Calling it a clown show would be too kind. If you don't live in Ann Arbor, you can skip to the next section. Ann Arborites: last night the anti party city council majority fired the city administrator for no reason. They put the motion to fire him on the city council agenda at the last second. There was no discussion about why Howard Lazarus was getting fired; the anti party simply ignored the Open Meetings Act, decided to fire a dedicated civil servant, and set 300k of city money on fire.

Tonight Ann Arbor City Council voted to fire our city administrator. Here are the thoughts that @votegrand and @A2Ackerman shared about this travesty pic.twitter.com/4pNdU7Z4nK

— chip smith (@VoteChipSmith) February 19, 2020

This is par for the course for the current majority, which has openly considered violating state law—Bolt vs Lansing if you want to know—only for city staff to say "uh… that would violate state law." Firing Lazarus is like firing the crash alert system on your car. Since the goal of the anti party is to freeze Ann Arbor in amber to the detriment of the entire county outside their core constituency, this suits them just fine.

Ann Arbor can restore a city council majority not intent on driving off a cliff on August 4th. So here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna figure out which ward you're in and you're gonna vote for one of the following people on August 4th:

Then Ann Arbor governance can move on from the bit where the city council majority spends its time shrieking and flinging poo. Thanks in advance.

[After THE JUMP: Speaking of disastrous situations: the Cavs!]

Kardashian-Some Basketball Player I Want To Say Kyle Young? John Beilein is officially done with the Cavs. Thus ends the most obviously doomed marriage since the very first horse was led to water. There was no going back after the "thugs" moment, innocent mistake or not. Via the Athletic:

Instead, multiple players began playing songs that included the word “thug” whenever Beilein was within earshot, sources said: Bone Thugz-n-Harmony’s “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” and Tupac’s “Thugz Mansion” among them. As the team boarded the bus a few days after the incident, one player was intentionally playing Trick Daddy’s “I’m a Thug” with Beilein a few feet away. Other players blasted songs with the word “thug” loudly during workouts in the facility. Players did this to make light of a very tough situation, according to one team source.`

Funny! Also a dick move after Beilein reportedly apologized profusely. The tidbit in this article that stood out is that this is the second straight year the Cavs' head coach has wanted to bolt at the All Star Break. Last year interim head coach (interim!) Larry Drew was trying to bail and have the Cavs' G-League coach take over. This is the situation Beilein walked into willingly. I'll never understand it.

Brian Hamilton on that:

If the counterargument is that there aren’t fewer problems in college, only different problems … yes! That is exactly correct! Personally, if I’m making pretty good money as it is, I’m taking “kid-doesn’t-go-to-class” over “none-of-my-players-will-listen-to-me-and-there-is-nothing-I-can-do-about-that” as far as challenges in my daily existence.

Is you taking notes? Stringer Bell is disgusted with MSU's opsec:

That's a photo of Curtis Blackwell (left) on a recruiting visit to Daelin Hayes's home. Blackwell was not an assistant coach and isn't allowed to do that. Mark Dantonio said this never happened in a court deposition, leading to an amazing but unfortunately short-lived headline: "Photo, recruit's mother dispute Mark Dantonio's claim he didn't violate NCAA rules." Literally true:

Lawyers for Dantonio also said, "While Dantonio does not recall Blackwell being at the location depicted in the pictures, or how Blackwell came to appear in the photograph, he is adamant that he did not drive (Blackwell) there or authorize (Blackwell) to be there."

Extra guy on a recruiting trip is small beer but we have evidence Dantonio was willing to lie in a deposition to cover stuff up; everything else Blackwell's asserting is probably true too. Blackwell really did run ol' Mark out of town on a rail.

If you would like a seven page RCMB thread about how this image is photoshopped it's right here.

