The Victors: Project OSPREY

Saturday, 7 December 2013
(№ 22) Michigan 107-53 Houston Baptist
6-3, Big Ten 0-0

I finally had time this evening to watch last Saturday's shellacking; blowouts aren't as amusing as tight games, but there is no way not to have fun watching your club score over a hundred points. What was there to learn from such a "glorified practice," as the commentators repeatedly called the uncontested contest? Two things. One, the valiant Wolverines placed clear emphasis on playing as a unit: on making the extra pass & on garnering assists. Such is the John Beilein offense, so if the valiant Wolverines are to have success going forward they will need to play as a club, not simply as a collection of talented individuals. In Bo Schembechler's immortal words, "The team, the team, the team." Two, I don't care who the competition is, holding a basketball club to less than twenty points in a half is a superb feat of defensive basketball; the epithetless Huskies scored only nineteen points after halftime. The valiant Wolverines have a long way to go to achieve the defensive mastery sufficient to compete at the highest level of college basketball, but Saturday's effort was a step in the right direction. The valiant Wolverines had a lot of fun & were a lot of fun to watch on their way to scoring one hundred seven. Woot!

Next: Arizona, at the Crisler Center. The epithetless Wildcats are the № 1 club in the country following the dastardly Spartans' thorough defeat at the hands of the epithetless Tar Heels. The valiant Wolverines dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll on the Monday following the Houston Baptist game. Michigan is still ranked, № 25, in the Coaches' Poll, but we here at The Secret Base have a long-standing practice of subscribing to the A.P. only, ignoring the "U.P.I." as the vapid beauty contest it is; I will not favor the coaches just because they happen to hold the valiant Wolverines in higher regard that the sportswriters, for to do so would be to engage in the most vile fair weather faithlessness.

Go Blue!