's just hope it's a good game, and that our boys play as hard as they possibly can. What more can we ask for?

Go Blue.

Recap up tonight or tomorrow morning.

Hail To The Victors!

I don't have much in the way of details, because I couldn't get the Internet radio feed to work and the Gametracker play-by-play wasn't much better, but the Michigan Icers won tonight 5-3, clinching the regular season CCHA title.  Kevin Porter had a goal and an assist, and defenseman Mark Mitera had three assists.

The game was tied 2-2 halfway through, but Porter put Michigan up 3-2, and Max Pacioretty made it 4-2 just 15 seconds into the third period. 

UM gets next weekend off, and will face the lowest-seeded team that emerges from the first round of the CCHA playoffs on March 14-16.

Congrats to Michigan on its 10th regular season CCHA title!

Ferris St. Preview

I'll be honest:  I don't know much about Ferris, other than that they swept Miami 10 days ago when Miami was suffering from its Michigan hangover.  The crack CCHA scheduling staff managed to have Michigan play two series out of its last four against teams it had not played previously during the season.  I do know that Ferris had been on a 3-0-2 tear before splitting its last series with Bowling Green, which means they're still on a 4-1-2 tear over their last seven games.

Championship Math

Last weekend's (and Tuesday's) results have simplified the title situation somewhat.  Everyone but Michigan and Miami has been eliminated.  Michigan has 42 points with 2 games left; Miami has 41 with only a Friday game with cellar-dweller OSU remaining.  So...

Michigan wins with a win either night, or two ties.  If any of those happen, Michigan wins no matter what Miami does.  If Michigan loses both, Miami wins with a win on Friday.  If Michigan ties and loses, and Miami wins, Miami will benefit from an odd CCHA tiebreaker that gives precedence to total league wins over the teams' head-to-head record.  Here is the tie-breaker explanation from the CCHA.

Odds and Ends

Forgot to mention it last week, but Aaron Palushaj was named CCHA Freshman of the Week for his performance in the sweep against LSSU.

Friday's game is at 7:35 from Yost Ice Arena.  It will be Senior Night, and the chance for fans to say goodbye to Kevin Porter, Chad Kolarik, and the rest of the seniors.  Tickets are still available, so if you're in the area, head over to the game and soak in the atmosphere.  Saturday's game is at 7:05 in Big Rapids.  No television for either game; you can get the audio feed link from mgoblue.com.

Let's hope that Michigan locks it down on Friday night.  Along those lines, here's some video from one of last year's contests, a 9-4 Michigan win featuring a JJ hat trick.

 

Go Blue!

Quick Hockey Note

Miami, the only team that can catch Michigan for the CCHA regular-season title, has a rare Tuesday game against OSU in Columbus tonight at 7pm. An OSU victory would seal the CCHA championship for Michigan, so dig deep and (gulp) root for the Nuts tonight. If you're so inclined, here's a link to the CSTV Gametracker page.

I'll have the result up later, and a preview of Michigan's weekend series against Ferris on Thursday morning.

UPDATE: It was a close one, but Miami scored halfway through the 3rd period to win 2-1. Miami is one point behind and Michigan has one game in hand. Any combination of a Michigan win, two Michigan ties, or a Miami loss Friday night will give Michigan the CCHA title.

Wolverines in the Combine -- Part II

Well we've been over the possible first round draft picks coming out of Michigan this year, but that's not the half of it. Michigan has four other players representing the Maize and Blue in the NFL Combine.

When will they be drafted? What can they do to improve their stock? Let's take a look..

Shawn Crable, LB

Crable is a good linebacker that has been told he could potentially play DE in the NFL. He did line up at DE a few times while he was at Michigan, and while he wasn't fantastic, he showed that he can pick up the position at the next level.

In a dense class in terms of the defensive line as well as the linebacker positions, however, he isn't exactly a standout. There are plenty of linebackers ahead of him, and quite a few DE's as well. So while he might have a good amount of talent, and will probably end up a starter in the NFL, he won't be a first round draft pick.

Projection: Mid-Late Second Round

Jamar Adams

Jamar Adams is also an odd case. If he is drafted to a team that allows him to do what he can do in the box, he will flourish and be a good NFL player with a decently long career. If he's forced into a system where he has to drop back and play coverage, he's not going to last long at all.

He would be a solid pick up, however, for those teams that are looking for a good safety to play up in coverage or to stop the run in the box. He doesn't have the speed or the coverage skills to make it as a coverage safety in the NFL, however.

