Game 3 Recap: Undefeated Dreams, Dashed

I had this picture all ready to go so that I could make a "can we stop the season and declare this team NBA champions?" joke. Oh well. 

Bulls 82, Hornets 89

After starting Friday's game with a 7-0 run, the Bulls got a bit of a taste of their own medicine on Saturday night. The Bulls struggled to score in the early goings, and the Hornets rattled off a 8-2 run to start the game. Greivis Vasquez got the Hornets out in transition and distributed well, as he has shown the ability to do early on in this season. 

Al-Farouq Aminu pitched in six points in the opening period, all dunks. Ryan Anderson and Roger Mason also pitched in from outside, the latter pitching in two (including one that was contested by Gibson about as well as you could ask for). 

The Bulls offense was sluggish and unable to gain its bearings early on. Boozer was not able to connect on his jumper, starting the game 0/4 from the field. Luckily for the Bulls, Luol Deng and Marco Belinelli--yes, you read that correctly--were able to carry the Bulls through this tough stretch. For all the criticism Deng has received regarding his decision to play in London and to opt out of surgery, he continues to soldier on and deliver tough baskets on determined drives and put backs. Deng almost had a double double halfway through the second quarter (10 points, 7 rebounds). 

Belinelli had easily his best stretch of play early on in this one, pitching in eight points in short order, including a dunk (!) on the break, resulting in Stacey King asking for the hot sauce, and a trey. As King made sure to note, Belinelli is "not just a shooter." It's still too early to make any grand declarations regarding Belinelli's game, but he clearly has a more diverse skillset than Korver did. Of course, that does not mean he is a better player overall, as Korver's elite shooting made him an important piece of a team with legitimate title aspirations. However, Belinelli's play in this one was encouraging, whether or not you believe it is a reproducible effort. 

He also pitched in a couple nifty assists, helping the Bulls double up on the Hornets in the assist department (a Hornets team that ranked 6th in the league in assists per coming into this game). 

It was a shaky start, but the Bulls erased their early 10-point deficit with relative ease. After his early dunkfest, Aminu went scoreless the rest of the half, and the Hornets' transition game that had hurt the Bulls earlier was held in check the rest of the first half. However, after two straight treys from Vasquez to end the half--FIND THE SHOOTER--the Bulls entered the half down 44-46. 

The Hornets started the second half with the slowest developing post move to hook shot ever from Lopez over Boozer, a Lopez dunk, and another Aminu dunk. Through a little over five minutes of play, the Hornets lead was once again back to 10. 

Unfortunately, this game made it painfully obvious that nothing will come easy for this Bulls team on the offensive end. The transition game can only account for so many points, and when Boozer isn't hitting, the Bulls don't really have anybody to break the defense down (miss you, Derrick). Per Jeff Mangurten, the trio of Hinrich, Boozer and Hamilton were 2/18 through about 2.5 quarters of play. As you all know, the Bench Mob was able to mitigate such things last year, but the Bench Mob is not a thing that exists anymore. 

The Bulls had some trouble finishing at the cup on the break, otherwise they would have had a small lead heading into the fourth quarter. 

The Bulls entered the 4th down 60-66. The two teams traded buckets for most of the quarter until the Bulls pulled to within 4 with a little over a minute to go. A huge call went to the Bulls way, with the refs reversing a call that was originally called Hornets ball. After replay, the ball clearly appeared to go off Jason Smith's hand without touching a Bull on its way out of bounds. 

The Bulls had a chance to narrow the deficit to 2 or 1 on their next possession. The Bulls called Belinelli's number, who had a pretty good look on a corner three. He missed. After starting off hot earlier in the game, Belinelli finished 4/10 (2/6 from 3). Gibson was called for a foul on his rebounding attempt over Smith. Smith hit both of his free throws at the other end to put the Bulls down six with 53 seconds left. The rest was a formality, as the Bulls fell for the first time in this young season against a Davis-less Hornets team. 

