They're Gonna Wave Him In!

Some catching up on a few items:

-I was in the middle of setting up an Awards Ceremony at the Academic Games State tournament as Michigan was playing Clemson in the first round of the NCAAs. As I was unpacking trophies, setting up microphones, and moving chairs, people would shout the score to me from across the banquet hall, where they were watching it on ESPN gametracker or a shitty CBS March Madnees On-Demand video feed, while at the same time monitoring middle school students playing Presidents. When the game finally ended, my son called me with the score. Needless to say, I didn't really get much chance to break down the game, and I still haven't watched it in its entirety. But over the next few days, whenever I had a moment to think. I found myself repeating the results over and over, "We won a game in the Big Dance, we won a game in the Big Dance!" I am ecstatic with the season, and think John Beilein did a whale of a job making the tourney with two walk-ons at point, and one player over 6-8 in the rotation. He certainly deserved some Coach of the Year consideration in the Big Ten (Izzo winning that award was an absolute joke). I know that the step for a program from bad to mediocre or from mediocre to good is ten times easier than the step from good to great, or great to elite, but I have confidence that Beilein will take us there eventually. If Manny and Pedi Sims come back (cross your fingers), top 3 or 4 in the league, a single digit seed, and a sweet sixteen birth are not unreasonable expectations for next year.
-I'm not an NFL draft expert by any stretch of the imagination, and any time spent thinking about the Lions is wasted time, but it seems to me that a Jay Cutler for the Lions second first round pick (#20) is an obvious deal that would help both the Lions and Denver.
-What the heck is Kentucky thinking? You gotta give a coach at least three years, barring any wrongdoing (like the Kelvin Sampson stuff at IU). I don't know why any established coach without prior connections there would want that job knowing they've run off two pretty decent coaches in the last three years. They just moved up a few spots on my "Teams to root against" list.
-TO in Buffalo?!?! Seriously, that's a joke isn't it? That's like saying that Dennis Leary has been selected as the next Pope, or Rush Limbaugh is the new head of the ACLU. Some things just don't belong together.
-The passing of George Kell earlier this week made me feel really old (and really melancholy). Along with Bob Ufer, Ernie Harwell, and to a lesser extent Sid Abel, Kell was the voice of my sports childhood. You could hear one word from him and you knew who you were listening to. Close your eyes and listen to a few more words and you could see the upper deck in rightfield hanging over the field. You could see the flagpole in deep, deep centerfield in front of the rowdy bleacher creatures. He came from an era when announcers didn't just read the score or the pitch count, but actually painted a picture complete with all the little details that were periphery to the game. His Arkansas drawl was so unique to this area that everyone had their own imitation of it. He was a connection to the Golden Age of baseball for my generation of fans.

Conference Season Starts

With about five or six minutes left in today's game at Crisler, this promising basketball season looked to be reaching a crisis point. After getting demolished on New Year's eve in game against Wisconsin that wasn't as close as the final 13 point margin might suggest, Beilein's boys were seven points down to Illinois. They were losing for the same reasons they lost to Wisconsin -- defense. Illinois, while not a huge team, was using a size advantage created by our lineup, essentially four guards and DeShawn Sims, to get easy shots down low or kick outs for wide open jumpers, created by help defense in the post.
I started to wonder whether this team would be able to survive in the Big Ten with its dearth of quality post defense. if we had to rely on outscoring teams in half court games, it would be a long conference season, and our hopes of finally playing meaningful games in March might be dashed.
But then something happened. They started fighting through screens on the baseline. They started getting their hands up and moving quicker in the 1-3-1. In the second half, every defensive possession, you could see the rest of the team on the bench waving their hands, exhorting the team on. And they got some balanced scoring, five players in double figures, and one more at 9 points.
Perhaps the most significant contribution in the game came from Zach Gibson, who was 4-5 for ten points, including two dunks and a three. He also had a good block and couple of assists. We are a different team when he plays like he does today. He helps our post defense tremendously, and makes us a more complete lineup.

