Unverified Voracity Ranks Most Buckeye Comment Count

Brian

The most Buckeye. What is the most Ohio State thing? Is it chasing off a touted linebacker recruit with your tilty-head child porn whatnots?

osufb-waugh-2-art-gd7hf533-1osufb-waugh-jq-81_thumb[1]

That's pretty Buckeye. Is it getting caught pleasuring yourself in the library by Carl Monday? Is it punching an opposing player because you're mad?

I think the kid who named his tumor "Michigan" is the most Ohio State thing.

Grant Reed is only 12, but the young Ohio State fan has scored a major victory over “Michigan.”

It’s what he named his brain tumor.

According to a report by NBC affiliate WCMH, Reed was recently released from Nationwide Children’s hospital in Columbus, Ohio, after completing chemotherapy in a two-year fight with the brain tumor. Doctors give him a good prognosis.

Congratulations, kid. You are both alive and the most Buckeye, at least until a guy wearing an Andy Katzenmoyer jersey poops on Desmond Howard live on Gameday, then punches out Herbstreit for being a "fake Buckeye."

MOST BUCKEYE RANKINGS

  1. Naming brain tumor "Michigan"
  2. "Everybody kills"
  3. Committing insurance fraud with the vehicle some booster provided you
  4. Tilty-head child-porn selfie fetish that chases away Alex Anzalone
  5. Library jackin'
  6. Dymonte Thomas is totally gonna flip you guys

McGary smash. GRIII and Mitch McGary are at the LeBron Skills academy with about a zillion other dudes both in college and high school, and it sounds like McGary is following up his breakout tournament with consistent, varied production. Sam Webb($):

Mitch McGary – “The Monster” looks like a million bucks – figuratively and literally.  The sophomore power forward checked in at a toned 6-10.5, 266-lbs. with an 83.5-inch wingspan.  His activity level stayed consistently high at times he seemed to catch his opponents off guard with better than expected lateral agility bounce.  …  While his overall activity level on both ends continued to stand out, his 11-point barrage over a couple of minutes was the true highlight.  The run started off with a pick& roll clinic.  On three occasions McGary lost Wilson after setting a solid screen and diving to the basket for a bucket.  When Wilson finally decided to stay with him, McGary stuck a three.  A couple of possessions later he caught the ball on the right elbow, pivoted to face the rim, then calmly stuck a jumper over Wilson’s outstretched arm.

I be like dang.

BONUS IS MITCH MCGARY STILL MITCH MCGARY CHECK

The only bad mark on McGary’s report card came when he attempted a heat check three toward the end of the game. The big fella dribbled into a jumper a full step beyond the three-point line.  It was an air-ball, but after everything else he did in the game, you’ll give him that one.

Yup. Ride the lion, buddy.

For his part, GRIII wasn't standing out like McGary. Low usage from the guy in a camp setting is no surprise since he's so deferential; hopefully in a more regimented team setting he can step up.

The least committed. Rivals article on ever-accelerating pace of non-binding verbal commitments "raises issues," but is mostly notable for the best redefinition of commitment ever. Shea Patterson is a 2016 dual threat QB who just moved to Louisiana, and he is in some sort of relationship with Arizona:

"Right now I am committed to Arizona, and if I don't hear anything from any other school for the next three years I will be happy to go to Arizona, but since we moved things have been different," he said.

Shea Patterson's commitment status is "it's complicated." Tulane, get that letter in the mail and he's yours.

FWIW, decommitments are not actually a problem worth solving. Delaying Signing Day until after coach firing season prevents a lot of guys from being locked into LOIs they don't want to honor, and gives everyone time to find the best place for them to be. Moving up those timelines does nothing but create worse matches between players and programs.

If you do want to help this non-problem be less of an issue to raise, two things: allow earlier official visits, so that more kids can get the lay of the land earlier, and create a non-binding pre-LOI that prevents other coaches from contacting anyone who signs up for it but can be withdrawn at any time by the player.

