Sports

If you're going to the Tigers' opening day, one thing you won't be seeing this year is the traditional flyover from Selfridge Air Force Base. 

Tammy Stables Battaglia writes in the Detroit Free Press that it's a "result of 2013’s federal budget sequestration."

Selfridge Air National Guard Base Technical Sgt. Dan Heaton said the grounding of the 127th Wing’s 18 A-10 Thunderbolt II single-pilot fighter jets' goodwill flights is a result of 2013’s federal budget sequestration.

“The Air Force has decided flyovers have been cancelled as a result of budgetary considerations,” Heaton said. “So we’re not participating in any flyovers or participating in any air shows in fiscal year 2013.”

The University of Michigan’s allotment of tickets to this weekend’s Final Four basketball games is going quickly.

The last of the more than three thousand tickets might be scooped up by season ticket holders and students by the end of today.

Wolverine fans are not only scrambling for tickets.  They are also looking for places to stay in Atlanta for Saturday’s semi-final game against Syracuse and hopefully Monday’s national championship game.

Yesterday, Ann Arbor was buzzing with maize and blue fans as Michigan made its way to the Final Four for the first time since the Fab Five era.

Now, we all want to know what will happen next.

Will Trey Burke win the College Player of the Year award? What will Michigan need to do as they face Syracuse?

Michigan Radio's sports commentator John U. Bacon joined Cynthia Canty to relive yesterday's greatest moments and talk about what we should expect from the Wolverines.

To listen to the full audio, click the link above.

There will be one Michigan team playing in the Final Four in next weekend’s NCAA’s men’s basketball tournament. 

The Michigan Wolverines jumped to a double digit lead early in their Elite Eight game against the Florida Gators on Sunday. And they never relinquished their lead. The final score was 79 to 59. 

Michigan is the only Big Ten team to reach the Final Four. Michigan State and Ohio State both lost tournament games over the weekend.

U of M will play the Syracuse Orangemen in one of next Saturday’s national semi-finals in Atlanta.  

Sports columnist Rick Reilly once wrote that weekend golfers invariably claim, “I’m a good golfer.  I’m just not consistent.”

Well, he said, if you’re not consistent, you’re not a good golfer.  

Americans are great at building things, and rotten at maintaining them. 

We admire winners and celebrities, but we overlook the loyal spouse or the honest accountant or the people who maintain our bridges – that’s why they’re falling apart. 

So, let this be a salute to consistency – that most unheralded virtue. 

In 1984, Red Berenson took over Michigan’s moribund hockey program, which had not been to the NCAA tournament in seven years.  Berenson thought it would be easy, but it took seven more years to get Michigan hockey back to the big dance in 1991. 

Once they got into the tournament, they made it a point to stay there.  Year after year, they kept coming back. 

Finally, in 1996, they won Michigan’s first national title in 32 years – and they did it again in 1998.   They’ve come close a few times since, but they have yet to win another. 

This bothers Berenson, one of the most competitive men I’ve ever met.  When he visited my class, I listed his many accomplishments on the board.  

The public radio production Radio Diaries was recognized today with a George Foster Peabody Award for its production 'Teen Contender.'

The first-person diary followed Flint boxer Claressa Shields as she prepared for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The 2012 games were the first to allow women's boxing.

Shields won gold, by the way. Here is her Mom reacting to her win:

And here's a trailer for the radio diary that won the Peabody award:

And here's the diary itself:

The diary aired on NPR's All Things Considered in February 2012.