Unverified Voracity Rends Garments
The origins of Juwan Howard. I generally don't lead with long articles behind paywalls with no nuggets to pull out and discuss independently, but Brendan Quinn's profile of a literal basketball court in Chicago is too good not to:
The 10-year-old cooked up his nerves. Deep breaths rising and falling, in and out; his hollow chest turning molten hot. OK, Nook, you can do this. He took a step toward the courtyard, where out in the clearing a pack of boys whooped and laughed, playing baseball and talking smack. A cloud of dust rose from the field and through it walked young Juwan Howard, all tall and awkward, coming to introduce himself.
The boys stopped and turned.
“Isn’t this great?” Howard said. “I’m so excited to live in a townhouse!”
A pause hung, then an explosion of laughter.
“Townhouse?” one of the boys said. “These ain’t no townhouses!”
It's one Juwan Howard had built shortly after getting a giant NBA contract, and is as much about America as it is Juwan Howard.
[After THE JUMP: in which the ripped jersey flagrant is revealed to be a one off]
Todd Graham with no resume. Overnight Michigan State's head coaching search lurched to a panicked conclusion:
BREAKING: #CU coach Mel Tucker has agreed in principle to become the new head coach at #MichiganState, per sources. After Tucker turned down initial interest, MSU power brokers came back repeatedly to Tucker’s reps w/ an offer that was impossible to ignore https://t.co/qjOH0qKirQ
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) February 12, 2020
Coming back over and over to a guy with one 5-7 year at Colorado where he finished 81st in SP+ (with Laviska Shenault!) just days after Tucker publicly turned the job down…
While I am flattered to be considered for the HC job @MSU_football, I am committed to @CUBuffsFootball for #TheBuild of our program, its great athletes, coaches & supporters. #UnfinishedBusiness #GoBuffs
— Mel Tucker (@Coach_mtucker) February 8, 2020
We are #Relentless #Culture #TheBuild
…is certainly a thing you can do. Okay but he took over a bad Colorado program and improved the-
Bringing this thread back up in light of the Mel Tucker to MSU news. Mel Tucker went -3.4 from the previous regime in his lone year at Colorado.
— CollegeFootballData.com (@CFB_Data) February 12, 2020
How meaningful is that, well it's just one data point, but keep in mind that successful coaches tend to have an immediate impact. https://t.co/mm4gCmsPka
In Tucker's defense, his recruiting class is a big upg-
Okay only a slight downgrade on a per-recruit basis from Michigan State's 2020 class. Surely bouncing to Public Relations Disaster U mere months after being the "there's no transfer portal in the real world" guy will improve the situation. Gonna be cognitive dissonance Wednesday for Michigan State fans.
Ultimately remains to be seen of course, but MSU got one of its top two targets, did it in a swift fashion after the early mess, and Mel Tucker’s credentials make him absolutely worthy of the job. https://t.co/Au9le2dTwT
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) February 12, 2020
The MSU beat is a gift.
I'm disappointed we didn't get interim Mike Tressel but if you were asking me what a reasonable best case outcome for the search was from a Michigan perspective, this is it: a mercenary with no track record who stabbed his school in the back after saying a bunch of stuff that makes him look like a fool for doing so.
Cold comfort. Illinois lost a brutal game to MSU last night when Xavier Tillman got a tip dunk with six seconds left and Ayo Dosunmu appeared to hurt himself badly trying to get off a buzzer-beater response. There's still no word on Dosunmu's status; hopefully he's all right.
There was another notable incident for Michigan fans:
So what happened to pulling the jersey being a flagrant 1? @bigten pic.twitter.com/LQl4NCnFOu
— Seth Berry (@berry_seth14) February 12, 2020
They didn't miss this. They reviewed it. Then DJ Carstensen, who was on the crew that screwed Michigan out of the OSU game, gave Dakich a completely opposite explanation this time around:
Lest you think I’m making this up. This was after Shiny McDistractedByShinyObjects explained the call to Dakich. pic.twitter.com/FMB22XkTG0
— Bryan Mac (@Bry_Mac) February 12, 2020
So either Big Ten officiating is an internally inconsistent fiasco or the league office clarified that attempting to break your fall after being fouled is legal.
