Unverified Voracity Unleashes Charity Comment Count

Brian

On my signal, unleash charity. EDSBS's annual fundraiser for Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta is up. Michigan has won this thing back-to-back, crushing all comers, and I'm pretty sure if we win a third straight year we get the right of first refusal on any 7'3" Spiderman shot-blocking centers they might accidentally produce.

Orson suggests commemorating a past football game with your donation. I'm going SUMMER OF TATE!

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I blame the Big Ten Network for this. And wheel routes, of course. The donation page can be reached directly here. Michigan State is currently leading.

Hagerup gets the Stonum treatment. Michigan has announced that Will Hagerup is reinstated and will be suspended for the entire 2013 season. He'll have one more year of eligibility in 2014 if he can survive the double secret probation period, which of course Stonum could not.

Q: would Michigan announce anything if their own players didn't spill the beans on social media? The timing of all these reports seems to be: "wait for someone on a message board to notice, announce once it starts getting wider attention."

If Hagerup is still on scholarship that would take Michigan's next recruiting class down one.

Kovacs doing his Kovacs thing. The NFL equivalent of a walk-on is the undrafted free agent, and Kovacs is doing his Kovacs things with the Dolphins. But first, awesome lead!

Jordan Kovacs is the rarest kind of three-time all-Big Ten player. The kind that is nearly $100,000 in debt.

That might be a first, actually. Kovacs came in for a profile on the Dolphins' site with this quote in it:

"Those within the Dolphins organization tell me that Kovacs has a legitimate shot," MiamiDolphins.com's Andy Cohen wrote, "that you aren’t as productive as he was at Michigan without having a chance at the next level."

Practice observers are united in stating he is small but impressive nonetheless. One:

Michigan safety Jordan Kovacs was the main guy who caught my attention. At first I noticed he's the runt of the litter, standing all of 5-foot-10, 205 pounds. Most NFL safeties are three inches taller, and maybe 10 pounds heavier.

"Then I noticed Kovacs has a knack for being around the ball," Kelly continued, "and plays with a feisty spirit. He pulled down one of the Friday session's two interceptions and was consistently around the ball. What does that mean? No clue at this point, but flashing is a good thing."

And two:

Former Michigan safety Jordan Kovacs, an undrafted rookie free agent signee, knows how to make an impression. He was a walk-on at Michigan and rose to prominence and had something of a cult following in Ann Arbor. He knows the way to draw attention and that's hit. He did plenty of that, taking some liberties at times in the defensive backfield. He also had an interception. So he's got my attention, at least.

Spiece means all of the scouting reports. There was an immense AAU tournament in Fort Wayne over the weekend that has resulted in an unusually large scouting dump even for the internet. Trevon Bluiett had a great weekend on both ends, filling it up and giving five-star Kevon Looney the business on defense:

Dylan on Bluiett:

We’ve been keeping tabs on Bluiett for a long time now so his offensive exploits don’t come as a big surprise. Bluiett can score the ball against just about anyone. He has a great jumpshot, can use his 6-foot-6 frame to get to the rim and even has a nice mid-range game. But it’s always encouraging when a guy that you’ve been following for a long time shows off something new. We already touched on Bluiett’s defensive exploits against Kevon Looney but his performance was very impressive – mostly because we haven’t seen that out of him. Five threes on the other end didn’t hurt, although this still wasn’t Bluiett’s best offensive game of the tournament, that would have been his 28 point outburst against Team Thad.

He told Rivals($) that Michigan and Butler are recruiting him "most vigorously" at the moment. Everyone who's ventured an opinion thinks Butler has a tentative lead, and time is running down. Bluiett wants to decide before his senior year begins.

UMHoops also put together a scouting reel on Looney. Which… wow. He doesn't have the quickness to drive on guys a lot shorter than him, but he's a 6'9" kid who blocks everything, runs the floor, has three point range, and is aggressive. I say, he might be a good player.

