Member for

15 years 7 months
Points
1198.00

Recent Comments

Date Title Body
Grievance: commercial breaks…

Grievance: commercial breaks. 

If true, this is muppet…

If true, this is muppet-worthy. 

Nice

Loved it.



I liked the music too.

Or if you're not into the whole brevity thing

"Mark Dantonio has a dark mantonio."

Sign idea

"Dark Mantonio"



Check out the definition at http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dark+mantonio



I was being ironical.

I was being ironical.

Sarcasm

Actually I think it was sarcasm, not irony.  /s

Don't you get it?

It's 11111



That is binary for, like, "sometime soon."

Dear Utes

Please feed these delicious cupcakes to your offense right before the Michigan game.  They are the most potent, er, I mean... most delicious flavors from our favorite bakery in Denver, the Kind Nugs Cafe.

Sincerely,

Hill Wagerup

PITCH IT TO BREASTON!!!

PITCH IT TO BREASTON!!!

http://annarborchronicle.com/

http://annarborchronicle.com/2014/05/17/column-soups-still-on-at-le-dog/

Hookers

Yes he is a major perv.



Word on the street is that he killed 5 hookers in Gainesville.

Irregardless is an actual word.

It means . . . wait for it . . . regardless.

"Irregardless" is not a made-up word, but it is a waste of letters, much like this entire discussion we're having.

Advertising and other stuff
  1. Advertising in the stadium.  Don't desecrate sacred ground.  I realize there was some minimal advertising before Brandon's arrival, but we need to roll it back to acceptable levels.
  2. Advertisements (such as Arby's) on the scoreboard at Crisler.  So annoying to see Arby's in your face every time you want to check on the score.
  3. Douchebag personality
You're going to have to wait

IF YOU ARE EXPECTING THE KNOWLEDGE TO APPEAR, YOUNG DISCIPLE, THEN YOU MUST WAIT

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YES

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FOR THE KNOWLEDGE MUST WAIT UNTIL THE SEASON IS OVER

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YES

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YES

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AT THAT TIME, HE SHALL WRITE HIS REVIEW OF THE SEASON THAT WILL HAVE OCCURRED

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YES

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YES

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AND THEN HE WILL NAVIGATE THROUGH THE DIMENSIONS OF SPACE AND TIME, ARRIVING AT PRESENT DAY

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AT WHICH TIME HE SHALL POST HIS SEASON REVIEW ON WWW.MGOBLOG.COM, A RITUAL HE HAS PERFORMED SINCE ANCIENT TIMES

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YES

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AND WE SHALL SOAR..........................

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YES............................  YES

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I want the real stuff

I want the real "THE KNOWLEDGE"
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YES
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THE ONE WITHOUT THE _ UNDERSCORE
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YES
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THE ORIGINAL.
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YES
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YES
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THE ORACLE OF MGOBLOG

Good Stock

Joey comes from a great family, and take it from someone who knows him well: his dad Rich is a good dude.

Many congratulations to Joey on joining the university and its football team.

Main Point

My main point was not to disagree with the shutout prediction.  You seem to agree that a shutout is unlikely, and as a self-professed "quant" I think Brian would readily admit the statistical unlikelihood (is that a word?) of a shutout.  It's a given that a shutout is a bad prediction.

My main point is that the analysis is lacking.  When everything is sarcastic, including the score prediction, then I think it undermines the blog.  I continually come here for the in-depth analysis, especially the wonderful "Preview" posts, but it seems this one was overwhelmed by negative sentiment.

Sarcasm

Probably the most sarcastic post I've seen from Brian. I understand the frustration and feelings of helplessness, but I think it's possible to present these views without such intense sarcasm.



Predicting that Michigan will get shut out is probably not realistic. I fear the negative emotions have clouded his judgment.

Skipped Saturday's game

Skipped Saturday's game

To hang with wife and offspring

Damn good decision

Spark it up again

Is it time to resurrect this post?  Consider how prescient some of these folks were:

 

"Everyone is angry now, but just wait until next year when Borges finally gets to unleash all the Rawls halfback dives he wants behind an all sophmore o line." 

 

That was a year ago.

Petition

The sentiment has been around for at least a year:

http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/petition-fire-al-borges

 

 

Loafers

Before they zoom in for the opening shot, check out Hoke's shoes.  He rocks black leather loafers with no socks.  I think there are some tassels on there too.  

It's enough to blow your mind.

No thank you

I admit that points have some practical advantages.

However, a point system leads to groupthink.  It drowns out the minority viewpoints.  Sometimes those minority viewpoints are from trolls, but sometimes they are legitimate positions that should be recognized and addressed.  Having a real dialogue between people with different views usually leads to a better understanding of things by both parties.