The switch. Via the Daily's Connor Brennan, Howard on the Brooks/Simpson defensive switch against MSU:
“Honestly, I think (Zavier) did a great job of handling it because that’s the little matchup battle,” Livers said. “But Cassius guards Eli, so it was like, ‘Eli, why don’t you turn around and guard Cassius?’ Make it simple. And Eli, man, he’s a pest. He’s a really good defender.”
In addition to 11 points and nine boards of his own, Brooks held Winston to just 20 points on 18 shots. In stymying Michigan State’s maestro, the Wolverines disrupted the Spartans’ offense as a whole — holding them to an offensive rating of 94.4, down from 114.5 in their previous matchup, per KenPom.
“I know in the last game Cassius was very comfortable,” Howard said. “I went back and watched film of our last game. I just wanted to give him a different look. I knew Eli — defensively, he’s a very disciplined player, very technical. He’s not gonna make many mistakes.
“I thought he did a really good job staying front of Cassius, making every catch tough for him, as well as challenging every shot without fouling.”
MSU was unable to take advantage of a big size mismatch as Simpson checked a guy a half-foot taller than him, because that would mean running the offense through someone other than Winston.
Anonymous coach talking. This edition is on basketball and includes almost the entire Big Ten because it's all on the bubble. I imagine the guy talking about Michigan isn't very good at his job:
They’re not a great defensive team. You can go inside on them. You’ve gotta put Teske in ball screens. That’s where he’s a liability.
Per Synergy Michigan is 85th percentile against pick and roll ball handlers, 77th percentile against roll men, and 2nd percentile against post-ups. All together Michigan is 91st percentile against PNR.
Then there was this about PSU's Lamar Stevens:
He is hard to guard because he’s not a great 3-point shooter but he thinks it’s going in, which is half the battle.
I think we're done here.
This guy seems overqualified. Michigan is hiring PSU's former run game coordinator as an analyst:
SOURCES: Former #PennState Run Game Coordinator/OL coach Matt Limegrover is expected to become a senior analyst at #Michigan. He has spent most of the past decade in the Big Ten at Penn State and #Minnesota.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) February 8, 2020
Limegrover was Jerry Kill's OC and seemed to make a lot of chicken salad, particularly on the ground, with the Minnesota roster. Then he was PSU's OL coach for the last four years until getting axed in January. That's weird, too: PSU was third in the conference in rushing average. They did give up a lot of sacks.
A bad story. OSU DBs Amir Riep and Jahsen Wint have been arrested for rape and kidnapping; OSU immediately suspended them. Unless I'm failing to remember multiple incidents this is not a pattern at OSU and neither guy had previous red flags so in the highly likely event they're booted from the program there's nothing to criticize there.
OSU may be laser focused on football to the detriment of things like following NCAA rules and knowing where campus is but they haven't had a lot of off-field incidents in the past decade. The JT Barrett DUI incident where he plaintively asserted "I'm the QB of Ohio State" with no real expectation that would work—it didn't—is pretty good evidence that OSU isn't run like MSU in this regard.
Clean games, mostly. The Daily's Rohan Kumar had a hockey article with various items; this one jumped out at me:
While hosting Wisconsin, Michigan significantly limited its penalties. Heading into the weekend, the Wolverines were averaging 8.96 penalty minutes a night. That figure wasn’t too much of an issue due to the group’s skillful penalty kill unit.
But in the two games against the Badgers combined, Michigan served just six total penalty minutes.
“Honestly, I think it’s just the point in the season,” senior forward Jacob Hayhurst said of the drop. “It’s late. Everyone knows what the refs are gonna call and what they’re not gonna call. I think there's gonna be a little more leeway each night, just because it’s getting that much closer to playoff hockey.”
Michigan is 53rd nationally in penalty minutes, but this may be a Big Ten effect. Four Big Ten schools (PSU, Michigan, ND, and Minnesota) are in the bottom ten in PIMs; Ohio State is 49th. Only MSU (38th) and Wisconsin (13th) are significantly off the bottom.
I can't say I've been upset about a bunch of no-calls. There's the occasional thing your poisoned fan brain thinks is bad until you see a replay and then it's tenuous.
Ouch. Hockey's Eric Ciccolini is shutting his season down and undergoing surgery after what sounds like a miserable season:
His shoulder has been subluxing — sliding in and out of socket, repeatedly dislocating — throughout the season, and it got to a point where continuing to play through it didn’t make sense.
