Unverified Voracity Wraps It Up Comment Count

Brian

Hello. What with hockey and dissertation and everything it was a tired, panicked last few days but go to bed at a reasonable hour and stay there for a good while and hey the sun's shining and there's a baseball game tonight. I've also got all these tabs; they're increasingly elderly but oh well.

image

Jake Fromm/Daily

Elsewhere in getting hammered in the temple. A roundup of post-championship reacts on the Michigan blogosphere. HSR:

The hardest part about the National Championship game last night was that there's no new lesson to glean from it. When you take penalties, you're going to have a hard time winning. When you can't get the puck into the opponent's zone, you're going to have a hard time winning. When you can't get a change in overtime, it's going to be almost impossible to win.

TWB:

The Sun rose on Sunday in Ann Arbor. It was a beautiful, 80-degree day, the first such day after another long Midwestern winter. Normally I’d be pleased, but yesterday a picturesque spring day felt like a cruel joke.

Red himself:

"I think right now it's pretty tough to reflect on the season when you just lost a national championship game in overtime. If you're a competitor, you're going to be devastated," he said.

"You know the seniors aren't going to get another chance, and they've been the nuts and bolts of this team. Our young guys, they might think they'll get the chance every year, but it doesn't work that way."

So… yeah… if you were in the comments yesterday complaining that I was too down you don't follow the hockey team closely enough. This could be your reaction every spring, too! Season tickets! Get them!

Also in enragement. This is uncharacteristic of Berenson:

“Were they good penalties?” Berenson asked. “I can’t tell you what I really think. I mean, you can’t talk about refereeing and penalties, but when one team gets nine (power plays) and the other four, it doesn’t add up.”

He wasn’t done.

“We’re not out there to take penalties,” he said. “So every time a player falls down, it shouldn’t be a penalty, not in NCAA championship hockey.”

FWIW, it was only the third-period calls that I thought were terrible. The other stuff was either unfortunate, undisciplined, or plain necessary. Michigan took like three straight in the second and didn't call the ref a troglodyte who should be shot into the sun, so… yeah.

That last "boarding" call was some kind of awful, though.

The enlightenment comes. Notre Dame WR Michael Floyd won't be suspended for the season, or placed in stocks in the middle of campus, or forced to wear a hairshirt for picking up a DUI. While that's not so good for Michigan's laser night game throwback spectacular it's closer to sane. Rakes of Mallow somewhat defensively posted a list of recent DUI offenses and their consequences and the consensus is one game unless you play for OSU. [Ed-M: My list is better.] Doctor Saturday:

If anything, Res Life's scorched-earth verdicts against former basketball players Will Yeatman and Joseph Fauria and basketball player Kyle McAlarney — all of whom were booted from school for an entire semester for arguably lesser charges than the trio of alcohol-related offenses on Floyd's record — were evidence of a policy far out of step with the mainstream. As McAlarney wrote the Tribune, the office showed "no compassion, no consideration for me, no feelings whatsoever." Yeatman and his parents also publicly objected to his suspension before his transfer to Maryland.

I'm with him even if I was pulling for a two-game suspension.

Feature thing. ESPN's spring feature on Michigan:

It's so bizarre seeing Urban Meyer try to be part of the media. I expect him to kick himself out of this interview. Also there's actually a lot of interesting* technique stuff in there if you ever wanted to find out what a DL coach does.

*[for a given definition of interesting, which is mine but probably not yards.]

Too cool to live. Free Darko is no more. Amongst the huge list of tributes posted I think Will Leitch is the one who gets it rightest:

Free Darko made me see athletes not as heroes, not as villains, not as humans, but as mythic, god-like creatures, comic and tragic. I don't mean God in a big man in the clouds with a beard sense; I mean in a "release the kraken!" sense.

They were perfectly suited for the NBA. I talked to Shoals a bit when we were both writing for The Sporting Blog; he was disappointed in his traffic numbers and disappointed in the weirdly disjoined TSB and seemed like a guy who was losing faith, getting ready to move on. TSB duly imploded and now FD is scattering to fancy magazine pages of the world.

