The Undiscovered Country

(MLive)
Villanova 79, Michigan 62
When your only tool - or even your primary tool - is a hammer, all you see are nails, and your only solution is to hit them.
Outside of the unicorn game against Texas A&M in the Sweet 16, Michigan fans - and coaches - kept waiting and waiting for the three-point shooting to show up in the NCAA Tournament. "Houston's going to be a tough game if they shoot the way they shot against Montana." "Gonna have to shoot better than this in the regional." "Gotta make shots to beat this Loyola team." "The A&M offense has to show up on Monday."
It was. They didn't. They barely did. And it didn't.
As Michigan fans, it often feels as if the walls are in a constant state of closing in around us. The hockey team is back in the Frozen Four after wandering in the wilderness for a few years. Jim Harbaugh is the football coach, and three years in we are still in desperate search of a quarterback and an offensive line.
But perhaps the most dystopian factoid is that not only did Michigan's basketball season end on a sour note because the jump shooters never arrived, but they didn't even go out against what had for so many years Beilein's kryptonite. They didn't lose to a massive team that just overwhelmed them on the boards. This wasn't Marcus Lee abusing Jon Horford, or Jordan Bell outmuscling everyone for a critical offensive rebound. Michigan was firebombed in the championship game by a team that looked like a Beilein team on steroids.
Five shooters all over the floor? Guards that can break the defense down and find the open man? Bigs that can break opposing defenses by having range beyond the arc? The most prolific three-point shooting team in NCAA history?
I suspect if you asked John Beilein to draw up a prototype of his ideal team, he'll point you in the direction of the team that just beat him in the national title game.
This feels different than 2013. I was, am, and will remain viscerally angry about the 2013 championship game for a variety of reasons: the officiating in that game was despicably one-sided, with the National Player of the Year receiving an unfair whistle all night. But even worse than that, that game was lost to a transparently corrupt program that couldn't even make it five years without having to vacate the whole thing. The 2013 championship game should have been Michigan against Wichita State. There should be a banner in Crisler Arena that says "2013 NCAA Champions" on it. This time around was just a plain-old ass-kicking from a program that is sterling enough to not soil the banner they're about to put up. I've heard various whispers about the possibly less-than-rigorous standards Villanova has for admitting basketball players into the university; here is the amount of angst I put into that:
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This isn't a flagrantly egregious program like Louisville's 2013 outfit. This isn't a mercenary factory like Kentucky or Kansas who don't even pretend to care about the NCAA's so-called rules. I'm one of those cynics who believe that any amount of sustained hyper-level of success in college basketball carries at least a little dirt. But I have enough respect for Jay Wright and the Villanova program to shrug this one off. Michigan didn't get swindled this time like they got swindled in 2013. Michigan wasn't robbed this time like they were robbed of a Final Four by one of the most renegade programs and one of the slimiest coaches of all time in 2014. If we're ranking recent Michigan tournament losses in terms of outrage, for me, the 2014 regional final against Kentucky is even a hair above the 2013 championship game, if only because if the NCAA was actually serious about enforcing the lame rules it allegedly has, Kentucky basketball would've been Hiroshima'd off the face of the planet decades ago, never to return.
But I digress.
Getting your hats handed to you by a respectable program and a respectable coach still hurts, but this isn't the type of loss that will keep people up at night. Losing on a last second shot feels much worse than getting nuked by a team that plays a style you want your program to emulate.
The pain comes from seeing this uniquely "Beilein" group of kids, cobbled together from a few coat hangers, some duct tape, and a supersoaker, fall just short of the ultimate glory. Beilein struck gold in 2011 and 2012, landing some extremely high level prospects (McGary, Robinson, Stauskas) and coupling them with a couple ace diamonds in the rough (Burke, Hardaway). When those results paid off, Beilein tried to aim higher in recruiting. The result? Identifying Devin Booker and Luke Kennard before anyone else, and then watching Kentucky and Duke swoop in and scoop them up. There was serious consternation that Beilein had made several egregious recruiting missteps that helped put together a super class for Tom Izzo: in some form or another, to some degree, decisions made by Beilein in recruiting helped put together the Cassius Winston/Miles Bridges/Josh Langford class at MSU.
Those guys sat at home while Beilein went to the Final Four with a D-3 transfer, a 3* Pennsylvania kid with offers from Rice and George Mason, a Kentucky castoff, and a lanky German kid who Beilein recruited incognito.
One of the more high profile recruiting misses after the 2013 Final Four was the point guard who just won Player of the Year for Villanova. The nominal "story" was that Jalen Brunson didn't want to come to Michigan and sit behind Derrick Walton for two years. This is very unfair, but it's hard not to imagine what this year's Michigan team would've looked like with more production from the point guard spot. Don't get me wrong, I love Zavier Simpson. One of the most tenacious defenders you'll ever see, and for my money the on-court architect behind Michigan's defensive resurgence this year. May he spend the next two years haunting Cassius Winston's nightmares.
But it was painful watching him in San Antonio. Michigan has been by-and-large blessed at the point guard position since Darius Morris was a sophomore seven years ago. Linear thinking suggests that going from Morris to Burke to Walton should have established a decent enough reputation that some really good players would've been beating down the door to play PG for a Beilein team.
Zavier Simpson is a really good player - on defense. Offensively, his struggles were one of the many factors that held this team back. But even belaboring that point is largely irrelevant. Michigan didn't lose to Villanova because their point guard can't shoot and seemed paralyzed by indecision in San Antonio. They lost because they played the best team in the country with assassins all over the floor.
Maybe one day Michigan will be the assassins.
Until then, it remains the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveler returns.