New basketball rankings are posted. Big changes in the top ten with the start of conference play. Pittsburgh jumps up to #1 with the big win against Georgetown. MSU jumps up on the strength of two road wins at Minnesota and Northwestern. Gonzaga continues their free fall with a loss to Utah. Top overall riser was Drexel, up 93 spots with two road wins over Hofstra and St. Joseph's. Biggest loser was George Washington, on a four game losing streak, including losing three at the Rainbow classic.

Still basking in the afterglow

-I find it highly ironic that one of the biggest days of the year for college football, that as I watched Sportscenter last night I kept wishing they'd finish with their college football talk so that get to the college basketball news. I'm kicking myself a little bit for not buying tickets to the game earlier this week when I found some online, but am hopeful there will other big games this year. I wonder how much tickets to the Big Ten tournament are.
-I also find it ironic that the same school year that saw an end to our great bowl streak, may also see an end to our awful non-big dance streak of ten years.
-Like most of the country, I get the feeling that Florida and Oklahoma are the best teams in the country, and despite OU's recent big bowl history, I get the feeling that their game could be a classic on the lines of UT / USC a few years back. That being said, I can't help but feel bad for the Texas fans. I don't know how much more you could expect from your team than they got from theirs this year, yet they still have to watch their arch-rival and a team that lost to a mediocre Ole Miss at home play for the national championship.
-If the Sugar Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl were smart, they'd let Texas go the Sugar to play Alabama, and invite Utah and Boise State to the Fiesta to play a sort of mid-major national championship game. That way, along with the championship game and the USC/PSU Rose Bowl you'd have all 8 teams that have a reasonable claim to a national title shot playing each other.
-I love what UCLA and USC did with both wearing their home jerseys. In the big scheme of things one timeout at the start of a game doesn't really affect much, and the nod to tradition was very cool. I wouldn't mind seeing us do this against OSU one year.
-I don't get the Lane Kiffin hire for Tennessee. It just strikes me as far less inspired a choice than someone like Brian Kelly, and has Callahan to Nebraska written all over it.
-Just when you thought that Washington couldn't get any worse, Cal's running back Jahvid Best runs for 311 yards on only 19 carries! I still find it hard to believe that Washington could be that bad. I mean outside of USC (and maybe UCLA), the Huskies have the most football tradition in the Pac Ten, and somehow, in a little less than a decade (they were in the national title discussion in 2000) they've become possibly the worst program in FBS.

-Final regular season rankings will be up soon, as well as a look at what a playoff would look like if I ran the circus. The season's first basketball rankings coming tomorrow.

Welcome Back!

I remember exactly where and when I last cared as much about Michigan basketball as I do right now. It was the morning of October 11, 1997 and my dad and I were on our way to Michigan Stadium to see the 4-0 Michigan football team play Northwestern, a team that had beaten them two years in a row. The pregame show on the radio announced that Steve Fisher had been fired as Men's basketball coach, just a few weeks before practices were to begin, because of the investigation into the activities of one Ed Martin At the time I was furious at the lack of loyalty shown by the University towards the man who had brought them their only national championship, and had brought in the Fab 5. All through the football game, all we talked about was Fisher, Martin, and the basketball team.

Of course, as more info came out, my opinion on Steve Fisher changed. And although I remained a Michigan basketball fan, my interest began to wane on that day. I watched Brian Ellerbee run a talented team into the ground by recruiting deadbeats, projects no one else wanted, and Webster look-a-likes. I cursed the TV when Tom Izzo left his starters in and ran up the score on a hapless Michigan team. I died a little with each late season choke job by Amker's teams, and with each recruiting near-miss. I prayed for years that they would get rid of Ellerbee, waited a few years, and then prayed a few more for them to do the same to Amaker. And little by little, my passion for basketball died. Although I would still watch the games and would check the scores, I never expected much, except to be disappointed if I allowed myself to believe anything positive could happen.

