Gavin Edwards Blog: Hafta Game Today

The Michigan Wolverines play their first game since defeating the Michigan State Spartans 61-57 in East Lansing Thursday. All day Friday, The Ticket's phone lines were filled with talk about how far Sparty had fallen and to what heights the Wolverines could climb. The first hour of Terry Foster's show was dedicated to the "little-brother" beat-down. Somewhere in Dallas, Evil Bigby developed an ulcer because of all the basketball talk. The first step the Wolverines have to take comes with today's game against the Hawkeyes (which you can hear on Newsradio 950 WWJ at 3:30pm). It's not what I would call a must-win, it's more of a "hafta-win" game.

All the good feelings that came out of the Thursday night win will mean nothing, and will melt away faster than last night's snow, if Michigan does not beat Iowa at Crisler this afternoon. And beyond today, the win over Michigan State will be more meaningless if John Beilein can't turn it into a rallying point for this young Wolverine team. And make no mistake: this is a team in desperate need of a rally. Michigan has a good chance to string some wins together in the next few games. Iowa is the only team in the Big Ten with a worse record than Michigan. They don't have a prayer on the road against Ohio State Thursday, but follow that tough matchup (and a winnable game at Penn State) with games against two bottom-half teams in Northwestern and Indiana.

I'm not saying the Wolverines can make a run at the Tournament in March. Maybe with some wins they can get to the NIT (yawn). But the bottom line is this: Michigan and its fans can't be happy just beating Michigan State, they have to set their sights higher, and turn an upset at the Breslin Center into a catalyst for success.