Happy Passover amidst yet another year where a Michigan NCAA tournament run intersects with one of the two nights of the Passover Seder.
For those who are interested, there have been some pretty significant Michigan basketball NCAA tournament games from the 1990s, 2010s and now in 2021, that occurred on either one of the first two days or nights of Passover. Suffice to say, attempting to follow Michigan basketball during some of its biggest games over the last 30 years has been a challenge for the Jewish fan base. Here’s the full list of Passover classics, for posterity:
1993: National title game vs UNC (the Webber timeout game) occurred on the first night of Passover. Our family Seders tended to start and run late back then (sometimes until midnight) so my dad and I agreed to tape the game and watch it as soon as the Seder ended.
By chance that night, we finished right around 11:30. I went to stop the recording figuring the game was already over and rewind the tape. Unfortunately, I happened to stumble into live action just in time to see UNC at the free throw line with a 4 point lead, continued camera shots of the Michigan bench and Webber looking catatonic and Billy Packer excitedly repeating something about taking a timeout we didn’t have.
Suffice to say, my dad and I made the executive decision to pass on watching the recording.
1994: On the first full day of Passover, Michigan lost to Arkansas by 3 in the Elite 8, in what turned out to be Jalen and Juwan’s final game at UM. I was able to watch the game in full since it was an afternoon tip off and ended before the second Seder started.
2013: The Michigan Sweet 16 miracle comeback vs Kansas (the Trey Burke shot) technically happened during the Passover holiday, but not on the first two nights. However, my parents were in town staying with us to celebrate the holiday and see our newborn daughter, so on the night of the game we were having a family dinner and I missed a good chunk of the game. I did see the final 6 minutes and the OT though, including Burke’s amazing shot.
2018: The national semi-final win vs Loyola Chicago took place on the first night of Passover, similar to the 1993 debacle vs UNC. This time we were out of town in Ohio, where my uncle and aunt were hosting the holiday. They are not sports fans and are fairly observant, so there wasn’t a lot of tolerance around the table for checking the score of the game.
I kept tabs in the first half under the table and things weren’t looking good. Finally after a break during dinner, I slipped away to another room to watch the game on my phone where I saw UM mount their second half charge to seize control, including Mo Wagner’s famous table crash into Grant Hill and Billy Raftery.
2021: Sweet 16 game vs FSU. TBD on this one, still trying to figure out my strategy for how to pull tomorrow’s game off. Pretty sure I’ll be able to catch the first half, but the second half with a 5:00 start during the second Seder feels like a dicey proposition.
For those who are interested, there have been some pretty significant Michigan basketball NCAA tournament games from the 1990s, 2010s and now in 2021, that occurred on either one of the first two days or nights of Passover. Suffice to say, attempting to follow Michigan basketball during some of its biggest games over the last 30 years has been a challenge for the Jewish fan base. Here’s the full list of Passover classics, for posterity:
1993: National title game vs UNC (the Webber timeout game) occurred on the first night of Passover. Our family Seders tended to start and run late back then (sometimes until midnight) so my dad and I agreed to tape the game and watch it as soon as the Seder ended.
By chance that night, we finished right around 11:30. I went to stop the recording figuring the game was already over and rewind the tape. Unfortunately, I happened to stumble into live action just in time to see UNC at the free throw line with a 4 point lead, continued camera shots of the Michigan bench and Webber looking catatonic and Billy Packer excitedly repeating something about taking a timeout we didn’t have.
Suffice to say, my dad and I made the executive decision to pass on watching the recording.
1994: On the first full day of Passover, Michigan lost to Arkansas by 3 in the Elite 8, in what turned out to be Jalen and Juwan’s final game at UM. I was able to watch the game in full since it was an afternoon tip off and ended before the second Seder started.
2013: The Michigan Sweet 16 miracle comeback vs Kansas (the Trey Burke shot) technically happened during the Passover holiday, but not on the first two nights. However, my parents were in town staying with us to celebrate the holiday and see our newborn daughter, so on the night of the game we were having a family dinner and I missed a good chunk of the game. I did see the final 6 minutes and the OT though, including Burke’s amazing shot.
2018: The national semi-final win vs Loyola Chicago took place on the first night of Passover, similar to the 1993 debacle vs UNC. This time we were out of town in Ohio, where my uncle and aunt were hosting the holiday. They are not sports fans and are fairly observant, so there wasn’t a lot of tolerance around the table for checking the score of the game.
I kept tabs in the first half under the table and things weren’t looking good. Finally after a break during dinner, I slipped away to another room to watch the game on my phone where I saw UM mount their second half charge to seize control, including Mo Wagner’s famous table crash into Grant Hill and Billy Raftery.
2021: Sweet 16 game vs FSU. TBD on this one, still trying to figure out my strategy for how to pull tomorrow’s game off. Pretty sure I’ll be able to catch the first half, but the second half with a 5:00 start during the second Seder feels like a dicey proposition.
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