Once again, Manny Harris distracts the Michigan basketball team from what's important
John Beilein spent 10 minutes Monday talking about his decision to reinstate Manny Harris to the Michigan basketball team.
DeShawn Sims then discussed the team’s leadership - or lack thereof - during his uneasy turn at the podium, and finally Zack Novak detailed how the Wolverines must focus in the wake of Harris’ suspension and return.
Overlooked during the back-and-forth between the Wolverines and reporters regarding Harris’ secret transgression? Tuesday night’s game.
With all of the talk about Manny Harris, it's easy to overlook that Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo and the No. 5-ranked Spartans will be at Crisler Arena on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game with Michigan.
Against Michigan State, perhaps U-M’s biggest rival on the basketball court.
Against the country’s No. 5 team, which will travel to Crisler Arena.
Against an opponent that provides Michigan with perhaps it’s last chance to win a big game in an almost-lost season.
The Harris incident relegated the rivalry to an afterthought Monday. Instead of dissecting the Spartans, reporters parsed Beilein’s every vague word regarding Harris’ one-game banishment and anticipated return.
It took a few minutes, but someone finally asked a question about Michigan State’s Draymond Green. As it turned out, the game-related question was a brief gulp of air before the conversation submerged again toward the Harris non-controversy, one fanned by the secretive manner in which U-M seems to guard it.
That’s a shame.
A sellout is expected Tuesday at Crisler in what could be the Wolverines’ last meaningful game of the season. Beilein’s looking for his first win in the rivalry, a first jab at Tom Izzo in a green-and-white basketball state. The Spartans enter the game undefeated in the Big Ten.
Michigan-Michigan State should be a big deal. It should be fun. The rivalry didn’t deserve to be sidetracked.
For his part, Harris released a boilerplate statement that seemed canned, contrived and scrubbed clean of any meaningful contrition. He wasn’t around to answer any real questions himself, leaving teammates to launder his mess in front of the media.
It’s not the first time Harris has left the Wolverines in a lurch.
Last year, Beilein benched him for the overtime period against Iowa in a 70-60 loss that, at the time, seemed to put Michigan’s NCAA Tournament chances in peril.
Improbably, Harris responded. He led Michigan to wins in three of its next four games and into the Big Dance.
By the end, of that season, everyone pretty much laughed off the Iowa benching as if it was some sort of playful, distant memory. It was just Manny being Manny, they said, borrowing the catchphrase of a certain Dodgers slugger.
Manny being Manny, T-shirts proclaimed.
Every break bounced the Wolverines’ way last season. This time around, they haven’t been as fortunate.
Whatever the nature of this more recent suspension, it’s fair to believe that, while the incident may have disqualified him from Team Player of the Year honors, it probably didn’t cause any real, lasting harm, emotional or otherwise.
It’s also important to remember that Harris is still a college kid.
But he’s a leader. Or should be, and he’s walked down this road with Beilein before.
By now, Harris should know better. Because entering a game as important as Michigan State, the distractions caused by Manny being Manny are getting really old.
Comments
48104
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 11:55 a.m.
Yes, it is an opinion piece, but to be decrying the lack of facts, of focus on the upcoming game, when you're the one focusing on what happened in practice is disingenuous at best. Frankly, I wish Beilein had told you all it was none of your business and that question time would be over the next time anyone asked. He's a nicer guy than I am, though.
chosen1
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 11:23 a.m.
Did anyone else notice the headline says "OPINION"!! Pete is stating his opinion on the matter from what was observed at a press conference. And we live in ann arbor so I don't care what's going on with spartyland. And when your top player is suspended every journalist is going to try to get the scoop, so the questions are going to be manny-based. This stuff isn't rocket science folks.
hurd06
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 10:51 a.m.
Michigan fans, your votes are required in the poll at the end of this game preview http://isportsweb.com/2010/01/25/michigan-manny-and-a-maize-out-ready-for-spartans/
blue
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 10:30 a.m.
aa.com, you should be ashamed for running such a foolish story. Having worked in the media for years, I tend to be fairly sympathetic when readers unfairly rag on decent, hard-working reporters and editors. But, in this case, to cite the questions asked during a press conference as the reason that Manny Harris is distracting his team (headline) is just plain dumb. Bigelow, feel free to ask a question about the game. You're the one drawing attention to this story. I, for one, as a longtime Michigan basketball fan, would appreciate some actual basketball analysis. What's stopping you?
leathercouch
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 10:03 a.m.
Dr. Billy Mays' Ghost, I cant agree with that. He is not over-rated by any means. when teams stop him from scoring you may have an argument but he is not leading the big ten is scoring on accident. on top of that it is also key that michigan has 2 players you have to stop to win the game. with the number of double and even triple teams sometimes he still gets every game its kinda disgusting he still scores as much as he does. if michigan had 1 more consitent outside threat this season other than harris he would be scoring 3-4 pts more per game. they just dont have that other guy demanding defense on the perimeter to take away some of the double teams and that has eliminated a lot of his slashing that he is so good at.
sikness
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 9:23 a.m.
If UM-MSU is just a game to you, News Watcher, you need to get off these boards!
News Watcher
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 9:19 a.m.
It's just a game, people!!!!!
wersch213
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 9:15 a.m.
MSU is the most over rated team in the country. They have played a weak first half Big 10 schedule, and they haven't competed against better teams. Michigan is going to show all of the potential that they have had this year with a blistering performance from Manny and Deshawn. state will be swarming to the 3 point line a half second to late as Novak, Douglas, and Lucas-Perry, drop threes in msu's eye. MSU will get exposed for the frauds that they are. Michigan will wear down sparty and break the weak spirit of msu nation midway through the second half as THE MICHIGAN WOLVERINES open up a can and crush msu 72-62. GO BLUE!
sikness
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 9:14 a.m.