Random insane NCAA decision of the week. Colleges can no longer subscribe to Rivals and Scout because they provide recruiting information not freely available to the public. The Bylaw Blog is kinda sorta incensed by the unintended consequences of what started as an attempt to reign in AAU coaches in men's basketball:

But it’s the reason Rivals is not a permissible service that shows the deeper underlying problem with the current recruiting regulations. It is not permissible to subscribe to a recruiting or scouting service that provides videos of prospects in non-scholastic competition, unless the videos are free and available to the general public.

The NCAA and its members have fought the growth of non-scholastic youth sports vigorously. Subscribing to video of non-scholastic contests is prohibited. In basketball, going to watch AAU events is tightly restricted. In football, coaches are prohibited from going to any non-scholastic event.

This has resulted in two things: the steady, continued growth of AAU basketball, 7-on-7 football, and all other club sports, and diminished NCAA influence in this area. By removing college coaches from many AAU gyms and football camps, it has become the lawless wild west that the restrictions sought to avoid.

According to Infante, the NCAA should "let go" of high school sports and reorganize around the principle that non-scholastic sports are primary. That sounds radical, but Infante makes a persuasive point: you have no control over something you have completely banned and lots of control over something you are working with. If two rival AAU tourneys are competing for players, the one with college coaches in the house is going to win hands-down.

Meanwhile, Rivals and company should expect a surge in subscriptions from coaches' wives.

Side note: Banning Rivals based on video of "non-scholastic competition" is a weird situation when a lot of newspapers are covering recruiting in more detail these days. The occasional camp highlight video hardly registers on why people subscribe to Rivals—if anyone actually watches video it's of, you know, football—and it would be interesting to see if one of the sites tests the NCAA by cutting camp stuff. Most of it's "Christian Cullen" running a shuttle.

Foot… ball? Yes, they still play it. No, there is no running back. A Daily article on the situation recycles some of Borges' quotes from his recent press availability…

“To say we have a frontline back, a guy we’re saying, ‘This guy’s the guy’ — we’ve had flashes of excellence from all of them and that’s not a decision we have to make today,” Borges said. “But I like those kids.”

…and alarmingly references Vincent Smith and Michael Cox without so much as mentioning Dramatic Cupcake Hopkins. Practice chatter has been silent on him even as guys like Cox, who has never seen the field for a reason, get unearthed and evaluated. Meaningfulosity? About as much as the rest of spring practice, but if you forgot what happens this time of year because you were paying attention to basketball and hockey, we get very very bored and therefore try to parse anything we can out of the faint whisper of the ghost of a tiny fraction of tea leaf that wasn't very large to start with.

Etc.: Vada Murray memorial is set for 11 AM Thursday at Cliff Keen. Don't expect Jim Nantz to ever get bumped out of his Final Four spot. Hope you enjoyed your four years at Michigan, seniors!

Comments

MGoShoe

April 12th, 2011 at 1:06 PM ^

...read the MGoBoard very often.  If he did, I don't think he would have typed this:

Practice chatter has been silent on [Hopkins] even as guys like Cox, who has never seen the field for a reason, get unearthed and evaluated.

The emergence of Hopkins seems to be a theme here: Practice Recap from GBMW *

* Several large grains of salt notwithstanding

Wolverine In Exile

April 12th, 2011 at 2:33 PM ^

and there were quotes earlier in the spring from Borges about how they like Hopkins doing a lot of the 49'er split FB type stuff (see Tom Rathman), and I don't think there's much worry about Hopkins. He'll play, probably as the skill FB in most sets and also short yardage TB/HB. I think a lot of the chatter has been focused on seeing if there's a true Michigan Standard (c) TB in the bunch a la Jamie Morris / Tim Biakabutuka / Mike Hart and from what I read Cox sounds like best chance at having that. I also keep reading about how they love Vincent Smith's toughness & what not and I'm thinking we might see a 3rd down package developing for him.

briangoblue

April 12th, 2011 at 1:08 PM ^

“At one time or another, every back (has shown flashes),” Borges said of the downhill running style his offense covets last Tuesday. “As you ask that question, I’m trying to put some of our better runs in my mind together. Cox has done it. Shaw came back the other day, he did it. Stephen Hopkins is just that kind of runner, period.”  