All that changed at about 11:30pm last night when Anthony Wright fed a perfect backdoor pass to a cutting DeShawn Sims who slammed it home emphatically for his seventeenth and eighteenth points of the night to give Michigan a four point lead over the #4 team in the country with :34 seconds to go in the game. I jumped off the coach and screamed at the top of my lungs, probably causing my brother in Austin, with whom I was on the phone, to go temporarily deaf in his left ear. I ran around the room pumping my fist not holding the phone in the air while my phone exploded with text messages from all of my friends who were still up doing the same thing as I was: Watching a game with no expectation of victory, just a slight sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe we could see some progress from last year.

Now this win doesn't make us a top ten team, it doesn't even make us a tournament team. There are bound to be ups and downs throughout the season and into the future. But it does mean that we are on the right track, and the light we see at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train. For the first time in a decade, that little part of me that had been slowly fading away bit by bit has returned. It's the part of me that used to idolize Ricky Green almost as much as I idolized Ricky Leach. It's the part of me that remembers walking up the driveway, reading the paper that the Judge, Antoine Joubert had signed with Michigan. It's the part of me that would go crazy when Steve Stokyo would enter the game, because he was the original human victory cigar. It's the part of me that would yell "Hell ya" with every Loy Vaught rebound, every Gary Grant Steal, and every Glen Rice triple. It's the part of me that danced in the light rain on South University with 10,000 other kids when Rumeal Robinson sunk two free throws to give us our basketball championship.

God, it's good to have a basketball program we can be proud of again.

Catching up with the Michigan Blogosphere

Items:
1) M Zone says goodbye, so long, and thanks for all the fish. They will be missed. How else are we going to keep Colin Cowherd in line? I moved them down from Daily Reads. Our source for BBall recruiting news, UMHoops, takes their place.

2)Ronald Bellamy's Underachieving All-Stars returns with great post about setting up an interview with Lloyd Carr that highlights all the things we loved the most about our former coach. Hopefully RBUAS will find a contact in the new regieme and will be able to continue his excellent work. I've returned him to the Other Fine Sites to See list.

3) Brian from MGoBlog writes of any interesting court case involving Duke football @ AOL Fan House. To summarize, in order to avoid damages for breaking their four game contract to play Louisville lawyers for Duke had to argue that Duke football is so bad that Louisville wasn't really harmed by not playing them, since any college team they pick up will be a suitable replacement. Apart from being really funny for North Carolina fans and all others who dislike Duke football, this case does have some implications in the Rich Rod vs WVU case. Now I'm no lawyer, but my understanding of the case is that in order to prove that Rod's departure has caused them damage equal to $4 million dollars, WVU lawyers will have to prove that his replacement is significantly worse. Just about every 'Neer fan alive will be rooting for an undefeated season for WVU and a crash and burn for Michigan, but it might be in their interest for the opposite to happen.

4) A Michigan blog with large type called Go Blue Michigan Wolverine (not apparently related to the Scout site of similar name) posts a interesting article about academic support for the athletes. The upshot, despite publicly rejecting the conclusions of the infamous Ann Arbor News report, the AD appears to be taking steps to shore up some of the issues raised in that investigation.

5)Finally, Fingerle Lumber has put their 7 acre site in AA up for sale for $21.95 million. Why is that relevant to sports fans? Fingerle's site is just to the north of the athletic campus and there have been some rumors around town that the university is looking to purchase that land to possibly expand the campus. Perhaps some more athletic facilities, or possibly even a new dorm.

Oh, one more thing, I added a section with non-sports sites. Mostly friends' blogs, but I will put a few other things there from time to time.

