Tuesday Morning Brews: Afterglow

What a weekend, folks. Men’s basketball walked away from a plane accident and won a B1G Title. Women’s gymnastics likewise exited the weekend with B1G Championship hardware. Basketball is a seven seed in the NCAA Tournament and will play Oklahoma State on Friday. Also, for those that haven’t done so already, don’t forget to join our bracket challenge. Your picks must be in before noon on Thursday. The college sports landscape is pretty well saturated with basketball-related news right now, so this morning’s Brews will be a little abbreviated. We should start seeing news from football on Thursday, as spring ball is right around the corner.

Let’s hit the links:

Basketball capped a miraculous weekend with a B1G Tournament Championship on Sunday afternoon, topping Wisconsin by the score of 71-56. Derrick Walton, who had been robbed of a first team all-conference spot just days earlier, rightfully took home tournament MVP honors. Zak Irvin overcame his mid-season doldrums to put together a great close to the season and also earned all-tournament team honors. This is Michigan’s first B1G Tournament Championship since the 1997-1998 season. If you haven’t already, check out MnB’s analysis of the Mid-West regional and what it would take for Michigan to get to the elite eight.

It’s several days old at this point, but if you haven’t read this article from Brendan Quinn about the aftermath of the plane accident - you should. You should read THIS ONE from Monday morning, as well. In many ways, this was almost the weekend and championship that wasn’t. This team responded to adversity in a way that is very rare for a group of 18-22 year-olds. At the center of that was John Beilein who, somewhere between a plane crash and a B1G Title, became Michigan’s winningest coach. As our very own (and new addition to the staff) Ed Murray put it, it’s time to thank Coach Beilein.

Keeping with the big victories over the weekend theme, John Beilein has won the Coaches for Charity Challenge. This is the second year of the challenge, and Beilein’s second year winning the challenge. $100,000 will be donated to ChadTough Foundation Fund at the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. That fund is used to advance research into childhood cancer, and specifically Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) from which the foundation’s namesake, Chad Carr, died a year-ago November.

Women’s gymnastics also won a B1G Championship over the weekend, topping Iowa and three other teams at the Big Five meet to secure their 3rd regular season title. Michigan will share the title with Nebraska. Michigan has won at least a share of the B1G regular season title three of the five years it has been in existence. Including B1G Tournament titles, this is Michigan’s 25th championship in Women’s gymnastics. The Wolverines will compete for a B1G Tournament championship next weekend at Rutgers.

Men’s lacrosse scored the first victory of the young program’s career this past weekend, topping #10 Penn 13-12. Despite being in existence since the 1940s, men’s and women’s lacrosse at Michigan was only elevated to NCAA team status in 2012. Prior to then, the teams existed as varsity club teams. Prior to becoming an NCAA team, the men’s team had won 11 of the past 12 club championships. Since being elevated, the team has struggled against top-flight competition - like Penn.