Sure, they aren’t the Big Ten, but several Big Ten teams play at least one MAC school every year, so it may be interesting to see how the schools from the other conference in the Midwest are doing. There will also be a post-signing day edition of the MAC recruiting rankings.

New Rankings:

I actually think a couple of Central’s commits are underrated by Rivals. Redd, for example, got a pretty good look from Michigan at their summer camp. Same goes for Akuezue. He is rated low now because he is a DE who weighs about 30 pounds soaking wet, but he was virtually unblockable at Michigan’s camp. If he can add weight and maintain his explosiveness, he could be a very good player down the road.

Posted under Recruiting

Not that you aren’t already, but it’s time to make it official, since we all know that Facebook is more real than real life.

Become a fan of Varsity Blue on Facebook.

Posted under Blog News

Hooray Alliteration!

Is Ann Arbor TitleTown?

Be part of ESPN’s TitleTown segment on Ann Arbor!

Come to the Diag on Monday, July 14th at 11am in order to participate in the taping of this segment.*
*Taping will begin at noon and finish at 1pm

Former Michigan Great Desmond Howard will be on hand for the interview portion.

For more information, visit sports.espn.go.com/espn/titletown/index.

Posted under Misc.

Tim got a new camera. What better way to test it out than head down to the corner of Main and East Stadium.

I work on the top floor of South Quad so I can kind of get an aerial view of the stadium. The construction is definitely impressive. It’s going to look amazing when it’s done.

Posted under Misc.

Sorry for the lazy afternoon post. The previews are taking a long time to complete, and I want to get to work on finishing them.

Interesting article from the Free Press about Northwestern’s signal stealing spoiled by Michigan’s ball boys in the national championship season.

OSU blog Dotting The I recently built a basketball team out of its best football players. I’ll refrain from doing the same for Michigan (mostly because the fotball players would probably beat the Michigan basketball team at their own game).

Sticking with the Buckeyes, Victoria’s Secret Pink will be offering merchandise featuring the logos of several universities – but not OSU. Interested case, though, like Dotting the I, I don’t see how there is a major conflict of interest unless OSU gets different benefits than all the other schools.

Posted under Misc.

Since I don’t have (free) access to the internet right now, expect the next major posting from me (aside from the ones I already have scheduled) to come next Friday, or maybe even Thursday depending on the amount of jet lag I am suffering.

A few people have e-mailed me questions, which I will compile into a fairly sizable mailbag on my way back from Australia, and you can also expect a fairly massive recruiting update (including such fun items as “a new commit”), along with an update to the Big Ten rankings. By the way, you have Paul to thank for finding a new basketball commit to be unworthy of a post. I might get something together on Robin Benzing when I get back as well.

See you all in less than a week.

Posted under Blog News

Most Michigan fans follow football in the fall and ice hockey (if you like watching a good team) or basketball (if you’re a masochist) in the winter. Many spring sports don’t seem to get the same attention that the other seasons do. It could be because there’s no revenue sport or, more likely, a large part of their seasons are played after students leave campus for the summer.

Well, I’ve been in Ann Arbor the past two summers and have noticed that the spring sports have been ridiculously good the past two years. Women’s track and field finished with a share of the Big Ten title last year and was runner up this year. The male runners won the title outright this year.

This year, women’s tennis made it to the second round NCAA tournament, while the men made it to the Sweet Sixteen. Both teams improved upon somewhat breakout seasons the year before.

Then there is baseball and softball. Both teams last year made it to the super regionals and gave the teams they played hell. I remember watching baseball’s first game against Oregon State in the Super Regional. Zach Putnam pitched a ridiculously good game. He only gave up one hit, but unfortunately that one hit brought in a run which was enough to earn Putnam the loss. It was one of the best baseball games I had seen.

As well as those teams did last year, the prospects are looking even better this year. One of the biggest reasons is the new Wilpon Baseball and Softball Palace Complex. Last year both teams played on the road in the Super Regional round. Michigan did not even put in a bid for either sport as the stands and press boxes were torn apart for the new construction. This year is different. Now Michigan has one of the nicer facilities, especially in the Midwest. Softball hosted and won its regional and will hope to do the same when it hopes the Super Regional this weekend. Baseball also has a very good chance of hosting it’s Super Regional series if it made it out of the regional round.