“He was playing with it all year, and about a week and a half ago, it happened again in practice,” Pearson said. “Not a hit, just an innocent little play and it got to the point where it was hard for him to play. … He could’ve played the rest of the year and had it after the season, but then it gets into your recovery time for the following year, because it’s a six to eight-month recovery.”
11 points on an offensively challenged team while undergoing that isn't bad; hopefully he can pick it up next year.
ZMo. Not quite being an NBA player can take you to some interesting places in life.
Told @JustJMo he’s Zordan Morganić now and there’s no going back. Good luck Zordan https://t.co/ycWSGIpBa2
— Stuart Douglass (@SWD_317) February 7, 2020
Morgan will play for the Slovenian national team as they attempt to qualify for the Olympics. It's going to be tough: Lithuania is in their group and only one team gets out.
I see what you did there. Andrew Kahn has a Phil Martelli article:
Phil Martelli was lost in the supermarket.
In his 65 years, the revered basketball coach had never been grocery shopping.
"I was like, 'Am I going the right way?' I looked up and thought, 'What the hell am I doing in the dog food aisle?' I don't have a dog. I have no desire to have a dog."
This was in August, a few months after Martelli's life, like another famous Philadelphian's, got flipped turned upside down.
If you are a certain age Kahn has just put the Fresh Prince's theme song in your head for the next several days. I wanted to share this experience with you.
Also, I think my attempt to say absurd Phil Martelli things may not have gone far enough. They do not impose a dog upon you if you take a wrong turn in the supermarket. Martelli may be confused because he had to sleep in the same bed with East Penobscot's mascot during a winter storm in 1975.
Etc.: Safeties should be worth 11 points. Stream of Gonzaga (Hunter Dickinson) vs Dematha (Terrance Williams) if you want to see a couple of basketball croots in a more realistic light than highlights. Michigan's 2016 recruiting class finishes #6 in a re-rank done by the Athletic. #7 is Minnesota(!). Mo Hurst is still the best three-tech PFF has ever charted. Wyatt Shallman is now a literature professor at Wesleyan. Or at least he looks like one.
Ex-EYBL coach takes stand in Avenatti trial, says he funneled money to player handlers.
February 12th, 2020 at 12:06 PM ^
MSU hired a guy who screwed over his current employer to take the job? Kinda like how Saban did it to MSU when he went to LSU? Sounds like a return to form for Sparty.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:30 PM ^
See, Dantonio really did complete the circle
February 12th, 2020 at 1:49 PM ^
Did Saban do MSU wrong? He was hired at a standard time for job shuffling. MSU wasn’t willing to step up to the plate. He left them with a strong roster, which they mostly squandered.
MSU fans hate him, but I always chalked that up to them being bitter that LSU took football seriously and MSU didn’t.
February 12th, 2020 at 3:59 PM ^
I don't disparage Saban's desire to leave. It was the way he said, "I have no interest in leaving ... Oh, look! A money cannon aimed at my checking account!" that reminds me of Mel Tucker and how he is now leaving CU.
February 12th, 2020 at 2:42 PM ^
Not sure how he screwed over CU. He said no initially, but when someone comes back and offers to double your salary, you have to listen. I sure as hell would change my tune if that happened to me and you're telling me you wouldn't because you tweeted something different?
February 12th, 2020 at 3:29 PM ^
I'd tweet something MUCH worse and go to the new job at ANY time to double my salary.
February 13th, 2020 at 8:56 AM ^
It's still screwing over CU doesn't matter how much money was involved. Not saying I wouldn't do the same, but CU is screwed now.
February 12th, 2020 at 12:08 PM ^
The only condition in which I'd take the MSU job is if they paid me enough that after one year I wouldn't need to think of working again. And every dollar of it had better be guaranteed. I'd have a lawyer present at the contract signing.
And I'm just joe schmorandomguyontheInternet. If I had an actual football coaching resume, whatever they offered had better be worth my career.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:27 PM ^
Mel just got double his salary after winning 5 games and his new school is giving him a ridiculous salary pool for assistants and the fans would be ecstatic if gets 6 wins because the roster sucks and the schedule is super tough. He's got it made. He can stick around a few years, show the smallest bit of progress and get away with murder (given Sparty's history with off the field shananigans). He's set.
