It was Livestock Week for the (#19) University of Michigan men’s basketball team last week.  They played the “cows” (Michigan State) and the “hogs” (Arkansas), and they won one and lost one.  On Tuesday (01/17/2012) they beat (#9) MSU 60-59 in Crisler Arena, then on Saturday (01/21/2012) they lost at Arkansas 66-64.  This brings Michigan’s record to 15-5 (5-2 in the Big Ten).

Standings

Here are the current Big Ten standings:

Joe Paterno, the man, died last night after a short battle with cancer.

JoPa, the legend,  died last November amid revelations that he did little when confronted with allegations that one of his long time coaches had molested a child in the Penn State football showers.

How do we reconcile the man with the legend?

Many say that we put too much stock in our sports figures. But if any person seemed worthy of admiration it was Joe Paterno.

Maybe he started to believe his own press. Surely the excuses he gave for his inaction during his final interview were embarrassing. He certainly wouldn’t have accepted lame excuses from one of his players.

Today we’ll we hear from his former players, many of whom credit Coach Paterno with being major reason for their success.

Let’s honor man while remembering that we’ve learned he’s not quite worthy of being a legend.

It was an ugly week for the (#13) University of Michigan men’s basketball team last week.  They played two games, and they won one and lost one, but the win was ugly, and the loss was even uglier.  On Wednesday (01/11/2012) they beat Northwestern 66-64 in overtime in Crisler Arena, then on Saturday (01/14/2012) they lost at Iowa 75-59.  This brings Michigan’s record to 14-4 (4-2 in the Big Ten).

OK, I’ll admit that Michigan’s narrow victory over Northwestern looks a little better after NU beat (#7) Michigan State convincingly in their next game.  MSU came into the game unbeaten in Big Ten play, and NU handled them, so I guess NU is better than their record would suggest.  So, maybe the UM win over NU wasn’t quite as ugly as it looked in person.  Michigan played very poorly for most of the game, and were trailing by 8 points (44-36) with 13 minutes to go.  They fought their way back into the game, but they still trailed by 3 (54-51) with less than 3 minutes left.  They managed to tie it up and force overtime, where they scratched out a 2-point win.