Unverified Voracity Is Kind Of Good Still
Send Joe Dumars to space, part XVII. Trey Burke's line from last night's Magic-Jazz game: 30 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds.
actual highlights start at about a minute in
Burke's shooting percentage is pretty low right now since he's taking a lot of those tough runners you remember from a variety of NO NO NO NO YES moments last year and getting fewer easy looks around the basket what with NBA players being very tall and athletic, but in his last ten games He's averaging 6.4 assists against 1.3 turnovers in that window. His TO rate of 6.8 is insanely low. It's looking like a three-way race for Rookie of the Year between Burke and old foes Victor Oladipo and Michael Carter-Williams.
Meanwhile, Detroit drafted a shooting guard currently hitting 37% from the floor and traded for Brandon Jennings, who is a fourth year player about as good as Burke is as a rookie. I shake my fist!
Is this getting old? Am I going to be describing various things that should be done to Joe Dumars for passing on Trey Burke when Burke is 55? Yes. I apologize for what will be history's longest conniption fit.
Prepare your butts. Devin Gardner's status for the bowl game is still up in the air but looking grimmer and grimmer as each day passes without his return to the practice field. We mentioned it on the front page a couple days ago after Hoke's presser, and everyone followed up with assessments about how grim it's sounding. And in retrospect… when has a sprain of a ligament in your big toe ever required crutches?
Meanwhile, Sam Webb was asking people if you play Gardner at 75% in this upcoming bowl game, and the answer to that seems to be a clear no since there's not much at stake. And was Gardner 75% by midseason? At best. Now that he's limping around on crutches, it's at least 50/50 Shane Morris fans will get to see him against K-State.
It is possible that Jason Whitlock doesn't know what he's talking about. Taylor Lewan took a lot of heat this year for Michigan's offensive line… for some reason. I watched him closely and he still looked like the incredibly good player that he was as a junior, but when things are bad they must be a Failure of Leadership if you are the kind of person who has no basis for saying anything but is paid to say things.
The NFL will weigh in in April; current returns are that Jason Whitlock is talking out of his butt. I know you are shocked. Todd McShay projects Taylor Lewan as the ninth pick of the NFL draft:
Lewan isn't an exceptional athlete but he has enough quickness to get by when coupled with his physicality and mean streak. I've written a few times this season that even though Lewan doesn't always look like a prototype left tackle, he is very effective in run blocking and pass protection. Safety might be seen as a bigger need for Buffalo, but typically if you have a chance to take an offensive tackle over a safety in the first round, you do it.
"Not a prototype left tackle" is a weird criticism to level at a prototype left tackle. Putting it in the pile with that guy who thought Mike Martin was supposed to be some journeyman plugger after he 'struggled' as a senior.
This man must be educated on his own dime. That one Cal assistant who got a ton of recruits to commit to Cal and then jumped to Washington, bringing those recruits with him, is under investigation. For terrible things.
Mike Davis, a throwing coach who helped Basham win a state shot put title in track and field, told the Times that [Tosh] Lupoi gave him $3,000 for private tutoring for Basham and $1,500 to reimburse Basham's father for online classes.
The kid ended up not qualifying anyway. I guess you can't be giving money to people no matter what it's for, but I bet the NCAA prefers it when they come down on people for hiring strippers instead of tutors. Lupoi should start making donations to charities in recruits' names, just to see what happens.
Steve Sarkisian could eat a suspension for this after the NCAA made head coaches responsible for their assistants' misdeeds, something that would undoubtedly increment Lane Kiffin's smug look the one tenth of one percent it can be upgraded from its resting state.
OH GOOD THANKS 2013. JT Compher won't play at the WJC because he broke his foot, which will probably put him out for a month. This is at least the right time to do it, as Michigan doesn't return to the ice in a game Compher was going to be available for until January 10th, and then Michigan has a bye week before a Joe-and-road series against MSU that he may be available for.
This does make an important series at Wisconsin tougher, but at least Michigan has a lot of center depth.