Projection: Third Round

Adrian Arrington

Adrian Arrington is perhaps the most unpredictable of all of the Michigan players that are participating in the Combine this year. He has the talent to go in the early second round, absolutely. He doesn't have the exposure or the name recognition, on the other hand, to go any sooner than the middle of the third round.

Arrington went off during the Capital One bowl, and the one handed, circus sideline catch that set up the winning score, as well as the behind the back catch in the first quarter, as well as the diving touchdown catch that wasn't (both of which can be found in these highlights) might have gone to his head, because he left a year early.

Sure he has the talent, but he really only had one season of prominence at Michigan, whereas Manningham has been turning heads since his freshman year. But would another year in a brand new offense (with a brand new quarterback who is still to be determined)? This one's a tough call.

Arrington hurt himself and was unable to show the scouts what he's capable of today, but should be in good shape for Pro Day in Ann Arbor in March.

Projection: Great Pro Day Showing- Early Third Round, "Meh" Pro Day Showing- Early Fourth Round

Mike Hart

Everyone knows how good Mike Hart is. Everyone knows that a team would be better off drafting him, even if he wouldn't ever see the field, just because of his presence. He lift's the team's spirits, he has more heart than any player I've ever seen play the game of football, and he's not a half bad football player, either.

So why isn't he in the talks for a multi-year, $10 million NFL contract next year? A multitude of reasons. He's small (5'9, 200lbs), and he's not too quick, either (he ran a 4.67 forty today). He can move piles a few yards, sure, but in the NFL he won't be an every down, starting back. He just won't.

He'll be a solid back-up for sure, but teams don't use their early draft picks on players that they're planning on being back-ups in the future. He'll be a presence in the NFL for years, but he'll never be a Larry Johnson or Shaun Alexander.

Projection: Late Third Round

Look for a combine wrap-up soon. Thanks for reading.

That's More Like It

I guess my pessimism following Friday night's game was misplaced. It turns out that all Michigan needed to do was score first...and then again, and again. Michigan scored the first three goals, and scored a goal in the last minute of each period to win 5-2. Game video can be found here and pictures can be found here.

Defenseman Chris Summers set up the first goal of the game when he carried the puck end-to-end. Spartan goalie Jeff Lerg stopped his shot, but Tim Miller put in the rebound.

Five minutes later, the Spartans made an uncharacteristic defensive mistake, clearing the puck directly to Aaron Palushaj right in front of their net. Palushaj scored to make it 2-0.

Just before the end of the first period, Brandon Naurato put Michigan up 3-0, with the goal once again coming off a rebound given up by Lerg.

After nearly 30 minutes of solid defensive play by Michigan, the Wolverines fell asleep for the middle of the second period, giving up two goals in the space of about three minutes, energizing the Spartans and their fans. One hopes the Michigan coaching staff spends some time with the team this week in practice reminding them that leaving opposing players unguarded in the slot is a bad idea.

Just as things seemed to have turned the Spartans' way (after allowing those goals, Michigan goalie Billy Sauer suddenly looked uncertain and tentative), Michigan scored in the final minute of the period to seize the momentum going in to the locker room, as Max Pacioretty deflected in a harmless-looking wrist shot from the point by defenseman Mark Mitera.

Michigan played a solid third period, committing no penalties, and limiting the Spartans' scoring chances. In the final minute, MSU pulled its goalie, but Tim Miller put the puck into the empty net to seal the victory.

With the victory, Michigan eliminated MSU from the race for the regular-season CCHA title. Miami beat Western Michigan, leaving the Wolverines 3 points ahead with two games remaining. Michigan has a home-and-home with Ferris State next weekend, and Miami plays Ohio State in Columbus on Tuesday night before playing its finale in Oxford on Friday night. A Michigan win (or two ties) or a Miami loss clinches the CCHA title for Michigan. The teams could tie for the regular season title if Michigan loses one to Ferris St. and ties the other, and Miami sweeps OSU. In that event, the first tie-breaker is conference wins, and Miami would have more wins if that happens. Here's hoping Michigan puts away Ferris Friday on Senior Night to end the suspense.

I'll have a preview of the final series of the regular season up later in the week.

