Bloody Hell

So that was fun. If not completely unsurprising. You could tell in the first 3 minutes that Sauer was going to have to have a performance like MTU's goalie did if Michigan was going to have a shot in this game. They were all over us in the first period but Sauer was outstanding to keep it 0-0. Michigan was spending so much time keeping the puck out of their net that there wasn't a lot of time left over for offense.

Then Fragner, one of the walkon forwards, takes a stupid hitting from behind penalty (that was actually legit....of course by that token so were Sterling's and Sweatt's but neither of them got tossed) and they score with under a minute left in the first period. And in pure Sun Belt Conference fashion, the officials ejected Swystun instead of Fragner--which was later corrected even though Swystun had already taken off all his gear. No truth to the rumor that Lloyd Carr had to call timeout to get the call reversed. That goal really hurt. Then Dunlap has a bad giveaway in our end on a power play, suddenly it's 2-0 and the game's basically over.

The rest of the team responded by taking some stupid penalties leading to more CC goals (Bailey's hook and Hensick's slash were just stupid and they made us pay). Hunwick played a stupid hockey game, and if his brother is reading this he probably wants to kick my ass for yet again stating the obvious. With that many walkons and down that many forwards, you can't let a team like that get power plays and we kept putting them a man up.

I'd have a hard time blaming either goalie for what happened tonight, and I hope they go with Sauer tomorrow, because even though we played like hell, I think we're still probably good enough to beat Tech, as long as we don't let Chris Conner loose.

Like I said before, there's just no point in playing in that tournament. You can't play down 2 of our 3 best forwards and 3 of our best 4 defensemen and expect to win games.

MacVoy brought a lot of energy in the early going but then I didn't see a whole lot of him the rest of the game. He was out there hitting people and getting the crowd into it. I like that kid and I hope he gets more of a shot.

One thing I forgot about football: 31, 34, 28, 45, 30, 28, 38, 32. What are those numbers? The number of points we've given up in our bowl game since the national championship year. That's completely unacceptable and it means for 8 straight seasons, Jim Hermann's defense has been shredded despite having a month to prepare. Yes we won a few of those games, but that is faaar too many points to be giving up every time we face a top-notch (in most cases) team. Especially with that kind of time to prepare. It's not too much to ask to hold a team under 4 TDs is it?

Edit: This is from an article on ESPN.com:

Sun Belt Conference commissioner Wright Waters, whose officials refereed the game won by Nebraska, took calls from Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney and Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg on Thursday.

Waters assured them he would take officiating complaints seriously and would file the required report, ESPN's Joe Schad reported. Waters said officiating in the Sunbelt was "pretty good" this year. A Sun Belt crew worked the Champs Sports Bowl this year with "no complaints," Waters said.

Good. There needs to be accountability when someone screws up their job that badly.

The lesson to be learned is this: Don't go to the freaking Alamo Bowl and you won't have to deal with Sun Belt conference officials. Hell, they're so inept they don't have the email address right for their Director of Football Officials on their homepage.

What a Shocker THAT was....

So wait, Michigan lost a game that they were leading in the fourth quarter, Chad Henne was great at times, incredibly shaky at times, Avant made a few great catches but one big mistake, the offensive line didn't help (albeit a banged up OL), Rivas shanked a field goal inside 30 yards, Breaston was great on returns but completely invisible in the offense itself, the defense was good but not quite good enough, and we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory yet again?? Take out the blitzing and I'd say that was pretty much every other Michigan loss rolled into one.

The Penn State fans can forever shut up now because that was as big of a screw-job as I've ever seen. Though, to be fair they didn't screw us because they were all from Nebraska, or they were Big 12 refs...they were just completely incompetent. NU had a few calls go against them (mainly the flag on the punt return when the guy clobbered Breaston) that probably shouldn't have, but the majority of the doozies were in their favor.

I'm not going to rehash all the horrid calls in this game. God knows everyone saw it. When the play-by-play man says "This is the worst officiated game I have ever seen." you know it's bad.

