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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.