Mgoblog began as a countercultural phenomenon, a bulwark against a homogenous mainstream media.  For Mgoblog to suppress a counterculture that grows within the blog itself would be shortsighted, hypocritical and sad.

 

Also

Also, the "muthafuckin" part of the phrase must be spoken at an extremeley high pitch.  Any other usage amounts to blasphemy.

Half you

Technically speaking, I think you would still be half of yourself at that point.



Point taken, though.

Nothing like

Nothing like the smell of spam in the morning.

Ah yes

That would make sense and would be in line with earlier reports of negotiations to get BTN on "basic cable plus," or whatever you call the tier just above basic cable, in the NYC area.  And it would be a timely announcement since football season (and therefore football TV viewing) is about to begin.  

Nice one.  

Not nearly conspiratorial enough though.

Data Set

I am also bullish on Gardner this season.  I am also a big fan of your body of work, Mathlete.  However, I do have some questions about the selection of data used for this analysis.

It's obvious why you chose a 5-game streak as the cutoff point for deciding which quarterbacks to compare Gardner with -- that's the length of Gardner's streak.  However, you are lumping the good (those with 5 game streaks like Gardner) with the great (those with presumably longer streaks).  The same is true for the +14 PAN cutoff.  Once again, Gardner barely makes the cut, but he is compared to those who presumably have much higher PANs over their 5-game streaks.  

Perhaps it would be more instructive to look at those quarterbacks who have had streaks of 3 to 7 games, with PANs of +10 to +18.  That way, you could look at who makes the cut and then say "we can expect Gardner to be the average of these people."  

Maybe I'm making this too complicated, but you're a complicated guy, Mathlete, with a nose for precision.  I think you'd be up to the task . . . .

The Reality

The reality is that, if you look at all the companies getting into streaming these days, they are same media giants you've grown to hate.  Time Warner, Comcast, etc...  If you look at who owns the exciting new ventures like syncbak (streaming network TV from your area) and Hulu, you will see that the transmission method is changing from cable to streaming, but that will not affect your TV options from being controlled by a small number of behemoths intent on squeezing every penny from you.  

Streaming TV is cool, but don't be fooled into thinking that you will be free from content hegemony.

Sports

I cut the cord, and have been strategizing on how to get sports.  Here you go:

1.  You can get some sports on major networks.  They don't stream, but you may be able to get streaming network TV from syncbak (there are a couple competitors popping up too) for a minimal fee per month.  New metro areas are being added to their list in the near future, hopefully before football season.

Also, if you have an old-school TV antenna and get a digital tuner, or you are willing to invest in a new digital antenna, you might be able to get good quality network TV.  I bought a digital HDTV antenna for the house, but it didn't work.  So beware.

2.  BTN.  If you have a friend with BTN via a cable subscription, you can use his or her password to get BTN streaming to your tablet or PC.

3.  ESPN.  This is a problem.  I can't find any way to get ESPN streaming without a cable subscription.  Perhaps you can get a password from a friend.

MLB and possibly now NBA offer streaming subscriptions.  NFL does not.  Keep an eye out.... I have a feeling more content will be available for streaming soon.  

 

Sound

You could have a sound clip looping endlessly of helmets cracking: the "sound of football" according to Hoke.

I love that quote from Hoke but yes, I am being facetious.  Sort of.

Butt-picking et cetera
  • He picks his butt before every serve.  Once noticed by the viewer, it becomes extremely unnerving.
  • He walks to the towel-boy and wipes his sweat after almost every point.  This delays the game and is annoying.  His matches take forever.  It's agony to watch.  His opponents don't like it either and have accused him of taking too long between points.
  • He takes an unusual amount of injury timeouts.  Once again, more delay.  Annoying.

From a distance, he does indeed seem like a good person.  He is always very gracious in victory, for instance.  However, the above-mentioned habits mean that, while I don't hate him at all, I do hate to watch him play.  

Family car?

You will have to decide if it's going to be the family car.  If so, you'll need to throw down for a full SUV (3 rows) or minivan if you want to fit 3 kids and a wife inside.

If it's not the family car, then get whatever.  Get another civic.  You can fit 2 car seats in almost anything.

Quality

Nice work.  I would think you would want to control for quality.  If the conventional wisdom is true that conference expansion = more recruiting power in the new conference areas, then you may see the same numbers as before, but you will be getting recruits of higher quality from the new conference territory.

In this specific example, the SEC is getting roughly the same percentage of its recruits from Texas and Missouri as it did before conference expansion.  However, has the quality of those recruits increased?

I imagine this would be a fairly straightforward add-on to the existing work you've done, although it might be time-consuming.

Let me elaborate on that

1 - Trey Burke

2 - Knight

3 - Buy someone for $25 million

4 - Monroe

5 - Drummond

 

I like that.

