Flint Township View

Fat Guy’s Corner

Big Choke



Jeff Day — Sports Columnist

Jeff Day — Sports Columnist

The Indiana Hoosiers are basket- ball champs in the Big Ten, as predicted by me two weeks ago. They finished the deed in Crisler Arena on Sunday afternoon against the “Choking Wolverines”. Yes, the word choke is often overused by many in the sports world when it doesn’t apply. The word choke applies, however, to the Michigan basketball team.

Tim Hardaway and Trey Burke both missed one-and-one free throws in the last minute costing Michigan the victory. The lastsecond shot rolled off the rim by J. P. Morgan and Michigan gagged away a share of the Big Ten title. This Michigan team is going nowhere in the NCAA Tournament. All of you Michigan “Slappies”, don’t waste your bracket money on them. They might win two games and that is it! Then you can wave bye bye to them and say, Trey Burke, thanks for the great sophmore season. He is NBA bound, more than likely. Trey was named Big Ten Player of The Year this week. I bet he would trade that for a couple of free throws made against Indiana this past Sunday. Just saying!

The Big Ten Tournament returns to the United Center in Chicago on Thursday. It has not been the host since 2007. The inaugural was here in 1998, of which I happened to attend. Man, that was a long time ago.

Who has won the Big Ten tournament the most times you ask? It’s a tie between the Spartys and “Yuckeyes” of Ohio State, each with three wins. Will one of those two teams make it four? We shall see. This year any team can win it except Northwestern or Penn State. Those two schools have no shot of winning this weekend. Michigan draws Penn State on Thursday and the winner gets the Wisconsin Badgers. Michigan State will get the Iowa/Northwestern winner on Friday. Michigan and Michigan State could meet on Sunday in the finals. We in the State of Michigan would love to see a rubber game match, right? I would, for sure.

Thursday, let the tourney begin and it should be the best tournament in years. This is championship week for all the smaller conferences and automatic bids. I know many don’t like the little guys getting in, but I do. These players deserve their shot at the big stage and so do the schools. How about Liberty? Yes, Liberty lost 20 regular-season games, yet won the Big South Conference Tournament. I am not taking them to the Sweet Sixteen, however. March; what a great time for college hoops.

The NFL player carousel starts today (Tuesday) at four p.m. The trades can become official, such as Alex Smith to the Kansas City Chiefs, Percy Harvin to the Seattle Seahawks, Anquan Boldin from Baltimore to the San Francisco Forty-Niners. I have a strong hunch Cliff Avril will become a Cleveland Brown sometime today, also. The question is, who will the Lions lose to free agency? Will players Gosder Cherilus, Louis Delmas, or Chris Houston be departing the Motor City? However, the bigger question looms: who will they sign to improve this football team? Is Reggie Bush coming to the Lions? Can the Lions find secondary help or line backer help? The secondary is priority number one, in my opinion. I love this time of the year in the NFL. Greg Jennings from the Packers and Wes Welker are testing the free agent market. Where will they land? The local Lapeer East graduate Jake Long of the Miami Dolphins is also a free agent. Will he stay with the “Fish” in Miami? I wish four o’clock would hurry up and get here!!

The Detroit Red Wings lost a possible nine of 10 points to the Columbus Blue Jackets here in 2013. If the Red Wings fail to make the playoffs, that will be the reason why. Are you kidding me? The Columbus Blue Jackets? Good Grief! thefatguy@mihomepaper.com


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