Tuesday Morning Brews: Dance of the GOAT

Happy Tuesday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. Hopefully your work week is just getting started, but if not... well that’s unfortunate. One person who’s not just getting started, he’s actually be going for quite some time now, is Tom Brady. The former Michigan QB went 30-46 for 348 yards on Sunday evening against the Chiefs. Brady will be going to his ninth Super Bowl in what is surely one of the most storied professional careers ever.

Let’s get to it:

Water Polo’s season off to 2-2 start. Among the last of the winter sports to get underway, if not the very last, water polo opened its season this past weekend with the UCSB Tournament. The Wolverines split their four games, dropping matchups with No. 1 USC (2-9) and No. 3 UCLA (7-9) while beating No. 18 Cal. State Northridge (11-5) and Fresno State (11-6). The team will be back in action in two weeks at the Stanford Invitational against the Cardinal, UC Davis, Pacific, and China (I’ve gotta think that counts as an exhibition match).

Women’s basketball bounces back with OSU win. Kim Barnes Arico’s team suffered a sizeable defeat against No. 22 Iowa on Thursday (61-75), but that didn’t stop the Wolverines from taking care of business against the Buckeyes on Sunday. Naz Hillmon (20 pts.) and Nicole Munger (18 pts.) led the way for Michigan in the 62-58 victory. Hallie Brown also contributed 8 pts. The Wolverines are now 12-7 (3-4) on the season. They’ll be back in action on Thursday at Indiana.

Wrestling trounces No. 18 Purdue. Michigan’s undefeated streak to open the season continued this past Sunday as the Wolverines cruised by the No. 18 Boilermakers. Michigan won six matches en route to a 23-9 defeat of Purdue. No ranked Wolverines lost their bout on Sunday afternoon. By stretching their record to a perfect 8-0, the Wolverines have matched their best start to a season in program history. The team next faces Ohio State on Friday.

Both men’s and women’s S&D beat Buckeyes. As you may have gathered, it’s that time of the season in winter sports when the rivalry games are traditionally scheduled. Swimming and Diving got in on the action with both the men’s and women’s team cruising to comfortable wins against Ohio State. The men trounced the No. 18 Buckeye men 202-98, while the women similarly took care of business against the No. 22 Buckeye women (196-104). Both teams are having strong seasons (women are 7-0 (4-0) and men are 6-1(3-1)). The Big Ten championships are scheduled for the end of next month.

Some say that recruiting rankings (stars) matter, and others say they don’t. Some say they’d rather have a team full of three-star players who work hard everyday than a team of four- and five-star players who coast. Well, I’m saying this — on the biggest stage in football, there’s a disproportionately high number of former blue chip recruits. For a breakdown of which team, New England or Los Angeles, was rated higher coming out of high school, check out the article above from the SB Nation mothership.