If they're going to have instant replay in college football then they need to figure out how the hell to use it or get rid of it altogether. My preference is to go to an NFL-system and put the challenges in the hands of the coaches. That way, if something isn't reviewed and it should be, it's the coach's fault for not throwing the flag. It blows my mind that Lloyd could have to use not one, but two timeouts in the second half to get plays reviewed that should have been no-brainers to go upstairs on. And the more times I see the replay, the less I think that Henne actually fumbled. Last night I thought you could definitely make a case for him throwing an open hand, but the angle they showed today on Sportscenter made me think he actually threw it forward.

And the last play...holy crap! That actually almost worked! Made the end of the game really exciting, but how is there not a flag for too many men on the field? Even if you throw one on Michigan as well and have them be offsetting and have the game end, that's fine, but that's just more evidence that those guys were completely in over their heads.

I'll let everyone else break the game down more since I don't have the stomach to watch these losses over again.

Michigan's GLI game is about to get underway and I have a feeling it's not going to be pretty. I suppose we could be alright on offense. They do still have Hensick, Kolarik, Kal, and Ebbett amongst others, and we still have our goalie, but our defense is going to be Michigan Tech-bad (that is a new adjective after watching MTU give up 60 shots to MSU in the opener tonight). Hunwick absolutely HAS to stay out of the box tonight. And he better be ready to play about 35 minutes of hockey. I would also love for Montville or Dunlap to show enough that they can challenge Cook for the 6th defense spot but I highly doubt that's going to happen.

Anyway, I have a feeling there's going to be too much Sertich and Sterling tonight and sadly not enough Hunwick, since he can't play 60. Luckily the Pistons and Heat are on if this one gets too ugly.

God That Lions Win Hurt....

Detroit may have done themselves a big-time favor by beating New Orleans last weekend. Yes, it hurts Detroit's draft position somewhat by winning that game, but in the process, they may have succeeded in keeping Reggie Bush out of the NFC North. Had the Lions won that game, Green Bay would have needed just a loss to Seattle, a Houston victory over San Francisco, and some of the favorites this weekend to win to end up with the #1 pick. As it stands now, Green Bay also needs New Orleans to beat the Bucs in Tampa, with the division on the line for the Buccaneers and that's just more than likely not going to happen.

Faede on Packerchatters put up an exceptional post about the draft scenarios that he's been updating. Basically if most of the favorites win this weekend, the tiebreaker between Green Bay, the Jets, and the 49ers should slide to the Packers' favor. They'll need slightly more to go right in order to beat out the Texans, should the Texans beat SF. As long as the Lions don't upset Pittsburgh, and as long as Kansas City beats Cincinnati the Packers should be in pretty good shape to get at worst a top 3 pick...provided they don't beat Seattle of course.

New Orleans is sitting pretty to get the #1 pick as long as the Texans beat San Fran, which I think they will. Houston has played pretty much everyone tough down the stretch and SF is a pathetic football team. The Saints strength of schedule is so bad, it'd be real difficult for Green Bay to make up that many games (if not impossible). But having the Saints picking 1st and GB picking second may not be that bad. New Orleans' best player is their running back, so they may not take Reggie Bush. They may opt for Leinart instead, being that they don't like Aaron Brooks and it's obvious Boumann isn't the answer. And if they want Leinart, I have a hard time believing that they could feel safe trading down past 2. If Houston wins, it's going to make for a very interesting next few months.

In the meantime, the World Junior Championships are underway, and the Wolverine players are off to good starts. Kevin Porter, who is captain of the USA Team, scored a goal and tallied 3 assists last night as USA won 11-2 over Norway. Chris Bourque was the story with 5 goals. Yikes. Originally I had seen 5-1--6 for Bourque and 1-4--5 for Porter, but I guess things changed. Jack Johnson had 2 assists in the game as well. Cogliano also notched 2 assists for Canada in their opener.

Quick thoughts on the first period of USA's opener (that's all I saw): Jack Skille's goal was just sick. I hope Erik Johnson never makes it to Minnesota (though we're already really lucky that Mueller didn't). I hope Kessel goes pro soon so I can root for him again because I love watching him play. Jack, Erik Johnson, Kessel, and Bourque in a 4 on 4? Not nice USA. Not nice at all.

And not only does the IIHF hate Firefox, but they also have no clue what team Andrew Cogliano plays for. In another link, they said he was playing for MSU, but that appears to have been corrected, unless I'm looking at the wrong link.

