Diaries

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THE KNOWLEDGE shall, in this post, reveal the overall 2013 Michigan football season result, the OOC game results, and also a pointer about the NC game
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individual Big Ten game results will be reviewed in a later post
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yes
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Michigan, unfortunately, will not finish the season 14-0
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on the other hand, Michigan will not end up as low as 12-2 either
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thus, Michigan will end the season at 13-1
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yes
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this, of course, means that Michigan will play in the BTCG. As THE KNOWLEDGE has already noted on these very pages, Michigan will play osu in that game
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yes
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most people "predict" Alabama and osu to play for the national championship. however, THE KNOWLEDGE hereby reveals that neither of those teams will make it to that game
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many is the number of minnesota fans who are hopeful that this is the year their team finally makes the NC game; however, they are rather incorrect as well
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yes
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onto the OOC games
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most people correctly assume that Michigan will defeat CMU, Akron and UConn rather easily
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on the other hand, many is the number of fools who expect the ND game to be difficult. these people do not understand much about anything
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Michigan shall absolutely destroy ND and make their followers start spouting excuses by half time ("the kids must have had a tough week of class" etc)
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yes
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those that doubt these results don't understand THE KNOWLEDGE
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when time moves and makes the future the past,
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THE KNOWLEDGE shall soar and leave every doubter in a trail of dust
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yes
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PS: THE 2013 CHALLENGE will debut in a few weeks with great pomp

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So I happened to catch “The Big Lebowski” on FLIX the other night and I’ve always found these types of comparisons amusing when it was done using “The Simpsons” and “Game of Thrones”.  It’s the offseason.  We’re all a little bored.  BiSB is bumming us out with ennui on the front page, so I figured this would be fun.  So without further ado, here is Big Ten football as characters from Lebowski.  Enjoy,,,and discuss if the spirit moves you.

Michigan – The Dude

Why is Michigan “Dude”?  Well because he’s the protagonist of the movie and Michigan is the protagonist of the B1G.  Yeah, this is a total homer thing to say.  True the whole unemployed, slacker motif doesn’t really fit with the Michigan image, so if you need a more tangible connection, we have Hash Bash and The Dude likes himself some hash.

Ohio State – Jeffrey Lebowski

A rich and powerful mogul who when the curtain is peeled back is revealed to mostly be a fraud and engaged in an embezzlement scheme.  Yeah, I’m comfortable painting the Buckeyes with that brush.  But Tressel is gone you say?  Yep, still comfortable.

Penn State – Jesus Quintana

I’m not making the obvious pederast joke in this instance, mainly because the whole Sandusky thing just isn’t funny.  The sanctions that followed and the impact it had in turning Penn State into a ridiculous braggadocio is what lead me to tapping PSU as Jesus.  Plus both Jesus and Penn State have an awful high opinion of themselves that not many others share.  Still despite all the obnoxious flash and flair, the guy can roll and the same will ultimately be true of Penn State….probably.

Nebraska – Walter Sobchak

As long as Bo Pelini makes faces like this, comparisons with Walter are inevitable.  Where Walter romanticizes his Vietnam days, Nebraska loves to reflect back on those days when they ruled the Big 8 / Big 12...until Texas and Oklahoma showed them that they weren’t as prominent a program as they believed.

Michigan State – Donny Kerabatsos

While Donny lacks the anger that we’ve come to expect in your average Spartan, his pitiable inconsequentiality to the other players of the story is undeniable; and that makes Donny very, very Sparty.  If there was one school whose cremated ashes would be carelessly discarded from a Folgers coffee can off a random cliff, it would by Michigan State.  Tell me I’m wrong.

Wisconsin – Maude Lebowski

Whereas Maude is the disenfranchised Lebowski who bristles at her father frittering her family’s money away on gold-digging whores, so it is with Wisconsin.  Three Big 10 titles and counting and you still can’t hold onto your head coach or have anybody in the college football world take you seriously.

Purdue – Brandt

Purdue is an effete toady, refusing to accept accountability for anything.  Any program whose coach accuses another school’s coach of being a Snakeoil Salesman in a Wizards Hat is Brandt.  There I said it and I’m not taking it back.

Maryland – Bunny Lebowski

Is it really that much of a stretch to imagine Maryland as a gold-digging ex-pornstar that runs up outrageous debt on her husband’s tab?  They’re $50 million in the hole man, she probably just kidnapped herself.

Northwestern – The Stranger

If the Big 10 had an omnipresent narrator that interacted with all the characters while not actually participating in the plot of the story, it would be Northwestern.  I also have no problem imagining that Northwestern likes our style.

