The gap.

Biggest gap for a Michigan athlete between their potential and their reality during their time at Michigan?

— Matthew Cheney (@matthewdcheney) March 17, 2021

This is a fascinating question. I'm going to leave out guys who saw their careers derailed by injury (Antonio Bass, Tarik Black) and also guys who the recruiting industry airballed on (Kevin Grady, Derrick Green) and limit this folks who clearly had something to offer and did not get to display it for whatever reason:

1. Devin Gardner. Gardner looked like a Heisman contender at certain points (ND UTL II, the two point conversion game against OSU) and was battered to pulp by the worst pass protection of all time at all other points. Not too hard to see him in the NFL if he hadn't ascended to nirvana in the middle of an MSU game.
2. Ernest Shazor. Electric hitter, five star recruit, repeatedly ran the wrong way at incredible rates of speed. He must have had some personal issues because he went from a projected second-round pick to completely undraftable in a couple months in which no football was being played.
3. Donovan Peoples-Jones. Five star wide receiver with massive athletic talent who saw his QB exit the pocket repeatedly and avoid downfield shots even when they were blitheringly wide open. Might as well file Nico "60 targets" Collins in here too.
4. Denard Robinson. Had just established himself as the most electric player in college football when Brady Hoke came in and brought in a guy who wanted to put him under center. Nerve injury had a lot to do with his late-career fade, too, but seeing Denard run a waggle will remain a crime against man and panda forever.
5. Evan Smotrycz. Smotrycz was coming off a 53/44 shooting year and was a career 41% three point shooter on ~200 attempts when he decided to transfer to Maryland. A major reason for this was the fact that he got drafted into playing a bunch of center, which he openly loathed. He ended up being redundant with Jake Layman at Maryland and faded into being a bench player as a senior. There's an alternate Smotrycz history where he gets to be a stretch four under Beilein for four years and has an absurdly efficient statline as an upperclassman.

Protests?

Given the timing of #NotNCAAProperty do you think it's likely there will be an on court protest during the tournament?

— Mathew Puskar (@NoExtraT) March 18, 2021

That's impossible to project but I do feel like that day is coming closer every year. Getting garbage meals while quarantined in a hotel so that everyone except you gets paid buckets of cash does seem like a potential tipping point. At some point a team is going to realize that they have a considerable

I've advocated for teams to adopt a mini-boycott where they don't play for 15 minutes—and if the network cuts to commercial the counter starts over. That would be a wake-up call that could escalate if necessary.

[After THE JUMP: ravoli rebels]

Space lawyer asks about earthly concerns.

Do we have to go back to pants post-pandemic? Or at a minimum can we transition to track suits?

— SpaceLawyer (@MahanicNick) March 17, 2021

Asking a blogger about pants is like asking an elephant about tank tops. I am familiar with the term but see no application to my situation, whether there's a pandemic or not. So yeah be a lawyer in a track suit, I'm sure it will go fine. You will get many clients and judges will remark on your casual, comfortable efficiency.

Freaky Saturday.

What would happen if every B1G school’s football and basketball coaches switched jobs, ie Harbaugh coaches hoops and Juwan coaches football?

— Michael (@BravesAndBirds) March 17, 2021

Every team in both sports would get massively worse except for Michigan State basketball, which already plays football, and Purdue football, which already plays basketball. Ohio State fans would commit atrocities beyond belief outside of a Fogo de Chao in suburban Chicago. Northwestern basketball would win the Big Ten title by winning 11 overtime games 35-32. Iowa fans heads would explode as their football team turns into #chaosteam-era Indiana and their basketball team runs a precisely regimented offense that does not realize there is a three point line. Nothing would happen at Wisconsin.

[Campredon]

Self-abuse for wins.

Would you let Brad Davison elbow you in the jewels* if it means Michigan goes to the Final Four?

*would also be filmed and uploaded to Twitter

— Patrick Barron (@BlueBarronPhoto) March 17, 2021

Is he pretending that he's doing a basketball at the time? If so, yes. You can only get so much velocity in while also badly missing a layup. That would be temporarily painful but unlikely to do any lasting damage. Also the angles are all wrong so I think this is a glancing blow.

If he is loading up specifically to disintegrate my sous vide and croquettes, no. I shudder to think what kind of carnage Brad Davison could do unbound by the specter of a flagrant 2.

[Campredon]

The Johnsening.

