Unverified Voracity, Forcibly Skeptical
Item of the week. A new weekly thing: in conjunction with the Pat Maloy Scholarship fund we'll be plugging Michigan memorabilia on a weekly basis. All proceeds go to scholarship endowments at Michigan. Item!
The above features signatures from blog favorites Brandon Graham, Zoltan Mesko(!), and Ron Bellamy:
This item is a perfect addition to a Michigan collection in that it spans several decades of Michigan football greatness. A white Michigan football adorned with a large blue block M and two winged helmets on either side. The football is autographed by 18 former Michigan stars including Jim Brandstatter, Brandon Graham, Billy Taylor, Jarrett Irons, Buster Stanley, Vada Murray, Harlan Huckleby, Jarrod Bunch, Ron Johnson, Andre Weathers, Greg Mathews, Ron Bellamy, David Moosman, Stevie Brown, Zoltan Mesko, Derek Walker, Greg McMurtry.
Hatch update. From his Caring Bridge page:
Monday, September 5, 2011 5:25 PM, EDT
Another great week by a determined and hard working student athlete. Austin has a beautiful attitude and is enjoying day visits with close friends and family. We are following the medical staff advice to control the visitor schedule to no more than three at a time to allow him to focus on his recovery. While the length of the rehab program is still unclear, he looks forward to returning to home and normal activities.
Mitch McGary enjoys torrential downpours. Mitch McGary visited for the Western Michigan game and reportedly had quite a time. Here's MGoUser Max hanging with McGary in the rain:
(BONUS: Just A Simple Minded Football Coach caught a shot in the Detroit News where McGary is going nuts as Herron roars down the field. Also he recapped the Western game.)
Post something like this and you'll be hounded until you give people the full story, so Max did:
I asked him about his official visits; he told me he is allowed to take 10 (instead of the usual 5) since he took a year off after high school. "You're gonna hate me for this, but I'm going to Duke next weekend." I asked, "Are you visiting anywhere more than once?" He replied, "No, but I'll be back at Michigan for camp in [whatever month it was]."
He was going batshit crazy on all the big Michigan plays, waiving his towel and giving out high-fives. He, like the rest of the student section, clealy enjoyed the rain, too. He sang and fist-pumped along with The Victors. He even tried to start a cheer, but his "LET'S GO BLU-UE" wasn't very catchy.
Finally, right before he and the others left, I asked him to take a picture with me. He seemed really excited, throwing his arm around me and joking around. I got a little too excited and started slapping him on the shoulder. He cringed a little, and I remembered that his shoulder had gotten cut up pretty badly when he broke that backboard. I apologized, but he just thought it was funny. After the picture, we all started jumping around a little bit, yelling "Go Blue!" and whatever else. He said several things to the effect of "I'll see you guys next year!" and then left.
So that's spectacular except for the part where Michigan fans whap him in his fresh wounds. UMHoops points out that McGary's AAU coach, Wayne Brumm, has been talking up Michigan to any outlet that will listen—I'm guessing that's he's the source for the national recruiting guys who keep saying "McGary isn't close to a decision but I'd keep an eye out for Michigan." Sam Webb hit Brumm up for a take on his visit and the resulting Webblog says Michigan is "STRONG" with McGary in the headline. This seems like time to get those hopes off the floor.
If you're like me you'll need to see McGary in a Crisler shootaround before you'll believe Michigan can snag a top five recruit in this modern sleaze-paced basketball recruiting society, but it seems like they've got a shot. McGary's off to a who's who of basketball powers over the next few weeks, whereupon his love for the block M and sea turtles falling from the sky will be tested. The good news: The rumor is Michigan's main competitors are Maryland and Florida and McGary mentioned to people around him that he planned on returning to Ann Arbor for "camp"—November camp? Next year's Elite camp?
Snagging McGary would take Beilein's recruiting trajectory from "we'll be pretty good in 2013" to "Big Ten contender NOW." Fingers crossed.
BAD HEADLINE MONKEY. You're new here at the Detroit Free Press (motto: Metro Detroit's second best paper named "The Detroit Free Press"), kid. So we'll cut you some slack. But this is not cool:
Kid, "rigorous" means you are more than doubling NCAA practice time maximums. When you're a headline monkey at Metro Detroit's second best paper named The Detroit Free Press, you have to know these things. I'm glad we had this talk. Now if you could lay out the arts section, clean the bathroom, copy edit* A1, and check the roof for suicidal reporters you can go home.
*[LOL JK]
I've always wanted an opportunity to get sued by Righthaven. Thanks to the rain, I've got one. It turns out that Vegas refunding the world's tickets on the Michigan-WMU game is quite a letoff for sportsbooks:
"It was kind of wacky. There have been some crazy weather games, but I've never seen that," MGM Resorts sports book director Jay Rood said. "I would rather have seen the game get in and played than end the way it did, when maybe some people feel like they were cheated.
"We were going to lose on the game. That was by far the biggest public-backed game on the board. The ticket count was ridiculous, like 20-1 for Michigan."
Wow. Either the sharps or the books were heavily on Western.