The new Ray Fisher Stadium will be getting it’s first test of a large baseball event when it hosts the Big Ten Tournament this weekend. In an e-mail from the media contact for baseball he said “With the new Press Box there is ample room, but I need to know who is coming so I can have Press Credentials waiting in your name.” which is a drastic change from last year when the media room was a tent behind Yost.

If you are in the area, check out baseball and softball this weekend. The schedule for the Big Ten tournament isn’t posted yet, but softball is set to play Virginia Tech at Noon this Saturday. Even if you’re not in town, you can catch the softball team on ESPN and I assume BTN will cover the tournament.

It could be a special year for both of these teams. They deserve all the support they can get.

UPDATE: Details about ticket prices and availability for baseball are here. Similar details for the softball super regional tickets are here. Take-home points: Baseball is $7 per game. Softball is $5 for general admission bleachers or $7-$8 for the nice, new grandstand.

Posted under Baseball

Michigan leads in the charity bowl, and it’s time to seal the deal.

Plus, boobs.

Posted under Blog News

I’m sure you’ve seen this elsewhere in the Michigan blogosphere, and may already be sick of it, but it’s time to participate in the Charity Bowl. And hey, if you get sick of it, maybe you’ll donate just to shut all of us up.

How? EDSBS:

1) Make a donation online to the American Red Cross, CARE, or the International Rescue Committee.

2) Email the donation confirmation to kevin@fanblogs.com and state your team affiliation by 8pm EDT on Wednesday, May 14th.

3) Results will be displayed at Every Day Should Be Saturday and Fanblogs throughout the week, with the final results shown by Thursday, May 15th.

4) The winning school will have its colors displayed at EDSBS and logo/mascot shown on every page at Fanblogs.

Let’s Go Blue for a good cause.

Posted under Blog News

No but seriously, basketball?

One of the most important aspect of running a successful athletic department is being able to rely on your revenue sports to support everything else that goes on. Under Bill Martin, Michigan has been able to turn from a money sink into one of the nation’s most successful athletic programs (monetarily) despite not having a basketball team that has been anywhere close to successful. Thus, if Michigan is able to make the basketball team a big draw, and perennial NCAA tournament participant-type program, it can only continue to help.

Without further introduction, I present the basketball-relevant portion of Bill Martin’s interview with the BTN’s Dave Revsine:

It is clear that Martin is intent on supporting basketball, and trying to bring success back to the program.

Facilities
Crisler Arena is a dump. Regardless of what Martin says, it really should just be demolished, and the AD should start over from scratch (a few suggestions: smaller size, better concourse layout, and location closer to campus (ok, that one is just a pipe dream)). Failing that, The House that Cazzie Built is eventually going to be overhauled for the better, though definitely not until Michigan Stadium is completed, and probably not until there is a practice facility. The practice facility is apparently ready for approval. The sooner that can be completed, the better for Michigan Hoops. Interesting note: Martin stated in no uncertain terms that the funding for a facility will be ready whenever plans are completed.

Recruiting
Martin states that he doesn’t want his coach to recruit players who want to go one-and-done to the pros. Luckily for him, the coach he hired is John Beilein, who does not seem to favor this type of player (and nor does his system). Martin favors the NBA amending its entry rules to require players to spend 3 years in school (I believe they should probably step it up one year at a time).

The Future
Though Beilein was unable to get it done in year one, the improvement made by the team over the course of the year was encouraging, and it is unlikely we will see 2008-09 be a repeat of the epic struggles of 2007-08. With several players accustomed to the system after one year in it, and a few new additions who are good fits for Beileinball, an NIT bid isn’t out of the question. Though that may not be good enough for some fans, it is important to remember how far this program had fallen, and realize that it will take some time to rise again.

Udoh
Rumors have been circulating for weeks that Junior-to-be Power Forward Ekpe Udoh intends to transfer from the University of Michigan. This has now become official. While I am not sure he is making the right decision (though UMHoops.com’s analysis has certainly gone a long way to convince me), I wish Udoh the best of luck in the future.

Posted under Basketball