Sometimes The Bear Gets You

March 20, 2011, Round of 32: #1 Duke 73, #8 Michigan 71

 

March 29, 2013, Sweet 16: #4 Michigan 87, #1 Kansas 85

March 30, 2014, Elite 8: #8 Kentucky 75, #2 Michigan 72

In three of the last four seasons, Michigan's season has come down to one final shot in the dying moments. That's actually pretty astonishing when you think about it. All the chaos and moving parts of a basketball game, boiling down to one shot on three separate occasions in three separate games. All three involved different circumstances, and a Michigan program at different stages of its evolution. Three years ago, Michigan was a scrappy outfit that eeked into the tournament with duct tape and paper clips holding itself together. They got hot down the stretch and played themselves onto the right side of the bubble, and proceeded to nuke Tennessee into the Stone Age in the first round. Their reward was staring down the specter of facing a 31-4 Duke team that was looking to defend its national title - in Charlotte, no less. Michigan hung in for a half, but midway through the second half, Kyle Singler converted a three point play to put Duke up 58-43. The feeling of inevitability began to sink in that Michigan's Gritty McGrittersons just didn't have enough against Duke's team of 4/5 star McDonald's All-Americans.

Less than two minutes later it was 58-52 courtesy of a mostly Darius Morris-fueled 9-0 run. Duke managed to keep Michigan at an arm's length until Tim Hardaway Jr's three made it 70-69 with 90 seconds to go. It was 73-71 with 10 seconds left when Duke's Nolan Smith missed the second of two free throws, setting the stage for one final chance for Michigan's upset bid.

What ensued was one of the more heartbreaking moments (until today, I suppose) in recent Michigan history: the image of Morris's floating jumper from just inside the foul line hitting the back rim and bouncing out, followed by Morris pulling his jersey over his face, if only to hide the anguish for a few moments. The difference between overtime and elimination was a few inches. The difference between the end and continuation of Darius Morris's Michigan career just that close.

Just over a year ago, the Duke script nearly repeated itself, at least in terms of the game that was played. Last year's Michigan team was in a much, much different place than the one that put a psychic terror into Duke's hearts two years prior. That Michigan team finished 21-14, and an 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament is in the lower tier of bids that "big" conference teams get. Last year's team was 28-7 headed into the Sweet 16 against #1 Kansas, and had been closer to the discussion of being a #1 seed than they were to the bubble. College basketball is similar to other sports though, in the sense that when you're not one of the elites in the sport, going up against one of them seems daunting, no matter what. There's an intimidation factor that accompanies the aura that goes with teams like Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, Carolina, UCLA, or a few others. It's something that obviously has a bigger effect on the fans than the actual coaches or players, so when Kansas began to assert its dominance, many of us groaned, and felt it slipping away when Kansas got it to 68-54 with under 7:00 left.

But Trey Burke wasn't on that 2011 team that came to the brink of erasing a 15-point hole against Duke only to fall short. Nobody told him that to try and fight back when one of the heavyweights hits you with a right cross was a fool's errand. That's part of what makes his shot to tie the game in the final seconds so legendary: it was the audacity of it. To cap an already-improbable comeback with that shot against that team with that amount of time left defies words, even 366+ days later. A couple inches to the left or right, or if Burke had put just a little too much oomph into it and caused it to rattle in and out, and last year's Michigan team is remembered as a team that started the season red hot only to finish 4th in the Big Ten and lose in the Sweet 16. Instead, on the weight of one shot, in one moment, Michigan lived to vanquish Kansas in overtime, firebomb Florida in the Elite Eight, outlast Syracuse in the national semifinal, and come to the precipice of a championship before Louisville beat them to the finish line. The difference between national runner-up and a Sweet 16 exist cannot be accurately quantified, but it's enormous nevertheless.

Basketball, perhaps even moreso than the other sports, is a fickle, flaky, unfair dame, subject to the whims of men not engaged in the game but mere observers, often influenced by the psychotic ramblings of the masses, in between spits of Skoal. What's the difference between Julius Randle lowering his shoulder and driving it into Jordan Morgan's chest, drawing the foul on Morgan, and Caris LeVert giving a little nudge with his forearm, only to get called for the charge? The answer is there is none, other than whatever asinine rationale the officials who made the calls decided. What's the difference between Marcus Lee's putback slam in the first half that was blatant, flagrant, and obvious offensive goaltending, and his putback slam in the second half that was actually closer to being legitimate (though still illegal)? The answer is nothing; there was no difference, except the referees called one correctly, and ignored the other.

This was not a foul:

And neither was this:

 

(HT to Dustin Johnston (@DJPhotoVideo) for the last two images)

But if you ask Kentucky fans about yesterday's game, they will say the officiating was poor all-around, and Michigan fans have no business complaining about not getting a fair whistle.

And despite all of the above, today came down to, once again, one final shot. Unlike the first two, a miss would not have meant victory or defeat for either team, but overtime instead. And unlike the first two, it wasn't Michigan taking the shot this time. Instead, we could do nothing but sigh, hang our heads, and shrug helplessly as we suffered a dagger even greater than the one Burke plunged into the hearts of Kansas a year ago. Michigan didn't do anything wrong on the play. Harrison wasn't wide open. He didn't get to the rim while Michigan deployed its all-too-common matador defense in the lane. Michigan gave up a deep, contested three from a sub-35% three-point shooter; if you asked Beilein before the possession if that was an acceptable shot to allow, he would've taken it every time. Sometimes, the bear just gets you, and there's nothing you can do about it.

I'm going to say what's on my mind next at the risk of incurring the wrath of one of America's most insufferable, intolerable fanbases: I fucking hate Kentucky. I don't have a single shred of respect for John Calipari, the program he coaches for, or the psychopaths who march in lockstep with him simply because he wins. I'm hoping that this whole Northwestern football union thing does lead to college athletes being paid, if for nothing else than to bring some sort of level to the playing field that serpents like Calipari currently take advantage of. And I'll never respect a fanbase that spent years denigrating and hating the man when he was at Memphis, only to magically lose their voices when he changed to their shade of blue. I'm also not interested in hearing any apologists who take the "what has he ever been convicted of" route. Yes, it's just a coincidence that both UMass and Memphis had to vacate Final Four seasons after Calipari left. He certainly had nothing to do with any of the misdeeds that went on at either school, he just had bad luck. And he certainly plays by the rules without exception at one of the dirtiest programs in the history of college sports. Kentucky basketball is the equivalent of Ohio State football: both programs fell into a rut that they were no longer willing to stay in, and they placed their programs into the hands of used car salesmen who both have a history of turning a blind eye to the cheating that happens under their watch. Kentucky basketball is one of five programs in the history of the NCAA to receive the death penalty for being flagrant, unrepentant cheaters. But we're supposed to believe that their unprecedented success in recruiting is just a result of Kentucky's gravitas as a program (built on a foundation of cheating) combined with Calipari's personal charisma and previous successes (since erased by cheating). A morally bankrupt coach and a historically corrupt program teamed up and somehow negated each other's filthiness, thus creating some lily-white pure-as-the-driven-snow outfit? Please.

