Today’s High Five: Lions: Shack Harris is officially on board. There are some other personnel tidbits here as well — Jason Hanson, for instance, isn’t going anywhere despite his free agent status. Tigers: Tom Gage runs down Detroit’s issues heading into Spring Training. Pistons: Drew Sharp uses the All-Star break as a chance to assess [...]

It’s the Mitten’s first ever free association column, a group of disjointed thoughts on college basketball following last night’s MSU victory over Michigan at Crisler Arena. Michigan State seems really to have taken the Penn State and Northwestern losses to heart. Specifically, if there’s a defensive weakness to a typical Tom Izzo team, it’s on [...]

Today’s High Five: Here’s a great interview that ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg did with Mark Dantonio about recruiting and the way the Spartans’ coach approaches “soft commitments.” Indiana’s Devan Dumes is an apologetic and suspended thrower of elbows after the MSU-IU game over the weekend. Goran Suton is just looking out for future generations. The Lions [...]

Today’s High Five: The Pistons’ current skid, combined with the season’s halfway point and the analysis that comes with that milestone, threatens to tip Detroit’s season from a disappointment to a debacle — especially for rookie head coach Michael Curry. Witness Exhibits A & B. Here’s a great post from Dylan at UM Hoops breaking [...]

Today’s High Five: Great update from SI’s Don Banks on this year’s NFL coaching carousel, specifically how Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo may not get a head coaching job, even though he’s been generally considered to be the top candidate. Banks also says the Titans’ Jim Schwartz would be a good fit in Detroit. Schwartz [...]

Weekend High Five: There are several stories today in the Detroit papers about the Pistons’ trip to Denver to take on Chauncey Billups and the Nuggets. Here’s the view from Denver on taking on former teammate Allen Iverson and Chauncey’s impact. Bonus coverage from the Rocky Mountain News: Lions’ head coaching candidate Todd Bowles interviewed [...]