i can't even lolsparty properly anymore

Scheduling Note: I popped back from a gnarly flu to discover I'm the only able person standing to care for a house full of people with the flu. Defense UFR will have to wait until next week, sorry.

Event Note: Saturday night we're watching the game at Venue (where Lucky's used to be, and where the MGoPodcast now records). You can reserve a table or squeeze in—our guests get Happy Hour pricing. Here's the menu.

Blake Corum had surgery. We already guessed Michigan is probably going to be without Corum on Saturday, given it didn't work out against Ohio State, and the Great and Official Big Ten Championship Game doesn't hold a candle to the de facto one. Whether he's done for the year is a lot less clear, and currently the subject of an online battle between Michigan insiders and [checks notes] an the NFL guy.

I interpret this to mean Corum had a simple scope and was told six weeks, which to some people means "that's after the season's over" and to others means "if Michigan's playing for the national championship and it's a week early I wouldn't count him out." Both are reasonable.

Mazi Smith had a gun, the internet had a fit.

[Patrick Barron]

Around 10am yesterday morning the Detroit Free Press broke the story that Smith was facing a felony weapon charge. The story didn't have any more than MiCOURT record, which at that moment showed the offense was a felony carrying concealed weapons charge on October 7, and the charge was filed on November 30. That was the full extent of information until Michigan put out a statement around 1PM saying they're aware but they're not suspending him.

Smith's arraignment was held (and streamed live) a little before 2PM, whence his attorney explained Smith was carrying his own gun and was in the process of attaining his license when he was pulled over. The judge gave him permission to leave the state to travel with his team and set his next hearing for December 8 over zoom. Via Josh Henschke($), Smith bought the gun himself, took all the training, and licensed it properly, but his application wasn't approved until a few days after the traffic stop.

Via his and my own source, Michigan expects the system to play out and for the charges to be dropped.

People wondered why it took the rest of October and all of November to issue the charge—EMU's Emoni Bates was issued two weapons charges (ultimately dropped) within a day of his arrest in September—but Washtenaw County Prosecuting Attorney Eli Savit told Angelique the "timeline for charging on this case was unremarkable."

"The incident involving Mr. Smith occurred on Oct. 7. He was not arrested at the scene, and we received a police report on Oct. 14. We approved the request for charges on Nov. 17, and the warrant was 'sworn out' before a magistrate this week. … If a defendant is in custody (arrested at the scene), we need to process cases faster, within 48 hours, and we have a separate queue set up to review in-custody cases. But when a defendant is not in custody, authorization of charges generally moves slower, and the timeline here was not remarkable."

So yeah, seems like there's not much to see here. That didn't stop certain deranged fans of recently disgraced athletics programs from going full CONSPIRACY!!!! on the office investigating the case of the 21-year-old who carried his gun before the wheels of the DMV turned, and the case of the team that cornered two opponents after a loss and beat the shit out of them:

The lesson here is if there isn't much information, wait for or go find more information. People hear "felony" and freak out, but anyone who isn't (like me) a naïve suburbanite who's never worked in the criminal justice system can tell you a "felony" gun charge in Michigan usually doesn't mean what you think it means. Bates had a family friend's gun with the serial number scratched off, and both of those charges were dropped. Seems like this will be as well.

[After THE JUMP: a little more roster news]

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. They're also behind our Ann Arbor Institutions t-shirt program, which was Ashley's this week.

And let's not leave out our associate sponsors: HomeSure Lending, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, and Information Entropy.

[After THE JUMP: the player and what we said]

[Bill Rapai]

Friday, January 20, 2017

Michigan 0, Michigan State 3

1st period

Saliba Goal

UM 0 MSU 1 PPG 03:03 Assists: Ebbing & Hirose

State moves the puck off the boards to the area behind the net. It’s a good idea, as it’s the start of moving the puck from low to high and stressing the defense.

State does just that, threading the puck back up to the point. Cutler Martin’s in good position to pressure the point and the Michigan PK handles the vertical stretch as well as can be expected.

The shot to the front of the net is somehow threaded through traffic, and the outcome (a stopped shot with a tantalizing rebound to the side) is to be expected. Perhaps most concerning is that the netfront skater got into position without so much as a stick check, simply gliding from his space behind the net to the area right in front of Lafontaine.

De Jong notices that there’s a State skater in front of the crease after the puck’s been deflected, and now he’s between a rock and a hard place: there are two guys to defend, one of which has the puck and has decided to shoot. De Jong is too far away to impede the shot, and Lafontaine’s not stopping this without making a highlight-reel save given the dearth of time between the rebound and shot.

[After THE JUMP: GIF as metaphor and a sneaky good shootout goal]