My morning newsletter from Bridge Michigan always starts out with a greeting of Good Morning Thomas. I can tell you it was not a good morning when this was the first thing I read in their newsletter this morning.
Michigan’s Democratic majority has not dropped its commitment to fixing Michigan’s tattered roads — it was, after all, the rallying cry of a certain candidate for governor — but the new power party in Lansing also is not rushing to make a deal on long-term road funding.
“Never say never,” is how Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks put it to Bridge Capitol reporter Lauren Gibbons when asked about a road funding deal this term.
For a governor and a party which ran on a platform of “fix the damn roads” they have been a disappointment so far.
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I made a point to watch the women’s NCAA championship basketball game on Sunday. The first half was one of the best offensive performances I have seen in quite some time in a college game as both teams were burning up the nets. Unfortunately, there were three referees who were doing yeowoman’s work at trying to screw things up. Midway through the second quarter, I texted a friend saying the refs are ruining a great game. They needed to put gum in their whistles or swallow them all together. Fouls were being called that had the coaches, players, fans, and national television announcers complaining. I must have said to myself, “that is not a foul” at least five times. By half-time, I couldn’t watch anymore. It was clear that LSU was the better team and I Iowa was not going to stop them from having their way. As a former basketball official I was extremely disappointed in how the game was being called.
As I was tracking the second half on the internet, the internet was blowing up with complaints about the refs. The comments were coming from everywhere including professional athletes and college basketball gurus.
Following the game, a large portion of the articles had the refs as their lead stories. This is a shame because it took away from the outstanding game by the LSU women. It also took away from the tremendous accomplishment of the LSU coach Kim Mulkey, who became the first coach in women’s history to coach two teams (Baylor three times and LSU once) to the national championship and also play on a national championship team (LSU). She also won an Olympic gold medal in 1984 as a member of the USA national team.
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Prior to the start of the MLB season, I placed a small bet on the Tigers winning 70 games or more during their 162-game season. After watching the Tigers this weekend, I am not sure the Tigers are going to be able to hit well enough to win 70 games. The Tampa Bay pitchers overpowered the Tiger hitters for three games. Now the Tigers take on the world champion Astros for the next three games. It is highly likely the Tigers will enter their home opener on Thursday with a 0-6 record.
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Michigan’s men’s basketball team is in disarray, as their number 2 and 3 scorers decided to turn pro and their number one scorer decided to enter the transfer portal. Once again, Juwan and his coaching staff are going to need to rebuild on the fly, especially with only two new players coming in through the traditional freshman recruiting class. It got further complicated when Hunter Dickenson, the leading scorer and rebounder for the last three years, took some parting shots at Juwan as he announced that he was entering the transfer portal.
College basketball is changing faster than I like. I feel my loyalty waning.
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Quote of the Day: “The media will spend immeasurable broadcast hours, radio waves, print paragraphs and digital space on this one case. Talking heads will be everywhere doing everything all at once, spouting their opinions on this development or that development until they make themselves dizzy.
And while our banks teeter on crisis, our most dangerous international rivals collude, our schools are not safe from bullets, our economy can’t cool its inflation, and our culture wars within itself over racial and gender identities, we are now going to make who actually paid off a porn star to not blab about sex THE most important issue in the most powerful country in the world.” Mitch Albom
Orchid of the Day: The LSU women tigers and coach Kim Mulkey, see above story.
Onion of the Day: The three officials in the women’s NCAA basketball championship game. See above.
Question of the Day: Will the indictment of the former president help or hurt his candidacy for president in 2024?
Video of the Day: LSU head coach Kim Mulkey