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Jared Sullinger And Tim Hardaway Jr Screaming At Each Other

Brian — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:24:32 +0000

LAST WEEK ON "JARED SULLINGER AND TIM HARDAWAY JR SCREAMING AT EACH OTHER"

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRR

AAAAAAAHHHRHHRRRRRRRRRAAA

AND NOW… OUR THRILLING CONCLUSION!

YAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH YA YA YA YA YA

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHH!

YAAAHHHHHH!!!!! YAH!

RARARARARARRRRRRRR! RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

YARRR!!!!!

ORK?

Nerk.

FIN

Death From Above: At Akron State

Brian — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:57:34 +0000

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRR

THE ESSENTIALS

WHAT	Michigan at North Korea DPR
WHERE	Value City Sellout Arena, Columbus, OH
WHEN	1 PM Eastern, Sunday
LINE	OSU -17 (Kenpom)
TV	CBS

AAAAAAAHHHRHHRRRRRRRRRAAA

THE THEM

Hmmm. This isn't good. Ohio State is #1 in the Kenpom rankings and not far off with squishy hoo-man voters. Their tempo free individual stats are pretty terrifying.

At the top of the heap is post Jared Sullinger, who is…

shooting 61% from 2 on 26% of OSU shots
in the top 100 in eFG%
getting to the line more than five times per game
rebounding almost 30% of opponent misses, fourth nationally
not turning the ball over much
getting a good number of blocks and steals

/shakes fist at NBA lockout. Okay, right, obvious high lottery pick on the other team. Super. Good thing they don't have…

Oh, right, they do. Seconday scoring comes from senior William Buford and sophomore Deshaun Thomas, both of whom absorb about as many of OSU's shots as Sullinger does. Thomas is actually better than Sullinger on twos (62%, 34% from 3) and almost as efficient overall; Buford has a been a little erratic but still bests Michigan's high usage players in ORtg. While Ohio State puts up very few threes (26%, 317th), if one is going up chances are its one of these two dudes launching it. Buford's hitting 39%. You can't leave these guys alone on the perimeter but neither are you asking for it, Diebler-style.

OSU plays four out, one in most of the time and Buford has to pick up a lot of the defensive rebounding; Thomas and Sullinger crash the boards on offense (along with Sullinger vacuuming up all those opponent misses).

The fourth guy on offense is PG Aaron Craft, a sophomore whose main role is setting up everyone else; his assist rate of 27 is the highest on the team amongst players who see a bunch of time. He doesn't shoot much but is efficient (53% on twos, high free throw rate) when he does. He can be prodded into the occasional three.

Where Craft thrives is on defense. He's by far the Big Ten's best at stealing the ball and his high-pressure defense starts opposing offenses in a hole even when he's not shooting down court for an easy bucket.

Past the big four it's a large array of young role-players. Guard Lenzelle Smith is the only other buckete to average over half of available minutes; he is an extremely low-usage player who rebounds, steals, and occasionally snipes from deep. Oddly, his FT% is exactly the same as his three-point percentage: 49%. Low sample size and all, but weird.

INTERLUDE

AAAAAAHHHHHHHAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

THE RESUME

OSU only played three top 100 Kenpom teams in the nonconference schedule, beating #13 Florida by 7, crushing Duke by 22 in the Big Ten/ACC challenge, and losing by 11 at Kansas in a game Jared Sullinger missed. They also beat SEC opponent South Carolina by eight; Not That USC also has losses against Elon and Tennessee State. So… yeah. Not good.

OSU's Big Ten schedule has been by far the easiest in the conference to date. Opponents are winning at a 39% clip in games not against Ohio State. The next softest schedules belong to Illinois and PSU at 45%; Michigan opponents are at 48%. This might make you feel a bit better if Ohio State hadn't annihilated all six of their victims. I mean, yeesh:

Northwestern: W 87-54
Nebraska: W 71-40
@ Iowa: W 76-47
Indiana: W 80-63
@ Nebraska: W 79-45
PSU: W 78-54

Their two losses in conference are by four at Indiana and by five at Illinois during the Chris Paul supernova; at home they are winning their Big Ten games by an average of 29 points.

THE TEMPO-FREE

Four factors:

Factor	Offense (Rk)	Defense (Rk)	Avg
Effective FG%:	53.8 26	44.6 36	49
Turnover %:	17.1 16	26.7 5	20.8
Off. Reb. %:	34.9 91	23.6 3	32.5
FTA/FGA:	37.5 146	29.1 31	36.5

Er. That adds up to the country's top defense, something you probably could have extrapolated from the Big Ten scores above, and the #14 offense. Other notable tempo free numbers are a high pace for the Big Ten and a huge quantity of twos launched.

THE PROTIPS

Um, so, like… you can… No, probably not.

Maybe try to… Not likely, that.

If you move it like this and shake it like so and squint really hard? Still kind of seems like a ten point loss even then.

Drat. You said it.

Get insanely hot from three. Hey, maybe. If the random number generators fall right and a bunch of jacked-up three-pointers are dropping, Michigan can stay in contact. Michigan kept it close in a four-point loss at Crisler last year by going 11 of 24 from deep.

Convince Big Ten refs to put two early fouls on Sullinger in a home game. That's the ticket! While you're at it, I would like three on Buford and a pony. A pony made of lemon ice cream.

Make Tim Hardaway a superior defender. Michigan's two primary non-Sullinger scorers are 6'6" and 6'7" athletes. Stu Douglass will draw one, leaving the other to either Novak or Hardaway. Neither of those seem like a good matchup, but Hardaway is a match for either in terms of length and jumping. Zack "I'm not a very good athlete" Novak may end up repeatedly bashing one in the head until he's ejected.

Unfortunately, Hardaway's athleticism hasn't made him a good defender so far in his career. He doesn't get lit up 1) I'll be surprised and 2) Michigan will be a lot closer to winning.

Maybe zone? The closest thing to an Achilles heel OSU has is their outside shooting. If a 2-3 or 1-3-1 zone can cut off supply to Sullinger and befuddle Thomas, I'll take the tradeoff given OSU's blistering shooting inside. Luke Winn's latest power rankings* (which are excessively bullish on Michigan) reveal a surprising fact:

This year's Wolverines are heavily man-to-man, though, playing 87.9 percent of their possessions in man according to Synergy.

What's curious is that, in a small sample, Michigan's defense has been much better this year in zone, holding opponents to 0.667 PPP using a combination of 2-3 and 1-3-1, as opposed to 0.856 PPP in man. Beilein seems to be employing the zones as a very effective changeup, in groups of just a few possessions at a time.

If you had asked me about that I would have assumed those numbers were reversed because it seems like going to the 1-3-1 ends up in a dunk or an uncontested corner three most of the time.

They aren't, though, and if Michigan can't match up on OSU's main perimeter scorers maybe they should pack the post with a zone and live and die by OSU three point shooting. This might be the ticket according to Eleven Warriors:

The mixed bag of Buford’s inconsistency to date and the lack of a consistent three point threat to complement Buford on the perimeter and give Sullinger and Thomas more room to operate will most likely be to blame if the Buckeyes fall short of the Final Four.

*[Which also contain a factoid that reinforces my dislike for those long Hardaway two pointers via the lens of Michigan State:

As a team, 26.2 percent of Michigan State's jumpers fell into the Long Two category, and the team converted them at a clip of just 0.682 PPP. This wasn't the only reason the Spartans' offense ranked 62nd in the country in 2010-11, but it was part of it.

This season, the Spartans are being much smarter about their jump-shot selection: Just 17.3 percent of their jumpers are Long Twos. Their two-point field goal percentage has jumped from 46.7 percent last season to 52.9 percent now, and their offense ranks ninth nationally in efficiency.

Death to the long two.]

