Weekend Roundup: Championship Monday Edition 4/8/13

Sorry this is brief/late, I've been stuck in Atlanta all weekend on business.​  I kid, I kid.

Whatever superlative you wish to throw on the pile for tonight will work.  Simply put, an amazingly unexpected run for our Wolverines has us 40 minutes from a National Championship.  I was just a young teenager the last time we were in the Championship Game, but I remember it like it was yesterday.  And despite the bitter ending, and despite the fallout years later, it's one of just a handful of Michigan memories that will be with me for a lifetime.  My on again / off again relationship with Chris Webber notwithstanding, it's very difficult not to love the Fab Five.  And it's even more difficult not to appreciate his mission to get the band back together for this momentous occasion...

​Meanwhile in blatant self-promotion news...a large man in yellow (me) and his financé with hands on face in horror star as Jiminy Cricket in the critically acclaimed feature "Please Make Your Damn Free Throws"...

And how about a picture gallery?​

And a preview from UMHoops to keep you educated...​

​No mistakes.  No regrets.  Nothing but a celebration.  

Let's Go Blue!  Shock the World!

Smile. Everything's Peachy.

We've sucked since the internet.  There, I said it.  Well, maybe not the early internet, but this blog filled internet...this post 1997 internet.  UMTailgate.com launched in November of 2000, and you can count on one hand the number of times Michigan has been somewhat nationally relevant in the revenue generating sports from that day until today.  But, like Notre Dame, we have a certain caché because of our history.  We've been consistently good to very good at winning football games for quite sometime.  Actually, we invented this football shit, or we at least taught a class in it in South Bend in the late 1800's.

In hoops, we broke our Final Four cherry in the mid-60's with back-to-back trips.  We faced and fell to that undefeated Indiana squad and a young Bob Knight in the championship game in  '76.  We had our football coach dismiss our basketball coach on the eve of the tourney in '89, and we cut down the nets in Seattle anyway.  And paid for or not, we changed the entire face of basketball (not just college basketball) with five freshman armed with showmanship, baggy shorts, black socks, back-to-back championship games, and the ability to wipe their collective asses on the center court 'S' in East Lansing.

I had a sweatshirt in 8th grade that had 1989 National Champions on the front.  On the back it said "As if that weren't enough...1989 Rose Bowl Champions."  We used to routinely dominate both sports folks.  I'm a firm believer that it's not arrogance if you actually are THE SHIT.​

In other words, we've been here.  We were here before you, and we will be here after you.  It's just been so long, and those times are so undocumented.  There were two newspapers, maybe 2 or 3 beat reporters.  Not 50+ twenty to forty year olds documenting every second of every game with passion and prejudice.  A veritable hoard of fans with a voice, waiting for a moment like we saw today.  Following many of these writers on a daily basis, I've seen them all deal with crisis, heartbreak, controversy, and occasional relief....but never flat joy, real dominating joy of a national accomplishment.  

Four years ago, we had a party because we made the tournament...

​Selection Show Event at Crisler, 2009

Today, we are partying like it's 1989.​

I am excited to read these here internets in the morning.

And while I hate to think of the Final Four as a final destination, the sports world has made it so...hell, Sparty lives by it.  Regardless,  a new banner will hang in "the house that Brandon built with your donations," and the wound left from of the two that Mary Sue stuck in the Bentley Library will start to sting a little less.

Along with that banner, the stuffy annals of Michigan history welcomed a new group of young men into permanent historical relevance today.​  This team will be remembered forever.  You'll tell your kids about how Trey Burke stole an entire basketball game away from Kansas.  How he has molded Mitch McGary in to his second in command.  After that, pick your poison, either Nick or Tim is going to be hot from behind the arc.  This is a really great team, one with a level of youth that led to underachievement during certain times of the year, but that seems to have found its stride and confidence at the perfect time. 

​Seriously...Dave would love to put the halo back up

Today is for the fans that have waited so patiently, paying prices and jumping through hoops as if we won the national championship in EVERY sport EVERY year.  

​Chris Young...saw three coaches at Michigan.

Today is for the players that were unjustly punished for things they didn't do, things that happened 10-years before they put on the block-M.  

