Ahh, the good old alumni talk circuit strikes again.... Every year coaches go to these invited speaking engagements and nine times out of ten at some point they put their foot in their mouths or stir up some sort of controversy. Well, today it was Brady Hoke of Michigan doing just that. 

What was his sin? Calling out Notre Dame for cancelling their rivalry series with the Wolverines. 

Hoke didn't just call them out for it though, he called them chicken for doing so. At least that's what ESPN.com's Michael Rothstein is reporting. 

Here is the direct quote:

"We have unbelievable rivalry games at Michigan," Hoke said. "The Notre Dame, that rivalry, which they're chickening out of ... they're still going to play Michigan State, they'll play Purdue; they don't want to play Michigan."

Them would be fighting words normally, however it's hard to dispute what Brady Hoke is saying as anything other than fact. It's interesting that of the three games the Irish play on an annual basis against the Big Ten they chose the best series and the most difficult opponent be the one they let go of.

Rejoice and be glad - if you're a Michigan fan that is. Why? Well, Chris Webber, Maurice Taylor and Louis Bullock's 10 year long exile from any formal association with the University of Michigan is over. They can now be a part of the program again, but let's also not pretend like the welcome mat is just going to be rolled out or a parade in Webber's honor is in the works either.

Lest we forget, Webber was the biggest name in this case, accepting a reported $280,000 from booster Ed Martin (who gave the group over $600,000 in total) while at Michigan as a member of the Fab Five. Clearly his name is the biggest of the three and what happens moving forward is anyone's guess. 

At least Michigan AD Dave Brandon is open to meeting with them all. 

"I've never met any of those guys, and I am looking forward to meeting them," Brandon said late Tuesday night in an interview with The Associated Press. "If any of those guys are interested in meeting with me, that would be great."

Webber is the poster-child for both the best of Michigan basketball times and the darkest hours for the program as well and the door could be open for his return as he did show up to support the team this season in the national championship game, Michigan's first since the Fab Five era. 

The 2012-13 Michigan Wolverine's season may end up being less known for it's national runner-up status than for it's incredible comeback punctuated by Trey Burke's trey against Kansas. Any way you slice it's season the Wolverines year will be one that fans of the team and frankly neutral fans will remember for quite some time. 

If there was a more entertaining trio of guards than Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway, Jr., and Nic Stauskas I'd love for you to point them out to me. The Wolverines rode them all season long until they finally found a major presence by a freshman who arguably had the best NCAA Tournament of any single player in the big dance, of course we are talking about Mitch McGary. 

Safe to say this season went all sorts of right, more than it went wrong. In fact, so right that I was able to do this..... 

(photo courtesy @umichbball)

Michigan fans and fans of a strong Big Ten conference in 2013-14 can breathe a sigh of relief today as both Mitch McGary and Glenn Robinson III will stay at the UofM and not declare for the NBA draft. 

Most draft analysts had the freshmen duo as 1st round prospects, but both saw the draw of playing and continuing to progress at Michigan as the right choices for themselves. That was a point Robinson III made clear in his statement of returning. 

"We made our decisions independently, but we have been like brothers since day one so that impacted it a little bit."

McGary sited having fun learning and playing the game at a great university as his reason for returning too. 

Of course coach Beilein was 100% behind the players with whatever choice they were going to make, saying they wanted what was best for each player but that the ultimate decision rested with McGary and Robinson. 

So, why return if you are going to be a 1st round draft pick? Robinson sited the family atmosphere of the team as a big reason, going as far to say that because of his teammates and coaching staff he couldn't see himself leaving the program.

Michigan will lose two big pieces in Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway, Jr. next season, but with another great recruiting class coming on board this team may not miss a beat. Today's news is just another reason to like this team's chances moving forward.

Eleven days ago we reported that Michigan guards Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. were expected to declare for the NBA draft following their teams run in the NCAA tournament. Well, one half of that equation is about to become official, at least according to Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com:

Michigan's Trey Burke announcing he is headed to NBA tomorrow at 1:30, sources told CBSSports.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanCBS) April 13, 2013

Burke is a likely lottery pick and according to ESPN.com's Chad Ford is one of the top 5 guards in the upcoming draft. He can likely thank a crazy good NCAA tournament performance where he averaged 15.5 points per game, twice scoring 20 or more points. 

Easily his best and most iconic game came in the Sweet 16 against Kansas where he went off for a double-double of 10 assists and 23 points, none more iconic than a three-pointer with just over 2 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime.

On the year Burke averaged 18.6 points per game and a whopping 6.7 assists per game for the national runner-up this past season.

Now, the question is if junior guard Tim Hardaway, Jr. will join Burke in declaring for the draft like has been speculated on and reported by multiple outlets in the past.

Volume beat quality as Louisville took down a game Michigan squad, 82-76, to earn their 3rd national championship and 1st under Rick Pitino in what will likely go down as one of the best played national championship games of all-time. 