Watch your pockets, Trey Burke. Maybe get a fanny pack or something for your passport. Burke had one of his poorer performances of the year against lightning-quick Lewis Jackson last time out and now faces a guy who inverts the danger to defense. Free transition buckets are not points Michigan can afford to give up at OSU, and getting into the offense efficiently will be required if Michigan's also-very-good two point shooting is going to keep pace.

Beast up, Morgan. Morgan has been a critical component of Michigan's offense in spurts against Arkansas and Purdue. Unfortunately, he has struggled against Sullinger, averaging just over five points in three meetings last year and getting destroyed on the boards. Sullinger had thirteen offensive rebounds in Michigan games last year to Morgan's three.

Closing that performance gap somewhat is feasible.

THE SECTION WHERE I PREDICT THE SAME THING KENPOM DOES

OSU by double digits. It seems like there's going to be a horrible run by OSU at some point, whether it's the first five minutes or ten minutes into the second half.

Elsewhere

UMHoops talks with Eleven Warriors. Baumgardner on Trey Burke's return home in the colors of the Great Satan. Holdin' the Rope preview.

Friday Recruitin' Has a 'Hello' Post For Sale

Ace — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:20:49 +0000

In case you missed the announcement on Tuesday, recruiting roundup posts are now a twice-a-week affair. Today, Josh Garnett's commitment to Stanford is discussed, as are updates on the status of the remaining 2012 targets and new offers to members of the class of 2013.

Garnett to Stanford (Sad Trombone)

As I'm sure you are well aware of if you're the type to be reading this post, blue-chip OL Josh Garnett chose Stanford over Michigan last night. Beyond losing out on a potential All-American guard, this isn't a huge blow to Michigan's recruiting class—the team is still in good shape with Jordan Diamond and Alex Kozan, for starters—but it's disappointing nonetheless. I asked the Twitter world last night if any Stanford bloggers would like a detailed commitment post, and the general response was, "LOL Stanford football bloggers?" which, like, good point.

How will Garnett's decision impact Michigan? Well, the Wolverines can still fill a spot along the interior of the line if Kozan goes blue when he announces on Sunday ($, info in header). Kozan has narrowed his choices to Michigan, Iowa, and Auburn—I've said this before, but Kozan might actually be the most important recruit left on the board, as he's the only lineman among M's commits and targets who projects to center, where the Wolverines have major depth issues. Kozan hasn't given any indication about holding a favorite, so we'll just have to wait and see who he chooses.

Jordan Diamond, meanwhile, will announce on February 3rd, and the big tackle has reportedly cut down his choices to three schools, one of which is Auburn ($), but he won't reveal the other two at the moment. It appears that Ohio State is out of the picture, and a Brian-approved insider posted on the MGoBoard yesterday that Diamond is really down to Michigan and Arkansas. His recruitment has taken so many twists and turns that I won't bother to throw out a guess.

One other O-lineman has entered the picture in Rutgers commit Chris Muller, a four-star tackle who holds a Wolverine offer. According to Rivals national analyst Mike Farrell, Muller was contacted by Michigan—along with several other schools—yesterday in the wake of the breaking news that Rutgers coach Greg Schiano had taken the head coaching job for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We'll see if Muller's reported interest culminates in a visit.

Armani Reeves Update; Sam Grant Non-Update

Sam Webb caught up with Armani Reeves's godfather, Brent Williams (father of best friend and Ohio State commit Camren Williams), for a two-part interview last night. In part one ($) Williams discussed the in-home visits of Brady Hoke, Curt Mallory, and Greg Mattison—they went well—and debunked the rumor that Urban Meyer showed up late for OSU's in-home visit. He also soundly denies that Reeves and Camren Williams are a package deal, which is obviously good news for Michigan. Part two ($) has the most relevant info, as Sam asked Williams about a a possible decision date for Reeves:

Brent Williams: “Well, I’m not saying that there’s a date. I would say he’s going to have some time… a lot of time… this weekend to think it through. He has a pretty good game on Friday. After that I think he’ll have Saturday and Sunday to kind of think things through. We’ll sit down over the weekend and kind of talk about the pros and cons of both situations and go from there. We’re not doing a hat; we’re not doing a press conference. Call the coach, and tell him you’re coming… then call the other coach, and tell him you’re not. It’s pretty simple. At this point the whole mystery behind pulling hats and whatever tricks you got… we’re just not really focused on that. We’re just trying to find the right school that is going to help him going forward.”

It sounds like we're unlikely to hear about a decision until Sunday at the earliest and the process could possibly stretch into next week. Every indication is that Reeves is still undecided.

As for Michigan's other prominent target, tight end Sam Grant, he was visited at home by Brady Hoke last night, but there hasn't been any word about a possible commitment. The consensus is that Michigan leads, however, and we could hear his final decision at any time—Grant has talked about wrapping up his recruitment quickly since December, but new offers threw a wrench into those plans. Now that he's got everything laid out in front of him, I don't think we'll have to wait too long for an announcement.

Chris Wormley's Interesting Choice in Pre-Game Music

Tremendous caught up with Chris Wormley this week to talk about his recruitment as well as his pre-game ritual. The latter line of questioning is where things got interesting:

Tremendous: So before you get on the field, who are you listening to in order to get you amped up?

Chris: Usually Lil' Wayne, Drake or Adele.

Tremendous: One of those is not like the other.

Chris (laughs): I like listening to Adele. She calms me down. People laugh when I say that I listen to her.

Tremendous: How does it pump you up though? It's Adele!

Chris: With Adele, I just like listening to her because she sounds good. It doesn't really pump me up or calm me down.

Tremendous: I like Lady Gaga, Chris. It's alright.

Chris: Eh, she's a little weird for me.

Tremendous: Thanks dude.

I don't mind Adele, so I can't hate. Lady Gaga, well, I'll just leave that one alone. I'll also save you the rant about how current popular hip hop is a steaming pile of hot garbage. ANYWAYS, Tremendous also interviewed Mario Ojemudia, who's already starting the trash talk about the Michigan-MSU rivalry:

Tremendous: I asked Devin [Funchess] the same thing: What's it going to be like to play against [MSU commit and high school teammate] Aaron [Burbridge] for four years?

Mario: It would have been nice to play together, but I always figured we'd end up at different schools. It's going to be fun beating him for four years though.

Well played, Mario.

Quickly: The Detroit News profiled Ben Braden in their ongoing Blue Chip series, but it's a rehashing of the "hey, this big guy played hockey in high school" story that's already been beaten into the ground months before he's even on campus.

2013 Notes

247Sports released their Class of 2013 All-American team, and it's littered with Michigan targets. The Wolverines have offered or shown strong interest in RB Ty Isaac, WR James Quick, WR MarQuez North, TE Adam Breneman, OL Laremy Tunsil, OL Steven Elmer (ND commit), OL Ethan Pocic, OL Jake Raulerson, DE Jonathan Allen, LB Su'a Cravens, LB E.J. Levenberry, and ATH Jalin Marshall.

Running through news on the current juniors, there are a couple of new offers to report: Wexford (PA) North Allegheny OL Patrick Kugler ($, info in header), a four-star to 24/7, and Phoenix (AZ) Brophy Prep WR Devon Allen ($, info in header). Michigan is offering a ton of receivers in the junior class—it's clear that getting a couple big-time playmakers at the position is a huge priority.

Quickly: Michigan also appears close to offering four-star Washington D.C. lineman Derwin Gray ($, info in header); Avon (OH) cornerback Ross Douglas will take an unofficial visit on February 3rd ($, info in header)—he believes he's close to an offer, as well; Cleveland (OH) Shaker Heights DE/DT/OT Donovan Munger is in regular contact with Greg Mattison, and he would favor Michigan and Ohio State if he was offered ($); Magnus scouts Wheaton (IL) St. Francis OL Kyle Bosch, one of Michigan's top targets along the offensive line.