So yeah, this loss burns the shit out of me. "U mad"? Bet your ass I'm mad. I'm pissed. The window for a team like Michigan under John Beilein is miniscule. Beilein doesn't have the ability to buy off the next five star when he loses a player to the pros. His talent pool is reduced before he even begins recruiting because so many kids have parents, AAU coaches, and handlers going all over the country with their hands out, looking for the payoff that so many programs are willing to give. In college basketball you're only as good as your next recruiting class, and that makes Beilein's margin for error even smaller. Beilein spent years recruiting Devin Booker and Luke Kennard, and five minutes after Kentucky and Duke called, Michigan was an afterthought. And now with Stauskas almost certainly leaving, Robinson probably leaving, and McGary possibly leaving, that window gets just a little tighter, making kids like Jalen Brunson and Jalen Coleman even more important recruits than they already were; making a redshirt like Mark Donnal all the more pivotal, starting as early as next year; making it even more crucial that recruits like Kameron Chatman, DJ Wilson and Ricky Doyle pan out into great players.

This was a great, great season. Losing two first round picks to the NBA, followed by losing one of the best big men in college basketball, only to respond to all that by winning the Big Ten by three games and returning to the Elite Eight makes this perhaps John Beilein's best coaching job yet. But having to send off a warrior like Jordan Morgan, and seeing the likely end for Stauskas and Robinson by losing to that gangster and his mercenaries is a pill that is just a bit too sour for me to properly digest at the moment.

So Long, Lonesome

NCAA Championship: Louisville 82, Michigan 76

Explosions in the Sky - So Long, Lonesome .mp3

Found at bee mp3 search engine

There's a reason storybook endings are confined to the pages on which they're written and the imaginations in which they're conceived. In real life, someone's happy ending is someone else's tragedy. It's a zero-sum game. There is no pot of gold at the end of everyone's rainbow. Somebody inevitably gets stuck in the rain.

The storybook ending for Michigan basketball would've involved the final chapter of a lengthy, sordid tale; a 20-year drift through the wilderness that finally came to an end while the ghosts of Final Fours past watched from afar as the current team tried to cement their own legacy. The end of their story is a bittersweet one, and our hearts are currently some degree of broken. But eventually - whether it's tomorrow, the next day, next week, next month - our pain will subside, and we will fully appreciate the ride these kids took us on. At their best, they were a breathtaking display of execution. At their worst, they were a muddled mess of errors and youthful mistakes. Missing free throws to lose the Big Ten title on their homecourt against Indiana hurt them a hell of a lot more than it hurt us. But we don't get to see those moments. We didn't get to see the locker room after that loss to the Hoosiers. We just had ourselves, and the worst of human nature. The rage on Michigan's Rivals site whenever something goes wrong is visceral and ugly. The fans' version of their "worst" involves profanity-laced rants calling for coaches to be fired, players to be run off, and other senseless ramblings of people tapping into the inner psychopath we all know we have.

For the team we pour our hearts and souls into, their worst is showing up in a hornets' nest in East Lansing and getting their heads caved in. It's letting Wisconsin drag them down into the gutter and pulverize them like only Wisconsin does, the ugliest form of "winning" basketball that anyone could possibly draw up in their worst nightmares. For us, the fans on the outside, we cannot sway these events, or influence the way things unfold. We have our superstitions, our prayers to sports-related deities and otherwise, but ultimately, we are powerless, and all we can hope for is that those we cherish so dearly make us proud, and give their best.

Last night, Michigan's basketball team gave their best. We can nitpick, complain about some players having a rough game, the defense having not nearly enough answers, and the officiating being inconsistent at best and abhorrent at worst. But when all the analysis is complete, the truth sets in. Michigan shot 52% from the field, and Trey Burke left his heart on the court in Atlanta, but Michigan's best just wasn't as good as Louisville's best. It would've been one thing if they had gone out there and fallen flat on their faces and gotten run out of the gym, disgracing themselves and the stage they found themselves on. But that didn't happen. They showed up, teeth bared, ready to fire. They came up a few points short against the #1 overall seed in the tournament, coached by one of the best coaches of all time.

God knows I haven't been immune to the lunacy that captures us as fans. I've ranted and raved too, and even penned a piece on this slice of the internet after the ghastly 2010 season finale in East Lansing, wondering if Beilein had reached his ceiling as Michigan's coach.

Three years later, if you were to conduct an opinion poll of the Michigan fanbase, I can't imagine a scenario where John Beilein's approval rating dips below 90%.

The tournament is an imposing creature. Success is rarely, if ever, measured by having the crystal basketball at the end of the Monday night in April. If Michigan had triumphed last night, Louisville fans wouldn't be deeming their season a failure. Michigan State fans didn't toss their 2005, 2009 and 2010 teams by the wayside because they came up just a bit short. They celebrate those teams, and hold them in the highest regard. Because they realize what I hope all Michigan fans realize: there's a reason even the bluest of blue bloods in college basketball celebrate and raise banners in honor of Final Four appearences. Because being the last team standing when the tournament ends is one of the hardest things to accomplish in team sports. Go look through the history of the NCAA tournament, see some of the droughts the titans of the sport have gone through in regard to winning it all.