Notes

• Michigan scored more goals on Saturday than in its first three games combined (4) against MSU.
• The goalies in the game presented quite a contrast. Billy Sauer stands 6-2, whereas Spartan goalie Jeff Lerg is 5-6.
• Michigan coach Red Berenson was honored for coaching his 1000th college game (all at Michigan), although the ceremony was marred a bit by the on-ice host's malfunctioning microphone.
• Michigan improved its record when scoring first to 22-0-3.
• Although Kevin Porter went without a goal for the fourth game in a row, he tallied two assists to take the team lead at 26.
• For the first time in the last four regular-season games at the Joe, the game was a sellout. Michigan fans appeared to slightly outnumber MSU fans, though both schools were well-represented.
• Whoever built the Joe Louis Arena parking garage should be sentenced to an eternity of trying to exit from the top level after a sold-out event.

Other Sports

• The Michigan baseball team improved to 2-0 with a 16-6 win over Villanova. The series finale is today at noon. The teams are playing in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Michigan next plays the Mets on Tuesday.
• The Ladies' softball team followed up on an 8-0 win over Birmingham Southern yesterday (featuring a perfect game from pitcher Nikki Nemitz) with a 9-0 win over Auburn in the UCF Tournament in Orlando this morning. Michigan wraps up the tournament with a 4pm game against UCF this afternoon. The 12th-ranked ladies are 10-2 on the young season.

Well.. Technically We Won

After the final buzzer went off in last night's game against the Illini, we had more points on the scoreboard than they did. That's about the extent of our victory, because the entire game was a miserable performance by both sides.

A few examples..

• The teams combined to shoot 31% from the field, with Michigan shooting 30%

• Michigan's leading scorers were Manny Harris (14) and Kelvin Grady (12)

• Illinois' were Calvin Brock (12) and Trent Meacham (11)

• Midway through the second half, there was a gripping five minute stretch where Michigan outscored Illinois  4-0. In five minutes.

• Illinois has an eight and a half minute field goal drought for most of the tail end of the second half.

• There were 26 turnovers in the game (Illinois 16, Michigan 10)

• Michigan shot an incredible 24% from three point range (5-21).. Illinois shot 32% (6-19)

• The final score was 49-43. Forty Nine to Forty Three. Neither team scored fifty points. That happened in ONE other game yesterday, and that one involved a team called Bethune-Cookman.

So really, we didn't 'win' so much as we played absolutely terrible basketball against a team that somehow played worse basketball than we did. But I'll take it, a win is a win an we've won four of our last five.

Hopefully we can start winning because of our skill again, however, instead of our opponents lack thereof.

Michigan tips off against Northwestern on Tuesday, and let's hope it goes something like the first time we played them this season.

Photo Courtesy: AP/Tony Ding

Wolverines in the Combine

As I mentioned a few days ago, seven former Wolverines will be taking part in the NFL Combine over the next few days.

Chad Henne (QB), Mike Hart (HB), Jake Long (OT), Mario Manningham (WR), Adrian Arrington (WR), Shawn Crable (LB) and Jamar Adams (S) will be showing NFL teams what they can do, and M&BS wishes each of them the best of luck.

Who will represent Michigan and the Big Ten as standouts at the combine? Let me give you my take on it..

 Jake Long, OT                 

Wow. Jake Long. He'll be a top five pick, could be top three, and should be number one. His Junior year, he won the Big Ten's Offensive Lineman of the Year award. No big deal, right? It's a conference award, players win them all the time.

The big deal is who he beat out to win it. OTs Joe Thomas (Wisconsin) and Levi Brown (Penn State) were both in the mix for the award two years ago, and both ended up behind Long in the voting. If those names look familiar, it's because they were both top-five picks in last years draft. Thomas (drafted third overall) and Brown (fifth) are both fantastic players, and both were starters in the NFL in their rookie seasons.

Long has another year of college experience, and is better than ever. A team would be downright foolish to not take him first overall. I'm looking at you, Miami.

Mario Manningham, WR

Mario Manningham is an odd case. Clearly he is a fantastic wide receiver, but he might not be first round material. Players such as DeSean Jackson, Malcolm Kelley and Limas Sweed are being projected to go ahead of Manningham in the draft, however FoxSports ranks Manningham the #1 ready NFL starter.

So what's the real story on this guy?

In my opinion, he is the most prototypical wide receiver in this year's class, however teams might look over him for a few reasons. Most notably is the fact that he's only six feet tall. Not terrible by any means, but a few more inches would do wonders to his draft stock.

