chirs wormley

Site note! OH MY GOD UFR UFR UFR OSU OSU OSU. Yeah, happening. I am going to take it a bit slower because, like, I can. Half this week, half next week.

The season's end usually means a slowdown in December since football is over, basketball is often wading through thickets of uninspiring nonconference opponents, and hockey is off for big chunks (this year they're also super depressing!). Also, the batteries. They need recharging.

Bid. The big prize in the School of Kinesiology's auction goes off the board in just over a day:

That is signed by:

Anthony Carter (Signed on the #1), Charles Woodson, Jake Long, Chad Henne, Elvis Grbac, Zoltan Mesko, Anthony "A-Train" Thomas, Larry Foote, Brandon Graham, Jamie Morris, Rick Leach, Jarrett Irons, Jim Brandstatter, Adrian Arrington, Reggie McKenzie, James Hall, Bob Chappuis, Vada Murray, Morgan Trent, Tim Jamison, Will Johnson, Butch Woolfolk, John Wangler, Bennie Joppru,Stevie Brown, Chris Floyd, Glen Steele, Mark Campbell, Clint Copenhaver, Aaron Shea, Scott Dresibach, Jarrod Bunch, Victor Hobson, Mark Messner, Stan Edwards, Derek Walker, Greg McMurtry, Billy Taylor, Harlan Huckleby, Don Dufek Sr., Don Dufek Jr., Bill Dufek, Ron Simpkins, Phil Brabbs, Chuck Winters, Andre Weathers, Jim Betts, Carl Diggs, Eric Mayes, Rondell Biggs, Greg Mathews, Doug Skene, David Moosman, Ron Bellamy and Adam Kraus.

Zoltan, yo. You will have to be a big baller to pick it up, but most of the emails I get come from law firms, so… yeah.

Hayden Fry on Bo. This is pretty much awesome:

Michigan's long-running semi-rivalry with Iowa has always seemed to me like the most mutually respectful one M has, what with Bump and Fry and Carr pulling for Ferentz and whatnot. It's good to have them in the division.

Sacrifice Virginia. Basketball hits the court again tonight (7PM, ESPN2) in their second consecutive road game in the Big Ten-ACC challenge. They've got Virginia. If you're thinking that sounds like a pushover, no, not so much. Kenpom has the 5-1 Cavaliers 37th and gives them a decent edge (61%) on their home court. Michigan probably has a better chance than wobbly early-season numbers suggest since they're still heavily counting Michigan's pre-Maui struggles.

While Michigan's playing its first true road game of the season, Virginia hasn't played a major conference team yet. They've annihilated a couple of bad teams, lost a squeaker to TCU, and cruised by Drexel, Drake, and Wisconsin-Green Bay. Defense is their calling card—they're currently 8th.

Sensing that attention would start turning to the hoopycagers, UMHoops dumped a bunch of stuff out yesterday, including a Maui Invitational recap…

The Freshman Point Guard is Just Fine

Trey Burke hasn’t been perfect. He’s turned the ball over on 21% of his possessions, is shooting 60% on free throws, made one of eight threes in Maui and has the tendency to commit silly fouls. Despite those freshman mistakes, Burke has proven that he’s ready to play at this level. His quickness, playmaking ability and competitiveness have already proven vastly important through Michigan’s first six games.

Burke handed out more assists during the Maui Invitational than any player from any of the eight participating schools. He averaged 35 minutes per game in Maui, tied for the U-M lead, which serves as a ringing endorsement of John Beilein’s trust. The turnovers will decrease and he will find his three point shooting stroke (1-8 3pt in Maui) because he’s just too talented of a shooter not to. Burke is also the sort of player that can get a basket out of nothing – give him the ball in an isolation when the offense is struggling and he’ll make something happen.

…and a look at Michigan's diverse NBA prospects. From that post, here's the Daily hitting up Chad Ford to talk Hardaway:

“He’s got good size for his position, he’s athletic, he can shoot the basketball, and he can put the ball on the floor, get to the basket,” Ford said. “He’s got a lot of the tools that you sort of look for in a wing. If he was a better ball-handler — and it’s ironic, because his dad was amazing — that’s probably his biggest weakness. I think he (also) needs to get a little more consistent from 3-point range. “But I think he’s a pro.”

