Tuesday Morning Brews: Dig for fire

Happy Tuesday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. We’re catching up on the weekend that was in Michigan sports before finishing up with a little football content. Without further ado...

Let’s get to it:

Women’s basketball cruises to win over Oakland. Kim Barnes Arico’s squad bounced back from their two recent losses with two wins, the latter being a comfortable afternoon against Oakland this past Sunday. The Wolverines never trailed in the 85-59 victory as Nicole Munger (21 pts.), Naz Hillmon (16 pts.), and Hailey Brown (12 pts.) led the way. On Thursday, Michigan crushed LIU Brooklyn, 83-38. The Wolverines outscored the Blackbirds 27-1 in the first quarter and never looked back. The team is now 7-3 on the season and will be back in action next Saturday against Morgan State.

Wrestling stretches start to perfect 3-0. Michigan took eight of 10 matches en route to a 32-7 win over Indiana. The No. 5 Wolverines recorded 14 straight points in the first four matches before Indiana got on the board with a 10-2 major decision. Michigan then cruised through the next four matches before Indiana took the last, but by then it was too late to affect the result. The team is now 3-0 on the season and will be back in action on Thursday against Oregon State.

Hockey has a rough go against Minnesota. The Minnesota Gophers came to town this past weekend, but the Wolverines had another suboptimal weekend series. Michigan again significantly out-shot their opponent, but wasn’t able to come away with a win. On Friday, the Wolverines had a 38-26 advantage in shots but the game ended in a 2-2 tie (Michigan gained the point in OT). On Saturday, the shot margin was 53-28 but the Wolverines found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-3 result. The team is now 6-7-4 (2-4-4) on the year. They’ll be back in action December 30th in the Great Lakes Invitational.

Volleyball bounced from NCAA Tournament by Texas. Michigan travelled to Provo, Utah for their Sweet Sixteen matchup against No. 5 Texas. Unfortunately, the Longhorns got the better of the Wolverines. After trading the first two sets, 10-25 and 29-27, Texas edged the Wolverines in the third (27-29) and took the fourth 19-25. Michigan finished its season with a 24-10 (11-9) record.

My mother taught me that if you don’t have something nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all. In that spirit (apparently, though sometimes not sincerely), Richard Johnson over at the SB Nation mothership took it upon himself to write one nice sentence about all 39 bowl games. Some of them are actually nice, others... aren’t. This article is good for a couple laughs, so if for no reason other than that give it a read.

Part of bowl season is the gift bags the players get. Generally speaking, the better the bowl, the better the bag. According to MLive, this year the Wolverines will be receiving a $300 dollar Visa gift card, a Peach Bowl branded Fossil watch, a Mophie Powerstation XL (basically a battery pack that can charge your phone, ipad, etc.), an Amazon Echo Dot 3, and a souvenir Peach Bowl football. For a list of the gift bags for all the bowls, check out the Sports Business Journal.