Today is, as my good friend Chuck Winters called the victory over Colorado in 1996, "redemption, vindication."

I was scouting for 2013 at the ​2002 Final Four in Atlanta.  

Anyway, here we are, Atlanta bound, two wins from having the ultimate happy ending to the story you'll tell your kids.  Enjoy this week...and smile.

It's Great to Be A Michigan Wolverine.​

Southern Ho...spitality

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Where the Players Play: The Arrival

The 2002 NCAA Tournament came to a close in Atlanta, Georgia. Three games in three days with an amazing run of bars in between. We arrived Firday and after a lengthy stay at the Atlanta airport, we embarked to our hotel in Buckhead, a burb-like area of Atlanta filled with bars, restaurants, tournament spectators, and locals. We spent our first night on the town at Moondogs, an open-'til-4am dance club and bar packed with Georgia's finest. Being the savvy seat-seaker that I am, the boys and I found a booth at the center of attention and gawked at the passing scenery which included well-dressed co-eds from the college mecca in the area: Georgia, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, and Georgia Tech were well represented.

Saturday, Game On

Saurday the town began to buzz. We slept late and headed downtown. The CNN Center, adjacent to Phillips Arena and just blocks from the Georgia Dome, had a mall-like food court serving $5 32-ounce beers and was packed with college basketball fans. Indiana and Kansas were the most represented of the final four schools. We conned our way into NCAA "Hoop City" a massive display of games, activities and a replica of the actual court and took a bunch of "goodie" bags and other free stuff. We settled into a bar that opened up into the Hawks basketball court in Phillips Arena and knocked down a few before heading to the semi-final games. The crowd of 50,000 plus were electric as Indiana knocked out #2 seed Oklahoma, and Maryland defeated Kansas.

The late ending of the second game stopped no-one, Buckhead's streets were filled that night. Crowds of people lined up for a chance to get inside the Buckhead ESPN Zone, and even more just partied in masses inside and outside of bars.

Easter Sunday, A Day of Rest?

Sunday was a food-filled day as I made up for lost time with my favorite friend, MEAT. Our Easter Sunday dinner was at Mortan's where I had a couple of Belvedere Martinis in honor of the Godfather to go with my double filet.

Championship Monday

JJ and I headed to Turner Field for opening day, but the scalpers were relentless and we never made it into the game. We then took a walking tour of Atlanta's not-so-friendly parts, hiking all the way back to the CNN Center and seeing the congregation of fans beginning to come together. We grabbed a $5 beer before cabbing it back to Buckhead.

We rounded up the other two group members and made our way back to the CNN Center, which was now completely filled with Indiana fans, Maryland fans, and shrewd businessmen looking to make a buck scalping their tickets. Suddenly, the tap beer was gone, and 16 ounce cans were on sale for $40 per six-pack. The laws of supply and demand were in full effect. A sea of red, 5 to 1 in favor of Indiana, congregated outside Jocks and Jills, a CNN Center bar that opens to the outside towards the Georgia Dome. Mellamcamp songs rang through the air as we made our way through the crowd and to the game.

Indiana fought hard, but came up short, as Maryland won its first NCAA Basketball National Championship. Following the game and the cutting down of the nets, CBS piped in "One Shining Moment" to the remaining crowd as the Terrapins stood on a podium at center court...definitely a moment to remember.

Despite fighting complete exhaustion, we made our way out in Buckhead following the game, and returned to our hotel just in time for me to get 1.5 hours of sleep before catching a cab to the airport.

Summing Up

It was a spectacular weekend worthy of UMTailgate.com. Special thanks to JJ, Marcel, and Steve for making the weekend the alcoholic haze that it was...and to Bill for coming through once again.

Bubba?

The money stays in the family this year as Bubba came through picking 68% of the tournament correctly. Runner up was our tailgating neighbor Gar. Stephen Hernandez came in third by winning the tiebreaker with his buddy Dave Callaham. Special thanks to all of the participants and congratulations to the winners.

The Frozen Four and the Spring Game are right around the corner...stay tuned.

GO BLUE!!!

The Webmaster