BULLets, Sponsored by "I See What You Did There, Inc.": 

• Evil Boozer. Evil Boozer reared his head tonight. He went a horrific 1/8 from the field, and it's not like he was getting terrible looks. He just missed. Unfortunately, that is just the game you play when you have Boozer on the floor. He's like Kyle Korver, but bigger, which is sadly not the worst thing that has ever been said about Carlos Boozer. 

• Transition defense. The Bulls have shown the propensity to lose shooters in transition, which hurt them occasionally in this one. However, Anderson was actually pretty terrible, going 1/7 from beyond the arc. Moreso than transition D vis-a-vis the 3-point line--which is tough to defend for any team, really--the Bulls allowed far too many easy buckets, particularly to Aminu. 

• A positive! Noah notched a double-double on the night, scoring 11 points and grabbing 11 boards. So that's nice. 

• Memes, broken. Unfortunately, this sort of throws a wrench into the whole "The Bulls will beat bad teams by virtue of defense and rebounding no matter what" thing. However, it's entirely possible that the Hornets aren't that bad (at least not in the realm of terrible as Cleveland). Still, that doesn't make this loss, at home, any less palatable. 

• The story: Boozer, Hamilton, and Hinrich shot a combined 4/26 from the field, good for 15%. That+the lack of a Bench Mob=loss almost every time. That's all, folks. 

Game #3, Bulls-Hornets: The Cupcake Tour Marches On

Chicago Bulls (2-0) vs. New Orleans Hornets (1-1)

The Bulls return to the friendly confines of the United Center after a trip to Cleveland for a game that might have been the biggest rout of this NBA season thus far. The Bulls out-hustled, out-ran, and out-shot a bad Cavaliers team en route to a 29-point victory, taking the Bulls to 2-0. 

The Opponent 

On Saturday night, the Bulls take another decidedly mediocre to bad opponent in the New Orleans Hornets, who have actually acquitted themselves somewhat well thus far. The Hornets lost by four at home against San Antonio to start the season but then pulled out a thrilling 2-point win against the Jazz last night. Greivis Vasquez hit a layup with 1.3 seconds to go after Utah's Paul Millsap hit a trey to tie it on the previous possession. 

Unfortunately for NOLA, #1 overall pick Anthony Davis went out with a mild concussion in the first half of last night's game, and he is not traveling with the team to Chicago. 

Before Davis' injury, NOLA rolled out this starting lineup: SF Al-Farouq Aminu, PG Greivis Vasquez, C Robin Lopez, SG Austin Rivers, and, of course, Davis. With Davis out, former Orlando sharp-shooter Ryan Anderson or the 7'0'' Jason Smith will slide into the lineup at the 4. 

Davis boasted a lofty 26.3 PER rating in his less than 1.5 games, and the dropoff after him is not insignificant. (Vasquez comes in second at 17.9). 

Small sample size and all, but other than Anderson, the Hornets do not shoot the three particularly well. Anderson is 43% from outside, and he'll probably hit a few tonight as well, whether in transition or on the rare Bulls defensive breakdown (they happen, just not often). Otherwise, nobody else seems to shoot it well, but, then again, Anderson has taken close to half of NOLA's trey do date. 

Despite the loss of Davis, the Hornets still boast another solid inside presence in Robin Lopez, acquired from Phoenix via trade. During his four seasons in Phoenix, Lopez was never much of a scoring threat, never averaging double digit points a single time. However, through two games he's averaging 13.5, in addition to 8 boards per (3 of the offensive variety). Again, small sample size caveats apply, but maybe this is the year that Lopez becomes a more well-rounded player on the offensive end. 

Of course, the Hornets are still without the services of Eric Gordon, who is out for 4-6 weeks with a knee injury. 

