There will be no dancing for the Michigan Wolverines basketball team this year. A team that held so much promise early in the year as they took down both UCLA and Duke when the Bruins and Blue Devils were highly ranked, Michigan has gone through Big Ten league play with an inability to get it done on the road. They're just 2-5 in their opponents' buildings. Heading into their final four games, they looked as though they would need to win at least three of them to remain on the bubble and in consideration of a low seed in the tourney. But with yesterday's loss to Big Ten doormat Iowa, they have severely hurt their own cause. Their shooting from the floor was dreadfully inaccurate and their defense didn't manage to step up when they had to a protect a four point lead with a minute to play. The 7-0 run that the Hawkeyes went on to start the OT period was just another sign that the Wolverines, a surprisingly good team at the start of the year, are still just on the cusp of being a contender, but haven't taken the next step yet. Analysts say that John Beilein's teams need to be sharp shooters from the outside to contend because of the system he puts in place, and unfortunately, this year's Michigan team has proven too streaky to get the job done on a consistent basis. There's a lot of hope though that the current team will continue to improve and their success will help with recruitment as well.
I've got my fingers crossed that it won't be much longer before I finally see a Wolverines team in the madness that tips off the third weekend in March!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Red Wings Update
I was very pleased to read today that Detroit is going to really step outside the box to try to get Chris Osgood's game straightened out. Rather than try to have him play it out or simply sit him on the bench and hope for the best, they are taking their supposed number 1 guy and giving him a couple of days of not even dressing for games. He is to work strictly with goalie coach Jim Bedard and take some time to get his head straight. They've called Jimmy Howard up from the minors to back up Conklin in tonight's game against Anaheim and they're going to give Howard an opportunity to start against Minnesota on the weekend.
I think this is great from a whole bunch of standpoints. Osgood has clearly not been himself this year and his play recently has been even worse. He's given up bad goals with bad timing and needs to figure things out. This could be a great opportunity to really bear down and focus on what's been the problem and how he can get right again. In the meantime, they're taking a guy who is supposed to be their goalie of the future and giving him some real time experience. The Wings are in a very fortunate position of not absolutely needing wins right now to make the playoffs or lock up position. A game here and there isn't going to cost them anything, but the upside of giving Howard big time experience is priceless in his development process.
This is just another example of how well the Wings organization is run. Great coaching and management over the last ten years is why they've seen so much success. Now we just need to hope that Ozzie can get rolling so that they've got two guys they can trust heading into the playoffs.
I think this is great from a whole bunch of standpoints. Osgood has clearly not been himself this year and his play recently has been even worse. He's given up bad goals with bad timing and needs to figure things out. This could be a great opportunity to really bear down and focus on what's been the problem and how he can get right again. In the meantime, they're taking a guy who is supposed to be their goalie of the future and giving him some real time experience. The Wings are in a very fortunate position of not absolutely needing wins right now to make the playoffs or lock up position. A game here and there isn't going to cost them anything, but the upside of giving Howard big time experience is priceless in his development process.
This is just another example of how well the Wings organization is run. Great coaching and management over the last ten years is why they've seen so much success. Now we just need to hope that Ozzie can get rolling so that they've got two guys they can trust heading into the playoffs.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Catching Up
Clearly I abandoned posting on this blog when life got crazy. A trip to Chicago, a jaunt to Victoria, a Super Bowl bash, and another week later, here I am again! Obviously, a lot happened and I'm going to wax nostalgic on a few points from the weeks gone by.
First, the Super Bowl. What a fantastic game it turned out to be! With Fitzgerald completely non-existent for the first three quarters, he suddenly exploded into the un-defensible wideout for the fourth giving Arizona a chance. Then it was Big Ben's turn to pull off some final two minute magic driving for what turned out to be the winning TD. I still think that the fumble with four seconds left should have been reviewed and overturned leading to one last desperate heave to the end zone, but overall it was great entertainment and it made for a great party!
The NHL All-Star game happened a few weeks ago too. That turned into a ridiculous 12-11 shootout win for the East, which is so many goals that it can't have even been entertaining. I'm glad that I spent most of that game on an airplane and missed all but the last few minutes. In other NHL news, Detroit went through their traditional February skid losing five games in a row, and seem to be turning it around. In solid wins against Edmonton and Pittsburgh this past weekend, the Wings finally showed a little more gumption on defence (if you ignore the third period against the Oilers after they had a 6-0 lead). I'm still a little worried that Osgood continues to struggle so much, but I'm really pleased to see that Conklin has been such a capable backup this year. Hopefully with a little more time to pull himself together, Ozzie will come through when the chips are down late in the season and into the playoffs.
