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.

The Wolverines have won three in a row and were very impressive Sunday against Ohio State.

Manny Harris has played well all year and fellow freshman Kelvin Grady has made tremendous strides as a point guard. Analyst Clark Kellogg called sophomore DeShawn Sims one of the most improved players in the country and freshman Anthony Wright is developing into a decent scorer.

With only two seniors on the roster, things could be looking up for the Wolverines the next few years.

Of course, I’d heard the name mentioned as a candidate for some top jobs in recent years and I knew that he had put together a solid program at West Virginia.

But I’d never heard him interviewed and didn’t know much about his coaching style.

I like what I’ve learned about him in the past few days. He seems humble and humorous. He showed plenty of respect during his press conference Monday to the traditions at Michigan and former coach Lloyd Carr.

Rodriguez is taking some heat for the way he left West Virginia. It does trouble me a bit that this had to happen before the Mountaineers played their bowl game. I don’t see where waiting a couple more weeks would have caused that much damage. U-M athletic director Bill Martin and Rodriguez saw it differently.

But it is not an assault on the integrity of college athletics as the governor of West Virginia seemed to suggest. It’s just the way college football works these days.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes Rodriguez to put his stamp on the Wolverines. He will have to figure out the best ways to use the athletes at the school. They might not fit his system. Will he adapt to their talents or try to force them into his scheme? My guess is that he his a good enough coach to tinker with his system to find something that works.

The biggest test case will be quarterback Ryan Mallet. He is a classic drop-back passer in the Jim Harbaugh-Tom Brady mode. His skills don’t seem to suit a spread offense. It will be up to Rodriguez to make it work.

Two frustrating Detroit Tiger losses were combined with a humiliating loss for the University of Michigan football team.

It might have signalled the end of championship hopes for both.

Michigan still has a lot of season to play, but teams that lose to Appalachian State don’t generally win national championships.

As for the Tigers, the weekend summed up how frustrating the season has become.

They made a nice comeback to tie Oakland in the ninth inning Friday night, only to lose in the 10th.

Then on Sunday, they built a 7-0 lead only to let it slip away in a 10-inning loss. It was a golden opportunity to gain ground on the rest of the teams in the playoff hunt with the Yankees, Indians and Mariners all losing.

The Tigers finished a six-game road trip to Kansas City and Oakland – two teams out of contention – with a 2-4 record. That’s not how you launch a playoff run.

I guess we’re just lucky the Detroit Lions didn’t play Sunday to add to the misery.

I always liked Amaker as a person, but he just could not generate any passion from the Michigan players. I hope he fares better at Harvard.

I like his track record and the respect he gets in the coaching community. He might not have been the most sexy choice, but he should be a solid coach.

What do you think? Can Beilein get the job done in Ann Arbor and make Michigan basketball relevant again?

Now there is another outstanding coach in the Big Ten. That will make winning and recruiting more difficult.

Michigan athletic director Bill Martin needs to make a good choice to show that the Wolverines are serous about basketball.

And the sad thing is that they really have no case to make. The national shows did not even list them as one of the bubble teams that just missed.

It’s sad that the program has sunk so far.

On the other hand, Tom Izzo guided perhaps his least talented Michigan State team in a decade to another tournament berth. This was prehaps his finest coaching job.

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.