Maryland product Greivis Vasquez--who NOLA acquired from Memphis to fill the backup spot behind Gordon--has also had a nice start to his 2012-13 season, dropping a total of 23 dimes through just two games. He is a more than capable distributor, so the Bulls will want to avoid letting Vasquez operate in transition. One way of doing this is by doing what they did last night in Cleveland: forcing turnovers/long rebounds and going on the break themselves for some easy scores. 

Points of Concern 

With both Davis and Gordon out, the Hornets don't offer much that should put a serious score into the Bulls, even without Rose. However, as mentioned, the Bulls will need to make sure that Vasquez doesn't do his thing in the transition game. 

Additionally, Ryan Anderson is always a concern for any team from beyond the arc. He scored 15 of his 19 points last night from downtown, and even the Bulls will leave a guy open on the perimeter from time to time (note: if that guy is Luke Walton, then by all means LEAVE HIM OPEN). 

If this were any other team, Robin Lopez doing work on the offensive glass would be a concern; luckily, this is the Bulls we're talking about here. 

The rookie shooting guard from Duke, Austin Rivers, has gotten off to a horrific 1-13 start from the field through two games. This isn't so much of a concern as it is me hoping that this isn't the game that Rivers finds his shot. 

What Needs To Happen 

• DO. YOUR. JOB. Pretty simple. If the Bulls do all of the things that the Bulls typically do on defense and the offensive glass, I have a hard time imagining the Hornets cracking 90 points. 

• Find the shooter. The only way I see the Hornets hanging around late into the fourth quarter is if Anderson catches fire, as he is wont to do. Whoever is on him (Deng?) will need to make sure to go over screens and generally give him the business, without fouling of course. 

• Dives and cuts. With NOLA lacking Davis' presence in the paint, the Bulls should be able to make hay on hard cuts and dives from whoever the second post player is. Noah made a nice cut through the heart of the paint for a score against Cleveland when Boozer occupied the right block. That will likely be there again. Lopez can swat some shots, but he is not Davis. 

Useless Prediction Time 

• Captain Kirk hits some threes: he goes 2/3 on the day. 
• Vasquez does not get into double digit assist territory...seven sounds right. 
• Ryan Anderson starts off hot from 3 but tails off as the game goes on. 
• Bulls 98, Hornets 88

Game 2 Recap: Running of the Bulls

(HT: Erik Daniel Drost)

Bulls 115, Cavs 86

The Bulls went into Cleveland and came away with about as good of a performance as one could possibly ask for. The Bulls were up 60-35 at the half, scoring about as many points in the paint as the Cavs had points, period. 

The pace was frenetic early on, with Cleveland turnovers and long rebounds turning the Bulls into the Nash era Suns. Hinrich, for all the sarcastic comments that the Internet will lob his way, is actually pretty good at running the break. The Bulls rode this early wave of transition basketball, which yielded two Boozer dunks, to a comfortable lead that they never relinquished. 

The Bulls were active defensively, as usual, and the Cavs were left to throwing up horrible shots from outside, often leading to long rebounds and the running of the Bulls. The Bulls jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game, and although the Cavs kept it sort of close for a little while after hitting some shots early on, the game was a blowout for most of the first half. 

Boozer was once again in top form, although this is something we've all seen before re: Boozer's performances against bad teams. With that said, the Bulls have played two games, and Boozer has performed admirably in both. 

Most importantly, with Kirk Hinrich playing un-ironically tough, gritty defense on Kyrie Irving, the Cavs offense was about as effective as Michigan's is when Denard can't find daylight. I was a bit skeptical, but Kirk had a stellar game on D, as Irving was forced to pound the rock far more often he would ordinarily need to on his way to a decent shot. A gold star for Mr. Hinrich. 

In perhaps the most amusing developments of the game, Luke Walton was matched up on Taj Gibson for a period of time, and it was truly like watching a big brother toy with a little brother in a game of driveway basketball. Walton had no way of getting around Gibson to front and when Gibson went on the move, Walton simply could not keep up. This lead to easy buckets and trips to the FT line for the newly extended Gibson. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised that Walton is still in the league, let alone logging non-garbage time minutes. But, then again, I'm just a guy. 

