I have to admit that I do love College Hoops…Maybe not as
much as College Football, but once Football is over and there’s 4 teams left in
the NFL play-offs, it’s either college hoops, NBA Hoops or Hockey for the
sports fan. I don’t start watching
College Hockey until Michigan makes the NCAA Tourney and I don’t watch the NHL
until the Wings make the 2nd round….I will occasionally tune in an
NBA game just to see how good franchises other than the Pistons do it, but I’d
rather watch the college game. So unless
you’re one of those nuts that counts down to the day when Pitchers and Catchers
report…College Hoops it is!
(Which is February 14th, 25 days,
14 hours and 44 minutes away as of the penning of the post..)
Michigan did what they were supposed to do last Saturday
and put Nebraska away handily. I know, I
know, they still stunk on defense, but they were able to outscore the
Cornhuskers anyway.
At the Kohl Center in Wiscy on Tuesday night, Michigan
couldn’t hold on to a 6 point lead with 6 minutes to go. BUT, and that’s a BIG BUT, Michigan
got completely and totally hosed by the refs. I get a little riled up with College Football
refereeing, but I REALLY, REALLY HATE IT when the refs blow simple calls in
College Basketball…And the refs in the Wiscy game blew a lot of them…
For example, the out of bounds call on Michigan with less
than a minute to go had Dakich openly asking, “Wait, What? Uh, Where and when, exactly, was this out of
bounds??” (I apologize to the loyal
readers hoping for a photo. Scouring of
the internet yielded nothing on this atrocity…But atrocities in college hoops
abound on a nightly basis. It is what it
is.)
I’m really glad Michigan gets Dan Dakich as the color guy
most of the time when Michigan is on ESPN.
He has a slight Michigan tilt (due to his kid being on the team) but I
also think he respects the hell out of Beilein.
And I think he gets just as frustrated at the horrible calls as Coach
and Michigan fans do.
But, winning on the road in the B1G is tough. Wiscy was a 10 point favorite and will be
much less of a favorite when they visit Ann Arbor. Forgive me if this sounds familiar, Michigan
is again in a must win situation on Saturday vs. the Illini at Crisler. Gotta happen or things go down hill from this
point forward pretty quickly.
Back to Beilein. I
haven’t seen this much venom for a Michigan coach for quite some time. I don’t get what people all of a sudden are
saying about him as being anything “new” or revealing. Look, Beilein’s approach is to find and
recruit kids that can shoot, develop them and win the 3-point game. I’m sorry if you don’t like that or you’d
rather see a different brand of hoops.
My point is Beilein has been very successful at Michigan and when he
gets the right personnel, his system works extraordinarily well. On top of that: IT’S A LOT OF DAMN FUN TO WATCH!!!
I will take a myriad of guys lighting up opponents for
three vs. watching a team run some set plays down to a goon in the low post
that scores two.
I
know what I like.
And to the naysayers and the “Fire Beilein Brigade”,
I simply ask, “Who you gonna’ get?”
Michigan will have to ask that question regarding Beilein
soon enough, but I really hope they get someone very similar because I don’t
want to go back to a boring, slow pace of play.
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