A great combine could all but secure his being selected in the first round. He needs to show scouts that his size doesn't affect his strength, and that he does, in fact, have sub-4.5 speed.

Chad Henne, QB

Chad Henne is a great talent who has the misfortune of being in a class with perceived better talent. Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Brian Brohm and Andre Woodson make up a good quarterback class for this year's draft. In the end, draft position could come down to mobility issues.

Of all quarterbacks in this years class (ALL of them), Henne has the worst 40 time, with a mid time of 5.18. That's ridiculous. Jake Long has a mid time of 5.08, and he's a 315lb offensive lineman for god's sake. Brian Brohm, Andre Woodson, and Matt Ryan all have mid times of 4.8 or lower, and while that doesn't exactly put them up there with Dennis Dixon, it shows scouts that if those quarterbacks absolutely needed to scramble on a play, they would be able to. A 40 time nearing 5.2 really makes some scouts nervous, which is why Chad will probably go in the early to middle second round.

What a team would get in Chad Henne is a phenomenal pocket passer. As we saw throughout his career at Michigan, he can pass as well as any of the former Wolverine greats, and he has the track record to prove it. We even saw what he could to out of the shotgun during the Capital One bowl, a formation that we rarely saw him in.

With a good combine, however, he could climb as high as the very late first round. Especially if a team is looking for a very solid pocket passer. His 40 time needs to improve immensely, however. As in lower than five seconds.

So that's three potential first rounder's. Analysis of the other four players in the combine coming up next.

Uggghhh...

5-2 bad guys. Just ugly. The Sparties are the masters of just waiting for mistakes by the other team. Unfortunately, so far this season, this is a Michigan team that makes too many mistakes. As a result, MSU is a terrible matchup for us.

Try again tomorrow, I guess, but there's not much reason for optimism. MSU has dominated the three games to date this year. I've never seen UM beat MSU in person, so here's hoping.

Miami won as well, so Michigan's lead is now 3 points with 3 games to go.

Welcome to Adam, and great first story!

Back To Reality

Michigan was served a dose of reality last night, as they fell for the first time in their last four games to the Minnesota Golden Gophers 69-60. The Wolverines remained resilient fighting back from an early three point barrage from the Gophers, eventually building a 2nd half lead. In the end, it was too much of Lawrence McKenzie’s outside shooting, inside toughness on the part of Minnesota, sprinkled in with some questionable home-court officiating.

While there were some encouraging signs the team can take from this loss (continued hustle and scrappiness in a hostile environment), last night’s loss served as a reminder that this team is still quite a ways from being a threat in the B10 conference. This game more than any in recent weeks, highlighted the program’s current deficiencies:

1. The lack of depth was never more apparent than last night. Defections and injuries have really taken its toll on this team. This is clearly not the most talented team in the league. Ideally, players like Coleman and Grady would come off your bench and guys like Zach Gibson and CJ Lee should see the floor for a couple minutes a game. Instead, due to a lack of quality players, these guys are forced to play more minutes than they should. It’s to the point that when players do something wrong, Beilein has too leave them on the court, missing an obvious teaching opportunity, because he has no one to put in their place. It was noticeable at the end of last night’s loss that these players were worn down.

2. Compound the fact that they got basically nothing from the 3-spot last night (Wright/Coleman) and this team is playing with maybe 4 legitimate Big Ten caliber players. When this team does not get consistent scoring from a third option behind Manny and DeShawn, they are much easier to defend. Coleman’s lack of performance, while now expected, has been a huge disappointment. Like many of Amaker’s recruits he seems to be playing at the same level he had when he arrived 4 years ago.

3. We need to get stronger inside. Not only are our bigs physically weaker than most front lines in the conference, but they tend to go long stretches without the necessary intensity and aggression. While DeShawn and Ekpe provide skills this team sorely needs, offensive versatility and shot blocking, respectively, they are not yet at the level where they need to be to consistently deliver the goods. All too often last night, they had balls knocked away, were out-fought for rebounds, and beaten to loose balls by Gopher big men who just seemed to want it a little more.

4. Shooting and defensive lapses remain an issue. They’ve been a problem most of the season, and they reared their ugly head again last night. We settled for too many rushed 3’s and the numbers are indicative of that.

