Three years ago Tim and I did a live blog of the basketball game in mid February. This was in the absolute worse part of the program’s malaise. Just to make sure we could get through it all, we got a 24 and located a half full fifth. By the end of the game all the booze was gone and we were hurling expletives and footwear at the Tommy Amaker we saw on TV. Michigan was never in that game and never really had a chance.

This year, Michigan was favored to win by 4 by the statistical guru Ken Pomeroy. Five minutes into the game I was having flashbacks to the game three years ago. The big difference is that this year I believed that Michigan could come back and win.  Ultimately, it wouldn’t happen, but that was mainly due to Wisconsin playing really good basketball and the officials reaffiirming my hatred for NCAA Basketball officials. Of course, we were watching through maize-and-blue-lenses, and there were bad call both way, but when the officiating is inconsistent enough that there are a lot of iffy calls, and random chance results in most of them going against your team, it’s hard not to get frustrated, especially when better officiaiting would have radically changed the outcome of this game.

A note to the color commentator: not calling a foul when Manny Harris gets hacked going to the basket is not “Big Ten Basketball”.  This is especially true when the next the play there’s a ticky-tack foul at the 3pt line.  Unless the color guy meant bad officiating is “Big Ten Basketball.” It’s OK to criticize poor officiating as a color commentator, and the commentary for NCAA BBall is actually even worse than for football (admittedly, our primary sport at VB).

So with that, Michigan faces off against Illinois on Sunday as a home underdog, and the path to the NCAA tournament gets a whole lot more dicey. At this point, the Wolverines can do nothing to help their case but win.

Posted under Basketball, Football

2 Comments so far

More Blog Post