Pardon my dust

Sorry for my absence the last few weeks. The site should be back on track in a few days.

Week 8 Big Ten Power Rankings

Last week's rankings

1. Iowa (7-0, 3-0): A win at Wisconsin proved that the Hawkeyes are for real. It's time to stop the contenders or pretenders talk: with only Ohio State remaining as a possible loss the Hawkeyes should get ready to stamp their ticket to Pasadena.

2. Penn State (6-1, 2-1): After shutting out a potent Minnesota offense the Lions looked like the team everyone thought they would be at the beginning of the year. However, they face a tough test as they go to Michigan who is undefeated at the Big House this year, including 1-0 against foes in the Top 20.

3. Ohio State (5-2, 3-1): Oh Buckeyes. After claiming the top spot in the rankings last week and truly looking like the future Big Ten champs after a 33-14 beatdown of Indiana, Terrell Pryor and company laid an egg at Purdue in a 26-18 loss to the Boilers that really wasn't even that close. They Buckeyes can still win the Big Ten though with a win over Iowa later this season.

4. Michigan (5-2, 1-2): The Wolverines got the equivalent of a bye week last Saturday against 1-AA Delaware State, who they slaughtered 63-6, giving Michigan a firm hold on the points leader of the Big Ten, scoring 261 total points, or 37.3 points per game (after 20.8 last year). Who's second in the Big Ten in points? Penn State with 207 and the two teams clash on Saturday in Ann Arbor.

5. Michigan State (4-3, 3-1): Look who's baaaaack. The Spartans have won three straight since stumbling out of the gates and falling to 1-3. After a dominating 24-14 win over Northwestern in which they scored 24 unanswered points and led 24-7 in the fourth quarter after trailing 7-0 at halftime, the upset-minded Spartans host #6 Iowa this weekend.

6. Wisconsin (5-2, 2-2): Look how they fall. Two weeks ago Michigan had just fallen to Michigan State and the Badgers were undefeated up to #4 in the Power Rankings, but with some serious questions about their team. The past two weeks they have been answered, and not in the way the Badgers would have liked. After a 31-13 shellacking at the Horseshoe, Bucky was dominated by Iowa 20-10 for their first home loss of the season as the Badgers couldn't muster one point in the second half. At least it gets a little easier for Wisco this week: they have a bye.

7. Minnesota (4-3, 2-2): After hanging with then-top 10 Cal in the preseason, the Gophers looked good. Not so much anymore. A 20-0 loss at Penn State sent the Golden Gophers back home looking for answers. It doesn't get any easier this week: the Gophers travel to the Horseshoe this week to take on Ohio State.

8. Purdue (2-5, 1-2): After a series of heartbreaking losses the underachieving Boilermakers turned into overachievers last Saturday in a shocking 26-18 upset of then-#7 Ohio State that saw Ross-Ade storm the field after the game. The Boilers look to keep the ball rolling this week and there's no reason why they shouldn't as they take on hapless Illinois at home.

9. Northwestern (4-3, 1-2): The 'Cats have struggled and are not looking good. After getting romped against Michigan State, Northwestern faces a must-win against Indiana on Saturday.

10. Indiana (4-3, 1-2): Speaking of Indiana, the Hoosiers come in at #10 this week. This was an easy decision considering its pretty easy to tell who the bottom two teams in this conference are, and they played on Saturday. Indiana won, 27-14, to stay out of the cellar. However, Illinois was not so fortunate...

11. Illinois (1-5, 0-4): Now the only Big Ten team winless in conference, the Illini's have expectations have melted away faster than a snowball on a tailgate grill. The Illini hit rock bottom with a loss to aforementioned Indiana on Saturday and still have not beaten a real team this year with their only win coming in a 45-10 home win over Illinois State (who?). The Illini possibly have their best chance to avoid a winless Big Ten season this weekend as they head to Purdue, who will likely have their head in the clouds after a big upset win over Ohio State.

Michigan Madness Wrap

While the event only drew 3,500 fans (a small group in relation to Crysler's 14,000 seating capacity), Madness was full of, well, madness. Here's a brief recap:

-The three point challenge went to Manny Harris and Carmen Reynolds, as they posted 11 three points in one minute in the final round to win the tournament. Here's the final round video of Manny and Carmen.

-The dunk contest went to Zack Novak (wait what?). No, you don't need glasses. When you're done laughing, I'll tell you that Zack has major skills, and that's an understatement. His final round dunk was incredible. See it here.

-The scrimmage was really just an up and down jog, with players clearly just trying to not get injured. However, it showed us a little. Zack looked great, knocking down two threes, but his Maize team went down to the Blue team, 24-15. The scrimmage had two four-minute halves. See it for yourself here.

-Also, thanks to Dylan over at UMHoops for the video. For all of his Michigan Madness video, click here.

-For the MGoBlue wrap click here.

Michigan 63, Delaware State 6

Not much to be said here. For this game I predicted a 52-10 score which was not all that much off, but not as close as last week. Overall I thought we did a good job obliterating a terrible team even in 1-AA and not letting them in the game for even one second. This wasn't like Appalachain in 2007. Appalachain State is a good 1-AA team that wins championships. Delaware State is just god-awful and it showed on Saturday. Here are a few of my thoughts.

1. I really liked Denard in this game. Granted, he played Delaware State, but he looked good passing the football and we call know he can run.

2. Michigan ground game got back on track today, but again, not much to judge from Delaware State.

3. Defense did well, but SPECIAL TEAMS KICK COVERAGE!! We can't give other teams great kickoff returns because good teams will turn those into touchdowns.

Send your questions to the Mailbag!

Have questions about Michigan Football or Basketball? Shoot me an email(hpkscooter@aol.com). If I get enough questions the Mailbag will become a regular feature of the site, hopefully coming out every Friday or maybe Sunday.

Anyway, lots to talk about this week:

-Michigan Basketball Preseason

-Michigan Football Struggling After Strong Start

If you have any questions at all or comments on the blog, hit me up at hpkscooter@aol.com.