Unverified Voracity Has The Best Angry Birds Facility In The Country
Thursday, five PM: muppets? If Michigan actually nails down Mitch McGary I think I might deploy the first-ever recruiting muppets. This is when and how that might happen:
The 6-foot-10 McGary will announce Thursday for either Michigan, Duke or Florida, and his father confirmed Mitch will announce on ESPN.
“Yes he will,” Tim McGary said by text.
ESPNU has a “Recruiting Nation” show slated for 5 p.m. EST Thursday.
Both ESPN and Scout are already calling McGary to Michigan.
After a brief period of worry about Duke, everyone who's offered an opinion says it's M. Duke is on the verge of locking down another PF ranked in the top 25—must be nice—and Florida hasn't gotten a visit in a long time.
If and when McGary picks Michigan, the muppets will be warranted. That recruiting class will be McGary, Glen Robinson III, and Nick Stauskas: a top 10, top 50, and top 100 recruit to go with Burke/Brundidge/Hardaway/Horford/Morgan and followed by the Irvin/Walton/Donnal 2013 class. It will be the cherry on top of a basketball program that is all the way back to national relevance and the capper to the surge that began in East Lansing last January.
PDC, yeah you know me. It is here. It has iPads:
![379881_250602488322195_113453778703734_706647_1205761992_n[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/379881_250602488322195_113453778703734_706647_1205761992_n1.jpg "379881_250602488322195_113453778703734_706647_1205761992_n[1]")
Brundidge, Novak, McLimans, and Burke:
![296441_250603384988772_113453778703734_706692_1459555045_n[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/296441_250603384988772_113453778703734_706692_1459555045_n1.jpg "296441_250603384988772_113453778703734_706692_1459555045_n[1]")
"Tap it again to make the white one poop out a bomb"
It may be a ridiculous outlay of funds on something of debatable social value, but hey, man, it comes with touchscreens. Don't be a downer.
The usual. Epic Daily profile makes you wonder how long various students will outperform the local paid media? Epic Daily profile makes you wonder how long various students will outperform the local paid media. This one is on Tim Hardaway Jr:
![mam.mediaday228[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/mam_mediaday2281.jpg "mam.mediaday228[1]")
Marissa McClain/Daily
The doors on the all-white BMW 645Ci slammed shut, beginning the short journey home that would feel like an eternity.
The father, who had all the glory any man could hope for, was in the driver’s seat, casually turning the wheel in rhythm with the Miami streets. The son, a 16-year-old child trying to forge his own story in the shadow of his very name, leaned against the door of the passenger’s seat, with nothing to say.
It was like after any other of the
son’s high school basketball games. He won or he lost, and he and his father climbed into the luxury car without saying a word, draped in an oppressive silence.
I didn't even have time to link up the previous Molk piece before this one hit.
A monster draft beckons. NHL.com had three fellows deploy mock drafts and they are littered with Michigan players. One is expected—Jacob Trouba is widely regarded a top-ten lock. We've been hearing stuff about Boo Nieves as a second-rounder or a late first, and then there's a guy already on the team making an appearance. Their projections:
- Trouba: 5th, 8th, 10th
- Nieves: 19th, 26th, 28th
- Phil Di Giuseppe: 11th(!), 28th, NR
That's a bit higher than expected for Nieves and hello Mr. Di Giuseppe. Michigan hockey followers have been buzzing about Di Guiseppe since he started pumping goals in and it appears a couple of the guys in suits who hang around Yost have also taken notice. The guy Michigan picked up in the aftermath of Lucas Lessio's defection looks like he'll go higher than Lessio did (56th). This isn't ironic but it's the kind of thing people identify as ironic.
I actually missed Di Giuseppe on both mocks he features on because I wasn't even looking for his name. What a find. If Rutledge plays well Michigan will be a contender next year.
As for this year, Michigan continues the longest home winning streak in its history and takes on WMU this weekend in a game that suddenly looks like a huge one in the conference race. The undefeated (5-0-3, paging user Undefeated Dream Season of 1992) Broncos were the second consecutive team to sweep Miami and are currently the only team without a conference loss. They're the league's stingiest defense with only 13 goals allowed; Michigan is ten goals clear of those same Broncos in scoring, all of which came in a single game against St. Lawrence.