Duke made eight Final Fours before finally winning it all in their ninth appearence in 1991. After repeating in 1992, they had to wait another nine years before winning again, and another nine after that.

North Carolina went 25 years without a championship until Jordan's shot in 1982. They then went another 11 years until beating the Fab Five in 1993, and a dozen more after that before their next title in 2005.

Kansas, one of the Meccas of the very sport of basketball, has all of three national championships. They had to wait 36 years to get their second (1952-1988), and another 20 years for their third.

Kentucky won four national titles in a 10 year span from 1948-1958. They have four total in the 55 years since then, including droughts of 20 years (1958-1978), 18 years (1978-1996), and 14 years (1998-2012).

UCLA, the last true "dynasty" of the sport, went 20 years without a championship after John Wooden retired, and are currently on an 18 year drought since that last one in 1995.

Indiana, the only "basketball school" in the Big Ten, hasn't won a championship in 26 years.

Every other sport has teams that don't expect anything less than a championship. The Red Wings have won four Stanley Cups in the last 16 years, but even I often dwell on 1995, 1996, 2003, 2007, and especially 2009. The pressure on that 2009 Wings team was immeasurable, and they finally couldn't withstand it at the end. In the NBA, fans of the Lakers have been disappointed with every season that doesn't end with a championship for over 30 years now. Ditto the Spurs for the last decade and a half. Ditto the Heat now. In baseball, George Steinbrenner single-handedly built an atmosphere in New York where anything short of a World Series title was unacceptable. The Patriots haven't won a Super Bowl in almost 10 years now (!!), but they still measure themselves up to that standard they set in 2001, 2003, and 2004. Even in college football, Alabama's upcoming season will be deemed disappointing if they don't three-peat. USC's teams that won a dozen games and ended the year by shredding a Big Ten team in the Rose Bowl still left a bitter taste in their fans' mouths because they never returned to the top of the mountain like they did in 2004.

In college basketball, that is hardly ever the case. Can you name a team and a season where the mindset was "win the national title or your season is a failure"? The only two examples that come to mind for me are 1991 UNLV and 2007 Florida, both of which carried the burden of having the expectation of repeating as champions because the entire team returned from the previous year. The 2007 Gators lived up to that expectation. The 1991 Rebels won their first 34 games and lost by two in the national semifinal to Duke in what's regarded as one of the biggest upsets in tournament history. Think about that: DUKE winning a game in the Final Four was seen as a colossal upset. That's how massive the burden was on UNLV. They weren't supposed to even be challenged by anybody, let alone beaten.

Outside of those rare examples, your season is automatically a smashing success if you get to the Final Four. And for Michigan, this is a season for the ages. Why?

Because we remember the Ellerbe years, when Michigan had MAC-level talent on the floor.

We remember the indignity of watching Tom Izzo run up the score against Michigan on Mateen Cleaves' senior day.

We remember multiple 40-point losses to Duke.

We remember the shame of having those banners come down; the darkest point in Michigan history. After that there was a time when I couldn't even bring myself to tell people I cheered for Michigan basketball, it was that tarnished.

We remember starting 16-3 in 2006, thinking that Daniel Horton, Dion Harris and Lester Abram were finally going to get us over the hump - only to lose six of eight down the stretch, no-show in the Big Ten Tournament opener against Minnesota, and spend the postseason in the NIT. Again.

We remember the Amaker era being personified as Senior Day in 2007 against #1 Ohio State wound down and Harris and Courtney Sims turned to mush.

We remember losing 22 games in Beilein's first year, culminating with a loss to Wisconsin in the BTT in which they scored 34 points - total. An offensive performance that made the 2004 Pistons look like Showtime.

We remember that euphoria of finally, finally making the tournament; something so basic and so commonplace for so many teams was the greatest thing in the world for us.

We then remember the erratic faceplant of a season that followed, when it seemed like Manny Harris was really, really tired of playing for Beilein at times.

We remember the turning point of the program, that snowy, blustery night in East Lansing, when a team on the brink rose up to slay the dragon with Stu's three. Before that game, Michigan had lost six in a row and had a precarious 11-9 record, 1-7 in the conference. Since that win in East Lansing, Michigan is 63-23, 32-14 in the Big Ten.

We remember taking the sledgehammer to the walking ghost Bruce Pearl in the first round of the 2011 tournament, and then the heartbreaking image of Darius Morris pulling his jersey over his face after his last second floater against Duke rimmed out. And then the insult to injury when we learned that that would be the final time we saw Morris in a Michigan uniform, and the fear that any progress we had made would be lost because our star point guard was (foolishly) leaving early for the NBA.

We remember desperately clinging to the recruitment of kids like Nate Lubick, Casey Prather, Russell Byrd, and Trey Zeigler. I in particular was crestfallen when Zeigler picked Central Michigan. I (along with a large portion of Michigan fans, I believe) always had serious doubts about the appeal of Beilein's system to true difference making recruits. They said Beilein's offense wouldn't prepare you for the NBA. So every high-profile recruit Michigan was in on seemed like the biggest deal in the world, because it felt like the "sleeper" types like Novak and Douglass and Horford and Morgan were the norm.

We remember this scrawny three-star kid from Columbus coming in and having to fill D-Mo's shoes - and leading Michigan to its first conference championship in a quarter century. And then even that seemed to go up in smoke when Michigan lost to Ohio and it appeared that Trey Burke was going to bolt after one season. In the chaos leading up to Burke's final decision, Michigan secured the commitment of some 5'11 3* white kid from Indiana who called himself Spike for some reason.

And now, at long fucking last, through all the drudgery and chaos...we will remember the Final Four. We will all remember where we were when Burke hit The Shot against Kansas, and how confident we felt when Stauskas released his fourth....fifth....sixth three against Florida. And that euphoric tidal wave of adrenaline when Jordan Morgan pulled away for the dunk that finally vanquished Syracuse.

