wtka roundtable

Things Discussed:

• Spring game takes:
• QB: Wasn't a good format (no zone reads, mostly under-center) for gauging Orji. It was him or Warren, and Warren wasn't a speed-reader upon further review.
• RB: Edwards is geared up. Tavierre Dunlap had a really good game.
• TE: Saw Marlin Klein's speed, has a good feel for timing blocks. Saw some Tonielli too.
• OL: Hard to judge Persi from guard, Gentry moved guys but also had some breakdowns. Big drop from there to Link, who looks like a future player. Like some young Cs, Raheem Anderson stood up to Grant, Guarnera looked plausible at guard.
• DT: Both Benny and Pierce were out so we saw Ike and some DEs they had to move down. Keep an eye out for Chibi Anwunah next year. Joey Klunder played hard.
• Edge: Guy is real.
• LB: Barham is big and can move. Hausmann looked really good. Rolder looked really good.
• S: Hard to tell, but Oden is a lot bigger than we thought, might be ready to contribute early.
• CB: Waller and Hill coming on.
• Waller to the portal: Sam says sometimes a guy asks for way more than the pay scale. There's a lot of nodding and talking around without actually saying that Kentucky has a reputation for promising more than they deliver. Schools have got to be sick of this by now. Sam: Gotta live in today, which means you gotta go tamper.
• Dusty May Builds a Dusty May Program Overnight! These guys were all primary creators for their teams; Rubin Jones is also an elite defender. Choosing to pursue Tre Donaldson of the two Auburn guys shows Dusty knew what he was doing, took the path of greater resistance. Roddy Gayle is in the draft if he doesn't shoot 28% from three, and he had a wrist injury to explain it. Sam Walters shot 43% on *contested* threes, because when you're a 6'10" pogo stick there's no such thing as a contest. Danny Wolf is a very underrated creator, should team with Goldin to be the best pair of Cs in the B10? Nimari Burnett can actually be Nimari now, and Tschetter can Tschetter.
• Concerns: They all have elevated TO rates (should come down as they aren't all forced to be creators), they're a bit weak defensively at the four (Walters has length but he was a beanpole freshman last year), and it's going to take time for everyone to get used to playing together.
• We're gonna LOVE Rubin Jones. Very good rebounder, very smart ballplayer, put Johnell Davis in a hell, which is probably why May wanted to go and get him.
• NFL Draft? Sorry out of time.

[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]

Things Discussed:

• Filling the basketball roster. Expect to get C Vlad Goldin (FAU), CG Justin Pippen (HS), PG Trey Donaldson (Auburn), W Roddy Gayle (OSU), and another guy they're going after under the radar.
• Like Gayle if they can get his 3P% up better than Saint Mary's Aidan Mahaney, who took a lot of bad shots. C Justin Abson (App State) is Ben Wallace. Is he an either/or with C Danny Wolf (Yale)?
• What's the holdup? Guys want to go through the draft advisory board process. Sam thinks we'll get a drumbeat of commitments in the coming days and weeks.
• NIL: Dusty May needs a little more. How deep does the donor pool go? Well it's complicated; you're talking a quirky small subset of people who can afford this, and their individual circumstances matter a lot. There's a lot they're supporting: Football (which we're getting it done), Men's Hoops, Women's Hoops, etc. Seth: Don't forget Mott and the University of Michigan.
• Spring Game: What does the OL look like? Are there any guys standing? Sam thinks we won't be able to watch Hinton, Crippen, and El-Hadi, which that's three of your starters. Who's next? Seth doesn't like that Giudice is ahead of Efobi. That battle for RT is more iffy than we realized? Sam thinks they want a guy in the portal for Gentry or Persi to beat. Seth: If you're saying they Anderson we're at eight guys they trust now.
• Ohio State Spring Game: Their DL pushed their OL around so much it colors everything. QBs were throwing the ball into defenders; chests. Craig thinks their secondary is good. Seth says the offense is very Chip Kelly, they might have something with Julian Sayin down the road but he's skinny and mistake-prone right now.

[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]

Things Discussed:

• Frozen Four: Battle of the Blue Bloods. Usually you're counting on single-elimination hockey to off one of the impossibly good teams but NOT THIS YEAR. BC is fully of snipers—their top four forwards are shooting 18% to 21%.
• Michigan's chances rely on controlling the puck, scoring on their cycling, and Barzo stepping up to cancel out the corners.
• Past BC it's the #1 overall pick or a Denver team full of draft picks.
• College hockey right now: draft picks will coalesce at a few bluebloods like BC, BU, Denver, Minnesota, and Michigan, but the mid-majors are filled up with overagers trying to stay in the game. Also the NHL is enamored with college hockey players, and the US development program has succeeded in keeping talent home that five years ago and beyond we were losing to Canadian Juniors. So there's as much talent and skill in college hockey now as there's been in a very long time.
• Naurauto: He's on track for the perfect roster construction, which is two lines of highly skilled early NHL picks and Quinnipiac's top line, bunch of guys who are just on the cusp of NHL ability and are thus behooved to play out their eligibility in college.
• Break: What's going on at tight end? Beetham in the portal—is that about money? Michigan doesn't seem to have an inline guy this year.
• After Break: Women's basketball gone national. You can tell it's come on because sports fans are filling the hate boxes instead of being patronizing.
• Michigan othersports: wrestling is #2 in the Big Ten (better than Iowa) and is full of transfers! We love softball, women's gymnastics has a following, debate won a national championship.
• Is there enough NIL to go around at Michigan? Probably not, because we want to compete in every sport and donors are getting fatigued. The system doesn't work for anyone except the administrators who are getting the fans to pay out the nose for everything and want to shunt NIL on them too.

[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]