SERIOUSLY 2013, I MEAN, SERIOUSLY? Beilien on WTKA:
During a Thursday morning interview on “The Michigan Insider” show on WTKA-AM (1050), Michigan coach John Beilein said he sophomore forward is being held back by a "variety" of nagging injuries.
"Right now, Mitch cannot go 100 percent," Beilein said. "He can't do what he can do."
You go straight to hell, 2013.
I SAID STRAIGHT TO HELL. PA DB Monate Nicholson, who was going to commit to M before the coaching staff basically told him not to visit, is now an MSU commit.
Still looking. Michigan signed their four hockey recruits for the upcoming year, though there are a couple of things yet to be determined.
One is the status of Hayden Lavigne, who's had a rough start in the USHL (.887 in five games) and is still a really young guy, especially for a goalie. It seems to make more sense for everyone to delay his entry until 2015, and even then he'll have to compete with a senior Racine and junior Nagelvoort. As we've seen in the recent past, goalies staring down a tough road to playing time are often defection candidates. Lavigne will be of interest. We'll see how committed he is to the college route; he was at least committed enough to sign his LOI.
The other thing is who replaces Jared Walsh, who committed and then defected to the OHL. Michigan graduates two defensemen (Bennett and Clare) and brings back something between six and eight depending on your opinion of the viability of the guys on the back end. (They are Serville, Lohan, Downing, De Jong, Chiasson, Sinelli, Szuma, and Hyman.) They've got a guy named Cutler Martin who is the hard nosed stay at home type his name foretold from birth, and they'd probably like to add another in that mold with Serville, Downing, and De Jong all puck moving types. May their search here be as successful as their search for a goalie last year was.
Okay.gif. Borges on Michigan's success against Ohio State:
"We executed," Borges said firmly. "It's that simple. We executed.
"Simple."
I really hope that's just balderdash for the reporters. The BTN commercials don't say FOOTBALL IS SIMPLE, man.
Etc.: McKeen's ranks incoming hockey center Dylan Larkin 20th in their latest NHL draft projection. That means he'll probably end up in the second round, like fringe first rounders before him JT Compher and Jon Merrill. Ricky Doyle highlights. He's killing it to the tune of 30 a game. UNC basketballer John Henson's shirt has an opinion. Hyping up the redshirting DTs.
December 19th, 2013 at 4:00 PM ^
I don't agree that there is not anything at stake in this bowl game. I think there is a lot at stake right now in terms of PERCEPTION every time Michigan steps on the field.
If Michigan does nothing on offense in the bowl and gets beat 28-3 by Kansas State, it's hard to believe there wouldnt be negative repercussions given that there wouldnt be another chance to show anything on the field for over 8 months. This would make recruiting challenging all summer, would result in negative recruiting about U of M to Damien Harris, and would raise the nervousness level about Peppers. I think if Gardner is healthy enough to play, they need to play him and not worry about Morris.
Right now, the perception of the program needs to be watched closely. Just because its a Dec. 28th game at a crappy bowl doesnt mean Michigan isnt being watched and others will jump on it if Michigan looks bad.
December 19th, 2013 at 4:04 PM ^
The concept of who Michigan is could currently go in two directions right now in a pretty big way. I would be great to show that Michigan is the team that took OSU to a photo finish.
December 19th, 2013 at 5:41 PM ^
I'd be surprised if DG doesn't start/play. He's a tough young man and will want to be on the field.
December 20th, 2013 at 8:13 AM ^
I agree iwth you 100%. The idea that this isn't a big game baffles me. I mean, maybe I'm just different than most but everytime I get the opportunity to watch UM (or any of my other favorite teams in any sport) I consider it a big game and one I desperately want to win. I can't understand the thinking of fans who believe otherwise, especially given what has been going on with UM over the past year. This is a game we NEED to win, for many reasons.
