The Championship Post That Wasn't

I spent the last few days thinking about what I would post if Michigan won the National Championship. By the time Michigan was up 1 at halftime I had a pretty good outline of what I was going to write.

I was planning to start with my own history with Michigan BBall during my college years and talk about how I suffered through the Amaker era. I wanted to touch on how during the 2007 season I could just show up to games, flash my MCard and walk down into Maize Rage without a ticket.

I'd tell some of the stories too. About how in 2008 I bet my best friend that we wouldn't be a top 4 seed in the NCAA tournament for the next two years (a bet which I won by the way). How in 2009 Penn State filed a formal complaint with the Big Ten regarding my behavior at one of the games. I wanted to write about how I went down to Crisler in 2009 to watch Michigan get a 10 seed in the selection show and then skipped two days of class to go watch the opening round of the tournament it Kansas City because "who knows the next time Michigan will make the tourney"? It wouldn't all be fun though, I wouldn't overlook having to watch Michigan get bounced out in the first round of the 2012 tourney in Nashville (which I didn't blog about because it was also a bachelor party).

I really wanted wax poetic about the journey the program made between 2008 and now. I wanted to write about Manny Harris, DeShawn Sims and how much hope we had for Zack Novak and Stu Douglass. Then I would transition into how Zack and Stu would have Vogrich type roles with the talent we had on this year's team.

My big gamble would be the centerpiece of the story. About how I was so sure this would be a special team with Trey Burke back that I bet $40 Michigan would win it all before the season began. Yeah, it would be hard not to brag about "calling it" and collecting my $1,000 at the 25:1 odds I got back in September. I'd probably also brag about how my Yahoo bracket of Michigan beating Louisville in the finals put me in the top tenth of the 99th percentile instead of sitting at 88th percentile. I'd ensure the reader that I was never off the bandwagon.

Instead I'm left thinking of all these things, but surprisingly not being that upset (except about all the stupid things I could have spent that grand on). I'm still really proud of how far this team has come since I started going to games in 2007, and I'm even more proud of where this team is going. I'm more excited for the future than nostalgic for the past which has become an ever increasing rarity for me.

Go Blue.