...and loses...

I was understandably disappointed in last night's game. Michigan came out firing, and then their defense fell apart. They never really got their feet back under them after Hancock hit those 4 threes. Spike Albrecht (who I thought should've gotten more minutes in the Syracuse game) gave Michigan something they didn't really know they had. Hancock gave Louisville something they DID know they had & could win with.

Michigan never really came back. Hancock's threes seemed to break apart Michigan's D. They weren't playing bad defense before, but it got progressively worse with each dagger Luke Hancock buried. Look at the last 3 in the clip - Jordan Morgan (reputedly a good defender) showed for about half a second, then turned his back on him for some reason and ran into LeVert, who was trying to recover. Why did Morgan switch back there? I will probably never know.

I thought the officiating was terrible both ways but probably affected Michigan a little more than Louisville. A lot of that is on Michigan's players & coach, who I think played & coached in a way that the officiating hurt them more. Still, Burke's 2nd foul (which led to Beilein removing Burke for the last 11 minutes of the 1st half) was a REALLY bad call, and somehow this became Burke's 4th foul:

I can't dunk (not a basketball at least), so I've never pinned a shot against the backboard. I HAVE swatted layups off the backboard though, and few things on the court are more satisfying. The fact that this was called a foul is a damn shame. 

*(not-so)Quick Personal Story - watching that block brought me back to possibly the height of my playing days at MSU's IM West building. I was 21 and living on campus, though I wasn't a student. A couple days a week, between 2-4 of my roommates (who WERE students) and I would head over to IM West (which was easy for a non-student such as myself to get into) & run 5-on-5 full court for an hour or two. We were pretty good. I remember more than a couple of times we won a bunch in a row and held the court for over an hour.

One of the those times, there was a similar group of 5 guys that we played a couple of times & beat down. They had one player that was kind of a jerk. He was about 6 ft, maybe a little under that, had a decent handle and a decent shot. He thought he was all-world, called a lot of weak fouls, and tended to complain about how we were playing (either we were dirty, getting lucky, whatever). The kind of player his own teammates would apologize on behalf of. 

Anyway, we were in a tight game & this guy was bringing the ball up on a semi-fast break. I was trailing on his left, but not by much. He took the ball left for a layup and decided to shoot it with his left (I can't remember if he was lefty or righty). That was a mistake. He slowed down to take the layup, allowing me to catch up. When he let go of the ball, I took off, swatted it against the backboard, and got the rebound. Then I fed it up to our PG and we started our own semi-fast break.

I'm mainly a defensive player, but occasionally my shot is there and I contribute both ways. I've had some pretty sweet blocks, but that one still tops the list, especially since the guy I blocked needed to be taken down a peg or 2. If he had tried to call foul I might've punched him, so I can only imagine what Trey Burke was feeling when the ref blew the whistle.

 Back to the game. I really thought the difference in the game was Michigan's defense falling apart (starting with Hancock going off), Behanan & Dieng on the offensive glass, and Trey Burke only playing 26 minutes. I thought Beilein was out-coached for the first time in the tournament, and that's saying something. He went up against Shaka Smart, Bill Self, Billy Donovan, and Jim Boeheim and held his own. Pitino took him to school though.

Now that the tournament is over, Chad Ford has come out with his first mock draft. Assuming that all the teams pick as they are currently ranked (which almost never happens), the Pistons would pick 5th. With McLemore and Porter off the board, Ford has the Pistons taking Victor Oladipo. This is not a surprise, and they'd be glad to have him.

Other players of note - since underclassmen haven't declared whether or not they're going into the draft, Ford assumed all of them are in. As such, he's got Burke going to New Orleans at #6, Gary Harris at #10 to Minnesota, Mitch McGary at #12 to Portland, and Glenn Robinson III at #15 to Milwaukee. Also of note, he has Glen Rice Jr. (playing in the D-league since being dismissed from GA Tech) going 28th to the Thunder. Glen Rice Jr. is averaging 17.6 ppg (42% from three), so he appears at least to have his dad's shot (he has a younger brother named "G'mitri", so he's also fortunate to have been born first).

The Lions have added Jason Hanson to the "Ring of Honor", which is well-deserved. He also decided to go out in a much classier way than Barry did, which shouldn't be a surprise either. For the draft, the Lions have invited Dee Milliner to Allen Park, and now Chance Warmack. They could be thinking taking the OG in the first round, but #5 is a pretty high pick to use on a guard. Still, NFL.com gives him the highest grade of any player in the draft, and the Lions need a guard as well as a tackle.

I'm feeling a little into the "personal story" thing right now, so I'm going to go back to the pick-up game I played in this past Saturday & indulge myself a little. We play in the upstairs of a church. It's about 1/2 court length, but there are 2 hoops (slightly low, maybe an inch or 2). We play 4-on-4, every shot is worth one, win by 2 to 7 pts, sudden death to 9 pts. It's not exactly Rucker park, but it's competitive and there are a number of guys who can really ball. 

I ended up on a team with three younger guys, I'd put them at 16-22 years young. All shorter than me but more athletic (a couple of them dunk). I'd missed the last couple of months due to being out of town or prior commitments, but since I've been running I've felt more springy in my legs. Being the biggest and the strongest, I ended up guarding the other team's biggest guy (one of whom was probably 3-4 inches taller & 90 lbs heavier).

I kind of put on a defensive clinic. I only took one shot (off a put-back, they never passed to me), which I made, but I made my presence felt on defense. One of the teams had 2 guys that were significantly taller than me, so I spent a lot of time covering 1.5 guys at the same time, plus switching out onto the perimeter a couple of times. I wasn't exactly Scottie Pippen, but I played about as close as I can get to him. It was fun.

Anyway, enough of the glory days of last Saturday. The Tigers are taking on the most overrated team in baseball right now, Toronto. I'm going to the game tomorrow afternoon, which unfortunately doesn't feature a prime pitching match up, but hopefully that means that the Tigers' lineup can tee off.