Tuesday night’s game against Michigan State was a must win for Michigan and Tommy Amaker.
The Wolverines’ impressive victory kept their NCAA Tournament hopes alive and may have saved Amaker’s job — for the moment.
But they probably still need to upset No. 1 Ohio State Saturday or make a good run in the Big Ten Tournament to make the tournament and keep Amaker in Ann Arbor.
The Detroit Red Wings acquired Todd Bertuzzi just before Tuesday’s NHL trading deadline.
It will be interesting to see how the fans react to the man who was involved in one of the league’s most disturbing cheap-shot incidents in recent years.
Will you boo or cheer him when he takes the ice in Detroit?
Michigan State doesn’t need to prove itself anymore.
The Spartans are worthy of a bid from the NCAA selection committee. They could’ve earned one by winning the upcoming Big Ten tournament, but now they don’t have to worry about it.
They’re in for sure after Tuesday night’s win over No. 1 Wisconsin.
MSU (20-8, 7-6 Big Ten) will get in the Big Dance for the 10th straight season. It’s the longest streak in the Big Ten and fifth longest in the country behind, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky and Duke.
At first glance, the loss appears devastating for the Badgers, who were playing their first game in school history as the top-ranked team in the Associated Press. Not really.
Wisconsin can get back on track Sunday in a showdown with No. 2 Ohio State. If the Badgers win, it’s arguable for them to retain their No. 1 ranking.
If they don’t, they’ll lose their No. 1 ranking for sure, and securing a top seed in the NCAA tourney will be a longshot, regardless of what happens in the Big Ten tournament.
The NFL makes no sense.
Marty Schottenheimer was fired as coach of the San Diego Chargers after leading his team to an NFL-best 14-2 record this season, but Matt Millen remains as president of the Detroit Lions despite an NFL-worst 24-72 record during his tenure.
Senior guard Dion Harris says the Michigan basketball team lacks toughness but says the problem is with the players, not head coach Tommy Amaker. Player accountability is great, but Amaker needed to blow up at his team last week when it blew a 14-point second-half lead against Iowa. His demeanor was the same as it is after every game — calm and soft-spoken. We don’t need a Bob Knight in Ann Arbor, but an embarrassing performance by an underachieving team demanded something more.
The Detroit Tigers could have as many as 161 of their games televised this season. That’s the good news. The bad news is several of the games will be on Fox Plus, a new cable channel that will supplement FSN Detroit and is not yet available. Cable companies will have to pay to add the new channel. That cost will have to be passed on to customers. The Tigers are a hot commodity now, something Fox is counting on as fans demand this new channel on their basic cable package. Cable rates have been out of control for several years. The last thing customers need is another rate increase.
I got an interesting e-mail from a local sports fan who said he attended his first boys high school basketball game in many years this week.
He wound leaving early. He got disgusted by one loud-mouthed fan who spent the whole game critisizing the home team and by what he preceived as a lack of sportsmanship by the visiting team.
As sportswriters, we get sort of immune to these things because we go to so many events, but things have changed a lot over the years. I don’t know how coaches put up with it, especially the old-school guys like Ray Lauwers, Jack Michael and Tom Williams.
I replied to this disgruntled fan that there are many problems in high school sports, but the good still outweighs the bad.