It was 60-35 at the half. The Bulls were simply dominant on both ends through two quarters, and the goal of the second half was simply to not pull a Grizzlies during their DERPocalyptic Game 1 performance against the Clippers in April. 

However, after letting up a bit near the end of their game against Sacramento on Wednesday, seeing the Bulls completely and utterly crush an opponent from start to finish was an encouraging sight. With another contest against a bad team coming tomorrow night at the United Center against New Orleans, the Bulls should be looking at a nice and tidy 3-0 start to this Rose-less campaign. 

BULLets, Sponsored by "I See What You Did There, Inc.": 

• Another humorous moment: an attempted alley oop from Boozer to Nate Robinson, who sort of just bumped into Tristan Thompson and then proceeded to look outraged when he didn't get the foul call. Alley oop. Nate Robinson. That happened. 

• The Masked Man. Rip Hamilton was deservedly maligned last season after being a splashy free agent signing (well, for the Bulls, that is) and spending much of the season injured or on the bench in key situations, when Thibodeau seemed to favor Kyle Korver. However, Hamilton has been stellar thus far. He caught fire late in the third quarter, which I'm pretty sure correlated directly with several minutes of technical difficulty from CSN. 

• Just to drive the point home further...the Bulls were up 83-56 through three quarters, and they accomplished that with only 5 offensive boards (i.e. rebounding 25% of their misses). That really goes to show you how dominating of a performance this was: they didn't even really need second chance points. Another remarkable thing? It's a few minutes into the fourth quarter as I write this and the Bulls have only attempted six treys. 

• The Cavs, they are bad. This Cavs team beat the Wizards by 10, so...if this were the EPL, Washington would so be Queens Park Rangers. 

• Complaints, I guess. If I have to say anything negative it will be extremely quibbling, but: 1) Belinelli displayed a laughable olé defense against Gee in the first half that led to a wide open layup 2) the Bulls seem to struggle at post entry and 3) okay I can't even think of one that isn't "Kirk Hinrich is not Derrick Rose." 

Game #2: Bulls-Cavaliers

The game is not being played here but I took this picture so here it is. 

Chicago Bulls (1-0) @ Cleveland Cavaliers (1-0)

I will be making a concerted effort to try and talk about Chicago sports in the coming months since I now have the ability to hop on a train and watch some live sports. Due to a combination of a lack of time and the fact that there is really no point in me writing previews in the Michigan blogosphere, I'm going to direct my attention toward the Bulls, maybe the Bears, and maybe the Blackhawks (except the NHL is dead so probably not that). 

Anyway, that's your warning (in case the above picture wasn't enough). Today's preview will be a lightning round version, however these posts will generally be much shorter than your average Michigan football preview, there being 82 games and whatnot. 

The Opponent 

The Cleveland Cavaliers enter this tilt against the Bulls at 1-0 after a 10-point victory against what is still a very bad Wizards team. Nothing much has changed, as Kyrie Irving still makes this team go when it does in fact go (that sounds familiar); he paced the Cavs with a 29-point, 6-rebound effort on Tuesday. Tristan Thompson and the rookie out of Syracuse Dion Waiters both scored in the double digits as well (12 and 17, respectively). 

Otherwise, the rest of Cleveland's starting lineup is filled by all-around gritster and annoying guy Anderson Varejao and SF Alonzo Gee. Varejao does what he does...he's basically a poor man's Noah. Gee is just a guy. 

Points of Concern 

There's really only one: don't let Kyrie Irving beat you by himself. The Bulls are not the Wizards, defensively or otherwise, so I can't imagine that Irving will replicate Tuesday's performance. For all the talk about Hinrich's tough, GRITTY defense, I don't really feel that great about him staying in front of Irving. 

