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Detroit Free Press
2/28
DREW SHARP: MSU still miles ahead of Michigan
February 28, 2006
BY DREW SHARP
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Michigan basketball fans are sounding like Michigan State football fans.
The Blue herd has grown so accustomed to laughing at the expense of others that it's blind to being the punch line this time.
MSU fans are often -- and deservedly -- mocked for thinking they have closed the gap with U-M after seeing a glimmer of light in the football darkness. Their yapping rings especially hollow when the Spartans can't contend for a Big Ten championship for three straight seasons, let alone 30 straight.
The same holds true for Michigan basketball.
It's great that the Wolverines will be returning to the NCAA tournament for the first time in eight years, but in the parochial debate of who rules between the Blue and the Green, it's barely a blip. If the opposite rims of the Grand Canyon moved a yard closer to each other, would anyone notice?
Let U-M put together a five-year stretch of conference championships, No. 1 NCAA tournament seeds and Final Fours, and you can put Michigan and Michigan State basketball in the same sentence.
It will be a strange March. Both teams haven't made the NCAA tournament in the same year since 1998, but those Wolverines were branded as cheaters. Michigan was found guilty of NCAA violations, and all records from that season and four others were wiped from official university memory.
The last time Michigan and MSU legitimately made the same NCAA tournament was 1990.
The Wolverines were defending their 1989 national championship, and the Big Ten champion Spartans were a No. 1 regional seed.
Michigan coach Tommy Amaker merits kudos. It would have been inexcusable for the Wolverines to miss the NCAA tournament this season with a veteran rotation. But sometimes reaching for that minimum standard exerts the maximum pressure. Even though their roster resembled a wing of the U-M medical center, they didn't cave.
But Michigan won't close the basketball gap with Michigan State until the deep-pocketed Blue hairs upgrade facilities charitably categorized as pathetic.
U-M ranks last in the conference in basketball facilities. The school had little difficulty raising money to refurbish Michigan Stadium and construct a recruiting center adjacent to Crisler Arena, but why can't the basketball team get a measly practice court?
Promises haven't been kept.
Now Amaker finds himself in an advantageous situation.
Don't be surprised if the Big Ten sends as many as four teams to the NCAA Sweet 16, and Michigan might be one of them, provided, of course, all the ifs properly align themselves.
And that achievement would give Amaker the juice he needs to put an end to the university's posturing that it gives his team what it needs. He could force the issue.
Or else he should consider riding the wave of a good tournament run out of Ann Arbor and to a school that gives the basketball program more than lip service.
There are times when Michigan can't handle the truth.
It isn't a destination for basketball coaches. They don't pay. They don't invest. And unless they cheat, they don't reside amid the national elite.
Amaker has done it the right way. He has rescued the program from the haze of Ed Martin and the Fib Five, but where's the reciprocation?
There are plenty of good high school basketball players in this state to keep Michigan and Michigan State fat and happy. But closing the gap means challenging for the crème de la crème nationally, and that demands a culture in which basketball is considered more than football's red-headed stepchild.
Indiana prep star Greg Oden was considered the nation's top high school player the past two seasons. He would have been the first player taken in this summer's NBA draft had the league not increased its age requirements. He has to play in college at least one season and opted for Ohio State after an intense recruiting battle.
The Spartans lost, but were nonetheless hot in the mix for his services.
Oden wouldn't even take Michigan's call.
The gap isn't shrinking. Changing coaches can help you win clean, but winning championships clean requires a changing of the culture. And Michigan still isn't ready for that.
Detroit Free Press
2/28
DREW SHARP: MSU still miles ahead of Michigan
February 28, 2006
BY DREW SHARP
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Michigan basketball fans are sounding like Michigan State football fans.
The Blue herd has grown so accustomed to laughing at the expense of others that it's blind to being the punch line this time.
MSU fans are often -- and deservedly -- mocked for thinking they have closed the gap with U-M after seeing a glimmer of light in the football darkness. Their yapping rings especially hollow when the Spartans can't contend for a Big Ten championship for three straight seasons, let alone 30 straight.
The same holds true for Michigan basketball.
It's great that the Wolverines will be returning to the NCAA tournament for the first time in eight years, but in the parochial debate of who rules between the Blue and the Green, it's barely a blip. If the opposite rims of the Grand Canyon moved a yard closer to each other, would anyone notice?
Let U-M put together a five-year stretch of conference championships, No. 1 NCAA tournament seeds and Final Fours, and you can put Michigan and Michigan State basketball in the same sentence.
It will be a strange March. Both teams haven't made the NCAA tournament in the same year since 1998, but those Wolverines were branded as cheaters. Michigan was found guilty of NCAA violations, and all records from that season and four others were wiped from official university memory.
The last time Michigan and MSU legitimately made the same NCAA tournament was 1990.
The Wolverines were defending their 1989 national championship, and the Big Ten champion Spartans were a No. 1 regional seed.
Michigan coach Tommy Amaker merits kudos. It would have been inexcusable for the Wolverines to miss the NCAA tournament this season with a veteran rotation. But sometimes reaching for that minimum standard exerts the maximum pressure. Even though their roster resembled a wing of the U-M medical center, they didn't cave.
But Michigan won't close the basketball gap with Michigan State until the deep-pocketed Blue hairs upgrade facilities charitably categorized as pathetic.
U-M ranks last in the conference in basketball facilities. The school had little difficulty raising money to refurbish Michigan Stadium and construct a recruiting center adjacent to Crisler Arena, but why can't the basketball team get a measly practice court?
Promises haven't been kept.
Now Amaker finds himself in an advantageous situation.
Don't be surprised if the Big Ten sends as many as four teams to the NCAA Sweet 16, and Michigan might be one of them, provided, of course, all the ifs properly align themselves.
And that achievement would give Amaker the juice he needs to put an end to the university's posturing that it gives his team what it needs. He could force the issue.
Or else he should consider riding the wave of a good tournament run out of Ann Arbor and to a school that gives the basketball program more than lip service.
There are times when Michigan can't handle the truth.
It isn't a destination for basketball coaches. They don't pay. They don't invest. And unless they cheat, they don't reside amid the national elite.
Amaker has done it the right way. He has rescued the program from the haze of Ed Martin and the Fib Five, but where's the reciprocation?
There are plenty of good high school basketball players in this state to keep Michigan and Michigan State fat and happy. But closing the gap means challenging for the crème de la crème nationally, and that demands a culture in which basketball is considered more than football's red-headed stepchild.
Indiana prep star Greg Oden was considered the nation's top high school player the past two seasons. He would have been the first player taken in this summer's NBA draft had the league not increased its age requirements. He has to play in college at least one season and opted for Ohio State after an intense recruiting battle.
The Spartans lost, but were nonetheless hot in the mix for his services.
Oden wouldn't even take Michigan's call.
The gap isn't shrinking. Changing coaches can help you win clean, but winning championships clean requires a changing of the culture. And Michigan still isn't ready for that.