Rutgers – Jackie Treehorn

In this instance, I am taking the easy joke and connecting New Jersey to a loan-sharking pornographer.  Sue me, sometimes I get lazy.

Minnesota – Marty

Uh, Dude, you know, tomorrow is already the 10^thof the month and I haven’t seen that Brown Jug you owe me.  You know, just slip it under my door.  Also, I finally have my venue for my dance quintet, I’d love it if you came by to see it and give me some notes.  Thanks, Dude.

Iowa – Uli Kunkel aka Karl Hungus

If your school was situated in the middle of a cornfield, it’s not so hard to imagine turning to nihilism…or pornography for that matter.  Besides there’s probably a plethora of marmots to be found in Iowa (I have no idea if this is actually true).

Indiana – Smokey

When Walter pulls a gun and tells Indiana to mark it zero, Indiana acquiesces and marks it zero.  Maybe their toe WAS over the line, maybe it wasn’t, but they're Indiana and they don’t get to win….ever.

Illinois – Woo

Because Illinois remains eternally pissed at Michigan and it’s easy to imagine them doing something as impotent as urinating on a rug as a form of payback.

This series examines the probable individual matchups Michigan would face against particular 2013 opponents on one of Michigan’s key running plays and one of its key passing plays, as well as defensively against a couple of the opponent’s key plays (assuming first-sting personnel in a base defensive alignment).   This is the second installment of the series; my debut edition was on Michigan’s marquee non-conference game against Notre Dame.  Today, I look at Michigan’s trip to East Hartford that completes the home-and-home against the Connecticut Huskies of the Big East. 

Both coaching staffs have turned over since the 2010 edition of this game in A², a 30-10 Rich Rod gem that christened the renovated Big House.  For Michigan, as you know, the spread & shred is out and Manball is in.  For UConn, however, we can only speculate. 

Last season, UConn struggled mightily to move the ball. The team ranked 110^th in total offense and managed only 24 touchdowns all season.  So, it shouldn’t be any surprise that Offensive Coordinator George DeLeone is what’s out at UConn.  He’s replaced by T.J. Weist, erstwhile Michigan G.A. (1990-903, under Moeller), who spent most of the 2000s coaching various offensive positions at FCS Western Kentucky.  That included OC duties from 2003-06, before shifting back to a position/assistant HC spot for the rest of his tenure.  Significantly, Weist was there to see WKU adopt the up-tempo spread offense in 2008, before Brian Kelly hired him to coach receivers at Cincinnati in 2009.  Weist stayed with the Bobcats under Butch Jones, and finally makes the jump to BCS offensive coordinator starting this fall. 

So, what kind of attack will he deploy?  Weist’s own description is not very enlightening:

“I believe that you win games running the ball and throwing the football.  I’m not going to characterize us as a run the football or throw the football team, but I want to be an aggressive play caller.  I want to spread the field; vertically and horizontally.  Based on personnel, I want to be able to attack and have a physical offense with a balance to it.  We can throw deep; no question.  We just need to get the ball to our playmakers.  I think we’re going to put our players in the best position to make plays.”

But while we’re waiting for Heiko to penetrate Weist’s offensive soul, the smattering of speculation from the two UConn blogs and the Hartford newspapers, Weist’s extensive work as a position coach for wide receivers, and the presumption that Weist will run something similar to that preferred by the head coaches he worked for all suggest that he’ll implement some kind of up-tempo passing spread. UC blog Down the Drive did a nice three-part series on the differences between Brian Kelly’s offense and Butch Jones’s; whether Weist opts for the more free-form Kelly model or the west coastish Jones version remains to be seen, but either way it looks like we can count on seeing lots of 3- and 4-WR sets and a zone-heavy running game.

The Huskies also lost their defensive coordinator, Dan Brown, who moved to Boston College.  Unlike DeLeone, the loss of Brown could be a true setback for the Huskies, as they finished in the top-10 in total defense last season.  Brown is replaced by long-time UConn assistant Hank Hughes, who evidently runs some kind of 4-3 front.  I haven’t been able to find any more elaborate description of the scheme, so for this exercise I will presume it’s a 4-3 under, like God runs.  Now, on to the diagrams.

