As always, Jerod, Ryan, and Andy will be here with another episode of The Assembly Call as soon as the game ends with instant analysis and fan reaction.

IU-Michigan Gameday Info

• Date: Wednesday, February 1st
• Time: 6:30 ET, 5:30 CT
• TV: BTN
• Announcers: Gus Johnson and Shon Morris
• Point Spread: Michigan -2.5
• Over-Under: 135
• KenPom Prediction: Michigan 71-70 with a 54% chance of winning
• Peegs: IU Gameday
• Inside the Hall: What to Expect – Michigan
• IU-Penn State live tweet coverage: @AssemblyCall
• Assembly Call IU Postgame Show: http://assemblycall.com/live

IU-Michigan Preview

Michigan

The Wolverines have alternated wins and losses over their last six games and are coming off of a three-game road trip where they went 1-2 with a win at Purdue sandwiched between losses at Arkansas and Ohio State.  Tim Hardaway Jr. has led the team in scoring in each of the last two games with 19 points against the Boilers and 15 versus the Buckeyes.  However, Michigan shot just four free throws against OSU and was crushed on the glass, allowing the Buckeyes to grab 14 offensive rebounds.

Offensively, the Wolverines have taken 43.0 percent of their shots from beyond the arc despite connecting on just over 30 percent from deep.  Interestingly, they are sixth in the nation in two-point shooting.  With freshman Trey Burke running the show, they have a low turnover rate, but they are last in free throw rate during league play.  Overall, their offensive efficiency is in the middle of the pack, but their 0.84 points per possession against OSU is dragging down what would otherwise be a solid average.

That isn’t particularly good news for Indiana given how poor their defense has been in league play.  The Hoosiers rank eighth or worse in all four factors and surrendered 1.08 ppp in the first meeting between these two teams.  They did show signs of improvement against Wisconsin, but they allowed 1.20 ppp against Iowa on Sunday.  The fact that Michigan plays at a much slower pace should help limit transition baskets, but it will be critical for the Hoosiers to keep Burke out of the lane.

Burke has been one of the best freshman in the nation and comes in averaging 14.1 points, 5.0 assists, and 3.6 rebounds.  The Wolverines have also gotten improved play from big man Jordan Morgan, who has 36 points and 18 rebounds over the last three games.  Indiana natives Zack Novak and Stu Douglass will also be looking to end their careers against the Hoosiers on a high note.

On defense, the Wolverines have allowed their last five opponents to score at least 1.04 ppp.  They rank first in opponents’ free throw rate and third in turnover rate in conference play.  However, they have allowed league foes to shoot 38.4 percent from beyond the arc and are last in block percentage.  Cody Zeller and Christian Watford combined for 43 points on 16-of-21 shooting in the first meeting, so expect the Hoosiers to attack from the inside out.

Michigan is in the middle of the pack in defensive rebounding percentage in league play but has allowed opponents to grab at least 36 percent of their misses in three of the last five games.  On Sunday the Hoosiers grabbed 18 of their 30 missed shots against Iowa, and it will be critical for them to maintain that level of aggressiveness on the boards.

Indiana

IU should come in with plenty of confidence offensively after scoring 103 points against Iowa, as six players reached double figures.  The Hoosiers changed their starting lineup for the first time in that game, inserting sophomore Will Sheehey in place of fellow soph Victor Oladipo.  Both players seemed to respond well, and it’s worth noting that Sheehey missed the first matchup between these teams with an ankle injury.  His ability to defend multiple positions should really help the Hoosiers against the perimeter-oriented Wolverines.

For Indiana, Zeller is coming off of a career-high 26 points against Iowa, most of which came on dunks.  Verdell Jones III has also played better of late with 26 points in the last two games.  He has been more aggressive in going to the basket, and many of his nine assists against the Hawkeyes were off of dribble penetration.  He needs to remain aggressive and put pressure on the Michigan defense while making good decisions with the ball in his hands.

The Hoosiers got 18 points and five offensive rebounds from the bench tandem of Derek Elston and Tom Pritchard against Iowa.  Elston has played much better over the last three games, and Tom Crean’s team has gotten a real spark from the bench in recent games.  Given Michigan’s struggles to defend the three-point line, sharpshooter Matt Roth could play a factor in the outcome.

Final Thought

For IU, the keys on defense will be containing Burke off the dribble and forcing Hardaway to settle for contested jumpers while controlling the defensive glass.  If they can rekindle the defensive energy they showed against Wisconsin, they should be able to slow up Michigan offensively.

On the other end of the floor, the team needs to maintain their aggressiveness by going inside to Zeller or penetrating off the dribble.  That should open things up at the three-point line for shooters like Jordan Hulls and Matt Roth.  They also need to attack the offensive glass, as Michigan has shown vulnerability there in recent games.

The Wolverines are undefeated at home this season, although victories over Minnesota, Northwestern, and Michigan State have come by a combined eight points.  Consequently, I expect a close game that won’t be decided until the final minutes.

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Listen to Andy Sunday on The Assembly Call. Follow him on Twitter at @AndyBottoms.

Unless you root for a team in the SEC, then you are ready for someone else from a different conference to hoist the AFCA National Championship Trophy.  Monday night’s game featured two teams from the SEC, and after that unentertaining game, most college football fans are ready for the next champion to come from a different conference.

Now that that season is officially over, it is never too early to look ahead at the teams that could end the SEC’s winning streak in the BCS National Title Game in 2013.

* – Matt Barkley and Lane Kiffin photo credit: via Neon Tommy

USC TROJANS

Matt Barkley’s decision to stay in school makes USC the favorites to run the table in the PAC 12 and prime candidates to play in the BCS National Championship Game.  They have 16 returning starters coming back next season and a home game against Oregon, which sets up nicely for the Trojans to go undefeated.

OREGON DUCKS

They are losing LaMichael James, but RBs Kenjon Barner and De’Anthony Thomas will be just as productive, and the Ducks should be just as dominant on offense as they have been in recent years.  Oregon plays a lot of home games early and should be undefeated on November 3 when they head to Los Angeles to play USC.  If they can win that game against USC, the Ducks will have a very good chance of heading to the national championship game.

OKLAHOMA SOONERS

When Landry Jones decided to stay in school, it made the Sooners become the favorites to win the new look Big 12.  They return a lot of starters next season and if they can avoid a typical upset loss then they could easily find themselves undefeated at the end of the season.

FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES

The Seminoles did not live up to expectations in 2011 but did show glimpses of the superior team that they could be.  They have a lot of young talent coming back, and right now on paper they might have one of the best defenses in college football.  Being in the ACC is a huge luxury for the Seminoles because the conference is not strong and they could very easily be undefeated next season.

MICHIGAN WOLVERINES

The Big Ten is wide open next season and the Wolverines will be returning the conference’s most athletic player in Denard Robinson.  They were better than most people thought they were going to be in 2011, and if they can build off that, then they will tough to beat.

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One of these two teams will take a big step forward in the Big Ten race tonight, and as always The Assembly Call will go live as soon as the final buzzer sounds to provide instant analysis and a forum for live fan reaction.

Indiana-Michigan Game Info

• Date: Thursday, January 5th
• Time: 9:00 ET (8:00 CT)
• TV: ESPN2
• Announcers: Dave O’Brien and Dan Dakich (hell yes)
• Point Spread: Indiana -8
• Over-Under: 141
• Twitter accounts to follow: @AssemblyCall, @InsideTheHall, @ZachOsterman
• KenPom prediction: 77-64 Indiana (87% chance of victory)
• Peegs: IU-Michigan Gameday
• Inside The Hall: What To Expect – Michigan
• Inside Indiana by Zach Osterman: The VIP Room on recruiting, Michigan

I’m surprised that the spread and KenPom prediction are what they are. I do think Indiana will win this game, but Michigan has a number of really talented players, including Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr., and I think they can certainly make this a competitive game. I look for it to be close throughout and for Indiana to ultimately grind out a solid 5-7 point victory. I will gladly take a 13-point win like KenPom predicts, but I’m setting myself up to be surprised if such an outcome happens.

What do you think will happen in tonight’s game? Comment below. We’ll see you back here after it’s over.

Indiana-Michigan Postgame Show

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Indiana-Michigan Postgame Chat

I’ll be releasing my own projections starting next week, but for now I thought it would be worthwhile to look at how Big Ten teams are shaping up with as many as nine of them in some of these mock brackets.

For the purposes of this exercise, I have narrowed down the projections to Andy Glockner of SI.com, Shawn Siegel of College Hoops Net, and Dave Ommen of Bracketville.  The latter two names both rank atop the bracket project matrix which has tracked success over the last few years, and Glockner is a great follow on Twitter and does a tremendous job of sharing his thought process as he brackets the teams each Sunday night.

One other thing to keep in mind is that while the committee uses RPI in the selection and seeding process, it can be a bit misleading at this point of the season.  You’ll currently find a number of teams from outside of the six major conferences with high RPI’s, fueled largely by their strength of schedule numbers.  Once they start playing teams in their own leagues, and once major conference teams start challenging themselves in conference play as well, things should start to shift.

In order of average seed, here are the nine Big Ten teams in the discussion:

Ohio State (Glockner/Ommen: 1, Siegel: 2)

Kentucky and Syracuse were unanimous top seeds, while Ohio State and North Carolina showed up on two of the three projections.

Siegel opted for Baylor over the Buckeyes, which is an argument you can certainly make.  The Bears have more wins against the RPI Top 100 and have a number of good wins against teams like Mississippi State, San Diego State, Saint Mary’s, and at BYU.  However, the Buckeyes have knocked off Duke and Florida, so their “best” wins are better.

Still, they have two losses, although neither can be considered “bad” since one game at Kansas without Jared Sullinger and the other came in a close game on the road against Indiana, who is 13th in the RPI.

Barring a collapse, it’s hard seeing the Buckeyes getting anything lower than a two seed come March.

Indiana (Glockner/Siegel/Ommen: 3)

With wins over Kentucky and Ohio State, you could argue that no team has two better wins than the Hoosiers.  If you want to nitpick though, seven of their 13 wins have come against teams outside of the RPI Top 200, so strength of schedule is one factor keeping them from getting a higher seed.

Their SoS should climb as they move through Big Ten play, and with UConn losing to Seton Hall, the opportunity to move up is certainly there.  Indiana’s lone loss came at Michigan State, so there’s no shame in that.

