The Explorers' Club
№ CCCXXXIII - The Thirty Years' War, Part IV: France ascendent—The Battle of Wittstock (1636), disastrous French invasions of Habsburg lands & disastrous Habsburg invasions of French lands, the Second Battle of Breitenfeld (1642), the Battle of Rocroi (1643), shifting alliances among the Nordic powers & the Action of 13 October 1644, the Battle of Jankau & the Second Battle of Nördlingen (both 1645), the Battle of Lens (1648), & the capture & sack of Prague Castle (1648).









The Victors: Project OSPREY
Thursday, 21 March 2013
N.C.A.A. Tournament, Round of 64
(4) Michigan 71-56 South Dakota State (13)
27-7, Big Ten 13-7

It was with no small amount of trepidation that I tuned into the beginning of the N.C.A.A. Tournament proper to see the valiant Wolverines take on the unknown & epithetless Jackrabbits of South Dakota State. The pro-Maize & Blue website UMHoops.com emphasized the epithetless Jackrabbits' senior point guard, Nate Wolters, as the key to their offense; this promised an interesting match up 'twixt their greatest strength & our greatest strength, sophomore point guard Trey Burke. Burke was quiet offensively, scoring well below his season average, but so too was Wolters held belong his normally gaudy numbers. The valiant Wolverines had a greater variety of offensive options with which to compensate, & freshman forward Glenn Robinson III—often invisible in our defeats—stepped up in a big way, leading all scorers with twenty-one points on the way to a fifteen-point Michigan victory.

The valiant Wolverines advanced to face the "Havoc" defense of the epithetless Rams of Virginia Commonwealth University (V.C.U.) in the Round of 32—what used to be known as the second round, before the "First Four" malarkey.

Saturday, 23 March 2013
N.C.A.A. Tournament, Round of 32
(4) Michigan 78-53 Virginia Commonwealth (5)
28-7, Big Ten 13-7

I readily admit that I dreaded this match up as I filled out my surely doomed bracket. My loyalty to the valiant Wolverines has never wavered, nor could it, but my confidence in them was shattered by the formulaic nature of all their away defeats, the last-minute collapse against Indiana to give us our only home loss, & the second-half collapse against Wisconsin the the league tourney. I feared that our freshman- & sophomore-laden club would wilt in the face of V.C.U.'s full-court pressure "Havoc" defense. Quite the opposite occurred, & in the aftermath of the twenty-five-point victory the consensus seems to be that the valiant Wolverines were the perfect club to thwart "Havoc," with the team speed & skilled point guards that are "Havoc's" Kryptonite. I was surprised that the epithetless Rams' vaunt full-court defense turned out really to be half-court defense, the twist being that they defend in your end & not in their own. Once the valiant Wolverines broke through the baseline pressure, baskets came easily & often; V.C.U. was defensively absent from their own end of the hardwood. Freshman forward-cum-center Mitch McGary had a career day, wracking up an impressive double-double with fourteen rebounds & twenty-one points to lead all scorers. Burke, Robinson, junior guard Tim Hardaway Jr., & freshman guard Spike Albrecht, spelling Burke at the crucial "one" position, all had impressive days. Playing like they did on Saturday, the valiant Wolverines can beat any other club in the country. This is the first time any squad of valiant Wolverines have advanced to the "Sweet Sixteen" since 1994, the '93-'94 squad featuring the remaining four of the fondly remembered "Fab Five."

Next: (1) Kansas on Friday, 29 March, from Dallas, Texas. In their first two games the valiant Wolverines profited greatly from essentially home court advantage, playing in the Palace of Auburn Hills—home of the Detroit Pistons of the N.B.A.—less than fifty miles from Ann Arbor. Here's hoping we do not revert to bad habits on a neutral court, which is admittedly much closer to Kansas's campus than ours. Let us not forget that the valiant Wolverines won their first two games by a combined forty points, nor mean feat in the win-or-go-home environment of the Big Dance. The valiant Wolverines played superlative 'ball last weekend & can do so again. Onward to the "Elite Eight"!

Go Blue!

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Betty Wand, Leslie Caron, Louis Jordan, & Hermione Gingold, "The Night They Invented Champagne" (from Gigi) via iTunes (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I've never seen all of Gigi, but I've seen bits & pieces, & heard many of the songs, & found it all to be delightful. The film's to air on T.C.M. in May, & I'm all set up for them to e-mail a reminder to me. 1958 in film, man, it's hard to top that.