And yeah, we'll remember the frustration and disappointment of the title game. But while we're doing that, think about our enemies, too. Michigan State, Ohio State and Indiana were all sitting at home watching while Michigan played for a national championship. And only the most meat-headed neanderthals among them could possibly bash Michigan for losing. The sensible among them will respect the effort.

History as a whole largely forgets the runners-up, and this Michigan team deserved a better fate. The makeup of this team was unique and enjoyable: a three-star undersized point guard who won literally every Player of the Year award; a three-star shooting guard with a famous name who ended up at Michigan only because Casey Prather picked Florida; the three-star wing with another famous name who blossomed into a five-star super-athlete well after Beilein identified him; the five-star big man who took the leap of faith and turned down the establishment of the sport and put his faith in a coach and program in which he saw potential; the three-star nobodies off the bench who weren't viewed as big-time players, aren't ideally sized, were almost redshirted, etc...and then played significant roles in shooting Michigan into the title game.

Burke will be gone; we've known that since he announced he was coming back one year ago today. Hardaway will likely join him; not because he's going to be a high draft pick (honestly, I don't see much more than Manny Harris out of him in the pros), but because he's maxed out on his potential in college. If we're particularly unlucky, McGary and/or Robinson may make the jump too. Both of them would help themselves immensely by returning, but as we've learned in the recent past, college kids don't always make the proper choices for their future.

But regardless, Michigan has finally reached the point as a program where losing players doesn't automatically equal death. You don't lose the Player of the Year and not take a step back, but Derrick Walton is the absolute truth, and is the most talented point guard (coming out of high school) that Beilein has recruited. After seeing how the last two blossomed here, there is essentially zero doubt in my mind that Walton will star.

For the longest time, Beilein was compared to Rich Rodriguez by the more cynical among us. At times it seemed like he just didn't understand what you had to do to succeed in this conference. But somewhere along the way, probably with the assistant coach shuffling a couple years ago, Beilein was able to adjust to the Big Ten's style of play, and he has now built a program with staying power. That light we see in the distance is no longer a train bearing down on us, ready to steamroll us into oblivion. Now it represents the beacon of hope that exists on this new frontier we find ourselves on the precipice of. 20 years after they broke up, the Fab Five still loomed large over Michigan basketball. The memory of their two-year run and the specter of the sins committed still lurked in the corners of Crisler, the ghost in the machine that seemed to place a ceiling on where this program could go. The trangressions of Webber and his successors Traylor, Taylor and Bullock stained the university to the point where the higher-ups at Michigan opted to place their own basketball program in a form of exile; almost a sense of crushing the institution in order to discourage any future dabblings in the muck that got them into the gutters in the first place.

Last night, with the Fab Five - all of them, as Webber finally emerged - looking on, even while coming up just a bit short, Trey Burke and the Wolverines closed the book on the Fab Five chapter forever. The future that lies ahead no longer has the ghosts of Wolverines past hovering overhead. The final score last night did not end in our favor, but the last three weeks have been bigger than the scoreboard. They've been a catharsis; an exorcism; a cleansing of the palate so that we can finally enjoy the future instead of fearing it. They will return to Ann Arbor as champions, and they will send a banner to the rafters that will never, ever come down. Ever.

And when the heartache from last night fades, we won't be sad that it's over, but will instead be happy that it happened. And we will be prideful. We will hold our heads high and be proud that we can tell people we cheer for Michigan basketball. Because last night, even in defeat, it was great to be a Michigan Wolverine.

Requiem: The Detroit Duo

DeShawn Sims

Small Forward/Power Forward, 6'7, 222
Detroit, Michigan; Pershing High School
Rivals: 4 stars, #6 PF, #31 overall
Scout: 4 stars, #9 SF, #44 overall
Committed to Michigan - August 12, 2005

Corperryale "Manny" Harris

Shooting Guard, 6'4, 170
Detroit, Michigan; Redford High School
Rivals: 4 stars, #6 SG, #34 overall
Scout: 4 stars, #12 SG, #57 overall
Committed to Michigan - July 10, 2006

It was clear after the 2008/2009 season that, eventually, an ode to Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims would be necessary. Just like Mike Hart, Chad Henne, and Mario Manningham in football, the Detroit Duo left a mark on the program that is worth remembering, recollecting, and recapping.

Unfortunately, as per the usual in our wretched M existences now, what appeared to be headed for a storybook ending ended like that stupid Nicolas Cage movie. Which one? I don't know, there are a lot of them like that. But what looked like a story of redemption in the wake of backdoor cuts against UCLA and drives through the lane for dunks against Duke ended with putrid, ghastly, abortions in 2009/2010, and the image of Evan Turner strutting off the court in Indianapolis as Thad Matta screamed and flailed like a chipmunk on uppers.

Neither Manny Harris nor DeShawn Sims signed on for what they got. Both committed to play for Tommy Amaker, and ended up with John Beilein. But unlike those with prophets for parents and those who didn't "fit", Manny and DeShawn stuck around and took us for a two-year roller coaster ride. Erratic at times, dominant at others, they were the closest Michigan's had to "elite" basketball players in some time. And for flashes over the past two seasons, they showed things that Daniel Horton and Dion Harris and Courtney Sims never could - the ability to excel under pressure. My lasting image of Harris and Sims is one of a complete breakdown in basketball fundamentals at the end of the 2007 regular season against the Greg Oden/Mike Conley Buckeyes - a game Michigan had no business being in, but was in nonetheless, until they displayed all the characteristics that made the Amaker era infuriating. Missed free throws, blown dunks and layups, and a 10-0 run in the final minutes by Ohio State to beat Michigan 65-61.

It would've been easy for DeShawn and/or Manny to hit the road once John Beilein arrived. As Michigan fans, we've gotten used to hearing the whole "Oh, he doesn't fit the system" thing in both basketball and football. But I think it's a testament to both Beilein and Sims and Harris that they both stuck around and did their best to make it work. In the end, Beilein's a basketball coach, and Sims and Harris are good basketball players. It's not cut and dry like football. But I don't want this to be one of those posts. I probably made a mistake by mentioning football anyway. This isn't what this is for. This is for fondly remembering #3 and #34.