Will the Livers situation be the impetus for Johns to finally breakout the next 3 weeks and realize his seemingly high ceiling potential? I’ve always been a big fan of his and feel like he’s always on the verge of a breakout

— JVBlitz (@blitz_jv) March 17, 2021

For a given definition of "breakout," sure. I'd be just fine with Johns recapturing his sophomore form. He's has been marginalized this year but last year he was a highly effective bench player. In Big Ten play he shot 64/38 and had a TO rate just over 10, and that was in over 20 MPG. The only slight drawback was his usage, which was in role player territory at 15%.

This year most of his numbers have declined because Livers has been available and Franz can't be benched for long stretches. Johns has always been mercurial, a guy who seems more prone to big performance swings than most, and I think the sparing playing time has affected him. He has trouble finding his way into games when he's only playing a handful of minutes.

There seemed to be a shift when he got the start against OSU. He got to the line four times by backing down his opponents and hit 21% usage by creating a lot of his own shots. That's a new level of aggression for him, one that he should be able to maintain into the tournament because he's not going to meet a lot of 4s who aren't going to be vulnerable to that.

Johns is also a 36% three point shooter and should be able to absorb kickouts that were going to Livers without a disastrous drop in efficiency. I think it's 60/40 against that he performs well enough to spur a deep tourney run and people start talking about him like the presumptive starting 4 next year.

COVID returns?

If only one senior can come back who would you like it to be: Smith, Brooks, Brown or Livers?
Who is the most likely to come back for an extra year?

— Marc-Grégor Campredon (@MarcGregor) March 17, 2021

Given the composition of the team next year and the fact that young point guards often struggle, Smith is the pick. Livers is the best player of those four but Michigan is bringing in a plug-and-play stretch four in Caleb Houstan and should have a senior Brandon Johns back. Also you're probably going to get some Moussa Diabate minutes at the 4. If Smith does not return the point guard will either be a sophomore Zeb Jackson or freshman Frankie Collins. That would be asking a lot, especially since Collins is coming off a disjointed, strange final high school season that hasn't seen him play many games.

Smith is also the most likely to come back. Livers tested draft waters last year and has a real shot as a 3&D wing in the league. Brown's in the same boat. Brooks and Smith don't have NBA aspirations, but Brooks has been around the block in four years at Michigan. Smith hasn't actually gotten to have a high-major season where there are people in the stands.

Zombie Wisconsin.

i asked ace but cc’ing you now: i had a fevered daydream about a situation called Zombie Wisconsin where they all come back for the bonus year and are worse and Davison lands more nut punches than twos and they all look like Punished Snake from Metal Gear. will this happen?

— ακόμη δέσμιος εις τον Τάρταρον (@3dPartyInternet) March 17, 2021

No, but only because Micah Potter and Greg Gard want to throttle each other.

Hockey retention.

Basically, how many of the high-end draft picks do we stand to lose and who will likely stick around to help us climb past the older skilled teams?

— Alex Garbarino (@DrGarbs) March 17, 2021

This is pretty much the question about the hockey team as long as it keeps recruiting like this. Michigan has recruited so well that they're going to have four players in the top ten and could have three in the top five. Players who go that high are often signed by their teams immediately even if they end up playing in the AHL for much or all of their first year as a professional. This isn't a certainty, though: the Red Wings left #4 overall pick Lucas Raymond in Sweden and #5 overall pick Jake Sanderson matriculated at North Dakota.

The thing Michigan needs to do is hang onto their high-end stars until they have a blow-out Hobey year and only lose them after that. Or at least some of them. This class is particularly well-suited to do that because three of their four top-end prospects are already on campus and are the kinds of players what teams might leave in college for another year. Owen Power is a defenseman, and D usually take more time. Kent Johnson is ultra-skilled but needs a year of physical development. Matt Beniers is maybe the most ready since he's a 200-foot player but his size may mean an immediate jump isn't in the cards. I'm not expecting everyone back but neither am I expecting that Michigan will lose all of those guys.

Meanwhile they've got folks who project as two or three year college players: Brisson, Bordeleau, Truscott, and incoming recruits Ethan Edwards, Dylan Duke, and Mackie Samoskevich are all guys who have been or will be drafted in the late first to fourth rounds, which puts them in a sweet spot where they have high end talent and enough flaws that they'll stick around Ann Arbor for a while.

This is going to a be a pivotal Michigan Hockey summer. The good news is that they've stockpiled so much talent that they can take some hits and expect to go into next year as one of the best teams in the country.

No

are pop-tarts ravioli

— Joe (@blueandjoe) March 17, 2021

Is Saturn tea?