Unverified Voracity Levitates Hair Comment Count

Brian

Just like Haloi Ngata. Tom points out that Jake Ryan's twitter photo displays the first fruits of hiring Greg Mattison—redshirt freshman Richard Ash's levitating hair:

richard-ash-levitating-hair

So we've got that going for us.

Too awesome to don't click here. Irrelevant, but here's three of my favorite things in one thing:

Further position clarification. Just to highlight something from Tim's post:

Cameron Gordon will play outside linebacker, because they want to get the guys into the best position they can to make plays. "And then what's the most upside." He has great ability to grow, and has that upside at OLB. "As compared to being a safety, I think he can do that too, but we have other guys that can do that."

Specifically, Gordon will be the SAM linebacker, which is a spot fairly similar to the "spur" Michigan used last year in their disaster of a 3-3-5. This answers one of the main questions from the Hello Old 4-3 posts. It seems like your starting front seven next year will be:

DL: Van Bergen-Campbell/other three tech-Martin-Roh
LB: C. Gordon/Demens/Winner of massive WLB free for all

Only the WLB spot and three-tech are up in the air.

SPARKZZZZ. A Daily article on Sparks does seem to confirm the only possible reason Lindsay Sparks would mostly hang out in the press box on a team decidedly lacking in… well… spark:

By the time Michigan headed into the stretch run, the offensively-skilled forward had played in just 10 of his team’s 34 games, mainly due to concerns about his defense. … According to Michigan coach Red Berenson, Sparks took his game to another level in practice in recent weeks. It paid off. He took the ice in both games of the final regular-season series.

Sparks picked up an effort-y assist against Northern and flashed near-Hagelin speed against Western. Surely he's a regular next year with all the departures. Prepare for me to badly overrate him.

SNUBZZZZ. Michigan didn't have a whole lot of individual stars this year but it's a somewhere between disappointing an enraging that Shawn Hunwick didn't get even a single vote for All CCHA. Spath has numbers:

Hunwick went 14-6-1 in 21 CCHA games - the coaches are only supposed to consider conference statistics - ranking second in winning percentage (.690) to Notre Dame's Mike Johnson … Hunwick also ranked second in save percentage (.931) and second in goals against average (1.95). He was the lone netminder in the CCHA to rank in the top two in winning percentage, save percentage and goals against. …

Nagle went 12-12-4 for the Bulldogs, ranking seventh in winning percentage (.500) while his .920 save percentage also ranked seventh among conference netminders and his 2.11 goals against average left him fifth. Greenham …. ranked sixth in save percentage (.921) and seventh in goals against average (2.19).

And Hunwick has the CCHA's most entertaining twitter feed. Watch him talk smack to Steve Kampfer:

@SteveKampfer47 If I was in the NHL and playing in boston, I wouldn't be still flying girls in from Ann Arbor. #boom

.010 in save percentage + twitter should be a slam dunk for All CCHA, especially since the team that, you know, won the league only scored two of 12 players. I guess people are still hung up on the fact that he's just two cells pasted together.

Q: what was the last time Michigan had a goalie as good as Hunwick was this year? If you go by the stats, Billy Sauer's junior year is the recent best by a Michigan goalie. (The online database appears to start midway through the Tuco years.) He put up a .924  before his spectacular Frozen Four meltdown. Hunwick's .920 in 27 games is the next approximately qualifying season—if you want to roll his junior year in to get to 38 games that hardly changes the number—and then it's Montoya, Hogan, Montoya, Turco, and Josh Blackburn's four identical .905s.

If you think Sauer's meltdown poisons his whole year this is Michigan's best goaltending since Al Montoya was a sophomore who gave a crap.

Fab Five preview. Dylan got his hands on a promotional copy of Sunday's Fab Five documentary and provides first thoughts:

The brash exuberance of the Fab Five is not just captured through the clips on the court, which are obviously entertaining. A majority of the interviews do a great job of portraying the same energy. Whether it’s listening to the Fab Five describe their feelings on Duke and Christian Laettner – using words like “Uncle Toms” and “soft bitch” – or one of the many hip hop icons of the time explaining their cultural influence.

This is a no punches pulled documentary even without the presence of Chris Webber:

The range of topics discussed spans just about everything that you would expect to see. There are pictures of Jalen chugging beer out of a 40 and he discusses his drug house incident. There are also other ugly sides, such as shots of all of the racial hate mail from Michigan alumni and the inevitable discussion of the NCAA sanctions.

As I said, prepare to be massively conflicted. Sounds like it will be appointment television: 9PM, Sunday, ESPN.

Back to being an insufferable thing. Now that Jim Harbaugh is just another fish in the sea instead of the Chosen One we can resume thinking of him as kind of an asshat. This won't come as a surprise to anyone who perused the Stanford roster in the aftermath of Harbaugh's comments about Michigan funneling kids into easy classes, but—surprise—Stanford funnels its players into easy classes.

Not news, but this is a quote from the quote gods, one every Cal undergrad will be wearing next year:

"(Stanford) accommodates athletes in the manner that they accommodate students with disabilities."

Etc.: Bruce Ciskie has a good take on the brutal hit Max Pacioretty took from Zdeno Chara a couple days ago. UMHoops previews the BTT.

Comments

elaydin

March 10th, 2011 at 11:53 AM ^

"(Stanford) accommodates athletes in the manner that they accommodate students with disabilities."

Ofcourse Cal does the same thing... but still good for a laugh.