When Michigan has the ball…

1.       26 Power L

Last time, we looked at UM’s matchups running Power O to the right side against the stout Notre Dame front.  That play design called for Ben Braden, M’s likely starting LG, to pull across the formation and lead the back through the hole.  But as d_ronii pointed out, practice reports suggest M’s projected new RG, Kyle Kalis, is the team’s best puller—meaning it might be preferable to run Power O to the left side behind Kalis and all-American LT Taylor Lewan.  Here’s what that would look like against Connecticut’s 4-3 base front:

Assignments:

LT – Taylor Lewan: double-team (with TE) SDE B.J. McBryde

LG – Ben Braden: downblock NT Shamar Stephen

C – Jack Miller: downblock 3T Angelo Pruitt

RG – Kyle Kalis: pull and lead RB through 6-hole, block MLB Yawin Smallwood

RT – Michael Schofield: downblock WDE Jesse Joseph

TE – Devin Funchess: double-team McBryde, move to second-level and block WLB Jefferson Ashiru

FB – Joey Kerridge: execute kick-out block on SLB Graham Stewart

RB – Fitzgerald Toussaint: follow LG through 6-hole, cut off LG’s block.  Note that when running power from I-formation, the back must execute a counter step (toward the backside) before receiving the handoff.  This is to allow the LG time to execute his pull.

Advantage: Even

Taylor Lewan gives Michigan a fearsome presence at the point-of-attack.  But with a veteran front, including a preseason All-American of their own at MLB and a highly-regarded 315 lb. player at SDE, UConn has to like their chances defending plays like Power O.  They will need to, if UConn wants any shot at upsetting their storied visitors.

2.       Play-Action Deep Flood

Two years ago Brian picture-paged a very frustrating play in the 2011 Purdue game on which Devin Gardner, despite having a couple hours in a clean pocket to read and throw, missed a wide-open intermediate receiver and chucked the ball deep into double-coverage for a pick.  While DG’s subpar execution proved he wasn’t then ready to command Michigan’s offense, the play design was flawless—and got a 225 lb. YAC machine free twenty yards downfield against cloud coverage.  Gardner has had almost two years to correct his mistake on that play, so I’m thinking it’s probably only a matter of time before Al Borges calls it again.

The play involves pre-snap motion to help the QB diagnose the coverage. In the Purdue game, Michigan ran the play against Cover 3, which is a pretty common coverage, so I will assume UConn has a Cover 3 package and is in it on this down.  The play features two play-fakes: an iso fake to the tailback, followed by an end-around fake to the slot receiver.  The run action helps the receivers get past the linebackers, who ought to be dropping into their zones.  The long development also enables the receivers to get great depth in their patterns; by the time the fakes are completed, the quarterback should have a deep option (the corner, at about 40 yards) and an intermediate option (the arrow/drag thing the flanker is running) at about 20 yards.  Importantly, both receivers will be in the same deep 1/3 of the field (i.e., thus “flooding” the LCB’s zone), and the routes are designed to gain leverage on the safeties.  The QB reads the LCB, who—being responsible for that flooded deep 1/3 (in Cover 3)—finds himself in conflict.  If the LCB comes up to play the intermediate receiver, the corner route should be open, and vice-versa. 

Assignments:

LT – Taylor Lewan: pass protect vs. WDE Jesse Joseph

LG – Ben Braden: pass protect vs. 3T Angelo Pruitt

C – Jack Miller: pass protect vs. NT Shamar Stephen

RG – Kyle Kalis: pass protect vs. NT Shamar Stephen

RT – Michael Schofield: pass protect vs. SDE B.J. McBryde

TE – Devin Funchess: pass protect vs. SDE B.J. McBryde

SL – Dennis Norfleet: execute end-around fake, then run wheel or quick-out

SE – Jeremy Gallon: run deep corner (7) route

FL – Amara Darboh: motion toward formation (to help diagnose the coverage); run drag (I think) route

TB – Fitzgerald Toussaint: execute iso fake, then pass protect

QB – Devin Gardner: pre-snap, recognize Cover 3; on snap, execute iso fake, then end-around fake; next, read LCB (UConn’s probable corners are Jr. Byron Jones and Sr. Taylor Mack; Jones, who played safety last season, appears the more boundary-ish corner and Mack the more field-ish); throw to whomever the LCB leaves open   

Advantage: Michigan

Part of the reason this play worked so well against Purdue in 2011 was because that end-around fake went to Denard Robinson.  While it can’t go to him this year (*sniff*), a dynamic runner like Norfleet—or even Justice Hayes—probably still presents enough of a threat to command respect from opposing defenders.  More importantly, the QB on this play would be the mature RS Junior version of Devin Gardner, rather than the jittery sophomore edition.  And across the ball, UConn’s front may be stout against the run, but they will likely struggle to generate much of a pass rush—that means M should have time to run slow developing plays like this one.  And UConn also lost arguably the Big East’s best CB duo to graduation this offseason, about which USA Today says “[t]heir departures lend a sense of doom to the proceedings in the secondary.”  We all know too well what that feels like, so better them than us. 

