[Old School Hound]

I feel no loyalty to any SEC teams other than KY. Couldn't care less about them. I'm like Granny on UT... please just LOSE!!! I live down here amongst a lot of big UT fans, including my Hounds' coach. With the exception of Tony(although he gets on my nerves, at times, with his Big Orange love), Tennessee fans are insufferable. Would love to see them lose in the first game.

[Cactus Jack]

An update on South Alabama/Richie Riley. The Sun Belt has finished their regular season, South Alabama was in a four-way tie for first at 13-5 with Troy, James Madison and Arkansas St., but the tiebreaker went to South Alabama. They will be the one seed for the conference tournament, and because of the wild way the Sun Belt seeds their tournament (trust me, look at the bracket if you get a chance) South Alabama will only have to get two wins to win it and make the NCAA field. They will play next Sunday, then if they win that one, the championship game is next Monday night on ESPN 2.

Looked up the bracket. I'd forgotten how that was set up. The more I thought about it, the more I can see why a mid-major would want to do that. Protects their top seeds and probably gives them the best chance at getting an additional bid. Guessing that most of the schools in the conference being heavily geared toward football didn't hurt the negotiations or process for getting this implemented either.

[Van Hagar]

Oh, I think every traditional one-bid conference should use this format. Why wouldn’t you want to get your best possible representative in? Maybe they pull off an upset or two, and now everyone is talking up your league (think Florida Gulf Coast).

[Cactus Jack]

Definitely going to be against Michigan after what they pulled against Michigan State on the Spartans' Senior Night.

If I were Dusty May, I'd have taken both of them out immediately. What I wouldn't have done is go try to defend them in the press conference, which is exactly what he did.

Classless for what's a great academic school, and it comes at a time where they already didn't have the best look for fighting with Ohio State to end the regular season in football.

Seems the Wolverines run into a lot of teams that like to fight, but they are the common denominator.

[Jarons]

Definitely going to be against Michigan after what they pulled against Michigan State on the Spartans' Senior Night.

If I were Dusty May, I'd have taken both of them out immediately. What I wouldn't have done is go try to defend them in the press conference, which is exactly what he did.

Classless for what's a great academic school, and it comes at a time where they already didn't have the best look for fighting with Ohio State to end the regular season in football.

Seems the Wolverines run into a lot of teams that like to fight, but they are the common denominator.

What did they do?

[Cactus Jack]

What did they do?

Michigan State has a tradition where the seniors get a curtain call-- they'll usually exit the game during a dead ball and kiss the Spartans logo at mid-court as they exit the floor for the final time. The crowd cheers, people throw babies in the air, grandparents have tears in their eyes, and all is right in the world. This has apparently been something of a tradition that goes back to at least Mateen Cleaves and the Flintstones.

To set the stage, Michigan State was up 18 points with 37 seconds left. They'd lead 50-28 at the half and Michigan made a decent run to start the 2nd Half, but the game was around a 12-14 point margin from the under 8 timeout.

Izzo had already taken one player out for his curtain call and a couple of Michigan's freshmen players who combined for 2 points on the night are intentionally standing at the half court area as a way of trying to spoil the moment; they're asked to move-- no one is in anyone's face or being too dramatic, some MSU players are just motioning for them to move (you will have to do a deeper online dive to get to see this part).

Completely lacking the self-awareness to realize that they look like jackasses that are being sore losers about just having their ass handed to them, the Michigan players continue to stand well toward the middle of the logo while Michigan shoots a free throw as more seniors are about to have their moment. A Michigan State player takes exception, walks toward them and says something. Words are exchanged, a Michigan player is the first to shove, and the ending is delayed and the teams have to be separated.

Oblivious to the fact that he's the one who controls his team and apparently thinking he's back at Florida Atlantic where his teams games may be lucky to get a thirty second Sportscenter segment that few will see and even fewer will care or write about, Dusty May then proceeds to go into the press conference and gives a bunch of sound bites that make him come off as aloof at best or a smug prick who seems to have an opinion of himself that doesn't really match his coaching achievements at worst.

For a school with Michigan's academics and prestige, you'd think May would realize they'd just gotten rid of Juwan Howard, an alum who has done way more for the program than he probably ever will, for being involved in altercations that became a distraction and cast the university in a negative light, but apparently he doesn't and since this one doesn't have quite as many eyeballs as the OSU/Michigan football scuffle that led to players, staffers, and reporters being (inadvertently) pepper-sprayed, it will have to settle for being second place in this season's Michigan lore.

[Cactus Jack]

Unsure if it came through in my last post, but I'm not a fan of Dusty May.

Also, the University of Michigan's athletes have an odd fascination with their rival's logos.