Unverified Voracity Is Rather Obvious Comment Count

Brian

Hype video. Summing up the last two years in the tourney:

Paperwork. Michigan's three NBA draft candidates have submitted their paperwork for evaluation. This is a non-event, as they were always going to see what the NBA says. Unless they come back saying something different than expectation (yes Stauskas, maybe GRIII, probably not McGary). Which they probably won't.

SCOUR THE STREETS OF TIMBUKTU. Block/charge is broken but danged if Michigan wouldn't do well with one of those extreme defensive centers whose main job is to intimidate and throw down dunks. John Beilein may agree:

Oh really. The Penn State game will be at night, as anyone who had looked at the 2014 home schedule could have told you. Prediction: I mutter about pom-poms in the aftermath.

Oh really, but in a good way. Hockey has already named its captains for next year and I bet you can get the C and one A without even thinking a little and the other A after a brief pause.

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Copp will join Jed Ortmeyer and Carl Hagelin as two-year captains since I've been aware of Michigan hockey, and if he drives Michigan back to the tournament with authority he'll end up on my personal Michigan hockey Mount Rushmore with those two gentlemen. (Shawn Hunwick is the fourth.) I don't mean for this to turn into another discussion of Mount Rushmores like twitter was inexplicably doing a month back. Just let it go. No Rushmores.

OHL draft update. It was not a dramatic year for Michigan in the OHL draft, as every one of their commitments was picked in the late flier range. With James Sanchez's commitment to the NTDP, three of their four commits will be on the U17s next year. The NTDP contract has a financial penalty for early departure, so the window OHL teams have will be very small. It's not impossible, but generally NTDP guys who defect are staring down top-ten draft picks and decided they don't have to play school or are terrified by the prospect of competing with Shawn Hunwick.

Michigan's three gentlemen are highly regarded, but not in that range. They're probably safe, except for the whole looming Berenson retirement thing. But there's nothing you can do about that.

Simple, but more complicated. Morris on the differences between Nussmeier and Borges:

"We have to know a lot more this year. We have to know what lineman do on every play, who the back blocks on every play so we know who our (hot routes) are; stuff like that. It's definitely helping us out and making us more aware of the defense."

Morris, who completed 5-of-11 passes for 73 yards on Saturday, summed up the changes as "having to study defenses more" and knowing "the ins and outs of every play."

As long as there is less stuff this can work out, and it sounds like there's less stuff. Hopefully more stuff than Morris claims, though:

What's hoped for is improvement via simplification. Under Borges, the Wolverines struggled in an intricate, extensive offense.

Nussmeier's offense is the converse.

"That's how every coach should be," Morris said. "The stuff we run, we want to be perfect. I think Vince Lombardi, when he was coaching the Packers, they ran about three plays, but they ran them perfectly. That's why they won. That's what we're trying to do this year."

I want my amount of stuff porridge to be just right. Last year was too hot, and that would be too cold. But after last year we might have to settle for dully banging face for uninspiring yardage.

/rolls eyes, makes wanking gesture. If that's bolded I must be talking about Jason Whitlock.

"I'm not a big Shane Morris guy, Devin Gardner struggles during adversity," Whitlock said. "Devin Gardner handles adversity worse than others, in my opinion. …

"I don't want to beat the kid up, but that play against Michigan State when he's one yard away from a first down and he fell down," Whitlock recalled. "When you're a competitor and the leader of the team, that doesn't happen."

…which is probably why he threw for 451 yards on a broken foot against Ohio State. We could extrapolate from one play on which he made a mental error, or we could look at a season in which he was massacred weekly and still came out until—in fact after—his body literally would not let him.

It's a miracle Whitlock's made it as far as he has in the world without ever being even on the same planet as correctness.

Okay? Jeff Goodman flings Caris LeVert on his Way Too Early First-Team All-American list($). There's not much content and Goodman claims LeVert is a "terrific defender," which he's not yet…

G Caris LeVert, 6-6, Jr., Michigan

Stats:
12.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 2.9 apg

Nik Stauskas made the huge jump last season, and look for LeVert to do it next year. He's long, can score in a variety of ways and is also a terrific defender.

…but we have officially reached the point where people in the media point at a random Michigan player and expect him to morph into a beast because John Beilein. Michigan's actually got three candidates to make this morph—LeVert, Walton, and Irvin—who are sorta kinda making freshman to sophomore leaps. (LeVert is not but is very young for his grade.)