Scout also has extensive, uh, scouting($). Vince Edwards had a little bit of a rough outing as his teammate and OSU commit Jae'Sean Tate went to the basket over and over; everyone's now filing Looney as an "elite face-up power forward."

Oh. ESPN's Paul Biancardi puts Zak Irvin on his class of 2013 "dream team," describing him as an "alpha dog($)":

Every team needs some alpha dogs, and Irvin fits that category. He provides the luxury of having a big-time scorer who can stroke it from deep with excellent size or beat his defender off the bounce, pull up and nail it from the midrange. That scoring versatility is priceless. He also has high-level athleticism, and his frame is strong enough that he can take a hit and finish at the rim. Irvin is a competitor who can play the game up tempo or in the half court. Bottom line, he is a bucket getter who can put up big numbers.

Hardaway++?

Sports in which you attempt to throw a ball past a person with a stick. Softball clinched their sixth straight Big Ten title over the weekend with a narrow 2-1 win over Northwestern, then celebrated by clubbing the Wildcats into a fine paste 16-1 in a game I attended. I was just talking up how Sierra Romero was pretty good when she put one over the fence; later in the game they walked her with a base full. The next day, Northwestern walked her at every opportunity, plunking her the first time. Also she's the shortstop. She might be good.

Softball is the top seed for the Big Ten tourney, which is in… Nebraska. Does that make more or less sense than having the hockey tournament at neutral sites? Advanced math necessary to tell. In any case, it's a big tourney for Michigan, which currently sits on the edge of the top-eight spot that would not only guarantee them a regional but also a home super-regional should they advance.

The softball tourney is a twelve-team single elimination thing; Michigan's Friday opener won't be televised but their hypothetical semi would be at 3 Saturday and the final is 1 Sunday, both on BTN.

Meanwhile, the baseball team is fighting for the last spot in the six-team Big Ten tournament, taking two of three from Iowa over the weekend. They've got six conference games left, a home series against Purdue and a trip to Lincoln. Purdue is about as good as Iowa—not good—and Nebraska is just okay; Michigan has to keep ahead of Illinois for the last spot. They've got a game on the Illini.

Dollar dollar bill y'all. The Big Ten's distribution to its schools pops up over a million dollars to $25.7 million. The BTN is now putting out $7.6 million a year. Makes you wonder how they used to manage with just 15 million a year. Probably ate roof tiles, sat in a hot tub filled with dirt, used old batteries to decorate.

The irony of this bullet. The only good thing about the new flood of articles (YES IT'S A TWO-ARTICLE FLOOD GAWD) about Chris Webber is they're the ones spurred by the dissociation period imposed on him by the NCAA ending. So they should be the last, by God. Has anyone else ever been a subjection of this much discussion 20 years after he left his college team?

Canadian Football. Your names. I don't know what to do. There's a new Ottawa CFL team that just drafted a backup Iowa lineman in the first round because the CFL draft is only for Canadians. In any case, I bring this to your attention mostly because that team is considering the following names:

Wiki says they're choosing between the RedBlacks, the Nationals, the Raftsmen, the Voyageurs, or the Rush. Of course a Canadian team would consider "Rush" an appropriate nickname. Whatever they end up going with, they're always going to be The Fightin' Tom Sawyers to me. But I digress.

Canada. I think "RedBlacks" is actually the goofiest what with its connotations of a distant rollerball future where all things are named according to the colors that comprise them because the gubberment has confiscated nouns.

Knobwatch. When Bret Bielema isn't fighting with Wisconsin fans on twitter—seriously—he's dialing up the doublespeak to its maximum:

Coincidentally, "Transition is a process" is also what the noun-confiscating dystopian gubberment says when it takes your nouns.

One of those guys is a postgrad quarterback everyone will want Michigan to look at who will instead go somewhere he can play.