Groping a bit. Not like that. A couple things in Michigan Monday this week irked me. Irk #1: asserting that Denard's interception was a lock-on before the snap. It was a second read, something that Belotti pointed out on the replay by circling the first read on the other side of the field. He got beat by the eight-man drop but he at least went through a progression. Irk #2:
As an aside, a 41-yard carry for a non-fast quarterback makes you wonder what's going to happen over the next month when they face Nathan Scheelhaase, Taylor Martinez and Braxton Miller, no?
That run came with the score at 36-7 in the fourth quarter. Various starters had been pulled, including the WDE. True freshman Frank Clark blew the contain on the QB. So… yeah. Not relevant.
What I am saying about the thing I was saying. Braves & Birds has a profile of two anonymous teams:
| Team A | Team B | |
| Sagarin Predictor | 80.40 | 78.24 |
| Sagarin SOS | 68.38 | 75.20 |
| SRS | 9.9 | 6.12 |
| SRS SOS | 2.75 | 5.86 |
| Pts Per Game | 21.4 | 26.0 |
| Pts Allowed Per Game | 12.4 | 19.5 |
| Scoring Margin | +9.0 | +6.5 |
| Yards Per Play Gained | 5.1 | 5.6 |
| Yards Per Play Allowed | 4.2 | 4.5 |
| Yards Per Play Margin | +0.9 | +1.1 |
| Turnover Margin | +6 | -8 |
They're basically identical except one is in the Big Ten and has one loss and the other is… not. Michigan's schedule has been even softer than Team A, which okay I'll tell you is Penn State.
This is my concern, dude. Everyone regards PSU as a fraud, and we're kind of the same team except our loss was more competitive and our conference wins against even weaker competition.
A second chance. A couple years ago the BTN debuted internet streaming of untelevised games. This didn't go well. When I hit it up to watch a hockey game @ OSU the lag was such that I ragequit after one period in which the screen froze twice and came back to OSU celebrating a goal.
Maybe it's better? You can stream Michigan's basketball exhibition for free with the coupon code "BTDN3FR33"—good opportunity to find out if the product has improved.
Etc.: Bacon chat at the Detroit News tomorrow. Get your tickets for the outdoor hockey game in Cleveland. More MST3K Michigan defense parody. The Blue Ribbon preview of Michigan is a freebie. Michigan Hockey Net rounds up Michigan's commitments and how they're performing. Remember when we all would have killed for Jeff Tedford?
November 1st, 2011 at 12:17 PM ^
I'm always amazed at the quality that the Daily puts out, especially when Michigan has no real Journalism program to call it's own
November 1st, 2011 at 12:51 PM ^
Are not coincidence.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:18 PM ^
That's cause UM lost to MSU and PSU lost to Alabama. At this point in the season, PSU has come closer (at least on the scoreboard) to beating Alabama then anyone else.
November 1st, 2011 at 1:41 PM ^
I watched most of that PSU-Alabama game (which was in Happy Valley), and at no point did PSU look like it stood a chance to keep up with an interested Tide. PSU scored a meaningless 8 points to make it look prettier at the end, but that game was never in doubt. UM keeping it VERY close late into the 4th quarter on the road, to me, is a "better" loss than PSU's, Of course, this is all semantics - UM needs to be eat Iowa before I really start believing that this team has turned the corner.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:19 PM ^
you should repost your column asking whether Beilein's recruiting would limit Michigan's ceiling.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:32 PM ^
The conjectures on this board about how well Belien would recruit at Michigan based on how he did at previous stops, were as useless and limited as the same conjectures regarding Brady Hoke and his recruiting at Michigan.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:37 PM ^
"column" should be plural.
November 1st, 2011 at 4:11 PM ^
I have no idea what you're talking about. I advocated for Beilein's hire, held the rope when I was getting all these emails about firing the guy, and posted a column arguing the exact opposite in August before grabbing McGary was regarded a serious possibility.
http://mgoblog.com/content/beilein-recruiting-trajectory
But maybe once in a mailbag or something I said it didn't look good. Let's never forgive me for that.
November 1st, 2011 at 5:05 PM ^
Because I was curious, here's the mailbag you reference:
http://mgoblog.com/content/mailbag-entirely-concerned-beileins-recruiti…
As someone who reads this blog consistently I would have to agree, the idea of Beilein's recruiting having a ceiling that is below NC/FF level, maybe like sweet sixteen level, was repeated here more than once.
Thats fine though, in your line of work, youre gonna get some wrong. Youre also gonna get criticized when you do.