Links for 2012-01-26 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

Trio of transfers already adding to Hampton signing class
Carvin Johnson goes I-AA. Via Maize Pages.
A Fighter Abroad
"In the winter of 1809, a freed American slave named Tom Molineaux arrived in London with the intention of fighting the most famous boxer on earth."
Scot Loeffler And SEC Football's Creeping Sabanization
B&B on Loeffler at Auburn

Opponent Recap: Minnesota

Heiko — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:29:32 +0000

Previously: Western Michigan, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan, San Diego State

[Note: I plan to do these twice a week from now on so that we (I) can have closure with the 2011 season by sometime in February. Apologies if you find this content dated, but since there are people still writing papers about dinosaurs, I feel somewhat timely, relatively speaking.]

Minnesota

Schedule:

@ No. 25 USC, 17-19 (L)
New Mexico State, 21-28 (L)
Miami (NTM), 29-23 (W)
North Dakota State, 24-37 (L)
@ No. 19 Michigan, 0-58 (L)
@ Purdue, 17-45 (L)
No. 13 Nebraska, 14-41 (L)
Iowa, 22-21 (W)
@ No. 17 Michigan State, 24-31 (L)
No. 18 Wisconsin, 13-42 (L)
@ Northwestern, 13-28 (L)
Illinois, 27-7 (W)

Record: 3-9 overall, 2-6 B1G, 6^th place Bo Division

Stats:

	Offense	Defense
Rush:	160.0 ypg, 56^th	186.4 ypg, 91^st
Pass:	150.3 ypg, 109^th	216.7 ypg, 49^th
Total:	310.3 ypg, 110^th	403.1 ypg, 77^th
Scoring:	18.4 ppg, 111^th	31.7 ppg, 94^th
T/O margin:	-8, 100^th

Recap: There was a time not too long ago when Michigan fans could look at a team with a new coach that had finished a season with a 3-9 record and say, “I have no idea know what that’s like, but that must be terrible.”

Now that we know exactly what that’s like -- and yeah, it’s pretty terrible -- let’s take a closer look at how coach Jerry Kill and his Minnesota squad ended the season 3-9 and weep together as repressed memories begin to surface.

(more after the jump)

The Gophers started their schedule with a road game against USC where they came within a couple fourth-down conversions of beating the Trojans. QB Marqueis Gray started the game but had to leave due to leg cramps; QB Max Shortell played admirably in relief, scoring Minnesota’s lone pass TD and almost leading his team to a comeback victory on the last drive.

Despite the loss, the fact that the Gophers played USC so close kinda/sorta put the rest of the Big Ten on upset alert. “Crap,” said Iowa. “There’s another Northwestern in the conference.”

With a soft non-conference schedule between them and the Michigan game, it seemed the Wolverines would have the ill fortune of being the first Big Ten team to test that hypothesis.

But games are played out for a reason. In a shocking turn of events, Minnesota fell to New Mexico State the very next week, losing Gray (again) to cramps and their head coach to seizures. They hobbled through the next two games, barely beating Miami (NTM) and then losing to FCS North Dakota State.

By the time the Gophers arrived in Ann Arbor they were down their starting quarterback and any semblance of morale. On offense they made it into Michigan territory what, like, once? And then fumbled? Defensively, well … 58 points later Minnesota shut down its football program, and that was the end of that.

... Just kidding. They didn’t shut down the football program, but clearly the program had a lot of soul searching to do. Two more conference losses to Purdue and Nebraska later, the Athletic Department granted Kill a seven-year contract extension.

Soul: found.

Good move by them. It’s like telling college students the day before the final paper is due that they get another week to work on it. It's highly recommended if you’re the type of professor that cares more about reading higher quality papers than the fact that they were done on time.

The next weekend the Gophers beat Iowa. The weekend after that they nearly didn’t lose to Michigan State. While they got trounced by Wisconsin and couldn’t quite handle Northwestern, they ended the season on a high note by drubbing Illinois 27-7 and kicking the chair out from beneath Ron Zook.

Which is great for Minnesota. Regardless of the overall record, they can take the momentum from winning their last game against a pretty talented (albeit floundering) team into the offseason and look forward to next season.

So what does this mean for their future? The Gophers will suffer from a talent gap for some time before their reputation is repaired and Kill can get higher-rated recruits on campus. In the meantime they’ll have to resort to the “milk the crap out of your two-/three-star talent” strategy a la the Iowas and Northwesterns of the world. But that won’t be easy next season. Everyone who was anyone on their defense was a senior in 2011. On offense, Gray has another year of eligibility, but it’s unlikely he’s going to turn into Chandler Harnish especially with how awful their O-line play is.

After that, who knows? Kill and his coordinators haven’t had the luxury of establishing offensive or defensive personalities at Minnesota yet, so we’ll evaluate in another season or two.

Ultimately, I'm going to handwavingly predict that they'll have to weather a couple 5-7 seasons before they notch their first winning record sometime around 2014.

Best win: Iowa.

Worst loss: New Mexico State. The Michigan loss was numerically worse and possibly more humiliating, but this was the one that really derailed the first half of their season, especially with what happened with Kill’s health.

When Michigan played them they were as frightening as: A person choking on a grape. Fear level = 2.

Now we know they’re as frightening as: The grape. (If you’re Iowa or Illinois, it’s a 7.)

What the win meant for Michigan: Michigan pitched its first shutout since 2007, Al Borges whipped out the Fritz formation, and Vincent Smith completed a TD pass. At the time it wasn’t so much evidence for the Wolverines being legitimately good than it was evidence for Minnesota being legitimately bad. It was comforting to know at least that Michigan would no longer be the “game that got their season back on track” for struggling opposing teams as it has been for the last several years.

And it totally felt as awesome as: Making s'mores over the flames as someone's house burns down.

I don't have any photos from the Minnesota game, so here's a photo from practice. At least Stonum got to wear the No. 1 jersey before he went out.

Unverified Voracity Boggles At The Cameron Lazies

Brian — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:31:29 +0000

I still can't believe it's called "The Journey," which should by rights be a Hallmark Channel series about entering puberty. But it's talking Michigan-Michigan State. Cazzie Russell gets his eyebrow on and Novak rains threes in Breslin:

The Aneurysm of Leadership is discussed.

It's the… uh… economy? This is unbelievable:

Once regularly an asylum for 1,200 Crazies, Section 17 at Cameron Indoor Stadium now rarely plays host to a student-only crowd.

Student attendance at men’s basketball games has fallen consistently over the last five years, even dropping after Duke won its fourth national championship in 2010. This season, approximately 650 undergraduates have attended each game, 150 fewer than during the 2008-09 season. As a result, Duke Athletics has begun to sell an increasing number of general admission tickets in the student section on a regular basis.

“It has nothing to do with the revenue. We just want it to be full,” Director of Marketing and Relations Mike Forman said. “If there were 1,200 students every game we would love it.”

I've given Michigan students crap for late/spotty attendance at football and hockey (basketball seems immune for some reason) but, like… Jebus. If Duke can't sell out their student tickets it is a nationwide epidemic.

The article goes on to describe a couple of reasons for the decline: the prevalence of online streaming (which seems ludicrous since I'm sure all Duke games are televised in Durham) and "the students' misconception of the time commitment involved." Apparently it's first-come, first-serve and you show up for a game sans ticket and hope to get in. That's a little nuts.

Even if Duke is too far at one end of the scale, Michigan could slide closer to them without incurring the same effect. Offer incentives for having your tickets scanned on time or early and revoke student ticket privileges for people who don't bother to show up.