Barwis talking about Mealer. Via the latest TEDx event at M:

Etc.: Is the body of this article titled "Why B1G has no November night games" just "IT'S COLD"? It should be. Ringer departure official if you missed it yesterday. FWIW, I heard he'd had microfracture surgery a la Greg Oden. Where the O'Bannon case stands and is going in the near future. Ben McLemore stuff just makes me want agents to be cool wit the NCAA. Burke's got a shot at going #1.

Comments

BlueBarron

May 7th, 2013 at 12:23 PM ^

That's unfortunate about Ringer. He lived in my hall in SQuad last year. So did Blake Countess... and Russel Bellomy...

Oh god, Justice Hayes and Desmond Morgan, run for your lives! Angry 2nd Kelsey hating god is after you!

willirwin1778

May 7th, 2013 at 3:14 PM ^

Jordan Kovacs rips it up, right in the Lions backyard, three-time all big ten player and he goes undrafted? What part of game saving tackles and interceptions does the NFL not like?  

There were 21 Safeties taken in the 2013 draft this year.  Here is a look at how Kovacs performed during the UM pro day three cone drill and would have ranked at the combine.

Keep in mind that the three cone drill at the combine is literally a combination of everything a player needs.  It tests power, linear power, circular speed, multi directional speed and breaking.   

Kovacs Three-cone drill: 6.62 seconds (1st of 14 Safeties)



That is a fast cat fellas.  Dude can stop and go and get to a spot in no time.  

 

dragonchild

May 7th, 2013 at 8:25 PM ^

That he wasn't drafted doesn't mean Kovacs isn't liked.  Almost every team in the NFL called him after the draft ended.

Signing Kovacs is a conservative decision, and the draft is NOT for conservative decisions.  It's for high-ceiling prospects.  In many ways, a 6th-round pick has just as much upside as a 1st-round pick; the main difference is risk -- the first-rounder is more likely to pan out.  I don't necessarily agree with it, but here's the logic as far as I can tell:  When you draft a freak athlete with a ton of question marks (doesn't know the game, needs to work on technique, etc.) and he does pan out, you've signed a Pro Bowl player for the price of a rookie.  That makes good business sense.  With a guy like Kovacs who projects to "productive", he's not going to break the bank even if he signs as a free agent, so why burn a draft pick on him?  Consider that Will Campbell was drafted.  In all fairness to Big Will, I think most people would agree that Kovacs is more likely to make an NFL owner happy.  But Will's the bet with the bigger payout; hence he gets drafted.  The matter of likelihood is off the table -- the only thing that matters as far as whether or not a player gets drafted is his ceiling.  The draft is a speculator's game, is my point, and with Kovacs there isn't much to speculate.

It's kind of insulting that he wasn't drafted, but that's really just a public perception due to the media placing waaaay too much importance on draft order.  There are enough NFL veterans who weren't drafted to almost fill a decent roster.

mGrowOld

May 7th, 2013 at 12:35 PM ^

Can Justin or MGoSoftball please explain the criteria the B1G uses to select which team gets to host the tournament?  I don't think it's set in advance so I'd really like to know how the #2 team gets home field while the #1 team has to travel.

 

justingoblue

May 7th, 2013 at 12:56 PM ^

The Summit League does previous season regular season champ, which seems like the best solution (unless you want to do current season champ, but that leaves very little time for logistics). This is purely speculation on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a system like that put in place for the Big Ten after giving Nebraska a concession for being the new guy on the block.

Like most things involving inner workings of the conference or NCAA, if you really want a good answer, ask Alton.

Alton

May 7th, 2013 at 1:24 PM ^

The championship site was pre-selected about a year ago; I have not heard anything regarding where the 2014 tournament will be, though. 

I'm pretty sure the site is going to be rotated.  There are several other B1G sports, including field hockey, soccer, gymnastics, swimming, wrestling,  tennis, track and golf, where the conference championship rotates among those schools willing & able to host it.  I would assume that Michigan will eventually get its chance.

Some teams won't be able to host the tournament, either because they don't have lights or because they can't handle a crowd (I would assume there is a minimum number of seats that the conference would require) or they don't have the press facilities.  That's certainly not something that would keep Michigan from hosting, though.