Cleveland grabbed 18 offensive boards on Tuesday; however, 12 of them came from Varejao. Even post-Asik, the Bulls still have a pretty dominant front court and overall rebounding presence. 

Other than the obvious admonishment that is "stop Irving," Tristan Thompson is an interesting player to watch out for. I had the chance to watch the Cavs take on the Knicks at Madison Square Garden in February and Thompson, then a rookie, was very much your standard 1-and-done guy: athletic, lanky and very raw. Thompson put up 11 points on 5-9 shooting and 8 rebounds, a solid night against a Knicks team featuring a defensive stalwart like Tyson Chandler. 

What Needs To Happen 

• Clean up the perimeter defense. The Bulls gave up far too many points on uncontested drives from outside against Sacramento. Against Irving, the Bulls really can't afford to do that or he will drop 30+. However, other than Irving, I'm not sure who on the Cavs roster is really going to break you down. Waiters? I guess, but then again it's not like the Bulls are overflowing with break-you-down-ability right now sans Rose. Daniel Gibson, the other Longhorn on the roster (the first being Thompson) looks to be coming off the bench; he is a known entity at this point in his career. He'll spot up and hit some threes if you leave him open, just like every somewhat decent player in the NBA will do. 

• Oh bench where art thou? So the bench didn't really get much run on Wednesday, and it would be nice to see that change a bit tonight. Against teams like Sacramento and Cleveland, you would think that the Bulls could afford not to run Deng et al into the ground so early in the season. Contributions from Marco Belinelli and Nate Robinson are always appreciated. This is a good opportunity for Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler to work on their offensive game against another bad team. Perhaps Gibson has a double-double in store to celebrate his recent extension. 

• GIMME DAT. Boozer makes shots. Shots make Boozer. Whatever it is, let's keep doing that please. The loudest Bull was 8-13 on Wednesday en route to an 18-point night. Yeah yeah, his game relies almost entirely on the jumper, but he did have a nice "and 1" play late in Wednesday's game. 

Useless Prediction Time 

• Both Deng and Noah play 40+ minutes again. 
• Gibson scores 10 but just misses the double-double, reeling in eight boards. 
• Irving has another Denardian performance, points-wise, but once again is somewhat lacking in the assist department. 
• Bulls 85, Cavaliers 80. 

Who Are You and Why Do We Care?: Minnesota Golden Gophers

Is there a rivalry here?
This will be the 98th meeting overall, 93rd for the Little Brown Jug, between the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Michigan Wolverines. The "rivalry" between the two teams is much more based on history than on recent competition. Since Bo took over as Michigan's head coach in 1969, Michigan has only lost three times, in 1977, 1986, and 2005.

When did we see them last?
Last season, the Golden Gophers entered the Big House with a 1-3 record. After playing a surprisingly close game against USC (losing 19-17), the Gophers lost to New Mexico State and North Dakota State, beating only Miami (NTM). Michigan received the ball to start the game, and seven plays later, Vincent Smith had a three yard touchdown run. Michigan got the ball back after a Minnesota three and out and ran the ball down the field, ending with a Denard Robinson 9 yard touchdown run. Again Michigan got the ball back, and with the first play of the second quarter, Vincent Smith threw a pass to Drew Dileo for a 17 yard touchdown. Minutes later, the Wolverines got the ball again, and Vincent Smith received a touchdown pass from Denard, completing the trifecta of throwing for a touchdown, rushing for a touchdown, and receiving a touchdown. Minnesota was finally able to stop the Wolverines from scoring a touchdown on the next possession, resulting in a 25 yard Brendan Gibbons field goal. The Golden Gophers' following possession concluded with a Brandon Green fumble, recovered by Carvin Johnson. Michigan then ran the 2 minute drill to perfection, as Denard threw an 18 yard pass to Kevin Koger for a touchdown. The first half ended Michigan 38-Minnesota 0.