All that being said, I like the direction the team is heading. They have been more competitive the second time around against each of their opponents. Even given all of the negatives I highlighted above, the team was still in position to steal one at the Barn because they kept fighting and grinding out baskets. We have a nice core of young talent (especially Manny, DeShawn and Ekpe) to build around and they are all getting a chance to play early in their careers. Essentially anyone who is contributing anything to this team will be back again next year. So we can assume they will all make strides given Coach B’s track record of developing players. Add to that the infusion of new talent: LLP, Douglas, Cronin, and possibly 1 more recruit, and the talent base should be vastly improved next year. With another year in the system players will be more comfortable with Coach B’s offensive schemes and player rotations.

It’s going to take time. As a lifelong fan, I’ve been waiting 10 years just to see them play a meaningful game in March. John Beilein is the right guy for the job. He’ll have the team in the Tourney hunt 2 years down the line. The fans need to see this through and they will be rewarded with great basketball in time.

As for the rest of the season, I’m not much for predictions, but I think Michigan can go 2-2 from here on out. Anything less would be disappointing.

I think everyone would be happy if big Zach Gibson would stop jacking up threes.

(Photo Courtesy: AP/Andy King)

Allow me to Introduce..

Thus far, Dan has been a phenomenal addition to M&BS. If one more writer was good, two more must be better. So I have just signed on Adam, who will be writing basketball for us. I've seen some of his work (as well as his next post, which should go up in a few minutes), and you won't be disappointed.

We've been pretty lucky with writing talent here at Maize and Blue Sports, something I've been pleasantly surprised with. Who knew that the Internet housed so many phenomenal writers, and more importantly, rabid Wolverine fans? I didn't, but boy have I seen proof of it over the last few days.

Congratulations, Adam. Welcome to Maize and Blue Sports.

I'm just sorry your first post has to be on something as depressing as last night's performance.

MSU Preview

If you know anything about college hockey, you don't need to say much more than that it's time for UM and MSU to match up again.

Last year, Michigan won the regular-season series, 2-1-1. Add in an MSU win at the Great Lakes Invitational in December, and a UM win in the CCHA tournament, and Michigan took the series 3-2-1. MSU got the last laugh, however, when it caught fire in the NCAA tournament and pulled off a string of upsets to claim its third national title.

Kolarik Injured

The big news for Michigan was the loss of alternate captain Chad Kolarik while killing a 5-on-3 power play in the third period of Saturday's game against LSSU. Although it appeared to be a knee injury at the time, current reports indicate that it is a hamstring injury. Red Berenson said on Monday that Kolarik could be out for up to 5 weeks. If that holds true, he would miss the rest of the regular season and Michigan's first series in the CCHA tournament (Michigan has locked up one of the top 4 seeds and will get a bye week while the lower-seeded teams stage an elimination round).

Freshman Aaron Palushaj stepped up to join the top line of Kevin Porter and Max Pacioretty to finish out Saturday night's game; whether that will become permanent remains to be seen. Kolarik is both the team leader and an excellent scoring compliment to Porter, so his loss is significant. Porter could solidify his standing as the favorite for the Hobey Baker Trophy (college hockey's Heisman Trophy for the uninitiated) with a big weekend.

What to Look For

When State is on its game, it presents the kind of defensive-minded opponent that has traditionally given Berenson's Michigan teams difficulties. Spartan goalie Jeff Lerg has often shone against the Wolverines, but has also had a couple of letdowns. In last year's regular-season matchup at the Joe, Lerg stopped 54 of 57 Michigan shots, which ought to be some kind of record. On the other hand, he gave up a 3-0 lead before settling for a 3-3 tie (granted, it's hard to blame a goalie when he makes 54 saves). When the teams met in the CCHA semifinals, Michigan blew the game open with three goals in the second period. Bottom line: when Lerg is on his game, he is tough to beat, but on occasion has given up goals in bunches. Match that up against Michigan's tendency to get impatient and take ill-advised penalties, (and Billy Sauer's penchant for making things interesting in goal) and who knows what's going to happen.

The Spartans will come in desperate; they are 5 points back with 4 games remaining. Anything but a Spartan sweep leaves them virtually eliminated. Either a Michigan win or two ties will eliminate MSU from contention for the regular-season title.

As with anything else, games between these two teams are hard-fought and emotional battles. Would anyone be surprised to see some more of this?

