Official Maize Rage Blog

What’s Coming Up January 5, 2010

This blog has become more of what I call an occasionally-updated site, since I have essentially had zero time to put in my two-cents on the basketball team in the past few weeks (and frankly, I haven’t wanted to write about what appeared to be an overrated, losing team).

But now things are looking a bit different. Not a lot different, but a little bit different. This team should be 2-0 in Big Ten play right now, but Manny and DeShawn Sims were left at the airport on New Years Eve, so the team fell flat without their two scorers at Indiana. Looking at that game first, everybody that boarded the plane played well, but unfortunately for all of us we forgot our two leading scorers and rebounders at the airport, so we got squashed. Both Stu and Zack Novak played outstanding, hitting all sorts of ridiculous outside shots. Darius looked solid, and even Zack Gibson gave us some good minutes. All in all, it was a great team effort, but we were without the bulk of our scoring.

That is why I felt so good about this team’s chances going back to Crisler on Sunday. We all knew that Crisler would be rockin’, and if the team gave us anything to cheer for, we were gonna get behind them 110% and help them out as much as possible. Novak and Douglass once again hit some big 3-pointers, and Manny and Peedi both looked as good as ever. It was the most impressive game of the year, and to add to the excitement, it was against a ranked Ohio State team.

Looking at the next couple weeks, we are heading into the defining portion of our schedule. Every game from here on out is a big one, especially the next three weeks. These next three weeks will set the tone and tell all of us if the team is going to dance for the second straight year. Games against Penn State and Northwestern appear on the surface to not be that big, but it is just as important as any other conference game. Going into conference play I said that we need to go AT LEAST 12-6 in addition to a victory against Connecticut, and I stand by that prediction. Two of those victories must also come against Michigan State and Purdue. We already have one victory against a ranked conference opponent (though they probably won’t be ranked this week), and we need several more to boost the overall resume.

Three of the bottom four conference teams loom in the next 10 days. Penn State, Northwestern, and Indiana are all coming up. Sure, Northwestern was ranked last week for the first time since Lincoln was president, but they should fade fast. Indiana beat us in what was this year’s most frustating game, and Penn State should be our first road victory – no excuses. If we can roll of those three in a row, our conference record will be 4-1 and we will riding a huge wave of momentum. We need all the momentum we can get because the game after Indiana is UCONN. They may or may not be ranked at the time, but a victory is needed, regardless.

From there, road games against Wisconsin and Purdue follow, and then the biggest game of the year is on January 26. What I’m basically saying is that we kind of need to win seven of the aforementioned games. Ok, I can take one loss in that group (prefereably at Wisconsin or Purdue). 7-0 or 6-1 in the next set of games will get us right back into the national picture. Let’s say for a second that we do go 6-1 in those seven games and we lose at Wisconsin (because it is simply impossible for anybody to win in Madison – ask Duke). We grab our first two road victories at Penn State and Purdue (both are possible as long as Jim Burr is not officiating the Purdue game), and we have three more victories against ranked opponents. Two of those would be against top-10 foes, and our overall record would be 13-7.

13-7. Not the best record, and probably only enough to get us into the “others receiving votes” category. But that’s good, because in the past two years we have only won two games when ranked (and I’m not counting Wayne State or Northern Michigan). At 13-7, we would then need to win at least 6 of the final 10 games, but that is much easier said than done. But if we SOMEHOW do that, we would be 19-8 going into the Big Ten tournament and one of the hotter teams in the conference. We would probably be the 4-seed and face a Minnesota or Illinois in the… ok I digress. I’m getting way too far ahead of myself.

What I’m trying to say is that the NCAA Tournament is still very possible. This team is officially beginning to look like what they are capable of, and if they can build on this momentum and gain confidence, they can still be the deadly team they were seen as at the start of the season. So don’t give up hope. We are officially in the most important stretch of the season, and our team is looking as good as ever. It all starts on Thursday night at Penn State. Hold off on the BCS Championship – your basketball team is more important for that one hour in which the two games overlap.

Utah Looms Large December 6, 2009

Sitting at what is now 4-3, we find ourselves more than halfway through the nonconference season with some work to do. Two early losses in the Old Spice Classic and then another L at home to Boston College does not look good, but when you look at the entire season as a whole, none of those are particularly BAD losses. Sure, Alabama may look like a black eye on our resume when it is all said and done, but Marquette and Boston College are both good teams. While I don’t think BC is a tournament team this season, they will definitely be in the conversation and should be a higher seed in the NIT.

