Friday Happy Hour is getting pumped for basketball

Five takeaways from Michigan Media Day - UMHoops has been killing it with Michigan basketball coverage for a while now, but this past week or so has been especially stellar. Check out everything over there, but at least be sure to check out this five part takeaway from media day.

Be sure to check out Alex's Big Ten previews in our storystream here.

Michigan freshman DT Ondre Pipkins sees rise in snaps - Pipkins getting more and more playing time recently has been a bit overshadowed, but that's probably because of HOLY DEFENSIVE LOCKDOWN. While Pipkins is probably a year or so away from delivering on his potential, it is nice to have a little more depth.

Michael Ferns Update - A couple days old, but Tremendous tells the story of Michael Ferns' gesture for a teammate.

If you haven't read the story by now, 2014 commitment Michael Ferns and his teammates had a rough week last week. Fellow Red Devil Logan Thompson's father unexpectedly collapsed and passed away last Wednesday, leaving a shocked and brokenhearted family behind. To do their part to help the healing process, Coach McLean called his team aside before the game and decided they would set it up to let Logan score a touchdown. Coincidentally, Ferns ended up being the player put in position to get Logan in the endzone.

Good to have him aboard. Sounds like a quality young man.

Who Are You and Why Do We Care? - Illinois edition.

Is there a rivalry here? Even though they were an original member of the Western Conference, Illinois is not a team Michigan has a traditional rivalry with. In 93 all-time games, Michigan has a 68-23-2 record. Michigan is 8-2 in the last ten meetings between the two teams.

Somewhere there are like three Illinois fans who are outraged.

Wide receiver blocking on jet sweep - Deconstructing a Wolverine jet sweep in the Purdue game. Between the emergence of bubble screens and these, Michigan is finding some good ways to threaten the edges as well as get Jeremy Gallon involved in the offense in space.

Brady Hoke has 'no idea' if Michigan should be ranked - The obvious answer is no. I have no problem with that.

As for whether Michigan deserves to be ranked at the moment, I do have an idea. As I shared in Poll Reactions on Monday, no, Michigan doesn't deserve to be ranked. No team with two losses this early in the season should be ranked, even if those two losses are against teams ranked in the top 10.

But to assert that Penn State -- also a two loss team, albeit with losses to Virginia and Ohio and marquee wins over Temple and Northwestern -- is somehow more worthy is laughable.