Saturday was a full day Michigan “Brand-A-Thon”

Despite the disappointment of the overtime loss at the end of the day, Saturday was indeed good for the Michigan Wolverines — for the Michigan Basketball program AND the Michigan Football program.

The ESPN College GameDay was a full-court brand-a-thon when you think about it. It started with the first hour (ESPNU) roundtable chat at the William Davidson Player Development Center with “The Crew” – Bilas, J Will, Reece, Seth & Seth – where John Beilein joined in for some compelling conversation. Followed by the ESPN 11 a.m. “Prime Time Hour” — where Jim Harbaugh was as much – if not more – as the center-piece news-peg as was the Michigan Basketball team and its game with Wisconsin and the heart-warming double plane crash survival story of Austin Hatch. Fortunately, despite being clearly out-manned heading in for the Saturday evening Big 10 battle with the Badgers, Beilein’s boys (sans their injured leader Caris LaVert) certainly held their own in a hard-fought downright “gritty” overtime setback.

Ah yes, positive “branding” – which basically reflects on “who you are…who you want to be…and how you want people to perceive you” – was a home run for Michigan – especially with a nice group of football recruits in attendance, ready to make their commitment “flips” from Texas, Nebraska, U Conn (and counting).

One final note on Beilein – I will ALWAYS be optimistic about this Michigan Basketball program as long as he is coaching this team. Despite being down by 11 points in the second half, his kids fought hard to come back against a veteran highly-ranked Badger squad. I know the development of his young guys will take time but it WILL happen. Beilein not only develops a team with a calculated plan and process – he has an ongoing “plan and process” for each of his players individually. It definitely shows, and I like what I see.