“He won’t need the money, and a lot of times that’s a big issue for players,” Ford said. “He’s got his dad, (so) he’s going to have access to more NBA guys giving him their opinions, which means he probably won’t get bad info. I probably say he stays, but I’m always surprised.”

Ford's plugging him in the same range Darius Morris was projected in as last season developed. As he mentions, money's not an issue, and this time around the NBA lockout helps. Last year the lockout pushed a marginal first-rounder like Morris into this years draft because a lot of blue-chips sat it out; this year those blue-chips will flood into the draft and push the Morris-Hardaway range back to school. I guess Burke fits in that range now, too. (Rivals basketball recruiting: you suck.) Sounds like Mitch McGary had a tough tournament over the last week, one that seems the draft consensus on him also in that fringe first-round range.

I'm still getting a handle on this edition of Michigan basketball, but it seems to me like Hardaway's increased ability to get his shot inside the arc is the non-Burke key. Memphis and Duke tried to shut off Michigan's threes only to get beat up on those overplays. Dylan notes Michigan's red-hot two-point shooting in Maui; Hardaway led the way at 27 of 44—a better than 60% clip.

Hardaway seems to have added a mid-range pull-up game that will be unstoppable since he's a 6'6" leaper. Just has to hit those shots. I expect the team's three-point shooting will come around to where it was last year. At this point Vogrich/Douglass/Novak is established as a floppy-haired Cerberus that will shoot between 36 and 38 percent collectively. Hardaway and Burke are the wildcards there. Is Hardaway the elite guy from the Big Ten season or also in that okay-to-good range? And how good of a shooter is Burke?

BONUS: Drexel's head coach is named "Bruiser Flint." Serious.

This is going to go well. They put Big Ten offensive lineman of the year David Molk in front of a camera and Tim Doyle asked him goofy questions.

Call me butterfly. I dare you.

Barely concealed contempt FTW.

Obligatory section on Meyer. He'll be some level of good. It's vastly more important for Michigan to have its house in order, which they seem to. Insert your preferred baseless assumption about Meyer's flakiness/health issues/lack of recruiting acumen here to make you feel better. At least we won't be one-upped in this department:

Rittenberg writes that if there's anyone who knows Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Mattison's system, it's Meyer. The two worked along side one another when Meyer was the head coach of Florida.

If Mattison stays at Michigan, perhaps Meyer could give the Buckeyes the advantage come next season, as OSU tries to avenge their first loss to UM in eight years.

PROTIP: if your assertion can be flipped 180 degrees and retain equal plausibility, find another assertion.

The one thing hiring Meyer does do is make OSU fans' assertions that they really gave themselves a tough punishment by firing/retiring Jim Tressel even more obviously crap than when they were originally peddled. The NCAA's reaction to a head coach lying to keep his most important players eligible, then lying again to get them eligible for a bowl game, is going to be pathetically weak even with the tattoos and cars and "charity" events on top of everything.

Countdown to resumption of normal activities in 3… 2… 1…

The neck, it sticks out. This year's most interesting recruit ranking kerfuffle is located in the general vicinity of Toledo, where Chris Wormley is the Ohio Division 1 defensive player of the year over Se'Von Pittman, Tom Strobel, Joe Bolden, and De'Van Bogard. Those four are all top 100 types. Wormley had M and OSU offers on top of that but still sees this massive rankings spread:

• 247: #59 overall, #3 SDE, #3 OH
• ESPN: 4*, #16 DE, #7 OH
• Scout: 4*, #161 overall, #22 DE
• Rivals: durf. 3*, #22 strongside defensive end (IE: approx #44 DE)

That's a powerful outlier there. Hopefully it's wrong.

Why the Big Ten is not so good, Part XXVII. The massive connections that come from a brief tenure at Cincinnati may land Pat Narduzzi the Illinois job:

As Illinois' search for Ron Zook's replacement begins, a source said the program is looking at candidates that include Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano and Toledo head coach Tim Beckman.

