Nothing But ‘Net – Week #07 – 12/12/2011 – “Just Win, Baby”

The (#20) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played one game last week, and they won it, to improve their record to 7-2 on the season.  On Saturday (12/10/2011) they beat Oakland University, 90-80, at The Palace Of Auburn Hills.  Hence, the Oakland (Raiders)/Al Davis quote in the headline.

Continue reading “Nothing But ‘Net – Week #07 – 12/12/2011 – “Just Win, Baby””

Dear Rich, good luck and some words of advice…

Former Wolverine Head Coach Rich Rodriguez has been hired to lead the Arizona Wildcats.

Rich had a tumultuous tenure in Ann Arbor. He seemed like a good guy who made some mistakes.

Rich Rodriguez at his first Michigan press conference

I wish him the best at his new job.

Here are some recommendations to ease the transition.

  1. Hire somebody who knows defense, you don’t. To quote the immortal Dirty Harry, “a man has to know his limitations.” Running a defense and managing a defensive staff is beyond you.
  2. Let your defensive coordinator hire his own staff. See #1, read and repeat. If by some circumstance you hire some of your old friends to be part of the defensive staff, don’t allow them to undermine your defensive coordinator.
  3. Don’t expect conditioning to win games for you. The world has caught up to  the conditioning you had at West Virginia and Michigan. Skill and coaching wins, conditioning is now a given.
  4. Get out and meet people. As the situation deteriorated in Ann Arbor, you took refuge in your office. Take that sparkling personality out on the town. Eat at the local restaurants. Visit some classes, shake hands and kiss babies. You figured this too late in Ann Arbor.
  5. Open up your inner circle. You have a loyal group of friends and coaches. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that they give  you the best advice. You need someone who will disagree with you.
  6. Stop whining and use your agent. At Michigan you fought with the administration over details like the wording of press releases. If you want approval of such things, get it in writing. Whining doesn’t change things.
  7. Pare down your inner circle. Some of the people you brought with you to Ann Arbor did you no favors. They did you more harm than good. They were more concerned with blaming others than helping you succeed.
  8. You don’t have a reality distortion field. When you were in West Virginia the press took your word as gospel. Those times are over. You can’t be fuzzy on details and gloss over reality. It makes you look dishonest.
  9. Don’t bend NCAA rules. The last thing you need to bring with to Arizona is an NCAA investigation. You need to be an expert on all compliance issues.
  10. Win.
Rich, make these changes and hopefully we’ll never see you like this again…
Rich Rodriguez after his final game as Wolverine Head Football Coach

Big Ten wimps out on conference football championship game

From the people who brought you the Leaders and Legends divisions…Your Big 10 Football Championship Location-INDIANAPOLIS.

Really? That’s the best you can do?

I hope the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce has worked out some sweet incentives for Jim Delaney and his crew of merry pranksters but color this football fan unimpressed.

Continue reading “Big Ten wimps out on conference football championship game”

Nothing But ‘Net – Week #06 – 12/05/2011 – Mixed Results

The (#14) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played two games last week, and they won one and lost one, to move to 6-2 on the season.  On Tuesday (11/29/2011) they lost at Virginia, 70-58, then on Saturday (12/03/2011) they beat Iowa State, 76-66, in Crisler Arena.  The UVa game was part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, which the Big Ten won again, for the 3rd year in a row.

Continue reading “Nothing But ‘Net – Week #06 – 12/05/2011 – Mixed Results”