The second half was not much better for the Golden Gophers. Michigan left the first team offense in the game, and on their second possession of the half, the Wolverines scored a touchdown on a Fitzgerald Toussaint 1 yard rush. Finally, it was time for the second team offense to get some reps. Devin Gardner lead the team to the Minnesota 15 yard line, where Gibbons was able to hit a 32 yard field goal. Michigan's first drive in the fourth quarter was Thomas Rawls' time to shine, as he got 5 carries to get into field goal range, where Gibbons converted again.  After a Michigan 3 and out, the Gophers got the ball and David Cobb rushed for 28 yards. On the next play, Cobb fumbled, and Courtney Avery recovered and ran it back 83 yards for a touchdown. Final Score: Michigan 58 - Minnesota 0.

Throughout the game, Minnesota had 13 drives. They only had one drive of 6 plays, the rest were less, they also never had a drive take more than three minutes. It was Michigan's most lopsided win since beating Indiana in 2000, and outgained the Gophers, 384 to 69.

Minnesota would go on to have a bad season. They beat Iowa and Illinois, but lost to the rest of their schedule, finishing the season 3-9. This season the Gophers have looked better. They swept their non-conferencee opponents before losing three straight Big Ten games against Iowa, Northwestern, and Wisconsin. Last week they beat Purdue 44-28.

What do they look like?
The Golden Gophers official colors are Maroon and Gold. I've always been a fan of both Minnesota's color scheme and their logo. As you can see, they have multiple combinations of uniforms. I'm not a fan of the monotone maroon on maroon, but the maroon on gold is not bad at all. I stripe on the jersey is pretty unnecessary, and a classic example of Nike trying to make jerseys more exciting. We will probably see something like this on Saturday. The biggest issue with the Gophers uniforms is when they break out the gold on gold, which ALWAYS looks terrible.

What's their coaching situation?
In the past off-season, Minnesota fired Tim Brewster, and hired Jerry Kill. Kill has been a head coach for a very long time, working his way up from the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals to the Emporia State Hornets to the Southern Illinois Salukis, finally he broke into Division 1-A with the Northern Illinois Huskies, before getting the promotion to the Big Ten with Minnesota.  In 2008, Kill took a Huskies roster that went 2-10 in 2007, and lead them to 6-7 including a bowl appearance in the Independence Bowl. In 2009, the Huskies improved to 7-6 with an appearance in the International Bowl. Finally, in 2010, Kill lead Northern Illinois to a 10-3 record. They were undefeated in MAC play until the MAC Championship Game, which they lost to Miami (NTM). Early in the season, Kill's Huskies beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Minneapolis, 34-23. Before Kill could coach the Huskies in the 2010 Humanitarian Bowl, Kill was offered the Minnesota job, and he resigned. As mentioned earlier, Minnesota did not perform well under Kill last season, going 3-9. This season they are currently 5-3, and have a chance to be bowl eligible for the first time since the 2009 Insight Bowl.

Have they won National or Big Ten Championships?
The most recent Big Ten Championship for the Golden Gophers was in 1967, under coach Murray Warmath. Warmath also won a National Championship 7 years earlier in 1960. Minnesota also enjoyed two dynasties in the very early history of college football. Henry L. Williams and the Gophers won Big Ten Championships in 1900, 1903, 1904, 1906, 1909, 19010, 1911, and 1915. The Gophers' second dynasty was in the 1930s under Bernie Bierman. They were National Champions in 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, and 1941.

Did anyone famous play there?
Depends what you consider famous...

• Marion Barber and Laurence Maroney - Combined were one of the best 1-2 punches at running back. Separated, they have been average professionals. 
• Tony Dungy - Played his college ball at Minnesota, and went on to coach the Tampa Bay Bucs and Indianapolis Colts, whom he lead to a win in Super Bowl XLI. 
• Verne Gagne -American Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Champion and WWE Hall of Famer. 
• Otherwise, they have had 215 players in the NFL and 6 NFL Hall of Famers. 