Attacking the symptom. Bowls are out of control but this does not attack the matter at its heart:

There is "growing support" among conference commissioners, athletic directors and bowl officials to increase the difficulty of becoming bowl eligible by requiring teams to have seven victories, or a winning record, when the new BCS cycle begins in 2014, multiple sources have told CBSSports.com. The seven-win requirement would also mean a handful of bowls likely would be discontinued because there would not be enough eligible teams to fill all of the current 70 berths. In the past two years alone, 27 teams with 6-6 records were needed to fill all the bowl slots, meaning nearly 20 percent of the bowl field didn't have a winning record.

That would hack out about seven of the existing bowls, none of which would be missed in the slightest. It would still allow a dozen or more bowls that are net negatives to exist. The way to fix the current system is to get rid of ticket and hotel guarantees and let the bowls, not the schools, assume the risk of a crappy matchup.

Slicing out the bottom of the barrel is better than nothing, I guess. And at least athletic directors and presidents are getting wise to the scam:

"The 7-5 proposal is getting serious support," a non-BCS bowl official said. "They're telling a coach [that] 6-6 doesn't cut it, but then the coach gets a $50,000 or $100,000 bonus for a bowl game that none of the fan base wants to see. Athletic directors feel like they're pouring money down a hole and they're getting frustrated with it. The only people making out on 6-6 bowl games are the coaches."

…and the dudes in blazers, of course.

Burn. The Daily profiles Brian Wiseman by featuring his ridiculous peewee campaign:

You’ve probably heard about Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson’s phenomenal six-goal game with the St. Louis Blues in 1968. But what about the record-breaking season of one of his assistants, who averaged over five goals per game en route to a 413-goal campaign?

“They didn’t even keep those stats when I was a kid,” Berenson said.

Alex Guptill says no sale.

@_BrianWiseman I've seen this guys wrist shot, there is no way he scored 413 goals... #allstar

Wiseman can only say "keep scoring" at the moment, but don't find yourself in a drought, Alex.

I'll take f-bombs for 1000. David Molk is interviewed by Kyle Mienke:

He's certain of one thing, though: He has doubters. And he knows exactly where they can go.

"It's just, stuff like that pisses me off," Molk said, voice rising. "Any scout who denies me pisses me off. 'Oh, this is what you got. You’re not good enough.'

"Well, (to hell with) you, let me show you what I got."

For the record, I have never doubted Molk and move around constantly so my location cannot be pinned down. Also, Molk's Sugar Bowl injury was a severed tendon. Competition for center of the 2010s is now closed.

Surprise unwarranted. After the Purdue game I noted that Michigan's bench was a nonfactor this year. A UMHoops mailbag points out that is no outlier:

Here are the statistics for the percentage of minutes played by the bench (Bench Minutes/Total minutes) under John Beilein since 2005:

Year Bench % Rk

2012 22.3% 327

2011 19.3% 337

2010 22.1% 327

2009 35.6% 66

2008 31.6% 147

2007 24.7% 282

2006 20.0% n/a

2005 31.2% n/a

Average 25.9%

Beilein has high expectations and he’s going to play who he trusts at any given time.

Year	Bench %	Rk
2012	22.3%	327
2011	19.3%	337
2010	22.1%	327
2009	35.6%	66
2008	31.6%	147
2007	24.7%	282
2006	20.0%	n/a
2005	31.2%	n/a
Average	25.9%

The last three years Michigan has been incredibly thin. I'm hoping that changes next year. Michigan's not going to shoot up into Arkansas territory but if they can get into the middle of the pack injuries get a lot less frightening and players having off nights can spend more of them on the bench.

Etc.: Martin pwns Brewster at the Senior Bowl. Penn State flips a QB commit from… Rice. Scout folks say Diamond, Grant to M, Garnett to Stanford, Kozan to Iowa, and punt on Reeves.

Recruiting Vibe-O-Meter

Brian — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:00:57 +0000

As Signing Day nears, people commit to schools. That's how it works. Michigan has had a long wait after their summer flood and now sits on five guys that will either fill out the class or commit heinous crimes that can never be forgiven. In the spirit of late January/early February recruiting overkill, a rundown of the prospects and what my own Bayesian spidey sense (assembled from message board trolling, tips in the inbox, and a few conversations) is feeling at the moment.

If you don't read every word of the recruiting roundups, let this serve as a 1,000 foot view.

OH TE Sam Grant. Grant recently decommitted from Boston College after a long period of being a commit in name only and is either down to Michigan and Oklahoma or those two schools and Arkansas, depending on who you listen to. I have no insider information on him but his visit schedule is telling. In chronological order, he took trips to:

BC
Michigan
Arkansas
Oklahoma
Michigan

That second trip is telling, likely an attempt to confirm his decision or bring a family member up to get them on board. With Kyle Kalis undoubtedly in his ear and Oklahoma flush with tight end recruits (three already), this one seems like the least dramatic recruitment on the board.

Verdict: Michigan.

IL OL Jordan Diamond. Diamond has seemingly had Michigan in the lead for over a year now, when he popped up on Michigan's radar during their recruitment of Simeon teammate Chris Bryant. A recruit not committing to an obvious leader over a long period of time can be a bad sign—it's often a signal there's something impassable. In Diamond's case, once Meyer arrived and started shooting offers out to anyone with four stars in the Big Ten footprint rumors started swirling about an Ohio State commit; he visited.

That moment has passed, leaving Diamond with an official top four of M, Arkansas, Auburn, and Wisconsin. Unofficially, that top four is a top two of M and Arkansas. The delay here is supposedly alarm at Michigan's offensive line recruiting class and Diamond's seeming inability to start from day one at Michigan. If Michigan makes it clear that the need at tackle is dire and that a couple of the touted players in the class are likely destined for guard (like Kalis and Garnett if he chooses justice and light), he should be blue. People close to Diamond believe that he really wants Michigan.

Verdict: Michigan.

WA OL Josh Garnett. The biggest fish on the board is down to Stanford and Michigan. There is an interesting divide between the most informed Michigan observers (Sam, Tom), who believe it will be M, and most national analysts, who believe it will be Stanford. Garnett is going to make a lot of people wrong no matter who he chooses. Tom's confidence has been on the wane a bit of late; Sam, too, has been a little more reserved about Michigan's chances. This seems based on vibe more than new information, which isn't forthcoming. Some of the West Coast analysts predicting Stanford admit that they haven't gotten any new information out of Garnett in forever.

Meanwhile, ~~Kevin~~ Erik Magnuson [ed: damn my memory for obscure old M hockey defensemen] and Garnett twitter footsie has reached levels heretofore unseen. Garnett has a bunch of people snowed either way; the choice here is between distance from home and being able to enjoy a milkshake with Magnuson at a school that has a much better track record of sustained success than Stanford.

This one is a tossup on which I don't have inside info. But…

Verdict: Michigan.

MA CB Armani Reeves. After decommiting from Penn State, Reeves is down to Michigan or Ohio State. Michigan came in second on Reeves's first go-round and familiarity on its side—Ohio State just hired their defensive backs coach a couple hours ago. Ohio State has a commitment from best friend and fellow PSU decommit Camren Williams. Quien es mas macho?

Nobody knows. This is another recruitment that will go into the hat dance a genuine mystery; Rivals East Coast analyst Mike Farrell was "surprised" that the Urban in-home didn't lock Reeves down and now gives Michigan a ludicrously specific 52-48 edge based on nothing more than Bayesian spidey sense vibes. It's likely that not even Reeves knows where he's going at the moment.

Verdict: Flip a coin.

CO OL Alex Kozan. Kozan is down to Iowa, Michigan, and Auburn, three of the four schools he took officials to. Ohio State, the other, was presumed to be the heavy favorite. The way that changed suddenly implies that OSU pulled its offer. With the lingering OSU fandom push him away or will revenge bloodlust push him towards Michigan? Nobody knows.

No one knows anything about Kozan, really. I can't find one thing that indicates he's leaning one way or the other and haven't heard anything personally. All I've got is that it's the Auburn site on 247 that seems to be posting the most relevant items, like his announcement date. Auburn is nowhere near the 25 maximum and though they are hypothetically near 85, things happen, you know.