Michigan State (Glockner/Siegel/Ommen: 3)

These projections came out prior to Sparty’s road win over Wisconsin, so Tom Izzo’s squad has a good chance to improve their seed when the next set of projections come out.  Both of their losses came against teams in the RPI Top 15, one of which was on a aircraft carrier so who knows how much stock you can put in that.

MSU has now won 14 straight games and is playing as well as anyone in the nation’s top conference.  The only knock on them is that just two of their wins (Indiana, at Gonzaga) are against the RPI Top 50.  If they keep playing the way they are, a two-seed is definitely realistic.

Wisconsin (Glockner/Siegel: 5, Ommen: 6)

The Badgers are an interesting case.  They rank 60th in the RPI and are just 1-3 against the Top 50 and 5-4 against the Top 150.  Outside of an 11-point home win over UNLV, there really isn’t much else on their profile in terms of a marquee win.  Their next two games are on the road against Michigan and Purdue, so a split there would help stop their seeding freefall.

Michigan (Siegel: 4, Glockner/Ommen: 6)

The Wolverines are one of the teams I can’t quite figure out yet.  Their two best wins are against Memphis in Maui and at home against Minnesota, and at this point neither of those teams is safely in the field.  They currently sit at 31st in the RPI with seven of their 12 victories against teams outside of the Top 150.

Thursday’s game at Indiana is a chance to prove themselves, as is Sunday’s home date with Wisconsin.  At this point, I lean more toward Glockner and Ommen’s seed for Michigan.

Purdue (Siegel/Ommen: 7, Glockner: 10)

Purdue’s road win at Iowa looked better after the Hawkeyes knocked off Wisconsin, and I think their win over Miami (FL) will look better by the end of the year.  For now, the loss to Butler hurts, but that may change as well.

The Boilers also have wins over Iona, Temple, and Illinois, all of which are in the Top 32 of the RPI.  That said, they are 4-3 against the Top 100 with six of their 12 wins over sub-150 teams.  For seeding purposes, their losses to Alabama and Xavier may become important, because right now those teams are right around the same seed range.

Illinois (Siegel/Ommen: 8, Glockner: 9)

Since winning their first 10 games, the Illini have dropped three of five with their two wins over that span coming by four over Cornell and in double overtime against Minnesota.  A home win against Gonzaga is nice, but otherwise there isn’t much meat on their resume.  They are 3-3 against the RPI Top 100, but they also don’t really have a bad loss.  T

he schedule doesn’t do them any favors with just one game against Iowa and Penn State in Big Ten play.  A few more losses could send Illinois careening toward the bubble.

Minnesota (Glockner: 11, Siegel/Ommen: 12)

The Gophers have performed better than most people expected following the loss of Trevor Mbakwe, but they are off to a 0-2 start in Big Ten play.  They are just 1-3 against the RPI Top 50, but they are 5-0 against teams ranked 51-100 (Bucknell, Fairfield, Indiana State, North Dakota State, and South Dakota State).

I’m not sure how realistic it is for many of those teams to remain in that range, which means the Gophers need to start picking up some quality wins to remain in the field.

Northwestern (Siegel/Ommen: 13, Glockner: First Four Out)

The good news is that the wins against LSU and Seton Hall look better now than they did earlier this year.  The bad news is they have been crushed by a combined 61 points in games against Baylor and Ohio State.  Eight of their 11 wins have come against teams outside of the RPI Top 150, which leaves them just 3-3 against everybody else.

Their next six games are critical with home games against Illinois, Michigan State, and Purdue and road trips to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

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Follow me on Twitter (@andybottoms) for more thoughts on college hoops, and check out the latest edition of the Bottoms Line podcast.

The BCS bowl games are coming up after the New Year’s Day NFL games Sunday, with the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl Monday, the Sugar Bowl on Tuesday, the Orange Bowl and on Wednesday and then the BCS National Championship Game the following Monday, January 9th.

Here is a quick preview of the BCS bowl games with picks and current point spreads.

Keep in mind the following:

• All games listed are EST
• Point spreads are of Sunday, January 1st. For updated point spreads and expert advice, here you go: BCS Bowls Odds and Lines

BCS Bowl Games Bettor’s Guide

Point Spreads – Free Picks ATS – Over-Under Odds

TV Schedule – Lock Pick

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Rose Bowl: #10 Wisconsin Badgers vs. #5 Oregon Ducks

• Wisconsin-Oregon Date: Monday, January 2nd at 5:00 PM on ESPN
• Wisconsin-Oregon Point Spread: Ducks -6
• Wisconsin-Oregon Over-Under Odds: 71.5
• Wisconsin-Oregon Spread Pick: Expect a high scoring shootout in what could be the best game of the BCS bowls, as both teams can light up the scoreboard in a hurry. The Badgers rely on the dual passing/rushing threat of QB Russell Wilson  (2,879 yds, 31 TDs, 4 INTs ) and Heisman finalist Montee Ball (1,759 yds, 32TDs).  The Ducks counter with QB Darron Thomas (2,493 yds, 30 TDs, 6 INTs) and Ducks all-time rushing leader LaMichael James (1,646 yds, 17 TDs). Oregon looks to improve on their all-time bowl record of 9-15 and having lost bowl games the past 2 seasons. Wisconsin looks to avenge their Rose Bowl loss last year vs. TCU. Look for the Ducks speed to eventually be too much for the Badgers defense, winning 42-31.
• Pick: Ducks -6

Fiesta Bowl: #4 Stanford Cardinal vs. #3 Oklahoma State Cowboys 

• Stanford-Oklahoma State Date: Monday, January 2nd at 8:30 PM on ESPN
• Stanford-Oklahoma State Point Spread: Cowboys -4
• Stanford-Oklahoma State Over-Under Odds: 73.5
• Stanford-Oklahoma State Spread Pick: Only a devastating 37-31 double overtime loss at Iowa State prevented Oklahoma St. from playing in the BCS Championship Game against LSU. The Cowboys finished their regular season by crushing Oklahoma 44-10. Led by outstanding WR Justin Blackmon (113 rec, 1,336 yds, 15 TDs) and 28-year-old QB Brandon Weeden ( 4,328 yds, 34 TDs), the #3 ranked team in the nation looks to prove it belonged in the BCS title game. Stanford, led by consensus #1 pick in the NFL draft Andrew Luck ( 3,170 yds, 35 TDs) and RB Stepfan Taylor (1,153 yds, 8 TDs), will need to apply the same defensive  pressure on Weeden that has earned them the #6 national ranking with 38 sacks. Look for the Oklahoma St. offense to ultimately take the game over and pull away from Stanford, 45-35.
•  Pick: Cowboys -4  

Sugar Bowl: #13 Michigan vs. #11 Virginia Tech

• Michigan-Virginia Tech Date: Tuesday, January 3rd at 8:30 PM on ESPN
• Michigan-Virginia Tech Point Spread: Wolverines -3
• Michigan-Virginia Tech Over-Under Odds: 50.5
• Michigan-Virginia Tech Spread Pick: Two solid defenses (Virginia Tech-13th nationally, Michigan-18th) and rushing offenses collide in The Superdome in what looks to be a close game. The Wolverines’ star quarterback Denard Robinson (2,056 yds, 18 TDs passing-1,163 yds, 16 TDs rushing) and running back Fitzgerald Toussaint (1,011 yds, 9 TDs) lead a bruising, clock controlling rushing offense. The Hokies are led by ACC player of the year David Wilson (1,627 yds, 9 TDs) and sophomore QB Logan Thomas (2,799 yds, 19 TDs).  Look for the Hokies to rebound from their embarrassing 38-10 loss to Clemson in the ACC title game. Special teams play and a defense keyed on Michigan’s rushing game will pace the Hokies to a 27-19 win.
• Pick: Hokies +3

Orange Bowl: #23 West Virginia vs. #15 Clemson

• West Virginia-Clemson Date: Wednesday, January 4th at 8:30 on ESPN
• West Virginia-Clemson Point Spread: Tigers -3
• West Virginia-Clemson Over-Under Odds: 61.5
• West Virginia-Clemson Spread Pick: In what may be the least attractive BCS bowl game with slow ticket sales in South Florida, the on-field game may turn out to be better than imagined, with two potent offenses both averaging over 33 points per game and 440 yards of offense. West Virginia has the 7th rated passing offense and a 17th rated total offense, led by QB Geno Smith (3,978 yds, 25 TDs, 7 INTs) and WR Stedman Bailey (1,197 yds, 11 TDs). Clemson counters with QB Tajh Boyd (3,578 yds, 31 TDs), RB Andre Ellington (1,062 yds, 10 TDs) and Freshman WR Sammy Watkins (1153 yds, 11 TDs). With more offensive weapons, Clemson eventually pulls away from West Virginia, winning 35-24.
• Pick: Tigers -3

BCS National Championship: #2 Alabama vs. #1 LSU

• Alabama-LSU Date: Monday, January 9th at 8:30 on ESPN
• Alabama-LSU Point Spread: Crimson Tide -1
• Alabama-LSU Over-Under Odds: 40.5
• Alabama-LSU Spread Pick: The rematch between these 2 top defensive squads for the BCS title in New Orleans. No idea why top-ranked LSU is an underdog after winning in OT at Alabama and now playing in what will be a decided home field advantage in The Superdome. Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide ranks first in the country at yards allowed per game (191.3) with LSU #2 allowing 252.1 yards/game. Offensively, LSU ranks #13 in points scored with 38.5 and Alabama ranks #16 with 36 points a game. Crimson Tide is led by Doak Walker award winner Trent Richardson (1,583 yds, 20 TDs) and QB A.J. McCarron (2,400 yds, 16 TDs). Tigers are sparked by dual QBs Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee, who combined for 20 TDs and nearly 2,000 yards and RBs Michael Ford (755 yds, 7 TDs) and Spender Ware (700 yds, 8 TDs). Points will be at a premium for this game, which is where LSU Heisman finalist Tyrann Mathieu comes in to play with his knack making big plays as a punt returner. Look for the Tiger’s to claim the national title in convincing fashion, pulling away from the Crimson Tide in the 2nd half 27-10.
• Pick: Tigers +1

Lock Pick: LSU +1

Cotton Bowl Bonus Lock Pick: Friday, January 6th 8:00 PM on Fox. Arkansas -8 vs. Kansas State. No way Wildcats can hang with Razorbacks in this one. Arkansas 44 Kansas State 23.

