Basketball Banquet

Submitted by PeteM on

Thought I'd give a quick update on the basketball banquet.  Jordan Morgan showed a lot of emotion during his senior speech (pulling out his own tissue when someone tried to bring him some), and seemed genuinely grateful to his coaches and teammates for helping him to get to where he ended up.  Beilein talked about how Morgan could have become discouraged or just quit last year when McGary emerged, but instead kept working. 

Here are the awards I recall (funny and serious intermixed);

MVP, Most assists and likely to be the first to get married: Stauskas

Most improved: Levert (interestingly Donnal was 3rd)

Best Dressed: Robinson

Most likely to succeed in something other than basketball: Morgan

Best defender and Rebounder: Morgan

Iron Man: Robinson

There were some others that mostly went where you'd expect.  Though the night pretty much was a standard awards banquet with videos, awards, speeches etc. there were a couple of funny moments.  Beilein said that he asked players to anonymously vote for the year's biggest moment, with most picking beating Indiana at home and cutting down the nets.  2 guys voted for "going to Puerto Rico", which made Beilein wonder what happened there.  Beilein also said, when thanking the student managers, that they "have to party on behalf of the entire team" since the players can't.

Another quick observation is that these guys seem like a really tight knit group.  I was sitting near some parents and noticed players coming up and hugging not just their own parents but their teammates' families as well. 

jdon

April 16th, 2014 at 10:46 PM ^

that is cool.

I like how our basketball team has become a family once more... an albeit fucked up family with some angry uncles (fab five) but definitely a family.

jdon

 

jdon

April 16th, 2014 at 11:18 PM ^

should I be honored that someone downvotes every post I make no matter the content?

Or should I just create a new account that doesn't have such a bad rep?

I am honestly wondering (and expecting to be downvoted for talking about negvotes, heck I will even negvote my self.)...

love,

jdon

 

BlueCube

April 16th, 2014 at 10:55 PM ^

Sam Webb mentioned the other day that he was told that Donnal was dominating at times in practice which considering the talent on this team, is saying a lot.

I can't wait to see him this fall.

turd ferguson

April 17th, 2014 at 12:47 AM ^

If Donnal was really dominating, I wonder if there was any talk of pulling his redshirt. If he's that good, he probably won't be here for five years anyway, and he might have been useful for the stretch run.

Regardless, that's great news for the future.

umumum

April 17th, 2014 at 9:41 AM ^

if Donnal was just ready---let alone dominating in any fashion in practice--I can't imagine he wouldn't have been playing.  We certainly needed another body (defensively) at the 4, and we gave up Levert's redshirt under less exigent circumstances.

I am hopeful because everyone else is hopeful--even though virtually no one has seen Donnal play in a meaningful situation.  But I'll be happy if he just contributes at the 4---and I'll do some praying that he is an untapped stud who can play the 5, if Mitch doesn't return.

Fab and Fresh

April 16th, 2014 at 11:42 PM ^

Couple questions:



Was Horford in attendance? Not sure what the protocol for this type of stuff is. I would think with all the fan interaction, things could get weird, if not downright abrasive. On the other hand, he was a part of the team and should be a part of the celebration. I'd imagine that the rules go out the window when it comes to Horford, so I'm curious how that went down. Was Smot at the banquet the year he transferred?



Also, how do you go about getting tickets to the banquet these days? Who do you contact? I went to the banquet the year we lost to Duke in the 2nd/3rd Round and I found out about it via Twitter. I haven't seen anything like that since. Even a google search only pulls up info on tickets to the 2004 banquet.

PeteM

April 17th, 2014 at 6:02 AM ^

Yes, Horford was there and spoke. He got a nice round of applause. I didn't find his speech particularly memorable (mostly just thanking everyone) but he did end it with a peace sign which seems Horfordesque to me.



In terms of tickets you get them now on mgoblue.com.

funandgun

April 16th, 2014 at 11:57 PM ^

I wondered about Horford as well.  I hate to see him go, but appreciate the time he played at Michigan. 



I argued with people 2 years ago who said Donnal wouldn't make it (not Michigan fans...local people).  I am more convinced he is going to be very, very good.  It  may be right away or it may be a year or two away from big time production, but I still believe he will be very, very good before his career is over.  I would not be surprised if he is a 10-12 point a game guy next season.  Time will tell, but I am excited for his future.