 

MGoShoe

May 7th, 2013 at 1:08 PM ^

...who thinks that the Shutdown Fullback/EDSBS "reward" for being the top school contributor to their campaign is so snarky as to be the opposite of a reward?

I'm sure I'm just being hypersensitive and lack an appropriately calibrated funny bone.

Whoops, I forgot. A Michigan Man does not joke about funny bones unless that Michigan Man's name is Devin.

MGoShoe

May 8th, 2013 at 4:27 PM ^

...quite good and it's right in line with their usual schtick. I'm not offended by any one of those jokes, but in aggregate, it becomes a bit much -- especially when termed a reward. Your prize for your good works: we will ridicule you by overplaying all of the stereotypes about your team, its coaches, your school's alumni and its fanbase.

And I get it that I'm playing right into the stuffed shirt Michigan Man/Michigan Difference meme. 

Committed

May 7th, 2013 at 1:12 PM ^

Someone tell more about this TEDx event. Is it annually? Does Barwis always speak at them? It would have been awesome to have been there to see it...



Great speech. Catalyst.

enlightenedbum

May 7th, 2013 at 2:46 PM ^

Other EDSBS related news of note is that Holly Anderson is moving to Grantland, so they'll finally have someone on staff who knows something about college football.

njv5352

May 7th, 2013 at 2:48 PM ^

Watched the Bluiett highlights and I am not terribly impressed.  He looks like an average shooter who takes a large amount of shots and has little if any idea on how to follow up a missed shot.  He has an awkward release and looks like he has a be clearly set before he can shoot.  He does like to pull the trigger though.  For 6'6"  I would like to see more inside work and rebounding. 

LSA91

May 7th, 2013 at 2:54 PM ^

1) Hagerup:  I read someplace that Hagerup was viewed as a potential NFL draft pick this year.   Does he have serious NFL potential, and is he seriously jeopardizing that over alleged MJ?

2) Kovacs:  I guess I am old, but even after 3 and a half years of interest, is close to $100,000 a plausible debt level for TWO YEARS of out of state U-M tuition room and board?

MGoBender

May 7th, 2013 at 6:50 PM ^

http://www.ro.umich.edu/tuition/tuition-fees.php#fullterm

Out-of-state tuition at LSA is currently $19,464.  When you throw in fees and books, it might jump up to 21k, but it was assuredly lower when Kovacs was a freshmen.

How many years did Kovacs have to pay his way?  It makes sense if it was 3.5.  You can live as a student in AA for around $10k a year easily, so if we're looking at $30k per year for an out-of-stater, then that 100k number makes sense.

(Checking the website, standard dorm is now just under 10k!!!  It was 7k when I was in the dorms not that long ago)

gopoohgo

May 7th, 2013 at 7:04 PM ^

Yes.  From the link above, it would cost $38,900-ish just in tuition for an out-of-state resident for two terms.

Adds up quickly.  

Even though I love the school, as an out-of-stater now, I highly doubt my future spawn will be going to his/her/it's parent's alma mater.  Costs are close to what Hopkins, Carnegie-Mellon, UPenn, Georgetown, etc. charge.

Here is the projected annual cost from UM-Student Affairs for in-state, out-of-staters, per year:

http://www.finaid.umich.edu/TopNav/AboutUMFinancialAid/CostofAttendance.aspx

You can buy a nice Audi S4 for that...every freaking year.

Swayze Howell Sheen

May 8th, 2013 at 12:05 PM ^

epic kovacs + growling barwis make for an excellent post.

and then the question: "Has anyone else ever been a subjection of this much discussion 20 years after he left his college team?"

yes. unfortunately the answer is "Rudy". STIR THE ECHOES!

 

dc22

May 8th, 2013 at 3:07 PM ^

I hope that one of the 4 teams listed that need a PG, win the draft lottery. That would make for an exciting draft night. Burke going No. 1 and THJ going towards the end of the first round would be perfect!