Enjoy your 2012 BCS Bowl Games!

I, like most – would like to see some sort of playoff system in place. Taking the current four BCS games and making them National Championship quarterfinals (in the end adding two games to the season) to me seems like a logical solution.

To the naked eye, Alabama does appear to be the second-best team in college football, but thanks to one distracted night in Ames, IA a few weeks back, Oklahoma State will never have a chance to prove the case that they were more deserving of the #2 seat.

But college football is spectacular as it is: only 14 precious Saturdays with an entire menu of games available on television (no Sunday Ticket package needed) and mind-boggling finishes the norm on a weekly basis. Sadly, it is all over except the 35 bowl games, then nearly eight long months before the madness returns.

But there is one injustice in the BCS (besides continuing to give the Big East an automatic bid) that indeed will happen and must be pointed out.

Why are the Michigan Wolverines likely headed for the Sugar Bowl while the Michigan State Spartans are headed for the Outback (literally)?

And to make it even worse, this will mark the second straight year Sparty will get jobbed.

Last year, Michigan State beat Wisconsin in the regular season, but wound up in the dreaded three-way tie with Sconnie and Ohio State, which gave the Badgers the trip to Pasadena due to highest BCS ranking, while the now-tainted 2010 Buckeyes program got the at-large Sugar Bowl bid based on a higher-BCS ranking and name recognition.

And there was not a lot of complaining one year ago.

This year is a bit different.

I said Saturday afternoon, before what turned out to be the epic sequel between Michigan State/Wisconsin in Indianapolis, that both teams deserved BCS bids regardless of the outcome, although a losing Badgers side would have had far less of a case with two conference losses in the regular season, and what would had been two losses at the hand of the Spartans.

Of course it was the Badgers who earned another trip to Pasadena with a thrilling 42-39 win over MSU.

But the Spartans, just as they had back on October 22, did everything possible to beat the Badgers, except this time they suffered the heartbreak of being on the receiving end of a late-game miracle (34-yard Russell Wilson pass to Duckworth on fourth and six) and a game-ending running into the kicker, which wiped out a Sparty punt return inside the Sconnie five-yard line (though Sconnie special teams may had relaxed knowing they were getting the penalty).

With that, we are left with the final results.

• The Spartans won the Legends Division with a 7-1 record, the lone one-loss team in the conference. In a pre-division Big Ten, Sparty would had won the conference outright.

• MSU did not only defeat Wisconsin in the regular season, but defeated Michigan 28-14 on October 15.

• Michigan State’s two losses over all were at conference newcomer Nebraska and also non-conference at Notre Dame, a common opponent that Michigan beat in an epic early-season regular season finish. Beseides losing to MSU, Michigan’s other loss came two weeks later at Iowa (4-4/7-5).

In the final polls by AP and USA Today just released (including MSU’s loss to Sconnie), Michigan State finishes 12th, with Michigan #13 on AP poll, Michigan #12/MSU #13 on USA Today. Of teams ranked ahead of those two, #5 USC does not get in do to probation, #7 Arkansas and #10 South Carolina are out due to only two SEC teams being allowed in BCS, and #8 Boise State is out since they did not win their conference. TCU gets an at-large bid as a non-AQ if they finish top-16 in BCS due to being ranked ahead of West Virginia, and #11 Kansas State is the other at-large possibility.

Remove the brand names from Michigan and Michigan State, and the Spartans are slightly more deserving presenting these facts.

But one Facebook discussion I had Saturday about sums up why Michigan will likely end up seeing Sugar fall from the skies of Ann Arbor Sunday night (credit Charley Shonat)…

‘Michigan has the history, the cache. It isn’t fair, but money and fans will never overcome that…’

Translated, Michigan and Ohio State remain the Kardashians in the eyes of the BCS Bowl games. And Michigan State gets punished for losing a third game in a game that was earned just by participating in the Big Ten title game, which Michigan did not get by losing to MSU. It should be better to play and lose a conference title game than to not be a title game at all.

That rule does not apply to Alabama’s #2 overall bid, as the evidence points to Bama beating able to beat Georgia handily just as LSU did.

But with all respect to Brady Hoke getting the Wolverines back on the right track in 2011, and with all due respect of the 115,000+ that continue to fill up the Big House, is Michigan State THAT much less than a draw?? Sparty’s fan base would fill up Bourbon Street just as much as ‘Michigan Fan’. It’s not like the universal brand recognition of Notre Dame is involved.

Or I’ll just quote the kite Ari Kaufman just sent me…

‘A joke. Michigan doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near BCS. No quality wins. Eight home games.’

But at the end of the day, football wise, Michigan State is to Michigan like Oklahoma State is to Oklahoma, which is why OK State fan went overboard storming the field after beating a OU team they were clearly better than. It’s an inferiority complex.

If Michigan State does manage to squeeze out the final BCS bid Sunday night, it’s much deserved.

If not, Mark Dantonio’s troops still get a chance to prove their true worth against a foe from the much-feared SEC on January 2. And at least it will be another B1G Ten team spreading the bowl income throughout the conference.

And Sparty can talk the next four weeks about being ‘disrespected’ all over again.

For the first time, both leagues have the same number of teams, so there are 12 games on this year’s slate.  (In the event of a 6-6 tie, the Big Ten will retain the Commissioner’s Cup in case you were wondering.  Spoiler alert: That shouldn’t be an issue.)

Here’s a look at the schedule for the two-day event.  I also wrote a preview for Run The Floor, which focuses more on advanced metrics and is a bit snarkier since the Managing Editor there is an ACC guy.

ACC/Big Ten Challenge Games on Tuesday, Nov 29th

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#15 Michigan at Virginia – 7:00 EST (ESPN2)

Expect this one to be played at a painfully slow pace, but the tip time is early enough that it shouldn’t put you to sleep. Virginia is among the most efficient teams on the defense end, while Michigan is just outside the Top 25 in offensive efficiency, so something has to give.

The Wolverines have played better competition thanks to their time in Maui, while the Cavaliers recently returned from the Paradise Jam where they rebounded to win two games after a disappointing loss to TCU in the tournament opener.  UVA big man Mike Scott could give Michigan some trouble inside, but both teams are largely perimeter-oriented in terms of their personnel.

Tim Hardaway Jr. will be the best player on the floor, but I also like the contributions Michigan is getting from veterans Zach Novak and Stu Douglass as well as freshman point guard Trey Burke.  Still, the Wolverines have struggled to defend the three-point shot, and Virginia excelled from long range last season.

The other red flag has been Michigan’s propensity to put their opponents on the free throw line, and their 13th-ranked free throw rate suggests the Cavaliers will be able to take advantage of that deficiency.  I expect a close game, with Virginia having the slight edge based on concerns about Michigan’s defense.

• Prediction: Virginia

Northwestern at Georgia Tech – 7:15 EST (ESPNU)

Both of these teams participated in the Charleston Classic with Northwestern winning the tournament and the Jackets finishing 1-2.  It’s worth noting they played one of those games without leading scorer Glen Rice Jr., who was wrapping up a three-game suspension.  At 17.7 points per game, Rice leads five Georgia Tech players averaging over 8.0 points, but they aren’t getting much outside of those five guys.

Defense has been the Yellow Jackets’ calling card so far, but they will be tested by the duo of John Shurna and Drew Crawford, who have combined to score better than 40 points per game so far.  Keep an eye on how freshman point guard Dave Sobolewski handles Georgia Tech’s defense, as that will go a long way toward deciding the outcome.

The other area to monitor is Northwestern’s ability to limit second shots.  The Jackets have posted a strong offensive rebounding percentage and could give the Wildcats trouble on the glass.

• Prediction: Northwestern

Illinois at Maryland – 7:30 EST (ESPN)

For a number of reasons, the Terps are forced to play mostly young and/or inexperienced players, which has them off to a 3-2 start.  They lost two of their three games in Puerto Rico, to Alabama by 20 and to Iona by 26.

Maryland Sophomore Terrell Stoglin is emerging as a star with 20.2 points per game.  His shooting percentages have dropped across the board, but he’s the clear focal point of the offense with nearly twice as many field goal attempts as any of his teammates.  Maryland’s efficiency numbers have been absolutely brutal on both ends of the floor, leaving little reason for optimism there.

The Illini are also young, so neither team has a clear advantage in that regard.  Junior guard D.J. Richardson is off to a good start with 13.5 points per game to go with 40.5 percent shooting from beyond the arc.  Inside, soph big man Meyers Leonard is posting 12.3 points, 6.8 boards, and an impressive 3.2 blocks per game.  In a game with two relatively inexperienced teams, Illinois’ defense and inside play should be the difference.

• Prediction: Illinois

Miami (FL) at Purdue – 9:00 EST (ESPN2)

Had injuries not ravaged the Miami frontcourt, this would be a tougher matchup for Purdue given the composition of their team.

As it stands, the Canes are 4-1 while relying heavily on their talented backcourt of Malcolm Grant and Durand Scott, who combine to average 30.4 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 5.2 assists.  Miami is shooting just 40 percent from the field, which is not a good sign against a Purdue defense ranked in the Top 15 for defensive efficiency.

The Boilers picked up solid wins over Iona and Temple in Puerto Rico before falling to Alabama in the championship, but the best news is that Robbie Hummel looks healthy after missing last season with a knee injury.  He is pacing the team with 19.3 points per game while hitting 46.7 percent from deep.  Sharpshooter Ryne Smith has been red hot for most of the season, and Lewis Jackson has been terrific at the point.

Look for Kelsey Barlow to lock down either Grant or Scott and for the Boilers to emerge victorious.

• Prediction: Purdue

Clemson at Iowa – 9:15 EST (ESPNU)

I won’t blame you if you don’t go out of your way to watch this one.  Clemson has losses to College of Charleston and Coastal Carolina, while Iowa just lost at home by 15 to Campbell.

The Tigers have four players averaging at least 9.8 points, led by guard Andre Young with 14.4 points per contest.  Clemson has been solid defensively, but they haven’t been impressive on offense, particularly in terms of getting to the free throw line.  Of course, they’re only making 64.5 percent once they get there, so maybe it’s by design.

Meanwhile, Iowa has eight players scoring at least 7.2 points per game, and as a team they are hitting over 39 percent from deep.  Like Clemson, they have struggled to get to the stripe, but they have really struggled defensively, and their opponents have routinely shot a high percentage from the field.

