It’s gone from bad to just painful for the softball team.

With four games still remaining for CMU, every loss now adds to its record-breaking, woeful season.

Coach Margo Jonker is not used to this. It’s not Chippewa softball – at least the way it has been played for the last 29 years of Jonker’s tenure.

There was never much doubt in freshman cornerback D.J. Scott’s mind that he was going to play college football. During his freshman year at Governor Thomas Johnson High School in Frederick, Md., he was already discussing the possibility of enrolling a semester early to put on the pads for the school he chose.

It was June 2008, and Butch Jones and his coaching staff were worried.

Ryan Radcliff, a top incoming quarterback, had just been drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the Major League Baseball Draft.

“It’s like we had to start the recruiting process all over again,” Jones said.

During the last couple of weeks, Tom Izzo has transitioned into the figurehead of the state of Michigan.

The Michigan State men’s basketball coach has appeared on national networks and relayed what his team’s appearance in Detroit means to the state in which he was born and raised.

Flash bulbs struck Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson as they left the Palace of Auburn Hills floor after one of the biggest wins in Michigan State history.

They entered the tunnel after winning the 2000 NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Regional, on their way to address the media as a celebratory net still hung around Cleaves’ neck.

Michigan is not in good shape these days.

And it’s not just the habitual dreary early-spring weather that has Michiganders down – it’s something else.

It’s a feeling that we live in a state that is on its way out.

Every day the news consists of more foreclosures, decreases in government funding, failing businesses and the departure of another company to another state or country – just to name a few.

Updated at 7:45 p.m.

Central Michigan University confirmed Monday it has reached settlements with two former women’s soccer players in a sexual harassment case, according to a press release.

According to Jennifer Salvatore, the fomer players’ attorney, the pair allege former soccer coach Tony DiTucci engaged in inappropriate communication and conduct before he was placed on leave and subsequently resigned on Oct.

It was a common scene during the men’s basketball team’s 57-56 loss Saturday at Rose Arena.

The crowd groaned and fans yelled; CMU coach Ernie Zeigler raced up and down the sidelines, throwing his hands in the air.

But this call had extra significance.

With CMU ahead 56-54 and less than 20 seconds remaining, time was running out for Eastern Michigan.