Verdict: Flip a three-sided coin.

Random Surprise Fellow. I think Michigan can take all five of the above if the chips fall their way. They have 23 with three early enrollees and have 27 scholarships open right now with one blindingly obvious candidate to not receive a fifth year. If Michigan strikes out on one or more of the above, do they have an Englemon in their pocket?

I have heard they do, a generic three-star defensive lineman currently committed to another BCS school. Michigan initially did not pursue him heavily but if there's a signing day flip don't be shocked. I think it'll take more than missing out on just one of the above for that to happen, but if it's a choice between leaving three scholarships open and taking a mystery guy I'm betting on mystery guy.

Links for 2012-01-25 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

Michigan dispels OHL rumors, source says alternate location likely
outrage: shelved

Never Be The First To Report Someone's Dead

Brian — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:12:29 +0000

[ED: Meta. I was just going to put a bullet in a UV about this but things got a little crazy and I ended up with a full post.]

Joe Paterno's death was a hugely misreported fiasco of the sort that is inevitable given the speed of information in the internet age. This post is an attempt to provide a framework for existing in a world of uncertain information.

This is what happened: Onward State, a blog/online newspaper run by PSU students, reported Paterno's death based on an email sent to Penn State players that turned out to be a hoax. This was good enough for a local radio station and StateCollege.com. It hit twitter and was then picked up without attribution by CBS Sports. It took off from there once the imprimatur of a major news agency was on it. Black Shoe Diaries has a detailed chronology of the mass screwup if you're interested in details. Shirtless Mark Twain isn't sure if he approves of this whole business or not, but would like you to know that rumors of his rippling pecs have been sorely undersold.

It's a story about the internet screwing up in very understandable ways. Onward State had what seemed like reliable information, and it passed their threshold for reporting. It is not a good threshold, but not everyone has one these days. CBS's Adam Jacobi did something unwise and sloppy. Pagewhoring Huffington Post saw an opportunity for views and cares about nothing else.

We've seen this happen before when a newspaper intern replicates an internet rumor on one of the dingy blogs shuffled off into the corner of large metro papers: as soon as a rumor gets paired with header graphics associated with a real newspaper, everyone else is confirming it via "sources." In this instance, CBS's screwup was compounded because they didn't even provide a link to the primary source; Huffington Post did the same thing, but that's just their MO. Jacobi is a BHGP founder and should have known better.

I've screwed these things up myself. Earlier this year I erroneously reported that Kaleb Ringer had been booted from his high school team based on information that seemed solid but obvious was not. By contrast, a couple years ago I had the sense not to run anything about the serious car accident that Jon Bills and Mark Moundros were in despite having a ton of solid sources telling me about it. That seemed like a place to let journalists be journalists.

As I go along here that realm has steadily expanded. I probably won't report something like the Ringer thing again for a lot of reasons. Michigan playing Alabama is one thing to be wrong about; a high school kid's problems or lack thereof is another. This leaves windows open for crass opportunists like Ace Williams, but it's the internet. There's always going to be a bottom of the barrel.

------------

Anyway, these things evolve naturally. As this site expands it has more at risk and becomes more cautious. People just starting out have little to lose and have not experienced the backlash from being wrong—or the frightening period between your post and official confirmation of it. Also some of them are total idiots.

From the user's perspective, the thing to do is maintain a Bayesian approach. Phil Birnbaum explains what that is:

Generally, Bayesian is a process by which you refine your probability estimate. You start out with whatever evidence you have which leads you to a "prior" estimate for how things are. Then, you get more evidence. You add that to the pile, and refine your estimate by combining the evidence. That gives you a new, "posterior" estimate for how things are.

You're a juror at a trial. At the beginning of the trial, you have no idea whether the guy is guilty or not. You might think it's 50/50 -- not necessarily explicitly, but just intuitively. Then, a witness comes up that says he saw the crime happen, and he's "pretty sure" this is the guy. Combining that with the 50/50, you might now think it's 80/20.

Then, the defense calls the guy's boss, who said he was at work when the crime happened. Hmmm, you say, that sounds like he couldn't have done it. But there's still the eyewitness. Maybe, then, it's now 40/60.
And so on, as the other evidence unfolds.

That's how Bayesian works. You start out with your "prior" estimate, based on all the evidence to date: 50/50. Then, you see some new evidence: there's an eyewitness, but the boss provides an alibi. You combine that new evidence with the prior, and you adjust your estimate accordingly. So your new best estimate, your "posterior," is now 40/60.

So if some guy with 50 followers claims Armani Reeves is headed to Michigan because Urban was late for his in-home visit, you might increment your 50% to 51%. If Mike Farrell says its 52-48 you might bump it to 52%, but if Farrell said he thought Reeves was definitely headed to Michigan you could push it up further. You base your confidence in the opinion on previous accuracy, with a list like this…

TomVH/Sam Webb
Established message board posters
National analysts
Random message board posters
Raving lunatics
People who don't know what football is
Fictional races from another galaxy
Hyperintelligent tacos
Regular tacos
Tacos that aren't too bright even for tacos
Ace Williams

…and change your baseline confidence based on the information and your confidence level in it. This is something people do naturally, but too often the weight they put on the information is either 0 or 1 when it should be somewhere in between.

For purveyors of information, it's time to put an explicit confidence level on what you're relaying. My mistake with the Ringer thing, other than mentioning it at all, was saying something was the case when I should have said something less certain. When I got tips about the Michigan-Alabama game I erred by saying with certainty a contract would be signed on a certain date when the people involved with the thing probably didn't know that.

I try to follow a policy of revealing as much as I can about the nature any information I pass along without exposing a source, and that added transparency is necessary in an age when information—valid information—can come from anywhere or anyone. I still make mistakes. That's inevitable. I'm trying, though.

However, not even linking to the original report is a mortal sin. If you are going to run something based on someone else's reporting it is vital that you explicitly tell readers that. Otherwise one report from a little-known online news source turns into multiple reports, some of them from organizations with people paid to do reporting, and the echo chamber starts going exponential. If you do not link, you are telling people that you are reporting it, and when it turns out to be wrong you can't point the finger at anyone but yourself.

An Interview With Charlie Callinan

Ace — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:54:39 +0000

Jersey City (NJ) St. Peter's Prep junior Charlie Callinan is one of several wide receivers currently on Michigan's radar for the class of 2013. Callinan already holds an offer from Rutgers and his interest from several BCS programs in the Midwest and East Coast. The 6'4", 205 pound prospect is a member of the ESPNU 150 Watch List, while 247Sports ranks him as the #15 player in New Jersey and the #49 overall receiver among the junior class. Callinan has been in regular contact with Michigan assistant Curt Mallory, and I had the chance to talk to him last night about the recruiting process and where he stands:

ACE: How is everything going in your recruitment? Which schools are going after you the hardest right now?

CHARLIE: Everything is going pretty good. Right now, coaches are coming through, making their stops, just talking to me and watching us work out. I'm in contact with a bunch of coaches and schools, so it's been going pretty good. The [schools going after me the] hardest right now would probably be Rutgers, Michigan, Michigan State, Boston College, South Carolina, UConn, and Virginia.

ACE: Do you have any early favorites out of those schools?

CHARLIE: I don't really know about favorites, but I'm definitely interested in checking out those schools. I could see myself at every single one of those, and I've heard a lot about all of those schools. I don't really know about favorites, but all of those schools are pretty nice.

ACE: Talking about Michigan specifically, which coach has been in contact with you, and what's your impression of the coaching staff and the school?

CHARLIE: I've been talking to Coach Mallory a lot, Curt Mallory. He actually gets on a personal level with you, we'll talk a lot and we'll talk about how the week is going and stuff like that. He'll talk about the school and all that—he's a good guy and I heard a lot about him, I've heard a lot about the program, so I'll probably make it up there for a visit and check it out, and I'll see how it is.