Having said all of that, these remaining nonconference games are going to be huge for this team. Utah has already beaten Illinois, and they play in a very tough arena over in the Salt Lake state. After being a bubble team last season, early on this season it looked as if Utah would be one of the top teams in the Mountain West Conference. But with two bad losses to Idaho and Seattle had the Utes reeling. Enter Illinois. The Utes then turned it all around and took down the Fighting Illini in a thriller, 60-58. We now have to go in and take care of business. This is an opportunity to be a good (and thus far, only) road win.

I think Beilein will have the guys ready to go. The three-point shooting is slowly starting to come around, and if we can just play better team defense I don’t think we will have a problem with this game. Considering our team has not been able to put together a really great game yet this year, I think we are due sooner rather than later.

A Look at the Old Spice Classic November 25, 2009

Once again, Michigan finds themselves in an early-season tournament in a field of tough competition. While the Great Alaska Shootout provided little competition two years ago (where Michigan went 1-1), the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament proved to be our coming-out party, as we took down #4 UCLA at Madison Square Garden. This year, it is the Old Spice Classic, with tons of talent across the board.

First up is Creighton, one of the winningest mid-major programs of the past decade. Darryl Ashford is the go-to guy for a team that is rebuilding after the loss of do-everything guard Booker Woodfox. But look out for Kaleb Korver, Kyle’s younger brother who can get hot in a hurry. While he hasn’t produced much so far this season, he is getting plenty of minutes and should heat up as the season goes on. The Blue Jays opened the season with a tough loss against #22 Dayton – showing that they can hang with ranked opponents even in a year where they are supposed to be “rebuilding”. This will be the first close game for the Wolverines all season, but I think we can pull it off.

Next will be either Marquette or Xavier, two teams that are also somewhat rebuilding after losing their leading scorers from a year ago. Marquette loses both Wesley Matthews and Jerel McNeal from their NCAA Tournament team last season. But returning is forward Lazar Hayward, one of the most skilled returning players in the Big East. He is being counted on to produce big time for the Golden Eagles, who lack versatility across the board. Maurice Acker is a quick guard who can knock down 3’s, and Jimmy Butler is a dead-on shooter as well, but it is Hayward who is responsible for everything inside the arc (he also shoots it from outside, too). Xavier, on the other hand, loses Derrick Brown, a versatile player, but gets Jordan Crawford, famous for his dunk on LeBron at the Nike Summer Camp. Crawford is one of the premiere players in the Atlantic-10, averaging nearly 20 points per game so far this season. Terrell Holloway and Jason Love are the unquestioned leaders of the Musketeers, however, as they both fill the box score as well as anyone else in the conference. Frankenmuth’s Brad Redford, Michigan’s Mr. Basketball in 2008 (the year after Manny), is a deadly shooter off the bench, shooting over 50% from beyond the arc this season.

I’ll take Xavier in this game, since Marquette is still trying to figure out how to win without McNeal, Matthews, and former point guard Dominic James. Crawford will also have an advantage against the smaller Marquette guards, which would bring us up against a very dangerous and underrated Xavier team in the semi-finals. Because of Xavier’s size and athleticism, one would think that we would have a tough time against the Musketeers. But if the Wolverines can pressure Jordan Crawford and succeed with the 1-3-1 zone, I still like our chances.

So let’s say we beat Creighton and Xavier/Marquette. That puts us up against Florida State, Iona, Baylor, or Alabama. A betting man would take Baylor or Florida State: the Seminoles are the most athletic team in the tournament, and Baylor has a terrific starting lineup, with former Wolverine Ekpe Udoh solidifying the center position next to Josh Lomers and AJ Walton shoring up the backcourt with LaceDarius Dunn. As fate would have it, I wouldn’t be surprised to see us up against Ekpe and the Bears, which is probably a tougher matchup for us than Florida State. FSU boasts only Solomon Alabi, an NBA prospect with terrific length, while Baylor has two starters over 7 feet tall in Lomers and Udoh. I would be utterly shocked if either Alabama or Iona make it to the finals.

But hey, anything could happen. This is college basketball, where any team can win on any day.

Less than two weeks! October 26, 2009

That’s right, there is less than two weeks left until the start of the 2009-2010 basketball season. As the basketball season inches closer and closer, there is less and less to talk about as we prepare for what is sure to be one of the most entertaining in Michigan history. Just about everything has been exhausted and analyzed, and it’s pretty clear that this should be a Michigan team to remember. Rivals.com listed us at #14 on their pre-season countdown, and Lindy’s has us at #9. Others have us a bit lower, like The Sporting News, which ranks us around #20.

The only thing left to do is play ball. The Maize Rage will be ready to go for that first game against Wayne State, and you can bet we’ll be there in full force once the season gets underway. Other than that, there really is not much else to blog about; however, I will be incorporating other members of the Maize Rage into this blog.