Archive for November, 2008

Wolverines impressive

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

I got my first chance to see Michigan’s basketball team tonight and I was very impressed. This looks like an entirely new team from what we saw last year.

Granted, it was only Norfolk State, but the Wolverines looked crisp, ran the floor well, created turnovers on defense and played with a lot of intensity.

At the center of it all was sophomore Manny Harris. He was a good player last year, but has taken his game up several notches this season.

We won’t know about this team for sure until the Big Ten season begins, but it appears that coach John Beinlein has something going here.

Posted in Basketball, Michigan | No Comments »

Volleyball is next

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

The All-Region volleyball team will be announced on Monday.

Make sure to pick up a copy of The Evening News and honor these talented young ladies on a fantastic season.

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All-Region football

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

The wait is almost over.

The Monroe Evening News will announce the All-Region football team next week.

The offense will be revealed on Monday (Nov. 17) and the defense the next day. The Coach of the Year will be announced along with the offense.

Posted in Football, Local sports | No Comments »

Is 0-16 possible?

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

I have been saying all along that the Detroit Lions will not be able to complete the perfect season — 0-16.

But I am beginning to have my doubts.

Their best opportunity might have been Sunday at home against Jacksonville, but that game wasn’t even close. The Lions were positively putrid.

The schedule the rest of the way will be tough.

They play at Carolina Sunday, come home for three straight games (Tampa Bay, Tennessee and Minnesota), play at Indianapolis, host New Orleans in their final home game and finish at Green Bay.

Green Bay and New Orleans are the only teams on the list with losing records and both of them are 4-5. It looks like every team the Lions play the rest of the way will have something at stake when they take on Detroit.

Well, the Lions will, too. They are playing for the No. 1 pick in the draft and a chance to make history as the first 0-16 team ever.

Posted in Football, Lions | No Comments »

One weekend, two routs

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

I saw two playoff games this weekend and both saw the winning teams wind up with 50-plus points and invoke the mercy-rule running clock for virtually the entire second half.

But they were very different games.

First of all, the local teams I was covering were on opposite ends of the routs. St. Mary Catholic Central blew out Allen Park Cabrinin 59-7 Friday night and Gibraltar Carlson was blasted by Inkster Saturday afternoon.

The second difference was the way that the winning coaches handled the rout.

SMCC’s Jack Giarmo went out of his way to keep the score from being worse. The Falcon starters became spectators in the second half. After running four four touchdowns in the first half, T.J. Lovell never touched the ball after the intermission. SMCC started kneeling down with the ball with eight minutes left in the game.

Inkster, on the other hand, didn’t show that kind of class. Two Viking touchdowns in the second half came on long passes. There was no need to rub it in against a clearly out-manned Carlson squad.

Remember the name Devin Gardiner. The Inkster quarterback, who stands 6-4 and is nearly 200 pounds, is an incredible athlete. The junior is drawing interest from Michigan, Michigan State and many of the elite college football programs in the country.

SMCC is the only Monroe County Region team still alive in the playoffs. That isn’t a huge surprise with the exception of Airport’s loss to Trenton. Ida and Summerfield got tough draws, getting sent on the road to play undefeated opponents.

Milan also had a tough assignment, making a trip to Chelsea. I felt bad for the Big Reds not getting a home game with an 8-1 record, then they lost all the momentum they gained from taking an early 14-0 lead when a power failure caused a delay of nearly two hours.

Airport was favored against Trenton, but fell into an early hole and could never recover. An interesting side note about Trenton – the Trojans wound up playing four Region schools this season (Jefferson, Monroe, Carlson and Airport).

So, it’s on to the second week of the playoffs for SMCC. Let’s hope that the weather is as perfect as it was Friday night.

Posted in Football, Local sports | No Comments »