When UConn has the ball…

3.       All Curls

If we proceed on the assumption that T.J. Weist’s offense will look a lot like Butch Jones’s offense at Cincinnati looked, then it makes sense to look first at the play Down the Drive has identified as the base of Jones’s attack—the All Curls.  This play stretches the defense horizontally.  Before the snap, the QB chooses one side of the field to attack (based on the defensive alignment).  At the snap, each receiver runs a 5-10 yard curl, attempting to sell the defenders on vertical routes before curling into open areas.  The quarterback reads outside-in, and has an outlet to the releasing RB in the flat.  

In Cover 3, there is probably no reliable way to stop this play, as both corners would bail at the snap and leave only four underneath defenders to cover five receivers.  So to make this exercise more interesting, let’s presume Michigan is running a Cover 2 Zone scheme on this play.  In Cover 2 Zone, the safeties each play a deep ½ while the CBs and LBs defend five underneath zones (other versions of Cover 2 include “Man Under,” in which the safeties play zone in their deep halves while the underneath defenders play man-to-man, and the famous “Tampa 2” defense, in which the MLB drops into a deep middle zone rather than a short underneath zone).  It is pretty easy to see from this diagram that Cover 2 Zone is a pretty good coverage to deploy against All Curls:

With the Cover 2 Zone scheme at least giving the defense a chance to stop the play, now we can look at the individual matchups.

Assignments:   

BCB Raymon Taylor: Defend the short (<15 yards) zone on the boundary side from the numbers to the sideline against SE Geremy Davis (curl route) and RB Lyle McCombs (releasing to flat)

NCB Dymonte Thomas: Defend the short zone on the boundary side from the numbers to the hash against SL Deshon Foxx

MLB Desmond Morgan: Defend the short zone between the hash marks

ILB James Ross: Defend the short zone on the field side from the numbers to the hash marks against TE Mark Hansson

FCB Blake Countess: Defend the short zone on the field side from the numbers to the sideline against WR Shakim Phillips

SS Thomas Gordon: Defend deep half (TE side)

FS Jarrod Wilson: Defend other deep half

WDE Frank Clark: Rush the QB, defeat LT Jimmy Bennett

3T Jibreel Black: Rush the QB, defeat LG Gus Cruz

NT Quinton Washington: Rush the QB; defeat C Tyler Bullock, RG Steve Green

SDE Chris Wormley (why not?): Rush the QB; defeat RT Kevin Friend

Advantage: Michigan

UConn returns a shaky offensive line and graduated both its TE and two best wide receivers from 2012—hardly a recipe for success against a Mattison-coached line and an experienced group of underneath defenders (save the gifted, if young and unproven, NCB Dymonte Thomas).  UConn has a veteran QB in Chandler Whitmer, but I don’t see a favorable matchup for the Huskies anywhere on the field.

4. Four Verticals

One good reason to run All Curls is, establishing that play can force a defense to cheat against the short/intermediate passing game and create opportunities in the running game or for big plays over the top.  One way to attempt the latter is Four Verticals, a Cover 3 beater that targets the free safety patrolling the deep middle of the field (>15 yards, between the hash marks).

Remember that Cover 3 gets its name from the three defenders (i.e., both CBs and the FS) who play the deep zones over top of underneath defenders.  Four Verticals attacks this scheme by forcing those three deep defenders to cover four receivers.  The outside WRs occupy the two cornerbacks, leaving just the FS to deal with the two inside receivers.  In more advanced versions of the play, one or more of the receivers will run option routes, adjusting their patterns after the snap to exploit the holes in the defensive scheme or coverage techniques.    

The simplest way to defend Four Verticals out of Cover 3 is for the underneath defenders need to jam the inside receivers and disrupt their timing, while the FS “splits” inside receivers and stays in a position to defend a throw to either one.  I’ll assume for purposes of discussing the assignments that this is the approach Michigan takes, even though the alternative method (having each of the three deep defenders split the two receivers on either side of his 1/3 zone) might be wiser given Michigan’s personnel.

