nba draft

Mooch'd. Shemy Schembechler came, and then he went. Warde Manuel:

"Effective this afternoon, Shemy Schembechler has resigned his position with Michigan Football. We are aware of some comments and likes on social media that have caused concern and pain for individuals in our community. Michigan Athletics is fully committed to a place where our coaches, staff and student-athletes feel welcome and where we fully support the University's and Athletic Department's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion."

Schembechler got booted for his twitter account, which had dozens and dozens of likes on posts ranging between debatably racist and obviously racist. The ESPN story linked about asserts that "a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN that Schembechler went through a thorough background check during the hiring process," which uh no he did not. When your background check misses publicly available information it was not thorough. Or even a "check," really.

Add it to the "What The Hell Is Warde Manuel Doing?" files. This is currently an athletic department that's winning the most important game on the schedule and doing very little else right. At this point the number of unforced PR errors that the department is stumbling into like so many rakes in front of Sideshow Bob is, dare I say it, Brandonesque. Articles are rolling in with titles like "Michigan leadership continues to embarrass itself" from places like The Athletic—not exactly the RCMB.

Shemy released a statement repudiating his hundreds of endorsements of racist right wing tweets, for what little that's worth.

[After the JUMP: anonymous quotes article woo]

Baker back? Interesting roster development for basketball after last night's Toledo game:

We’ll see what happens,” said Baker on if he would apply for a sixth-year.“Potentially.”

“Absolutely,” he said on if he would come back to Michigan. “If I got it, I’m back here.”

Baker played a total of 18 minutes as a freshman; bizarrely these all came in late February or later. Usually this would not be grounds for a redshirt, but who knows these days. The NCAA is in its Security Guard Meme phase. It could happen.

Grimace dot emoji. Sam Vecenie's latest Big Board has Jett Howard 20th and Kobe Bufkin 24th. Hunter Dickinson is 83. No commentary on any of them, so nothing to quote. But maaan this thing where the NBA grabs Michigan players before they have their AA-type season is getting old.

The guy who did the thing, nope. DJ Turner ran a 4.27 40 at the NFL combine, which is sort of impressive:

Michigan CB DJ Turner (5-11 178)

38.5 vert
10-11 broad
4.27!!!!

Big time day.

— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) March 3, 2023

The Athletic had a piece on guys who rose and fell based on said combine and DJ Turner did not come up at all. I mean… I think… he's a corner? Right? One Michigan player did show up:

A lot of tight ends had big days, including Darnell Washington, who put on a show that will only help fans of his game build a case for his value and potential as a receiver. Sam LaPorta is an all-around football player that does a lot of things well and had a great day of testing. And even a prospect like Luke Schoonmaker continues to become more interesting because he’s a tight end who has shown he plays in-line and his testing numbers hinted there might be more to tap into as a receiver.

And fair enough:

Luke Schoonmaker is a TE prospect in the 2023 draft class. He scored a 9.75 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 26 out of 1020 TE from 1987 to 2023. https://t.co/Jd1VNkpNhF #RAS pic.twitter.com/chng7ofvKI

— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) March 5, 2023

Ben Herbert hive grows ever stronger. Rivals has a piece on Turner and Mazi Smith moving up in draft evaluators' eyes. If Smith blows it out of the water at pro day—which is likely—he'll move up further.

[After THE JUMP: CJ Stroud and words: never again.]

Never go in against a Harbaugh when death is on the line! Dan Wetzel has the nitty gritty details on what's going with what MSU honks are describing as SCANDAL ARMAGEDDON and the rest of the world is completely ignoring. Long story short, someone at the NCAA is suicidal enough to get into a staring contest with James Joseph Harbaugh:

Harbaugh is not expected to back down and would likely mount a ferocious defense against any allegation he purposely lied. Harbaugh is famous for being stubborn, both as a player and as a head coach in the NCAA and NFL.

Additionally, it is generally challenging to prove someone knowingly lied without detailed contemporaneous evidence, which sources say the NCAA either lacks or simply doesn't exist.

The NCAA could back off its attempt to gather that admission and resolve the case otherwise, however it has made no indication that it will do that. An NCAA punishment, even a short suspension, on the Level II violations without any admission of lying might be acceptable to Harbaugh. Anything involving admitting dishonesty would not, sources said.

I wish this person good luck. Sisyphus-ass lawyering awaits.

[After THE JUMP: all hail cube!]