The Detroit Free Press’ Michael Rosenberg sneers that Michigan coach Tommy Amaker holding out hope for an at-large NCAA bid, “sounded like a guy at his ex-girlfriend’s wedding, still hoping she would come to her senses.”

“Hopefully there is still a chance for us,” Amaker said. “It’s not wise, or helpful, or anything else to shut anything down or out. We had a solid year. Twenty-one wins … is it a longshot? I don’t know.”

Sorry, Coach, but your team is out. And you should be, too.

I don’t enjoy writing this. I like Amaker personally. He has represented the university well. But as Amaker knows, he is not paid simply to speak well at news conferences and avoid NCAA sanctions. He was hired to win, and in six years, he hasn’t won enough by any reasonable standard.

Every year, it seems, U-M is one or two wins away from making the NCAA tournament, sparking the loudest what-if discussions since the 2000 presidential election. The near misses have obscured a simple fact: making the NCAA tournament is really not that hard. Really, it isn’t. This year, at least five and possibly six Big Ten teams will probably make the tournament.

Some perspective: the fifth-place Big Ten football team usually ends up in the Alamo Bowl.

What do you do with a coach who can’t even make the Alamo Bowl in six years of trying? You fire him. You don’t enjoy it, but you do it.

After splitting their regular season series, Texas and Oklahoma State will hook up for a third time today in the Big 12 semi-final.  The Cowboys’ Mario Boggan supplied the heroics in last night’s 57-56 upset win over no. 6 Texas A&M, while All-American Kevin Durant recovered from a brutal 1-13 first half to score 25 second half points in Texas’ wild comeback defeat of Baylor. The 20 point deficit erased by the Longhorns was the biggest blown lead in Big 12 tournament history. I don’t wanna say the Bears completely folded under pressure, but even Janet Reno thought the siege could’ve been handled better.