It's been 3 days... What are you doing to get over **IT**?

Time.

That's it.

I'm leaving work early to go kiteboarding and try to forget it.  It's currently 84, the water is 78, and it's blowing 20+ from the E.  

Running my kids around. Living.

You might want to evaluate your priorities.

Everything will be ok..really.

Watching the Tigers and the Masters.

I'm over it. Never expected to be in the championship game. It was a helluva season. Everything after Kansas was just gravy.

Work, Tigers, Masters, praying our underclassmen return next year.

Just remembering that we played a great game and that every team in the country except one would trade their season for ours.

I've been over it the minute it ended. Seriously, how can ANYONE be mad or upset after the run they had. First Final Four in 20 years. 31 wins that ties the best EVER in program history.

I'm already over it. Each day I did'nt see THJ , GR3 , MM and Trey Burke to the NBA posts made it a lot easier. Now I got the spring game in 2 days

Watching the Braves destroy baseballs, mostly.

That doesn't mean that I'm not thankful for the run, or that I think it was a terrible end. It just means that it was a huge game with a lot to gain and we lost. Gonna take time.

Watching the Louisville women get dominated made me feel a tiny bit better. I'm also hoping this team doesn't forget the name of the coach that beat us and we completely obliterate and embarass Minnesota everytime we play them next season.

Random Questions: Does the team get a ring for being in the Final Four? Do the Final Four Banners signify that we were in the NC game?

Getting ready for the football season! There's no reason to get down on the basketball team. Unfortunately, only one team in the NCAA tourney will finish the season with a win. We weren't that team, but we were the ONLY team in the tourney to finish with exactly 5 wins. Just try to think of the tourney run as being equivalent to a Rose Bowl win. We didn't technically win it all, but we still had a damn good postseason showing. GO BLUE!!! Football only a summer away!!!

Are completely kidding themselves that these opportunities are going to present themselves regularly, so they don't really understand what we lost. 

I am proud of our young men, coaches and university. I will be totally fine, soon. But for now, I am drinking every night after I get home from work and trying to move on. I love this team and feel that things c/should have turned out differently.

...and currently sipping a rum and coke on the plane. You know, I think I'm going to make it, after all.

I was over it after avoiding every sports media or blog except here for 24 hours.  It was a great game, and Louisville was just a tad better when it counted.  Depending on which source you believe, there were between 339 and 345 teams that didn't do as well as Michigan did this year, while only one did better.  

It hurts to lose the title game, especially when you have been a fan for fifty years, and know just how difficult it is to get back to the championship game, but I would have been ecstatic if someone had told me at the beginning of the season that MIchigan would make the championship game.  

Besides, I would have been cheering for Louisville if they had been playing anyone else.  

We're all big fans, but fergodsake, choose to be happy! It was a fun ride that came up a hair short of nirvana! Made me proud of the team and my university. I had alot of fun and just missed having super-double mega-awesome fun. Took me a lot of years to figure out that sports are meant to be enjoyed both as a competitor and a spectator. Give it a try. By the way, I play better and win more now. Of course, I still hate Bobby Hurley.

I'm still pissed, but getting over it.  So what I did was look at other news sources to see if what I saw during that game was just me or did everyone else see it.  Most believe the officiating was beyond garbage. Phil Jackson (one of my heros) did. Bad calls are a part of every game. Several bad calls are not. Certainly not at this level, where the "best" refs get to work it.

But I disagree about it being "garbage". Garbage would mean incompetent or sloppy. This game wasn't.  

It appears fixed.

2 of the 3 refs were mainly big east. No pac 10 refs becuase all of their refs are ineligible (for possibly being biased against a certain coach, as you may know from the curiously media-silent "bounty" scandal).  Read about that scandal. It will open your eyes big time. So for all you naive kids that think refs are just human and doing their best, think again. Many are arrogant, egotistical scum that (as professionals) are supposed to check their emotional baggage at the door. If they can't do that, they can't be a ref.  Go back to being a greeter at Wal-Mart. Others are there to take their place. These guys can make almost $200k per year if they hustle. They don't work for free.

Lots of thinking about the calls of that game. Only one matters. The 4th Hancock foul (that went to some other kid 10 feet away). 2 officials conferencing. One can only assume that the correct call (foul on Hancock) was overrulled by a big east ref, to keep the big guy in the game. Could you imagine if he had to sit the second half? He would have, since he would have no defensive capability at all with 4 fouls. that would have probably sealed L-ville's fate. 

Remember, 2/3rds of these refs have to work the Big East conference next year.  Means...motive....opportunity. 

But you think it's was bounces, chance, luck, or "idiots" officiaiting. These guys are not idiots. They are dishonest. 

Michigan was not blown out.  3 points seperated them at the 5-minute mark. Outrageously bad calls kept them out.  Kansas was tougher to beat than L-ville. But the refs apparently showed man-love to their boy Patino. And now you see Adidas running ads about Ware ($$$$).  That didn't take long now, did it?  

I only take solace in knowing that many others believe that as well. And that eventually, even these scumbags (who masquarade as refs) have to live with guilty consciences. They know. I know. Some of you know. The good o' boys club is alive and well. Ask the Pac 10. And the SEC (who fired their head of enforcement recently for misconduct). 

Now as for me, it's back to work and not watching any more college basketball. Ever. Not until they get professional (use full time refs that are not conference specific) and start sanctioning these guys like the pros do.  The NBA was a laughing stock until they got serious. It's still not perfect, but a long way from what it was. Same for the NFL and NHL. 

This isn't a game. That's what you play in your backyard. This is a business. You pay money to attend, buy jerseys, etc. Coaches and everyone esle gets paid (except players). Huge. The entire country goes nuts in March for a month. Think about the money involved. And then think about what you saw with your own eyes.  And wake the hell up.

Just like the NBA used to be: it's fixed.  Deal with it.  Now pick other sports to watch.

the championship that got away. that is all.

And I realized how stupid I must have looked bitching about the refs the first time around.  Yes, there were some boner calls.  But I also found that McGary probably committed 8 or 9.  There were some rebounds that Louisville put back through about six Wolverine arms that should have been and-ones.  I could've sworn it was a different game the first time through.

The worst were the Burke "flying phantom" foul and "great block nullified."  But I understand why the phantom didn't look that way to the official and also that Burke got into Siva's body on the block.  Chippy, but I can see it.  We got out-played and couldn't stop them from scoring down the stretch.  And we left a few freethrows out there.

I'm over it now.  My logical brain now tells me Louisville really did win.  My emotional brain is now telling me that I wanted Michigan to win, but is disappointed because they were just a step or two not the best team at two points in the game where it really mattered: the final 2:00 of the first half and the final 2:00 of the second half.  Our defense needed to be just a little bit better.  But not much!  We were damned close to being the best team in the country.  Who thought that when it all started?  Who?

Congrats, Louisville.  Thank you Michigan.

Now on to football - and maybe the baseball team can do something fun and magical...