Assignments:  

BCB Raymon Taylor: Defend the deep third (>15 yards) zone on the boundary side from the sideline to the hash against SE Geremy Davis

NCB Dymonte Thomas: Defend the short outside ¼ zone on the boundary side

ILB James Ross: Defend the middle short ¼ zone on the boundary side; jam SL Deshon Foxx and carry him 15 yards downfield, pass him off to FS Jerrod Wilson

MLB Desmond Morgan: Defend the middle short ¼ one on the field side; jam TE Mark Hansson and carry him 15 yards downfield; pass him off to FS Jerrod Wilson; pick up RB Lyle McCombs on his angle route

FCB Blake Countess: Defend the deep 1/3 zone on the field side from the sideline to the hash against WR Shakim Phillips

SS Thomas Gordon: Defend the short outside ¼ zone on the field side

FS Jarrod Wilson: Defend deep middle 1/3 zone; split (i.e., keep equidistant from) inside receivers (SL Deshon Foxx and TE Mark Hansson), be a star

WDE Frank Clark: Rush the QB, defeat LT Jimmy Bennett

3T Jibreel Black: Rush the QB, defeat LG Gus Cruz

NT Quinton Washington: Rush the QB; defeat C Tyler Bullock, RG Steve Green

SDE Chris Wormley: Rush the QB; defeat RT Kevin Friend

Advantage: Even

Jerrod Wilson is a talented young player, but until he proves himself in deep coverage it’s a pretty sure bet that opposing offenses will put him to the test.  Whitmer seems to be a competent senior QB, but I won’t call an advantage for UConn’s because, as above, I still think M’s line will get pressure and can’t find any other personnel matchups that favor them.  

Conclusion:

Based on the foregoing, Michigan will win obvs.

P.S. – I want to take a moment here to point-out that I am not a football coach or any kind of expert on football schemes.  I am really just a casual fan who is fascinated by the tactical aspects of football and is very eager to learn more about the game.  Most of what I am presenting in these diaries is material that I either just learned, or about which I previously had superficial knowledge and just recently deepened that understanding.  But there is much that remains above my head, and undoubtedly much more still that is entirely off my radar.  I say this because I am very aware that there could be flaws in my analysis, and hope enlightened readers will not hesitate to point out any mistakes or differences of opinion they may find in my work.  A number of commentators were extremely helpful in this regard on my last diary (Space Coyote in particular), and I am very appreciative.  As much as I hope I haven’t gotten anything wrong, I fully welcome any such discussion and hope to see it continue.  Thanks for reading.

OF CHAMPIONS AND CHILDREN

Part One - Hoop memories

part two here          part three here

Time travel is possible.

In Michigan.

In the spring, and, in the fall, especially.

As you drive north in the spring, as I do annually the first weekend in May, you go back in time. The foliage retreats into hibernation, the leaves disappear into buds into nothingness and the snow reappears, at first, in the sheltered areas, the northern exposed sides of the trees under the eternal canopy of pine branches.

It is six a. m. Monday April 7, 2013, and I am on the road south from Detroit to Kentucky to pick up my second oldest daughter, Erin, on the way to Atlanta to watch my school compete for the NCAA basketball championship.

As Erin works six days a week managing a horse barn for a large farm outside Lexington, we have a compressed timetable. Fortunately, Monday is her day off. When the game ends, we will have 5.5 hours of driving time to get back to Lexington, where she starts work at 7 a.m.. Pillows and sleeping bags are strewn across the back of the now back and middle seats removed mini-van for purposes of slumber.

Being self-employed, the boss gave me the OK to take the time off.

It has been 21 years since we were in the title game; if it takes another 21 years, I will be 80, and, perhaps, too, well, mature, for a road trip like this.

Erin is in her first year out of UK, which she attended over U of M because she loves, horses. But is still a huge Wolverine fan, having returned home for the Big Chill and the Under The Lights football game with Notre Dame, among other sporting events.

I have not seen her since Christmas, and am not sure when the next time will be, as she just started this job in February, so it may be awhile before she accrues any vacation time.

As I travel through the Worst State Ever, the flora turns greener, first buds, then leaves, then flowers, appear until we are a month and a half into the future, into the full bloom of spring in Atlanta.

The first four hours are shared with Sam on WTKA radio from Ann Arbor, via I Heart Radio on my iPhone sitting on the empty seat next to me. He is in Atlanta, and all the talk is about The Game to come. Well, and whether the Fab Five will re-unite in the stands. Sam has an interesting live interview with Jimmy King. Ahh, the memories flow.

I am becoming concerned with how many callers are on their way to Atlanta, like me, without tickets. I see Michigan plates with Wolverine insignia displayed, others with Michigan hats at gas stations and fast food places along the way. I did work my way through college hustling football tickets, so I figure I can come up with something. Friends are keeping their eyes peeled for me as well.

One suggested Craig's list, whose ads were cheaper than Stub Hub, so I posted my request on the Atlanta list.

I don't care where we sit; if I wanted the best view of the game, I would watch on TV at home. I did set the DVR.

Getting more fired up, and knowing the call lines to WTKA are usually not exactly backed up, I called in with my tale of travel to the title tilt.

