Michigan Softball hosting B1G Tournament this weekend: bracket released
The B1G Tournament is finally returning to its original home.
Announced this past summer, Michigan was selected to host the 2017 B1G Tournament at Alumni Field.
Purdue was originally supposed to host this season, but apparently there were problems with their stadium so they passed on it this year very late, and Michigan was the first school to step up when the conference needed a new place to hold it.
This will be the 10th B1G Tournament ever at Alumni Field.
Michigan hosted the first one back in 1982 at what was then named Varsity Diamond. Alumni Field later hosted the first annual one in 1995.
This will be the first one here since the famous 2005 National Championship season. Michigan also won the B1G Tournament that year easily, outscoring opponents 23-5.
In those days, the tournament hosting right was rewarded to the B1G Regular Season Champion.
The tournament was discontinued after the 2008 season. Despite Michigan winning a share of the B1G Championship that year, co-champion Northwestern had the higher seed and therefore got to host.
The tournament returned in 2013 after the B1G went to 12 teams a year prior. The hosting right became an alphabetical rotation starting with Nebraska in 2013, Northwestern in 2014, OSU in 2015 and so on. Per the rotation, we would've hosted the tournament in 2023 if there were no other interruptions.
No word yet if Purdue will try again next year or Wisconsin will get it (Rutgers cannot host due to obvious reasons).
As for the tournament field, Michigan is the 2 seed for the first time since 2008.
We will face either 7 MSU or 10 Indiana on Friday in a 4:30pm game. The entire tournament will be broadcast live on BTN.
Here is the tournament bracket-
Unless you have a ticket already or don't mind standing room access, you won't be getting in to see Michigan play because both Friday and Saturday tickets are sold out. The only ones available are the Thursday First Round games.
It should be a GREAT atmosphere. It's about time this thing come here. Had the tournament not been discontinued and the hosting still went to the B1G Champion, we would've hosted every single one of them from 2009-2016.
Some statistics:
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Michigan is 10-4 all-time as a 2 seed in the B1G Tournament.
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The last time Michigan was a 2 seed and did not win the B1G Regular Season Championship was 2006. Michigan won the B1G Tournament that year in a 6-0 shutout over B1G Champion Northwestern in Evanston.
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Michigan is 22-7 all-time in B1G Tournament home games.
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Michigan has won 5 of the 9 B1G Tournaments previously contested in Ann Arbor, the most recent being in 2005 which was a championship for the Blue.
- Michigan has won 3 of the 5 B1G Tournaments where they were a 2 seed.
This team is playing the best it has all year as of late.
Ever since Hutch benched nearly every starter against Wisconsin three weeks ago to send a message, Michigan has outscored opponents 88-6 in the last 9 games.
This team is ready to roll. Bats are hot, both top pitchers are rolling. Defense is solid. Can't WAIT to get the Gophers.
So you have already penciled Michigan in for the B10 championship game ? Winning the first two games is not a gimmie.
....agreed
We owe them one, too. In both 2014 & 2016 they were the ones who kept us from winning the B10 double, snatching it from us in heartbreaking walk-off fashion both times. In 2015 when we did do the double, Minny flamed out early and we crushed an over-matched Nebraska team 6-1 in the final.
Additionally, barring a collision in the NCAA tourney, this could be our last chance to put one over on Groenewegen. I have tremendous respect for her game, and she's been a thorn in our side for 4 years. She'll rightly go down as a legend no matter what, but I'll admit I'm petty enough to relish the idea of her last B10 memory being of our team dancing off with the trophy. :)
A quick note for those of you who, like me, were foolish & didn't snap up tickets right away: Stubhub can still help you out. There's a small handful of tickets available for all 3 days, although the semis/championship tickets are a bit pricey. I'm only mentioning this because I already got mine off Stubhub earlier today! :p
Really looking forward to the tournament, hope the team plays to their ability. Even though the regular season championship streak is over, we could still extend a streak of winning some form of B10 Championship with 3 wins this weekend!
Thankfully, I was not foolish and bought tickets for Friday and Saturday the day they went on sale. I knew as soon as I heard the tournament was coming to Alumni Field that I had to go. Should be an awesome couple of days hopefully capped off with a Michigan win!
Smart call getting them right away. I'm out a few bucks for going the StubHub route, but it'll be worth it in the end - especially if the team can bring home a title!
