At Least It’s Basketball Season
Share
Leave a CommentBasketball season returned this past Friday when Michigan hosted Wayne State for an exhibition game, and based on how the football and hockey teams are playing, that’s a very good thing. Football has provided nothing but pain ever since September save one game, and after getting swept in dominating fashion by Miami (Ohio) this weekend, it looks the hockey team may provide some serious pain this season as well. Hopefully they will get things turned around, but man, if they keep playing like they did against Miami, it will be a rough season.
The basketball team got off to a bit of a slow start against Wayne State, but eventually it became the blowout everybody expected and Michigan won 73-54. I only watched the first half, so I can’t say a whole lot about how certain players performed. Basically, based on the first half, everybody did what they were expected to do. Manny Harris ended up leading the team in scoring with 25 points, and Zack Novak scored 15 points off of 5 threes. Michigan’s other 33 points came from balanced contribution from the rest of the team. There’s not much else I have to say on Friday’s game because I only saw one half, so check out UM Hoops and mgoblog for write-ups on the game.
The one thing I do want to mention is that the new ticket policy worked like a charm in getting students to show up. Every section of the Maize Rage was packed, and I can’t wait to experience the atmosphere when Michigan plays a team like Michigan State or Connecticut. It seemed like most of the chants and things like that still only came from the middle sections of the bleachers, but even so, it was nice to have so many students at the game. I wish there was a way to get all of the students down to the lower section, because the ones in the upper deck were pretty much invisible, but this is definitely progress. If the team can keep winning and the sales stay at a high level, it’s only a matter of time until the student section is expanded even more in the lower level.
Moving on to hockey, the reason I only saw one half of the basketball game was because I ran over to Yost for the remaining two and a half periods of action. By the time I got there, Michigan was already losing 1-0, and Miami scored again soon after I arrived. I almost wish I would have just stayed at the basketball game, because it was an ugly effort by Michigan. The refs weren’t great, which is never surprising, but Michigan was really awful and ended up losing 3-1. Things were even worse on Saturday, as Michigan lost 5-1 to Miami. I think Red Berenson summed up the two games best by saying this after Saturday’s terrible performance:
“I’m embarrassed,” Berenson said. “We played like a bunch of spoiled brats, and we’ve gotta suck it up. When you’re getting beat, you just keep working hard for the team. You don’t take it out on the other team and take stupid penalties that are going to hurt your team even further. That’s not the way we play hockey, and this team will learn that.”
I hope the team learns quickly, because it has a huge series with Michigan State this coming weekend, and this isn’t the same Michigan State team that lost all 5 of its games to Michigan last season. MSU is off to an unbelievable 7-2-1 start and is in second-place in the CCHA. Friday night at Yost will probably be one of the most hostile crowds ever since it will be Corey Tropp’s first game at Yost since he attacked Steve Kampfer earlier this year. Saturday’s game is at Munn and will be just as important, as Michigan has a chance to build some momentum for the rest of the first part of the season.
