It's not unprecedented. Jim Valvano was a believer in fouling while tied, including in the 1983 championship game. He wanted his team in control at the end.
If youth, and with it lack of composure, are part of the problem, you would think Beilein would find a way to get Vogrich on the floor. He's a veteran, he's not spastic, and he's capable of doing things like he did against Tennessee.
If for no other reason, he's important to land because doing so will show that Beilein (1) pays attention to, and can recruit in, Detroit, (2) will go after athletic/slashing scorers, and (3) is not utterly beholden to farmboy/hobbit spot-up shooters. The state is fertile territory for basketball talent and Beilein absolutely needs to tap into that. Nice as it is to land top 100 guys in Darius Morris, Smotrycz and Hardaway, none are local and the recipe for long term success requires getting local kids. Zeigler and McCallum are excusable because of the unique circumstances with their dads, and getting commits from Brundidge and Horford is a nice step in the right direction, but if we want to challenge the Spartan hegemony (yeah, I used hegemony in a basketball post) we need to get guys from the D (and Flint and Saginaw). Hopefully, we land Sykes and he is the first of many to come.
I am an Ivy-educated person(M undergrad, Columbia grad) who lives in the Northeast. I don't view Uconn as a glorified community college. In fact, it has a good (and growing) reputation (which, not coincidentally in my view, has developed on pace with their basketball programs). And per the US News 2010 college rankings, it actually comes in with a higher rating than a host of "AAU" schools, including B10 schools Indiana, MSU and Iowa.
In any event, that's all beside the point because anyone who thinks academics is in any way driving decisions about B10 expansion probably also thinks Michigan has a better chance than Alabama at landing a top football recruit who lists academics as a factor in his decision making.
What's the better move regarding a friend who was stuck at work, is planning to watch the game on DVR later, and asked his friends not to say anything about the game - ruin the tape for him, or spare him the agony? Or maybe just tell him to watch the first (edit) 39:57.8?
Rutgers is not even close to 10th banana in New York City. They barely register at all, except for with their alumni. They are not the "local" team that everyone follows in the same way people upstate hitch themselves to Syracuse (or even the way non-UM folks in the Ann Arbor area hitch themselves to UM). I've been in Manhattan for 13 years and never once heard anyone say, "Rutgers is on tonight, better make sure we get to the bar for the game." It doesn't open up a TV market, at least not for UM, since all of our games are on TV here anyway. Their basketball program is a joke. Football has had one or two decent years but otherwise is a joke, too. They would be a horrible, horrible addition to the conference.
Brian, please use your powers to prevent this terrible prospect from becoming reality.
You can't compare this scenario with what happens in the NFL because it is not an apples to apples comparison. The NFL is sudden death, so going for 2 might make more sense because you control your own destiny (at 44% if the number cited above is right - I thought it was higher) vs. leaving it up to a 50/50 flip of the coin (since the majority of NFL OT games are won by the team that wins the toss).
It's a different equation altogether when each team gets the ball, and it weighs more heavily in favor of taking the tie since you will have an equal opportunity to win in OT.
Under the specific circumstances of this game, OT probably made rational sense - MSU was reeling and had to have felt the heavy weight of history slamming down on their little brotherly backs.
What I think the rational choice failed to take into account was that our defense was dragging - we'd have been better off keeping them off the field. And, win or lose, if you go for it, I think it sends a great message from the coaching staff that tells the players how confident they are in their ability to make the critical play when it matters most. I think players (and recruits) love to see it when a coach shows some nut.
Another good place in NYC is The Hill (in the low 30s on 3rd Avenue). It gets a strong M crowd and the owner, Dennis, is M class of '96. He just opened a new place in Chelsea called The Ainsworth that he is trying to turn into a big M sports venue as well.
It is good (only the exact opposite of good) to see that losing to a 1-AA team two years ago and suffering through last year has done nothing to dampen our collective hubris.
After a series of truly blah opening games - that we lost - we now are unhappy with a reasonably good team from a BCS conference as our opener? We're too good for that? When did this happen?
And why do we think an Oklahoma or Texas or Auburn or whatever other big name team you want to insert here would even consider playing a September roadie on (relatively) short notice in Ann Arbor? Sure, it'd be cool to see it happen but it also would be cool to live in a magic world with buildings made out of chocolate and gummy bears. However, when you come back from never-never world and into this real one, it is hard to see this is anything other than a decent opponent.
We have a chance to be a good team next year. But playing a top tier team to start things off, and losing that game, would only propel us downward (which happened last year with Utah - we win that game and build some momentum and it's an entirely different season).
Finally, we are talking about opening day of the football season. You're really going to have a hard time getting pumped for the game because the opponent doesn't stimulate your sensitive parts? Come on. It could be the Flying Sturgeon of Upper Huron Tech and it still should get you pumped. If you aren't the type of fan to get fired up for game one, or any game, because of a "meh" opponent, then how do you manage to be the type of fan to read blogs and post on message boards in July?
Fade to Blue.
Why all the antipathy for Uconn? They are an emerging program that put four guys into the first two rounds of the '09 NFL draft. They may not be Texas or Florida, but they are a bowl team from a BCS conference with a relatively high national profile (albeit one that is more driven by their notoriety as a basketball school). If the rumor proves true, then it's a solid get for us on the schedule.
And, since nobody has mentioned it yet, I'll point out that the rumor has additional signs of plausibility: the basketball home-and-home scheduling suggests that the athletic departments at both schools have a working relationship, and given RichRod's Big East background, he obviously knows Edsall and the Uconn gang well (and destroyed them repeatedly on the field).
Recent Comments
It's not unprecedented. Jim Valvano was a believer in fouling while tied, including in the 1983 championship game. He wanted his team in control at the end.
If youth, and with it lack of composure, are part of the problem, you would think Beilein would find a way to get Vogrich on the floor. He's a veteran, he's not spastic, and he's capable of doing things like he did against Tennessee.