Yes please. The Northwestern union ruling is far from final but if things go like it looks like they're going to go—every time the NCAA runs up a judge these days the judge goes LOL NO—major changes are coming. If it does go the CAPA route, things will get interesting because public schools are going to be beholden to state law, not the NLRB. Ohio seeks to disadvantage itself:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — College athletes in Ohio would not be considered employees under state law, under changes to the state’s budget review made by a legislative committee on Monday.

Michigan, meanwhile, has what I'm pretty sure are strong grad student and lecturer unions. They are emphatically extant, at the least. It'll probably take Ohio one look at the stuff Michigan is handing their athletes to reverse course here, but never underestimate human stupidity.

Why bother with an early signing period? The entire concept of the "signing period" is uselessly anachronistic, but people keep trying to fix it by introducing early signing or late signing or whatever. Bylaw Blog's John Infante is the latest:

An early signing period should be in early December. It should be as close to the end of the regular season as possible to minimize the effect on bowl preparation. That means the Wednesday after conference championship games are played. This is one week earlier than the current initial signing date for midyear junior college transfers. The signing period would be open for one week; it would include prospects enrolling that January and the following fall.

There's no reason to have a signing day at all, but it's now a TV event so it will persist forever and ever amen. There is a way to both ease the burden on coaches and players who have come to an agreement: provide a non-binding letter of intent. Players can sign it at any time and withdraw it at any time. Once they sign it other coaches can't contact them and they can't take officials except to the school they signed with. They have to make it official on signing day.

That system would provide players a way to opt out of the recruiting process whenever they wanted without locking them in if their coach gets whacked. Importantly for its chances of passage, it reduces workload for coaches, who no longer have to babysit their commits so hard and have a more limited range of poaching options.

People are just in charge of things, part LXVII. You may remember Rutgers AD Julie Hermann from such events as "it is revealed that Rutgers, reeling from a scandal in which it was revealed that their basketball coach was a violent psychopath, hires person claimed to be violent psychopath by former players, then experiences mass football decommitment spree after football coach is claimed to be violent psychopath." And then nothing else because Rutgers.

Hermann is now back in the news, which can't be good.

“If they’re not writing headlines that are getting our attention, they’re not selling ads – and they die,” Hermann told the Media Ethics and Law class. “And the Ledger almost died in June, right?”

“They might die again next month,” a student said.

“That would be great,” she replied. “I’m going to do all I can to not give them a headline to keep them alive.”

Good job, good effort, Hermann.

I'd say the stink of Rutgers would harm the image of the Big Ten, but… hey, yeah we're a basketball conference now. The stink of Rutgers will harm the image of the Big Ten.

AND STAY OUT. The greatest collapse in NBA GM history is complete, as Joe Dumars will resign after creating the unlikeliest NBA champion in recent history, a team that was a bounce or two away from a second title. Then he traded Chauncey Billups for a broken-down Allen Iverson and spent the money saved on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, at which point it was over.

Eventually Dumars started making decisions seemingly to spite Pistons fans; aside from the fortune of having a franchise center slide to him in the draft there is literally no good thing Dumars has done since he broke bad with Iverson. The Pistons have been stuck in NBA purgatory, never any good but never bad enough to secure one of the top picks in the draft. This year's desperate attempt to get into the playoffs secured them the worst three point shooter in NBA history on a team with two promising young bigs. And of course, Trey Burke. Though Burke's not shooting well this year the difference made by his presence in Utah's lineup is obvious in their record. The guy Dumars picked over him picked up three consecutive trillions.

But you know what they always say: when you can draft a guy who dragged his team to a .500 SEC record you gotta do it.

Anyway, Dumars dug his own grave and I'm mad at him for… uh… being the dumbest person. But at one point he was a genius, so thanks for that.

Etc.: We're the saddest. Bacon on the Northwestern ruling. Wisconsin players have contempt for the NCAA. Josh Furman will spend his grad year at Oklahoma State.

Comments

matty blue

April 9th, 2014 at 1:00 PM ^

interesting that neither of our coaches were bitching about their injured / banged up stars all season long (hoke / gardner and beilein / mcgary), but instead just tried to keep banging away with what they had.  unlike a certain basketball coach i could name that whined about it after every.  single.  loss.

you know, speaking of wanking motions.

bronxblue

April 9th, 2014 at 1:01 PM ^

I'm actually saddened that with Dumars leaving, Brian will have to find another horse to beat on.  I'm sure they'll be one to emerge soon enough; maybe when the Pistons pass on Nik for someone  else. 