Narduzzi's Big Ten affiliation and ties to Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas make him a likely target.

He served as the defensive coordinator at Cincinnati from 2004-06, overlapping with Thomas' tenure with the Bearcats that began in 2005. He was reportedly a candidate for the Cincinnati job that eventually went to Brian Kelly, who now coaches at Notre Dame.

Yes, this would be another disappointing mid-level Big Ten hire with names like Mike Leach, Kevin Sumlin, and anyone who's proven they are actually in charge of the thing they're supposed to be in charge of out there. Narduzzi is a defensive coordinator working under a former DC. That always makes me leery because you don't know how much of the team's success in their chosen field is because of the guy you're hiring.

Beckman would probably be a better hire: he's turned around Toledo, has a ton of recruiting connections in Ohio, and did establish himself as a BCS level coordinator at Oklahoma State. Schiano is not realistic. He has security at Rutgers and Illinois is a death trap.

If Illinois does go with Narduzzi that is both of Dantonio's coordinators out the door in a two year period. Not sure how much Narduzzi would hurt for the reasons given above, but it certainly can't help. It would be strange if Dantonio had more of a coaching tree in year five at MSU than Carr did, like, ever.

More Buckeye butthurt. Meinke collects the various lolrus OSU player twitter posts after the game. You've read the Boren ones; the others:

Added Ohio State tight end Jeff Heuerman: "Karma is gonna be a (expletive) for that little 'celebration' at the end."

Players said the controversial celebration -- you can catch a piece of it at the 34-minute mark of this YouTube video -- is something they have done after each Friday practice this year. Coach Brady Hoke said he was fine with his team celebrating their win that way.

"I don’t have any problem (with it) because it wasn’t disrespectful to anybody," Hoke said. "It’s something they do every Friday.

"No. It wasn’t disrespectful to anybody. It’s something those kids have done for 12 weeks.”

Ohio State, though, clearly was offended with the episode, which occurred in front of several players at midfield.

It led to Ohio State cornerback Brad Roby tweeting: "I will never lose to those scrubs again."

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Etc.: Stuffing the Passer. Michigan-ND is Pat Forde's game of the year. Dreaded Judgment OSU game column. Dymonte Thomas badgers Bri'onte Dunn on the twitters. Dunn says he doesn't want to play in a spread. (Shhh.) Kyle Kalis is solid.

This is my final post on mgoblog (aside from the remaining opponent previews, which are already written and should be published in the next week or so), so I'd like to thank everyone for reading, and of course Brian for the great opportunity over the past couple years. Congratulations and good luck to Ace and Heiko.

On to the recruiting...

Wide Receivin'

We already knew that Michigan was likely to take two wideouts in the 2012 class. The departure of Je'Ron Stokes changes that to a certainty, and even opens the door to taking a third.

Who are the main prospects on the board?

IA WR Amara Darboh finally has a highlight video on Youtube, thanks to 24/7 Sports:

Darboh has narrowed to a final five ($, info in header). Given that he's visiting Michigan for the season opener against Western, it's safe to say the Wolverines are in good position for him.

For those who were expecting a commitment from OH WR Monty Madaris at the BBQ and dismayed he didn't make it in, fear not, as Michigan's "stock is on the rise" ($, info in header) with him.

OH WR Dwayne Stanford participated in a chat with Rivals readers last week, and had a few things to say about Michigan:

Q: Will you take an official to Michigan?

Stanford: I don't know if Michigan will be one of my officials yet ... I only know Alabama and LSU so far.

Q: Since LSU isn't recruiting Adolphus does that move Michigan high on your list?

Stanford: Yes, it does ... it's something we've talked about ever since I started getting recruited. Michigan does have a chance .... especially with me and Adolphus both liking them. They made the short list. They're right there in the mix

Q: Has Michigan's 2012 recruiting class caught your attention?

Stanford: Yes, it has ....

Q: How important are academics to your decision, and do Michigan's strong academics help them?

Stanford: 1. They're important but college is what you make of it
2. Yes, it does ... I know they're a great academic school

Q: What was your favorite school as a kid?

