Beautiful

It's incredibly hard for me to find words that describe the performance of the Michigan basketball team against Purdue without having to dip into some of the great literary geniuses like Shakespeare and Dickens. Shakespeare wrote with eloquence that has been unmatched by any speaker of the English language and Dickens wrote of struggles that any human could go through and live to tell the tale about.

In essence that's what this team is about, it's about beauty and eloquence at home in front of your own fans, and struggle and hardship on the road. The wolverines have been high as Mt. Everest at times this season like when they beat Duke in December, and they have been low as Death Valley as recent as this past sunday when they lost to Iowa in overtime. But they have managed to get through it and for most of this past night they achieved perfection on the hardwood for a program that has been kicked while it was down for the past 11 years.

They've dealt with scandal, shame, probation, bad coaching, and under performing overachievers. But now they have something, something that feels right, it's not perfect but it might be enough for them to see the light at the end of the tunnel. They're hoping it isn't a train, but they feel if they make it out of the darkness they will be ready for whatever challenges may await them, because boy did they go through some stuff in that darkness.

The road to the NCAA tournament is neither completed nor easy for the Michigan Wolverines but it is getting closer to its end, and they will soon find out if that road will get them inside the big dance or not.



according to the daily this was the video they showed the team before the game.


ahhhhhhhhhhhh

c-ya

Anticipation

Laval Lucas Perry makes his debut for the Michigan Wolverine basketball team tomorrow at 4:00 pm at the Palace of Auburn Hills a few miles south of his hometown of Flint. Unfortunately i will not be there, but i hope that i will be able to find a way to watch, due to the fact that i am home for the holidays at my parents house and they do not have cable.

Still i will be rooting for the Wolverines and be trying to keep up with this historic game as it happens.

On You Say Maize I Say Blue last month i predicted that Laval Lucas Perry and Stu Douglass would be the impact freshmen who would lighten the load of Manny Harris this year. I also said that any expectation higher than a winning record overall and a NIT appearance would be unreasonable. The former may still be correct but as a result of the early season play i feel that i underestimated the Wolverines.

I had heard a lot about Perry when he transferred here, i heard he was the kind of player that fit Beilein's system of shooting threes. Of course at the time i was under the impression that the system relied entirely on shooting three pointers and not any sort of mixing it up with inside shots. This year the Coach's system has began to flesh itself out with the three point shot setting up the inside game. Make a few triples and then pound it inside with the backdoor cut has been Michigan's mantra all season, giving them an astounding 7-2 start and upsets over Duke and UCLA.

The most amazing thing about this is that they did this without the player who was supposed to fit the new system. They also did it without relying on Manny Harris to do everything, and while Manny has done pretty much everything on the court at one point or another, he's gotten plenty of help from his supporting cast, which Perry joins tomorrow.

I hope i get to see the game on TV because this game is on as big a stage as one can find in the state of Michigan. The Palace, the home of the Pistons on a road game against a team that made the tournament four years ago, and have challenged in their conference to make it the past two years. Oakland is not a team to be overlooked, they have a loyal fanbase and they will show up hoping that they will replicate something that happened last year, a win over Oregon at the Palace last year. Michigan has to be on the guard, and keep their new guard from messing up in his first game in front of a bigger crowd than he will play against in normal competition. But then again there are so many ways that this game is not normal.

More on Schafer and McGuffie, plus i'll have a GLI preview after Christmas.

ahhhhhhhhh c-ya

MEEEEEEEEEECHIGANNNNN BASKETBALLLLLL

If Mason can show up for a game at Crisler that would be a fantasy come true.

Unlike so many of my esteemed colleagues i was not at the match up between Michigan and Duke in basketball. I did, however watch the game on TV and i was in shock.

That's the best word i can use for what i saw, shock, beating UCLA was nice, but it didn't prove anything. UCLA might be one of the best teams in the nation and they certainly deserve to be ranked, but anybody can forgive them for an early season slip up or two because they have some relative inexperience in the front court with the departure of Mike Love from last year, i guarantee that if Love had not made the jump for the NBA after last season Michigan loses that game. Also i had just seen Michigan lose to Maryland on the road in a game they clearly had a chance to win. They lost by a mere five points and gave up an obscene number of second chance points due to a lack of poise in the defensive rebounding department. I saw them lose a game they could have won had they played it right.

On top of that i saw them squeak by Savannah State in overtime after trailing by twenty points, but i saw this comeback as a positive sign especially after the Tigers upset Bowling Green on the road.

But the real reason for my shock was that the team Michigan was playing had just manhandled a top ten Purdue team in West Lafayette in front of Gene Keady's disciples. They were disciplined and tough, and they didn't make any mistakes that i could easily detect.

Once the game in Ann Arbor began it became clear that this would be different. Michigan's 1-3-1 defense seemed to be poised at shutting down Duke's three point game. Although it had done that in their first meeting the Blue Devils made up for it by picking apart the maize and blue's relative weakness inside. This time was different because it seemed that for once, Michigan was prepared, they got the rebounds off of Duke's missed three pointers, they were able to keep them from driving to the basket with regularity. They didn't shut down the Blue Devils entirely, but who does that.

This defensive showing was just part of what i saw that shocked me from Michigan. They were using Beilien's three-point oriented offense to use the long shot to set up their inside game. The offense would use the threat of the three pointer and the kick out to drive to the basket on the give and go or the backdoor cut and get the lay up or the dunk. In my opinion this was best illustrated by Manny Harris's airplane jam with less than two minutes in the game.



This game was special for a number of reasons, not the least of which was because the court was rushed. Something that hasn't been done since the Ohio State game last year.

But another reason was because i got to see the smirk wiped off of Kyle (Paul Bettany) Singler.



I love Michigan, in spite of its deceivingly hard class, its problems with football lately and the fact that it's in a state where the economy has been awful since the Carter administration. This game was more reason to be reminded of how great it is to be a Michigan Wolverine.

Go Blue

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

c-ya

EKPE PLEASE DON'T GO

If Ekpe Udoh decides to transfer away from the University of Michigan, the basketball team will suffer a setback that could possibly be worse than what happened during the Amaker years. They will be without a defense, which would put the Wolverines in the bottom of the Big Ten they will probably miss out on a golden opportunity to capitalize on playing with a potential great NBA style player in Manny Harris.

Ekpe Udoh is the big ten's leading shot blocker and the only player who can come close to averaging ten rebounds a game. In the poor shooting big ten one of the most important things for a team to do is to have good defensive rebounding. So far nobody else on this team has the inside presence that Ekpe has.

The common perception is that Bieline's offense and three point shot heavy style of basketball there is not much room for Ekpe. This is one of the most false perceptions about the basketball team ever. It is essential that if Bieline ever expects for his style to work at Michigan they will need rebounders and shot blockers, and plenty of them to work within the big ten's style to execute Bieline's.

Finally i would like to say this, if Bieline doesn't get Ekpe to return, he will have made a monumental failure. Not only is he losing a player who can compliment his style, he's losing a class guy who if he transfers he does so for less iffy reasons than virtually every player you see doing it these days.

Ekpe knows he doesn't have the greatest chance at making the NBA, but he does know that he wants to be seen by his family in Oklahoma. As much as it would pain me to see him leave the university, i would understand his reasons. I took a class with Ekpe and he is a respectful, classy, good guy, he doesn't do stupid stuff off the court, and he knows how to correct himself when he does it on it.

My faith in Bieline is shaky to begin with, if Ekpe goes i don't think it will remain there. Please stay Ekpe, for the fans sake, for your team's sake, for your school's sake, and above all for your family's sake, they will be proud of you even if you stay in Michigan.