Whitlock has been a hack his entire career; he's like a slightly fatter Drew Sharp.  Both trade on "street talk" and controversy to get over instead of, you know, having any coherent and informed thoughts.  I wish he'd have the balls to say what he said to Gardner to his face, but unless Devin wants to hang out at Krispy Kreme's all night it probably won't happen.

On a lighter note, I am looking forward to the next stage in the NW saga, if for no other reason than to see state represenatives stumble over themselves to talk up "protecting amateurism" until the schools change course and they start talking up "reality" and "competition."

Zone Left

April 9th, 2014 at 1:25 PM ^

Totally agree on the amateurism point. Legislators are going to make fools of themselves bashing anything that comes out of the NLRB and will place all sorts of inane restrictions on college athletes as employees. Then, someone will have to litigate to get those restrictions removed. I'm just wondering which booster from Alabama attempts to assert standing.

The Big 10 really should take the lead here and just give the football and basketball players health insurance and full cost of attendance scholarships. The NCAA is just a useless middleman here; if there is going to be a Title IX argument, and there will be, it makes sense to get in front of it in a way that could benefit the conference.

BradP

April 9th, 2014 at 1:45 PM ^

Utah is 23-43 with Trey Burke starting.

The 1-11 start they got to the season also saw Marvin Williams and Jeremy Evans injured (starter and 6/7th man).  And even if that isn't that big of a factor, it was a 12 game stretch, which can hardly show any real effect.  They are currently on a 3-18 stretch with Burke starting.

Also, even if Burke did mark a big improvement, that was an improvement over John Lucas III and Jamaal Tinsley, who really have no business being in the NBA.

jsquigg

April 9th, 2014 at 2:48 PM ^

/Sees another Dumars post by Brian on the front page.  Goes to shelter and waits for Last Hoke to come out swinging in defense of KCP.

GoBlueGladstone

April 9th, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^

It's just time and he's underperformed at his job the last 6 years. Obvi, but delivered a championship out of thin air and was/is a class act in a job and sport that lacks that attribute far too often.

Secondly, sick of the hatin' on Devin meme from itinerant trolls. We don't win a single game without him last year. You read it here.

Nitro

April 9th, 2014 at 3:30 PM ^

Beilein should look into St. John's sophomore center Chris Obekpa, a monster shot-blocker who's transferring.  He wouldn't be eligible until 2015-16.

philhersey

April 9th, 2014 at 5:03 PM ^

Oh boy! Simplified Manball! My favorite, I can't wait. Smash mouth old school is the perfect compliment to our innovation resistant backward looking university!  Perfect fit. We can lead by staying put... I hope we punt on 3rd downs again too

bronxblue

April 9th, 2014 at 5:48 PM ^

Because Nuss has shown a procilivity for simplistic football?  All the quote said was that the team had a few plays they were implementing but they were repping them heavily.  If this was week 4 of the season I'd be worried; it's April.

JBE

April 9th, 2014 at 6:03 PM ^

Dumars was part of all three Pistons championships. Laying into him at every chance seems petty and shortsighted. He was a great player and a pretty good GM - all said and done. And by most accounts a good dude too.

Tater

April 9th, 2014 at 8:30 PM ^

I don't mind Rutgers having Fort Hermann.  But it was sorta stupid to give them something to keep them alive by saying she wasn't going to give them anyhting to keep them alive.  

alum96

April 9th, 2014 at 9:10 PM ^

Sorry to interject into the MGoDumars website but let me say PLEASE YES Coach - a shotblocking center for 10-15 minutes a nite.  Just cleaning up everyone else's mess and being 5th option (i.e. no plays run for you, just do put back dunks) should garner this kid 10 pts a nite.  And having some rim defense would be nice especially if we continue to develop guards/wings like the dickens who don't play defense like a jr or sr would.

MGoGrendel

April 10th, 2014 at 9:58 AM ^

The new system allow him to go through his checks downs knowing where to look based on where the offense is blocking. If someone on the defense gets through, there is a quick hot read. If that's not there, tuck & run or tuck & roll are the other options.