New rankings finally up

Finally got an updated set of rankings up.
Some thoughts and observations from the last two weeks of BBall.
-So much for the good momentum for Beilein's boys. An ugly loss at home to Big Ten bottom dweller Northwestern put the kibosh on any positive feelings that might have been generated by winning three straight and four out of five. The followup game at Penn State wasn't much better. It's hard to see if any progress has made program wise this year. I still Beilein was a better option than sticking with Tommy Turtleneck, but it may take longer than expected to turn the ship around. The jury is still out, but the early returns aren't promising.
-The Bracket buster weekend proved that this is still the MVC's world and the rest of us are just playing in it. Missouri Valley teams went an astounding 8-2 when only three other conferences were more than one game over .500 (America East 3-1, Colonial 7-5, & MAAC 6-4). Particularly noteworthy were Drake's win over Butler on the road, and Creighton's thrilling one point win at Oral Roberts
-I think the Tennessee game showed why Memphis will be the #1 or #2 seed most likely to get upset before the Sweet sixteen. They are very athletic and have relied on their superior athletes to blow away most of their opponents this year. They aren't stellar in half court offense, don't shoot free throws well at all (through games of 3/2, they are the third worst FT shooting team in the country), and if they face a team with a lot of talent early (like Florida or Oklahoma) they could go down. With the poor free throw shooting, they could also be susceptible to a disciplined, deep team that decides to put them on the line a lot.
-I would love to see a Texas / Gonzaga matchup at some point in the tourny. A Pargo / Augestin could be a classic.
-I will try and get an updated bracketology up tonight.

The little nine strike back

I heard someone comment recently about how the big ten was reverting back to the mid-70s, with Michigan and OSU winning something like 36 of their last 38 games, with the two losses being their yearly donnybrook. Well this past weekend, the little nine bit back.

-As hard as I try, i just can't seem to get myself too worked up by our stinker performance in Madison. Yes you want to win every game. Yes, you want to continue the positive momentum the last eight weeks have given you. Yes, there was a slim chance at a BCS bowl even with a loss to OSU. But clearly, in the grand scheme of things, this game meant next to nothing, especially in contrast to the game this week. Consequently, I don't think this loss tells us anything about the OSU game, other than perhaps that we need Henne and Hart to be healthy to beat OSU. Of course, anyone who didn't realize that before this week hasn't been paying attention very closely. Yes the run blocking was horrendous, as was the run defense. But the defensive failings were a result of being on the field too much, and the run blocking was a result of getting behind and needing to pass to catch-up. I also think the entire team realized the significance of this game, or lack thereof, and mailed it in.
-Meanwhile, down in Columbus, we learned that Michigan is not the only team that can't defend the spread option attack. The Buckeyes just couldn't get Illinois, a slightly better than mediocre team coached by the second coming of John Cooper off the field when they needed to. For the second time this year (MSU) Todd Boeckman looked less than perfect when he was pressured. Unfortunately for us, we don't really have the scheme that can take advantage of this weakness. Yes we can spread the the ball around to different talented receivers (assuming Henne is healthy), but we don't have the running threat at QB that caused the OSU pass rushers to pause.
-I do wonder if there will be any hangover for the Buckeyes. All off-season all they heard about was how the blew it in the national championship game. They heard the cracks about how they were overrated, didn't belong on the same field as the Gators. The fact that their basketball brethren also lost to the Gators in the championship game only served as a reminder of their disappointment. Sweatervest even made the score of the game the entry code to their football complex. So after working all year to replace all the talent that left, and working their way up from a pre-season ranking in the teens, they had finally gotten to a place where they could almost taste their shot at redemption. And then it was taken away from them in the form of a 16-play, 40 yard, 8 minute drive from the Illini. The Buckeye offense literally had to sit and watch their dreams die in front of them.
-The big winner in the game in Columbus, other than the Illini was the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl would dearly love to get the Buckeyes, since they have only been their once since 1985, as opposed to Michigan who would be returning for the fourth time in five years. If OSU had won out, the Rose might have had no Big Ten team to take.
-The big losers, other than OSU, were Iowa, MSU, IU and Northwestern. All four teams are 6-5, and with six other teams ahead of them, will all be competing for one bowl slot (the Motor City) if the Big Ten only gets one team in the BCS. All other things being equal, the Motor City would like to take MSU and the guaranteed sell-out in Detroit. But by rule, they can not take a 6-6 team if there is an eligible 7-5 team. So this week's games against Western Michigan, Penn State, Purdue, and Illinois respectively are that much more important.
-It amazing how far and fast Miami has fallen. 48-0?!? To Virginia?!? In the Orange Bowl finale?! Have some pride, have a sense of history, and at least put up a fight. No wonder they never sell out games. The Hurricanes were always much more of pro franchise than a college program.
-I wonder what sort of gimmick Mark Richt will come up with in Georgia's next big game to fire up his players.
-If I'm a Nebraska fan, i don't know if the performance against K-State makes me happy, or makes me pissed off that we hadn't seen that effort in the prior 5 weeks when the season was still salvageable.
-When a QB comes off the field and gets on the phone to talk to the coaches upstairs, why do they still use corded phones? Couldn't they use a Bluetooth or something else that isn't twenty years out of date?