-Borges in the linked Michigan Daily running backs article

 

I think that rates as a Hopkins mention and since I am a positive-tea leaves guy I'm assuming Borges considers Hopkins a solid option to run the "power play."

TrppWlbrnID

April 12th, 2011 at 1:12 PM ^

as i understand it, the residence life board did not issue a suspension, but HC Kelly would be able to.  most likely won't, but the story isn't really over until kelly says it is.

 

 

also, annarbor.com has a spring report, but at the bottom it features this:

Up to 300 former Michigan players will meet on Friday night before Saturday’s alumni game that is expected to draw 85 past Wolverines to the field. Show host Jim Brandstatter said it was a sign of Hoke “bringing the family back together” after the much-discussed rift that existed with football alumni during Rodriguez’s tenure.

“There’s too many legacies out there … too many good things that go on at this university, and in Schembechler Hall, for us not to be united,” Hoke said

i know the RR rift thing is a totally unfounded meme that has gone on too long and is impossible to prove and i hated it while i argued against it, but isn't 300 alumni proof of the opposite of that meme, therefore making the meme true?

MGoShoe

April 12th, 2011 at 1:33 PM ^

...a rift between former players and the previous coaching staff all day long, but the reaction by the former players to Hoke's hiring from day one belies that stance.  I always believed that to be overblown and primarily the product of a few petulant former stars, but it's pretty clear that I was wrong (probably not about the petulance, though).

Again, this item -- Practice Recap from GBMW * -- contains some pretty scathing talk from Ricky Powers about the Hoke era vs the RichRod era (although a close reading would indicate it may also include the Carr era as well).

 

* Several large grains of salt notwithstanding

bluenyc

April 12th, 2011 at 1:42 PM ^

300 is a lot.  I haven't been to a spring game.  But in the last 3 years, were there many guys there?  Maybe the increased number has to do with Coach Hoke having coached here.  Guys want to come back and see Hoke. 

I think Stan Edwards said that he had met with RR and felt welcomed.  I think he said that on WTKA with Sam.  It was the podcast where Stan blasted Brian.

Hobbes

April 12th, 2011 at 1:15 PM ^

The player on the far right in the first picture looks like he's puking pine trees.  I think that would hurt, and is a very fitting image for the end of the hockey team's season.

M-Wolverine

April 12th, 2011 at 2:02 PM ^

So, points...

TWB's reaction to Sunday was mine as well. I thought, wow, this would be the perfect Ann Arbor day, and symbolism of the Sun shining again on the school...if we had won the night before. Sigh.

So Red is making veiled complaints about the officiating...does that mean it's ok for us to do so too? Or is Red whining and not giving credit to the other team too? Because, while I think it was 50-50 dumb penalties and bad calls....there were bad calls.

The recruiting services thing is just whack.  I mean, anyone can subscribe. You're telling me that the fact Universities have money (duh) doesn't give them ALL sort of "recruiting advantages" over the public. What next NCAA? You banning the Internet? (All Bookmarks to MGoBlog in the Athletic Department must be getting deleted...)

Hopkins- See MGoShoe.

And we have figured out the Jim Nantz love - he's in bed with the head guy. (pun kinda intended).