DDaann

March 10th, 2011 at 11:53 AM ^

Wouldn't Gordon be the WLB, and someone like Fitzgerald the SLB? Gordon seems to small to play on the strong side. Also, if Ash/Campbell/Washington can pan out, Martin can be shifted to the 3-tech and Van Bergen to the SDE spot. That would be a scary d-line.

ken725

March 10th, 2011 at 6:21 PM ^

Magnus is it true that in a 4-3  Under that we might see next year the 3 tech DT and NT are actually switched.  Even thouse MM will be playing NT he wont get doubled as much because WC will be getting double at the 3 tech position.  I have no clue, so I thought you might know.

Magnus

March 11th, 2011 at 6:39 AM ^

I've never run a 4-3 Under, so take this with a grain of salt.

But my understanding is that in a base I-formation play with one tight end, you'll have:

SAM aligned in a 9-tech outside the TE

SDE aligned in a 5-tech outside the OT

NT aligned in a shade between OG/C

DT aligned in a 3-tech on backside OG's outside shoulder

WDE aligned in a 5-tech outside backside OT

That's still going to get Mike Martin double-teamed, but not as frequently as in the 3-3-5.  However, Will Campbell (or whoever the 3-tech is) should get single-blocked every single time, so that guy should have a chance to be a monster.

FreddieMercuryHayes

March 10th, 2011 at 12:55 PM ^

Gordon's probably playing the SLB because no only will he cover the wide side of the field a lot, but he's also going to have to cover slot recievers.  His speed and agility over a more prototypical LB will help with both of these.  With the very large Van Bergen as the SDE, we won't need as huge a LB on that side to stop the run as well.  Besides, Gordon has a big frame to add muscle to.

As for the line, it's been stated before that Campbell will the the 3 tech.  I'm guessing because Martin's shorter frame helps with the leverage on the usually shorter centers.  Keep in mind that in 2006, Taylor was our NT at like 6' and 300 lbs, and Branch was the 3 tech at 6'6'' and 330ish.  That line was pretty good.  Either way there will be less double teams, which I am a fan of.

matty blue

March 10th, 2011 at 11:59 AM ^

speaking of "massively conflicted, i believe i used the phrase "dead to me!  dead!" re: harbaugh on several occasions but pulled back during the coaching search.  i'm kinda glad i can go back to thinking that he's, you know, kind of a dick.

zlionsfan

March 10th, 2011 at 4:15 PM ^

reportedly easy and accommodating to athletes and putting the lists in a place that was heavily frequented by athletes and not by students at large.

So no, it's not actually putting them in those classes, but it's literally "I'm going to leave this list of easy classes here on a table, and if they're all gone when I get back, well, who knows what happened to them?"

bronxblue

March 10th, 2011 at 12:17 PM ^

Always thought Harbaugh was kind of a jerk, but I always find it hilarious when coaches say they recruit "student-athletes" when we all know most of the kids are put into easier programs to keep them eligible.  Danny Hope said the same crap with Purdue, and we all know what happened there.  Just admit that college athletes have a number of responsibilities that can wear on them, and taking certain classes that inflate their GPA or are less intensive is no different than what most students do at times.  

BRCE

March 10th, 2011 at 12:38 PM ^

The hate mail stuff -- yikes! Not what we want possible recruits to see.

Again, I don't think I'll feel conflicted. I love the Fab Five and probably still will after the doc. I can't stand the bluehair alum crowd and will feel similarly after the mail bit, I'm sure.

 

PM

March 10th, 2011 at 1:08 PM ^

Agree about the blue hair alum attitude. Even though I'm closer to 50 than 40, I still recall having an older alum try telling me to be quiet at Chrysler back in the 80's... at a State game! Yeah, right. There's no need for obscenities (well, perhaps on occassion) but the whole point of going to a real live game is to get into it, not sip wine with cheese and crackers, so to speak.

BRCE

March 10th, 2011 at 1:32 PM ^

You can only conclude that Michigan is a much cooler place now that it used to be, with way better people. I'll never forget walking with some painted guys from the Decatur Clan into the student section and a group of blue hairs approaching them, asking them how they ever "got into Michigan" and that "our university has obviously lowered its standards."

The whole stereotype of the Michigan Snob comes from that generation and although it's frustrating for the rest of us to be tagged with it, it was deserved in its time. They're assholes.

BK-bloo

March 10th, 2011 at 2:32 PM ^

calling a whole generation ‘assholes’ goes a long way toward refuting their perception of you and your painted buds, doesn't it?

also, what makes ann arbor so much cooler now than it was in, say, 1969 (aside from you being there, of course)?  'way better people', for sure.

zlionsfan

March 10th, 2011 at 4:20 PM ^

because I was there! :) (OK, I was two, and I really didn't get onto campus much, although I remember when I was old enough to push the Cube by myself ... at least I think it was by myself.)

I agree with what I think you're saying, though. There will always be old alums who think that any arena is a library and there will always be people who don't understand why those alums spend all that money to go to a game and think it'll be played in a library. There's nothing special about any particular generation that puts someone in one category or the other.

Yellowdart00

March 10th, 2011 at 1:00 PM ^

Also, OT, but that clip reminded me. Who's excited about the USMNT playing a gold cup game in Detroit?

Personally I can't wait - I already have my tickets purchased!

Hail-Storm

March 10th, 2011 at 2:11 PM ^

to get overlooked.  I was really bothered when he didn't get a top three honors for the shutout he produced during the Big Chill.  I was really happy though, when the team made sure they added a fourth and had him skate out. 

I'm sure its nice getting these awards, but in the end, the fact that his teammates recognize what he is, will probably mean more.