DeShawn, the mild-mannered, always-humble one who never seemed to fit into either the small forward or power forward position. Sometimes he was unstoppable, especially when his jump shot was falling. Often times, he was our only real threat on offense, and most times that was a burden that was too much to bear. When asked to set up shop in the paint, he was hit or miss. He was never a dominant finisher at the rim, often missing simple layins, rarely finishing with an emphatic dunk. We remember his dominance in the 2009 Big Ten Tournament against Iowa, which finally sent Michigan back to the NCAA Tournament. We remember this year's MSU game, where he was inches away from being a hero, despite being so obviously fouled. What's the lasting image of DeShawn Sims in a Michigan uniform?

Here's mine:


One of basketball's most fundamental plays, the backdoor cut, capitalized by a slam dunk and a player wearing a Michigan uniform running upcourt clapping his hands above his head in the world's most famous venue for basketball. That's DeShawn Sims. When I think of DeShawn, I think of the backdoor cut against UCLA that returned Michigan to some sort of relevance.

And then...Manny. I'm probably not the only one who gets a Mario Manningham vibe when thinking about Manny Harris's three years at UofM. Supremely talented, memorable moments...and yet a feeling that if his head had been on a little straighter, things could've been so much better. We all know the flaws in Manny's game - his jumpshot is sort of messy, he can be careless with the ball, he's too small to play small forward in the NBA, etc. We saw Manny's potential during his freshman year, which was for the most part a black hole of death. He showed flashes of what he was capable of, as Michigan lost 20 games. His sophomore year, he led us through the promised land, finishing off Duke at Crisler when he knifed through the lane and flushed the ball through the rim. We remember how he delivered Michigan's first NCAA Tournament win in over a decade with his and-one against Clemson. But for all the highs, it's hard to overlook the controversies. Being benched for overtime against Iowa his sophomore year. Being suspended this past year for the Purdue game. And now he leaves. It's pretty much unanimous that his NBA prospects aren't good, and the fact that he's hiring an agent (and closing the door on any possible return) makes it pretty clear that he butted heads with Beilein on multiple occasions. I was happy to see that Beilein was there with him at the press conference today. I hope it wasn't just for show, because if there's one thing Michigan basketball needs (aside from on the court stuff), it's former players embracing the program. We need Manny Harris to mean what he said today, about how his relationship with Coach Beilein is good and he will always support Michigan. This isn't just about Trey Zeigler, but it starts with him and expands. To land great recruits like that, Michigan basketball needs stars like Manny Harris to say, "Michigan is a great place."

I'm so tired of this, really. I truly am. I'm sick of writing these types of posts, bidding farewell to those who gave so much and got so little in return. Jesus, just wait until the Brandon Graham requiem post. Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims took a chance on Michigan. They could've picked pretty much any basketball program in America, and they took a chance on Tommy Amaker, and an even bigger one on John Beilein. They'll tell you they don't regret anything they've done. They had productive careers, led Michigan to a place it was 11 years removed from, and will get their shot at proving themselves at the next level. But as we face the specter of a 2010/2011 Michigan team, sans Manny, sans DeShawn...it's not a pretty picture.

I'm tired of scenes like this...


...where even our best isn't good enough anymore.

I long for the day where I can say farewell to a Michigan player and thank him for the beatings he put on those we detest the most, instead of only thanking him for the hard work he put in and awkwardly apologizing for how it didn't work out the way it should have or could have.

Goodbye, Manny and DeShawn. Thank you for taking a chance on Michigan. If the day should come where Michigan is great again, I hope to see the two of you back at Crisler to celebrate.

So Far Away

Michigan State 64, Michigan 48; 14-16 (7-11)

	Dire Straits - So Far Away
	Found at skreemr.com

Generally, I err on the side of restraint when it comes to criticizing coaches. Mainly because there is a reason they're on the sidelines coaching and I'm on the sofa watching at home - despite my issues with them at times, they still know a lot more than I do when it comes to coaching a team, no matter the sport.

In this, however...what else is there to say other than John Beilein has had three years, and while reaching the Tournament in year two was of course excellent, the epic disappointment of this year washed away almost all goodwill last year bought? And I don't want to hear about any "parallels" to the football program, either. One, because Rodriguez has had two years compared to Beilein's three (and I'll be having similar sentiments about Rodriguez if he flames out in year three as well), and two, it's actually much easier running a basketball program than it is football. You could say that's just an opinion; I say it's just numbers. 13 scholarships in basketball compared to 85 in football - the variance is much lower, and recruiting is so much bigger in terms of impact. You can take a kid right out of high school, stick him on a basketball court, and he can be a star - see Calipari with Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans, John Wall. The same does not hold true for football; it's a much, much more complex game. Physical and mental maturity are required, and even if you're the biggest of the big dogs in football recruiting, you are not guaranteed to step onto a college football field and be big shit from day one - see Terrelle Pryor and Jimmy Clausen.

I can envision a scenario where Michigan's defense is improved on the football field in 2010 even with Brandon Graham and Donovan Warren gone. With Greg Robinson taking over the linebackers and safeties, it's not outside the realm of possibility those positions stabilize to an extent, which would allow Michigan to field at least a serviceable defense. In basketball, on the other hand...can you create a scenario where Michigan's basketball team is improved in 2010-2011 without DeShawn Sims and (possibly) Manny Harris? I guess it's possible Blake McLimans and Jordan Morgan are 100% and able to step in and finally provide some size, but where's the scoring going to come from if Manny is gone? Even if Beilein reels in super-recruit Trey Zeigler (and honestly, do you think that's on the sunny side of happening now?), would he be able to step in and star from day one? Possible, but not probable.

