Weekly Update April 22, 2008

Now that i'm done with my final exams i figure i'll post on at least a weekly basis give or take, depending on how my job situation shapes out.

Michigan named defenseman Mark Mitera team captain for the hockey team. Bryan and Packer at mgoblog and the blog that yost built both seem to think this is a good idea, i on the other hand do not. I think that Mitera is not a captain quality player because he does not lead by example, the biggest issue for him is puck handling, he has never seemed comfortable handling the puck in his own zone and leading his team out to the attack from the defensive position, something that guys like Chris Summers and Scooter Vaughn do regularly. He also doesn't get down and block shots like the rest of the team, reminiscent of a problem Jack Johnson had while still playing for Michigan. But of course the biggest problem i have with Mark Mitera is own goals, if he played for the Colombian national soccer team he would have been dead before the end of the season. Two own goals in consecutive weeks, one of them costing the team their big rivalry game against Michigan State. It's just unacceptable in my opinion.

Speaking of State....

The Wolverine baseball team crushed the Spartans at Fisher Stadium this past sunday 27-6 to complete a four game sweep. More importantly, there were at least 2,600 fans at both of the games in Ann Arbor. This should really help Rich Maloney's case for getting Ann Arbor to host an NCAA regional should Michigan make the tournament, i interviewed Maloney before the season started for the Daily and he told me that one of the reasons why they renovated the Fish was so that they could host a regional. The fact that they came within a game of making it to Omaha last year also buoyed hopes as well.

"If we had the Super Regional at Michigan last year it would have been a dream come true," Maloney said. "Our goal has always been making it to Omaha, but this past year, because we came so close, we actually started to believe it."

"We're trying to play as competitive a schedule as our travel limitations will allow us to and that will speak volumes to the NCAA selection committee."

One of the things that he also talked about that day was that only three teams who have made it to the CWS after not hosting an NCAA regional or super regional. Maloney's guys have been making strides lately, drawing 1,000+ for both games of a series vs. Eastern Michigan right after the end of classes. One of the games was a night game as was the game this past friday at the Fish. Clearly night games are going to attract more fans, but will it get them into the clear? The jury is still out.

One thing to remember here is that Fisher Stadium is designed to hold 4,000 people and this past weekend less than 70 percent of the stadium was filled, in academic terms the athletic department is getting a D in their attempts to fill the stands at baseball games. Still if Michigan wins the Big Ten regular season title, they will play the Big Ten tournament at the Fish and that would undoubtedly draw a lot of fans, if not sell the place out. If the Fish sells out and Michigan wins the Big Ten tournament there, then you can punch the ticket for Ann Arbor hosting an NCAA baseball tournament regional.

Hosting these things is key as Mark Rosen, the volleyball coach who hosted a regional at Crisler this past season, will tell you:

"We don't have to travel, and we get more practice time this week. It'll be fun to have our home crowd, and it'll be fun for the players to have their family and friends here to support them."

And when you don't have to travel the jet lag factor that often contributes in losing goes way down.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

c-ya

p.s. i tried that at the baseball game when State swapped pitchers, didn't seem to catch on all that well.

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.

my man papers

I'm finally moving out of the dorms.

M-A-N READ IT.

In spite of that i feel like i'm going to miss things about the dorms, among them:

Food, yes it wasn't that good, but it was available and you don't have to pay for it.

Some of the people are really cool and have very interesting viewpoints and positions within the student body, marching band members, athletes, media, b-school folks, RA's, SOME ROTC folks.

Noise, yes it's a good thing, too much quiet drives me nuts.

Laundry in the building.

Things i'm not going to miss:

People going Jack Murray on the vending machines.

Forced hall activities.

Surveys.

Restricted eating hours.

RHA spam

RHA spam

More RHA spam, I just really hate RHA spam.

spring and summer policy

I'm not going to stop posting in the summer, although i will be posting less frequently. I will probably have a job, and i probably won't have as much time to post either. From now until right before football season i will have probably post about whatever i feel like writing about. Most of it will be sports related, but as you will see today, not all of it.

Thank you, and i hope you continue to read this blog.

A Bitter End

I had two papers due this week and i thought i would cover two games, turns out i would have too many teardrops for one heart to be crying.

Losing that game was the worst feeling i could have at a time like this man. Everything was going cool, and then they give up three goals in the first period. I guess we've learned our lesson, never play Billy in an NCAA tournament game against a team with the initials ND. Sure we made it interesting and forced overtime, but in getting there our team expended so much energy we could not get past there backcheck whenever we got into the Notre Dame zone.

It was a good season, we just came up short. Kevin Porter won the Hobey Baker Award, but it's no consolation for me. I hate losing, and i especially hate losing to Notre Dame. Second to Ohio State, Notre Dame is the team i hate losing to the most. In my opinion they're a bigger rival than MSU because normally i root for MSU when they're not playing Michigan but i can't ever think of a time when i've rooted for the Fighting Irish. Well as an act of vengeance for the hockey team the football team should go into South Bend this upcoming season and blow the Irish out and make them cry 96 tears.

P.S. This is the second time Michigan has left the NCAA tournament at the hands of a Jeff Jackson led team. The Wolverines lost to Lake Superior St. in the second round of the 1994 tournament and the Lakers went onto win the title that year as a fourth seed, coincidence???

Daily Broomball: PLAYOFFS PART 2 a.k.a THE END

We lost.

We lost 8-1.

I picked out the equipment bag before the game. Turned out all the helmets were the wrong size. I don't care what anybody says, that had a factor in the game. True, we were very overconfident going into this game, that was a factor too. But the fact that all of our helmets were either too big or too small really really urked me.

That word urked has been coming up a lot lately in my life. More on that later.

Fact is the season's over and my competitive rage will have to find another outlet for a while now. The Tigers has been loosing without Grandy, Michigan football's not playing, i'm not sure i can count on the Pistons or Red Wings in the playoffs, and i desperately need to find a job soon.

Sorry i haven't posted in a coupl of days, it's a hectic life being a junior at the University of Michigan.

Daily Broomball: PLAYOFFS PART 1

With Jose Bosch being mysteriously absent from the beginning of the game i had to start in goal. Initially i made two saves, and we jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Lindsey Ungar scored in the first minute of the game. Unfortunately in the first five minutes we played mostly in offensive mode, ignoring the fact that there was a girl for the opposing team up front trying to knock anything that came out in front into the net. Their other girl made a shoot in on net, because i was standing up i initially waited for the one in front of the net to make a move first, it wasn't until the ball was at my feet right under the net that it was in danger of going in and if i didn't do something soon it would. I dropped to the ice surface as fast as i could and tried to grab the ball, my inability to get a firm grip on the ball led to it going in the net.

I would spend my next shift on defense.

Ian took over in goal, did a decent job, but we really had to help him. The simple fact was he was not prepared to be in goal, and was sitting on his knees for virtually the rest of the game. Fortunately for us our opponents couldn't elevate their shots to save their lives. Also it didn't hurt that me and Mckenzie Rosman were in the back preventing all scoring chances from becoming fruitful and making sure Ian didn't have to make the save.

We won the game 7-4 with goals from Lindsey, Courtney, Andy Reid, and two from Jason Kohler. The last of which was an empty netter at the last second which i got an assist on, to register my first points of the season. I should have had two that night however. I took a shoot in towards the end of the first half, i somehow got the ball through a crowd of people to Kohler, who was right in front of the net to take a really solid slap shot on it that happened to be gloved by their goalie.

Oh well, we won, that's all that matters.