WAYS YOU CAN TELL THE NEWSPAPER YOU ARE READING IS BASED IN LAS VEGAS PROTIP: The reporter says "I was on the Wolverines, for the record" and wishes a natural disaster had befallen the Georgia Dome so he wouldn't have gotten taken on the Boise State-Georgia game.
Time to update the Michigan reporter whirlwind. MVictors's handy movement graph is now out of date since Zach Travis has been picked up by Bleacher Report of all things and is getting paid to write on the Big Ten. Spreading that venture capital love around, they are. If you'd ceased paying attention to Zach's old blog Dreaded Judgment, he's firing it back up.
Are we still talking about this? Well done, Jon Wilner. You managed to get me all the way through your article on yet more realignment without making it clear that your source is a guy in a Pac-12 athletic department who likes messing with journalists:
The Big Ten won’t expand until it’s time to renegotiate the league’s deals with CBS and ESPN, which expire in 2016, according to a source.
At that point, if the Pac-12 and the SEC have grown to 16 teams, then Notre Dame will join the Big Ten.
Guh. I have been expansion-trolled. If you still want to take this seriously, Wilner says the Pac 12 presidents are opposed to expanding but will do it if the SEC jumps off the bridge first, at which point they'll have no choice. I hope the Big Ten is wise enough not to follow them.
Etc.: If you like the arrangement of the Victors for the Michigan Difference commercials, you can download it for your phone or (emo) tailgate or whatever. Holdin' the Rope starts a Michigan Monday analogue focused on the Golden Bobcats. Bruce Feldman is outside the paywall. Tommy Rees will start for ND this weekend.
September 6th, 2011 at 12:54 PM ^
Rivals just had a super-positive interview with his dad as well (if parents had unilateral authority over where their kids went to college Beilein would bring in a Fab Five level class every year).
I'm still expecting him to end up someplace like Florida or Kentucky after Donovan or Calipari do whatever it is they do, though.
September 6th, 2011 at 1:25 PM ^
While college basketball recruiting is dirty like dirt in a dirt sandwich, I wouldn't condemn Donovan in that way. If he was sleazy, he would have won a LOT more basketball games since the Horford/Noah/Brewer team graduated. Look at his recruiting rankings since then - not over-the-top ridiculous by any stretch of the imagination.
Calipari on the other hand...blech.
September 6th, 2011 at 12:59 PM ^
Those two defenseive scores really swung the line in a meaningful way. The tipped-INT was probably a 14 point swing in and of itself, and the fumble return TD is another 7 point swing. Plus, WMU missed a 38 yard FGA. I think M could have covered anyway, but I'm not sure the book was way off on that one.
Those are moot points though becuase the fact of the matter is that bookies would've been pounded as M was winning by 24 and going away.
September 6th, 2011 at 1:12 PM ^
I had my Longest TD Of The Game Over 57.5 yards prop bet cancelled
It was a winner, too.
Up in my end zone cheap seats, I was screaming 'there's the over, there's the over" while pumping my fist in the air like a jockey whipping his horse as Herron streaked down the sideline
Stupid Mother Nature.....at least I didnt have Miami +4 and lose on that late Pick-6 in the closing seconds. That would have sucked worse
September 6th, 2011 at 1:16 PM ^
I had V. Smith under 8.5 carries which I thought must have either been an error or an uninformed bust. I maxed out the bet and read in horror as they emailed me about voiding the wager.
That Pac 12 writer loses credibility when he talks about the Big Ten's "CBS Contract" that doesn't exist. I assume he meant SEC.
September 6th, 2011 at 1:24 PM ^
Awesome, I am definitely going to play this version on loop in my baby's crib... After I get married and have a kid.
September 6th, 2011 at 1:34 PM ^
If McGary is returning to Michigan for "camp," it must be for an unofficial visit during preseason camp. It wouldn't make sense for him to attend any summer camps next year.
The rumor that Maryland and Florida would be the biggest competitors for him seems odd, but there doesn't seem to be much solid information out there about his recruitment. I think it would be a mistake to count out either North Carolina or Duke, the two schools he is making official visits to this week.
It also seems to me that for him to select either Florida or Maryland, he would have to make an official visit to the school, and after this week he can't make any more official visits until October 15 or later (under NCAA rules for post-grad official visits). So his decision is likely several weeks away--perhaps coming just before or during the early signing period, which starts on November 9.
September 6th, 2011 at 1:36 PM ^
Why is it that the concensus is that once a conference goes to 16 schools everyone will have to follow? What exactly is the advantage of the bigger conferences and why would they be able to run over the smaller ones. The Big East in basketball is huge and they don't seem to be a threat at all to the relatively smaller conferences.
September 6th, 2011 at 2:05 PM ^
WOTS is that a 16 Team Superconference could ask the BCS for 2 Auto-Bids. So if the SEC gets 2 BCS teams, the Pac-16 gets two BCS teams... Then we'd be screwed with 1.