The Viking Cup is also going on right now, and future Wolverines Trevor Lewis, Tristin Llewellyn and Steven Kampfer are on the USA team. Lewis had 3 goals in the opener, one in each period. The box score indicates he got ejected for boarding in the second period, but he somehow scored 2 goals after the infraction. Go figure. Maybe this tournament is run by Kush Sports, since in NHL 2k6, you can have a player get seriously injured, but continue playing until the game is over. None of our guys tallied any points in USA's 7-2 win over Germany today. They'll take on the Swiss in 2 days. The USA WJC team takes on the Finns tomorrow. Should be an easy win since I don't think Neil or Tim opted to play.

One last note about our hockey team, yet another recruit for 2007. Aaron Palushaj, a teammate of 06 commit Trevor Lewis, has committed to the Wolverines. Bob Miller indicated that he's a pure goal scorer. Lewis currently leads the team in scoring (ahead of Minnesota uber-recruit Kyle Okposo) with a 19-16--35 line in 26 games. Palushaj has 6-14--20 in 26 games and is 5th on the team.

T-Lew to the Blue

Good stuff on The Wolverine board today. Trevor Lewis, a forward for the Des Moines Buccaneers committed to Michigan over BC and OSU amongst others. He's 6'1" 200, adding to the size-movement in Ann Arbor. They'll have some more stuff after the weekend, but the best part of the thread was when a BC fan asked about how Jack Johnson was progressing. Bob Miller's response:

Johnson was SO good in his first few games that expectations got a little out of hand. He's displayed some typical freshman mistakes, but they're almost always mistakes of commission rather than omission. He's a game-breaker waiting to happen each time he's on the ice. The occasional defensive lapse or overzealous physical play is far outweighted by his strong presence.

Very, very strong chance that he'll be a two-year player, a least. Things have started pointing in that direction over the last month or so. Apparently, Johnson is absolutely loving the college experience and is not all that anxious to give up the opportunity to enjoy his years in Ann Arbor. Also, his father is REALLY enjoying having Jack play at Michigan. Never underestimate the influence a parent can have in pushing a kid to grab the bucks early. I think Jack will receive parental encouragement to "scratch" the "college itch" for as long as he desires.

Even Hunwick, who most thought was a goner next year, may be sticking around next year. Hensick is simply way too hard to read at this point.

Yee! Ha! I had heard all along that he wanted to stay four, and that people would be surprised at what the family would encourage him to do and whatnot, but we heard the 4 year thing out of Komo too. Personally, I'm thrilled we're very possibly getting 2 years out of Jack Johnson. That kid is so fun to watch.

Canada's world junior team knocked off Russia 8-1 (!!!) last night in exhibition play. Cogliano had a goal and 2 assists.

On the other end of the fun spectrum, Rasheed Wallace's cousin was killed in a shootout with cops after an undercover cop bought drugs from him and then identified himself as a policeman.

US Hockey...It's Sad This is the Best We've Got

I don't like our team all that much. I think we're really shaky in net (any of the 3 goalies for Canada could start for our team uncontested). DiPietro is gonna be a good goalie, but he's really not off to a good start this year. The guy they were hyping up before the year (Conklin) has been so bad this year they didn't take him. And Esche has been banged up.

Our defense is pretty good, but there's no way Derian Hatcher should be on that team. Not because I don't think he's a good player, but because they play on ice that's a lot bigger than the NHL sized rinks and slow defensemen are going to be a liability out there. And Derian has never been accused of having any speed. By the same token, I'm not sure how well Chelios is going to do on the big ice, but he's probably the captain so they'd have a hard time leaving him off...

Up front, I can't believe they didn't put Roenick on the team (though he might not have played anyway since he's hurt now...and he's kind of a dick). Apart from Modano though, there's not a real elite talent at forward. Tkachuk has been injured, Weight's been injured. Gionta's having a great year, but I don't know if you can have your go-to-guy be 5 foot 6. They've got a bunch of really nice 3rd line players and role players, but they just don't have the top-notch talent that I think is going to get it done. Who's going to put the puck in the net on this team?

At this point, I'd be very surprised if we even medal. Though re-enforcements are coming. By 2010/2014 you're going to see a much better Team USA, once some of these Americans who have been playing for the US Junior team get old enough to play. Montoya, Howard, Ryan Miller in net, Phil Kessel, Jack Johnson, Jack Skille, Peter Mueller, Erik Johnson. Those are all really high end players that just don't have the experience. Yet.

