One team soaring, one slumping

Saturday night continued two different trends for two different teams.

The Pistons just keep winning, this time with a thrilling 115-111 victory over the Washington Wizards. And although the 'D's for both teams seem to have been MIA last night, the 'Stones were able to get the job done, lead by Chauncey Billups' 29 pts, 7 assists. Tayshaun Prince chipped in 21, and 'Rip' Hamilton added 18 for Detroit, who have won their 6th game in a row. Detroit gets a much-needed break after 4 games in 5 nights, and they return to action on Thursday, when they will face the Miami Heat in South Florida.

The Wings, who were soring, are now slumping, after getting throttled 6-2 by Nashville last night. The death knell for the Wings were the 5 second period goals given up by the Wings, which gave them no chance to win. The loss drops Detroit to 0-2-3 in the last 5 games, and has them searching for their special teams units (both power play and penalty kill), which seem to be gone. 3 of the 6 goals scored by Nashville were on the power play, while neither of the Detroit goals were on their own man-advantage, with the Wings going 0-3 on the night with said advantage. They get to try again tomorrow, as they welcome the Dallas Stars to the Joe Louis Arena.

One other note, with USC's 20 point victory over Notre Dame last night, they have leapt past Michigan in both the AP and the BCS polls, and barring a loss next week to UCLA, will play Ohio St. for the National Championship, and not Michigan. While I find this disheartening, because Michigan is the only team in the Country who will give Ohio State a run for its money, the only thing that's left to do is become the biggest UCLA fan for the next 6 days, and hope for the best. And I *GUESS* the Rose Bowl will have to do in that case.

No games of note today, and not a busy week in general. Michigan BBall @ NC State Monday, v Wofford on Saturday. Wings v Dallas on Monday, @ Minnesota on Friday, v San Jose on Saturday. Stones @ Miami on Thursday, v New York on Friday. Next update maybe Tuesday, but probably (as it's been going lately) will be Thursday.