I suppose the most recent news is the revelation that A-Rod was juicing up for a few years when he played for the Texas Rangers. While it comes as a bit of a surprise since he was being held as the hope to clean up the career home run record, eventually passing Bonds' mark, I don't think anyone can be too surprised that another star in Major League Baseball was playing dirty at the turn of the century. Clearly the entire era was a disaster for league and there's still a lot of cleaning up they need to do before all the skeletons are out of their closet. That said, I think I'm of mixed opinion on evaluating the players of the "steroid era" as they fit into baseball history. On one hand, obviously, these guys were cheating and all of their accomplishments should be taken with a grain of salt. However, games change over time, which makes comparison from one generation to the next increasingly difficult anyway. If you look at baseball, the distance of the fences have evolved over time and are now totally inconsistent around the league. Equipment has evolved to some degree as well, with lighter, easier-swinging bats and livelier balls being used. Pitching technique has pitcher use as also evolved, with batters now facing more pitchers each game as specialists and revolving bullpens becoming the norm. If you then also account for pitchers being on steroids and throwing harder, it seems hard to me to compare any statistics from this generation to the past.
The only thing I need to clarify is why I don't feel as strongly against A-Rod as I do against Bonds. I think that the reality of it is that while A-Rod cheated for a few years, he has at least come out and said, "Yeah, I screwed up." Bonds still insists that he did so cluelessly and I just can't buy that. I guess I've managed to discover my moral line ... cheating - okay; lying - not okay. Who knew?!
First, the Super Bowl. What a fantastic game it turned out to be! With Fitzgerald completely non-existent for the first three quarters, he suddenly exploded into the un-defensible wideout for the fourth giving Arizona a chance. Then it was Big Ben's turn to pull off some final two minute magic driving for what turned out to be the winning TD. I still think that the fumble with four seconds left should have been reviewed and overturned leading to one last desperate heave to the end zone, but overall it was great entertainment and it made for a great party!
The NHL All-Star game happened a few weeks ago too. That turned into a ridiculous 12-11 shootout win for the East, which is so many goals that it can't have even been entertaining. I'm glad that I spent most of that game on an airplane and missed all but the last few minutes. In other NHL news, Detroit went through their traditional February skid losing five games in a row, and seem to be turning it around. In solid wins against Edmonton and Pittsburgh this past weekend, the Wings finally showed a little more gumption on defence (if you ignore the third period against the Oilers after they had a 6-0 lead). I'm still a little worried that Osgood continues to struggle so much, but I'm really pleased to see that Conklin has been such a capable backup this year. Hopefully with a little more time to pull himself together, Ozzie will come through when the chips are down late in the season and into the playoffs.
I suppose the most recent news is the revelation that A-Rod was juicing up for a few years when he played for the Texas Rangers. While it comes as a bit of a surprise since he was being held as the hope to clean up the career home run record, eventually passing Bonds' mark, I don't think anyone can be too surprised that another star in Major League Baseball was playing dirty at the turn of the century. Clearly the entire era was a disaster for league and there's still a lot of cleaning up they need to do before all the skeletons are out of their closet. That said, I think I'm of mixed opinion on evaluating the players of the "steroid era" as they fit into baseball history. On one hand, obviously, these guys were cheating and all of their accomplishments should be taken with a grain of salt. However, games change over time, which makes comparison from one generation to the next increasingly difficult anyway. If you look at baseball, the distance of the fences have evolved over time and are now totally inconsistent around the league. Equipment has evolved to some degree as well, with lighter, easier-swinging bats and livelier balls being used. Pitching technique has pitcher use as also evolved, with batters now facing more pitchers each game as specialists and revolving bullpens becoming the norm. If you then also account for pitchers being on steroids and throwing harder, it seems hard to me to compare any statistics from this generation to the past.
The only thing I need to clarify is why I don't feel as strongly against A-Rod as I do against Bonds. I think that the reality of it is that while A-Rod cheated for a few years, he has at least come out and said, "Yeah, I screwed up." Bonds still insists that he did so cluelessly and I just can't buy that. I guess I've managed to discover my moral line ... cheating - okay; lying - not okay. Who knew?!
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