In response to Sam's query: "how are you doing?" I answer: "If I were doing any better, I would have to sit on my hands to keep from clapping." Not hearing the chuckling reaction I expected, I asked if I were on the air, and assured, yes, I was. Well, I will cut him some slack; he must have been tired from all the Final Four festivities.

Sam's show ends at ten, so I flip around the car radio dial for another sports show. I stop at Dan Patrick's.

Today's poll question: “Should Chris Webber attend the game tonight?”

Geez, enough already! It seems this is a national issue? Somehow.

Weather was great, made good time into Lexington, found my daughter's residence without making a wrong turn. Which, for me, is good. Well, remarkable, actually.

Of course, she has wireless, so I check my email on my laptop, and find a response to my Craig's list ad, would I be interested in a pair? Wherever? You bet, I reply.

Ooops, just sold them, comes the response. Ahh, well.

Erin gets to drive to Atlanta, I rest some in the middle seat, but am just getting too damned excited, immersed in Michigan basketball.

Hey, Erin, what do you know about the Fab Five?

"Just that they were a bunch of really good players who came in and did not with the title and then there was some scandal."

Well, how do you feel about being stuck in a vehicle being subjected for hours to my memories of Michigan men's basketball?

She hesitates. "Well, if it is about sports, I don't mind."

. . . . . . . . . . .

I remember when only 16 teams played in the NCAA basketball tournament, with regional games on the MizLou network, or something. Not all the way back to Cazzie, but not too long after.

Back in the early 70s, lots of good teams went to the NIT, when ALL the games were in Madison Square Garden, so there was a definite New York tilt to the invites, and, most of the games were not televised in those benighted days before cable and ESPN.

One year, Al McGuire did not like the region assigned by the NCAA , and Marquette rejected the NCAA invite in order to play in the NIT.

They changed the rules after that one.

A bunch of us freshmen in Wenley House, West Quad, bought season basketball tickets for the 1972-73 season. They were so cheap I do not remember the price, for comparison, student season football tickets were $18 for 7 games. Yeah, I know, I am older than dirt.

I remember listening, no TV, of course, to Ohio at Michigan basektball the year before, but we lost the game, finished second in the conference. Unranked. We did get to the quarterfinals of the NIT.

The schedule was crowded with December games, around finals, it was a long, cold walk to Crisler, and I did not get student season tickets again.

We were supposed to be good that next year, but did not live up to expectations, tying for third at 9-5 and no post-season bid.

I was more of a hockey fan, though I only went to one game as a freshman, the last season at the Coliseum, which featured cyclone fencing instead of plexiglass. And an abysmal team.

I remember the 1973-74 hoop season, we were one game behind Indiana but looking like we had no chance, given the schedule as the season wound down.

Bobby Knight's Indiana had to play at Ohio, which was having a down year, though still coached by Eldon Miller, who had a national championship, which were yet in the future for Mr. Knight.

Lo and behold, Ohio pulled the upset, both Michigan and Indiana won the rest of their games, and finished in a first place tie.

Only the champ could go to the NCAAs, so a playoff ensued.

Guess where that game was played?

Showing that puzzling moves by the conference are nothing new, the Big Ten held the game on Monday night in Champaign, Illinois. I think there were over 10,000 there, but, not a sellout. Tough trip on a weeknight.

Another upset, Michigan wins!

I had to Wikipedia this, but there were 25 teams in the NCAA that year. Don't ask me how they worked it, but we got a bye, then upset Notre Dame before losing to Marquette in the regional final.

1975 - Big news! The tournament expands, and, for the first time, two teams from the same conference get bids. As with the 1975 football season, we finished second, but still got a post-season bid.

And were rewarded by getting to go to the West region in: Idaho? For what was called the UCLA regional, what with the NCAA still following (roughly) geographical lines in assigning teams to regions. Ergo, UCLA was always in the West. And this was still in the days when UCLA won everything. All the titles, and, it seemed, more often than not, all their regular season games as well.

We got them in the first game and were big underdogs. Nevertheless, we battled to the wire, and, with the game tied, C. J. Kupec launched a long jumper that, clanged off the rim as time expired.

We were smoked in OT, 12-2. UCLA went on to beat Louisville by one in the semis, and Kentucky by 7 in the final, for its tenth title in 12 seasons.

Knight had a great team, won every game, but lost to Kentucky in the regional final 92-90 after Scott May broke his arm.

1976 - Indiana wins all their regular season games, though eyewitnesses (again, no TV) to the Michigan game at Indiana swear the officials bad calls on the game ending play stole victory from Michigan.