November 1st, 2011 at 5:21 PM ^
Funny reading David Komer's question and his totally writing off Jordan Morgan as a 2 star stick figure tall kid out of U of D Jesuit.
Brian is not very critical of Belien in the post and many seemed to think Belien wasn't even capable of the heights Brian predicted. Goes to show, you never can tell. In hindsight Belien had been real close with some top recruits, it was just a matter of time until M started landing some highly rated kids. Starting with the class of Hardaway, Belien is on the cusp of a very impressive 4 year recruiting run. Whouda thunk it!
November 1st, 2011 at 12:35 PM ^
He is also in that sophomore class with Hardaway and was a concensus top 100 player.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:36 PM ^
I'll hold judgement of just how fraudulent PSU is after we play Iowa this week and how we both do against Nebraska and OSU. Any team that only beats Indiana by 6 doesn't inspire much confidence in me.
Their Alabama loss would've been much worse if PSU's offense had shown an iota of competence and Alabama thought they needed to score again. PSU was in no way close to beating them.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:44 PM ^
Exactly, PSU is considered fraudulent because of how they beat their crappy competition, not because they beat crappy competition.
We don't know how good we are, but I'm fairly sure we're less fraudulent than PSU.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:37 PM ^
If the way iPads are already being used by baseball teams is any indication, I would imagine the basketball players will be productively using them for film study and such:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/6908844/information-age-changing-way-game-played
November 1st, 2011 at 12:53 PM ^
They can have their picture taken with Woodson.
#milking it
November 1st, 2011 at 12:38 PM ^
Florida
Florida would likely have 1 loss if they played in the B1G this season, and PSU or UM would likely be similar to Vanderbilt this year in the SEC (2-3, 3-2, etc).
Just the way it is right now. I'm a huge UM fan, but the SEC, as much as the bile builds in my throat when I say it, is vastly superior this year.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:46 PM ^
I don't buy that. I have watched a number of SEC games this year and aside from LSU and Alabama, the rest of the SEC is pretty much the same as the B1G. Some really weak teams (vandy, tenn, Miss) with a few avg to good teams (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Arkansas). I think if you put the top few teams in the B1G up against any SEC school other than the top two they would be competitive games and I would give MSU and Wiscy the edge on just about all of them. Honestly, I don't know what all the fuss about the SEc is this year aside from LSU and Alabama.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:46 PM ^
Really? This is the year you're going to say that? After LSU and Alabama I'm not sure who you are talking about. I'm not really scared of anyone besides those top 2 in the SEC this year, I'd say they are weaker than they have been in the last 3 or 4 years.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:47 PM ^
TEAM A
Predictor 86.48
SOS 73.89 (22nd)
---
TEAM B
Predictor 83.55
SOS 75.54 (15th)
---
TEAM C
Predictor 83.85
SOS 72.36 (33rd)
TEAM A is UNRAKED Notre Dame
TEAM B is #18 Georgia
TEAM C is #9 South Carolina
Explain that.
November 1st, 2011 at 1:22 PM ^
I can't. Notre Dame is a wealthy private school on a pretty campus. Someone should be raking it.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:48 PM ^
Auburn and LSU are vastly superior, the rest not so much. Arkansas is a good solid team with a cuople deficiencies, but the rest of the SEC is as mediocre as the Big Ten is this year.
There's been exactly one upset in that conference this year, Auburn over South Carolina, and that was due largley to Stephen Garcia being Stephen Garcia.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:54 PM ^
not Auburn when you say Auburn and LSU are vastly superior...
November 1st, 2011 at 1:05 PM ^
Yeah, probably should have caught that before posting.
November 1st, 2011 at 1:52 PM ^
Considering that the third best team in the SEC (Arkansas) needed huge comebacks to beat a mediocre Vandy and Ole Miss, a massive collapse by an overrated Texas A&M, and was stomped by Alabama, that doesn't speak that highly of the conference. Number 4 in the conference, South Carolina, is without its starting QB and RB and wasn't all that great before then, and huffed and puffed its way past two tomatoes in Tenn. and MSU by a total of 13 points (which isn't really a good thing). They also get to miss both LSU and Alabama, which astounds me. Georgia? They haven't beaten anyone with a winning record all year. So no, this year the SEC has done nothing to show they are the best conference in America. Talked a lot of game? Yes. Shown it on the field beyond LSU and Alabama (whose recruiting, um, practices we know about)? Nope.
