Saturday, March 24, 2007

The search continues and more

Figure I'd post a bunch of stuff now that the Elite 8 is upon us. Man, there are some good matchups out there. But first some Michigan coaching news.

-Well obviously Tubby Smith is off the market now that he signed with Minnesota. I'm not really upset about him signing with the Gophers, although it adds yet another elite coach into the Big Ten, but I am upset that Michigan is now going to need to compete with Kentucky for a coach. Luckily, it looks like the Wildcats have their sights set much higher in regards to a new coach (i.e Donovan and Izzo). In recent days there's been a new name added to the mix in terms of Michigan's search and it's Kevin Stallings, the Vanderbilt coach. He's led his team to two sweet 16s in the past four years and knows what it is like to coach at a school with strong academics.

-That leaves us with this list of hopefuls: Beilein, Lowery, Kruger, Stallings, Hobbs (yes, he's back in the mix apparently).


The new guy: Kevin Stallings.
The real question is:
Do I want a coach who's balder than my Dad?

-Here's my problem with this whole search. If you were a coach and you had to choose between Iowa, which lost coach Steve Alford to New Mexico (by the way tell me how that makes any sense), why would you choose Michigan? There's no practice facility, a shitty arena, and in general no committment to the sport of basketball. I'm sick of this athletic department parading around like they can just walk into a room, show off the block M and get there way. It just doesn't work that way, especially for a program that hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament in nine years. Michigan needs to get off its pedestal and act more desperate, which is what they are. They should be doing whatever it takes to get the right person in place, and that means making improvements to Crisler, building a practice facility and not being cheap in terms of salary.

-Has anyone looked at these Elite 8 matchups? With such a lack of upsets, these games have instant classic written all over them. Kansas-UCLA? That's a matchup that could be in the National Championship not the Elite 8. The other three games are just as good. Georgetown-UNC, Florida-Oregon, and Ohio State-Memphis, God damn that's awesome. I've got UCLA, Georgetown, Florida and Ohio State winning...but not in my bracket...I had Texas A&M going.

-How in God's green earth did the officials miss that travelling call on Jeff Green? That is the worst officiating miss in a big game I've maybe ever seen. He was like running, it wasn't even close. And then when the replay ran during the next game, Billy Packer was still saying Green didn't travel, even though they were showing the highlight in slow motion to emphasize the travel. I actually didn't hate Billy Packer before this (unlike others, most notably Bill Simmons) but c'mon. Green travelled and Vandy should have won that game.

-I'm not that upset that the Wiz kids are about to lose the division lead in the Southeast to the Heat, but I just really don't want them getting into a series with the Heat in the playoffs. The bottom line is that they simply just can't beat the Heat. They can get by anyone else in the East, but not the Heat. What sucks is that this would have never happened had the Wiz been healthy. Ever since that dynamite December and January, they haven't had the Big 3 together for more than one game at a time. First Antawn went down, and now Caron is on the shelf. Hopefully Caron comes back in the next week or so, and the Wix regain their footing. I know nobody wants to face the Wizards because when healthy, they are part of the East's elite. After losing to Golden State last night, it's pretty important that they close this West Coast trip strong. Two wins would be nice, but one is more realistic.

-Wait a minute. Hold the phone. They caught pro wrestlers using steroids! I'm shocked. And appalled for that matter. I mean who would have ever thought an organization whose CEO (Vince McMahon) also uses steroids would have employees who use them too. This news was worse that when someone told me pro wrestling was fake in fourth grade. Ughhh I'm just digusted.


Sting is the only one I can really trust anymore

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