Dear Diary Has Somebody Out There Giving Us a Bad Name
We believe the guy with the fake mullet managed to convince him it is, while acknowledging the recently greater popularity of Freesia. [Fuller]
Molecules of competitiveness. I don't get all of the WWE references in the Best and Worst columns. For example, would this qualify as a bodyslam or a chair to the face:
MSU hit a school record 17 3 pointers against Purdue, including 6 by Gary Harris. In their losses to Nebraska and UM, they hit 14 total out of 47, with Harris going 5 of 20. Apparently, those wrists, shoulders, and ankles were fine on Thursday but that long bus ride between East Lansing and Ann Arbor jostled all the bones out of sorts again.
Chair to the face I'm guessing, since most of the momentum was generated by Izzo's bouncing off the ropes, and bronxblue just put a hard object in the way. Either way it's pretty entertaining.
Scientists think Morgan and Morris may have cohabitated in ancient Crisler, and may have even interacted. |
How bad can we make it? There is a singularly small type of person who sees a sexual assault expulsion and jumps for joy for the hammer with which he can pound a sports rival program on internet message boards. All fanbases have them, all fanbases are embarrassed by them. The best way to manage them is if the thought leaders, i.e. the journalists, maintain a high level of integrity and investigation, focusing on facts, providing context, and discouraging over-speculation. Good journalism is a thousand times better than good P.R.
If you're wondering why it's Sparties, of all roaches, doing most of the scuttling, it's because their media are 30% trolls themselves, 60% too biased to consider fighting the trolls, and the remainder aren't trying all that hard. I removed, at last count 13, fight-back threads this and last week, because there's nothing to be gained by criticizing the journalistic integrity of Mike Valenti or Graham Couch or Eric Thomas, etc. There's a certain type of person you just remove from the message board; if somebody's given him a broadsheet or a highly trafficked url or a 15,000-watt microphone instead, roll your eyes and ignore it.
The least we could hope for is for those without a dog in the fight to not be lazy with the publically available facts. Like how FERPA works (BiSB's fisk of MLive's attempt to get in on the Daily's glory). Or that the Ed Dept.'s involvement began when they used Title IX to tell the university to institute the policy they're reviewing, not last week, and that at last count 24 universities' policies were under investigation, with two more completed and seven more have had recent controversies. Or that a few minutes on the chief complainant's blog raises obvious credibility concerns that he should have to address when interviewed.
The Daily has continued to produce the best reporting on the subject, while the Detroit papers, SI, Huffington Post (to their credit they at least edited their article at the end with suggested corrections), and now Mlive have, while trying to play catch-up on the students, been caught biting at the chum of shock value while burying or ignoring the easy context. Prediction: in 10 years half of the metro-Detroit media will be replaced by former Dailyites and bloggers. Most of those who haven't will cater to Michigan State fans, because roaches are survivors.
Etc. Michigan is 98% to hang a banner. Ron Utah says the position changes are a Hail Mary and this inspires…confidence? Six of eight is a narrative-beater. DCAlum provided his eyewitness account of the MSU lining up fiasco. Goal-by-goal vs. Minnesota was too depressing for me to even read this week. LSA columns on win probability and home versus away stats.
[Jump for the best of the board, and the title reference]
Best of the Board
GET TO KNOW YOUR BUZZER BEATER HISTORY
Leave it to WH to come up with a list of other great last-shot victories, including one from another Robinson. Except WH couldn't think of any others but King's putback in the '93 tournament. Wolverine Devotee wins the something for producing a list of last-second winning shots. The last was DeShawn Sims vs Savannah State in 2008-'09.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
The spring rosters had some changes beyond the weights that Brian covered. Notably, Paskorz was absent. A guy on our board has been persistent that he's gone for several weeks, but I haven't been able to confirm that. I punt. Also notably some jersey numbers have switched, in most cases back. Via Wolverine Devotee:
- Mike McCray changed from #3 back to #9. He wore #9 for fall camp 2013 and changed a couple games into the season
- De'Veon Smith changed from #32 back #4. He wore #4 until Minnesota week.
