Michigan's Season Ends in Big Ten Quarterfinals

After a sloppy 55-47 win over Iowa yesterday in the First Round of the 2008 Big Ten Tournament, the Michigan Wolverines advanced to today's quarterfinal against Wisconsin, the 6th-ranked team in the country and the #1 seed in this tournament.

I'll be honest. I'm as big a Michigan fan as there is, but I didn't believe for a second that they'd beat the Badgers today. Unfortunately, I was right, and Wisconsin came away with an ugly 51-34 victory.

Michigan finished the season at 10-22 (5-13), which doesn't look too impressive. Trust me though, the team I saw during these final 10 or 12 games of the year was markedly improved from the team I saw during the nonconference and early conference portion of the schedule, and coach John Beilein has a lot to build from for next season.

The only useful senior he'll lose is Ron Coleman, who's been a servant to Michigan basketball for four years and played in 129 games for the Maize and Blue, which puts in the top 10 in that category in school history. Coleman is a wing player and a good shooter, but usually only contributed 6 or 7 points per game and lost his starting spot in the middle of the season.

No, the nucleus of this team will stay intact and it is led by Big Ten All-Freshman First Team and Big Ten All-Conference Second Team star Manny Harris, who averaged over 16 points per game, and sophomore forward DeShawn Sims, who was good for 12-15 points and 5-7 rebounds every night. Ekpe Udoh led the conference in blocked shots this season and is improving his offensive game rapidly, Kelvin Grady experienced his growing pains at the point guard position as a freshman and will continue to develop, and a bench that provided quality depth as the season wore on all returns as well.

Combine that with the fact that Beilein will be able to bring in his first recruiting class with kids that match his style of offense and defense and the fact that as I said already, he'll have another year to teach the current roster, things are looking up for Michigan basketball. I fully expect this team to CONTEND for (not necessarily get) a spot in the NCAA Tournament next season and I think there will be a changing of the guard of sorts in the Big Ten; Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, and Wisconsin should all be a little bit down, while Purdue, Michigan, and Northwestern should move up.

Pompey-Villa Looms Large Tomorrow

With all the hype surrounding the respective Champions League and UEFA Cup draws today, the Premiership seems to be flying under the radar a little bit and one game in particular tomorrow has huge implications.

Portsmouth will welcome fellow UEFA Cup spot hopeful Aston Villa to Fratton Park and the hosts are playing very well at the moment, having won five out of their last six games in all competitions. Jermain Defoe has been great for Pompey with five goals in as many league games since moving to the South Coast in January. His team is in 7th place in the league right now, just two points behind Villa, and they won 3-1 at Villa Park earlier in the season.

'Arry Redknapp is a very underrated manager in my opinion. This is a man who saved Pompey from near-certain relegation two seasons ago when he took the reins in mid-season and has compiled a 42-35-24 record in his second stint in charge at Portsmouth. While this doesn't look too impressive in itself, remember, Redknapp has had to rebuild this team and was only given significant financial backing to buy players last summer; he really had to create something out of nothing in the season and a half before and Pompey still finished 9th in '06-'07.

Similarly, Martin O'Neill hasn't had as much money to work with as he'd like at Aston Villa but has still done an impressive job this season with one of the smallest (in terms of numbers, not size) rosters in the Premiership. It's very likely that Randy Lerner, Villa's American owner, will be willing to spend more money in the summer but for now, O'Neill is winning with essentially an England U-23 roster. He's got young guys like Premiership assist leader Ashley Young, who I've been banging the drum for before it was fashionable to do so, Gabby Agbonlahor, Scott Carson, Nigel Reo-Coker, Craig Gardner, and the now-injured Curtis Davies who have all been integral pieces to the puzzle this season, mixed in with some good, useful veteran players like John Carew, Martin Laursen, and Gareth Barry.

Villa has lost only once in their last eight league games, although four of those matches have been draws. As I said earlier, they lost to Portsmouth 3-1 at home earlier in the season and really can't afford to lose again tomorrow. Pompey has the same number of ties (7) at Fratton Park as they do wins and losses at home combined, and Villa's road record is the exact same (5-7-2).

The numbers scream "draw" tomorrow, but I'm going to go with a 2-1 victory for Portsmouth, which would vault them into 6th place, six points behind Everton pending the Toffees' away match at Fulham on Sunday.

UEFA Cup Quarterfinal + Semifinal Draw

After tough, gut-wrenching exits from the UEFA Cup Round of 16 for Bolton, Tottenham, and Everton, Rangers are the only British team left in the competition. The Scottish giants will host Sporting Lisbon, who eliminated Bolton 2-1 on aggregate, on April 3 and travel to Lisbon a week later for the return leg.

Rangers also were fortunate to not be drawn into the same half of the bracket as tournament favorite Bayern Munich, who should waltz their way past Getafe and into the semifinals against the winner of the Bayer Leverkusen/Zenit St. Petersburg tie.

Complete Quarterfinal Draw (my pick to advance in bold); first leg home team listed first:

Bayer Leverkusen vs. Zenit St. Petersburg
Rangers vs. Sporting Lisbon
Bayern Munich vs. Getafe
Fiorentina vs. PSV Eindhoven

Note: All matches will be played April 3/10

Complete Semifinal Draw:

Bayern Munich/Getafe vs. Bayer Leverkusen/Zenit St. Petersburg
Rangers/Sporting Lisbon vs. Fiorentina vs. PSV Eindhoven

Note: All matches will be played April 24 and May 1

Champions League Quarterfinal + Semifinal Draw--Live

No time for intros, I'm doing homework at the moment and have class at 9 this morning, so I'm just going to list what's been drawn so far. The quarterfinal ties are scheduled to be played April 1/2 and 8/9, and the semifinal ties are scheduled to be played April 22/23 and 29/30. More analysis later.

Quarterfinal round; first leg home team listed first; Premiership teams highlighted in bold:

Arsenal vs. Liverpool
AS Roma vs. Manchester United
Schalke 04 vs. Barcelona
Fenerbahçe vs. Chelsea

Semifinal round; same things as before apply:

Arsenal/Liverpool vs. Fenerbahçe/Chelsea
Schalke 04/Barcelona vs. AS Roma/Manchester United