• Prediction: Clemson

#4 Duke at #2 Ohio State – 9:30 EST (ESPN)

This is easily the marquee matchup of the event’s first day.

The Blue Devils should have plenty of confidence coming off of their win in Maui.  Duke is hitting a ridiculous 45.9 percent from beyond the arc so far, led by Seth Curry at 57.1 percent and Andre Dawkins at 44.7.  They are two of the five Blue Devils scoring in double figures, but there hasn’t been a ton of production from others with the notable exception of Tyler Thornton’s two huge three-pointers to seal the win over Kansas.  Duke has been adept at getting to the free throw line, and they have been better than I expected on defense.

As for the Buckeyes, they have been outstanding on both ends of the floor, as evidenced by Pomeroy Ratings in the Top Five for both offensive and defensive efficiency. Jared Sullinger has picked up right where he left off with 18.8 points and 10.7 rebounds along with 63.3 percent shooting from the field.

Like most teams in college basketball, Duke will have a hard time containing him on the inside.  William Buford complements Sullinger outside where he’s averaging 17.7 points and hitting 50 percent from deep.  Throw in point guard Aaron Craft, who is one of my favorites guys to watch, and you have a really intriguing backcourt matchup between these two squads.

Ohio State has struggled with its long-range shooting, but its defense should be enough to disrupt Duke on offense.

• Prediction: Ohio State

###

ACC/Big Ten Challenge Games on Wednesday, Nov 30th

———-

Indiana at North Carolina State – 7:15 EST (ESPN2)

While many predicted a rebuilding year for Mark Gottfried and the Wolfpack, they have played fairly well so far and came back from a healthy second half deficit to knock off Texas on a neutral floor.  After serving a three-game suspension to start the season, C.J. Leslie has been impressive with 16.7 points, 5.7 boards, 2.3 steals, and 2.3 blocks while hitting 63.0 percent from the field.  He leads six players scoring in double figures, including point guard Lorenzo Brown who is dishing out 6.5 assists per game as well.  While N.C. State has done a nice job taking care of the ball, they have struggled to hit and defend shots from beyond the arc.

The Hoosiers are off to their best start in years, thanks in large part to their hot shooting both inside and outside the arc.  Seven players are averaging at least 7.0 points, led by freshman phenom Cody Zeller with 14.8 points and 7.7 rebounds per contest. The biggest difference for IU has come on the defensive end where they have seen a sharp increase in their turnover rate.  They have also done a much better of job of not putting opponents on the line while getting there with much more regularity on offense.

This will be another solid road test for the Hoosiers but one they seem poised to pass based on their defense and outside shooting.

• Prediction: Indiana

Penn State at Boston College – 7:15 EST (ESPNU)

Unless you attended one of these schools or both of the other games are at commercial breaks, you probably aren’t tuning in for this one.

Both teams lost virtually everyone from last season’s rosters and are in full blown rebuilding mode this year.  Both teams have also been woefully inefficient offensively, with Boston College being the worse of the two on the defensive end.

With 19.1 points per game, Penn State guard Tim Frazier is the only Nittany Lion scoring in double figures, and he’s also pacing the team with 7.1 assists.  Freshman Patrick Heckmann leads BC with 13.8 points per game, but tons of questions remain on the roster, particularly once you get past their top four scorers.

Penn State’s offensive rebounding could be the difference in this one, but in the end, I simply can’t write any more about this game.

• Prediction: Penn State

Florida State at Michigan State – 7:30 EST (ESPN)

Like the previous matchup, these two teams are pretty similar.  The difference is that they both aren’t terrible, at least not on both ends of the floor.  These squads are built around defense and rebounding, while both struggle to put points on the board.

Seven Noles are scoring at least 7.0 points per game, but the team is shooting just 31.7 percent from beyond the arc.  The Spartans are actually worse, hitting just 23.8 percent of their triples.  They have also been unable to find a true point guard, which has led to an ugly turnover rate.  Draymond Green is averaging a double-double with 12.7 points and 11.2 rebounds, but his shooting has been poor and he’s trying to do too much on offense.

Aside from the battle on the glass, keep an eye on Florida State’s ability to get to the free throw line.  The Noles have a decent free throw rate, while Michigan State is putting opponents on the line with regularity.  Ultimately it’s hard to see Sparty solving their shooting woes against a team ranked 10th in effective field goal percentage defense.

I’m pretty sure it’s ok to plagiarize yourself, so as I said in my Run The Floor piece: In short, these two teams are mirror images of one another, which is ironic since watching either one play offense will make you want to break a mirror and start cutting yourself with the shattered pieces.  This one is a toss-up, so give me the home team!

• Prediction: Michigan State

Virginia Tech at Minnesota – 9:15 EST (ESPN2)

The Hokies gave Syracuse a scare in the NIT semi-finals before squeaking out a two-point win over Oklahoma State in the consolation game.  Their strength lies in the backcourt with Erick Green and Dorenzo Hudson leading the way with over 29 points per game between them.  Freshman wing Dorian Finney-Smith has impressed early in his career and is averaging 10.3 rebounds through six games.  On offense, the Hokies have struggled with turnovers but have done a nice job of getting to the stripe.

For Minnesota, the recent loss of forward Trevor Mbakwe is devastating in every possible way, as everything they did well on offense resulted from his relentlessness inside.  The Gophers are still searching for answers in the backcourt, but juco transfer Julian Welch played well in the Old Spice Classic.

Since the Hokies have struggled to force turnovers, it seems unlikely they will be able to take advantage of Minnesota’s biggest weakness, and without Mbakwe the Gophers will struggle to exploit Va Tech’s weakness on the offensive glass.  Instead, they will end up shooting more from the perimeter, where the Hokies are at their best on defense.

• Prediction: Virginia Tech

Wake Forest at Nebraska – 9:15 EST (ESPNU)

On the surface, this would appear to be another matchup of two teams picked to finish in the bottom of each league.

OK, that’s actually what it is, but I do think Nebraska could surprise a few teams in the Big Ten.  They have a pair of talented guards in Bo Spencer and Dylan Talley, who are averaging a combined 28.4 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 7.2 assists, to go with Jorge Brian Diaz inside.  Outside of solid shooting, their offensive efficiency numbers aren’t impressive, as they struggle to get to the line or grab offensive boards.  The Huskers also don’t force many turnovers, but otherwise they’ve been solid defensively.

The Demon Deacons are coming off of a 8-24 season and just went 1-2 in the Old Spice Classic.  C.J. Harris and Travis McKie each score better than 19 points per game and pace the offense.  Outside of the 6-foot-7 McKie, Wake isn’t getting much from its frontcourt.  They are doing a woeful job on the offensive glass and an equally poor job on the defensive boards, while their opponents are routinely shooting a high percentage from the field.

Look for the Huskers to take advantage of Wake’s poor defense to pick up the victory.

• Prediction: Nebraska

#7 Wisconsin at #5 North Carolina – 9:30 (ESPN)

This will be an interesting contrast in styles to close things out. The Badgers play at one of the slower paces in all of college hoops, while North Carolina wants to get up and down the floor.

Wisconsin is the top team in terms of limiting opponents’ effective field goal percentage and offensive rebounding, while the Heels have struggled to defend the three-point shot over their last few games.  The Badgers have Jordan Taylor (11.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 5.8 apg) and a bunch of guys no one has heard of, while UNC’s roster is full of McDonald’s All-Americans and lottery picks, led by Harrison Barnes (17.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg), John Henson (15.8 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 3.0 bpg), and Tyler Zeller (13.5 ppg, 7.2 rpg).

After being outplayed by UNLV on Saturday night, I will be interested to see how North Carolina responds.  They forced shots and got dominated on the glass by the Rebels, and they were unable to prevent penetration on defense, which led to a number of kick-outs for three-pointers.  That could be bad news against a Wisconsin team hitting better than 47 percent from downtown.

The Badgers were tested by BYU on Saturday before going on a second half run to win by 17 points, but going into the Dean Dome and winning is a pretty tall order.  Their defense will keep it close, but they will need big shooting days from Ben Brust and Josh Gasser to spring the upset. Given UNC’s defense so far, that isn’t as far-fetched as it might seem.

• Prediction: North Carolina

 **********

Follow me on Twitter (@andybottoms) for more thoughts on college hoops, and check out the latest edition of the Bottoms Line podcast.

The 7-3 Lions are relevant on the fourth Thursday of November.

When families across the country tomorrow turn their televisions to Fox at 11:30 a.m. (Central Time), they’ll get to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal while watching a Lions team that is very much in the playoff picture (complete schedule here). Many of my MSF colleagues aren’t old enough to remember the last time that happened.

For the first time in years family members won’t be asking each other, “Why are we stuck with the Lions on Thanksgiving?” as they pass the mashed potatoes.

Detroit’s First Thanksgiving Day Game

The Lions and the Bears on Thanksgiving, 1934. An extra serving of sweet potatoes goes to the person who can figure out what sort of offense they're running. (Pro Football Hall of Fame)

The Lions have played on Thanksgiving for as long as they’ve been the Lions.

The franchise began as the Portsmouth (OH) Spartans in 1930. In 1934, team owner G.A. Richards moved the team from the small steel town on the Ohio River to Detroit. Desperate to bring attention to the new team and its star quarterback Dutch Clark, Richards scheduled a Thanksgiving Day game against the reigning champion Chicago Bears. The Lions were 10–1 going into that game; the Bears were 11-0. All 26,000 tickets for the game, held at University of Detroit Stadium, were sold out weeks before Thanksgiving.

The game, which the Bears won 19-16 en route to an NFL Western Division title, was such a success that Thanksgiving Day football in Detroit became an annual affair. The Lions have hosted a Thanksgiving game every year since World War II.

But football on Thanksgiving predates the Lions, and even the NFL.

We don’t know when two football teams first decided to face off on Thanksgiving, or why, but by the end of the 19th century, the tradition was already established.

The Beginning of Thanksgiving Day Football

College

The Universities of Michigan and Chicago met annually on Thanksgiving beginning in 1893. (Even before then Michigan had played Thanksgiving games against the Chicago Athletic Association.) The Michigan-Chicago tradition ended in 1899 after Chicago coach Amos Alonzo Stagg refused to split gate receipts equally with the Wolverines or to give Michigan the right to choose the location of the 1900 game.