December 19th, 2013 at 4:01 PM ^
What better opportunity to get Shane Morris some real playing time then a mostly meaningless bowl game? Sure, we want a win, but it's a third tier bowl game and it does not matter much if they lose. I think it may be best to just let Devin rest to avoid risking further injury and let Shane get the start.
December 19th, 2013 at 4:06 PM ^
December 19th, 2013 at 4:15 PM ^
I'd prefer to just celebrate Burke's success. We could use some purely good news around here.
December 19th, 2013 at 4:28 PM ^
December 19th, 2013 at 4:31 PM ^
or is it hear hear?.....
/s
December 19th, 2013 at 4:08 PM ^
When were coaches no longer able to acknowledge how their team executes? I'm mean this isn't like Rich Rod telling reporters we'll beat OSU when we get better players. Funchess didn't drop 6 passes in that game like he did the week before did he?
December 19th, 2013 at 5:06 PM ^
Because it sounds like he's saying "If only these idiots had executed my genius masterplan earlier in the season we would have been a flamethrowing death machine that torched our entire schedule for 600 yards and 50 points per game".
December 19th, 2013 at 7:22 PM ^
Well, if they did do some "simple" things right, more often, regardless of who was calling the plays, they truly WOULD have done better. Make easy field goals. Make easy blocks/reads that high schoolers can make. Don't throw it to a Linebacker who's dropped to the flat, looking right at you, right in front of your face. Yea our OC had a rough go at it this year, as did our whole team. But they really didn't execute plays they seemingly should have, many, many times this year, and Borges is saying that in the OSU game they did; I'd argue OSU wasn't executing very well on defense themselves and their coaches didn't adjust to things we we're doing, but that's another story.
This statement isn't a news story.
December 19th, 2013 at 7:36 PM ^
I agree completely. I love our guys, but there were a lot of mistakes this season that were completely on the players.
Some people see this as Borges throwing the players under the bus, but I don't. He's saying how good they can be if they put it all together, which is true.
Iowa and Penn State are good examples. If guys do the easy/normal parts of their jobs, we win both of those games and we're a bowl win away from a 10 win season.
December 20th, 2013 at 9:35 AM ^
Sure, all true. It doesn't change the fact that the offense was a complete clusterfuck this year and that stems from Borges (and perhaps Hoke) not being able to lead it properly.
Running the ball into the line over and over again against Penn State. Tackle-Over. The constant reshuffling of the offensive line (Shouldn't a high quality OC know that offensive lines need to "gel"? All the Borges defenders on here tell me that that is what is necessary to have a good O-Line, yet the guy that they are defending doesn't seem to understand that). The fact that Devin up until the Ohio State game looked just as bad as he did last year as a quarterback and perhaps worse (who coaches the QBs?).
You talk about drops...Okay? Other teams don't have execution problems? Iowa throws three picks and misses a field goal and somehow overcomes it in the second half. Michigan has a few drops and that's all that's needed to submarine us. What that shows is that Iowa had an offense that worked beyond their mistakes, while Michigan did not. Let me put it this way: A Funchess drop in the Borges offense turns a five and out into a three and out.
How about Michigan letting Nebraska tee off on their backs to the tune of around 1 YPC in the first half? Then handing the ball off MORE in the second half? Isn't that on the OC?
So yeah, I agree with you execution has a lot to do with our failures. I'd just like to hear our mediocre OC whose getting paid more than all but two men at his position at the NCAA level say "Well, as coaches and players we needed to execute better and against Ohio we did."
That's just me.
December 20th, 2013 at 11:07 AM ^
OL Shuffling:
Yes, having an OL gel is optimal. That is why you saw what you did in the 2012 season. But if it's not working (as it was very clearly not working by the UConn game) you have to weight the options. People complain when you don't adjust and people complain when you do. In hindsight, maybe the reshuffling wasn't the right move, or maybe it was, we don't really know. Obviously you'd like to get a group and stick with it and let them gel, but if they aren't if they aren't the best players, if they are improving at different rates, if their struggling with some of the things the defense is presenting, etc, well, you have to weigh all that too.