The dynamic pricing thing. A long time coming and I don't really have an issue with it since it allows Michigan to recoup some money that was otherwise being left on the table without increasing season ticket or student prices. I mean:

“They (the consumers) are going to pay more anyways,” Lawrence said. “It’s just a question of who’s making the money? Is it the school or is it the broker?”

As far as ways to increase revenue go, this one is much better than annoying me with max volume exhortations to rent Michigan Stadium for a wedding. Also, it increases the feasibility of interesting nonconference home and homes because the more attractive the opponent the more ticket revenue acquired.

This, on the other hand…

On Monday, Purdue University announced that it too would use dynamic pricing for football season.

…will result in Purdue tickets being exchanged for pogs.

Etc.: Devin Funchess is on the Mackey watch list. Also on the Mackey watch list: you. I only talk about coaches who coach for Michigan but Rich Rodriguez in a nutshell: "Well, I hear a lot of times people say 'Oh, we gotta have a guy that's a game manager,' and I don't know what that is."

NCAA promises not to send its goons after a current player who joins the O'Bannon lawsuit, because its goons all left to work at Auburn anyway. Both of these teams should be named "Northwestern." Michigan picks up a 2015 forward commit, seems like a second or third liner. Excellent take on the O'Bannon case. Hanging with Trey Burke at the draft. Say bye to Nebraska.

Comments

Alf Urkel

July 11th, 2013 at 2:26 PM ^

Calling out a 12-year-old who fought a brain tumor isn't at all an okay thing to do.  He was a child who named a potentially fatal tumor "Michigan" because, oh, I don't know, he was a 12-year-old sports fan trying to cope with something that could end his life?  Completely tasteless and reprehensible to have that garbage on the front page.  

jmdblue

July 11th, 2013 at 2:36 PM ^

but lets not argue this point on the board.  I suspect Brian only meant that naming cancer "Michigan" is an Ohio thing to do, not to "call out" the kid.  That said, an argument over this will speak badly of all of us.

ijohnb

July 11th, 2013 at 3:38 PM ^

I think the more objections put forth in the comments the more likely it is that this post will be removed, which it needs to be.  Everybody has a bad day, I think it is clear that Brian usually knows the line and has a good feel as to how things will be taken.  But this was a swing and a pretty substantial miss.  I think we know how he meant it, but that is not at all how he said it.

BraveWolverine730

July 11th, 2013 at 2:33 PM ^

Count me in with the crowd a little uncomfortable with lumping the kid with cancer with other notable Buckeye activities. I obviously get the distinction trying to be drawn, but still it comes a little too close to mocking a kid with cancer for my tastes. 



On a much more positive note, if Mitch adds the ability to hit 3s to his game...holy cow next year could be really fun. 

Zone Left

July 11th, 2013 at 2:39 PM ^

Dynamic pricing is a huge gamble given the variability in quality of college teams. The AD could withhold all the tickets for the Nebraska game, but if things go really wrong for Nebraska or Michigan, the StubHub market will shrink to its lower bound and there will be empty seats in Michigan Stadium or a lot of red.

Bowl games essentially run dynamic pricing schemes. You can buy tickets before the game is announced for a somewhat lower price than after games are announced. Once teams are announced, inflated prices are set for school allotments. The Stub Hub price is almost always much lower than the inflated price, which is why schools almost always return tickets. Any dynamic pricing has to be very careful, or the AD will lose its shirt for its biggest revenue opportunities.

Michigan has a really strong AD, put I don't know if it's sophisticated enough to develop a true dynamic pricing scheme. No one I'm aware of has figured it out for college sports yet.

gbdub

July 11th, 2013 at 2:45 PM ^

Pretty sure M is using a third party system to set dynamic pricing. Apparently it's used by several other schools / events.



