The Explorers' Club
№ CCCXIX - The Moons of Jupiter, Part I: The Galilean Moons: Io, Ganymede, Europa, & Callisto.









The Victors: Project OSPREY
Saturday, 15 December
(№ 3) Michigan 81-66 West Virginia
11-0, Big Ten 0-0

The valiant Wolverines' match-up with the epithetless Mountaineers of West Virginia was highly anticipated for reasons four: one, West Virginia is a respectably-performing —though not respectable—program from a major conference (formerly the Big East, now the Big XII) & expected to be Michigan's stiffest competition 'twixt the Big Ten/A.C.C. Challenge game against North Carolina State in late November & the start of Big Ten conference play after New Year's. Two, West Virginia was Michigan coach John Beilein's last job before coming to Ann Arbor, & it just wouldn't do for his new school to lose to his old school. Three, Bog Huggins, the man who replaced Beilein at W.V.U., is an exemplar of everything that's wrong with collegiate basketball; for my part, I like to call him "Bob Thuggins." Four, West Virginia was former Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez's last job before coming to Ann Arbor, & this has resulted in a certain enmity towards the Mountaineers that would otherwise be explicable by regional or conference-based hostility. Alas, West Virginia's 2012-13 campaign is off to a bad start & by tip-off the game was not the clash of top-tier competitors one would have liked. Still, any check in the "win" column is most welcome. I would normally like to see the valiant Wolverines be a little more balanced then they were last night, but if Trey Burke & Tim Hardaway Jr. want to combine for fifty-two points—a season-high twenty-seven for Burke & a season-high-tying twenty-five for Hardaway—I'm not going to object. If the valiant Wolverines' two top players want to put on the game's two top performances, more power to them.

Next: Home games against Eastern Michigan & Central Michigan bracket Christmas Day, & then the Big Ten season beings against the plucky Wildcats of Northwestern on 3 January '13.

Go Blue!

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the 3rd Sunday of Advent
Duvall, "O Come All Ye Faithful" from O Holy Night (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exaltation!
Sing ye, o bright host of Heaven above,
Glory to God!
Glory in the highest!
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him…"