Hoops is here
-Looks like the craziness of the college football season has transferred to basketball. Gardner-Webb over Kentucky? Belmont over Cinncy? Mercer over USC? That's three wins by Atlantic Sun teams over major conference teams. To put that in perspective, the Atlantic Sun was 0-30 last year against BCS conference teams with an average margin of defeat of just over 22 points. Of course, with a tournament, these upsets don't mean nearly as much as they do in football.
-So far so good with Beilein's boys. Two comfortable wins against Radford and Brown, with fewer turnovers, more steals, and more energy than we ever saw from Amaker's teams. Perhaps the thing that I liked the best happened off the court. Last year's starting PG Jarrett Smith was suspended for the opener because he missed some classes. Apparently Beilein informed Smith that he would miss the Friday opener at a practice earlier in the week. During the practice, Smith went down with an ankle injury, complaining loudly. Beilein told all the players to leave him alone and left him with the trainers while he took the team to the other end of the court. After practice, he told Smith he would serve his suspension once he was completely healthy. No skating on the punishment because you are hurt. That strikes me as very Bo-like.
-The freshman back court looked really good. Manny Harris looks like, well, Mr. Basketball. Kelvin Grady is very fast and will help up press the tempo a lot. Together they actually look like a decent big ten back court. I would be shocked if Jarret Smith ever starts another game for us.

First Impressions

I took my son to the Michigan-Ferris State exhibition basketball game last Thursday, hoping to get a look at our new basketball coach, John Beilein, and his "crazy" system. What I saw was very encouraging, although there is still long way to go, and the talent level of the opponent has to be considered. Some quick impressions:
-The offense will be very perimeter based: Usually four guys camped out at the three point line, one in the post. Weaving, cutting to the basket, kicking back out for (hopefully) open threes. It looked like a combination of the old Indiana "15 passes or your running laps offense" and the Kentucky offense of the Rick Pitino era.
-The defense showed a number of different looks. The most impressive to me was a 1-3-1 zone trap with big guys like Deshawn Sims and Epke Udoh on the wings. When they got this going, they really gave Ferris fits trying to run any sort of offense. If we play a lot of this, we will get out rebounded a lot, but teams better have good ball handlers, or we will get a lot of turnovers.
-More than anything schematically, it looked for the first time like we really had a plan, instead of just waiting around for someone to make a one-on-one move.
-Player thoughts: DeShawn Sims looked great. He was active on D, hit a few 3pt shots (he took none last year) and showed that he can really be a force.
-Manny Harris showed why he was Mr. Basketball. He looked lost on D and in the offense a little, but he certainly has the athletic ability to be a star in the big ten.
-Ron Coleman has the best outside shot, and will be steady on D, but he's not as dynamic as the other two.
-Kelvin Grady is very quick, has a decent shot, but doesn't really know where he's supposed to be yet.
-This offense doesn't really fit Epke Udoh's talents very well, but he is a monster on defense. My guess is that he and Zach Gibson will be an offensive / defensive switch at the 5 all year.
-K'len Morris looked solid at the two, and seemed to have a calming influence on the offense when he was in there.
-My guess at the rotation this year: Manny and Jarret Smith at the 1, with Manny also getting time at the 2 with Morris, and Grady getting more time later in the year as he learns the system. Coleman at the 3, Sims at the 4, and Zach Gibson and Udoh at the five.
-The new lighting system at Crisler really makes a difference. Now if they could only get a live crowd in there, that place could maybe get some real atmosphere.

