Tuesday Morning Brews: Back in the saddle again

Happy Tuesday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. We’re back in our regularly scheduled time slot after making way for all things John Beilein news last week. With the school year now done, sports are rapidly slowing down for the Wolverines. This morning we have some Big Ten and NCAA results for those teams still going, along with some football ephemera.

Let’s get to it:

Chiara Lommer, Brienne Minor advance in NCAA Individuals. Two Wolverines took care of business in the early rounds of the NCAA Individual Championships for women’s tennis. First up was Chiara Lommer, who defeated the No. 4 seed Ingrid Gamarra Martins from South Carolina in straight sets (6-3, 6-3). Then Brienne Minor also won in straight sets. She defeated Olivia Hauger from Cal (6-1, 6-4). Meanwhile, Kate Fahey fell to No. 20 Sara Daavettila from UNC (6-4, 4-6, 6-4).

Rowing takes home Big Ten Title. Michigan rowing capped off their regular season with a win in the Big Ten Championships. The Wolverines won four races and earned 186 points across all events on the day, leaving them 15 points clear of second place Ohio State and 77 points clear of third place Wisconsin when all was said and done. This is the sixth conference title in program history, and the 11th time they’ve either won or finished second in the past 19 seasons. Michigan earned an automatic bid for the NCAA Championships by virtue of their win. Those contests will begin a week from Friday.

Mel Kiper list five Wolverines among top for 2020 Draft. From the category of way, way too early, Mel Kiper came out with his early 2020 Big Board late last week and included five Wolverines as among the top in their respective positions. Kiper projects Ben Bredeson as the No. 1 senior guard in the class, Cesar Ruiz as the No. 3 underclassman center, Josh Uche as the No. 4 outside linebacker, Lavert Hill as the No. 5 senior cornerback, and Josh Metellus as the No. 4 senior safety. As with everything done this early, this could change drastically between now and next April—but keep an eye on these guys to be leaders for Michigan this year on their respective sides of the ball.

Jim and Jack (the younger) take on New York. When Jim Harbaugh isn’t globetrotting with the football team or out on the recruiting trail, he’s being a pretty normal dad. Coach and his youngest son, Jack, took a trip to New York this past weekend, taking in the sights at a Yankees game. The Harbaughs then continued on to Farmingdale for the PGA Championship, after which Coach felt the need to speak publicly to defend newly crowned PGA Champion Brooks Koepka from some criticism he thought was undue.

Baseball stumbled a bit down the stretch, but still earned the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament. The Wolverines closed out their regular season winning just one of three against Nebraska late last week. Michigan struggled offensively in the first two games (2-5, 0-7), before winning a shootout in the third (10-8). Those games moved the Wolverines to 38-16 (16-7) on the year. They’ll play Ohio State tomorrow afternoon in their first round matchup. Michigan went 1-2 against the Buckeyes during the regular season.