History

All-time, Michigan leads the series with MSU, 127-117-18. This year, MSU beat Michigan 1-0 in a tight defensive contest at Yost on Jan. 25. The following day at MSU, it appeared that MSU was going to pull off a second straight upset, when Spartan defenseman Matt Schepke tried to clear the puck from in front of his own net by swatting it with his hand. In what can only be described as one of the more fortuitous bounces of the year, the puck inexplicably went straight into the MSU net, leading to a 2-2 tie. (Note: although the game was televised, no enterprising soul has posted a clip at Youtube or Myspace - if anyone has one let me know).

Starting in 1991, UM and MSU have played at least one regular-season game at Joe Louis Arena. Michigan is 7-8-5 in those games (the teams played a full series at the Joe in 1991 and 1992, and one game per season there since then). Some video from last year's game:

The most famous game between these old rivals, of course, was the "Cold War," played October 6, 2001 to kick off the season, at Spartan Stadium, before a crowd of 74,544, which remains the largest crowd ever to watch a hockey game. Rumor has it that they're talking about doing a game at Ford Field next year, perhaps as a doubleheader with a Red Wings game (Ford Field hosts the 2010 Frozen Four and wants to do a dress rehearsal next year). Michigan was 47 seconds away from a win when the Spartans tied the game 3-3. Overtime settled nothing and the teams settled for yet another tie. Some video for you:

The weekend series will have some impact on the Pairwise rankings used to seed teams in the NCAA tournament. Brian Cook has broken it down far better than I ever could, so take a look to see how things are setting up. Historical note: those of you who have read John U. Bacon's Blue Ice know that Michigan would be well-served, historically speaking, not to wind up with the no. 1 overall seed.

Ever wonder where the hockey version of the Michigan winged helmet came from? Yep, I was there the night they first wore them. The place went nuts. Note how young Red looks in the picture.

Odds and Ends

It's early yet - there's still a month of games down South to be played before they'll even play the home opener - but the ladies' softball team is off to a 7-1 start. And don't look now but the baseball team starts its season Friday in Florida with a 3-game series against Villanova, followed by an exhibition against the Mets.

That's all for now. I'll have a quick blurb Saturday morning to recap Friday night's game, and then I'm headed up to Detroit for the game Saturday.

Go Blue!

Quick chat with Phil

My long time buddy Phil, over at The Nittany Lion has been nice enough to take time out of his busy schedule and sit down with me and have a little chat.

He asked me about my opinions on a multitude of topics to do with Michigan, and I did the same for him on topics covering Penn State. Here was my side of the interview, for the other half of it go check out his site, TheNittanyLion.com.

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TNL: Coach Rodriguez has already made a lot of noise in the Big Ten with the Michigan recruiting season, do you think that he will be able to enjoy the same success that he has had over the past few years now that he's with Michigan?

M&BS: Over time, absolutely. In the next year or two, he'll be doing his best to stock the cupboards with players who are more fit to run the spread, most significantly a great dual-threat QB. Once he has most positions filled with players that were brought to Ann Arbor to run the spread, however, we will absolutely be a National Title contender.

 

TNL: Lets say Terrelle Pryor doesn't choose Michigan, how much of a concern is that? And do you think the spread offense will be a success with a different quarterback? And who would that be?

M&BS: Well it's pretty much accepted in the Michigan community that Terrelle Pryor is headed elsewhere in 2008. It's a decent-sized inconvenience, but not a huge, season-ruining event. We've got a few quarterbacks that we can go with next season. Justin Feagin, a three star recruit that we picked up this year, is a better passer than Pryor, but isn't as elusive. Steven Threet has had a year of experience on the sidelines, and while he isn't really a runner, we saw in the Capital One Bowl that even a pocket passer can flourish in the spread offense. So to answer your question, we would absolutely be better off if Pryor decided to don the Maize and Blue next season, but we can still be successful with the players already on the roster.

 

TNL: What is your opinion of the criticism Rich Rodriguez has gotten over the past few months, and do you think that it could hurt Michigan's reputation for honorable coaches?

M&BS: If you want my blatantly honest opinion, I think it's reflects much worse on the West Virginia organization and fan base. Clearly they were hurt by his departure after everything he's done for their program, and especially after he said he would be at WVU for a long time, but the fact that they're drudging this on for so long reflects more negatively on them than it does on us. For them to be threatening him and his family MONTHS after he left, that's just ridiculous. The shredding incident is utter stupidity, and the whole "he called recruits from his West Virginia call phone" is a last swipe at a coach that, many West Virginians think, has betrayed his home state. In the end, do you blame him for leaving a WVU program that was nothing before he came along for Michigan? I don't at all.