I think the B1G is a hot mess as well, but there is no dominant conference this year - all are remarkably top-heavy (except the Big East, which is bottom-heavy), with little depth behind. For my money, the Big 12 is probably the best top-to-bottom conference, but even that is open for debate.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:44 PM ^
Well Penn State hasn't plowed over the majority of their competition. They beat Purdue by 5, Indiana by 6, and are 101st in scoring offense. I'm not ready to compare us to them.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:56 PM ^
the world's biggest basketball fan.
Oh yeah...
With that talent comes the responsibility to lead. Novak and Stu Douglass are the captains, and the obvious guys that the other players look up to. But they’re aware that they have to groom the next man for the job because they’re not going to be around next year...
To my way of thinking, reading Tim Hardaway Sr. describe calling THJ's game raises the performance of Bob Griese another notch.
November 1st, 2011 at 1:26 PM ^
To me, the reason the BBall team struggled two years ago was the loss of our senior leadership. If we don't do very well in the 2012-13 season it will be because we can't replicate the leadership of Novak/Douglass. I am really hoping, even if he does't play many minutes, that Vogrich can step up, along with Hardaway and Morgan, as a guy who leads by example in practice and the offseason.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:47 PM ^
How is PSU Strength of Schedule (SOS) better than ours?
http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/current_congrove_rankings.html
Michigan is ranked 25th PSU 33rd.
http://www.philsteele.com/Blogs/2011/Jul11/DBJuly18.html
In this pre-season one Michigan is 17th and PSU is 58th.
I am not sure what is being examined to declare our schedule as weak.
November 1st, 2011 at 4:48 PM ^
Are those full season or just teams we have played to date? To date is more relevant in this context
November 1st, 2011 at 12:53 PM ^
The "calling McGary to Michigan" line seems like a stretch from that writer if he's just getting that from things like assistant coach hunches. No doubt that things look good right now, but overstating our chances could lead to a pretty epic dong punch on Thursday.
November 1st, 2011 at 12:56 PM ^
But if it happens, Muppets are surely warranted. Anytime you get a top 5 player in the Country, plush puppets are acceptable. If you do it in basketball? It's practically demanded.
November 1st, 2011 at 1:02 PM ^
I watched the Mich St basketball exhibition and the quality seemed fine. Not laggy but blurry like I expect a live stream to be.
November 1st, 2011 at 1:13 PM ^
Brian, curious to see your UFR opinion on the Denard INT in Koger's direction. If you want to put some blame on the INT, Koger needs to be credited for at least half. He ran the route beyond the first down line (which is fine). But as Denard released the ball, you will see him basically continuing his route towards the direction of the end zone.
The goal of that play was to move the sticks, not see if he can break it for long yardage. Obviously, that would be fine too. But what he should have done is use his body to box out the trailing LB. Or at least come back to the ball. -.5 to Koger, in my opinion.
November 1st, 2011 at 1:13 PM ^
WMU has not played Miami yet this season-they were swept by Lake State at home last weekend and by FSU the previous week. In conference play WMU swept NMU last weekend at home, beat and tied/won a shootout @ Alaska. In n/c play they tied future Michigan opponent Union twice away and swept Alabama-Huntsville at home. They are more formidable than the average WMU team from the past (sans last season) and have more balance than Michigan's opponent last weekend (FSU.) Michigan will have to play much better defensively (last saturday's shutout was not Hunwicks best effort) and dent the net first, like against the Bulldogs. I think the biggest key is staying out of the penalty box. Our special teams are nominal so far.
Michigan will travel to play tDynasty next weekend.
November 1st, 2011 at 1:23 PM ^
Brian likes to think that the local paid media is stupid and lazy and that the Daily just has more talented people. In some cases this is actually true, but what he fails to realize is that the stupid and lazy folk are paid to play to a MASS audience. This generally brings work closer to the LCD. The Daily has the advantage of knowing exactly what age and persuasian the vast majority of its readership is in - young, savvy, well-read - and can play to that niche. There's a lot more that goes it into than this veiled notion that they're just better and work harder. That itself is a rather lazy analysis.
November 1st, 2011 at 1:41 PM ^
I am well-read is probably in the mind of the beholder. I enjoyed both the Molk article, and the THJ article. I think that well-written articles can stand on their own merit. In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that the local paid media have misjudged their market. Report the news, don't try to make the news or be the news. Further, both of the aforementioned articles were there for the taking for anyone willing to put in the work.