All in all, not a bad night. Cheap tickets, my son loved the hot dogs and a big Michigan win. Sure it was only an exhibition, but at least we didn't lose to a division II school.

The End of an Era (hopefully)

June 19, 2008 Note: This is a post that originally appeared on Golden's Football Rankings and is reproduced here for posterity.

The regular season ended for the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday afternoon with a game against the number one team in the country. For a wolverine team that has been frustratingly inconsistent all year, the game offered an opportunity to gain a signature win that their tournament resume had been lacking. Crisler Arena was sold out for only the third time all season, and even though the students were on break, the place was rocking. The team came out playing well, took care of the ball, and played good defense in the first half to take a three-point lead at the break. With just under four minutes left in the game, they had grown that lead to six points. Ohio State called a timeout and Ohio State coach Thad Matta told his players, “We have them where we want them.” Michigan went scoreless the rest of the game, and OSU won by four. Why was Matta so confident down by six late in the game? Because he knows what everyone else in the Big Ten knows, Tommy Amaker teams cannot finish.
The last three Michigan possessions couldn’t have been more representative of the Amaker reign if they were scripted. The 6-10’ senior center, a four year starter, misses a wide open dunk. The senior shooting guard, another four year starter, and the team’s best free throw shooter, misses the front end of a one and one. Finally, the sophomore point guard, the only one that Amaker has been able to recruit in six years throws the ball to no one in particular in the backcourt. Ball game over. Upset bid over. NCAA chances over. Again.
The amazing thing is that this is the exact same thing that happened last year. Needing only a win over a ranked Indiana at home to make the big dance last year, Michigan gave up a 10-0 run to end the game to lose by four. They then lost to a Minnesota team in the Big Ten tournament that they had beaten twice during the regular season. Guess who they play next week in Chicago.
They say that one of the definitions of insanity is seeing the same thing happen over and over again and expecting a different result. How many times do we have to watch them come up short in the clutch and in the end to realize that a change needs to be made?

Coaching possibilites

June 19, 2008 Note: This is a post that originally appeared on Golden's Football Rankings and is reproduced here for posterity.

Since we have previously called for Tommy Amaker’s dismissal in this space, it is time to discuss some possibilities to replace him.

There are a number of things that might make a college basketball coaching position desirable: money, facilities, tradition, potential for growth in a program, and proximity to talent. The Michigan job is probably fairly mediocre in the first three categories, but scores high marks in the last two categories.

The first list is of big names that probably would not come to Michigan, but will get mentioned often by fans on message boards, kinda the way John Gruden’s name comes up whenever a major college football program has an opening.
(In no particular order)
1)Billy Gillespie, Texas A&M – He has done wonders resurrecting a moribund program in a major conference. But A&M has a lot of resources, and has demonstrated in the past they are willing to break the bank for a coach.

2)Seth Greenberg, Virginia Tech – The Hokies were supposed to flounder at the bottom of the ACC when they joined the league. But he’s got them tied for the league lead

3)Jaime Dixon, Pitt – His fire and intensity would be a welcome change to Amaker’s stoic demeanor. As a Howland disciple, he can certainly get the most out of his players.

4)Randy Wright, Villanova – Daper, young, media savvy, everything you’d want to help grow a program.

5)Tom Crean, Marquette – A good X and O guy, he is a former MSU assistant who has been rumored as the heir apparent to Izzo when he retires. But his wife is Jim Harbaugh’s sister, and she grew up in Ann Arbor, so he could possibly consider a position here. Hiring him would infuriate the Spartan coaching staff and fan base and would ignite that rivalry

6)John Beilein, West Virginia – He’s a little older, but has a very established track record of making players and teams better. After losing most of his team from last year, the Mountaineers were picked for the bottom of the Big East this year. He has them flirting with the Top 25, and they just beat #1 UCLA.


