Whatever This Is: Why Being Lonely Is Sometimes Super Awesome

Steve: Good evening all
Geoff: It is a good evening, I'll say.
Craig: Good evening!
Steve: Michigan triumphed over the Golden Gophers today.
Geoff: Yes, yes they did. And by "triumphed" we mean slugged their way through what was, by all accounts, a staggeringly ugly game. A game that went to halftime with a score of 20 to 16. 20 to 16!
Craig: I can't really speak to anything today, but that just LOOKS ugly.
Steve: Same here.
Geoff: I think it was for the best that it was a noon game.
Craig: That was step one, and step three is tournament. Is step 2 beat OSU? Or is it beat OSU and 4/5?
Steve: I thought step 2 was "?"
Craig: Steve, my lack of assurance MAKES it a "???".
Geoff: Personally, I'm just hoping that this was Courtney Sims' bad game for the tourney. Because his line looks terrible. 4 pts? Against Minnesota?
Steve: Sadly my brain has become fixated on the South Park underwear gnomes' business plan.
Geoff: It's sounder than Ford's business model.
Geoff: I have to say, I'm not that optimistic about tomorrow.
Craig: It's hard to beat a team three times in a year. You know, unless it's Minnesota.
Geoff: Yeah, but I don't know that our team can get up for it in the same way they did on Saturday. They faltered down the stretch, but they played hard, tough defense that I haven't really seen from them consistently.
Craig: And unlike Saturday, Ohio State is playing for something. Like the #1 seed.
Craig: And maybe the #1 overall seed.
Steve: Would you say that Michigan's level of play has risen and fallen based on the quality of the oponent?
Geoff: A little. Not to the degree of the football team, but it's there.
Craig: I agree with Geoff on that one.
Craig: It's just a maddening lack of consistency overall
Geoff: They have a tendency to coast whenever they feel like they can.
Geoff: Like today. They were up 16 at one point and let Minnesota come back to within 6, I think.
Steve: Wow.
Geoff: Or the infamous Iowa game.
Geoff: That one they were up something like 17 at one point.
Geoff: (OK, it was 14. I checked)
Craig: Well, we did try to forgot.
Craig: And all stories become exaggerated with time.
Geoff: One other side note I want to raise, with a hat tip to Maize 'n' Brew, is the disappearance from the offensive side of the stat sheet of Ekpe Udoh.
Steve: When did this start?
Geoff: In his last two games, he's scored 2 points.
Craig: Oh dear goodness.
Geoff: His teammates just aren't getting the ball to him, it seems, and that's confounding.
Craig: That's a disaster of Presidential declaration proportions
Geoff: He was an absolute monster against Minnesota the previous time they played, so I have no idea why he isn't the same sort of contributor this time. Especially on a day when Lester Abram went 1 for 10.
Craig: Did someone check to see if the rims were topped by thin sheets of plexiglass?
Geoff: Hmm. That could have been the problem.
Geoff: Or maybe they were using pop-a-shot hoops with regulation-size basketballs.
Craig: Ooh, that's an interesting take.
Craig: So basically, the season comes down to tomorrow.
Craig: Just like the season came down to Saturday.
Craig: Just like the season came down to the MSU game.
Geoff: Win and you're in, lose and you're going to the NIT.
Geoff: Any more basketball thoughts or shall we move on to the NIT?
Steve: Let's move on
Geoff: Oops, getting ahead of myself...
Craig: Thank you!!!!
Geoff: Rather, let's go to hockey.
Steve: Craig, you seem to have something to share, why don't you enlighten us?
Craig: No, that was me just reacting like a penalty was over.
Craig: Because Michigan basketball is like playing short handed...it's your own fault, and only bad things seem to happen
Steve: Not quite, in hockey you do occasionally get a short handed goal.
Craig: The Michigan State win.
Steve: Touché.
Geoff: Hockey! We now know that we'll be facing Northern Michigan in the second round of the CCHA playoffs. All I really know about them is that their goalie is no longer Finnish.
Craig: Michigan split the season series with the team that shops at the Minnesota North Stars' fire sale.
Craig: Michigan does have a solid record against them and a Joe streak to keep intact. Northern was a ten seed, so this is unexpected.
Geoff: They're probably a better team than their record would indicate, since this is a down year for a consistent program, but I don't think they're going to walk out of Yost with the series.
Craig: Agreed, but Michigan needs to show greater defensive prowess to scare anyone going into the Joe, let alone the tournament.
Geoff: Definitely.
Geoff: We want the sweep to firm up our PairWise/RPI for seeding and placement in the NCAAs. We want to win the series so that we don't just get bounced from the tournament. Because that's still a mathematical possibility, even if a whole bunch of things would have to line up for that to happen.
Craig: But you don't want to make things even iffy.
Craig: I just think that M hockey, even though it had a good year, was in many ways as inconsistent as M Hoops. Special parallel construction in the coasting department.
Geoff: Yeah. You were a witness to that.
Geoff: Hockey was really good at dropping inexplicable games to teams like Northern and Bowling Green.
Steve: Agreed
Craig: I think Billy Sauer has Hockey ADD. He isn't always as sharp as he has shown he can be
Geoff: Agreed.
Geoff: I will note that Northern represents our only home loss this calendar year, way back on January 13.
Craig: Long story short. If Michigan plays like the Michigan it's capable of being, it will roll NMU, even if NMU is playing like the team THEY can be. But if Michigan plays like they have played of late, this becomes nail-biter time
Geoff: I'll forecast that they wake up in the playoffs and get it done. It might be ugly, but TJ Hensick has been lighting everyone up, be it by assists or goals.
Craig: The week off could help.
Geoff: I think nothing helps more than Yost.
Steve: Definitely. It truly is a wonderful home
Geoff: Playoff crowds there know how to kick it into a higher gear.
Craig: Agreed.
Geoff: I was at a series against Nebraska-Omaha one year that they managed to steal a game from us, and they led by a goal going into the third, and the house was INSANE. We came back to score FOUR in the third and come away with it.
Craig: Loud, strong, and a bit crude. That should do the trick.
Geoff: And with the end of Geoff's Rambling Hockey Story Theatre, I think we'll close.
Geoff: Thanks, guys. We should do this again some time.
Steve: Sounds good, same time next week then
Craig: Agreed, it's better than blogging about one's crushing loneliness, which can sometimes be super cool.
Geoff: I'm going to abuse the Blogger tag system so much...
Craig: Indeed.
Craig: OK, gentlemen, let's hope for best results possible.
Craig: Until later, good night.