Also, it's more likely Funk is responsible for the OL shuffle, as he's the one that works with them every day and comes to the conclusion who is performing the best. If Funk makes a strong enough case that a change must happen, then it's likely Borges either gives the go ahead to shuffle or not, and he has to weigh both sides of that, but he also has to have some trust in those working for him.
Overcoming execution issues:
But you talk about drops like they are the only execution issues. What about the significant execution issues on the OL that didn't allow Michigan to just run the ball over and over like Iowa did to Michigan in the 2nd half? If you're having issues throwing and catching the ball it's nice to fall back on running the ball, but when you can't run the ball because of poor execution and then can't throw the ball because of poor execution, well, it seems like a fairly valid excuse. Drops were an execution problem that were evident in that game more than in others, but you can't act like there weren't other execution problems on the team. And yes, I know other teams suffer from execution problems to various degrees, but not to the degree Michigan did up front (likely largely because of youth and inexperience). You can try to work your way around that to some degree, but when it's the interior of the OL that's fairly difficult. And you don't know if a Funchess drop means the difference between a 3 and out and a 5 and out. You saw Michigan against OSU get into a rhythm when they started executing and allowing the playbook to open up more as they got first downs and ran more plays. Maybe that would have been the case against Iowa, we don't really know (though I assume it would because that's generally how it works, you get into a rhythm, you gain confidence, you can run more things, etc).
Nebraska:
Well that's just not true. Michigan handed the ball off the RBs 9 times in the first half on 28 plays (32.1%) and 8 times on 34 plays (23.5%). Take out the final drive (though that takes away 2 minutes of game time) and it's 27.5% of plays. They handed the ball off 4 times a quarter on average and less than once per series of downs, that's about the "handoff enough to keep them honest" threshold and nothing more.
December 19th, 2013 at 4:11 PM ^
Plenty of scouting/prep time, plus he's been getting practice reps. Yes, obviously if all we cared about was winning this game, a healthy Devin would be preferable, but using Shane seems like a better long-term plan both to prevent further injury to Gardner and get Morris some real playing time. His redshirt has already been burned, so why not let him play in a game that means very little?
December 19th, 2013 at 4:23 PM ^
I'm still trying to figure out how Joe went from being the best GM in the NBA to the worst in one draft pick. Since he picked Darko, he has been terrible.
December 19th, 2013 at 5:00 PM ^
What was wrong with the Monroe and Drummond picks? Seem pretty solid to me.
December 19th, 2013 at 4:31 PM ^
I was at the OSU game and I thought the offense did execute.
What? Oh. That's different. Nevermind.
December 19th, 2013 at 4:39 PM ^
From the article on the redshirting DTs, "it seems almost a lock to pencil in Henry (6-foot-2, 306) atop the depth chart". Don't you pencil someone in if there is uncertainty?
December 19th, 2013 at 5:00 PM ^
It is nice to hear about the progress of Poggi and Hurst. Hopefully they work hard on the S&C this winter and are ready to go for spring.
December 19th, 2013 at 7:40 PM ^
Yeah, people use "pencil it in" to mean "write him in" for whatever reason. You're correct, that using the word "pencil" means it's uncertain so you can erase it. However, a lot of people (even writers, apparently) don't know that and use that phrase when they mean the opposite.
December 19th, 2013 at 4:52 PM ^
But why does he always have to be such a dick about it?
December 19th, 2013 at 4:58 PM ^
I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks the reports of Gardner's injury as a "turf-toe" smell a little fishy.
December 19th, 2013 at 6:22 PM ^
Turf toe is a lot bigger deal than it sounds.
December 19th, 2013 at 5:15 PM ^
Dumars..you could have been putting a lot more butts in seats with Burke on the team..Dammit I like that guy
December 19th, 2013 at 5:29 PM ^
That is all.
