Maize n Brew gives you your daily (or semi-daily) rundown of all the Michigan Football, Michigan Basketball, College Football, and College Basketball news you need to get through the tedium of your boring desk job. For good measure we'll throw in a little irreverent information, comedy and commentary to help you salt away the time until the clock strikes 5pm. Want it in 140 characters or less, follow us on Twitter! Or you can find us on Facebook! Here's what's ON TAP:
Yeah, It's Been Since September Since We Did One of These: So sue me. There hasn't been a lot of fun stuff to write about.
Announcements
All Your Blogger Are Belong to Us: As the Headline above indicates, Beauford, SCM, MHNet, and I are thrilled to welcome Markus of When Carcajous Attack! into the fold here at Maize n Brew. As followers of the Mich'o'sphere are well aware, Markus brings an unparallelled analytical mind in addition to well thought out, well researched articles to the site. Which, honestly, we've never had before. It's usually just us stomping around in our clown shoes here. Now, we're smrter! S-M-R-T! But it wasn't easy. We tried to buy him, bribe him, etc., to no avail. So we just pirated him away. So three Yarrrrrs! for the newest member of our crew. Yarr! Yarr!
Seriously though, welcome aboard Markus.
So, Basketball. Yeah. Ummm... Not so Good
That's putting it mildly. Things are rapidly coming apart at the seems for John Beilein and the Wolverines Basketball team. As much as I like the kids on the team, they certainly don't play like one. Bad shot selection. Horrible shooting on goodshots. And a defense reminiscent of Poland circa 1939. This is not an NCAA team. Frankly, right now it's not even an NIT team. Beilein's got his work cut out for him, not just to salvage what's left of this season, but to get the team ready for 2010-11.
The Defense Rests: Michigan basketball blows 17 point lead, loses to Northwestern 68-62 - Ann Arbor dot Com provides the wrap up for yet another inexplicable brain cramp on the hardwood by the Wolverines. If you're looking for a reason this team is losing look no further than defense. This team is just awful protecting its own end and seems incapable of dealing with screens and pick and rolls. I didn't think the loss of Merritt and Lee would affect this team as much as it has, but man, this team is rudderless without them.
Latest loss leads to failing grades for Michigan basketball team - Mike Rothstein states the obvious (and I don't mean that in a condescending way), this team deserves a festering grade of FAIL after Sunday's performance.
Michigan basketball team suffers from lack of leadership - Bingo. Cue 500 other articles restating this.
Michigan guard Eso Akunne academically ineligible for winter semester - Dude. Seriously? The hits just keep on coming don't they? I'm not throwing stones here, I got myself in a little academic trouble my first year too. Hopefully he'll get back on track and be able to contribute down the road.
Michigan Football... sort of....
Athletic Legitiamcy in 30 Minutes or Your Pizza's Free - John U. Bacon gives his take on Michigan's new AD. Great read.
Former Wolverine Justin Feagin enters plea in drug conspiracy case - I hope the kid gets his life in order. Good luck, Justin.
U-M, MSU targets on display at Army All American Bowl - Sam Webb's preview from the Army AA Bowl. No big surprises occurred. As expected Dior Mathis committed to Oregon. Better than him going to MSU, anyway.
Gardner Not Enrolled Yet, Will Enroll in Fall - Didn't graduate early, still solid on Michigan. Basically a list of Michigan's current class which should add a few more players before it's all over. Creepy Tom Lemming featured extensively.
College Football
USF coach Leavitt fired amid allegations he hit a player - The exact opposite of Hoosiers.
ESPN Sources: Georgia Bulldogs make offer to Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart - Georgia officials have offered Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart a multi-year contract that would make him the third-highest paid assistant coach in college football. Holy crap. If this goes through it could shift the balance of power in the division over the next few years. Georgia's never lacked for recruited talent, if this goes through, now they'll have someone who can actually apply it.
Alabama makes BCS trophy most valuable item ever inside Wal-Mart - Thank you Doc. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Set hillbilly jokes for kill.
USC wants Mike Riley (again), Oregon State will pony up to keep him - The Doc was right, Oregon State did pony up to keep him. USC, NO SOUP FOR YOU!
Carroll's legacy TBD - Really? It's pretty simple. Either great college coach and recruiter or bold faced cheater. There's no inbetween at this point.
Quarterback Nate Montana rejoins Notre Dame Fighting Irish - No. Not the good one. The walk-on one.
These refs will never be accused of coddling the quarterback - Off topic, but great nevertheless. The Shutdown Corner takes a look at the no calls from the Michigan laden Packer/Cardinals game on Sunday. Thankfully for Arizona the helmet-to-helmet no calls did not involve Sean Crable. They would've been boned if they had.