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Thursday, May 9, 2013

MICHIGAN IS NO "HARVARD OF THE MIDWEST"

The snooty folks we call "chUMps" like to brag about their school as if it's the academic pinnacle of excellence, trying to portray the U-of-M as some sort of an honorary member of the Ivy League. They even refer to Michigan as "the Harvard of the Midwest", as if they actually attended either institution.

Well, to be fair, there are some people who actually attended and/or graduated from the University of Michigan, and we should give them fair credit for supporting their school in true-blue fashion. It's just that those actual graduates are increasingly NOT including Wolverine basketball players.

Did you notice how Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway just dropped out of college? Uh huh. Derrick Nix got his MSU degree, but the academic-all-stars from that other school didn't walk the stage and grab the sheepskin. And they're not alone.

The Michigan basketball program has featured four college dropouts in the last four years, those two along with Darius Morris (2011) and Manny Harris (2010). Morris only "attended" (wink-wink) one full year of (ahem) "school" at that prestigious center of higher education. This year's flunkies mean that those four players were enrolled for a grand total of only eight years combined, and none of them are PhD candidates.

This trend has been noticed, as recent articles from the Detroit Free Press and MLive have shown. But instead of being embarrassed by their academic failures, the Michigan camp is spinning the story that these non-students prove that U-of-M is "elite".

This is just another distortion about Michigan, perpetuated by Michigan. They once again are trying to have it both ways. If their athletes all graduate, they will point to their academic superiority. If their athletes drop out of school, they will claim it makes them special. Whatever.

Here in Spartan Country, Tom Izzo hasn't had a prominent player drop out of school for the NBA since 2006, a seven-year run of athletic and academic synergy, during which time his teams have made the Big Dance each year, won three conference titles, and made two final fours. Where are the trumpets blaring on behalf of Michigan State Basketball?

Instead, the mainstream sports media are slowly spoon-feeding us the illusion that Michigan is better because, in effect, they are Michigan. Whatever UM does will be considered the correct state of being, regardless of how MSU is better, and no matter how long MSU is better.

BOTTOM LINE: The University of Michigan is selling out it's self-proclaimed academic priorities in a bold-faced attempt to try to catch-up to Michigan State University, especially in Basketball. Perhaps Mary Sue Coleman should proclaim another "day of great shame" in Crisler Arena.




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1 comment:

  1. For the record, the phrase is referring to Harvard as "the michigan of the east" and JFK said it during his presidency.

    ReplyDelete

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