I was announcing some hockey games for the student radio station WCBN, so I had a nice little blue card press pass for Yost. I wanted to check out the Hoosiers live, and, mirable dictu, I flashed the pass and they let me into the sold out game. (full disclosure: I have made up for this transgression with many athletic department donations since, and do not condone this sort of theft. anymore.)

I stood and watched Kent Benson go 14 for 17 in an easy Indiana victory. The Pistons thought he was a great player and made him a high draft choice. Turns out he was one of many players that Knight's system made look better than they were.

Michigan finished second in the conference, again, got a bid and made it to the Final Four. The only Final Four with two unbeaten teams. We pinned the first loss on undefeated Big Ten rival Rutgers to reach the title game against Indiana. Ahead at the half, tied with about ten minutes left, but lost by double digits to a clearly superior team.

It is improbable bordering on impossible for another team to go undefeated, so that 76 Indiana team will likely be the last.

Knight's comment? "It should have been two." meaning the 75 team should have won first.

Back in the day, all Big Ten hoop games were Thursday night and Saturday afternoon, maybe one or two a week Saturday night. Our traveling partner was MSU, so we would travel to Purdue and Illinois, the same weekend, and Purdue and Illinois would travel to Ann Arbor and East Lansing the same weekend.

Hockey was always Friday and Saturday night. Yost was as Canham found it; seating over 8,000 for hockey, though you could not see the entire rink from the top corners of the North end zone, and some other seats were obstructed.

We were the conference powerhouse in 76-77, beating Marquette at home in the last game, ranked firts in the final poll ahead of Georgetown and St. John's, the Big East powers who had been #1 most of the year.

On the Saturday when we hosted Northwestern hoop in the afternoon, the hockey team sold out for Michigan Tech Saturday night, and outdrew the basketball team.

We beat Holy Cross and Dick Vitale coached U of D, before being upset by Cornbread Maxwell of UNC Charlotte in the regional final.

In 1980-81, I was back to living in Ann Arbor, and got season tickets with a friend, in the blues, about 7 rows up in the corner.

We lost 7 of our last 8 to finish 7^th, still won two preliminary NIT games, which were now being played outside New York.

The next year? Not a good team, not hard to get good seats. We trounced Northern Michigan to go 1-10 in the non-conference, upset a ranked Iowa team late in the year. Bill Frieder was just getting started.

We kept our tickets a few more years, had an NIT bid or two in there, until winning the NIT title over Notre Dame in 1984, the first tournament Michigan won outside the state borders. We used to host our own tournament in early December.

Then the 1985 Big Ten title, with a disappointing second game tournament loss, and the 1986 title, reminiscences of which I previously shared.

The 1988-89 title season is well remembered by all.

Steve Fisher and the miracle run.

Next year, again, we were supposed to be good, with most of the champs returning,

The big recruit nationally that year was Montross, who had U of M ties. He ended up at North Carolina, and the knock on Fisher was sure, he can coach, but he can't recruit. Yeah, right.

He let his players talk him into running with Loyola Marymount, coached by Paul Westhead, whose philosophy was, every seven seconds, shoot.

Their star player, Hank Gaithers, had died of a heart attack the week before, and we gave up a still record 137 points in losing.

Well, turns out ole Fisher could recruit after all.

TO BE CONTINUED

The recruiting rankings get a bump after three recent Michigan commitments; while the Wolverines still hold the top spot, Ohio State has made a serious run of late to close the gap. Elsewhere, Rutgers goes for quantity, the Indiana schools battle for Not Last Place, a kid named Freedom commits on Independence Day, and Wisconsin comes to a mutual understanding with Taiwan Deal.

Changes since last rankings:

6-19-13: Rutgers picks up Brandon Russell. Michigan State picks up Jalen Watts-Jackson. Wisconsin picks up Dominic Cizauskas. Indiana picks up Willie Yarbary.
6-20-13: Ohio State picks up Jalyn Holmes. Rutgers picks up Jacob Kraut and Donald Bedell.
6-21-13: Ohio State picks up Stephen Collier. Michigan State picks up Gerald Owens and David Beedle. Iowa picks up Jameer Outsey. Indiana picks up Delroy Baker.
6-22-13: Iowa picks up Keegan Render.
6-23-13: Ohio State picks up Terry McLaurin.
6-24-13: Wisconsin picks up Michael Dieter. Illinois picks up Malik Turner. Maryland picks up Brett Kulka.
6-25-13: Wisconsin picks up Taiwan Deal. Maryland picks up Tyler Burke and Brendan Moore.
6-26-13: Rutgers picks up Adonis Jennings. Penn State picks up Troy Vincent Jr.
6-27-13: Ohio State picks up Jamarco Jones. Wisconsin picks up Austin Hudson. Iowa picks up Matt Nelson.
6-28-13: Rutgers picks up Kiy Hester and Jimmy Hogan.
6-29-13: Michigan picks up Freddy Canteen and Brandon Watson.
7-1-13: Michigan picks up Noah Furbush. Penn State picks up Antoine White.
7-2-13: Illinois picks up Matt Domer. Indiana picks up Donovan Clark.
7-4-13: Nebraska picks up Monte Harrison and Freedom(!) Akinmoladun.

