WTKA Roundtable 2/24/2022: Uncle Crabby Hoff
Things discussed:
- The brawl: punishment for Juwan was appropriate, lack of accountability from Wisconsin was terrible. NCAA should have suspended the UW assistant coaches, especially the one who tackled Terrance Williams.
- Wisconsin fans don’t get to talk about Juwan unless their embarrassment of Brad Davison.
- Rutgers game: It’s the shooting. Caleb can shoot at home yay! Rutgers didn’t make theirs. Michigan found holes in the mid-range. Michigan is 90th percentile at contested jumpers and 26th percentile on uncontested, which just means they’re missing the open looks.
- Houstan had one of his best defensive games. That makes a big difference, especially since Johns is unplayable now.
- Hello Kobe Bufkin.
- Izzo claims he got T’d up because of Juwan. Pointing and laughing at how badly he’s coaching this team.
- Denard: Underrated how much of a hard worker he is. Help with Dante Moore?
- Sainristil to cornerback? Michigan also looking in portal for CB. YIKES for cornerback, makes sense for WR since Ronnie Bell is going to be your slot, and he’s the best blocker among the WRs. Seth: expect Sainristil to move back, maybe next year. Good to get a senior in the CB room because they have a lot of freshmen whom they want to play.
- Hockey: Who’s the best defender on this team, the #1 overall guy or the Hughes? Also who sits now?
- WBB: They’re going to be motivated for MSU after their play in EL. No more turnovers. Bring back Brown now?
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream.
Segment two is available here. And you can watch the video here:
The Usual Links:
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link (right-click/save as)
- What's with the theme music?
Has anyone ever shown Tom Izzo a picture of Tom Izzo talking to an official?
February 24th, 2022 at 10:51 AM ^
Among Michigan circles, a lot has been made about the lack of accountability in Wisco's role last weekend. What do we think about Juwan's level of accountability? He showed little / no remorse in his post-game presser and then issued a statement referring to Joe Krabbenhoft as Joel.
I haven't listened to the podcast, so I apologize if it was addressed. But I saw the first bullet above - and have seen the same point made a few times. While I think Warde has done an excellent job handling the situation, I personally would have liked to see a little more accountability from Juwan.
February 24th, 2022 at 11:05 AM ^
Juwan should've never done a presser after that game, as some have said, what's a fine for shirking media responsibilities after what had just happened amount to? Going out there could really only do more damage. He was clearly still hot about the whole situation at the time, any "apology" issued there would've sounded incredibly insincere and he would've gotten blasted for that.
As far as calling Joe, Joel goes. Juwan didn't type that statement up himself and it was likely just a simple typo by whatever athletic department staffer/intern typed the statement out. A harmless mistake, and I'm sure when Juwan reached out to Krabbenhoft directly, and I believe Juwan is the kind of person to believe that he did so, he probably called him Joe. Plus if Juwan had lied about reaching out to him directly we ABSOLUTELY would've heard about it already.
February 24th, 2022 at 12:36 PM ^
Yes, I agree he was still hot about it in the presser. Quinn wrote an article in the athletic mentioning the gravity of the situation hitting everybody once they finally got on the team plane.
While I'm sure the Joe / Joel error was an honest mistake, it is a bit of an embarrassing error. If I'm on the UW side, it does come across as a little disingenuous to get the name wrong. True - I have no idea what Juwan has done behind the scenes.
While both the presser and statement can be explained away, the combination of the two didn't scream accountability. I love Juwan and really hope / believe he will succeed here. I was just a little surprised there wasn't more ownership of being the primary cause of a terrible situation.
February 24th, 2022 at 1:28 PM ^
I couldn’t care less if they interpreted it as disingenuous. Howard fucked up, no doubt, but so did they. Wisky has gladly played Davison - a total POS who tries to injure kids for years, and had two coaches push/grab/tackle UM players. Those assholes are pathologically incapable of admitting fault and can go fuck themselves.
February 24th, 2022 at 11:39 AM ^
So you were of the "Fire Him" tribe? If not, what would be accountability? Five game suspension is pretty significant, especially at this point in the year. $40,000 isn't zero. And it is 4 times anyone at Wisconsin is paying. He apologized. National media is taking shots whenever they can. The little guy down the road is too. There is an obvious cost to that for him, personally and professionally. How much? Not sure but something.
What more are you looking for?
February 24th, 2022 at 1:21 PM ^
I did not want him to be fired or think he should have been. I thought the suspension and fine were more than I expected -- I thought it would be 3-4 games. As I mentioned, I have been impressed with Warde's handling of the situation.
But Juwan was the central figure in a pretty bad situation and seemed to double down on it immediately after. Then, the follow up statement had a pretty bad error. I don't think either of those things are huge deals.
But given those + the facts of the whole situation, I think it's a little ridiculous to act like we're on the moral high ground here.
