March 15, 2011

News Fox Sports Net Airs Documentary On Former Michigan 6th Man Rob Pelinka

Fox Sports Net aired the documentary "Pelinka Chips In" last night about former Michigan Wolverines bench player Rob Pelinka, who was the team's 6th man during its "Fab Five" era. The network had hoped the hour-long, hastily-produced documentary could piggyback off the success of ESPN's Fab Five documentary.

According to preliminary overnight data, "Pelinka Chips In" received a 0.0 rating nationally. But Fox Sports chairman David Hill says a single night's ratings will not be how the documentary is ultimately measured.

"We plan to run the Pelinka documentary a lot," said Hill. "A few times a night at first and pretty much constantly during the middle of the night. And then, later on, whenever your hometown baseball team has a rain delay, the local FSN affiliate will get Pelinka. Between all that and DVD sales, I think we'll definitely recoup the $300 we spent making the documentary."

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Filed Under   media   NCAAB   Michigan Wolverines
February 03, 2011

Video Rich Rodriguez Awkwardly Interviews Brady Hoke

CBS College Sports: Your leader in uncomfortable silences.

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February 02, 2011

Picture Televised Awkwardness On Signing Day

RichRod probably went to a quiet place inside where only Josh Groban sings.

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January 21, 2011

Picture Rich Rodriguez: The Jobless Coach with the Golden Playbook

RichRod thinks the man with the golden voice is Josh Groban. (via @ChadWalters40)

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January 12, 2011

Opinion Les Miles' Application for Michigan Football Coach

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Filed Under   NCAAF   Michigan Wolverines   LSU Tigers   Les Miles
September 16, 2010

News Rich Rodriguez Recruiting Quarterback Who Likes To Play Without Pants


Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez is expected to receive a verbal commitment today from Mychal James, a highly-touted junior quarterback from Chicago who has played bare-ass since the 6th grade.

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November 6, 2009

News 10 Q's with: Jalen Rose

In SportsPickle's "10 (or so) Questions With" series, DJ Gallo interviews people in the sports world doing interesting things.


Today's interview subject: Jalen Rose … Fab Five star, 13-year NBA veteran, NBA analyst for ESPN.


And, yes, these are real interviews.


Enjoy.


— Q1 —


SportsPickle:Your draft day suit …still perhaps the best ever in a very competitive category. Where is the suit these days? Hung with care in your closet like a wedding dress? Do you ever wear it around the house for fun? Rent it out for draft night parties?


Jalen Rose:The infamous draft day suit is most definitely in an ugly frame in my house – I haven’t decided exactly what I want to do with it yet, but I know it has to be hanging somewhere since it indirectly bought the house!


— Q2 —


SP:Jordan gets all the credit, but the Fab Five really brought in the age of the baggy shorts. Was this a conscious fashion choice? Or because someone’s package didn’t measure up enough for short shorts? Whose was it? Ray Jackson?


Rose:Funny. MJ is arguably the greatest player of all time and although he is very fashion conscious, he wasn’t the trend setter this time – all of us were college kids who were forced to wear soft-porn daisy dukes in high school. When we got to the big stage at UM, it was time to change the game so we requested long shorts, black shoes and black socks because we were rebels with a cause and ready to prove it.


— Q3 —


SP:Thanks to you guys, I adopted the baggy shorts style when I played. In 7thgrade basketball, the crotch of my shorts averaged 3.5 turnovers a game because I often tried to dribble between my legs and got stuffed by the low hem. What was I doing wrong?


Rose:Either you’re not that tall or you can’t handle the ball very well.


SP: I'll blame it on the former. Even though it's the latter.


— Q4 —


SP:It’s the question all fans of the Fab Five want the answer to: Do you think you’ll ever reunite and go on tour? The Police made a ton of money on their tour last summer.


Rose:Don’t be surprised if there’s a Fab Five movie and book someday with all of us – they will only be legit if they include all of us.


SP: I'll only buy it if there's an entire chapter dedicated to the great Rob Pelinka.


— Q5 —


SP:You did a great job as a defensive stopper against Michael Jordan during the ’98 Eastern Conference Finals. But why didn’t you try to stop his Hall of Fame speech this summer? That thing was unbearable.


Rose:It sounded like MJ had a lot on his chest (laughing) … he spoke a lot about motivation and inspiration but at the end of the day, that’s MJ and he can say whatever he wants.


— Q6 —


SP:In 2006, the Knicks acquired you from the Raptors in exchange for cap space. You shot 46-percent from the floor in New York and averaged 12.7 points. Cap space did dick. You feel vindicated, no?


Rose:I’m just happy that every situation I’ve ever been in, whether or a great team or bad team, I went out and played well.


SP: Cap space, you have been served.


— Q7 —


SP:You have given significant sums of money to fund inner city reading centers, you also donated $100,000 to Dikembe Mutombo for the construction of an operating room at a hospital in the Congo. Very generous. But did you mean to give that much, or could you not understand what Mutombo was saying, and only later discovered you had agreed to six figures?


