Sponsor Note. If you need a lawyer to write up some contracts, establish your business, and do lawyerly stuff in general, Richard Hoeg is the finest option known to man or beast.

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Now would be a good time to call him because I'm sure he'll have some THOUGHTS on the latest Star Wars movie, which I have not seen but predict is a shot for shot remake of Return of the Jedi. This time when you take Vader's helmet off there's a guy trying to sell you a mortgage.

Where was I? Right: Richard left a big law firm to hang out his own shingle so he knows what being in business for yourself is like. Hit him up.

Not feeling great, folks. I've got bronchitis. I'm going to have to miss tomorrow's early signing day podcast unless you want it to go like this

SETH: So, what do you think of Matthew Hibner?

BRIAN: *cough cough COUGH cough COUGH COUGH* ugh

SETH: Real riser on 24/7 over the course of the cycle.

BRIAN:

If you've never had your core muscles cramp up because you've been coughing incessantly… you are doing a good job and should continue.

Anyway.

[After THE JUMP: can we talk about the Miami Heat's house style]

Some brief Oregon takes. A few items on the Oregon OT loss:

• Extremely frustrating that the one guy Michigan absolutely could not lose behind the three-point line was able to get off ten mostly excellent looks, canning 6. A couple of these were in transition—the three after Brooks dribbled himself into a 1-2-2 press turnover was particularly painful—but most of the rest were Michigan not getting out on a guy who has a very long track record as a sniper.
• The other uncharacteristic defensive breakdown was after Oregon stopped bothering with pick and roll (which Michigan did flat hedge) and just had Pritchard go isolation on Simpson. Michigan did not help, which was understandable for a few possessions. After Pritchard scored eight straight not so much. We're extremely used to Simpson handing it to the opposing PG; here his lack of height meant he couldn't really challenge after Pritchard had wound his way into the lane.
• On the bright side, hello to Franz Wagner's shooting. 4/7 from three and a toe away from 5/8, plus an and-one drive on which he split a couple guys and finished through contact. His other twos were open finishes at the rim that only get impressive if he's able to do it consistently. No turnovers, in part because he was mostly firing up buckets on which he got assists.
• Brandon Johns got a lot of run at C, in part because the two Oregon Cs are not significant post threats. With Teske falling almost entirely out of the offense due to the matchup zone, Johns came in to provide the kind of bounce he did in the Iowa game, picking up four of Michigan's 10 OREBs with two assists, two blocks, and a steal. He did not dunk the ball.
• Maybe dunk the ball? Instead of going 0/3 in a short period late in the first half? Dunking > not dunking.

Michigan is mostly fine; the last two games they haven't gotten points commensurate with the looks they're generating, and they aren't a good enough team in other facets to make up for that.

Bowl participation. Sounds like Michigan will have its full complement of players:

Ben Bredeson and Shea Patterson agreed with this, by the way.

Michigan is three practices into Citrus prep. Everyone (who is healthy) has practiced. They don’t think anyone’s planning to sit.

— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) December 16, 2019

Alabama is not facing a mass exodus, it appears, but will be missing a couple guys:

Nick Saban has confirmed that Terrell Lewis and Trevon Diggs aren't going to be playing in Alabama's bowl game

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) December 16, 2019

Lewis is an outside linebacker who spent most of his first two years injured and is a second or third round prospect; Diggs is a cornerback who could go in the late first round.

WR Jerry Jeudy has announced he is playing. Nobody else has been explicit but at this point bowl practices are underway so I'd expect the rest of the Alabama draft candidates to play.

Some important people talking NIL. First, Warde Manuel:

On the opening panel of the 2019 Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, Michigan AD Warde Manuel talked about the NIL issue: "I've never been one, as an athletic director, to feel like I controlled the name, image and likeness of the student athlete." #sbjiaf pic.twitter.com/uco92kxxO3

— Sports Business Journal (@sbjsbd) December 11, 2019

Second, regent Jordan Acker:

“It’s important to remember a big reason why we are here discussing this, namely the NCAA and its members make billions of dollars while denying student-athletes the free market rights to license their image as they deem appropriate,” Acker said at the regents’ regular meeting on Dec. 5. …

“Viewers do not tune in to see the NCAA, but they do tune in to see our iconic helmets and the Block M,” Acker said. “We need to leverage the power of our brand to lead – to make sure whatever legislation is decided, it benefits Michigan students and athletes first.”