It boils down to this: Beilein has failed at two of the fundamental cornerstones of the game of basketball: size and shooting. One of these is not entirely on him. He's had abysmal luck when it comes to the big men - Izzo took away Draymond Green, the NCAA took away Robin Benzing, Ekpe Udoh bolted, Ben Cronin's career is probably over before it began, and Jordan Morgan is injured too. That's five separate players who could've been pounding the glass and working the paint next to DeShawn Sims instead of 6'5, 210-pound Zack Novak, who, bless his heart, is not someone who should be asked to play power forward. Combine those losses with recruiting close-but-no-cigars in 6'8 and top 50 forward Nate Lubick (Georgetown) and 6'10 and top 50ish forward Mason Plumlee (Duke), and you get what we currently have: a woefully undersized Michigan team that gets shredded on the boards and down low with regularity, especially in the Big Ten.

As for the shooting, well, the numbers are right there to look at. One of Beilein's trademarks is 3-point shooting. Michigan's 3-point shooting over the past two seasons:

• Manny Harris, 08-09: 32.7%; 09-10: 30.1%
• DeShawn Sims, 08-09: 31.7%; 09-10: 29.0%
• Zack Novak, 08-09: 34.4%; 09-10: 31.6%
• Stu Douglass, 08-09: 33.5%; 09-10: 31.3%
• Laval Lucas-Perry, 08-09: 34.4%; 09-10: 30.2%
• Anthony Wright, 08-09: 33.3%; 09-10: 23.5%

All six players have shot worse from three this year than they did last year. And four of them (Sims, Novak, Douglass, and LLP) have attempted more threes this year than last (and the only reason Wright didn't is because he finally got benched for being an offensive black hole).

It's as simple as that: The players Beilein brought in to shoot can't shoot. And when your offense relies on jump shooting...you get a 14-16 record, and the looming possibility of your two best players (whom you inherited and did not recruit yourself) being gone next year. Douglass and Novak are glue players. They're the type that have a spot coming off the bench at major D-1 programs. They're the type a team like Butler or Western Kentucky has and captures the nation's attention with for a couple hours in March. But because of some bad luck, Michigan has had to rely on them far more than they're apparently capable of. Just as Novak is not a power forward, Douglass is not a point guard, let alone a starting one.

So where do we go from here? Just cross our fingers and hope Beilein lands Zeigler, and lands one of Amir Williams or Marshall Plumlee? I'm pleased with some of the pieces he's brought in - I like Vogrich, I think Morris has progressed pretty nicely as the season wound down, I really like Hardaway and Smortycz coming in next year, and Carlton Brundidge in 2011 is a great combo guard, and Michigan liked him better than MSU-bound Brandan Kearney. But is this really a situation conducive to success? Basketball recruiting is an entirely different beast from football recruiting. The list of "three-star sleepers" that have been developed into monsters in football is pretty extensive, because there are so many more aspects to football than basketball, so many different skills, etc. But in basketball, for the most part, things are chalk city when it comes to the rankings. Obviously there are always exceptions, but Michigan's two best players - Harris and Sims - were both high four-star recruits bordering on the edge of five-star status, while players like Douglass and Novak and Jordan Morgan and Blake McLimans were middling three-star recruits whose offer sheets were composed almost exclusively of Michigan and a bunch of mid-majors. Does this condemn them to a career of mediocrity? Of course not. But Douglass and Novak certainly looked overmatched in the Big Ten this year. Was it because Beilein was trying to force them into positions they weren't comfortable in, or because they simply aren't the type of talents that can excel against Big Ten powers? You decide.

Beilein, as a person, should be exactly what every Michigan fan (and every fan everywhere, really) wants as their coach. He's a great man who refuses to bend his morals even a little bit. He refuses to delve into the filthy world of AAU coaches getting handouts, family members getting jobs, and all the other gray areas that accompany the majority of basketball recruiting. This leaves a huge chunk of recruits each year off limits to Michigan - and considering UM's past, it has to be that way, anyway. So in that regard, Beilein has no peer. But as a gameday coach, a teacher, and from an Xs and Os standpoint - color me thoroughly underwhelmed. Dave Brandon officially starts his duties as Michigan athletic director today. It's highly unlikely (and would probably be too hasty) that he decides to suddenly fire Beilein. But if you can't draw conclusions about a coach after three years, you absolutely can after four, and I ask again - do you see any scenario where Michigan is substantially improved next season?

Heroes.

Michigan 62, Clemson 59 - NCAA Tournament, South Region, Round 1

We can be heroes - just for one day...
We can beat them - just for one day...

Welcome to the Machine.

Welcome, my son...welcome, to the machine...
Where have you been? It's alright, we know where you've been...

The fates make us wait.

I don't remember what it was like when Michigan was good at basketball. I was just over four months old when Glen Rice set the NCAA Tournament record for points scored while leading Michigan to the title. The only memory I have of Rumeal Robinson's free throws are whenever that game is shown on ESPN Classic. When the Fab Five had their heyday, I was four years old. The only thing I remember about the Fab Five is the shame I felt when everything they accomplished was swept away. Somewhere inside Crisler Arena's recesses, the legacy of Michigan's most talented basketball teams is tucked away, banished from the light of day.

I have only fuzzy memories of the 1998 team, the last time Michigan showed anything worth watching on the basketball court. When UCLA finished off Traylor, Taylor and Bullock in the 2nd round, I was watching. I didn't really have any sentient rooting interest in it yet, but the people around me were angry, they were disappointed. As Michigan left the court, one of the people in the room with me - I cannot for the life of me remember who - said something to the effect of, "I think this is the end."

And it was. The sins of the Michigan basketball program caught up with it. What started in February of 1996 with a rolling SUV came to a head in November 2002, as Michigan hung its head in shame and removed the Final Four banners that had hung in Crisler proudly since 1993. I hope that in 2012, when Michigan is free to embrace what the Fab Five did, they don't. Because doing so would mean having to acknowledge Chris Webber, and he deserves no acknowledgment. The fact may be that the main culprit here is dead and buried, but Webber was anything but a saint. He deserves no forgiveness. It brought me a twisted sense of joy when he retired from basketball without a championship.