Voiceofreason, I thought the same thing when I first saw the headline. Then when I began reading the article. Then when I stopped reading the article. Very freep-esque indeed. AZwolverine, I don't think anyone is saying Manny didn't deserve the suspension, or that it was a media conspiracy. What we're saying is that these writers want to talk about how it's such a distraction and the suspension is all anyone would talk about, but the fact of the matter is it's the media that guides the direction of the interviews. They are asking the questions, and the players and coaches can only respond to the questions asked. If the media had asked basketball questions, then this wouldn't be such a distraction. But they chose to ask questions about Manny, and then want to talk about how it's such a distraction because it's all the team is talking about. It's a double-edged sword really. A catch-22 if you will. Some would like to call them hypocrits. Any way you spin it, the situation is made worse by the media, and they really shouldn't be talking about the team the way they do when they are the ones compounding the situation.
bluemax79
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 9:10 a.m.
the odd thing here is that this is getting more press than the sparty terroists that attacked a frat house. and Coach B is getting mroe negative press for correctly handling the situation than Dantonio is getting for doing everything WRONG in EL. odd how the media works.
azwolverine
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 8:33 a.m.
Manny did nothing wrong to be suspended. No, everything these days is a media conspiracy and can be blamed only on them. Yawn.
81wolverine
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 8:14 a.m.
Maybe Harris is just frustrated with how poor this season has gone and is looking forward to the NBA already. Who knows? He's clearly no leader, but was not recruited as one I'd guess. He's an Amaker recruit and maybe he never completely bought into the Beilein system. Again, that's only speculation. Going forward, Beilein will probably fill his team with players who have more leadership potential. But, he also better find some athletes who can score, rebound, and run the floor. Otherwise, we're going to find more of the same (disappointing seasons) in the coming years.
Richard
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 7:57 a.m.
At the end of this article the author suggests that Manny Harris needs to be a better leader on the team. Why? Was he recruited for that? People seem to have the notion that the best player should be the best leader but it's clearly not true. Neither the best plumber or best electrician always makes the best Maintenance Manager. Some might but it's no 'slam dunk'. Some people become leaders because their efforts gather the respect and admiration of others but it isn't always what they are comfortable with.
Philip M. Hopkins
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 1:59 a.m.
None of us know what happened during that practice, but I do know what has happened to both basketball and football programs, and I feel sorry for the guys who stayed to stick it out. You need to cut all the players some slack. You can see by the recruits that we are getting that they are playing over their head, and some of them did have possible professional careers ahead of them.
rensational
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 1:27 a.m.
I would say this was bad timing not necessarily because MSU is coming up, but because...for the first time since Beilein got to Michigan, perhaps, I felt like I'd started seeing a cohesive Michigan basketball effort...not just Sims and/or Harris or some other player carrying the load. That's how we beat Conn, and we wouldn't have beaten them otherwise. Michigan didn't even lose to Purdue because Harris didn't play, I would say--Harris has underachieved this season, and so many things went wrong for Michigan in that game that Harris probably either wouldn't have helped or would have added to (turnovers, for example). Purdue, more than MSU, is a game I wouldn't expect Michigan to win anyway--it was on the road, and Michigan just is not good at winning away from Ann Arbor. I wouldn't be surprised if Michigan beats MSU, but clearly Michigan has some internal issues that have ruined this season. They've been hinting at it all season long, talking about "chemistry" and "leadership," and even if they don't want to spell out the Manny Harris drama details it seems the writing is on the wall as far as just problems among the teammates that's affecting games. That was obviously a cloud over the Purdue game, but these issues have been there all season, apparently.
leathercouch
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 1:22 a.m.
yea, to say that manny's suspension distracted the team and forced them to talk about that at media day is a cop out. it was the media that asked questions (that they knew the non-answeres to) that forced the so-called distraction. the team didnt wanna talk about it, the coaches didnt wanna talk about it but they were answering the questions they were asked. that is hardly a distraction pete. what would have beena breath of fresh air is if the next question was about basketball not manny harris and then the one following was about basketball again. if they wanted you to know what happened they would have told you the first time you asked them.
michboy40
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 : 12:29 a.m.
The media are the ones asking the questions. Did you take a poll before you entered the media room? Is that how all of you well intensioned media people know what questions to ask?...so that you can supposedly give the public what they want? You could have asked basketball questions, and then wrote an article about how important the game will be for Michigan. It would have been just as interesting, if fact, more interesting,
johnnya2
Mon, Jan 25, 2010 : 11:36 p.m.
I think the controversy is good. If the team focuses on themselves instead of thinking what a HUGE undertaking it is to defeat the number 5 team in the country, then they will have problems. They likely will lose the game, but there is no shame in losing to a better team. The losses to BC, Marquette, Alabama and Northwestern should haunt them, but if you looked at the schedule I don;t think anybody thought the Wolverines would beat the Spartans. It will be nice if it happens, but I doubt with or without this so-called "distraction" the outcome would be any different.
voiceofreason
Mon, Jan 25, 2010 : 10:57 p.m.
This story is awfully Freep-esque. If that was indeed your intention by writing it, you should try a bit harder to create controversy next time.
48104
Mon, Jan 25, 2010 : 9:17 p.m.
Congratulations on adding to them.