 

TNL: Alright, one final question. What are your expectations for the coming season?

M&BS: High. Probably too high. It's a bad habit of most Michigan fans to expect the most and be disappointed when they do what they finish with a season that is just 'good'. In terms of specifics, anything worse than a #2 finish in the big ten is a bitter disappointment, we had better finish in the top 25, and a BCS Bowl win would be phenomenal. However, we could go 1-11, and as long as we beat Ohio State I still wouldn't be too upset.

Thanks for your time, Phil. Always a pleasure.

And I strongly recommend everyone, Penn State fan or not, to go take a look at The Nittany Lion. It's a great blog, and Phil's a great writer with some interesting posts.

Goodnight, and look out tomorrow for Dan's weekend hockey preview.

Getting Started

Thanks to Austin for the warm words of welcome.

So, what's a guy in Columbus doing writing on a Michigan sports blog? I've often wondered about life's twists and turns that have brought me here myself. It's a long story, but suffice it to say I fell in love with Michigan from my first campus visit in 1984. I went to Ann Arbor in 1986 and graduated in 1990. Six years later, I found myself in Columbus, and it has been home since then.

I have attended Michigan sporting events with crowds of under a hundred (who decided that night baseball in March is a good idea?) and as large as 112,000 in the Big House. Along the way, I had the fortune of attending 1/2 of Bo's Rose Bowl wins, his last game in Michigan Stadium, and many other unforgettable (and a few very forgettable) Michigan sporting events.

I am a die-hard Michigan fan, but I also love college sports of all kinds. I've been to baseball games in Austin, Texas, and water polo matches in Berkeley, California. I spent a day at the Frozen Four here in Columbus in 2005, and spent 20 hours watching basketball when the first round of the NCAA tournament was here last year.

As the blog develops, I'll probably share some thoughts on life in Columbus as a Wolverine. We have a hardy band of brave souls living here behind enemy lines. For the moment, though, let's talk about Michigan hockey, which will be my focus, at least for the next two months.

The history and tradition of Michigan football is well known. What is not as well known is the history and tradition of Michigan hockey, although the record has been just as successful. Michigan boasts more NCAA hockey championships (9) than any other school, and played a huge role in the creation and establishment of the NCAA hockey tournament. Michigan also plays its home games at Yost Ice Arena, a classic old barn which housed the basketball team until Crisler Arena opened in 1972. I can only imagine how intimidating a venue for basketball it must have been.

Back in my days on campus, Michigan basketball was a tougher ticket than Michigan hockey. When I started attending games at Yost in 1987, a crowd of 3,000 was a big deal, and the hockey band was anyone who showed up carrying an instrument. By the time I left Ann Arbor in 1990, Michigan had reached respectability, and the next decade and a half would prove wildly successful.

As I said at the outset, Michigan has more national titles than anyone else. Michigan dominated the early days of the NCAA tournament, winning 7 titles from 1947 to 1964. The next 25 years were the dark days of Michigan hockey, punctuated only by a runner-up finish in 1977. That season marked Michigan's only appearance in the NCAA tournament from 1965 to 1991. 1983 saw the hiring of Gordon "Red" Berenson, a former star at Michigan who also starred in the NHL. Under Berenson, the team began a slow but steady climb from perennial doormat back to prominence as a national power.

It would take 6 seasons of frustration, but from 1991 to the present, Michigan has reached the NCAA tournament every season. Over that span, Michigan has won 8 regular-season CCHA titles and 7 postseason CCHA tournament titles, never finishing lower than 3rd in the conference. Michigan won the 1996 and 1998 NCAA titles, and made it to the Frozen Four six additional times. Along the way, Yost Ice Arena has become one of the most intimidating venues in all of college sports.

But history is the province of old fogies like me (quick - how many Michigan alums does it take to change a light bulb? Nine - one to actually change it and eight to talk about how good the old one was). Today, Michigan hockey is ranked at the top of the national polls, and is two wins away from clinching the 9th regular season CCHA title of the Berenson era.

Coming up this weekend: a "road and Joe" series with arch-rival Michigan State. Friday night's game will be at Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing; Saturday night's game will be at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. If you've been waiting to check them out, there are plenty of tickets still available for Saturday night's game at the Joe. You can find ticket information here.

That's enough for this intro. Look for a preview of this weekend's series on Thursday! Thanks again to Austin for inviting me to join this endeavor, and bear with me as a figure this blogging thing out.

Go Blue!