2013 ncaa tournament

The Sponsors

This show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan, MGoBlog would be like if the basketball program stuck it out with Amaker all these years.

Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown hosted us (and the Wagners last week), the University of Michigan Alumni Association might know a guy, Ann Arbor Elder Law might've come up with a better retirement plan than Cleveland, Michigan Law Grad will get you out of a ticket if you're racing to lock up a star assistant, Human Element is about to unleash the greatest posbang in the site's history, the Phil Klein Insurance Group is about to be contacted about a very bad policy, Peak Wealth Management is about to have a new client, and HomeSure Lending was probably like Alonzo Mourning dot gif when he heard who just stole Beilein.

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1. Now What?

starts at 1:00

We review the candidates who've come and gone. Ace warms to Yaklich after hearing the names after Juwan Howard. Speaking of Juwan Howard: about the best resume for an assistant you can possibly have. Porter Moser is not on this list.

2. Best of Beilein: Honorable Mentions

starts at 29:31

We all made lists of our top Beilein-era moments, and those lists did not fit into a Top 10, nor a Top 15, nor a Top 20, so here's all of the things that didn't make the list—it's a long non-list.

3. Best of Beilein: 11th-20th

starts at 1:07:07

Now we give our lists. Except we need to talk about our top moments for so long that we're going to need another segment before we even get to the top ten. Sorry not sorry.

4. Best of Beilein: 1st-10th

Starts at 1:39:30

Some you know. Some you're just going to get mad about. A few are obvious, but not in the obvious spot. This is really hard. There's probably a Smiths song in the Music.

MUSIC

• "Cemetery Gates"—Leah Blevins
• "Holding On"—The War on Drugs
• "End of the Road"—Boyz II Men
• “Across 110th Street”

THE USUAL LINKS

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• Direct download link (right click/save as)
• What's with the theme music?

It's very on brand that we fit Denard onto this list

Ron Bellamy Day. From WH. Part II is here.

THE QUESTION:

Remember that one time an otherwise obscure/disappointing player was a superstar for a day?

Ace:

Full game is on the youtubes.

BiSB: If we're talking games: Spiiiiiiiike!

Smoothitron: I went through his game log not that long ago praying that wasn't his career high, and it's not, but it's close.

 

The pinnacle stretch of Spike's career was tragically unfun.

[Do NOT hit THE JUMP if you prefer to fondly remember erstwhile highly hyped Michigan scatbacks]

The captain of Michigan's 2012-13 basketball team, Josh Bartelstein, has written an e-book on the team's remarkable Final Four run featuring a forward from Zack Novak and excerpts from Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Stu Douglass. "We On: Behind The Scenes Of Michigan's Final Four Run" is available now for the very reasonable price of $7.99 at Blog Into Book and will also be on Amazon and iTunes later this week. The following is an excerpt from the book detailing Final Four Saturday—the victory over Syracuse—and the day preceding the national title time.

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Saturday:

Final Four Saturday!  We got to sleep in a little bit because we played the late game of the night.  There was an incredible buzz in the hotel with Michigan fans everywhere decked out in Maize and Blue.  We couldn’t really walk down into the lobby without being swarmed, so the players stayed in a secure area, but it was hard not to check it out.  Gameday consisted of three or four different meetings: Offense, Defense, Special Situations, and then final thoughts.  The plan was done, everyone knew how we were to beat Syracuse, now we just had to do it.  We watched a ton of film, but it was really hard not to lose focus and start thinking about a night we had all dreamed of so many times.  It didn’t help getting hundreds of texts from family and friends, some giving advice on how to beat the zone and others on how hard they partied the night before.

We had about a 40-minute shoot-around at the Georgia Dome.  Very, very light, almost just getting shots up, but we needed to leave the hotel and get some fresh air.  Sitting around all day until 7pm when our bus left would be torture.  The mood was very relaxed, guys were joking around like it was the first day of practice.

The key was somehow finding a way to take a nap.  You can’t watch any TV stations because everyone is just breaking down the games and at this point I couldn’t listen to it anymore.  Around 6pm our uniforms got dropped off with the official Final Four sticker on them.  There was no turning back now.  The bus left around 6:30pm, but the town was incredibly dead outside.  Everyone was inside the stadium watching the first game or at a bar.  The streets were empty as we took the 20-minute ride in.

I don’t think I need to go into much detail as to what took place during that 40-minute game.  But in case you forgot.  Mitch was Magic Johnson picking apart that zone, Caris and Spike hit huge threes, Jordan Morgan took an iconic charge, and Michigan fans took over downtown Atlanta for the night.  Our game plan to let a 6’11 freshman who just began starting games a month ago break down the best zone in the country in the biggest game of his life worked.  Were you surprised?  Honestly, I said it before, but you can’t give our coaching staff a week to prepare for a team.  It isn’t fair; they had this scheme down to a T.

We didn’t get back to our hotel until around 2:30am.  Between another media session, guys getting cold tubs and figuring out some logistical issues, it was a long night, but we were all wide awake.  The competition after the game was to see who had the most text messages on their phone.  Don’t quote me on this, but I think Mitch had around 210.  I got a message from the Mayor of Chicago, so I was feeling good.  The other thing that hit us was that we were playing for the National Championship literally in one day.  You spend all season thinking about championship Monday and the Michigan Wolverines were there!

[Hit THE JUMP for J-Bart's account of the hectic, exciting day leading up to the national championship game.]