- Reon Dawson changed from #20 to #30
- Will Hagerup changed from #43 to #40. This due to the three guys including two on special teams wearing the number last season when Will was held out.
- Garrett Miller changes from #93 to #55.
Smith switched to 32 last year because he and Cam Gordon were both playing on special teams.
SOFTBALL UPDATE
Abby Ramirez/MGoBlue
I've been getting email updates from MGoSoftball on the team so this all comes from him. The gals upset #5 Kentucky and swept the rest of the FAU Kickoff Classic. In case we didn't have an embarrassment of pitching already, freshman Megan Betsa had two complete game shutouts to match Haylie Wagner's pair of two-hit blankings (including the one against Kentucky).
The other big-time freshman so far has been Abby Ramirez, who started in place of Romero once but has been otherwise playing at 2nd. Both she and 3B Lindsay Monetmarano have perfect fielding percentages so far this season, which is good news considering fielding was such a weak point last year.
They're now in the midst of the toughest part of their schedule, with the Louisville Slugger Invitational starting tonight and the next two weeks featuring five games vs. Pac 12 teams in the top 10 (new #5 UCLA twice plus undefeated Arizona State and Arizona, and one-loss Oregon) plus Texas.
MICHIGAN READING LIST
Threads like this have popped up before. Rather than tackle it here I'll remind myself to do a definitive Michigan book list for a future Hokepoints.
Your Moment of Zen:
Our program: haters of headsets.
Happy retirement, Jon.
February 28th, 2014 at 11:22 AM ^
February 28th, 2014 at 11:22 AM ^
I have no sound on my computer at work, so the CC for the Jon Falk video is pretty hilarious and giving me no idea what he's actually saying.
February 28th, 2014 at 12:01 PM ^
He recalls a great story about Bo. Definitely worth re-watching when you get to a computer with sound.
February 28th, 2014 at 11:29 AM ^
Spartans: Not relevant to world history since some time before Jesus may or may not have been a messiah.
February 28th, 2014 at 11:39 AM ^
I do applaud his censored version of the f word.
Also, I'd buy your shirt, quigley. Good stuff. It always amazes me when Spartans say "wolverines aren't in Michigan". Well, at least they inhabit North America. Your Spartans, however.....
February 28th, 2014 at 12:53 PM ^
Not to nit-pick with Sparty......but shouldn't it be "Not a f-in' color...."? He used an "an" in place of "a". Since he pretty much spelled out the F-word, he should have used "a" in front of the consonant "F".
If he's going to talk trash.....especially college trash......he should try to get it right.
February 28th, 2014 at 4:03 PM ^
February 28th, 2014 at 12:08 PM ^
Not a color since 1817!
.... but then the first recorded use of maize as a color occured in 1861...
....... and then Michigan adopted maize as one of its colors in 1867....
Source: 10 seconds of google
-Blue is associated with greater cognitive abilities, better decision making, quality and competence.
-Red (scarlet), on the other hand, is linked to poor academic performance. It also promotes anger, negativity, aggression and lust.
-Green = jealousy.
Is it just me or does this make a lot of sense?
February 28th, 2014 at 2:56 PM ^
"My dad's a lawyer and I can wear whatever shirt I want in your building".
Actually, I don't mind him wearing his colors at all, but he should save the inflammatory crap for Breslin.
February 28th, 2014 at 11:29 AM ^
Jordan Morgan was a member of the Michigan basketball team back when Zack Gibson was playing center.
February 28th, 2014 at 12:30 PM ^
I'll always remember him for this
and then for this
He's probaly never going to go off for 20 pts and 15 rebounds, but he's quietly been one of the rocks of the best stretch of Michigan basketball in over 20 years. Such a solid dude
February 28th, 2014 at 11:42 AM ^
That's actually a pretty awesome shirt on that sparty fan. True or not I laughed
February 28th, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^
Contrary to what Sparty thinks, Maize is not the colour of corn. According to the song, "Colours" by Donovan, that would be green. Frankly, if I were Special K, I'd play this instead of Sweet Caroline. The lyrics are just perfect and it's easy to sing along to.