November 1st, 2011 at 1:57 PM ^
Well, if what the Freep and DetNews puts out is truly "MASS" appeal, then give me the Daily. Appealing to a large group of people does not mean you have to put out crap, and I'd be fine if the local paid media did a couple of these in-depth articles about local athletes (at UM, MSU, directional schools, etc.) per year instead of the Jihad abomination that Rosenberg and Snyder wrote or whatever Drew Sharp leaks from his forehead ever week.
November 1st, 2011 at 3:02 PM ^
went to national prominence writing excellent articles in the 90's - human story pieces - similar to that in the Daily. Including an anti-MASS-audience ode to the Iditerod.
He's become something of a yutz (all went to his head), but he was an excellent writer at one time. You don't have to be awful to thrive in the mass media, it's that way because of the people in charge.
November 1st, 2011 at 3:37 PM ^
It's not the composition of the audience, it's the space available to writers.
The "newshole" for regional newspapers has shrunk dramatically over the past 15 years as newspapers desperately try to get more ad revenue to keep their operations afloat. More ad space + a static or shrinking page limit = very little space for long-form sportswriting in daily newspapers.
The Daily doesn't face such pressures as it's supported by student fees as well as ad revenue (and doesn't have shareholders to satisfy) allowing more space for long-form.
November 1st, 2011 at 1:19 PM ^
BTN2Go is free for Time Warner subscribers (as well as Dish and DirecTV), and I used it without issue for the Eastern Michigan game when I had cable problems. It's in Beta, and is not as slick as the ESPN3 interface, but it streamed live remarkably well.
November 1st, 2011 at 5:40 PM ^
November 1st, 2011 at 1:30 PM ^
The Daily has been outperforming the instate media since Andrew Reid was there.
Epic Daily profile makes you wonder how long various students will outperform the local paid media?
November 1st, 2011 at 2:06 PM ^
I realize that it is probably still 50-50 if Mitch signs with UM, but he's already the highest profile recruit we have had a legitimate shot at in a long time. If he were to sign he would be the highest ranked recruit since.......who?
I have to assume Webber was top 5, but was someone like Maurice Taylor or Robert Traylor ranked that high? Jarod Ward was ranked really high (ouch) too I guess. I don't think guys like Horton, Blanchard, Harris, or even Jamal Crawford were ranked that high.
Thoughts?
November 1st, 2011 at 3:08 PM ^
McGary would be the highest recruit since Jerod Ward in 1994. Obviously, his career at Michigan didn't reflect this lofty projection. (He was a good player but he never dominated like that ranking would suggest. Injuries had a lot to do with that)
Realistically, he would be the best player since Webber. Webber was the consensus #1. Dominated college ball for two years. Was rookie of the year. All NBA first team and may have been a Hall of Famer if not for injuries.
If McGary comes here and is half the player Webber was, I would be ecstatic.
November 1st, 2011 at 2:50 PM ^
I'm sure this is wishful thinking, but why couldn't he start playing in January?
November 1st, 2011 at 3:07 PM ^
paging user Undefeated Dream Season of 1992
The Broncos are 4 wins away from achieving dream-like status. Let's give them a rude awakening. Go Blue!
November 1st, 2011 at 3:13 PM ^
Another reason people think Penn State is a fraud is due to their fans' belief that Penn State is a legit BCS contender with national title aspirations. Only the most delusional fan would think that Michigan makes a BCS game without a healthy dose of smoke and mirrors - some of which we've seen already (i.e. vs Notre Dame).
November 1st, 2011 at 3:14 PM ^
I agree that Team A and Team B look similar but neither of those Teams are Michigan and Michigans stats would look completely different. Score differential would be very different as PSU has beaten some bad teams by very slim margins and Michigans closest victory was 4 points over ND. The next closest is 18 points over NW.
Michigan is indeed feasting on a weak schedule but a comparison of PSU and Florida does not demonstrate that. If you didn't visit the Braves and Birds link, you wouldn't even know Team B is Florida, would you?
November 1st, 2011 at 4:03 PM ^
He probably only watched the game once.
November 1st, 2011 at 4:45 PM ^
Not sure how you can say we're basically penn state when sagarin's predictor has us at #9, psu at #25, and as of last week, FEI (which has all of a sudden disappeared from this site) had us at 17, PSU at 30(should be even wider this week). The offensive numbers are way, way different.
Plus it doesnt pass the eye test. Our games are fun to watch. PSU's games are an insult to football.
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