December 19th, 2013 at 5:36 PM ^
to the State of our Threads for the week by week usage of the verb "execute" uttered by the head coaching staff?
/s
December 19th, 2013 at 6:20 PM ^
December 19th, 2013 at 6:23 PM ^
Granted I haven't paid much attention to the NBA since the days of Magic, Bird, Isaiah, and Jordan, but holy crap the jazz are ugly, why are they green and not purple?
December 19th, 2013 at 6:52 PM ^
And in retrospect… when has a sprain of a ligament in your big toe ever required crutches?I'm not sure what you're getting at here, because it's not uncommon for players with turf toe to go around on crutches for a little while.
December 19th, 2013 at 7:43 PM ^
December 19th, 2013 at 8:15 PM ^
I think it's kind of a feeling vs reality thing, or taking toes for granted. The feeling is "oh, it's just a toe" as opposed to something serious like an ACL or Achilles tear. People who haven't experienced a toe injury may not give much consideration to their own toes when they're healthy, and thus not realize how it is when someone else's toe is inured.
The reality is you flex your big toe and push off with it with every step that foot takes. If injured, now you're feeling it with every step, too. And stressing it like that is not conducive to healing.
December 20th, 2013 at 10:57 AM ^
I injured my little toe around Labor Day weekend. I figured I'd ice, elevate and rest it a few days and be good to go. I was wrong. It took a while to heal and it was a pain. I've injured fingers before and been able to make do while they're hurt just fine. Making do while the toe was hurt was much different.
December 20th, 2013 at 12:02 PM ^
I play soccer, so I've jammed my big toe. Never seriously enough to see a doctor or stop me from playing.
My worst toe injury happened when someone landed hard on the top of my foot. Shook it off during the game and forgot about it. On the way home, I was wondering why my foot was aching while pressing on the gas & brake pedals. It wasn't till I got home and took my sock off that I remembered the incident. I had a bruise at the base of my middle toe. I got x-rayed the next day - fortunately no break (but it didn't hurt like it would have if broken).
There really wasn't a lot of swelling, but it doesn't take much there to notice while walking, so I tried not to flex the toes, and I felt it interfered with pushing off harder like I would when running. I ended up taking 2 & 1/2 weeks off from playing. For another week or so after that, when we didn't have many subs and I played more minutes, my foot ached near the end of games.
December 19th, 2013 at 7:46 PM ^
I really don't see why giving a recruit money for something "good" is really any different than giving him money for something not as good. Reggie Bush's family was given housing, which is probably more "good" for a relatively poor family than tutoring. The only reason the player was giving money for tutoring was so he could come play football for Washington, not because Lupoi was so concerned about his academic well-being.
Even if Lupoi was being 100% genuiine in his gift (not a chance, but roll with it) it still should be a violation. If Michigan was also recruiting him and we didn't offer to pay for his tutoring because it's against the rules, we're all of a sudden at a major disadvantage in the eyes of the recruit.
If giving money for "good" things was OK, then schools would be paying for recruits' lunches and their private school tuition and their grandmother's medical bills and their neighborhood potlucks. Lupoi gave the family $3,000. If the family was going to pay for that tutoring anyway (which we'll never know) that family saved $3,000 that they could spend on anything else. Not that different from just giving them $3,000 cash.
December 19th, 2013 at 11:32 PM ^
It shouldn't be a rule though. These kids are already getting paid, the NCAA has no chance of ever making a dent in the filth of recruiting. Just...let the schools do stuff like this. It's not hurting anyone
December 19th, 2013 at 11:37 PM ^
I respectfully disagree. It's hurting the teams that don't do it. And if you make it legal, what exactly is "it?" Only money for tutors? Money for anything?
This sort of stuff will likely never be gone completely, but as long as coaches are getting caught for it and are either not getting better jobs (as is likely the case with Lupoi) or schools get punished, enough people won't do it.
It's like speeding. Most "speeders" don't get ticketed. The police will never be able to completely rid the world of speeding. But because some of them do get caught and the punishment can be pretty expensive, speeding isn't completely rampant, and many people obey the speeding laws completely.