"The brawl: punishment for Juwan was appropriate, lack of accountability from Wisconsin was terrible."
"That Wisconsin somehow managed to come out of all this looking worse than the school whose head coach threw the first punch is an incredible achievement, but doesn't improve the look for Michigan any."
February 24th, 2022 at 11:49 AM ^
My opinion of Juwan's actions differ slightly from yours. I don't feel he owes any apology to Krabbenhoft whatsoever. He should apologize for escalating things with Gard, and he should say that throwing punches (or slaps) is never the path to go down. But Krabbenhoft earned his bitch-slap and does not deserve an apology for it.
Nor should Michigan apologize for taking offense at the dirty play Wisconsin uses (hello, Davidson) or the escalation that UW coaches, staff, and players were involved in. That is just like apologizing for stabbing a stake in a field on your own sideline...
February 24th, 2022 at 1:37 PM ^
That's totally fair, and I agree with most of that.
Honestly, if Juwan would have shown some remorse in the post-game presser and said something like "I was wrong to take a swing. I did it because I was defending my players who an opposing coach put his hands on," I wouldn't have had any issue with that.
Given the propensity of this site to criticize UW's response, I was curious to see if people felt like Michigan's response - specifically Juwan's - has been sufficient.
February 24th, 2022 at 3:13 PM ^
I thought I was sufficiently critical of Juwan in the big post I did on it, including his Unapologetic performance in the presser afterwards. I purposely made that the end of a section so it would stick in people's minds.
In this podcast I said Juwan was the worst actor, so Michigan fans are not in a great position to keep hammering it, but Wisconsin's complete lack of accountability should have the Big Ten wondering about institutional issues over there. They have been antagonistic to the idea that they had any role. They didn't do anything about the assistants who made the situation worse and put their hands on Michigan players. The fact that they gave Williams a suspension but not the guys who were manhandling him when he was telling them to stop and c'mon, and nothing happened to the guy who tackled him is just not right.
February 24th, 2022 at 5:12 PM ^
Got it - look forward to listening to the podcast. I am getting negged, so I assume I'm in the minority. But I don't think it's crazy to be left wanting a little more from Juwan's post-incident response.
Seems like the Big Ten basically said: everything that happened ultimately Juwan's fault. And if you threw a punch, you get a one game suspension.
I disagree w/ that - the assistant who tackled T-Will and Krabbenhoft deserved some punishment.
February 24th, 2022 at 11:02 AM ^
What's a Wisconsin? Just another random BIG school that nobody knows about outside the Midwest. We're Michigan. Onward.
February 24th, 2022 at 11:12 AM ^
Yes, Ronnie Bell is our best blocker.
Edit: Unsuccessfully trying to insert pic of Bell blocking Harbaugh for Gatorade shower.
February 24th, 2022 at 11:36 AM ^
I am 100% with Craig re: Juwan and Wisconsin. Michigan should have fined Juwan an extra $25,000 for smacking Krabbenhoft and another $10,000 for not breaking his nose.
February 24th, 2022 at 12:20 PM ^
To repeat what I contributed on "How About Now?," I believe the inconsistency is better understood as part of a learning process.
Contrary to what movies show, learning isn't linear, culminating in a dramatic Aha! moment. Nor is simply the difference between veterans who know things and rookies who don't.
Instead it's a complex mix with many hiccups, false starts, backsliding, mistakes.
At the time, it's frustrating. That's especially true with this team because it combines TONS of talent (flashes of brilliance) and TONS of rookie (bonehead mistakes).
February 24th, 2022 at 12:47 PM ^
The CB situation is interesting. I get that you can never have enough and that relying on true freshmen at that spot is dangerous. But if the coaches are concerned enough about the depth chart and talent go fish in the portal and consider moving Sanristil....why would Gray leave to be an UDFA in the NFL? It felt like he left because he saw the writing on the wall, yet the coaches are currently trying to find more playable bodies. Odd.
I still think the Sanristil thing is more of a spring football move to help stabilize the position, have enough bodies, give him a chance for some reps, bring the freshmen along slowly. I don't know that it is permanent and I expect the freshmen to step up.
February 24th, 2022 at 6:28 PM ^
The only person who can say what motivated Gray to move on is him. He was unlikely to improve his stock and had his degree. It could be as simple as he was ready to move on.
It could also be that Gray was going to be passed and didn't want to be a depth player. That does not mean we don't need depth players. We are currently hoping McBurrows, Green, or freshman can step up and that it is without our stellar pass rush.
February 24th, 2022 at 6:28 PM ^
Double
February 25th, 2022 at 11:11 AM ^
I love Craig, but can someone tell him to mute his mic while he's not speaking?
February 28th, 2022 at 4:01 PM ^
You just did. Will try to do better.
CR
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