Crazy Week to end as Champions

So much has happened since the last time I have written in here, in my life and also with sports.  Since sports is not as depressing, I will stick to that.  The last week of the season saw Michigan’s B1G title hopes drop to near impossible, then back to a little hope, then pure ecstasy.  I will combine the recaps of both the Illinois and PSU games here. 

The Illinois game was pretty exciting for most of the night.  We got a chance to listen to an actual Michigan fan calling the game in Jalen Rose.  We saw Tim Hardaway have his best game of his career, Burke do his usual stuff, Smot set a new best for fouling out in 14 minutes, along with seeing our first win in Champaign since the 90s.

Lets start with the good, Tim Hardaway scored 24 points on 7 shots (yes you read that correctly).  It might have been one of the best performances from anyone in the conference this season, but since it happened against a dead Illini team I guess it doesn’t count or something.  He grabbed 11 rebounds, most of which he pulled down with force.  He drew two charges, had 4 assists, and only 1 turnover. Not a bad night at all.  He took some pressure off of Burke, but Trey still did his think.  He took advantage of Illinois continued struggles with the pick and roll.  He would take the long jumper when Leonard went under the screen, or just go right around him when he tried to hedge.  These two carried the team to a much needed road win.  Smot on the other hand had one of his standard games, fouling out after 14 minutes of playing time.  His attempts to get a quick steal didn’t work out so well, and he found himself on the bench after 4 cheap stupid fouls.  Defensively, Michigan struggled at times in this game.  Since the OSU game a few weekends ago, this team has not put as much effort in on the defensive end.  This will likely come back to bite them sooner rather than later.  They will need to sure up the on ball defense, and for some reason Novak and Burke seem to get out of position more than I ever remember. Regardless, we put another nail in the Illini’s coffin and moved to 12-5 in the conference.

After MSU got man handled in Bloomington, it pulled Michigan within 1 game of a conference championship again.  All we needed was one more win and an OSU win in East Lansing.

Fast forward to Sunday.  Michigan came out playing their best offensive game of the season.  They got up by double digits multiple times againt the Nittany Lions. Eventually they went up by 18 in the second half, and then they got bored.  They allowed PSU to pull with a few possessions at the end, and needed a cold blooded jumper from Novak and an impressive drive from Burke to really finish this game off.  Smot had his best game of the B1G season, scoring 17 points off the bench.  The most important thing though is he didn’t force anything and let the game come to him.  At one point he even gave a shot fake, and as the defender flew by him, he did a little side step dribble to knock down a three.  If he can continue to shoot with that much confidence to finish the season, Michigan will be very tough to beat. 

All that was left was to root for the Bucknuts to dethrone the angry leprechaun.  It didn’t look good for a while.  MSU was up by double digits for most of the first half, but then Branden Dawson tore his ACL and this allowed OSU back in the game. Buford finally showed up in the 2^nd half and took over the game, eventually knocking down the game winning jumper with 1 second remaining.  OSU relies on just letting Sullinger do what he wants on offense too much.  It made them ineffective and predictable in the first half, and it restricts OSU’s talented wings from getting into a rhythm.  This will likely be their demise in the NCAA tourney. 

But in the aftermath… Michigan comes through as B1G champions! For the first time in my lifetime, the Wolverines have a banner year for winning the regular season conference. Wow!  What a job Beilein has done in his 5 years.  Looking back when Zack and Stu were freshman, who would have imagined they would be the anchors to a B1G championship team as seniors. I know I didn’t.  what an amazing weekend and year for the boys in blue!

Go Blue, B1G champs!