Young Wolverines Take It On The Chin

The youth and inexperience of the Michigan Wolverines reared it's ugly head in an 80-57 loss to Purdue in the Big Ten opener for both teams.

For starters, point guard and leading scorer Darius Morris was held out of the starting lineup for "disregarding some of the core values" according to coach John Beilein. You know, same as conduct detrimental to the team. Well, Morris wound up playing 32 minutes and shot 3-14 for 9 points. Michigan shot 38 percent as a team and had 14 turnovers.

Purdeur jumped out to a 19-3 lead, which Michigan did recover from only to have the Boilermakers get it together and take a four point lead at the half. The second half was all Purdue as this game turned into a route.

I've watched a lot of college basketball and there's a chance Michigan could learn from this and get better. Of course the jury is still out on that. They're young and will take their lumps, but if my memory serves me right the 1985 team lost 87-62 to Indiana in their Big Ten opener and ended up winning the conference. I'm not saying they'll be that good, and call it trying to find a silver lining. They've shown potential and there's still a lot of basketball to be played, so don't throw in the towel on the young Wolverines just yet.

Lions Get Two Pro Bowlers

For once the Detroit Lions have two bonafide Pro Bowlers. It seems like it's been ages since they've had two players go to participate in the annual Hawaii extravanganza. Also it was like any Lions player that went was like a sympathy pick, sort of like baseball's All Star Game.

Many expected receiver Calvin Johnson to make it. He was named a starter for the NFC squad. Many expected rookie defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh to be good. But not Pro Bowl starter good. That's what 60 tackles, 9 sacks, an interception, and throw in a fumble recovery for a touchdown will get you. I don't think anyone expected this kind of impact when training camp started.

As a Lions fan it gets me somewhat excited about the team's future. Hopefully they can get a few more impact players and translate some of this production into more wins.