opinion: Once again, Manny Harris distracts the Michigan basketball team from what's important

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.