Sure, the bats are hot right now, but most of that came at the expense of Rutgers pitching. Michigan beat MSU 3-1 and 5-1 a couple weeks ago, and also had a 2-1 win over Indiana recently, so they can't overlook any teams.
Later this week to early weekend. Let's get the field ready for batting fireworks, no quench, shall we. This is going to be a fun tourney.
So that "I'm leaving MGoBlog" thing lasted, what, three days?
I think we're all still being punished though for the human tragedy that was the WD parody account creating an apparel parody thread and the mods didn't pull it right away.
Speak for yourself.
a) his Twitter is ridiculous and irrelevant and shame on you for caring about it and shame on me for looking at it because you referred to it and just fucking shame on all of us
b) that parody account and the apparel thread were hilarious and legendary
c) a lack of WD isn't a punishment.
He's staying in his lane. Being factual and objective is fine. Supporitng a team, bringing awareness to a team, giving credit to a team, all inherently good things.
When he acts like he's the soul of MGoBlog, he's out of bounds: https://twitter.com/UMichWD/status/860232807922245632
overly self-important, even for a 20 year old
I've been very critical of him when he makes it about HIM. The school is wonderful. The teams are wonderful. The city is wonderful. Talking about, thining about, being about those things is wonderful. WolverineDevotee is not inherently a wonderful thing, but he really thinks and acts and talks like he is. He's ~famous~ for playing a role in ousting David Brandon, but he commits the same egocentric and arrogant crimes. Just like there shouldn't be a superstar athletic director, there is no such thing as a superstar poster on a fan blog.
is very true. Not because I've ever seen WD's twitter, but because you could have left out the "his" before twitter and it would have been the exact same level of true.
b) I don't know about hilarious AND legendary. It was amusing, yes. The only reason it will be remembered is because it went directly at WD's schtick. Like it or not, WD is legendary on this board. Although probably a little more to the McFarlin kind of legendary than the ginger-guy-who-married-a-Korean kind.
c) also true, but only because there are extremely few posters here that the absence of would qualify as punishment.
I would agree with your stay in his lane comment. That tweet that rob f posted is beyond fucked up. If he could stick to lacrosse and softball and tennis posts and not pontificate about how noon games are the only games to be played like he's some Bo disciple (even though he wasn't even alive for Bo's noon only games), he'd be a lot more tolerable.
I think I need another month of "punishment" without WD.
Looking forward to watching some good softball this week-end. Show'em how it's done.
THURSDAY
#8 Northwestern v #9 Purdue, 11am
#5 Nebraska v #12 Penn State, 1:30
#7 Michigan State v #10 Indiana, 4:30
#6 Wisconsin v #11 Iowa, 7:00
FRIDAY
#1 Minnesota v NW/PU winner, 11am
#4 Illinois v NE/PS winner, 1:30
#2 Michigan v MS/IN winner, 4:30
#3 Ohio State v WI/IA winner, 7:00
SATURDAY
Minnesota winner v Illinois winner, 1:00
Michigan winner v Ohio State winner, 3:30
Championship, 6:00
Michigan's games will be at 4:30 Friday, and (potentially) 3:30 and 6:00 Saturday.
Inspector Clouseau voice: "Does your dog bite?"
Innkeeper: "No."
Dogs attacks the inspector.
Inspector Clouseau: "I thought you said your dog doesn't bite!"
Innkeeper: "It's not my dog!"
I'm not sure how Michigan will handle this but for most games the place will be near empty. We don't play in any of the four games on Thursday and only one of the four games on Thursday and Michigan fans own most of the tickets. Hard to say how many of fans of the other schools will show up when their team isn't playing but many won't. They should allow standing room only fans to fill in the empty seats. Technically the games may be sellouts but in this format their will be lots of no shows and as teams gets eliminated tickets will be available,
doesn't do the tournament justice. Especially with UM being the n°2 seed, they play back to back on Saturday afternoon. Minnie gets a little more rest between games.
It also means that the star pitchers must go 14 innings, unless the n°2 pitcher can hold the fort.
The other power conferences start their tournaments a day earlier to avoid this problem.
Last year with the rain delay, the game ended in the freezing cold at around 1AM in the 10th inning, if memory serves me. Betsa put up a brilliant fight, but had to throw an insane amount of pitches. People were calling for Delaney's head the next day.