Yes yes yes also yes. Not enough going on for a full basketball recruiting post but the news on Josh Christopher continues to be as good as possible without a commitment, and that might not be as long-term a process as expected. Rivals's Corey Evans:

I had a pretty good feeling just a month ago that Josh Christopher, despite my belief that Michigan was the program to beat, would visit all of his finalists before committing. That might not be the case any longer. Christopher's commitment might not be too far away and the feeling is that Michigan is on the precipice of adding the five-star to its 2020 class.

We're in the sour grapes period at UCLA:

Both recruitments are typical five-star level recruitments -- demanding quite a bit of attention, unpredictable, with many different people and forces having influence on the players' decision -- and at times, seemingly ridiculous. It's what we've labeled before a "circus" recruitment.

Cumong man. Christopher's the kid who didn't transfer to Adjective Academy so he could play on a legitimate high school team without anyone taller than 6'5".

Also in recruiting news, Hunter Dickinson going for 40:

Dickinson shot one three pointer in his most recent EYBL season, so the deep shooting is a new development.

Number one. Baseball is #1 in Baseball America's poll for the first time ever:

NEW COLLEGE TOP 2⃣5⃣

It didn't take long for a shakeup at the top.

After an impressive weekend in Arizona, @umichbaseball is the No. 1 team in the country.

It's the first time in our 40 years of ranking the Top 25 Michigan is No. 1.https://t.co/vtLpz2DFWA pic.twitter.com/wkoPTDWkBO

— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) February 17, 2020

Michigan beat #1 Vandy and #3 ASU in their poll; others are a bit more circumspect. Michigan's still off to a start that you're hoping for as they try to capitalize on the most attention they've gotten since Barry Larkin was around. Via twitter person Manuel Excel one of the main questions about Michigan's season—starters past Criswell—had an encouraging early answer:

#Michigan LHP Steve Hajjar was terrific in the first inning. Two strikeouts and sat 91-93 and up to 94 with his fastball. Also showed a CH and SL.

Hajjar punched out Spencer Torkelson on a filthy 79 mph CH. Went 93, 82 SL, 94 and 79 for the K. @umichbaseball

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) February 16, 2020

HERM COME OUT OF THE TUNNEL YOU COWARD. Arizona State and Michigan are trying to work out a couple football games, per their AD. AD then kept talking:

“(Jim) Harbaugh, the coach at Michigan, he was the quarterback when ASU won the (1987) Rose Bowl. I would love — before whatever happens to him, since he can’t beat Ohio State, I would love to see us now take him on and beat him as coach.”

As a proponent of the Solve Your Problems Through Wrestling Promos school of management I approve of this message. This is the equivalent of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan claiming Hulk Hogan can't beat his latest monster and is top-quality work.

CCHA back. When Big Ten hockey disrupted the college hockey landscape the old WCHA and CCHA quickly became unrecognizable or—in the CCHA's case—dead. The WCHA became a bit of a dumping ground, taking both Alaska teams and Alabama-Huntsville, which caused financial issues for the rest of the league. Their solution was to bolt en masse and resurrect the CCHA name:

On Tuesday, it was announced that the new league being formed by seven members of the current WCHA—Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Minnesota State, and Northern Michigan—would inherit the CCHA name. When the previous incarnation of the CCHA resolved, Bowling Green retained the name rights. trophies, etc. from the old league.

They're trying to add St Thomas, currently a D-3 school in Minnesota, as an eighth member. Huntsville and the Alaska schools—if their programs continue to exist—will apparently become independents. That's less unviable than it used to be. Independent Arizona State is headed for a bid this year. It sounds like the budget crisis for the Alaska schools has passed and they'll continue on.

I'd hope Michigan does Fairbanks a solid and schedules them. Those old CCHA connections mean something, and also they gave the world a treasure.

IIRC you get an exemption if you go to Alaska to play, like Hawaii in football. I have to imagine seeing the bear stuff in person will fire them up so much that they score a billion goals once they get back. They're still doing it!

Go play there.

Etc.: Cesar Ruiz is the last pick of the first round in Mel Kiper's latest mock draft. Brief Brendan Brisson profile in the Hockey News.