Saturday, the healing began. After years of toiling around in mediocrity, after watching Tommy Amaker do his best to pull Michigan through probation only to fail spectacularly at coaching the talent he managed to bring in, there is finally reason to be proud of Michigan's basketball team. There will still be roller coaster moments, but after watching Amaker's teams fail at some of the most basic things, I'll be content to watch Beilein's team this year go through the ups and downs of a young team building a foundation. Besides, nothing could be worse than watching a 16-3 team lose 6 of 8 down the stretch, falling from a sure NCAA bid onto the bubble, and then losing the first game of the Big Ten Tournament to a team that went 5-11 in Big Ten play. Nothing could be worse than letting Greg Oden's Buckeyes go on a 10-0 run to end the game on Senior Day at Crisler while your two seniors, Dion Harris and Courtney Sims, are so unfocused, so unprepared for pressure situations, so poorly coached, that they both fail miserably at the free throw line down the stretch.

In the final eight minutes against Duke on Saturday, Michigan hit 15 of 17 free throws.


That's not to say Michigan is back. This is still a young team with little to no inside presence. There will be times in the Big Ten where we as fans become infuriated at the 1-3-1 because we have nobody to rebound and we give up 20 offensive boards. There will be games where open threes just won't fall. There will be games where DeShawn Sims plays more like Courtney Sims. There will be games where Manny Harris will be more turnover-prone than usual. But one thing is clear: The free pass that Michigan State has been operating under in this state since the mid 1990s is over. There is no wrecked SUV and shady booster spreading money around to players to bury Michigan and help Michigan State seize the state anymore. I'm not discrediting Tom Izzo. He's a great coach, and his list of achievements is very impressive, but for all the Final Fours and NBA players on that list, it omits one thing: the fact that it was all done while Michigan swirled the drain. It's pretty easy to rake in the star recruits and win big when you're essentially recruiting against no one.

And for the Spartan trolls that inhabit the RCMB and SpartanMag with your witty "TGCICB" taunts, I have a response that you might be familiar with: Pride comes before the fall. *wink wink*

It feels like the Twilight Zone around Michigan parts, these days. Nobody wants to talk football, it's all basketball now. We're all geeked over a huge win on the hardwood instead of the gridiron. Basketball games are being used as big recruiting tools for big recruits. 11 months ago, Terrelle Pryor teased us by visiting Michigan, and the basketball game he attended was so quiet you could hear crickets in Crisler. There was a slightly different atmosphere on Saturday for the recruits that were there.

Speaking of which...people puzzle me. The thought process that some people use on internet message boards is just weird. There are some people who think that the decisions made by those in the past will have a direct impact on completely different, unrelated people in the present. I understand the fear and the paranoia. When you're burnt once, you always flinch a little bit when you go near the stove again.


The saga of Ronald Johnson two years ago left a gigantic, scarring burn on everybody that is a Michigan fan and follows recruiting. Not many people know the full story behind it, and I'm not one of the ones who does. What I do know is that all the drama that went down behind the scenes that tore RoJo away from Michigan and sent him across the country to USC, none of that is happening with William Campbell, the cause of everyone's angst this year. Yes, it is nervewracking that Campbell decommitted from Michigan. It's unsettling that he is visiting big players like Alabama, LSU, Miami, and Florida. But lets consider the following:

• Campbell has two current teammates (Teric Jones and Thomas Gordon) committed to Michigan, along with one former teammate already at Michigan (Boubacar Cissoko).
• Campbell's head coach at Cass Tech, Thomas Wilcher, is a former player at Michigan.
• Campbell's direct family is all solidly in favor of Campbell going to Michigan.

That last one is probably the most critical. Somewhere along the line during RoJo's recruitment, there was a fracture. Whether it was between the Michigan staff and RoJo's family, or RoJo's high school coaches (who were also pro-Michigan) and RoJo's family, who knows. But something happened somewhere that disconnected the Johnsons from the University of Michigan. That, to this point, is not even remotely close to being the case with Campbell. USC, the program that can swoop in and steal any star prospect from any power in any state, abandoned any hope for luring Campbell away and didn't even host him on an official visit two weeks ago because they don't believe he can be swayed away from Michigan.

Big Will isn't Ronald Johnson. And he isn't Nick Perry. RoJo and Perry fleeing Michigan to USC in 2007 and 2008 has no bearing on Campbell in 2009. It's a shame they got away. RoJo probably would've been a starter for Michigan this past season, either at corner or at free safety. Perry would have us all feeling a lot better about the defensive end position headed into next season. It would've been pretty cool seeing three highly touted Detroit defensive linemen on the same line next year with Brandon Graham (Crockett), Perry (Martin Luther King) and Campbell (Cass Tech). But it didn't work out that way.

Instead we'll just have to hopefully settle for two.

Official: Morris commits to Michigan.

Oh sweet Michigan basketball-hating god, you have been on duty for the better part of 15 years. From Chris Webber's timeout to the car accident on Mateen Cleaves' recruiting visit that exposed Michigan basketball as a semi-professional organization to a 10-year + drought from relevant play in March to the Shamaker era that wasted talent like Daniel Horton, Courtney Sims and Dion Harris...Michigan basketball-hating god, thank you for taking the day off.

Darius Morris has committed to Michigan.

“It came down to picking the school that showing me the most love and that school was Michigan,” Morris said. “They have been recruiting me hard for a while now, and that was one of the big reasons I decided on going there for the next four years of my life.”

(Thank you, UM Hoops.)

Morris announces tomorrow.

MLive: California guard Morris to announce decision Friday

This is the prize jewel in terms of Michigan basketball recruiting. Beilein's been after Darius Morris for a long time now, and Morris, along with his family, have really fallen in love with him.

Getting good talent wasn't the problem under Shamaker (Daniel Horton, Courtney Sims), but there was no developing of that talent at all. With an actual competant coach on the sidelines, things are hopefully looking up.

Morris has been considered a Michigan lean for a while. Lets hope the deal is sealed tomorrow.

Corner = turned

Michigan 80, Ohio State 70