ACE: How did you junior year go in terms of your personal performance? If you know your stats off the top of your head, feel free to rattle them off.

CHARLIE: It wasn't that good—we're more of a running team, so I don't get many looks at receiver. I'm still the number one receiver on the team. I had 35 receptions for 550 yards and five touchdowns.

ACE: If you had to scout yourself, what would you say are you biggest strengths as a player, and what are you looking to improve for your senior year and beyond?

CHARLIE: My strengths are [that] I can use my size pretty well, and I'm a pretty big kid. I'm about 6'4", 205, so I know how to use my size, and I know the game pretty well. I'll run really good routes and I'm just smart with the game, I can read coverages and all that. My speed is getting there, and I'm working on it, but next year that's what I'm mainly focusing on. I'm pretty fast now, but I really want just high-end speed. You can always get faster so I'll be working on that.

ACE: You mentioned Michigan as a possible visit destination. Are there any other schools that you're planning on taking a visit to at this point?

CHARLIE: Yup. On the 11th [of February] I think I'm going down to West Virginia for a visit, and then in the next coming month or so I'll be going down to Michigan State and maybe Virginia and UConn.

ACE: Do you have any idea in terms of a potential timeline?

CHARLIE: No, I have no clue. A lot of my friends committed before the season, I know some kids who committed after, and they pretty much told me that you've just got to know where you want to go to school before you jump to any conclusions. When I realize what school I want to go to, I want to make sure it's the right school, check it out even deeper, then I'll make my decision. There's no really telling what it's going to be.

ACE: What's going to make you know that a school is for you? What are the factors that you're looking at when it comes down to picking a school?

CHARLIE: The environment around me, the team, how I get along with the coaches, pretty much the overall environment. I'm not going to go to a school where I can't really get along with the coaches—it won't be a fun four years or however many years. I'm just looking for a school where I can be successful, do well academically and just as well on the football field.

First To 66 Wins

Brian — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:08:06 +0000

1/24/2012 – Michigan 66, Purdue 64 – 16-5, 6-2 Big Ten

Yo, dawg. I heard you like stress testing your heart. So we put the basketball team in an arena so it can either win or lose by two points unless it's getting crushed by Iowa(?!). Hope you enjoy stress testing your heart.

Seriously, though, the last five games:

Northwestern: W 66-64 (OT)
Iowa: L 75-59
MSU: W 60-59
Arkansas: L 66-64
Purdue: W 66-64

If this continues massive swaths of Crisler will start keeling over, clutching their chests, whenever the clock ticks under five minutes. It's a hard life when you're a fan of a middling to good Big Ten team this year.

Michigan got the coveted road win, and now doesn't have to hear about their lack of such against good competition. At least not as much. I'm sure they'll bring it up. They stand atop the pile of skulls that is the Big Ten at 6-2. While that's not likely to last what with the murders row Michigan is in the midst of, if Hardaway can be the most recent version of himself they've got a shot at anyone even if Kenpom predicts a 17 point loss to OSU on Sunday.

Kenpom also predicts two more one point games. Keep the paddles handy.

Bullets that have been sweated repeatedly

Stu! I like color guy Dan Dakich a lot and thought he would point out that Michigan switched him onto Lewis Jackson late after he thoroughly trashed Trey Burke for most of the game:

Michigan’s defense was far from perfect due to its inability to contain Lewis Jackson on the pick-and-roll. Jackson sliced his way into the lane for 17 points on eight shots along with eight assists and was the catalyst for a Boilermaker offense that scored 1.09 points per possession.

Jackson was slowed by Douglass and Purdue settled into the four-minute funk that allowed Michigan to edge it. Dakich didn't mention it.

On top of that, Douglass had twelve points on eight shots, two steals, three assists, one turnover, and a couple of "Did Stu Douglass just do that?" moments. The first one, a hesitation move that got him an uncontested layup, reminded me of Chauncey Billups. He's earned his starting role.

Novak. Novak had four attempts and one three-pointer. He needs more usage. If Purdue can get its sniper eight attempts in this game Michigan should be able to get Novak at least a few.

Dakich did point out that Purdue was sticking to the corner shooters to the severe detriment of its interior defense and the numbers bear that out. Michigan shot just 14 threes (28% versus their average of 44%) and hit 58% from within the arc. Morgan was 5 of 7 and his two misses were point blank shots that should have gone down.

Hardaway! I was really frustrated with Hardaway in the first half—the accumulation of a lot of missed threes and poor decisions from earlier games and a few turnovers—and felt that resurface a couple of times in the second half whenever he'd miss or get into trouble on the interior. So I'm not the most balanced Hardaway commentator at the moment.

That said, if four turnovers are required for Hardaway to go 6 of 9 from within the arc, fine. I'd rather have his shots split 70-30 between twos and threes and for Hardaway's TO rate to shoot into the high teens (it's 12.4 right now) than the current situation. Hardaway didn't commit the requested charge. That's the next negative-indicating-a-positive step to take.

Now if the threes can just start falling… I mean, it's hard to believe the same player who shot something like 42% in the Big Ten last year is languishing at 27% this year.

Addition to the Hardaway face pantheon. Via UMHoops:

Dustin Johnston

Depth! We have none. You already know this. Exactly one bench player had more than five minutes—Smotrycz—and there were some crazy plus-minus numbers associated with his entry into the game. Morgan was +18 in his time on the court, Smotrycz –16. There was about four minutes of overlap, FWIW.

Smotrycz entry saw the massive Purdue run on which the Boilers couldn't miss. It didn't seem like it was entirely his fault but it also seemed crazy to keep Morgan, who had a Stu-like game that was even better than a scoreline that looks pretty good already, on the bench for as long as Beilein did. If Michigan's going to wear down, they're going to wear down. They're getting just 22% of their minutes from their bench, which is 327th nationally. For comparison, they're about as starter-heavy this year as they were young last year.

I think we can agree this is not a good thing. It will get a bit better next year unless there is unexpected attrition—Hardaway is not going to be coming off a year he thinks represents his skill level, right?—what with three players replacing two. Then you've got Horford back, Beilfeldt off a redshirt, and hopefully some progress from Brundidge. They should have a pretty deep rotation everywhere save point guard.

Dustin Johnson

I must not understand block/charge. There were two blocking fouls and a no-call that seemed totally ludicrous to me. The worst was when a stationary Hardaway took a violent shoulder to the chest; no call and the Purdue guy made an uncontested layup because his defender was looking for a license plate. A couple other Michigan attempts to take charges got called as blocks despite the defensive player's total immobility. You could hear Dakich's skepticism on one three-point play as the replay showed a totally stationary defender getting plowed and he said something along the lines of "uh… good job by that guy of not jumping directly into the player" as the replay showed a guy jumping almost but not quite entirely into a player.

There was also a Purdue bucket on which Smotrycz forced the driver to put almost the entirety of a size 14 shoe out of bounds that the refs missed. Michigan got one call that egregious on a Hardaway turnover magically transmogrified into a shooting foul by a ref who couldn't see what was going on since the players had their backs to him. Add it up and in a hypothetical world where the refs get everything right, Michigan wins by seven or so. I hate college basketball referees.

Dakich: thumbs up. Probably my favorite non-Raftery color guy at the moment, and I like Raftery for the atmosphere he brings a game, not necessarily the analysis. He's continually saying interesting things that make the dude watching at home understand a little more about basketball and he strikes a nice balance when he makes his criticisms. He's not a Knight-like crab but he'll point out that Jackson, for example, is getting into the lane way too easily.

Elsewhere

Recap and gallery from UMHoops. Holdin' the Rope recaps. Boiled Sports declares the game a gut punch. Hammer and Rails says it's getting old.