Why say volume was the difference? Perhaps because the Cardinals were able to get off 13 more field goal attempts, going 28-61 (45.9%) for the game versus Michigan's 25-48 (52.1%). 

Yep, this game literally came down to who could take the most shots as the Cardinals and Wolverines both made the same amount of three-pointers (8) and free throws (18) in this classic battle from start to finish.

Guard play mattered big time, but it wasn't Trey Burke and his game high 24 points that would be the key to the game. Instead it was Louisville's bench to stud, Luke Hancock, and his 22 points that would be the key difference in the win. 

The Big Ten flag is still flying high and proud thanks to the Michigan Wolverines and perhaps it's fitting that in the final year of the Big East as we all know it it's a matchup between the two best conferences in the country for the National Championship as the fourth seeded Wolverines take on first seeded Louisville on Monday night in Atlanta for all the marbles. 

Early in the tournament the thoughts of some (o.k. really only one big and loud mouth) were that the Big Ten was an overrated conference and as we now stare the final game of the 2013 NCAA Tournament in the face it's the Big East champion versus the 5th best team from the Big Ten. Not the best conference in the country, huh? Slow clap to you Mr. Barkley. 

Beyond that and the obvious fact that we'll get Kevin Ware and his broken leg as inspiration story shoved down our throats by CBS this game has a lot to offer on the court, so let's take a look at what we all should be watching for tonight: 

Basketball has always been a young mans game, but in the 2013 NCAA tournament Michigan has taken that to a whole different level and on Saturday night against Syracuse it was once again the youngsters that led the way as the Wolverines won 61-56 despite the Orange's best efforts and a seemingly crumbling group of youngsters for the Maize 'N Blue.

Player of the game? That has to be Mitch McGary and not just for his double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds (yes his foul shooting was awful), but more importantly he was key in breaking apart the Syracuse zone defense by hitting shots from the elbow and dishing out a team high 6 assists on the night.

His fellow freshman came through in a big way as well, minus Nic Stauskas (who was 0-for the field), with Glen Robinson III adding 10 points and 6 rebounds to go with Caris LeVert's 8 points and 4 rebounds in a winning effort. 

Can we just call Thursday Trey Burke Day in Big Ten Country? First news breaks of his impending departure from the college ranks for the NBA and then this afternoon the AP announces that Burke, Michigan's sophomore point guard, was named their college basketball Player of the Year. He earned 31 of the 65 votes for 1st place to become just the 2nd UofM player to win the award. 

He follows in the footsteps of Cazzie Russell, who won the award back in 1966. It's the 2nd of what could be many national awards for the point guard, who was also named Sports Illustrated's Player of the Year last month. 

Burke is averaging 18.8 points and 6.8 assists per game this season. The only Big Ten player to score at least 15 points in every league game this season, Burke's 253 assists are a single-season Michigan record. He was also named a consensus All-American, just the fifth Wolverine to earn that honor. 

Coming in 2nd was Georgetown guard Otto Porter, Jr., who had 16 votes, and another Big Ten player in Indiana's Victor Oladipo, who had 10 votes to round out the group of candidates in 2013. 

Burke also won the Bob Cousey award as the nation's best point guard and he could well be in line to win the Wooden award as well, which will be announced this weekend. Can you say B-1-G, B-1-G, B-1-G.... Hey, why not, I mean every time someone from the SEC does something awesome everyone else latches on like he was their's all year, right? 

Nothing like breaking news via Twitter to break up "Final Four Week," right? Well, that's exactly what Darren Heitner, a sports agent and sports business writer from Forbes is doing with these two tweets: 

Source: Tim Hardaway Jr. will leave MICH early & very strong chance he signs w/Henry Thomas of CAA.

— Darren Heitner (@DarrenHeitner) April 4, 2013

Source: Trey Burke will leave MICH early. Will interview 5 agents: Jeff Schwartz, Arn Tellem, Henry Thomas, Bill Duffy, Alonzo Shavers.

— Darren Heitner (@DarrenHeitner) April 4, 2013

This news shouldn't really shock anyone, but it is interesting that this news is breaking just 72 hours before they take to the court in Atlanta for the Final Four. Of course these are just reports and we have yet to hear from the horses mouth's in this case, but when agents and things of that nature are being talked about there's a pretty clear indication that this is going to happen. 

Burke is seen as a sure-fire 1st round draft pick amongst most mock drafts, while Hardaway is a late 1st round or early 2nd round pick and coming back for another year probably wouldn't have changed that. 

Does this affect their Final Four focus? Doubtful and perhaps it could even have the opposite affect by allowing them to focus solely on playing basketball and not worrying about the off the court stuff. Only Saturday will truly tell, but mark it down here - if they lose that will surely be the storyline some run with - you know that Burke and Hardaway making their decisions beforehand were a distraction to them - even if that's the furthest from the truth.