Let's say Texas, OU, etc. ditch the Big XII for the PAC. The Pac will argue that they should get the Big XII's autobid, and get two. That's where the "keeping up with the joneses" comes in
September 6th, 2011 at 4:32 PM ^
The Big Less-than-12 will already be fighting to preserve their BCS spot. It's highly unlikely that non-AQ schools will be part of meaningful expansion (as opposed to, say, the Big 12 trying to fill out again to regain a championship game), which means that up to 16 schools are coming from BCS conferences.
Whether it's the SEC or Pac-12 first, with two 16-team conferences and 8 teams being pulled from the Big 12 and, in the end, from the Big East (say Florida State goes from ACC to SEC, then Connecticut goes from Big East to ACC; you see where the net loss is) ... it's not difficult to see those two conferences pointing out who really deserves the BCS bids.
Also, you want to get the schools at the top of your list. If that is, say, Syracuse, Missouri, Notre Dame, and Virginia Tech, you don't want to end up with Rutgers, Iowa State, Kansas, and Kansas State because they were the best of the "remaining" schools.
Also also, there may be a clause in the BTN contracts that would increase revenue with the addition of more schools/more states to the footprint. If the Pac-16 and SEC-XL improve their deals first, then it might be something of a marketing thing to get the Big Ten's deal back to the top.
September 6th, 2011 at 1:54 PM ^
who is not even a fan of UM (but somehow knows former player from the 70's, but can't remember his name) has that exact ball with signatures of the starters of the 2006 team plus Woodson and coach carr. I can't even tell you how pissed I was when I saw it, knowing he doesn't even follow football. My anger has softened a bit since he told me his nameless friend has a couple extra tickets for the OSU game and wants my brother and I to come with him.
September 6th, 2011 at 2:11 PM ^
"Rigorous." For. The. Win. Brian!
I used to accuse Mike Rosenberg of being as smart as he was evil. I suppose that both things are still just as true as ever. But.... damn. That headline, whoever crafted it, is some special kind of stupid. Record-setting stupid. Hall of Fame stupid. No, I got it... Freep-stupid.
Here's exactly what "rigorous" meant, on August 29, 2009. (I wish I knew how to post a screen-capture of this):
http://www.freep.com/article/20090829/SPORTS06/90829023/A-look-inside-Rodriguez-s-rigorous-program
Just be careful the way you say, "rigorous" there, bucko...
September 6th, 2011 at 2:12 PM ^
Nice link on the fight song - good to have
September 6th, 2011 at 2:26 PM ^
new ringtone'd
September 6th, 2011 at 3:29 PM ^
I think our chances are much better if it was down to Florida, Maryland, and us. Duke and NC are the 800 pound recruiting gorillas that worry me the most. But, it sounds like MM is genuinely excited about U-M. If he were "meh" about us, he wouldn't have been singing along with the Victors and going "batshit crazy". Still, I realize there's a lot that can happen, but the "signs" are looking more encouraging than less. He's the missing piece of the puzzle for Michigan, and would put us competing for the conference title right away, not to mention a deep tournament run.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:37 PM ^
If I was a autograph guy, I think I'd be bidding on that football for Vada alone.
We might have a shot with McGary. He's white. (*rimshot). Seriously, till he's seen Duke and NC and says "eh, Michigan has those places whooped, I'll temper my expectations. But even being seriously considered (not like some of the previously highly rated guys, where we're on the list, but really....) is progress. And he is just what this team needs. And if game reports are any indication, seems like a great kid. (Unless he goes to Duke).
Changing Gears? Which one if these is not like the others.....
And the Big Ten might not have any other choice if the SEC and Pac-10 go to 16 or whatever, just because those will have that many more schools as it's power base. And in these cases, schools that matter...not Big East Schools. If they don't round up some quality after that, besides losing power and prestige, they may end up having to choose the scraps left over, like Rutgers and Missouri and such. Some of those like Pitt and Syracuse may be fine as "fill out the conference/every game can't be tough" games, but if they can't land ND and/or some other big names, they're going to take a back seat to the other conferences. And whether our football has been better or worse, that would be a new experience for the Big Ten. So it won't happen. So if you don't want to see 2 mini-B10 conferences, you're better bet is not to hope they don't follow suit; but to hope the Pac-10 doesn't start more dominos from falling.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:41 PM ^
FWIW, I downloaded the ringtone but then my iPhone (it's a 3GS, I'm OLD SKOOL) rejected it as being "too long" (the download is 60 seconds). I had to go through an extra step of shortening the tune first. No biggie, but be aware it may take an extra step.
September 6th, 2011 at 5:14 PM ^
Slight quibble. M basketball will be Big Ten contender NOW in 2013 regardless of McGary's college choice. If M lands McGary they will be a Final Four favorite.
September 6th, 2011 at 7:29 PM ^
A few other McGary notes:
- There are reports, including this one, that McGary will be attending Kentucky's Big Blue Madness kickoff event on October 14.
- Sam Webb said on today's recruiting roundup that McGary will be making visits (presumably official ones) to both Florida and Maryland at a later date. (He already made unofficial ones to both.)
- Maryland recently received commitments from two top 100 big men in the class of 2012--Shaquille Cleare and Jake Layman. That could affect McGary's interest in Maryland.
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