Michigan's Hot Shooting Drives Win Over Purdue, Plus Football Recruiting Tidbits

It was senior night at Crisler Arena last night, but a junior and sophomore were the stars of the show. DeShawn Sims scored a career-high 29 points, and Manny (being Manny) Harris went for 27 in Michigan's 87-78 win over No. 16-ranked Purdue.

Michigan shot an amazing 81 percent from the floor in the second half, since most of them were short jumpers or lay-ups by Sims and Harris. The only flaw in an almost perfect second half was the poor free throw shooting in the last three minutes. Michigan continued to miss the front end of free throws and gave Purdue a little bit of life down the stretch.

So the big question is, does this win get Michigan into the NCAA Tournament? The answer is not yet. Michigan needs to win one of their remaining two road games (Wisconsin and Minnesota) and at least one win in the Big Ten Tournament. I think they make a strong case at 20 wins and a really strong case at 21.

Michigan has good wins against, Duke, UCLA, Illinois, and Purdue, with their only bad loss coming last weekend against Iowa.

Great win guys—let's keep the mojo going for a couple more weeks!

Seems the Gators are a still a little sore about losing Nu’Keese Richardson. Here are a few tidbits from the Gators Insider from the Palm Beach Post.

Nu’Keese Richardson was a relatively unknown four-star receiver prospect out of Pahokee.

Tenn. receivers coach Frank Wilson appeared on a Knoxville sports talk radio show. Wilson was asked if any player on the roster reminds the staff of Reggie Bush, the Heisman winner who played for Kiffin at USC.

“Yeah,” Wilson said. “Nu’Keese Richardson.”

Nothing against Richardson, but Reggie Bush? Come on.

Richardson, meanwhile, was a standout on Pahokee’s state championship team in 2008, but he may have not even been the best player on his team. He accounted for 20 touchdowns this year in 13 games and was named to the Palm Beach Post All Area First Team.

But his teammate, running back Vincent Smith, beat him out for Player of the Year, while his other teammate, Brandin Hawthorne, won Defensive Player of the Year. Both are headed to Michigan.

If Richardson had come to Florida, he would have been near the bottom of a stacked depth chart at receiver. He would have had to fight for playing time on special teams and may have red-shirted his first year.

BHB: First off, for anyone that follows recruiting, Nu’Keese was a talented and highly rated WR the entire recruiting season. To say he wasn't well known is complete fiction. I do like that he thinks both Michigan recruits Brandin Hawthorne and Vincent Smith were better players!