Wolverines Blast Gophers: Michigan News and Notes

Isn't it nice to see the Michigan basketball team shoot well from outside?

It seemed like the game against Duke was the last time Michigan saw the three-ball go in consistently. Michigan was 13-of-28 from beyond the arc Thursday night, beating Minnesota 74-62.

The game wasn't that close, however, with Michigan up by as much as 25 in the second half.

The star of the night for the Wolverines was Zack Novak, who made six three-pointers and scored 18 points. Even Kelvin Grady played well and added 12 points off the bench.

Michigan has back-to-back wins heading into this weekend's game at Iowa on Sunday.

Let's hope the win streak gets to three. The game is set for 5 p.m. ET on the Big Ten Network.

Odds & Ends

• Is it me or does Ed Hightower referee every NCAA basketball game? Every game I watch on ESPN or the BTN, it seems Hightower is on the court. Watch closely and see if he shows up on the 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. games on ESPN. It could happen!

• Remember that guy who was suing Marlin Jackson for $10 million? Well, Marlin counter-sued him, saying his draft status dropped because of the accusation. Well, an Ann Arbor jury agreed with Marlin and awarded him $225,000.

• Michigan is lowering the price on football tickets for the 2009 season. The average price per ticket will go down to $50 a game, which is a $3.57 decrease from last year.

• Last word on Threet: I keep reading newspaper articles that Rich Rodriguez gave Steven Threet no choice but to leave.

Are you kidding me? I know Steve wasn't the quarterback of the future, but if you're a head coach, I think you would rather have a guy with some experience in his complex offense than a player with no experience at all.

Maybe Steve wouldn't have been the starter on Opening Day, but the worst he would have been was the No. 2 guy. I assume that when he transferred to Michigan—when Ryan Mallett was there—he sort of knew the No. 2 spot was going to be his.

So, maybe there were other issues behind the curtain we don't know about, but to say Rodriguez pushed him out is crazy. All he did was recruit the position, and I am willing to bet dollars to donuts that he wanted Steve on the team to be the back-up, maybe even the starter.

Threet's decision makes little sense to me, even if he does transfer to North Dakota State and becomes the starter there.