The bowl example doesn't really apply, because the AD can always adjust prices such that they are the same or lower than the "going rate" on StubHub - that's kind of the whole point, after all.

Zone Left

July 11th, 2013 at 3:06 PM ^

The third party serviced is interesting, but I still think there are unique items to college sports that are going to require great judgement and modeling.

The point with the bowls is that The goal isn't to beat Stub Hub, it's really to beat preseason face value. Bowls fail to beat their pre-announce face values almost every single time. If they were better at dynamic pricing, maybe they could design a method to beat that price and get a sellout. The only problem is that the bowls have never tried. The schools give them face value cash for unsold tickets.

gbdub

July 11th, 2013 at 4:09 PM ^

So I guess what you're worried about is setting the INITIAL price too high with the dynamic pricing model and then being forced to undercut yourself later on? If I read it right, the only "floor" on the dynamic price model is the season ticket per-game price. And I guess that's a valid concern, but to me it's no worse than what you have now - right now single game tickets go for at or near the season ticket price anyway. At least initially - but when big game single tickets go on sale brokers snap them up and sell for big profit.

All dynamic pricing changes is that it allows the AD to hang on to some single game tickets to sell at a "market rate", which just means the money goes to the AD instead of to ticket brokers.

And anyway, I'd suspect that even the season ticket price floor will end up being flexible. If I'm a season ticket holder I'm not going to be too miffed if a couple of low-end noncon games get offerred for super cheap - you buy season tickets because you a) want to go to all or most games and b) want secured tickets for the big games, not because you're looking to score a deal on Akron tickets.

Zone Left

July 11th, 2013 at 5:55 PM ^

I guess I'm worried that a hypothetical game could be, say $50 in preseason for a hyped game against Wisconsin. Demand is high, every ticket would be sold.

Come time to reopen sales, Wisconsin's star back is hurt and they're 3-5 instead of 7-1. Stub Hub is selling for $15. The dynamic price has to open at $15, or no one will buy. Michigan loses $35 per ticket over preseason for 5000 tickets or something equivalent to a crew budget for the year.

There's a floor of Stub Hub's price, but I think there are political pressures that will prevent them charging $200 or more for a game against OSU, limiting the upside potential. I see negligible gain against a loss of revenue that will equal out over time, but might be a big deal in a given year.

gbdub

July 11th, 2013 at 6:20 PM ^

I don't see how you lose revenue in that scenario.



If all of the tickets get sold at the preseason price (which could go up as demand is high), then the AD is done. All tix sold, tidy profit. I don't think the AD plans to hold onto tix that could sell out in preseason, at least not anymore than they do already.



If they DON'T get sold, and people are unloading $50 tickets for $15 on StubHub, then they weren't going to sell at the preseason price anyway. The choice isn't between selling for $50 or $15 dollars, it's between selling at $15 or not selling at all.

MichiganG

July 11th, 2013 at 5:41 PM ^

You're right that if things go badly with Michigan (or the opponent, to a somewhat lesser extent) it can have bad implications for the dynamic pricing, but I think that's exactly why it makes much more sense in college football than anywhere else: college football lacks all the mechanisms that exist in professional sports to encourage parity.  So the risk of Michigan having a bad season is lower than virtually any other team, and much lower than teams in pro sports.  So occasionally it will backfire, but on the whole it will likely generate much more revenue.

gbdub

July 11th, 2013 at 2:56 PM ^

I'm actually okay with labeling the cancer kid a "Buckeye thing" - it's definitely something you'd only see in a real sports rivalry. And it's okay for kids to do "Buckeye things" and can even be cute. Buckeye thing doesn't start taking on a negative connotation until you're old enough to know better.



I'm a little weirded out by calling the child porn dude a "Buckeye thing" - are we really saying that Buckeyes are more likely to be pedophiles and are okay with joking about that? That seems uncool, particularly in the post-PSU awful thing era.



And at any rate the "don't come here to play school" tweet fits better and is more Buckeye than either one.