The second list is some of the more attainable names, coaches at smaller schools who would consider Michigan a good step up in prestige.
(In no particular order)
1)Mark Turgeon, Wichita State – A Kansas native, he has guided the Shockers to four straight post season bids

2)Travis Ford, Umass – The former Kentucky guard has Umass on the verge of their second straight 20-win season after taking Eastern Kentucky to the Big Dance.

3)John Pelphrey, South Alabama -- Another former Wildcat who has won 20 or more games two years in a row at a place that does not have a great basketball tradition. Both Ford and Pelphrey might be waiting for Tubby Smith to leave UK.

4)Chris Lowery, Southern Illinois – 49-14 in his third year with the Salukis with two conference championships, with another one on the way. He is an SIU alum, so he might want to stay there. He was an assistant with Bruce Webber at Illinois before he took the job at SIU.

5)Tony Bennett, Washington State – In his first year at one the hardest places to recruit in the country, Dick Bennett’s kid has the Cougars 21-4 and on their way to the school’s first NCAA bid in 13 years.

6)Reggie Theus, New Mexico State – The former NBA player has the Aggies playing way above their heads. He is a UNLVslum, so he might hold out for that job.

7)Jeff Bzdelik, Air Force – The former coach of the Denver Nuggets has the falcons at the top of the Mountain West

This and That

June 19, 2008 Note: This is a post that originally appeared on Golden's Football Rankings and is reproduced here for posterity.

-Went to the Michigan/Iowa game last night. It was a typical Amaker loss. They came out with a lot of defensive intensity and built a solid lead on hustle, some fast breaks and some good one-on-one play. Iowa made some adjustments after going down by 14. Michigan’s top defender, Brent Petway, went out of the game with an uncertain injury. Iowa then went on a 20-1 run as Michigan went scoreless for over 8 minutes. By the time they woke up, Iowa was up by seven with five minutes to go. A couple of key turnovers and fouls down the stretch sealed the deal, and they suffered a tournament-shattering loss. AD Bill Martin was at the game. One can only hope that he is reaching the same conclusion that many of us are reaching: we need a new coach.
-There’s a lot to dislike about the hype leading up to the Super Bowl, but one of the things I like is how college football fans from every section of the country can all claim a little piece of the game each. For us up here, its good to see Cato June and Marlin Jackson of the Colts get their shot at a ring.
-Once again, MgoBlog has nailed it, with an article about how coaches salaries are affecting college football. Our readers in SEC country will appreciate the new nickname for Nick $aban he came up with.
-After losing four of the last six, perhaps Bruce Pearl should spend more time coaching and less time painting his body for Lady Vols games.
-A lot was made recently up here about a slight alteration made in Lloyd Carr’s contract for 2007. His most recent contract was signed in 2005, and it called for $300,000 to be put aside in a separate account to be given to Carr if he remained Michigan’s head coach on July 1, 2007. The alteration made in late December calls for Carr to get an additional $300,000 if he is still employed (in any capacity)by the university on July 1, 2008. The assumption that everyone here seemed to make was that Carr was going to retire or announce that 2007 was his last at some point. I’m not so sure that’s what’s going on here. It’s quite possible that this is just an extension of the prior terms.
-So with the Carr contract news, and the basketball struggles, the Michigan message boards are awash in new coach talk in both major sports. Imagine how stressed the Bill Martin will be if he has to replace both coaches in the same season.
-Football recruiting things are getting crazy up here. I try not to get sucked into all the angst on message boards, but its hard not to read about it when there is nothing to but sit and wait for the basketball team to make their annual NIT run.
-I know I’m a week late with this, but the Duke/Clemson thing was a travesty, if you can use such strong language for a game. I don’t understand why the league couldn’t order the teams to replay the last play when they realized the officials had made a mistake. In the coaching I do, we have a rule in our state league that a judge’s bad decision cannot affect an outcome. If we find a judge has ruled wrongly, even after the match is finished, we will change the ruling and have the players replay the last game. Why couldn’t the ACC order the two teams back to Cameron the next day to replay the last 3 or so seconds?
-I like Tony Dungy’s suggestion to play the Super Bowl in Fort Wayne, Indiana, halfway between the two cities. I believe that football was meant to be played in the snow.

