Jewell Joins Derby, McLeish Matriculates at Birmingham

Well, this news would matter more to me if these teams were any good.

Derby will be going down regardless; they are simply the worst Premiership team I've seen in years and Paul Jewell won't be able to save them this season.

I picked Birmingham to join Derby in the Championship next year as well, and that was with Steve Bruce at the helm, who I believe is a good manager and possibly could've kept the team up. Alex McLeish turned the fortunes of the Scottish national team around and even though they just missed out on qualifying for Euro 2008, whoever is hired as the next manager will inherit a pretty stable, solid situation and team that has a good chance to qualify for World Cup 2010. As far as McLeish goes, however, I don't think Birmingham made the right choice in hiring a guy who hasn't managed in England before, much less the Premiership, in the middle of the season. It's one to manage in Scotland and at Rangers, where success is easier to attain than it is in the Premiership, and it's another to manage a team that doesn't have the same talent level as even other squads in the bottom half of the table. If McLeish keeps Birmingham up, it'll be by the skin of their teeth and nothing more.

Big Ten/ACC Challenge

The ninth annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge tipped off with one game Monday night (Wake Forest's 56-47 win at Iowa), continued with a five-game slate last night, and will end tonight with five more games. The ACC has won the Commissioner's Cup, which is awarded to the conference whose teams win more games in the Challenge, all eight years prior to this season's edition and they look well on their way to claiming the trophy this time around as well.

Through the six games played to this point, the ACC is 5-1; the only Big Ten team to win so far was Indiana, as the Eric Gordons beat Georgia Tech last night in Bloomington 83-79. You'd have to like the ACC's chances to win the Challenge again as they only need to win one out of tonight's five matchups and I wouldn't be surprised if they win a couple (North Carolina over Ohio State, Virginia Tech over Penn State).

Michigan's game against Boston College tonight (7:15 PM, ESPNU) will be another test for the young Wolverines. After going 1-2 in the Great Alaska Shootout to even up their overall record at 3-3, John Beilein's squad faces a BC team that is 4-0 and led by star guard and Richmond, VA product Tyrese Rice, who comes into the game averaging a nifty 21.3 points per game along with 7.7 assists. BC, like Michigan, is a guard-oriented team and relies on their quickness and shooting to win games and if the Wolverines can't slow them down, Boston College will remain undefeated. In Alaska, a much-smaller Butler team shot their way to victory and that's what BC will look to do tonight, so it's up to Michigan's 1-3-1 defense to pressure the shooters and force contested jumpers if they hope to send the Maize Rage home happy.