E. Gordon Gee

July 11th, 2013 at 5:01 PM ^

The only problem I had with the list was the Alex Anzalone situation being involved in the list. I'm all for Michigan fans taking jabs at OSU based on things that are real and representative of the fan base and school but this one situation isn't a direct reflection on the school or fans. This is just some random guy that got into the stadium and around the recruits that really isn't a Buckeye thing. Definitely a reach including this in the list. 

Things that would make a suitable replacement

As for the Grant being included in the list among other things leaves the interpretation of such to be flexible. On one side you can say that a kid naming his tumor doesn't belong on the list because its a kid putting the rivalry to good use in his fight against cancer and comparison among others on this list makes it unfit. Conversely, you can argue about its inclusion to the extent to which OSU fans would take their hate for Michigan which is a Buckeye thing. I'm in the middle of this since I know Brian probably didn't go out of his way to take a jab at the kid but OSU. I probably wouldn't lump this situation in with the others since its a grey area and not rigid in meaning. However, if the inclusion of such was to show the extent of a person hate for UM in a competitive sense, I'm sure there are other suitable replacements for #1. Whitedawg offers one of the better solutions I've noticed reading through the comments. 

 

If naming the cancer "Michigan" is an Ohio thing to do in the competitive sense, then he should have compared it to examples of people being intense about the rivalry, like Woody Hayes pushing his car across the state border rather than buy gas in Michigan...

CincyBlue

July 11th, 2013 at 3:11 PM ^

"We knew we were going to have challenges defensively," said Rodriguez. "There were times we were just literally holding our breath; we were starting four or five walk-ons and a lot of young guys were playing before they were truly ready."I thought this quote from the RR article was a better representation: 

CompleteLunacy

July 11th, 2013 at 8:48 PM ^

Have you never heard of the publicshaming website? They compile the most inappropriate tweets in existence. Make no mistake, there are many many MANY orders of magnitude worse than this.

Just one example:

http://publicshaming.tumblr.com/post/54864863081/womens-wimbledon-champ…

I think the real winner for worst place on the internet is twitter. For sure.

School 4 the Gifted

July 11th, 2013 at 3:33 PM ^

"Right now I am committed to Arizona, and if I don't hear anything from any other school for the next three years I will be happy to go to Arizona, but since we moved things have been different," he said.

It's like the long term deal you make with a single female friend who is more a solid 5 while you wait for at least a 7 to marry. "If you and I are still single when we're 40......"

DoubleLegTakedown

July 11th, 2013 at 3:33 PM ^

Is in the same class as "Buckeye things". Associating an amazing story for a young human being with all those negative things is in very poor taste. Right now Im ashamed to be a member of this board. Brian, please never represent the football program in this way ever again...

School 4 the Gifted

July 11th, 2013 at 3:41 PM ^

....I gotta agree. Heck, every kid with a brain tumor can name their tumor "Michigan" and beat it and that could become the universal standard treatment for all kids with brain tumors and I would have absolutely NO problem with it.

It's actually a pretty awesome story......if a Michigan fan names their tumor "buckeye" and beat it.....just as awesome. Beating a tumor is awesome. Calling out buckeye behavior for this kid is not.....

GoBlueInNYC

July 11th, 2013 at 3:42 PM ^

This has to be one of the more controversial posts I can remember seeing in a long time. Makes me wonder if and how much Brian reads the comments on his posts.

EDIT: Consider me on team "this is inappropriate," for whatever that's worth.

MadMonkey

July 11th, 2013 at 4:10 PM ^

camp.   Definitely a polarizing piece.  

I understand Brian's humor can be avante garde . . . and I almost always love the weird and quirky stuff he and other contributors post.   This one left me scratching my head.  

More confusing is that it wasn't even "new" content for the blog.  Brian had time to think about it and see how his readers were reacting to it.  The kid's story had been on the board with nearly universal approbation.