The Victors | Project OSPREY

(№ 20) Michigan 79-70 Michigan State (№ 13)
19-7, Big Ten 11-3

With today's victory, the valiant Wolverines both completed the season sweep of the dastardly Spartans, our despised in-state rivals, & became captains of their own destiny—Michigan lead the Big Ten standings & own the first tiebreaker over Michigan State, meaning that the "Champions of the West" will indeed be champions of the Big Ten if they win out the rest of the conference schedule. The "Leaders and Best" do not need to reply on any other club to win or lose, they control their own fate.

Plus, "Sparty" lost, which is reason enough to smile. After the first Michigan/Michigan State game, an 80-75 victory on 26 January over the then-№ 3 dastardly Spartans, my old high school swim coach & biology teacher, a man I will forever think of as simply "Coach," posted the following comment to my FaceSpace page: "March will tell, you wanna bet on who goes farther?" I had reposted the Michigan Basketball page's graphic noting the victory, & he apparently took exception. I can't really fault him for that—rivalry games do funny things to otherwise pleasant & reasonable persons—but I am curious as to whether there will be a repeat. This curiosity is malicious. I wish to be provoked. At the time, I tried to be firm but magnanimous in my response, stating that performance in the "Big Dance" would not change the outcome of that particular game—would not salve the agony of defeat he was suffering—& that I am not a gambling man, neither for my side nor against his. This time, I yearn for a bait to which I could rise, so that I might embody the sinister words of Francis Urquhart, who said of his prime minister, "I mean to do him harm." For all the malevolent posturing, a not insignificant faction within my head hopes that he neither he nor any of my other Green & White kith will furnish me with the desired casus belli.

Next: The ill-starred Boilermakers, at Purdue's Mackey Arena. My father is a Purdue alumnus, raising the stakes in our household. The valiant Wolverines had not played in a week, but now finish the regular season with a spree of five games in fourteen days, including today's victorious contest. After that, the Big Ten tournament & the N.C.A.A. tournament, for all the marbles.

Go Blue!