AAAAAHHHHHH OOOHHHHHHHHH

AAAAAAHHHHH OOOOOOOWWWW

Let's stop complaining about the students

They are often late, but they are loud.

Non-students are often on time, but they are mute.

Both classes of fans have their benefits and drawbacks.

We need the students to spend the first quarter doing shots of shitty vodka at a house party so that they can show up at halftime and yell really loud in the fourth quarter.  We NEED these late, drunk fans just as badly, if not more, than we need the grey-haired punctual grumblers.

Also, if we are going to penalize students for being late, why not penalize the old grumpy people for leaving too early?  How many times have you seen people leaving when Michigan was down a few points at the end of the game but still had an outside chance of coming back?  More often than not, it's not the students leaving, but the pessimistic curmudgeons worrying about getting stuck in a crowded parking area.  So here's my proposal: let's charge people $10 at the exit gate if they want to leave before the clock says 0:00.  All proceeds go to Brandon's Domino's private jet fund.

Great piece of writing

This is the sort of material that makes mgoblog special.

Faker

I didn't know Herm was fake.  I am not up to date on such things.

Third Person

Do you often refer to someone in the third person when you are replying to his comment?  I find it dehumanizing.

From my admittedly narrow perspective, which consists of reading all the comments in this post, Herm appears to know more about soccer than you.

 

Michigan's chances

If I were to extrapolate from your chart, does that mean Michigan has a 2.5% chance of getting to the final four and a 1% chance of winning it all?

There are limits

You want success no matter what you have to sacrifice?  

Would you sell the Big House to Arby's if it would increase our chances of winning a national championship?

Here is a slightly more realistic example: would you cover up sexual abuse if it meant that you could continue winning without any complications?

I think you are misunderstanding my point.  I'm saying that the Michigan Athletic Department should embrace certain ideals.  We should stick to those ideals regardless of whether it costs us a game or a recruit (we did this last year, for instance, when Stonum didn't play).  Of course all Michigan fans want to win, and I want our team to win more than anyone, but not at the expense of our ideals.

You may not give a shit about ads.  That's fine.  Say that.  But personal attacks seem like a bit of an overreaction.

 

 

And I admire

your critical reading ability.  It's nice to know someone read it carefully, because I wrote that sentence carefully.  

I certainly agree we are dealing with matters of degree ... a slippery slope, so to speak, and we are slipping ever so slowly toward running a public university's athletic program like a Fortune 500 company.  From a fan's perspective, it's almost imperceptible.  A couple of ads over the gate entrances at Crisler.  An occasional Arby's ad on the scoreboard.  From the AD's perspective, however, it's a purposeful crawl toward the ultimate objective of maximizing revenue by any means necessary.

What I disagree with is your hunch.  But I suppose we can let bygones be bygones.

It was inarticulate

But I was trying to say that the Athletic Department's current obsession with money may be necessary if we want to have the best facilities and top-ranked teams.  However, as an alum and a fan, I would be willing to suffer through crappier facilities and worse-ranked teams than withstand the unabashed commercialization of Michigan's football and basketball programs.

No problem

Brandon sees collegiate sports as a business like any other business.  

Can't afford tickets?  That's your problem.  Supply and demand baby.

What factors motivate Big Ten expansion?  Money.

Should we play at opponent sites in college settings or at a neutral site?  Wherever gets us the most money.

I disagree with Brandon's approach.  I think the Athletic Department should not be so concerned with money.  I don't want logos on Crisler's floor.  I detest the gradual inclusion of advertising in Crisler and the Big House, done quietly enough that we are lulled into apathy.  And I don't care if all this means that we don't have the money, the facilities, that we can't win the Big Ten, and that we can't send more guys to the NFL and NBA.  

 

This interview confirms it:

Brandon thinks he's still selling pizzas.

He just doesn't get it.

Freshmen

Stauskas and GRIII didn't play like their usual selves.  Had we gotten our usual production out of them, this wouldn't have been close.

But they are freshmen, playing on the road, in one of the toughest places to play.  It's completely understandable that they were off their game.

In March, this experience is going to be useful to both of them.  Sometimes you have to falter first in order to gain your footing.

Deleting the post

I saw the post before.  It was critical of Brian, but in a professional way, not a personal one.  I am surprised that mods would delete it.  

Although I didn't agree with the now-deleted comment, which questioned whether Brian had reliable insider sources, it would be better to have a discussion on the topic and have the comment disproved than to censor it.  Blogs are simply no fun if those who visit are prohibited from sharing a unique viewpoint.

Perhaps the mods or the original commenter could explain what they think happened, and why?

Son of former NBA player Larry Nance?

I think Beilein's formula is fairly straightforward: trace the royal bloodlines.