BS Liveblog and Purdue Interior Defense Both Weak

Well, for starters, the attempt at using the "Cover it Live" liveblog/chat technology was a rousing success clusterf-ck. Our apologies to anyone who specifically came here to use it and was as frustrated as I was. And kudos to those BS readers who made their way into enemy territory at Maize N Brew, as they were indeed able to get it working and we all enjoyed a decent chat for a while.

As for the game, well, what can you say? This was an absolute must-win for the Wolverines and they played like it. Well, Sims and Harris did, anyway. And I don't fault the Boilermakers too much in this one for a few reasons.

For one thing, Manny Harris caught fire. He was jacking up threes from wherever he felt like it and they were going down with more frequency than an Ann Arbor co-ed (hey-yo!). I knew it was bad when Manny made an awkward-looking turn and shoot move where his legs were sort of splayed out in two different directions and we had a hand in his face and the ball still rattled home for three. Not much you can do when a guy is unconscious like that. Well-done, Manny. I dare say you made up for a) getting booted from the Jan 31 game, and b) whatever it is you did to get your ass benched in the loss to Iowa. I'd say this win over a ranked Boilermaker team more than evens out the loss to that lousy Hawkeye team.

DeShawn Sims was an animal. Seriously, this guy looked unstoppable in the post. He was basically doing whatever he wanted down the stretch. Now, part of this is because Nemmy Calasan had the sniffles and wasn't playing (seriously, let's get this team some Thera-Flu and some Vitamin C) and JJ got into foul trouble early and wasn't out there. I might question Coach Matty a bit, though, because as the game was slipping away and Sims was manhandling KG and others, what harm would there have been putting JJ back in? What was going to happen? If he stemmed the tide, great. If he fouled out, we'd have been no worse off.

Robbie Hummel was the only one hitting. If not for Rob's play early-on and his stout 24 points, this one would have been out of hand fast. Robbie came to play and was looking rather warm in the first half. It's amazing how game-to-game his back issues really are.

Speaking of shooting.... Michigan shot the lights out, pumping it in at 63% from the field. That's very hard to overcome, no matter who you are and how good your defense is. They also went 50% from three-land. Again, how do you stop this? (The Boilermakers, comparatively, shot a respectable 46% from the field but a stinky 28% from three.) Still, Michigan couldn't hit free throws down the stretch and the Boilermakers had a couple of chances to cut the lead to 4 or 5 in the final minute. I know the UM faithful in the livechat were beginning to poop themselves at that point. I will say it's fun following a team that honestly does scare other teams as one of those, "They're not dead until the buzzer sounds" kinds of teams. I think these Boilers are entering that zone of respect.

Both teams "needed" this game but the UM guys needed it a lot more. The Boilers are a tourney lock and simply did not have the desperation, the desire for "revenge," or the home crowd in this one. Michigan's jumping-up-and-down student section of 16 kids really was rocking. I kid, I kid.

Other thoughts...

The Boilers now fall back into a tie with Illinois for second in the conference, two games back of MSU with three to play. Still, if the Boilers win their two home games against OSU and NW and MSU loses one game before we play them, well, hey... stranger things have happened.

The black unis looked awesome, I thought. My dad happens to be visiting me this weekend and so we watched together and I pointed out that I didn't like the necktie-and-collar look and he said he actually thought that was something he liked about the new uni. But hey, my dad's a retired accountant, so collars and ties are the norm.

Chris Kramer looked off to me. That one rush to the hoop and attempted dunk was weird. Yes, he was clearly fouled, but that no-call seemed to throw off his whole night. He wasn't accurate with his passing and he was no where near as effective on D as he usually is. I hope this is an anomaly and not a portent.

Please share your thoughts in the comments....