Mark Bernstein joined Acker in publicly calling for Michigan to lead the way in restoring name and image rights to college athlete. I'm not sure what Michigan can do to push this thing down the track faster other than publicly support the bill currently in the state house of reps. At least it sounds like Michigan won't fail to take advantage of whatever new rules pop up.

Nope. The weirdest persistent rumor on the Michigan internets over the past month has been the idea Shea Patterson would apply for a fifth year. Patterson played in the final three games of Ole Miss's season when he was a freshman, so if the four-game rule was in effect then he would have a fifth year. It was not, so he does not. Patterson seemed bemused by the question when it was finally put to him:

When asked, he laughed, noting that hasn’t really been on his mind.

“I haven’t looked into it honestly,” Patterson said. “That’s something I’ll have to sit down and discuss with my family, as far as the future goes. But right now, I'm just focused on this bowl game.”

Patterson's signed up for the Shrine game, FWIW.

Uche draft stock: up. PFF:

ED JOSH UCHE, MICHIGAN

Uche was tied for the Michigan team lead in sacks in 2018, racking up seven on just 97 snaps. In fact, he had played all of 197 snaps in his career prior to this season — although, they’d been damn good. In a larger role this season, all Uche did was record the second-highest pass-rushing win rate in the country at 29.2%. While a bit undersized, Uche’s quickness and hand usage are off the charts.

He'll be a major piece to replace on D even if he only got ~60% of the snaps.

Duncan details. The NBA's most fascinating subplot for Michigan fans remains Duncan Robinson going off. Per the Heat's official site, Robinson has improved his off-ball movement to get himself open:

Robinson and Adebayo have hooked up for six threes via handoff, most in the league, with Robinson hitting 15 between all his teammates, also a league-high.

“You have to have elite shooting ability, then you have to work on that specific skill,” Spoelstra said. “Then you have to have a potential to be able to have the proper fundamentals and footwork. Wayne did it in a different way, but he really worked at it. He spent a lot of time really developing that shot, and other shots on the move. Duncan has done the same. It didn’t come quite as naturally to him, but he’s matched Wayne in terms of how many repetitions and hours he’s put in behind the scenes in trying to develop that part of his craft.” …

His feet stay solid. His balance is centered. The release is high and quick. Today, Robinson is shooting 44.9 percent on over 12 three-point attempts per 100 possessions. Numbers matched only by Stephen Curry (twice), Eddie House and Davis Bertans this season. It’s early, but that’s rare air.

In the course of linking this article I discovered that house style at heat.com is to refer to the team as the Miami HEAT, which is as silly as it sounds:

Believe it or not, spacing was thought to be a concern for this new-look Miami HEAT group coming into the season.

That might sound as though we’re talking about the wrong team considering the 18-6 HEAT currently have four players shooting 39 percent or better on about four threes a night

This bothers me immensely and I have shared it with you in the hopes it will bother you as well.

Recruiting doesn't seem so bad anymore. I'm sure Cleveland's going to give John Beilein some rope here, but the early going in Cleveland has been… rough.

Looks like Tristan Thompson and John Beilein are getting along great pic.twitter.com/fNoPK6ghaj

— Chase Shannon (@chase_shannon) December 13, 2019

The Cavs are apparently frustrated because they're being treated like college players:

Veterans and younger players, from all corners of the roster, are frustrated with what they see as the pitfalls of a college environment Beilein brought with him. When the Cavs were 4-5, players viewed some of these things as quirks of a coach with a different approach.

Now, they consider them grating. Grievances include his nitpicking over basic fundamentals, too much harping in lengthy film sessions, not enough versatility on offense, and a broader lack of understanding of the NBA game and opposing players.

You suck! Someone's supposed to harp on your asses in a lengthy film season!

Etc.: Iowa's Jordan Bohannon shuts it down for the season and will return next year, hopefully healthy. Indiana OC Kalen DeBoer is the new head coach at Fresno State. A pox on both our houses. Erik Portillo is a big guy.