December 19th, 2013 at 7:57 PM ^
Thank you for this. I'm not a big Utah Jazz fan, but Trey Burke is just amazing. I'm looking to see him in the NBA Hall of Fame. Please get traded to the Celtics or the Nets so I can root for you Trey!
December 19th, 2013 at 9:09 PM ^
December 19th, 2013 at 9:48 PM ^
December 19th, 2013 at 10:07 PM ^
Dont let this game let you determine whether Shane is the MGoMessiah or not. He's a true freshman, with basically no game experience, who finished had a mono-depleted senior year in which he went from 5* down to just top-100 guy.
He's going to be rough with that O-line, everyone try not to lose their mind when he doesn't go all Tom Brady on KState's defense.
(Everyone's going to lose their mind)
December 19th, 2013 at 10:24 PM ^
Even if that were true, a fracture would probably be less painful and faster healing than a ligament thing. Source: I broke my big toe, never stopped walking on it and was fine about two weeks later.
December 19th, 2013 at 10:32 PM ^
I usually agree with Brian, but his, I don't know, distaste for Joe Dumars about not drafting Burke is getting a little extreme. Burke is putting up a better stat sheet than KCP, but that is in large part to (a) being the focus offensively of a pretty horrible basketball team, and (b) playinh a buttload of minutes. I mean, he scored 30 points by playing 40 minutes and shooting 20 times. And the game before, he scored 3 points in 31 minutes against Miami, and he took 8 shots to do it. Hell, he scored 19 points on 19 shots against Portland. On a competent team, your PG doesn't shoot those shots, and unless he suddenly gets bigger and stronger those tough inside shots aren't going to get easier with defenders bodying him up.
Those are fine numbers, but it does feel a bit like Burke is putting up junk numbers on a crap team, and I'm not sold he'll put up these types of performances with more talent around him. I do think he'll be an above-average guard in the league for years, but just because he's had a good month-ish run doesn't mean he's a future star. Jennings had at least as good of a run to start his career, and according to Brian he's not even Burke's equal now.
And as others have noted, let's not ignore the fact that Burke is a pretty mediocre defensive player, midcourt steals and pwning of Appling aside. KCP is a much better fit defensively for the Pistons, and going forward feels like the better fit for the team as constructed. I loved what Burke did here at UM, but I'm not sold he's going to be the superstar some people want him to be.
December 19th, 2013 at 10:40 PM ^
December 20th, 2013 at 2:31 AM ^
Well... sort of.
I have looked at the box scores for most of their games this year and one stat always jumped out at me. Josh Smith would go 1 for 6 from 3 in almost every game. Pick a game from earlier in the year, check the box score... and BOOM 1 for 6. It was like clock work.
This kept going until a few weeks ago when Coach Cheeks talked to Josh about his shot selection and what he (the coaches) could do to get him into better spots on the floor. I read an article about this on Piston Powered. Since Cheeks talked to him, Josh has taken fewer 3's (he's 1 for 4 now instead of 1 for 6) and drives to the rim more often. Instead of placing all of the blame on Josh, which might have backfired, he placed it squarely on his own shoulders. Maurice Cheeks knows how to talk to NBA players.
December 20th, 2013 at 7:58 AM ^
...and he's just generally a really good guy.
I lived in Portland while he was coaching the Trailblazers, and I always got the impression he was a great guy (see: National Anthem incident) and communicated well with players.
Problem is - he was pretty mediocre at the coaching part. Hopefully, he'll be better this go.
December 20th, 2013 at 10:00 AM ^
At some point, you're going to have to come to terms with the fact that Joe Dumars is a hit-and-miss (mostly miss) kind of a guy when it comes to evaluating young players.
December 20th, 2013 at 12:23 PM ^
Get him healthy and prepare for off season.
Oh and for GD sake, BEAT STANFORD THIS SATURDAY
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