Rose:Mutombo tricked me (laughing) … nah, I knew exactly what I was doing and was very honored to be able to make a donation from my own foundation for such a great cause. Thanks for the props and I hope that I can inspire others to give as well.


SP:Now a few quick questions on the new NBA season …


— Q8 —


SP:Most surprising offseason acquisition: Allen Iverson to the Grizzlies? Or Khloe Kardashian to Lamar Odom?


Rose:BOTH. AI deserves an opportunity to play for a contender and although quick, Odom and Kardashian deserve to be happy. Stay tuned on both.


— Q9 —


SP:Who’s better – Kobe or Lebron? Redick or Morrison?


Rose:Lebron may be better the first 46 minutes of a game but Kobe is better the last two minutes. (See: four titles.)Redick has proven to be a better pro than Morrison so far.


— Q10 —


SP:Where do you think Lebron James will be at this time next year? (Note: I mean what team do you think he’ll be playing for, so “Sitting in a diamond-encrusted house” is not an acceptable answer.)


Rose:A diamond-encrusted house NEXT year? I’m sure he’s already sitting in that! I’d be very surprised if Lebron left Cleveland and the Cavaliers.


— Q11 —


SP:Due to his positive test, do you think all of Rashard Lewis’ dunks should be asterisked?


Rose:Judging from his body type, I’m not sure he was taking steroids. But if they didn’t do it to Barry Bonds, they shouldn’t do it to Rashard.


— Q12 —


SP:Best NBA mascot: Benny The Bull, Phoenix Suns Gorilla, Brian Scalabrine?


Rose:Since I played in both cities, I have love for Benny and the Gorilla. But Brian actually gets to sit on the bench.


SP: Awesome.


— Q13 —


SP:Considering the fact that you had some issues with Isiah Thomas in the past, Thomas now coaching at Florida International … hilarious? Or extremely hilarious?


Rose:I have a lot of respect for Isiah and although we may have had issues professionally, ultimately he was one of my mentors and role models growing up and still is. Let’s see how the FIU team fares this season and revisit.


— Q14 —


SP:If ______ ever dunked on you, you would pull a Lebron and confiscate the tape.


Rose:Barack Obama.

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Filed Under   NBA   media   NCAAB   Michigan Wolverines   Jalen Rose
September 17, 2009

News Who is Tate Forcier?

Two weeks ago, Michigan was shuffling between three quarterbacks. Now true freshman Tate Forcier is garnering Heisman consideration.


Who is this guy? Here are some facts about Tate Forcier.


Tate Forcier was born August 7, 1990 in San Diego. So the reason the true freshman was able to stay so calm in beating Notre Dame is because he has absolutely no recollection of a time that Notre Dame was ever any good. His youth allowed him to maintain a very rational and calm demeanor against his weak, yet highly-touted, opponent. Tate Forcier views Notre Dame's football program the same way someone a bit older might think of the football programs at Army, Harvard or the University of Chicago.


Forcier's reall first name is "Robert," but he took the name Tate from the movie "Little Man Tate," starring Jodie Foster, Dianne Wiest, and Harry Connick, Jr., because he is the youngest and smallest of three brothers. This is why when Forcier asks teammates if they want to watch some film, his teammates first make sure he means game film and not some crappy girl movie.


Forcier began working with Marv Marinovich when he was in third grade. Marinovich helped Forcier develop his arm strength and accuracy by having him hit his son with passes from 30, 40 and 50 yards each day while Todd was passed-out in the front yard.


The hottest new t-shirt in Ann Arbor is one that reads "The Forcier Is With Us" on the front. The second hottest new t-shirt in Ann Arbor? One that reads "He Tate Your Ass And He Tate Your Balls." The third is a shirt that reads "Rich Rod Made Me Practice 27 Hours Today And All I Got Was This Stupid T-Shirt."


Forcier was rated the most accurate high school quarterback in the nation by Rivals.com. It really is a shame that Braylon Edwards is no longer at Michigan. It would have been a treat to see how he would have figured out a way to drop Forcier's passes.


Forcier and his brothers — who also played college quarterback — have a website called QBForce.com. The front page reads "Quarterback mostly comes down to … SPEED: Ball Speed, Foot Speed, Decision Speed + Heart will put you over the-top and add MAGIC which very few athletes have (Not to be confused with dumb luck) you've got a Super-Star!" And then it goes on and on in a similar vein from there.So if you were watching the Notre Dame-Michigan game and thinking that Jimmy Clausen was the biggest douche on the field … you may have been way wrong.

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Filed Under   NCAAF   Michigan Wolverines   Tate Forcier
August 27, 2009

News 9 Days To College Football: Michigan

There are only a few days left until the first Saturday of the college football season and SportsPickle is counting down the top stories of 2009. Today: No. 9, Michigan.

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