Stagg did not consider Michigan or other regional schools Chicago’s equals. The Wolverines needed to play in Chicago; Stagg’s Maroons would do just fine never setting foot in Ann Arbor. So in 1899 the Wisconsin Badgers traveled to the Windy City for a Thanksgiving meeting with the Chicago Maroons. (Say what you want about Amos Alonzo Stagg. His name is still on the Big Ten championship trophy.)

Fans tailgate before the 1895 Michigan-Chicago game. (Chicago Tribune)

High School

High schools also have been playing Thanksgiving Day games since the 19th century.

In many states old rivals play each other on Thanksgiving, provided that one or both of the two schools haven’t advanced to the late rounds of the state tournament. Boston Latin and Boston English, two of the nation’s oldest secondary schools, have played on Thanksgiving every year since 1887.

The most storied Thanksgiving Day rivalry in the Midwest involves two schools just outside of St. Louis. Kirkwood and Webster Groves have played on Thanksgiving since the late 1890s. This year, with Kirkwood advancing to the Missouri Class 5 State Championship Game, the annual Turkey Day contest between Kirkwood and Webster Groves will involve the junior varsity squads.

Professional

Pro football teams have played on Thanksgiving since the first professional leagues arose in the first decade of the 20th century.

The New York Pro Football League, a predecessor of the modern-day NFL, settled its championship on Thanksgiving. The Ohio League, the NFL’s other ancestor, saved its most important games for the holiday. The first NFL season in 1920 featured 6 Thanksgiving Day games, 5 of which were shut-outs (including one scoreless tie) and 2 of which involved NFL teams playing non-league teams.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the number of Thanksgiving games and the teams involved varied from season to season.

In the first Thanksgiving football games, Turkeys played for their lives.

Thanksgiving Day Dispute

In 1939 a dispute arose about the actual date of Thanksgiving.

Prior to that year, the holiday had always been the final Thursday of November. In 1939 that would have put Thanksgiving on November 30. Back then shoppers and retailers were loath to buy or sell Christmas gifts before Thanksgiving. So a late Turkey Date meant a short Christmas shopping season.

President Franklin Roosevelt was afraid that a November 30 Thanksgiving would have a negative impact on an economy that was still struggling to recover from the Great Depression. Under pressure from business leaders, FDR moved the holiday back one week, to November 23. Several states refused to recognize the change. After all, the Thanksgiving high school football games were already scheduled.

That year there were two Thanksgivings.

The only NFL game played on either date was a November 23 clash between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In 1941 Congress passed a law establishing Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November.

"You can wait another week if you want. But there won't be any turkey left."—Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The Growth of the NFL’s Thanksgiving Day Classic

For two decades after World War II (with the exception of a 1952 game between the Bears and the Dallas Texans), the NFL played only one game on Thanksgiving, hosted by the Detroit Lions.

In 1946 the upstart All-American Football Conference (AAFC) also played a Thanksgiving Day game. (The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 21-7.) The following year the AAFC played two games on the holiday, a trend that the league continued until it folded after the 1949 season (at which point three AAFC teams—the San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, and Baltimore Colts—joined the NFL).

When the American Football League (AFL) launched in 1960 it also had an annual Thanksgiving Day game on its schedule. The first 3 AFL Thanksgiving games involved the New York Titans, who would later become the Jets.

In 1966 Dallas Cowboys owner Tex Schramm jumped at the opportunity to host a second Thanksgiving NFL game. He saw it as a marketing opportunity—a chance to bring publicity to his young franchise.

Not to be outdone, the AFL added a second Thanksgiving game in 1967. For the next 3 seasons, American football fans were treated to 4 pro football games on the fourth Thursday of November. When the AFL merged with the NFL in 1970, it gave up its two Thanksgiving games. Instead, one team from the new American Football Conference would play either the Lions or Cowboys.

With the exceptions of 1975 and 1977, when the St. Louis Cardinals replaced the Cowboys as a Turkey Day host, the NFL played exactly two Thanksgiving games—one in Detroit, one in Dallas—from 1970 until 2005.

In 2006 the league added a third game. So those of you who get the NFL Network can enjoy Thanksgiving football long after the dishes have been done and the remains of your holiday meal are sitting in a dozen Tupperware® containers in the fridge.

"I didn't catch what he said. Let's just assume that he said 'heads.' "

Though Thanksgiving football is as American as a deep-fried Twinkie at the state fair, the tradition isn’t confined to the states.

The Canadian Football League (CFL) has held a Thanksgiving Day doubleheader each year since 1970. But don’t be shocked when you don’t see Argos-Als highlights tomorrow night on SportsCenter. The CFL plays its Thanksgiving Day Classic on Canadian Thanksgiving, which is the second Monday in October.

Football on Thanksgiving is as old as the sport itself. And it’s nice that, this year, we can kick off the day with a game that has playoff implications (even if we have to deal with Nickelback at halftime).

Happy Thanksgiving.

**********

Josh Tinley is the author of Kneeling in the End Zone: Spiritual Lessons From the World of Sports. Follow him at twitter.com/joshtinley or send him an e-mail.

Michigan State won all 3 meetings against the Wolverines under Rodriguez, but there is no doubt that this 2011 Michigan team is much different than any the Spartans faced the last 3 years.  This rivalry, which many regard as the fiercest in the Big Ten, means a little more this time around for both teams.

East Lansing’s Spartan Stadium will host a battle for first place of the Big Ten’s Legends Division.  #11 Michigan (6-0, 2-0 conference) and #23 Michigan State (4-1, 1-0 conference) can each take the inside track to the Big Ten Championship Game with a win this Saturday.

And you can take the inside track to cash money prizes by leveraging your college football knowledge over at Daily Joust, where they host weekly fantasy college football contests. Click and check ‘em out.

Michigan-Michigan State: Things to consider for Saturday

This matchup, on paper, is a classic example of strengths versus weaknesses.  It will be interesting to see which coach is able to game plan best in order to equalize those gaps, and also to see which players execute those game plans and make big plays.

Michigan comes into this game 7th in the nation in rushing with 257 yards per game.  Obviously, having Denard Robinson, who averages 120 rushing yards per game himself, is a big reason for that.  But Michigan has also had the benefit of piling up healthy rushing totals while leading big in several games this season.

Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images North America

Robinson, the Heisman candidate, has developed the disturbing (for Michigan and their fans, that is) habit of throwing interceptions.  The biggest reason for this, in my opinion, is overconfidence on Robinson’s part.  He believes he can make every throw with his athleticism, and this leads to him forcing the ball when a play simply isn’t there.  Robinson has been able to make a ton of big plays, most notably against Notre Dame and last week against Northwestern, but part of the reason it took a big comeback in both of those games is that the Wolverines turned the ball over so much to begin with.

The big plays have also been a curse in disguise, because on nearly every one of those deep bombs that Denard has unleashed, whether for completions or picks, he has thrown while moving and off his back foot.  That creates a jump ball situation, and often the passes are underthrown, making the receiver come back to the ball, and also the defensive back.  Though wideout Junior Hemingway has shown an uncanny ability to go up and grab those, he won’t always be able to do so, especially against a tough defense like the Spartans.  Robinson, I think, has started to believe that he can heave it and let Hemingway, Roy Roundtree, or Jeremy Gallon go get it.

Michigan State, on the other hand, has excelled defensively.  They are the top ranked defense in the nation in yards allowed (173 per game) and are especially stout against the run, allowing only 64 yards per game.  They are also 3rd in the country in points allowed, giving up just over 10 per game.  In their last game they manhandled Ohio State in Columbus and came within 10 seconds of shutting the Buckeyes out.

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images North America

Senior Wide Receiver B.J. Cunningham has been a monster this season, with 38 catches and an average of over 116 yards per game, tops in the Big Ten.  He became the school’s all-time leaders in receptions in week 2.  Cunningham has twice as many catches as the next Spartan this season, Keshawn Martin, who has 19.  Quarterback Kirk Cousins is completing 68 percent of his passes this year, and Cunningham is a big reason why.

Given the trouble Michigan has had keeping big play receivers in check, he might be in for another big game this weekend.  Michigan has allowed an opposing receiver double-digit catches 3 times in 6 games, including huge games by Western Michigan’s Jordan White (12-119 yards) and Notre Dame’s Michael Floyd (13-159 yards).  Cunningham will be the most talented receiver Michigan has seen Floyd, and Michigan State will surely try to exploit that mismatch against Michigan’s secondary.

What Michigan must do to win

For the Wolverines to win, the formula is simple: Denard Robinson must play like Denard Robinson, minus the interceptions.  Michigan can survive one or two turnovers at most, as the Spartans have also shown a propensity to turn the ball over (including 3 times at Ohio State).  But if Robinson plays like he did in the first half of the Northwestern game, Michigan will likely dig themselves a hole too deep to emerge from, especially considering Michigan State leads the Big Ten in time of possession at just over 34 minutes per game.

Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images North America

Michigan must also find a way to limit B.J. Cunningham.  That’s easier said than done, but it can be done by getting solid pressure with Mike Martin, Ryan Van Bergen and the rest of the defensive line.  If they force Cousins to act quickly, the chances for mistakes will increase.

Vincent Smith should also play a significant role.  Michigan’s offense is at its best when Smith is in the game, as he adds value in the running, receiving and pass blocking phases of the game.  He is so elusive in space that it often only takes a single block to spring him for a big gain.  If he makes a couple big plays look for Michigan to break their losing streak to the Spartans.

What Michigan State must do to win

It’s a no-brainer, but the Spartans must keep Denard Robinson in check.  Last year they forced Robinson into 3 interceptions and limited him to 86 yards on the ground, his lowest total in a game at that point last year.  They must do the same this year.

The defensive backs for Michigan State must look back to the ball in coverage.  Michigan’s receivers are speedy, but Robinson sometimes struggles with accuracy.  The Spartans will have their chances to go after the ball, and they must make a couple big plays when given those chances.

As mentioned, Cousins must get the ball to B.J. Cunningham.  His presence will also open up the middle of the field for tight ends and screens.  Cunningham has a chance to go off in this game, and if he does, the Spartans might just make it 4 in a row.

Lastly, they must control the clock.  If they can use Edwin Baker and LeVeon Bell with any success and keep Robinson off the field for large stretches, they will win.