MGoProfile with Ace

Six Zero — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:21:45 +0000

Six Zero back with the January 2012 installment of:

This monthly offseason feature highlights some of the more famous personalities
here at MGoBlog. Without pulling back the infamous veil of blog anonymity, we’ll
get to know some of your favorite posters better and possibly shed some light
on their definition of why it’s so darn Great, To Be, A Michigan Wolverine.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF MGOPROFILE
(Scroll down to the MGoProfile section of the User-Curated HOF).

SIX QUESTIONS WITH ACE ANBENDER

BIG SHOES TO FILL: 1. Definition(expr.) when a job that was
done by a great person will now be done by someone new.
Ex: Bob was so well-liked and successful; The man
replacing him has some very big shoes to fill.

When the acclaimed TomVH packed up his bags for the bright lights of ESPN, Brian put out the call for his replacement. And, to our surprise, the position was filled rather quickly, by some guy named Ace who previously wrote at some other blog or something. As if other Michigan blogs exist, right?

Since then, Ace has quickly carved out his own niche, both interviewing prospective recruits and covering sporting events and pressers as well. His style and writing voice has blended seamlessly with the existing culture of the blog, and yet he clearly seasoned the official content in ways we have never tasted before. And all the while, he is omnipresent, and certainly his biggest day of the year will fall next Wednesday as we learn of the luckiest two-dozen plus young men who will get to call themselves Michigan Men. In celebration of next week's National Signing Day, Ace broke away from the phone long enough to sit down for this exclusive MgoProfile:

1. First off—in your own words, explain to us the responsibilities and opportunities of being the Recruiting Analyst at MGoBlog?

To be perfectly honest, I’m still trying to figure this out myself. I know the opportunities—a chance to cover the team I grew up watching, a huge amount of exposure for my writing, making great connections, and being a part of the best team-specific blog out there, to name a few. As for the responsibilities, I’m still trying to find a balance between recruiting and football/basketball coverage; Brian has given me a lot of freedom to carve out my niche, and I’m trying to figure out what that is right now. Making sure readers get enough information to be able to follow the important recruiting stories is my main goal, and if I can help them become familiar with the type of people Michigan recruits, that’s a huge bonus and something I really enjoy doing.

As for day-to-day stuff, I’m learning it really changes depending on the season. Football season is a grind, especially when I’m checking out a high school game (or two) on Friday and then turning right around and covering the Michigan game on Saturday, and it’s also incredibly fun. Transitioning to basketball—while trying my hand at UFRing games—has also required a fair share of work. I hear things ease off a fair amount in the summer, and I can’t say I’m not looking forward to chilling out a bit and taking a week or two off in there. At the very least, every day I’m either writing a post or gathering information for one (read: watching film, usually) while also monitoring any recruiting info and trying to continue building my contacts. Though there’s a lot to do, you won’t hear any complaints from my end—I know how lucky I am to be in this position.

2. What was the hiring process to become a FT member of the MGoBlog team? And what on earth is it like to have Brian Cook as your boss?

The hiring process went so fast I barely had time to absorb everything that was going on. I’ve checked MGoBlog on a daily basis going as far back as high school, so I noticed pretty quickly when Brian posted the job opening on the site. I’m pretty sure that was on a Monday morning, and by that afternoon I’d finished up my resume—tailored specifically for the job, since this wasn’t your normal job opening—and sent it to Brian. I heard back within a day or two that I was one of the finalists, and I interviewed with Brian in person that Friday. Before the weekend was over, he informed me I had the job, and from there I hit the ground running.

As for having Brian as a boss, it’s a different experience than with any other job I’ve had (though, admittedly, this is my first full-time job). Most of my interaction with him is through GChat, and he’s not telling me what I should be writing about on any given day—football season had a relatively rigid schedule, but that’s not the case right now. I initially was worried that I would have trouble getting feedback on my writing, but I’ve found that Brian is great about helping me out as long as I take the initiative to voice my concerns to him. I know Brian trusts me to get my work done, and at that point there’s no need to micromanage—if I need something, I ask him about it, and otherwise we’re both focused on taking care of business.

[Ed: remainder after jump.]

Yeah, Brian just doesn’t seem like the “I need to see you in my office STAT!” type. He knows how to build a successful team around himself, however, and with success often comes turnover. Succeeding TomVH is no small task—what was your game plan going into the position, and what has changed from that philosophy since you’ve settled in?

The first month or two on the job, my game plan was simply to survive—I really didn’t have time to think about what I was doing, since a week after I took the job Michigan kicked off against Western. I’m not really focused on replacing Tom—or replacing Tim, for that matter—but instead on figuring out what I can bring to the site and how best to manage my time and effort. I’m working on being me, and finding out what that is, so trying to emulate Tom or Tim isn’t even really on my mind. That said, there’s a lot I can learn from what those guys did here and continue to do elsewhere, and both of them have been really helpful to me since I took the job.

3. What was it like taking your spot in the press box this season, as opposed to sitting in the stands? Describe some of the dreams that have come true for you since becoming part of the official media that covers Michigan sports.

I can only describe it as surreal. To go from unemployed in August to sharing a press box with people like John U. Bacon, Jim Brandstatter, and Bob Wojnowski in September, well, it was hard at times just to buckle down and remember that I was there to cover a football game. It took a while just to get comfortable with the idea that I was qualified to even sit up there.

It’s an entirely different experience up there from being in the stands. Obviously, not being allowed to cheer is tough, especially since I take a lot of joy just from seeing these remarkable athletes do remarkably athletic things—I caught myself more than a few times just laughing after a Denard Robinson run or a Mike Martin sack. The more you start talking to other people in the press box, though, the more you realize most of them feel the same way. It’s great being able to talk Michigan football with people who have been around it for a long time, really know the game, have dedicated their professional lives to covering sports, and have a great passion for doing so—it sounds cliché, but I learn something new every time I step into that box. All that, and we get free food, too. The only thing about the press box experience that I don’t like is being separated from the fans. I’ve always loved the atmosphere at the Big House, and having a big sheet of glass between us and the crowd provides a rather stark reminder that I’m there on business, not to kick back and enjoy the game (though I certainly do enjoy myself, especially since I’m not on deadline like many up there).

As for living out any dreams, being on the field at the end of the Notre Dame and Ohio State games was indescribable. I had never been on the field during a game, and those were two of the loudest crowds I’ve heard at any sporting event—taking in the sights and sounds of the game from field level is a completely new and incredible experience. More than that, though, I’m living out a dream simply by being paid to do what I love: writing, and specifically writing about Michigan sports. Not everybody gets the opportunity to turn their passion into their job, and I’m fortunate that I’m in the position to do that only a year after I finished undergrad.

Fortunate? I’m sure many middle-aged Midwestern men see your position as a dream job. But, does it ever become hard work? And how much sports—college, pro, and high school of course-- do you officially watch now?

I don’t think anyone who’s doing their job well doesn’t have it cross into the “hard work” category at some point. That just comes with the territory. Spending hours on the road on weekends, combing over recruiting rankings every week, charting games while watching film—sometimes it just feels like work. When I feel like that, though, I remind myself that I get paid to watch sports, and for me that can’t possibly be a bad thing. I’ve had my moments of being overwhelmed, but I usually get over them quickly.

I actually don’t think I watch that much more sports than I did in college (though that probably says a lot about how I spent my time in college), especially since I closely follow all the major Detroit sports teams, too. Instead, my watching is a lot more focused: I’ll go over a Michigan basketball or football game for a second time instead of checking out the Red Wings game, for example. I’m watching at least one sporting event every day, though, and usually more than that.

4. You spend a great deal of time getting to know the recruits: what’s the percentage of information you reveal vs. what you actually know? And how hard is it to keep things off the record?

