The Victors: Project OSPREY
Saturday, 29 December 2012
(№ 2) Michigan 88-73 Central Michigan
13-0, Big Ten 0-0

The valiant Wolverines carried thirteen wins into 2013, besting the epithetless Chippewas to finish the non-conference portion of the schedule undefeated. The valiant Wolverines were not especially impressive in last Saturday's contest, but they didn't need to be on their way to a fifteen-point margin of victory.

Thursday, 3 January 2013
(№ 2) Michigan 94-66 Northwestern
14-0, Big Ten 1-0

Last night, the valiant Wolverines looked like the № 2 team in the country, jumping out to a 10-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game & gradually building it to the final twenty-eight point margin by the final buzzer. The plucky Wildcats were without two of their best players, true, both lost to injury, & never managed to overcome Michigan's initial blitz. Trey Burke lead the way with thirteen of the valiant Wolverines' first sixteen points, & finished the night with twenty-three points. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored an effortless-seeming twenty-one; his four three-pointers were beautiful to behold. Freshman sniper Nick Stauskas had an off night shooting from three-point range; then again, his normal pace of shooting 57% from behind the three-point line seems impossible to sustain. The valiant Wolverines were relentless in pursuit of rebounds, harassed the plucky Wildcats on defense, & scored more alley-oops that I believe I'd ever before seen in a single game. Fun, fun, fun!

Central to winning the Big Ten championship will be the valiant Wolverines remaining hungry, meaning continuing to work diligently & never resting on their laurels. The next four games are back-to-back home games against Iowa & Nebraska, & then a pair of road games against (№ 8) Ohio State & (№ 9) Minnesota. Those will be Michigan's stiffest tests yet. The valiant Wolverines will not finish the regular season undefeated, that's a fool's dream. It is nice that they have Michigan's best record since the 1985-'86 season (those valiant Wolverines started 16-0), but of greater importance than records is how they who don the Maize & Blue win, how they utilize their individual strengths to win as a team, how they carry themselves, & how they prepare the for season-ending Big Ten & N.C.A.A. Tournaments. These are heady days, with the promise of the John Beilein era being fulfilled before our very eyes.

Go Blue!

Elsewhere in Project OSPREY
also Thursday, 3 January 2013
(№ 3) Arizona 92-83 Colorado (O.T.)

Southern California 71-69 Stanford

Both of these games, which I watched during the commercial breaks in the Sugar Bowl, turned on the losers' inability to shoot free throws. Improbably, Colorado had a large first-half lead over Arizona. The epithetless Wildcats closed the gap heading into halftime, but the epithetless Buffaloes opened it up again. Towards the wend of the game, trailing Arizona began fouling aggressively, a standard ploy to disrupt the leading club's offense; it is a tactic that works if the leaders cannot make their free throws, but it doomed to failure if they can't. Colorado could not. In the final minute, Colorado made onto two of six free throws. Arizona made a shot to tie the contest at 80, & Colorado's last-second, game-winning three-pointer was ruled to have been shot after the final buzzer sounded to end regulations time. I disagree with the zebras' decision, I thought Colorado's Sabatino Chen got the shot off in time, but the salient point is that that shot would not have been necessary if only one of the three Colorado players who took those six free throws had made one more of those shots. In overtime time, the roles were reversed, with Colorado fouling aggressively, & Arizona pulled ahead by making their free throws. Stanford held a game-long lead over U.S.C., but down the stretch that lead evaporated as the epithetless Trojans made their free throws & the epithetless Cardinal could not make theirs. They're called free throws, for pity's sake. They are free throws! They should be called free points, because a free throw is as easy & uncontested a shot as exists in basketball. I hope the epithetless Buffaloes & the epithetless Cardinal take last night's lessons to heart, & spend a great deal more time practicing their shooting from the line; learning how to shoot free throws could make or break their seasons.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the 11th Day of Christmas
Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings" from Barenaked for the Holidays (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: There are words for which Sarah McLachlan's voice is simply perfect, & such are the verses of "We Three Kings."

"God rest ye merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born upon this day,
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray,
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy…"

"King forever, ceasing never,
Over us all to reign…"