Chart? Chart:

*Full rankings and explanation here.
^The average of the average rankings of the four recruiting services (the previous four columns). The figure is calculated based on the raw numbers and then rounded, so the numbers above may not average out exactly.

NOTE: Unranked recruits are counted as two-star players.

On to the full data after the jump.

NOTE: Because of impending realignment and our official expansion in 2014, I included data from Maryland and Rutgers for this one so we can look at what they’ll bring potentially.

SOME GENERAL STUFF:

The current and soon-to-be members of the Big Ten have, in the last five years, played 894 games and in those games, they have made a combined 3,285 trips to the red zone on offense.  Among those trips, 2,741 of them resulted in some manner of scoring, which would equate to an overall success rate among 14 teams of 83.44%.

The overall distribution of scoring types is rather intriguing. There were 1,239 rushing touchdowns, 753 passing touchdowns and 749 field goals. In terms of percentages, this means that 45.20% of all red zone scoring among these teams was done on the ground. The split between passing touchdowns and field goals turns out to be nearly identical – 27.47% to 27.32% respectively.

A DEEPER LOOK:

The table below gives the five-year distribution of passing TDs, rushing TDs and field goals for each team:

Overall success rate is essentially the percentage of all red zone drives that resulted in some scoring for a team, and the table is sorted by that. The only current member of the Big Ten to sit below 80% is Indiana, and as you’ll note, our future members occupy the bottom of the table. Michigan’s score is in part hampered by a 2009 season where our success rate in that year was only 66.67%, and in 2008 and 2010, we also failed to reach 80% in red zone success. We jumped to about 84% in 2011, and well over 90% last year, so things are definitely on the mend. All the individual team data will be in another table.

I also included the passing TD versus rushing TD mix in this table, and while you can see the individual numbers above, it seems as if something in the neighborhood of a 60 / 40 split in favor of rushing is not uncommon at all in the conference. Perhaps that provides some insight into the playcalling proclivities of the average Big Ten offensive coordinator.

The other side of the table shows how touchdowns and field goals break down as a percentage of successful drives. It is interesting to note that, in the recent past, our new conference colleagues have to rely on just getting into field goal range on about 1/3^rdof the occasions in which they score. Actually, Michigan State and Iowa are not far behind them in that respect either, so the trend might be that a few teams have their best scorer on the field only a few times each game.

Below is the individual team data by year for the five years looked at:

SOME THOUGHTS ON EFFECTIVENESS:

The table below is an overview of the five-year averages for the individual teams, focusing this time on a potential measure of drive effectiveness. I left the overall success rate in here as I thought it might make for an interesting comparison.

It is interesting that the Big Ten exists in something of a narrow band, if you will, when it comes to some of these numbers. Including Maryland and Rutgers mainly for comparison purposes again, the teams in the conference have 3-5 red zone drives per game basically.

I put two columns in here as a point of discussion because I was wondering what the board might think about this. Average Points Per Successful Drive seems to basically say that a majority of the scoring comes on touchdowns, which you already knew. Average Points Per Drive (regardless of success) seems to dig into the idea that some teams do spend an inordinate amount of time setting up for a field goal, and perhaps this is a better measure of overall effectiveness. I would think that if your team is barely above 4 on this measure, there is some thinking that needs to be done about how your offense views the end zone really.

Below is the year-by-year data for this. You will note that Michigan, while making fewer trips to the red zone, is better about capitalizing on them.  There are a few individual instances of teams actually having a sub-4.0 average, which if this is any measure of red zone effectiveness, means that there were problems to address, to say the least.

TL;DR CONCLUSION:

Admittedly, I went through this data out of sheer curiosity. I wanted to see what the scoring type distribution looked like and to see if there was a way to think about effectiveness in the red zone in terms of drives and points. It seems like there might be, at least on a broad level. I believe the next step might be to correlate these averages to other offensive data and see if there is a relationship between, for example, overall record (likely in terms of winning percentage) and average points per red zone drive.

OBLIGATORY:

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