Great Lakes Hoops

There have been a few haters appearing on GLH (Murph, you know who you are) to chime in on a subject they know very little about: JUCO basketball. There’s a lot of jealousy out there, and I know this, with respect to Mott. In my opinion, it stems from Mott’s coverage in the media (here, The Flint Journal and the TV stations). They get a lot of airtime and ink and some coaches/players/fans don’t like it. Trust me, I wish every other JUCO got that kind of coverage. It’s good for the game.

I can remember covering Lansing, Mott’s longtime rival, on the road a couple years back. LCC’s coach expressed obvious chagrin that I had come all the way from Flint to cover the game and his hometown paper didn’t even send a reporter.  I understand his disappointment. He has built a really good program and his hometown paper won’t break away from its MSU lapdance to recognize it. But, here’s the point: Mott gets covered by me because I’m a Flint guy, first and foremost, and I respect the program. Mott gets covered by everyone else for the same reason Flint Powers gets the most coverage: They win. They win a lot.

Let’s look at Mott’s last 10 seasons. This, in my opinion, is what an elite program looks like:

2010 — MCCAA State Champions (26-4)
2009 — Conference Champions (29-5)
2008 — National Champions (35-2)
2007 — National Champions (35-3)
2006 — MCCAA State Champions (25-6)
2005 — MCCAA State Champions (30-3)
2004 — National Runner-up (31-5)
2003 — National Champions (28-9)
2002 — National 3rd Place (31-4)
2001 — National Runner-up (33-4)

Keep reading →

Kieon Arkwright has been no less than impressive for St. Clair Community College this year after transferring there from Saginaw Valley.  This quiet guy off the court has been speaking in volumes on it culminating to this point with leading his team to huge wins this past weekend versus OCC and HFCC and being honored with All-Region, All-MCCAA, and 1st team All-Eastern Conference selections.   Check out  the rest of the MCCAA honors.

– Marcellus Miller

Remember Antione Lundy?

From Freep:

CMU is also after former Saginaw Arthur Hill star Antione Lundy, who ended up at Neosho Community College in Kansas. The 6-8, 230-pounder is ranked as the No. 45 junior college player in the class of 2010 and he has expressed an interest in the Chippewas.

“They are a great program,” said Lundy on CMU. “They have been playing well lately, which has allowed them stay near the top of their division in the MAC. Talking to assistant coach (Darren) Kohne has helped me learn more about the program and made it very interesting since he is a very funny and cool dude.”

Look at the box score of Sunday’s embarrassing 64-48 loss on the road to Michigan State. Michigan’s leading scorer — ostensibly its best player —  was virtually nonexistent. Harris, a junior, scored four points on 1-for-10 shooting with four assists and three turnovers. Oh, and in case you need them: ZERO REBOUNDS in 33 minutes. (I guess Dylan at UMhoops.com had a similar response to the rebounding stat.)

How is that even possible? How can you play for that long and not accidently get a rebound? (What’s that you say? Taking plays off and being lazy on the defensive end? Oh. Well that makes perfect sense. Nevermind.)

Harris (and I hate to pick on him because everyone was awful) embodied all that’s wrong with Michigan basketball yesterday. Basketball in Ann Arbor is careless, insufferably boring and, worst of all, bereft of hope for the future. I trust that UM fans enjoyed the NCAA tournament last season, because I don’t expect the Magic Bus to be pointed in that direction anytime soon. Belein’s system, in case you didn’t notice, isn’t working in the Big 10 and he’s not recruiting talented enough players to keep me interested in any future returns.

You can’t score 14 points in a half against Michigan State, regardless of how good they are. You just can’t do it. And what is Michigan left with for next season? Just the hope that Manny Harris doesn’t leave early for the D-League.