The World Junior Championships is just getting going, and the US is heavy favorites for the first time ever (we won in an upset a couple years ago). That bodes well for the future of US hockey. But when Lake Superior State is the best represented college on the USA team, you know that your guys are getting up there in years.

Canada's team is just sick. I really think they could make 2 or 3 teams capable of winning a goal medal. When you're leaving guys like Crosby, Shanahan, Belfour, Joseph off the team, you know your country is pretty darn good.

Nice to see a lot of Wings on rosters again, though I don't know how for the life of me Shanahan and Holmstrom didn't get selected. I still can't believe Mikael Samuelsson is off to the start that he's off to. What a great find by Ken Holland (See, I can give him credit).

2 Quick Hits

I'm exhausted so just 2 quick hits tonight.

1) Samkon Gado is done for the year with a torn MCL. That makes 6 Packer running backs on IR and leaves the duties now to Tony Fisher and Noah Herrion (The dude from Northwestern last year, apparently. Ask me if I remotely remember him.) That's just comical. I've never seen anything like this.

2) Went to the Wings game tonight. Shootouts are just awesome. Kudos to the NHL for putting them in, and even more kudos for making sure they won't appear in the playoffs. Datsyuk really might not ever miss in a shootout. Osgood still sucks. And you can't appreciate how hard Mikael Samuelsson shoots on TV. That guy has got an absolute LASER. I have no idea how he didn't break out until now. Loved that Shanny scored so I could hear the jig.

Not Ready For Primetime Players?

Michigan missed a golden opportunity to go Michael Jordan and say "We're back." yesterday, falling to UCLA in a game that wasn't well-played by either team. There wasn't a whole lot of trading baskets going on. It was mostly Michigan run, UCLA run, Michigan run, UCLA run, Michigan run. UCLA had the big one to put them up by double digits and Michigan's valient effort to come back wasn't quite enough.

UCLA's guards were too much for Michigan, and the Wolverines weren't able to find an answer to UCLA double-teaming their bigs. Actually I shouldn't say that. They found the answer--wide open three-pointers--but weren't able to execute.

That being said, I'm not ready to hit the panic button like a lot of people on The Wolverine are. Michigan had a bad game. It happens. Yes it sucks that it happened the first time we played a "real" team, but you can't watch that game and say that Michigan lost because they were facing a more-talented opponent. If Michigan has even a decent day from downtown (and it's not like UCLA had a hand in their face and was making Michigan miss shots) they win that game going away. At one point in the second half, UCLA was 10 of 20 from behind the arc and Michigan was 2 of 18. That's not going to get it done, especially when probably 14 of those 18 were high-quality looks.

Horton was awful yesterday, he and Brown were battling foul-trouble the whole day, Lester still doesn't look like the Lester of old, and our bench (save for Chris Hunter) didn't remotely help. And even with abysmal shooting and a rash of horrid turnovers, if Rockbiter doesn't throw away that outlet pass, Michigan has a chance to cut the lead to 2 with what? a minute remaining?

What was shocking to me was the lack of defense out on the arc. UCLA's guards were getting way too many quality looks from downtown. For a team that prides itself on perimeter defense, we didn't do a very good job for big portions of the game.

But it was a good time at Crisler--nice to see the place pretty well packed even if most of the fans were silent for big portions of the game. I expect it to be pretty well full for most of the Big 10 games, and if/when Michigan makes the Tourney, the fans will come back in droves.

I still think this is a pretty good basketball team, and one that will probably end up in the Top 25 before too much more time goes by. I walked out of that game feeling like that was a game Michigan should have won. And it sucks that they didn't pull it off, but it's nice to watch us take on a top 15 team and have that feeling coming away. It's been a long time since we've been able to say that. If they make open shots, they win. And it forces UCLA to stop doubling the bigs, which opens things up for Sims inside. Instead, the guards were off and the bigs were ineffective. And they still had a pretty darn good chance to win.

It feels good to be able to be excited about college basketball again. Time to regroup and make sure we hit the Big 10 at 10-1. That's what I expected, and it's still very doable.