At this point, to be honest, I’m probably writing up 95% of what I know on recruits—I’m not established to the point where I have a lot of secrets. I really respect the time that recruits take to talk to reporters—when I think about how much time these guys spend fielding the same questions from the media (not to mention family/friends/fans), and the fact that they’re still high school students who also spend a ton of time on at least one sport, I don’t think it’s necessarily appropriate to try to get buddy-buddy with them by trying to chat them up off the record. If a guy wants to talk, I’m happy to do that, but usually I’m just doing a quick interview, trying to get the pertinent information, and wishing them well—anything more and I’m in danger of losing my objectivity, and since I’m also going out in the fall and watching a lot of these players from more of a scout’s perspective, that’s not at all what I want to do.

So, that said, it’s pretty easy to keep things off the record, because there’s not a whole lot I’m keeping off the record in the first place. When I reach the point where that’s the case, I’m sure it won’t be too difficult—I’m going to respect a recruit’s wishes about what gets reported and what doesn’t, plain and simple. I just don’t see a lot of gray area there.

Sure—if you ever got that reputation, you’d never shake it—but I know that’s never gonna happen. What recruits are you most excited about joining the team? And which recruits that got away are you most disappointed about?

After his performance in the Army game, as well as the personality he’s shown off the field, it’s hard not to get excited to see Ondre Pipkins in a Michigan uniform. The team obviously needs him to contribute immediately, and luckily it looks like he’ll be able to do just that. As for a player who I’ve actually seen in person, I’m really looking forward to seeing what James Ross can do in a couple of years. He was the most productive commit I saw all year—with the possible exception of Mario Ojemudia—and he showed the tackling ability and instincts that could make him a special linebacker.

Of the players who are ticketed elsewhere, I think I’m most disappointed—from a pure playing standpoint, since I’m not familiar first-hand with the intricacies of his recruitment—that Aaron Burbridge won’t be part of the class. He’s a great athlete and showed all the skills necessary to come in and contribute at receiver right away, including as a deep threat, something Michigan really needs right now. He’s a big-play guy who always looked like the best athlete—and best player—on the field, and while I certainly hope he succeeds in college, I also hope he doesn’t have too much of that success against Michigan.

5. What do you like to do for fun?

Sports used to be my escape, but I’ve always loved music. I played tenor saxophone from elementary school all the way up through my senior year of high school, mostly focusing on jazz, and I also played sax and was the lead singer of a ska band through most of high school. I haven’t picked up an instrument at all recently, but I still love listening to music and getting out to see live shows. I went to Rock the Bells—a one-day hip hop festival—in New York City last summer, Bonnaroo in 2006—the one and only time I’ll go to a typical “hippie music festival,” which was worth doing once, but once was enough—and I’ve seen performances by artists as varied as The Roots, Andrew Bird, and Ornette Coleman here in Michigan.

Otherwise, I think I’m a pretty normal 24-year-old male. Most of my social life, for better or worse, revolves around going to the bar or grabbing a few beers and watching sports at a friend’s apartment. I used to play my fair share of video games, too (mostly sports games, surprise!), but these days I’ve found I don’t have much time nor desire to fire up the PS3. If you challenge me to a game of NCAA, though, I’ll be more than happy to beat you.

Only if I’m Michigan and you’re Delaware State. Describe the perfect meal.

I was born in San Francisco and my parents lived there for 20 years. When we go back, Zuni Café is a must-visit. I would say my perfect meal is one of their wood-oven pizzas (classy, I know) with a Caesar salad. One of the best meals in a city known for its food.

6. Can you explain why you are a Michigan fan?

It’s tough not to become a Michigan fan when you grow up in Ann Arbor (my family moved here when I was five), and doubly so when your dad is an alum. My father started taking me to games in the ’94 season, when I was six, and though he never really pushed me to go to Michigan or become a huge fan—other than taking me to the games, but that was as more of a father/son thing to do in A2—I was pretty much a die-hard from the first moment I stepped into the Big House. When you’re a kid, I don’t think there are many sights more visually astounding than walking through a tunnel and seeing 100,000+ people dressed in maize and blue.

From that time forward, I was 100% committed to doing whatever it took to go to Michigan. I turned in my application the first week it was available during my senior year of high school, and I only applied to one other school (Stanford, for whatever that’s worth, and I didn’t get in anyway). When I found out I got in, I didn’t bother filling out any more applications. Nothing was going to top the combination of academics, a great town/campus, and the deep-seeded love for the school that Michigan provided.

Yes, I believe it’s referred to as “The Michigan Difference.” Who’s your all-time favorite Wolverine?

Man, that’s tough. The first player I really idolized at Michigan was Tim Biakabutuka, probably as much because of his name as his running ability. Then Charles Woodson happened, and until recently I would not have hesitated to say his name in answer to this question. The problem is that I was ten years old when Michigan won the national title, and though Woodson has always been my favorite, I also don’t remember much from a large portion of his career.

Still, I think it has to be Woodson, though Denard is making a strong push—I have never seen another athlete like him, and going to Michigan at the same time as him before covering him as a media member makes me feel a stronger connection. I try not to look at athletes this way when they’re still at Michigan, but I think when his career is over I’ll say that Denard is my all-time favorite Wolverine.

Twenty-four years old. When I was that age I was still dreaming about what I’d do when I grew up, haha. This guy has landed an amazing opportunity on the front lines following the teams he loves at the university he loves, and we get to be there with him every step of the way in his interviews and reports.

Sure, there’s been times he—and Heiko-- have been exuberant, in ways a traditional stuffy mainstream reporter tries to conceal. I couldn’t imagine Rittenberg giving me that “Dude can you believe this is happening?” vibe the way our new talent sometimes does. And, frankly, that’s one of the things I’ve enjoyed about Ace the most—he’s a legitimate member of the media, but he’s also human enough to allow us to see the wide-eyed wonder as well. Already a rock solid writer, it’s very easy to sense that a long and prosperous career is laid out in front of the guy.

I look forward to being along for the ride.

Links for 2012-01-24 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

Sam Sword Answers Your Questions
I'll take S words for 400.
eBay Watch: Harry Kipke Tames Lions (1935)
baby ones.

Links for 2012-01-23 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

Just Brady Hoke, out for his morning stroll.
well...
All-Star Game Recaps
Koger, Shaw, Odoms do a few things.
World juniors great for hockey and for prospects
Di Guiseppe rising to #22: "Every time we see him he's added a new piece to his ever expanding game." Trouba #10.

Links for 2012-01-22 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

Izzo unhappy about Izzone's 'ignorant' heckling of Purdue's Robbie Hummel
Maize Ragers: opportunity here to pwn the Izzone.

Links for 2012-01-19 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

SOPA protest by the numbers: 162M pageviews, 7 million signatures
Even MC Hammer hates SOPA. If he's not Hammer now.
Sweep of Ohio
Yost Built with some funny stories from the outdoor game
Interview: Seth Gold of Hardcore Pawn
I did not expect one of the pawn reality stars to be a huge Michigan fan.
Once a matchup nightmare, production has dwindled from 'worn down' Evan Smotrycz
erf: "Over Michigan's past six games, he has averaged 3.8 points and 4.2 rebounds and made 3 of his last 19 3-point attempts (15.8 percent)."

Links for 2012-01-18 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

The Triple-Threat
Gene Derricote: Michigan star, Tuskegee airman
East-West Shrine Game practice report: Tuesday
Koger reviewed well
Oddsmaker sets hypothetical line of Michigan +7.5 for Alabama game
Merph.
Top 5 players at every position in the 2012 NFL draft
Molk the #3 center. No Martin.
Chicken Knowles - Yahoo! Sports
There is a man named this committed to Houston basketball for 2012. That is all.
Robbie Findley somehow misses from right in front of goal
THIS MAN STARTED THREE WORLD CUP GAMES FFFFFFUUUUUUUUU