Michigan-Michigan State Prediction

Michigan State will come out with a huge head of steam and Cousins will connect with Cunningham early and often.  The Spartans, like Northwestern last week, will jump out to a lead in the first half, and Michigan will have to adjust.

But also like last week, adjust the Wolverines will.  Denard will find his mojo, make smart decisions, and run better than he did last year against State.  The Wolverines will force Cousins into some mistakes and take advantage, pulling off a victory in a game I expect to be really exciting down the stretch, as is the norm with Michigan.

• Final Score: Michigan 34, Michigan State 31.

What do you think?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

Michigan-Michigan State Game Info:

• Michigan-Michigan State Date: Saturday, October 15
• Michigan-Michigan State Kickoff Time: 12:00 pm ET
• Michigan-Michigan State TV: ESPN
• Michigan-Michigan State Point Spread: Michigan State -2
• Michigan-Michigan State Over/Under: 49

1. The Midwest owns baseball.

All 3 Midwestern Playoff teams—the Brewers, Cardinals, and Tigers—advanced to their respective League Championship Series, and at least one team will represent the region in the World Series. If the fifth inning of yesterday’s NLCS Game 1 is any indication, the Playoffs will not suffer from the elimination of the Red Sox, Yankees, and Phillies.

Dominance, with puppy.

2. Alex Smith dominates Jay Cutler style.

It may be too soon to remove Alex Smith’s name from the list of top draft picks that didn’t pan out (a list that includes Tim Couch, David Carr, and Jamarcus Russell). At the moment Smith is third in the league in quarterback rating (104.1), and he’s only thrown a single interception. (Prior to this year, Smith averaged one interception per start.) The 49ers, after a 48-3 drubbing of the Bucs, are 4-1 and maintain a 2-game lead in the NFC West.

3. Wisconsin and Michigan are still doing well.

In addition to the Brewers and Tigers advancing to their respective League Championship Series and the Brewers winning Game 1, the Packers, Badgers, Lions, and Wolverines all remain perfect. (The Badgers were off this week and the Lions play tonight, but still.)

4. Luke Fickell won’t be Ohio State’s head football coach next year.

And Jim Bollman won’t be the offensive coordinator. The Buckeyes blew a 21-point second-half lead on Saturday, losing 34-27 to Nebraska. Bucknuts, the Ohio State fan site, is calling the loss “arguably the biggest collapse in school history.” For Nebraska, the win was the biggest comeback in the history of the program. Ohio State is now 3-3, with consecutive losses for the first time in 7 years, and has 4 games remaining against ranked opponents.

Ohio State didn’t want Fickell to spend the year wearing the “interim” tag (the proverbial scarlet “I”), but functionally, he’s an interim head coach. Unless the Buckeyes win every remaining game (except, maybe, the Wisconsin game but including the bowl game), Fickell and Bollman won’t be back next year. And I get the impression that Ohio State fans won’t be sad to see embattled senior quarterback Joe Bauserman follow them out of Columbus.

5. Air Force refused an invitation from the Big 12 and will be joining the Missouri Valley Conference?!

A couple weeks ago a rumor surfaced that the Big East was interested in adding Air Force and Navy as football-only members. Saturday, Air Force athletic director Hans Mueh told the Denver Post that the interest was mutual. Mueh floated a plan that “would have the Falcons joining the Big East only in football, while moving teams in other sports to the Missouri Valley Conference.” (Of course, as we learned from Oklahoma, just because a school wants to join a conference doesn’t mean that the presidents of the schools in that conference will give the school an invitation.)

Mueh added:

We were approached by the Big 12, and I told them we’re not a good fit for that conference. In the Big 12, geography makes sense, the economics make sense, but recruiting makes no sense for us. I can’t recruit against Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State.

What does that say about the Big East?

At any rate, I look forward to many Falcons-Purple Aces basketball games to come.

Jimmie Johnson, and his beard, led 197 of 267 laps Sunday in Kansas. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

6. Don’t be surprised if Jimmie Johnson wins his sixth consecutive Sprint Cup Championship.

Johnson followed up a second-place finish last week in Dover with a win this week in Kansas. Two weeks ago, Johnson was 10th in the Sprint Cup Standings and on a 20-race winless streak. Now, he’s in third place, only four points behind leader Carl Edwards, with a good chance of winning yet another Sprint Cup Championship. Six races remain, including the Tums Fast Relief 500 in Martinsville, which Johnson has won 4 times, and the Kobalt Tools 500 in Phoenix, which Johnson has won thrice.

7. Craig Smith is an early candidate for NHL Rookie of the Year.

I know that October is way to early to start talking about NHL, but Nashville Predators rookie Craig Smith is off to an impressive start. The Preds decided that Smith, a Wisconsin native and University of Wisconsin product, would not spend any more time in his home state. Instead of starting their first-round draft pick with the Milwaukee Admirals, Nashville’s farm team, the Preds put Smith in the opening day lineup. The move paid off. In two games, both Predators wins, Smith already has two goals and two assists.

8. We’re going to spend the week talking about Tim Tebow, aren’t we?

The Broncos are 1-4, and the quarterbacks on their roster have been selected to a total of zero Pro Bowls, but I get the feeling that we’re going to be talking about Orton and Tebow this week like they’re Montana and Young.

The usually serviceable Kyle Orton Sunday went 6-for-13 for 34 yards and an interception. Tim Tebow, who replaced Orton in the second half, more than doubled Orton’s passing output, added another 38 yards rushing, and scored two touchdowns (one on the ground and one through the air). The Broncos still lost to the Chargers, but they made a game of it.

I have no idea what Tebow’s future in the NFL looks like, but maybe he could be this year’s version of 2006 Vince Young. That year Young led a Titans team that started 0-5 to within a game of the Playoffs running the just-do-your-thing-Vince offense. Were it not for attitude problems, which have never plagued Tebow, Young likely would still be a starting quarterback in the NFL. Maybe Timmy has a future in this league after all. Then again, Broncos’ coach John Fox has given no indication that Tebow will replace Orton, so this may be a one-week conversation.

The three of us discuss Troy’s recent interview with the great Jay Bilas, idiots tweeting crazy stuff at recruits, and previews galore including the Colonial, Mountain West, and West Coast Conferences plus Butler, Fairfield, Long Beach State, Michigan, and more.

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Anyway, here are some things we learned this week:

1. Minneapolis is the Mecca of bad football.

Major football teams that make their home in Minneapolis are a combined 1-8, and things were especially bad this weekend. The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, who already have home losses to New Mexico State and North Dakota State on their resume, lost 58-0 in Ann Arbor on Saturday. Sunday, the Vikings dropped to 0-4 after losing to the similarly hapless Chiefs.

Wisconsin is lovely in the autumn.

2. States that have shores on Lakes Michigan and Superior are having a great fall.

Maybe Minnesota’s problem is that it borders only Lake Superior and not Lake Michigan. Things are much better in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Michigan is home to the Lions, who made yet another second-half comeback Sunday to remain undefeated; the Wolverines, who shut out the aforementioned Gophers 58-0 and have risen to #12 in the AP poll and #11 in the USA Today poll; and the Tigers, who are headed back to Detroit tied 1-1 with the Yankees in the American League Division Series.

Meanwhile in America’s Dairy, the Packers are a perfect 4-0, the Brewers are one game away from advancing to the National League Championship Series, and . . .

3. Wisconsin is a national championship contender

The Badgers, after a 48-17 creaming of Nebraska, are #4 according to the AP and #5 according to the coaches. Wisconsin’s toughest remaining game is either October 22 at Michigan State or November 19 at Illinois. Wisconsin should be favored in both. The Badgers have a clearer path to an undefeated season than any team other than Boise State. Don’t be surprised to see Wisconsin in New Orleans on January 9.

4. So is Clemson.

Yes, really. Clemson, currently #8 in both polls, may have a better trio of quality wins than anyone in the country. The Tigers are coming off of consecutive victories over defending national champion Auburn, preseason top-5 Florida State (albeit without starting QB EJ Manuel), and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg (by a score of 23-3). Clemson still has Georgia Tech in Atlanta, South Carolina in Columbia, and (possibly but probably) the ACC Championship Game, but the Tigers are more than capable of winning all three.

5. Brady Hoke made all my football dreams come true.

I’ve long been an advocate of 2-quarterback formations. Having 2 good quarterbacks should never be reason for controversy. Just play them both at the same time. (I’m not really an Xs-and-Os guy.)

Saturday, on the second play of Michigan’s public shaming of Minnesota, coach Brady Hoke put back-up QB Devin Gardner under center and lined up Denard Robinson as a third halfback. The Wolverines used the 2-QB set 4 times against the Gophers. I can only hope that they’ll return to this formation next week at Northwestern.

6. Alex Smith might be an NFL quarterback after all.

Smith went for a respectable 21-for-33 for 291 yards, 2 touchdowns, and zero interceptions in the 49ers’ road win over the Eagles on Sunday. I was going to make an “Alex Smith has gotten more chances than anyone not named ________” joke, but I couldn’t think of anyone in sports, entertainment, or any other walk of life who has gotten more chances, without doing anything to earn them, than Alex Smith.

At any rate, Smith is the starting quarterback on a team that is 3-1 (and was very nearly 4-0) and already has a 2-game lead in its division. He’s also 8th in the NFL in quarterback passer rating. (I know it’s a flawed stat, but still.)

7. Chris Johnson might still be an NFL running back.

In his first 3 games this season, Johnson rushed for a total of 98 yards on 48 carries. That’s barely 2 yards per attempt. Sunday against the Browns, he ran for 101 yards on 23 carries. Granted, it was one game, against the Browns. But for Titans fans and fantasy owners who had been waiting for C.J. To have a breakout game, “Johnson (101)” was a welcome sight.

8. Devin Hester is the most accomplished punt returner in NFL history.

Hester took a punt 69 yards into the end zone during the Bears’ victory Sunday over the Panthers, setting an NFL record with 11 career punt returns for touchdowns. You know who didn’t send Hester a congratulatory text? Hester’s old friend Nevin Shapiro.

9. Three NFL teams started Purdue quarterbacks this week.

Purdue football fans haven’t had much to feel good about lately. But on a weekend when the Boilers lost 38-10 to Notre Dame, 3 former Purdue quarterbacks started for pro teams (Brees, Orton, and Painter). Sure 2 of the 3 lost, but Curtis Painter (281 yards and no picks) played better than expected, and Purdue fans need something take pride in right now. Boiler up.