Stanford: I would say it was Miami & Michigan when I was a kid ...

Conventional wisdom has Michigan outside his top group right now, but if the staff can get him on campus, they stand a chance. Stanford has eliminated Miami (YTM) thanks to their impending doom.

CA WR Jordan Payton is the other hot name on Michigan's board right now, and he'll visit Ann Arbor for the night game against Notre Dame.

Other Positions

IL OL Jordan Diamond is sticking to his plan of waiting until after his senior season to commit:

Diamond simply will not allow college recruiting to interfere with a high school season in which he hopes the Wolverines [ed: not those Wolverines] "finish the job" with a state title. "I'm not going to bring recruiting here to Simeon," Diamond said. "I'm not going to use that as a distraction to my teammates. I'm not even going to deal with it during the season, it's going to be after the season."

Though Michigan's coaches would love to have him, if the class fills up before he's ready to commit, Michigan won't be the choice. He's OK with missing out on opportunities by waiting:

Diamond doesn’t fear schools will rescind his scholarship offers as time passes. If some do, that’s fine with him. “Whoever wants me at the end,” Diamond said. “It’s going to be a dog fight. Anything is possible. The main thing is holding out and seeing where the real coaches are. The real coaches who stick there with you. That’s what I’m looking for.”

With Michigan's loss of Tony Posada, they may be more willing to wait on an elite lineman like Diamond. It probably means they'll take at least one more lineman.

Speaking of the offensive line, Duane Long ranks OH OL Commit Caleb Stacey as the #48 overall prospect in the Buckeye State:

The most underrated offensive lineman in Ohio. This kid is just a solid football player who has been well schooled. Ohio players get so much more exposure if the Buckeyes showed interest but Stacey is a guard, a very good guard. The Buckeyes have been offering tackles this year. I am sure we will see him in the Michigan starting lineup in three years time.

Go Caleb, go. Long's employer, Bucknuts, has ranked Caleb's fellow Michigan commit, OH DE Chris Wormley, as the top prospect in the Buckeye State.

Michigan is still on MI TE Ron Thompson's list, though it's unlikely that he could join Michigan's class.

NJ S Elijah Shumate has trimmed his list to six ($, info in header), and a quick glance at his profile page shows that Michigan is among the programs making the cut.

Happy Trails, GA WR Jason Croom, who committed to Tennessee. Michigan tossed him an offer in June, but he always seemed SEC-bound.

CA S Shaq Thompson doesn't include Michigan in his top 5, the schools to which he'll take official visits.

2013

24/7 Sports throws down the gauntlet in the race to be the first service to rate prospects, with their initial 5-stars for 2013, along with the Top247 prospects in the class. Of note, MI OL Steve Elmer was one of the prospects close to 5-star status.

Last week's Sam Webb recruiting column in the Detroit News covered MI LB Jon Reschke. He sounds just about as Green-and-White as they come, but Michigan is making a move:

A return trip to Ann Arbor a month later for the "Barbecue at the Big House" also earned significant praise. "I went down there with my good friends Shane Morris and Wyatt Shallman," Reschke said. "It was great. We got to see the whole campus, the whole Big House, the locker room — everything. It definitely made me want to go to Michigan a little bit more."

He says Michigan coaches are waiting to see film of him playing linebacker (he was a defensive end for Brother Rice last year) before they'll extend an offer. He wants to make a commitment prior to his senior season.

Duane Long continues to wonder why Ohio State hasn't offered OH S/RB Dymonte Thomas:

His offer list is better than most seniors to be and he has not even stepped on the field as a junior. His grades are outstanding. He is know to be a high character kid. His measurables are legit. The argument that the Buckeyes are so deep at running back carries no weight. Thomas may be a better safety than he is a running back. I think he is, and he could not care less which position he plays. Baffling non-offer.

He seems like a Michigan lean, and the longer it takes for OSU to offer, the more the Wolverines can build that lead. Additionally, if it takes the Buckeyes too long to offer, Thomas could help sway his cousin, 2012 OH RB Bri'Onte Dunn, to Michigan.

Duane Long runs through some more 2013 prospects of interest.