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

April 12th, 2011 at 2:06 PM ^

Regarding videos: I don't know about the Michigan site because I don't subscribe there.  I subscribe to the UVA Rivals site, though, and videos in general seem to be one of the primary reasons people subscribe.  The UVA fans that haunt Rivals are wildly (and often nauseatingly) enthusiastic about videos, to the point where nobody calls them "videos", they call it "film" as if they're watching the same stuff the coaches study, and there are several folks that attempt to be amateur scouts based on highlight reels.  Take the videos away and people won't subscribe.  Make them free and I think people will still subscribe, but who knows?

So could Rivals ditch camp videos and still maintain their revenue stream?  I think probably.  But could they ditch highlight videos?  I doubt it.  Certainly not for basketball where at least half the videos are from AAU tournaments because it's a lot easier to send a couple guys to one tournament and get videos on half the database than to send them scurrying all over the country to every high school gym.

msoccer10

April 12th, 2011 at 2:15 PM ^

Cox is the front runner after the spring, but don't forget Shaw is injured. I was hoping Touissant would be the man, but he hasn't emerged so far.

But my guess is that Shaw, with his blazing speed and experience will win out and he will be your 2011 starter.

Wolverine In Exile

April 12th, 2011 at 2:28 PM ^

"if you were in the comments yesterday complaining that I was too down you don't follow the hockey team closely enough"

I hope that was Brian's snark amplifier turned up to 11, b/c I'll put my following Michigan hockey closeness up against anybody... I just don't write a blog. I honestly believe that the general tone of depressiveness is just getting a bit over the top in these parts-- not saying we all have to be Jerry Reed Pretty Mary Sunlight's around here, but the acting like your dog died, got run over by a bus, shot by Terrell Pryor in Ted Saskian's corvette, and then eaten by Justin Boren b/c we lost in overtime for a national championship to a team that was ranked #1 in the country for some time and did have the #1 scoring line in college hockey while we fielded one of the weakest offensive attacks in Michigan hockey modern history is just a bit too self-flagellating for a Red Sox fan, much less a michigan hockey fan.

Wolverine In Exile

April 12th, 2011 at 4:11 PM ^

was one of my favorite guest star spots (right next to the Mama Cass owning an ice cream factory and being scared away by neopolitan flavored ghosts episode). As a youngster I knoew two things abotu Jerry Reed. 1) He was cool enough to be on Scooby Doo. 2) he rode with the Bandit and sang "Eastbound and Down" (still my personal theme song when driving from Grand Rapids to Ann Arbor). Only later in life did I learn he was a 70's country music bad ass with bell bottom pants. 

imafreak1

April 12th, 2011 at 2:56 PM ^

It was a great season that extended several games longer than anybody really thought it would. Then it ended. I am sad but there have been plenty of worse losses. Many and much worse.

If you're going to be miserable whenever your team doesn't win the National Championship then sports are going to make you miserable most of the time.

I don't think it's healthy to measure fan loyalty by how much pain it causes you.

To each his own, however.

Wolverine In Exile

April 12th, 2011 at 4:08 PM ^

The 8-5 or whatever that was loss to NoDak when we had a offensive juggernaut of a team (and a 2-0 lead if I remember correctly), or the fluky goal loss to Notre Dame with Kolarik and Porter, or any of the Montoya flame-outs in NCAA tourney play, or that friggin Bret-Hart-screw-job ending to last year's psuedo-loss to The Dynasty were depressing losses. This one not so much. Yeah, sucks that we didn't win the national title, but this wasn't scortched earth per the esteemed proprietor's opinion.

Agree to disagree, I guess.

pdgoblue25

April 12th, 2011 at 3:02 PM ^

I was a student at OSU at the time, Boone was so drunk that he passed out at the wheel and smashed into a parked car.  He was not only underage, but the accident happened on campus.   

Can you even imagine how much a guy who was 6'7" 300 lbs had to drink for that happen, and Boone's drinking abilities were well known among the students.  The fact that he didn't even get a one game suspension for the opener against Northern Illinois was deplorable. 

Losing to Tressel never pissed me off as much as his bullshit public image (ok, maybe it did).  The thing I'm happiest about in light of his recent troubles is that he's no longer seen as a beacon of morals.