Do they have a goofy mascot?

We No Speak Americano gets me every time. 

Anything you could ever want to know about "Goldy the Gopher" is right here and here.

Prediction based on everything but football: Michigan 38 - Minnesota 13

There and Back Again

(HT: Keith Allison) 

This is not about Michigan. The person above does not play for Michigan. This is only tangentially related to Michigan. This post is not about Michigan football or basketball. Okay. 

The Chicago Bulls will take the United Center floor tonight to take on the Sacramento Kings. The lights will go down, the bulls will run, and Tommy Edwards will announce the starting lineup. From a lonely corner in the United Center or from a couch at home, Derrick Rose will look on, hearing Kirk Hinrich's (or Nate Robinson's) name called instead of his own. Perhaps he will watch as he works, sweat dotting the floor of a fluorescently lit workout room, little archipelagos revealing a constantly changing map of resurrection. 

On April 28, Rose went down clutching his knee near the end of Game 1 during the Bulls' first round series against Philadelpha. It was a movement and a response that sports fans have seen many times before. An unseen ligament tears, an unheard pop sounds, revealing itself only to the ear-space of the player in question, and a hush reigns. If the eyes are the window to the soul, the athlete's knee is that soul's infrastructural binding. Lacking structural integrity, the rest falls apart in a pile of rubble and a cloud of dust. Fellows in hard hats and stethoscopes poke and prod and survey: what went wrong here? We thought this was sound, and our faith is shaken, for how could anything be sound after this?

When Denard Robinson went down Saturday, it was a familiar feeling; he had gone down and gotten up before. When it became clear that he would not return to the field, even while Michigan flailed away on offense for the rest of the game, I felt comfortable knowing that he would likely be back next week or the week after. All was lost Saturday, but it seemed--seems--a self-contained event on a microscopic event. Denard has taken the intermittent slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and stood back up each time, eventually. 

When Rose went down, there was no such feeling of assurance, no hopeful reasoning, no sense of immediate return. 

With the Bulls up 12 with a little over a minute to go, Rose held the ball at the top of the key, the point on the floor where all things are possible. He jabbed left and executed his exaggerated jump stop into the lane, seemingly covering the distance between Chicago and Springfield in one thrilling maneuver. 

"Holding on to his knee, holding on to his knee and down."

Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah ran to the place of the fallen. Rose had gone up after the jump stop, perhaps ready to knock in yet another one of his patented tear drop shots. Upon reaching the highest point of his ascent, the realization hit: no. He dished the ball to out to Boozer. He didn't take the shot. 

At that point, it was clear what had happened. The season was over. A low frequency white noise lorded over this spot of the floor, contained within the United Center in a sort of greenhouse effect. The fumes of that hush are trapped by the United Center ceiling, bouncing off of rafters and banners in hopes of escape, only to slowly return to the locus of its origin. This reactant noise has nowhere to go, and so it suffocates everything in sight. 

The players, coaches and fans looked on, breathing in the fumes of the end. 

---

With the end comes a beginning. The Bulls begin the 2012 campaign back at home Wednesday, with the starting lineup returning mostly unchanged. Boozer, Noah, and Luol Deng return at their respective spots. Richard Hamilton returns as well, looking to acquit himself much better than he did last year during his debut season in Chicago. 

Even one of the Bulls' "new" faces, Kirk Hinrich, is a familiar player, having played for the Bulls for seven seasons after being drafted out of Kansas in 2003. The Bulls also signed 5-foot-9-inch Nate Robinson, who, despite enjoying a surprisingly successful preseason, has had a career that doesn't necessarily scream reliability. 

