IF YOU AREN’T WATCHING COLLEGE HOOPS THIS SEASON, YOU HAVE NO
IDEA WHAT YOU’RE MISSING!
In what should have
been an easy win in West Lafayette last night, Michigan instead found
themselves in a dog fight with one of the leagues bottom feeders…A Team that
Glenn Robinson III wanted to beat very badly. For those of you who are
A: Not regular basketball fans
B: Basketball fans but don’t know all the ins
and outs of every playerC: Unaware of the fact that Robinson’s Father played for and STARRED for the Purdue Boilermakers back in the early 90’s.
This is for you.
Glenn’s old man advised his son to go to Michigan…Which, wow, I didn’t
get then and still have some difficulty believing. I mean, it’s not like Woody Hayes’ grand kid
going to Michigan or something like that…But its close and GRIII was a big
recruiting coup when JB pulled it off.
Robinson Jr. is revered on the Purdue campus and is
somewhat of a legend. I take that back…HE
IS A LEGEND AT PURDUE! He led the B1G conference his Junior season averaging 30.3 points a game!! HE was the NBA's FIRST OVERALL DRAFT PICK!!! So, yeah, GRIII really wanted to win this game in front of his Dad…But so did the Spoilermakers. I made a comment to the group of fans I was watching with that I wish the cellar dwellers at times would just roll over and do what they are supposed to do - lose with some dignity..but lose! It was one of those heat of the moment comments that a Sparty or a Suckeye fan would make and I immediately regretted it as I know that these are still college kids and they are a resilient bunch – whatever the season record is. I sat there shaking my head and staring in disbelief as everything the Spoilers threw at the basket went in. I think the ball boy hit one from beyond the arc for 3 if I’m not mistaken…(Someone please check the box score for me on that).
Finally, slowly, Michigan ground the deficit down
and finished at half time with a gap of 13.
Not that any Michigan Fan felt good about that.
I had already written the game off to a hang-over let down from sweeping
Sparty. But everyone kept working and
GRIII had a good 2nd half.
When Michigan tied it up with less than 2 minutes to go, I was like, “Okay. It’s 0-0.
It might as well be overtime because that’s how it’s going to play.”
Stauskas had the first play drawn up for him to end
the game in regulation and someone needs to tell the Canadian Kid that just
because he can shoot long threes doesn’t mean HE HAS TO TAKE THE SHOT FROM
WINDSOR! One more dribble and he
probably gets a better look…But then, as Michigan Fans, we wouldn’t have had
what will probably be the most memorable shot of RGIII’s career at Michigan –
barring a similar result in the NCAA’s of course!
Michigan gets a lead in OT, loses it, ties it up
and then it looks dismal when the Spoiler’s go to the Charity Stripe where they
frickin’ haven’t MISSED ALL NIGHT and I figured, “Well, good effort….but you
still screwed this up, guys.” Then, the
Spoiler free throw misses and Michigan has the re-bound.
Michigan time out and draw one up, JB. But, instead of going to the Michigan sure
shot specialist Stauskas, Caris LeVert found the Indiana native in the far
corner! A quick dribble, a drive and a
high shot off the glass that bounced agonizingly around the rim in front of a
full house of Spolier Fans in West LaFayette, including his Dad and his brother
(who – ironically will be playing for Purdue on the football team next season!)… The result of that funny, bouncing orange
leather ball? As the air went out of
Mackey Arena and you could hear a pin drop, save the 12 guys and their coaching
staff wearing Maize and Blue… let’s just say that the result is just another
little piece of Michigan Basketball history that this fan will enjoy watching
over and over! Until the next big shot,
of course! (HT: mgoblog - I couldn't find anything on Youtube - at least not yet)
I’m sure Coach Painter is trying to figure out
why he didn’t recruit GRIII a little harder!
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