I can't wait to see the honeymoon phase come to a crashing halt when we come to town and they're waiting for the 3rd or 4th win of the season and we put another 40-some to 10 beatdown on them.
February 12th, 2020 at 5:30 PM ^
I don't think State fans will be ecstatic with 6 wins.
February 12th, 2020 at 7:15 PM ^
MSU is coming off back-to-back 7 win seasons and the fans were irate with Dantonio, arguably their best coach ever. So why would they be ecstatic with six wins next year?
February 12th, 2020 at 12:08 PM ^
How about hiring Mike Tressel as a defensive analyst?
February 12th, 2020 at 12:11 PM ^
MGoBlog thinks Tucker is a bad hire? Maybe if it stopped being clouded by JEALOUSY and THINLY-VEILED RACISM, it would realize that Tucker is a TRUE SPARTAN WARRIOR. Shartbaugh woke up this morning with even more poo than usual in his pajama-khakis. Get ready to feel the boom, PUNKS.
SPARTAN NATION
February 12th, 2020 at 12:18 PM ^
Zzzzzzzzzzz
February 12th, 2020 at 1:56 PM ^
parody account. remember? this is a joke, meaning an actual, if poorly done, joke.
February 12th, 2020 at 4:20 PM ^
Yes, I remember it's a parody account. The zzzzz was my best effort at indicating how un-amused I was by it
February 12th, 2020 at 10:28 PM ^
Wow. Ten years between posts. No wonder I didn’t remember this guy’s schtick.
February 12th, 2020 at 12:25 PM ^
Thinly veiled racism? Bruh... just two days ago RCMB was burning effigies of Brianna Scott for fudging up the Luke Fickell hire cuz she wanted a minority candidate interviewed... oh and obviously she has an agenda since she’s... black.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:23 PM ^
And don’t forget about the SNL news story. MSU, where prominent black figures are hung in effigy at the bookstore!
February 12th, 2020 at 1:00 PM ^
Sparty gonna spart.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:04 PM ^
I read that as, "Sparty gonna shart," and that made me laugh.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:29 PM ^
I mean, 44-10 in the biggest rivalry game of the year should be counted as a shart
February 12th, 2020 at 1:09 PM ^
Racism complaint from a school with this in their gift shop????
February 12th, 2020 at 1:25 PM ^
Hopefully coach Mel doesn't head over to the gift shop tonight to pick up a sweatshirt.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:19 PM ^
Ah, I've always wondered what the embodiment of SPARTAN SWILL looked like.
Now I know.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:25 PM ^
I'm sorry, I fell asleep at all caps...what did you say?
February 12th, 2020 at 1:38 PM ^
Damn this would be such good satire
February 12th, 2020 at 1:43 PM ^
L
O
L
February 12th, 2020 at 1:44 PM ^
Look everyone! A walking, talking can of Natty Light can type!
Will miracles never cease?
February 12th, 2020 at 2:11 PM ^
Welcome to your below-Brady Hoke moment, spartoon. You have to admit you overpaid. Mork only made $4.3M.
Y’all are nuts.
February 12th, 2020 at 2:34 PM ^
Shartbaugh?
February 12th, 2020 at 6:57 PM ^
? not sure if serious
February 12th, 2020 at 12:11 PM ^
Fresh Prince theme song preempted and drowned out by the Clash reference in the first line.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:15 PM ^
I thought that was The Jam but I believe you're right.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:22 PM ^
whoops, commented below, didn't check to see you guys were in first.
but now you've dropped 'in the city' into my head. dang, the jam were great.
February 12th, 2020 at 2:37 PM ^
EL is the "Town Called Malice"
February 12th, 2020 at 4:18 PM ^
Exactly! Martelli can no longer shop happily, it seems.
February 12th, 2020 at 12:13 PM ^
I think the only logical conclusion from the flagrant foul discussion is that the B1G or the officiating leaders told them that they screwed up the Simpson call. I don't think either is a flagrant, so I'm not that mad that they didn't call it on State last night. It would just be nice if they were transparent about making a mistake.
February 12th, 2020 at 2:11 PM ^
I'd still like to see Warde aggressively call this out. I mean, that's partly his job right - to stand up for his people?
