Friday Quick Hits: Michigan Drops Big Ten Opener 73-61

By Sean · Friday, January 2, 2009 · 2:46 PM |  Share | 1 Comment 

• Michigan opened Big Ten play on Wednesday with a 73-61 loss to Wisconsin. It was a pretty bad game for the Wolverines both offensively and defensively. The Badgers shot very well as a team (shooting percentage was 58.7) and were lights out in the first half (they only missed 8 shots). On the flip side, Michigan had a lot of trouble shooting the ball. They shot only 39.2% from the field and missed 6 free throws. To make matters worse, Manny Harris only scored 9 points and had a really rough game. When he is off, the entire team is in trouble.
• Perhaps the only good thing to come out of this game was Zack Novak’s performance. Novak scored a career-high 20 points and made 5 three-pointers. He kept Michigan somewhat close at times before the Badgers ultimately ran away with the lead.
• DeShawn Sims scored 14 points and nearly got called for a technical foul in the first half. He yelled something at an official that called a foul on him despite the fact that a Wisconsin player clearly traveled before contact was made. You could hear the ref say something along the lines of “don’t ever talk to me like that,” and Sims ended up on the bench following the exchange.

  I really don’t blame Sims for the anger. The officiating was terrible the entire game, though that is nothing new for Big Ten games. It’s not that the refs favored one team over another; my biggest problem was how inconsistent they were. That is nothing new, either, but it seemed like this crew was really spotty with their calls. Sometimes they would call a charge or blocking foul when there was little contact, but when a player drove to the hoop and was hit hard nothing happened. It didn’t have that big of an effect on the game considering how poorly Michigan played, but it was just really frustrating.

• Highlights of the Wisconsin game can be found here.
• UM Hoops has a statistical look at the game.
• Michigan’s next game is on Sunday against Illinois. The Fighting Illini upset Purdue on the road earlier this week, so this will be a tough test for Michigan, especially after the disappointing game against Wisconsin. Tip-off is set for noon and the game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.
• Chuck Ortmann, a former Michigan player, was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.
• The U.S. Army All-American Bowl starts at 1 p.m. tomorrow on NBC. Wide receiver Jeremy Gallon, defensive end Anthony LaLota, cornerback Justin Turner, and kicker Brendan Gibbons are the Michigan commits playing in the game. William Campbell is also playing in the game and will announce his decision during it.
• Varsity Blue has a list of all the prospects you should keep an eye on this weekend in the Army game as well as the ESPNU Under Armour All-American Game. The latter begins at 8 p.m. on Sunday and will be broadcast on ESPN.
• William Campbell can dance.
• Jeremy Gallon was interviewed recently by Rivals.
• There aren’t any new developments with the search for a new defensive coordinator.
• Michigan’s old defensive coordinator, Scott Shafer, has agreed to take the same job at Syracuse.
• Rich Rodriguez and many of his assistants were at the Wisconsin basketball game earlier this week. During the first half, Rodriguez was sitting next to someone that looked like Rick Leach. I wouldn’t be surprised if the two are now friends, as Leach has been very, very supportive of Rodriguez in the media.
• There was an interesting tidbit in the bottom of a column from the Orlando Sentinel on the future of the Capital One Bowl.
  

  Forget the BCS. If the stadium doesn’t get renovated, Orlando will likely lose what it already has. The Cotton Bowl in Dallas is getting ready to move into a new billion-dollar stadium built for the Dallas Cowboys and desires the Cap One’s coveted tie-in to the No. 2 teams in the SEC and Big Ten. So, too, does the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta.

  It would definitely be interesting for the Big Ten if it became tied-in with the Cotton Bowl or Chick-fil-A bowl. I doubt either happens, though. The Cotton Bowl wants to become a BCS bowl, which is part of why it is moving to the Cowboys’ new stadium. I don’t really think the Big Ten would change its #2 tie-in to the Cotton Bowl unless it was guaranteed that nothing would change in regards to its status as a non-BCS bowl. If it were to join the BCS, its tie-ins would undoubtedly have to change as well, so that could mess things up for the Big Ten.

  At the same time, the Chick-fil-A Bowl currently has a great matchup with an SEC and ACC team. The matchup makes sense geographically and the stadium is always filled, so I don’t know why they would want to change something that really is fine the way it is.

• Iowa running back Shonn Greene declared for the NFL Draft after the Outback Bowl yesterday.