Yellow is the color of my true love's hair
In the mornin', when we rise
In the mornin', when we rise
That's the time, that's the time
I love the best
Blue's the color of the sky
In the mornin', when we rise
In the mornin', when we rise
That's the time, that's the time
I love the best
Green's the color of the sparklin' corn
In the mornin', when we rise
In the mornin', when we rise
That's the time, that's the time
I love the best
February 28th, 2014 at 12:24 PM ^
Really??? "AN" ????
STAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE....................
February 28th, 2014 at 12:40 PM ^
guessing he was going with "effin"
February 28th, 2014 at 12:43 PM ^
I am an Engineer, so please ignore me, but I have heard that the sound makes it permissable, if not perfectly conforming to the rules.
So I guess it depends if you read is as written, or as the whole word...
February 28th, 2014 at 3:18 PM ^
It is permitted, but not in the written form.
February 28th, 2014 at 12:30 PM ^
Receding hairline since 2012
February 28th, 2014 at 12:32 PM ^
Crayola disagrees with your shirt...
...as well as the AD's interpretation of the color.
February 28th, 2014 at 1:14 PM ^
VIM - Something no one has F-in' fought with since 1855.
February 28th, 2014 at 1:40 PM ^
February 28th, 2014 at 1:43 PM ^
February 28th, 2014 at 2:09 PM ^
"The best way to manage them is if the thought leaders, i.e. the journalists, maintain a high level of integrity and investigation, focusing on facts, providing context, and discouraging over-speculation."
Yeah that'll happen ..... never.
February 28th, 2014 at 2:35 PM ^
And yet an entire industry of guys who never went to journalism school sprang up in a matter of a few years simply by doing just that. If the market exists...
February 28th, 2014 at 2:52 PM ^
but the reliability is not... When Breibart or Daily Kos suggests or posts something misleading or demonstrably untrue, everyone shrugs their shoulders. If the NY Times or WSJ do the same it's major news and becomes political weaponry for one side or the other. Between these platforms we are treated to MSNBC and Fox.
There is no "Blog of Record", but the interwebs are killing/have killed newpapers. The newpapers risked their existence on their reputations. Internet sites risk almost nothing on reliability just so long as they are entertaining.
February 28th, 2014 at 2:43 PM ^
I can't listen to the guy during football season because a) I really don't give a rat's ass about the NFL and that's a fair portion of the subject matter and b) obv. That said, I tend to agree with his commentary on baseball and often feel educated by it. He should really move to NY or LA and do a gig in a bigger market. He would no longer be a leaking green pustule in our community and he'd be in a place more in tune with his massive ego. I strongly suspect he'll make such a move when sparty football begins its decent to the middle of the B1G - within 3 years, hopefully 2.
February 28th, 2014 at 3:17 PM ^
Here's a fair question: Knowing that Valenti is a moron on any subjects related to U-M, what justifies a higher regard for his opinion/knowledge on others? My usual assumption is that if someone pulls an opinion out of his ass on one topic and exposes how ill-informed/prejudiced he is, he's liable to do it on other topics, too.
February 28th, 2014 at 3:47 PM ^
and loves Sparty. And he's a smart and informed guy. He couches his arguments in a way that your typical MGoBlogger susses out pretty quickly, but his average listener does not. So he wins agruments about Michigan and Sparty subject matter. He doesn't seem to have a dog in the fight when it comes to baseball or the Tigers where he puts his mind and effort to more legitimate use.
Liking MSU and being smart are mutually exclusive.
February 28th, 2014 at 4:12 PM ^
We don't need to spend 10 seconds on Google, or debate punctuation, etc. etc. This is easy.
"Hey Sparty, scoreboard. See you at the tournament."
So simple even someone who buys a t-shirt he can wear only at 2 or 3 basketball games a year would understand it.
February 28th, 2014 at 4:48 PM ^
Nice work as always, Seth.
Not sure where you got confidence from my Hail Mary piece; I'm sure I said I was nervous more than once.
Excited? Yes. Confident? Hell no. It's 50-50 whether these changes work, IMO.
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