We believe the guy with the fake mullet managed to convince him it is, while acknowledging the recently greater popularity of Freesia. [Fuller]

Molecules of competitiveness. I don't get all of the WWE references in the Best and Worst columns. For example, would this qualify as a bodyslam or a chair to the face:

MSU hit a school record 17 3 pointers against Purdue, including 6 by Gary Harris. In their losses to Nebraska and UM, they hit 14 total out of 47, with Harris going 5 of 20. Apparently, those wrists, shoulders, and ankles were fine on Thursday but that long bus ride between East Lansing and Ann Arbor jostled all the bones out of sorts again.

Chair to the face I'm guessing, since most of the momentum was generated by Izzo's bouncing off the ropes, and bronxblue just put a hard object in the way. Either way it's pretty entertaining.

Scientists think Morgan and Morris may have cohabitated in ancient Crisler, and may have even interacted.

How bad can we make it? There is a singularly small type of person who sees a sexual assault expulsion and jumps for joy for the hammer with which he can pound a sports rival program on internet message boards. All fanbases have them, all fanbases are embarrassed by them. The best way to manage them is if the thought leaders, i.e. the journalists, maintain a high level of integrity and investigation, focusing on facts, providing context, and discouraging over-speculation. Good journalism is a thousand times better than good P.R.

If you're wondering why it's Sparties, of all roaches, doing most of the scuttling, it's because their media are 30% trolls themselves, 60% too biased to consider fighting the trolls, and the remainder aren't trying all that hard. I removed, at last count 13, fight-back threads this and last week, because there's nothing to be gained by criticizing the journalistic integrity of Mike Valenti or Graham Couch or Eric Thomas, etc. There's a certain type of person you just remove from the message board; if somebody's given him a broadsheet or a highly trafficked url or a 15,000-watt microphone instead, roll your eyes and ignore it.

The least we could hope for is for those without a dog in the fight to not be lazy with the publically available facts. Like how FERPA works (BiSB's fisk of MLive's attempt to get in on the Daily's glory). Or that the Ed Dept.'s involvement began when they used Title IX to tell the university to institute the policy they're reviewing, not last week, and that at last count 24 universities' policies were under investigation, with two more completed and seven more have had recent controversies. Or that a few minutes on the chief complainant's blog raises obvious credibility concerns that he should have to address when interviewed.

The Daily has continued to produce the best reporting on the subject, while the Detroit papers, SI, Huffington Post (to their credit they at least edited their article at the end with suggested corrections), and now Mlive have, while trying to play catch-up on the students, been caught biting at the chum of shock value while burying or ignoring the easy context. Prediction: in 10 years half of the metro-Detroit media will be replaced by former Dailyites and bloggers. Most of those who haven't will cater to Michigan State fans, because roaches are survivors.

Etc. Michigan is 98% to hang a banner. Ron Utah says the position changes are a Hail Mary and this inspires…confidence? Six of eight is a narrative-beater. DCAlum provided his eyewitness account of the MSU lining up fiasco. Goal-by-goal vs. Minnesota was too depressing for me to even read this week. LSA columns on win probability and home versus away stats.

[Jump for the best of the board, and the title reference]

Best of the Board

GET TO KNOW YOUR BUZZER BEATER HISTORY

Leave it to WH to come up with a list of other great last-shot victories, including one from another Robinson. Except WH couldn't think of any others but King's putback in the '93 tournament. Wolverine Devotee wins the something for producing a list of last-second winning shots. The last was DeShawn Sims vs Savannah State in 2008-'09.

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING

The spring rosters had some changes beyond the weights that Brian covered. Notably, Paskorz was absent. A guy on our board has been persistent that he's gone for several weeks, but I haven't been able to confirm that. I punt. Also notably some jersey numbers have switched, in most cases back. Via Wolverine Devotee:

• Mike McCray changed from #3 back to #9. He wore #9 for fall camp 2013 and changed a couple games into the season
• De'Veon Smith changed from #32 back #4. He wore #4 until Minnesota week.
• Reon Dawson changed from #20 to #30
• Will Hagerup changed from #43 to #40. This due to the three guys including two on special teams wearing the number last season when Will was held out.
• Garrett Miller changes from #93 to #55.

Smith switched to 32 last year because he and Cam Gordon were both playing on special teams.

SOFTBALL UPDATE

Abby Ramirez/MGoBlue

I've been getting email updates from MGoSoftball on the team so this all comes from him. The gals upset #5 Kentucky and swept the rest of the FAU Kickoff Classic. In case we didn't have an embarrassment of pitching already, freshman Megan Betsa had two complete game shutouts to match Haylie Wagner's pair of two-hit blankings (including the one against Kentucky).

The other big-time freshman so far has been Abby Ramirez, who started in place of Romero once but has been otherwise playing at 2nd. Both she and 3B Lindsay Monetmarano have perfect fielding percentages so far this season, which is good news considering fielding was such a weak point last year.

They're now in the midst of the toughest part of their schedule, with the Louisville Slugger Invitational starting tonight and the next two weeks featuring five games vs. Pac 12 teams in the top 10 (new #5 UCLA twice plus undefeated Arizona State and Arizona, and one-loss Oregon) plus Texas.

MICHIGAN READING LIST

Threads like this have popped up before. Rather than tackle it here I'll remind myself to do a definitive Michigan book list for a future Hokepoints.

Your Moment of Zen:

Our program: haters of headsets.

Happy retirement, Jon.