10. The MLB Playoffs have lived up to their opening act.

I feared that there was no way baseball’s Playoffs could be as exciting as the final night of the regular season, but so far the postseason hasn’t disappointed. Three of the 4 series were tied after 2 games, and there have been plenty of close games, lead changes, and gutty performances.

Last night the Rangers scored 4 runs in the 7th to edge out the Raymonds, and Justin Verlander pitched an 8-inning, 11-strikeout win against the Yankees. Sunday night, the Cardinals came back from down 4 to prove that Cliff Lee isn’t invincible in October. Perhaps last Wednesday was just an hors d’oeuvre.

11. Angel McCoughtry is the best professional athlete you’ve never heard of.

If you live in Minnesota and you’re depressed about the Vikings, Gophers, Twins, etc., you might want to follow the Lynx, who have a 1-0 lead in the WNBA Finals. If you do watch the remaining Finals games between the Lynx and the Atlanta Dream, pay attention to the Dream’s Angel McCoughtry, the best professional athlete you’ve never heard of.

Even people who ignore the WNBA have heard of Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker, and Maya Moore (of the Lynx). Casual fans know Cappie Pondexter and Tamika Catchings (this year’s MVP). But few know about McCoughtry who is as good as any of them. The 6-1 forward has carried the Dream through the Playoffs—along the way eliminating my Indiana Fever with a barrage of jump shots that would have won her a HORSE tournament—and Sunday night scored 33 in a losing effort. McCoughtry already holds WNBA records for points in a Conference Finals game (42) and in a Finals game (35). Don’t be surprised if she saves the Dream from elimination and leads them to a title.

12. Kobe Bryant is getting ready to return to his childhood home.

Bryant and Italian club Virtus Bologna are working on a deal to bring Bryant to the country where he spent much of his childhood. Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, Kobe’s dad, signed with an Italian basketball team when Kobe was 6. Joe retired and moved the family back to the states when Kobe was 13. Bryant has said it would be a “dream” to play in Italy, but I’m guessing that he’d have no trouble letting go of that dream if the NBA lockout were to end today (and it almost certainly won’t).

13. Disney is really counting on people taking Real Steel seriously.

For each hour of sports you watched this weekend, you saw no fewer than 7 ads for Disney’s forthcoming movie Real Steel. Apparently, Disney believes that people will flock to theaters next week to see the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots movie. Disney is probably right. As a species we can’t resist special effects.

In fairness, Real Steel wasn’t inspired by Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots but by a pretty good 1956 Richard Matheson short story (“Steel”) that was the basis for a pretty good Twilight Zone episode. Neither the story nor the Twilight Zone episode were about a kid building a fighting robot with his estranged father. Rather, both were about an aging former boxer who refused to give up on his battered, out-of-date boxing robot. In a desperate effort to win money to repair his bot, the old fighter takes the robot’s place in the ring. (It’s not as ridiculous as it sounds.)

Update: It’s a Fab 5 kind of morning here at MSF. Once you get done reading Jon’s take on the Fab5, check out Jerod’s latest photo story entitled The Truce. It features Jalen Rose, Coach K, Grant Hill, and others, and like this article challenges the common perceptions of the latest controversy surrounding the Fab 5.

I am a 24 year-old white male. I grew up smack-dab in the middle of Indiana but have lived in the Deep South for the past seven years.

It would be naive and foolish of me to even pretend that I’ve really “been around the block.” When it comes to culture, I know a little, but I don’t know a lot. When it comes to racism, I have seen my fair share (I live in Charleston, SC), but to be honest, I have never truly experienced it. When it comes to basketball, I know just about everything you could possibly know from 1995 to the present, but I must remain a student of the game to discover what happened before my time.

So when ESPN announced that they were going to broadcast a documentary on the Fab Five, I was pumped. Literally one of my first basketball memories ever was when my dad bought me a basketball from Hardee’s when I was only five years old. It was a “Final Four” basketball and had four logos: Duke, Indiana, Cincinnati, and Michigan. I can still remember looking at the big yellow “M” and my dad telling me that the Fab 5 played for them.

I had heard and read so much about them, but I had never actually SEEN them. SO I made it a point to clear my evening this past Sunday and set up my DVR so that whatever happened, I wouldn’t miss the chance to see the immortal Fab 5.

When it was over, three things stuck out to me:

1. The amount of attention and publicity they received – both good and bad – was way more than any 18-year-olds would be able to handle.
2. The incredible passing and unselfish play I saw was breathtaking.
3. Boy, oh boy, am I happy they brought us the baggy shorts.

Now look, I understand that Jalen Rose was the producer. It’s definitely possible that the racism towards them was overstated. They also could have showcased the 2% of game film that exhibited their unselfishness and stashed the rest in the closet. I don’t know. Again, I’m still a kid. But honest to goodness, those were the three thoughts I walked away with.

Until I got around the water-cooler the next morning. Then, I realized that to most people, it was so much more.

“I didn’t even watch it because I didn’t like what Jalen Rose said about Coach K.”

“I made my son watch it because I wanted them to see the type of drug-dealer thugs they were.”

That’s when I realized it. In the eyes of most people (whether they would ever admit it or not), the Fab 5 was all about racism. It WAS white vs. black. Good vs. evil.

As the days have passed, conversation about the documentary has turned more and more to racism. Specifically, this comment by Jalen Rose:

“For me, Duke was personal. I hated Duke and I hated everything I felt Duke stood for. Schools like Duke didn’t recruit players like me. I felt like they only recruited black players that were Uncle Toms.”

Now before we go further, let me say this: Jalen was/is wrong. That is an insult on both the original “Uncle Tom” and black people. If you read Grant Hill’s response to the documentary, you will get a better picture of what that specific quote is really saying.

It implies that well-educated blacks are not true blacks, that if you are black and grew up in a wealthy family, you are a sell-out. Jalen was/is wrong about this, and he deserves whatever criticism he gets.

For that comment.

Not the entire documentary.

And not for his feelings that he had about Duke University when he was an 18-year-old kid.

Take a journey with me back to the late 80s. Obama is not the president. Rap and hip-hop is not yet mainstream. Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech about twenty years prior, but John Thompson is JUST NOW breaking ground as a black coach in college basketball.

Now let’s personalize it a little bit.

You are in high school and you live with your mom and a few siblings. Your father was a professional athlete that never wanted anything to do with you. You attend a high school that is, well, let’s just say “urban.” You are a great ballplayer. In fact, you are one of the ten best recruits in the nation. Your idols are the “Bad Boys Pistons” who make their living by intimidating their opponents physically, mentally, and verbally. You get recruited to go to college near your home. Four other top-notch high schoolers sign with you.

Now you are in college. Freshmen simply don’t get big time minutes at legit programs, but three of you are in the starting line up from day one. Your team resents you. You don’t like wearing underwear to play basketball in, so you ask your coach if you can get longer shorts. People that hate change resent you. Eventually, your coach bucks the trend and gives all five of you starting roles. This makes national news, and the response is that people all over the country, but especially alumni from your own school hate you. They call you the N-Word. They tell you to leave their school. They tell you that you are a cancer to their program…even though you are winning and making the school tons of money.

Remember. You are 18 years old.

In your mind, the entire world is against you. (And let’s just be honest, who WAS on their side at that point?)

Now you have the opportunity to play the defending champions. A team whose best player, a white guy, is basically worshipped around the country. A team that didn’t recruit you or three of your teammates, even though you were all in the top 50 of the country. A team whose most visible black guy comes from a wealthy family and had a father that was a professional athlete.

Now considering all of the previous conditions, tell me that the following would NOT have come out of your mouth and heart.

I was jealous of Grant Hill. He came from a great, black family. Congratulations. Your mom went to college and was roommates with Hilary Clinton. Your dad played in the NFL and was a very well-spoken and successful man. I was upset and bitter that my mom had to bust her hump for 20 plus years. I was bitter that I had a professional athlete that was my father that I didn’t know. I resented that more so than I resented him. I looked at it as, “they are who the world accepts and we are who the world hates.”

Jalen didn’t say that’s how he felt now. He said that was how he felt THEN. As an 18-year old kid.  Wouldn’t you?

Now the Uncle Tom comment was ridiculous, and Grant Hill’s response was spot on. But while we jump to criticize Jalen Rose, we are missing something just as important. Which of Jalen’s statements were UNTRUE? And why did he feel compelled to make them in the first place?

How many athletes like Jalen Rose has Duke recruited in the past 25 years?

How many athletes has Duke recruited in the past 25 years that don’t fit the “look” of Duke?

Look, I’m the guy that has seen the movie Hoosiers approximately 8,000 times. I love watching a team like Butler overachieve because they play such great team basketball. In general, I like watching Duke play. They play fantastic defense, give 110 percent on both ends of the floor, and have a great coach.

I’m not saying that Coach K is racist. I’m not even saying he’s wrong for recruiting a certain type of player to fit his program.

But somewhere along the line, most of white America began equating all of these things (teamwork, defense, hard work, coachability) with Duke basketball players.

Many Duke basketball players are white.

Almost no Duke basketball players look like Jalen Rose, or Ray Jackson, or Jimmy King.

So what did Jalen say that was false?

I have several friends who are Duke fans. You know who their four least favorite players are in all of basketball?  Not Jordan, Carter, Felton, and Hansbrough. It’s William Avery, Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, and Luol Deng. The four guys that had the audacity to go to Duke and not graduate.  Four guys that were a little bit “thuggish.”  You aren’t supposed to do those things and behave that way. Not at Duke. You aren’t supposed to be like “them”…those Fab 5 guys.

You could describe Duke and its fans with a lot of adjectives – hypocritical being one of them.

To me, that was the saddest thing about the reaction. While watching the documentary, I saw amazing and unselfish team play from the Fab 5. I saw hard work. The kids seemed much more coachable then a lot of us originally thought. The Fab 5 players were LIKABLE. They were funny. They were fantastic television by all accounts.

In my mind, they were playing great basketball. Unfortunately, in the eyes of America (both then, and now), they were the evil empire.

I saw Bill Walton call them over-rated and say “they think they are better than they are.”

Since Sunday, I have read column after column pointing out that they didn’t win a title. They never won a Big Ten Championship. They never beat Duke. They could barely beat Indiana.

