Monday Quick Hits: Michigan Lights Up Eastern Michigan, Wins 91-60

By Sean · Monday, December 15, 2008 · 1:45 AM |  Share | 2 Comments 

• Fred Jackson spoke on Sam McGuffie’s decision to leave Michigan and confirmed that being closer to his family was a big reason why Sam left.
  

  “We’re real close but the things going on in his family are unbelievable,” Jackson said before today’s U-M basketball game. “There was too much stuff there – he had to go home. There was a lot of issues as far as his sister and brother.”

  “The kid wanted to be here,” Jackson said. “It’s just that things happened with his family that weighed heavy he couldn’t concentrate.”

  I don’t know the details of what Jackson was talking about and am not even going to bother speculating. There have been a ton of rumors regarding the specifics of these family issues, and quite frankly, it’s just not necessary that they become public. The only thing that matters is that McGuffie did what was best for him, and I wish him the best both on and off the field.

• Rich Rodriguez and other football coaches were at the Duke and Eastern Michigan basketball games with recruits the last couple of weeks. The one coach that wasn’t there for either game is defensive coordinator Scott Shafer. I don’t know if this means anything or not, but it certainly seems strange.
• Quite a few things regarding recruiting happened over the weekend. Cameron Gordon became commit #21 on Thursday, but Jordan Barnes decommitted on Saturday. Then, on Sunday we found out that Taylor Lewan committed, bringing the total of verbals back up to 21. In between the news about Barnes and Lewan, rumors about Pearlie Graves and Shavodrick Beaver decommitting came about. None of the rumors appear to be true, thankfully.
• After a very slow start, Michigan turned it up on Saturday against Eastern Michigan and ended up winning 91-60. Believe it or not, but Michigan actually trailed by 7 points on two separate occasions in the first half and didn’t start to pull away until there were around three minutes left. However, when they did pull away, they really pulled away. Michigan was absolutely lights out from three-point land, making a school record 16 threes. They attempted a whopping 33, which normally isn’t a good thing. When you make nearly half of them, however, it definitely is all good.
• Four Michigan players scored in double digits on Saturday. Manny Harris had 22 points, and 20 of them came in the second half. He didn’t play very much in the first half due to a couple of quick fouls, but he got in the second half and couldn’t be stopped. DeShawn Sims scored 18 points, Jevohn Shepherd had 13, and Kelvin Grady hit 3 three-pointers and ended up with 11.
• David Merritt and C.J. Lee both hit a pair of three-pointers, and walk-on Eric Puls even made one at the very end of the game. Zack Gibson, DeShawn Sims, Jevohn Shepherd, and Stu Douglass also had 1 three-pointer. Manny Harris hit 4 shots from beyond the arc.
• John Beilein was not at Saturday’s game, as he is suffering from acute peripheral vertigo. The vertigo is happening because of an inner ear infection, causing Beilein’s status with the team to be day-to-day. Michigan’s next game isn’t until Saturday, so hopefully he will be back by then. Even if he isn’t, associate head coach Jerry Dunn, who was once Penn State’s head coach, did a nice job filling in for Beilein against Eastern Michigan.
• As mentioned, Michigan’s next game is on Saturday. The Wolverines will play Oakland at the Palace of Auburn Hills. The game is set to start at 4 p.m. and will be broadcast on FSN Detroit.
• The Free Press profiled freshman Zack Novak.
• Angelique Chengelis has an update on what Lloyd Carr has been doing lately. Carr responded to Rick Leach’s comments about him not supporting Rich Rodriguez publicly, saying “I’ve talked with Rich several times, and I told him I would not be making any comments publicly because I didn’t want to have anything that I said be misconstrued.” Carr did go on to say that if Rodriguez ever needed him, he would be there.
• Speaking of Rick Leach, MVictors has a ton of audio from his interview on WTKA last week.
• Also at MVictors is a picture of Lloyd Carr with a cowbell from Saturday’s basketball game.
• Nebraska eliminated Michigan from the NCAA tournament in volleyball.
• Auburn hired Iowa State coach Gene Chizik, even though he compiled a 5-19 record in his two years at ISU. Needless to say, Auburn fans aren’t happy with the hire. And I thought our coaching search was a train wreck.
• Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday, and Billy Sims demonstrated his obnoxious ways during the announcement of who won the award.
• Ball State head coach Brady Hoke reportedly is going to take the San Diego State job. Why he would make what is not even a lateral move is beyond me, especially with a job like Iowa State just opening up.