On the other hand, the Bulls' so called "Bench Mob" was gutted. With players like the sharp-shooting Kyle Korver, the towering Turkish defensive stalwart Omer Asik, reliable utility guy Ronnie Brewer, and backup point guards C.J. Watson and John Lucas III all moving on for various reasons* --contractual or otherwise--the Bulls are left with an increasingly precarious imbalance, one that existed even when Rose was healthy.

Most importantly, all signs point toward Rose's absence continuing well into the new season, if not throughout its entirety. Many assume that Rose will return at some point this season, giving the Bulls the push they need to either acquire a respectable seed in a weak Eastern Conference or, more pessimistically, to propel the Bulls into the playoffs, period. 

These iterations of the Chicago Bulls and the Wolverine football team are not so dissimilar. Both subsist on grinding defense, a Gradgrindian execution that stems from a monomaniacal obsession at the top with that side of the ball. Tom Thibodeau paces the sidelines, always on the precipice of losing his voice as he barks his orders like a commander at Helm's Deep attempting to fend off the malevolent hordes of Evil. Greg Mattison paces, chewing gum like someone who has done this thing many times before and gesticulating when necessary, all the while thinking that this is not good enough, no matter how good this is. 

Offensively, both are a paradoxical solution of modesty and pyrotechnics. These teams are the guy that goes to work at his modest, ordinary office every week in a suit and tie and then goes to rock concerts on the weekends in war paint. Whether out of necessity or a subdued internal raison d'etre that occasionally escapes its cage, these teams rely on one man to make it all happen; they are the marshmallows in your Lucky Charms. 

These are modest offenses that do rational things like running plays or sets while also knowing, deep down, that these attempts at an imposition of order are as ephemeral as a sand castle built dangerously close to shore. 

You call a play and the pocket falls apart, and so he goes. You run a set, and the clock is at 7. You swing it back around and say go. Don't worry about the particulars, you'll say, for you know them better than I ever could. 

These teams, in a sense, are a case study in the different shades of loss, both heartbreaking, simultaneously continuous and continual. You forget about the loss, but it's always there. With Denard, it is a latent sort of dread. It happens, and then it's okay. But it could happen again. 

With Rose, the Fates decided to snip the string in one motion rather than opting for a gradual defraying of the line. Even more discouragingly, the end of the journey, if there is one, does not even promise a return to the same place at which Rose started. After all, even when Odysseus returned home, things were no longer the same. Things were very different. 

*I would be remiss if I didn't also mention the departure of one Brian Scalabrine, the greatest player in the history of basketball. 

---

How the season unfolds for this Bulls team is anybody's guess. Preseason predictions have exhibited a range of opinion bridged by a roiling chasm of Unknown, where potential outcomes pop up and disappear like little volcanic pockets of inflamed earth. 

The Bulls have enough to hang on; after all, they were 18-9 last season without Rose, albeit with a much different roster and a superior bench. However, one thing stands undisputed: the Bulls are not going anywhere near a title without a healthy Rose. Likewise, the Wolverines will not reach the conference championship game or the Rose Bowl without the compliance of the network of nerves within Denard Robinson's arm. 

Gain and loss, loss and gain. These are the components of life, and, to a less meaningful extent, sport. As the Bulls season begins and Team 133 forges on, these elements, always linked no matter how disparate they may seem, will form the chassis of the future. 

Of course, something sits in between these two elements, a derivative sub-element that connects and binds. There is a third element: reaction. Everything in life is a response to gain and loss in some way, and nowhere in the world of sports is that more true than in Chicago and Ann Arbor, right now. 

Shameless Self-Promotion Time (Nebraska)

(HT: Mike DeSimone) 

Here it is:

• Three thousand completely painful words about whatever it is that happened on Saturday in Lincoln (over at Maize n Brew, as usual). Was a game played? Did we win? I don't even know, so no spoilers please. Should I say more in this blurb? Should I say things of substance instead of asking pointless questions in order to avoid saying things about the game? Should I stop doing this? Okay that's probably enough.