Welcome to a special March Madness edition of Five Things you need to know about Michigan. Last weekend featured championships in girls basketball, boys swimming and diving, competitive cheer, gymnastics, wrestling and hockey and you can get all the details from the Freep, Detroit News and mLive.
Michigan Girls Basketball State Championships

Last weekend the state championships were decided in girls hoops. This was the first year that boys & girls seasons were held at the same time in Michigan, something that seems to have reduced the attention lady cagers receive (contrary to what the court case alleged). In the Class A game, it was Grosse Pointe North over East Lansing 58-46 (stats). Class B is was a cross-town match with Detroit Country Day topping Detroit Community 46-40 (stats). In Class C action, Saginaw Nouvel raced by Galesburg-Augusta 73-42 (stats) while in Class D, New Lothrop defeated Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart 42-36 (stats). You can get Audio/Video from MHSAA TV. While you're there, check out the video from the 1958 Class A Boys Basketball Final featuring Detroit Austin Catholic (led by Dave DeBusschere) vs. Benton Harbor (with Chet Walker).

Longest. Game. Ever.

The Freep has a story on the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 1 hockey state finals between Marquette and Orchard Lake St. Mary. The two teams played a U.S. High School Hockey record 8 overtimes to a 1-1 draw before finally being declared the first ever co-champions by the MHSAA and raising the same trophy. Division 2 was Trenton over Midland 3-0 while Calumet skated to a 1-0 overtime victory over Flint Powers Catholic. The photo is one of a giant set of photos by Marquette based sports photographer Daryl Jarvinen - check out the whole set of photos from this historic MHSAA Hockey match!

Michigan Boys Basketball State Championships

After last night's quarterfinals, the final fours are set for the 2008 boys basketball state championships. The Class C & D games take place on Thursday (Mar 13) with Class A & B on Friday (Mar 14). The Finals are on Saturday and will be televised live on Fox Sports Detroit: Class D is at 10 AM, Class C at Noon, Class A at 4 PM and Class B at 8 PM. Both the semifinals and finals take place at the Breslin Center at MSU in East Lansing, which brings us to...

Michpics March Madness

Over on Michigan in Pictures we're featuring the basketball arenas of Michigan's Division I universities (CMU, EMU, MSU, UM & WSU) each Saturday this month. So far we have Central and Eastern and you're invited to point us to cool photos and follow along with our Michigan March Madness posts.

...and don't forget about College Football

The Freep reports that Kirk Gibson (wide receiver for MSU from 1975-78, first-team All-American, Big Ten receiving leader), Rob Lytle (UM running back 1974-76, consensus All-America in 1976, '76 Big Ten MVP), Tony Mandarich (MSU offensive tackle in 1985-88, consensus first-team All-America in '88, on 1987 Rose Bowl winning squad) and Percy Snow (MSU linebacker in 1986-89, unanimous first-team All-America and Butkus Award winner in '89, 2nd all-time in career tackles with 473) are up for the College Football Hall of Fame. Also on the ballot is Darryl Rogers, who coached MSU from 1976-79. Rogers was the Big Ten coach of the year in 1977, Sporting News national coach of the year in '78. They also have a nice look at the major sports sites' predicted destinations for Michigan players (and who the Lions might get) in the 2008 NFL Draft. I'm thinking WR Mario Manningham to the Lions makes a crazy kind of sense.