February 12th, 2020 at 12:14 PM ^
Even if the Big Ten concedes they screwed up and grabbing a jersey while falling is a non-factor, how in the world do the officials review that play from the Illinois-MSU game and conclude the MSU player is breaking his fall? He's just grabbing the Illini players jersey to keep him from grabbing the rebound. And you reviewed that and concluded it was nothing?? College officiating can be brutal.
February 12th, 2020 at 12:17 PM ^
I thought the Martelli reference was going to be to the Clash song.
February 12th, 2020 at 12:20 PM ^
I’m not sure Tucker is a home run hire but Brian isn’t exactly objective when it comes to MSU.
February 12th, 2020 at 12:57 PM ^
Dead on.
It was a risky hire given only one year HC experience, and that not super-successful. But he pulled the #35 recruiting class in a transition year, and he did it from the talent wasteland that is the Mountain Time Zone. By comparison Harbaugh's transition class was ranked 37th. (Granted, with a higher average player rating). I also don't think there's any doubt that he's an excellent DC.
I don't know if he'll be a good coach for MSU, but after the Fickell disaster he was probably the best option they had and they did what they had to do to get him. I'd be happier living in a world where MSU is too dysfunctional to do that and instead settles on Tressell for a year or hires a low-level guy that feels safe but has no chance of actually being good.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:02 PM ^
The #35 class is this year. In his transition year (2019) he landed the #44 class. Note that he was hired in early December 2018 in a short turnaround from the previous firing, while we went four weeks (!) with no coach in 2014 before hiring Harbaugh at the end of December.
As for him as a DC, I haven't followed his career but he seems to have bounced around an awful lot. I feel like a stud DC would have more career stability.
He may have been MSU's best option but seems like a huge unknown.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:21 PM ^
Oops. I stand corrected on the class rankings.
He's certainly bounced around quite a bit, but he's gotten consistent raises when he does. That suggests that the coaching community, at least, thinks highly of him.
Completely agree he's a big risk. But if I were an MSU fan I'd want my administration willing to take the risk. It'd be different if there was a proven guy available at this point, but I don't think there is. There are a lot of parallels here to us hiring Juwan Howard.
February 12th, 2020 at 1:24 PM ^
I'm not sure if he pulled the #35 class in a transition year. His 2019 class would reflect the recruits signed in his 2018 transition, and that class was ranked #44 by 247. His 2020 class is ranked #35
February 12th, 2020 at 1:50 PM ^
I think it's high-risk/high reward. CU looked better this year than they did before and Tucker improved CU's recruiting above the level of "Insane Tire Fire" that it was before. It feels like they got a coach on the upswing and it could work out spectacularly for them if they are patient enough to get past the "This roster was completely devastated." phase.
On the whole I think they got ahead of the news cycle with a solid hire. Maybe they overpaid for him, but as many have mentioned Michigan doesn't have much to point to here.
Then again he somehow managed to lose to Chip Kelly's UCLA so what in the hell do I know?
February 12th, 2020 at 3:47 PM ^
CU looked better this year than they did before and Tucker improved CU's recruiting above the level of "Insane Tire Fire" that it was before.
Colorado's records:
2016 - 10-4
2017 - 5-7
2018 - 5-7
2019 (Tucker) - 5-7
Colorado recruiting rankings
2016 - #69
2017 - #35
2018 - #53
2019 (partially with Tucker) - #44
2020 (Tucker) - #35
He may have improved their recruiting somewhat but on the field they remained in their 5-7 rut.
February 12th, 2020 at 6:38 PM ^
Colorado's defense got a lot worse last year with him in charge. He was a disaster as DC for the Bears. There's definitely some question whether he's actually good at it these days; he might be fine as a recruiter (where he seems to be pretty solid) if he hires good coordinators?
February 12th, 2020 at 12:25 PM ^
That MSU/ILL jersey tug outcome is unbelievable! Is there a forum to get a clear answer from the league on that? They either (1) took a probable win away from Michigan, or (2) took a probable win away from ILL. A win vs a loss against a top 30 team, for a team playing for mid-level seeding (not to mention an outside chance at a league title for ILL), is enormous.
Will someone ask Howard if he’s received an explanation? Will howard ask carstensen for an explanation next time he’s officiating an M game (at minimum remind him that he fucked up and his incompetence screwed M out of a win). Is this where Manuel actually needs to say/do something?
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