The insinuation behind all of these comments was that they didn’t DESERVE to win. They didn’t work as hard Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner. They didn’t play the right way. They were selfish thugs.

That’s why Jalen Rose made those comments. He resented THOSE feelings.  And you know what?  So would I.

Hey, America, how about this. Maybe they didn’t win because THEY WERE ALL FRESHMEN. Jalen admitted that Duke was just better.

Maybe they didn’t win because they had no bench. I mean really, were you watching the show?

Maybe, they didn’t win because Dean Smith, Coach K., and Bobby Knight are three of the GREATEST COACHES OF ALL TIME. There have been several great teams and players that couldn’t beat those coaches.

I wasn’t old enough to experience the Fab 5 the first time, but while I watched the documentary I felt privileged to be able to watch them. I saw five guys flying all over the court making flashy passes trying to get their teammates dunks. They got excited when their TEAMMATES succeeded. It was pure basketball if I’ve ever seen it.  Race should have never even entered the equation.

Maybe their baggy clothes scared a lot of white people stuck in their ways (even though Jordan was already making it popular). Maybe their trash talking went a little too far (even though people thought it made Larry Bird, Bill Laimbeer, and all them great). Maybe they were different from Duke (just like Georgetown and UNLV). But one thing is for sure. They played beautiful basketball and changed the game forever.

You can keep fighting the race war if you want.  You can keep hating them and calling them thugs.  But me and my scrawny white legs will always appreciate them for what they were – a great basketball team.

And yeah, they were cool too.

One of the most entertaining activities to engage in with a fresh, new bracket is to see all the possible matchups that could reasonably (or unreasonably) materialize. In this post, I run down 10 matchups that I really hope to see happen, and encourage you to share yours as well.

Duke v Michigan in Round of 32

If you watched the Fab 5 documentary on ESPN last night, which was absolutely fantastic, then you know exactly why I’m listing this here. A major theme during the early part of the movie was how much the young Michigan players hated Duke. Jalen Rose even went so far as to say that, at the time, he felt like Duke would only recruit black players who were “Uncle Toms”. Obviously that was 20 years ago, but I wonder if the current young Wolverines will be inspired at all by the words of the most legendary team in their school’s history. People forget how big of a rivalry this once was.

Regardless of the Fab 5 connection, this game is intriguing because of style. Both teams love to hoist up 3-pointers, which means that we could see a very entertaining game if both teams are shooting well. And if the Dookies struggle from downtown, and Tim Hardaway Jr and the Wolves are hitting, there is legit upset potential here. Michigan coach Jon Beilien has done it in March before.

San Diego State v Michigan in Elite 8

While we’re on the subject of the Fab 5, how about Steve Fisher versus the school he led to the 1989 championship and then to two more title games with Webber, Rose, et al? Sure, none of the current Wolverines nor Beilein, have any connection to that time at Michigan, but there would certainly be something fitting about Fisher having to go through Big Blue on his way back to the Final 4.

Plus, if Michigan were to make it to the Elite 8 as an 8 seed, it would mean some craziness happened on their portion of the bracket, which is always fun. The Wolves would have to go through Duke, Arizona, and Texas to get there, and despite how well they have been playing I’m not quite sure they are ready for that yet.

UCONN v Tennessee in Elite 8

And speaking of NCAA sanctions…how about a matchup between Bruce Pearl and Jim Calhoun, two coaches who ran afoul of the NCAA and paid a pretty heavy price for it. Calhoun was suspended for three games while Pearl had to sit out half of the Volunteers’ SEC schedule and still could face more punishment.

And if all of the subplots about NCAA rule breaking got annoying, you could always just turn down the volume and watch the great Kemba Walker go up against Tennessee’s Scotty Hopson. These two are among the most dynamic scorers in the nation, and their teams typically go how they go. If nothing else, watching them trade buckets would be entertaining.

Purdue v Notre Dame in Sweet 16

Purdue and Notre Dame have established themselves as the top two big conference teams in the state of Indiana, with Butler obviously right there nipping at both team’s heels after last year’s tourney run. (As for Indiana…the Cream & Crimson is a sleeping giant, but it needs to wake up and start winning, soon.) Should the Boilers and Irish meet in the Sweet 16, it would present an opportunity for one team to establish bragging rights that certainly cannot hurt when it comes to recruiting the fertile basketball grounds of the Hoosier State.

In addition to the Hoosier State connection, this game would be intriguing simply because these are two really good teams. Purdue has legit stars in E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson, and the Irish have Ben Hansbrough, who has emerged as a star this year. Big Ten/Big East bragging rights would also be on the line.

Kansas v Illinois in the Round of 32

This is a pretty easy one. Bill Self built the Illini into a national contender before taking the Kansas job and handing the reins over to Bruce Weber. With Self’s recruits, Weber made a Sweet 16 and a title game appearance his first two years in Champaign. Since then, Weber has not gotten past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, and he is starting to the feel the heat. The Illini underachieved this year, despite a pretty talented roster.

As for Self, he’s done quite well for himself in Lawrence. The man can recruit like no other, and he consistently has the Jayhawks among the best teams in the nation. They have won the Big 12 for almost a decade straight, and this year they are looking to avenge last year’s disappointing loss to Northern Iowa. Yet again, Self has a team with title potential.

Illinois certainly has enough talent to compete with Kansas, and a win to move on to the Sweet 16 surely would buy Weber some goodwill with a frustrated fan base. To get it, he’d have to beat Self, whose shadow Weber has not been able to escape since he took over.

Ohio State v North Carolina in the Elite 8

If chalk holds in the East Region, the Buckeyes and Tar Heels will meet up in the Elite 8. From a basketball perspective, this would be a fun matchup featuring the nation’s two best freshman: Jared Sullinger and Harrison Barnes. Watching Sullinger bang down low with Tyler Zeller would be highly entertaining, as would seeing Barnes compete against Ohio State’s terrific wing trio of William Buford-David Lighty-Jon Diebler.

And from a non-basketball perspective, this game would present an opportunity for each basketball team to take the minds of its school’s fans off of turmoil in their respective football programs. North Carolina had the agent scandal and now Ohio State has the Jim Tressel saga, so both schools have dealt and are dealing with pretty significant controversy regarding lack of compliance with NCAA rules. But on this night, all that would matter is basketball, with a Final 4 berth on the line.

Butler v Kansas State in Sweet 16

This would be a rematch of last year’s Elite 8 matchup, which Butler won 63-56 to advance to the Final 4. The Bulldogs no longer have their 2010 star Gordon Heyward, but the Wildcats do still have their #1 option in guard Jacob Pullen. Both of these teams struggled out of the gates this year, but ended the season playing very good basketball. Each team still has enough talent and certainly enough experience to pull a few upsets, making this game somewhat reasonable to hope for, but still very unlikely.

Wisconsin v BYU in the Elite 8

Obviously any game with BYU is intriguing because of the Jimmer factor, but you may be wondering why I’d care about seeing the Cougars play boring ol’ Wisconsin. Simple: Jordan Taylor.

In games I watched this season, no two players were able to absolutely take over portions of games more than Taylor and Jimmer Fredette. Taylor single-handedly pulled Wisconsin back from the brink against Ohio State to hand the Buckeyes their first loss. He also put on one of the great shooting displays I’ve ever seen at Assembly when the Badgers whitewashed Indiana. Surely there would be some mano-a-mano moments between these two great shooters, and it would make for a great Elite 8 matchup.

UAB v Kentucky in the Round of 32

This is a game that only an IU fan could appreciate, and as soon as I remind you that Mike Davis is coaching UAB, the Hoosier fans will start to nod in agony.

Remember this?

Mike Davis’ infamous meltdown occurred during the 2002-2003 season, after the Hoosiers made their unexpected run to the title game. We were ranked in the top 10 at the time, and everybody expected yet another great season. But the loss to Kentucky, punctuated by Davis totally losing his cool, created bad momentum for the season. We finished a disappointing 21-13, 8-8 in the conference, and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The next year we missed the tourney completely. Two years later, Davis was gone, replaced by He Who Shall Not Be Named, and now here we are missing the tournament for the third straight season after winning three Big Ten games.

And it can all be traced back to the infamous Mike Davis head slap.

Here’s hoping that if UAB can win its first round game over Clemson, and then beat West Virginia, that Coach Davis gives us some more entertaining theatrics against the Wildcats. I may not be able to watch though. Too painful.

And finally, just for shits and giggles…

Indiana State v Michigan State in National Championship Game

The likelihood of this happening is about the same as the likelihood of me ever fulfilling my dream of having a perfect bracket. The Sycamores are the 14th seed in the East and would have to go through Syracuse, North Carolina, Ohio State, and whoever comes out of the West region to make it to the title game. Michigan State is the 10 seed in the Southeast, and while they have a team loaded with Final 4 experience, the Spartans have been far too inconsistent this year to expect a deep March run.

But it sure would be fun, wouldn’t it? Not only would we get to relive Magic and Larry highlights, which are a joy for any basketball fan no matter how often you see them, but this would truly be an incredible Cinderella story combined with a coach in Tom Izzo adding yet another exciting tournament chapter to the storybook of his legendary career.

Think I’ve gone mad for suggesting this one? Well hey, they call it March Madness for a reason…

What potential March Madness matchups do you hope materialize?

For fans of Michigan football, there hasn’t been much to get excited about lately, but perhaps the Brady Hoke Era can restore the past greatness of Big Blue. If so, then the entire city of Ann Arbor and most of the whole damn state of Michigan will have “Hokeamania”…meaning this shirt will be a must have.

Click here to buy “Hokeamania” T-Shirt at AlternativeHero.com

Part of the reason why I like this shirt and wanted to post it is that it reminds me of the “Crean and Crimson” shirts that were all the rage in Bloomington after Tom Crean took over as IU’s basketball coach. Both Michigan football and Indiana basketball are in somewhat similar situations – former national powers who are struggling to regain prominence – so I can empathize with you, Michigan fan.

The jury is still very much out on whether Crean is the answer in Bloomington, although his first 2+ years have definitely been a net positive. Hopefully, for your sake, the Hoke Era starts out the same way.

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* – Midwest Sports Fans does not make any money off the sales of T-shirts that come as a result of this post. The fine folks at Alternative Hero did send us a few free shirts a while back though, so every now and then I like to repay the favor and highlight shirts of theirs I particularly like.