Don

April 12th, 2011 at 3:51 PM ^

This past Sunday I called up the John Bacon/Jamie Morris show on WTKA to ask Morris if he thought Hoke's hiring was enabling the divisions among the alumni players to begin healing. He basically dismissed or sidestepped that thought, saying that it's up to each individual player to decide what his opinions about a coach are, and that Hoke's job is to win games, not contact alumni players. However, that was before I found out about the Wolverine 300 coming in for the Spring game weekend, and it basically belies part of Morris's response. I doubt that all 300 just spontaneously and individually themselves decided to come in, especially since it's for a meeting that Hoke will be attending, so Hoke & Co. must have specifically reached out to alumni players.

Which is just another very smart and appropriate thing for Hoke to have done. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with what kind of football that's played next fall, but Hoke continues to be pitch-perfect in his dealings with the current team, the media, and former players. The fact that he is benefitting from a media reaction that is 180 degrees from what RR encountered from the beginning of his tenure isn't Hoke's fault.

It also doesn't necessarily support the idea that RR didn't reach out to alum players; that was hogwash when he was here and it's still hogwash. I know personally of more than one player who did NOT feel welcome around Schembechler Hall while Carr was coach, and I was told back in 2008 that RR had embraced all alum players in a way that Carr supposedly didn't. It's undoubtedly the case, however, that the problems RR's teams had on the field effectively sabotaged his efforts to reach out, because it's simply human nature for former players who experienced a great deal of success when they played to be critical of an outsider coach whose teams played poorly.

Thank God that's all water under the bridge so far. Morris was correct in saying that ultimately Hoke's primary—maybe only—job is to win lots of games. If Hoke does that, he'll be embraced in a way that RR never was. If his teams aren't more successful than RR's, support for Hoke will disappear just as surely as it did for RR.

Don

April 13th, 2011 at 8:44 AM ^

My memory's hazy... do you recall how many players showed up for that one?

The whole idea of RR not welcoming alumni players is just one of the numerous allegations that were completely without any substance, but as the losses mounted it was easy for them to stick, because fans who are angry about losses are prepared to believe anything negative about a coach, regardless of how ridiculous it is.

IncrediblySTIFF

April 13th, 2011 at 10:54 AM ^

I talked to my buddy last night (the one that is dating the daughter of the O-coordinator at ND) and he gave me some unreleased information on Michael Floyd.  He has 3 arrests, but the first came while he was technically enrolled at ND but before he had arrived on campus, so apparantly according to ND res life  they can not factor this minor consumption into their decision on whether/whether not to suspended him.

The second arrest happened in South Bend on campus.  This one counts, but 1 PI/MC will not get you kicked out of school in 99% of the colleges across America. (made up that stat to bring more validity to my point)

The third and most recent arrest, the DUI, it sounds like they moved some red tape around to make it inadmissable.  Floyd was pulled over by the Indiana State Police.  The arresting officer was a member of the ISP.  He was then handed over to the County Sheriff Department, processed, and booked.  Local Media picked up on the story and reported it shortly thereafter.

Again...In this third arrest...at no time was Floyd on campus or involved with campus police.  The new reslife head has chosen not to factor this in to his decision, bringing the grand total of alcohol related offenses by Floyd according to ND to 1.

I do agree with reslife's decision not to suspend a student for a semester for a single alcohol related offense.  I was arrested for marijuana once when i was in 8th grade and again when i was in 9th grade.  Because one was in middle school, at a junior high, and the other was in high school, i was able to skirt the system and not be considered a repeat offender by anyone but my own parents.

Kelly has announced that Floyd has several things he needs to do before he steps back on the football field.  However, my buddy has announced that they are going to reinstate him just before the season starts...that keeping him suspended for now is a show of good faith for the NCAA.

 

Notre Dame has now saddled its self right along with the (Sowhat Everybody Cheats) conference and that school in the worst state ever.