Why Tommy Amaker should really be asked (nicely) to find gainful employment elsewhere

June 19, 2008 Note: This is a post that originally appeared on Golden's Football Rankings and is reproduced here for posterity.

To me there are a number of things that a coach at a major university must do to keep their job:
1) They must represent their university with class – This includes two parts, not doing anything that might embarrass the university (the Larry Eustachy / Mike Price clause), and promoting the goals and ideals of their program and the university
2) They must recruit kids that will also represent the university well – Kids that go to class, stay out of trouble, and give their all on the field, court, or ice. Additionally, these kids should be able to compete at the level of competition the university is accustomed to.
3) They must serve as a teacher and a role model for their players in such a way that their players learn and improve as players and people in their time at the university.
4) Finally, they must win. This is, of course, the 500-lb Elephant standing in the corner of the room that no one really likes to talk about. This is after all the bottom line in college sports, but everyone likes to pretend that it’s not. The amount of winning a coach has to do varies from place to place, from sport to sport, and from year to year. But no one will keep their job if they don’t win at some point.

The thing is, from my point of view, Tommy Amaker hasn’t really successfully completed any of these points.
1) Yes, he is a class individual who represents the school well. But he doesn’t promote the program in ways you would expect a coach at a high profile school to do. He has no radio or TV coaches show in the area. His weekly press conferences rarely make the Detroit news. He has little or no presence in the media of the most dominant market in the state. This is especially glaring when you compare him with the coach at his most direct competitor, Tom Izzo, who is on air every 15 minutes.
2) He has had problems recruiting kids who show any fire on the basketball court, or look like they belong in the Big Ten. The last Michigan player who made it to the NBA was Jamal Crawford, who left Michigan a year before Amaker got here. He has finished as the runner-up in recruiting battles for Malik Hairston and Joe Crawford from Detroit Renaissance, who are staring at Oregon and Kentucky respectively, Scottie Reynolds, who is at Villanova, Patrick Beverly, who starts at Arkansas, and countless other players who have ended up at MSU, Notre Dame, Florida, Syracuse, and other places. He has gone through all sorts of drama with de-commitments and re-commitments.
3) Players don’t improve under Amaker. Daniel Horton was a better player as a freshman than he was when he left. Courtney Sims led the league in blocked shots his freshman year, in today’s game against Indiana, some 6 foot nothing guard drove the lane on him and he did nothing. Amaker’s teams don’t have any discernible identity. They look lost on offense, always led the league in turnovers, and can’t defend dribble penetration or the three-point line.
4) Amaker’s record at Michigan is decidedly mediocre. He is 4-32 on the road in the Big Ten against teams that aren’t Penn State or Northwestern. You can count the number of victories they have over tournament teams on one hand. They are consistently whipped by the better teams in the league. He is 2-8 against Illinois, 0-10 against Indiana. His five trips to Wisconsin have resulted in losses of 13, 26, 11, 11, and 31 points. He has a winning record against only three league teams, Purdue, Penn State, and Northwestern.

I’m not the type of person who is comfortable calling for a college coach to be fired, especially one who appears to be a fine citizen who is attempting to build a program the right way, without stooping to the levels of so many in the sport (Hello, Mr. Huggins!). But to be a good coach, you have to be a good recruiter, a good teacher, a good motivator, a good strategist, or some combination of those. Amaker appears to be mediocre at all these aspects, and it doesn’t seem like he, or the team, is going to improve in any of these ways anytime soon. So for the good of the program, I would suggest that he should be shown the door.