DakotaBlue

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Date	Title	Body
4 weeks 4 days ago	He got back	in the stolen SUV and drove through the police lines.
6 weeks 20 hours ago	I wouldn't go THAT far	"The refs were busily working hard to help Syracuse the last three minutes of that game." Fans of the losing team will alway gripe about the calls, sometimes even with justification.   Perhaps fans of the winning team can just be happy they won, particularly when the close call went their way at the end. For example, the 4th foul on MCW, with 1:40 to go, was a bad call, plain and simple.  That gave the ball back to Michigan, nursing a 4-point lead at the time.  It also made MCW vulnerable, and he had his 5th foul 20 seconds later.  When Triche went out too, Syracuse was down to an inexperienced (redshirt) freshman handling the ball on the last possession.   Overall, foul calls were 19 on Syracuse and 11 on Michigan.  It seems the refs generally let them play, and what they did call does not seem heavily biased against Michigan. Enjoy the victory and hope for another one tonight!
6 weeks 2 days ago	X's and O's	I'm not an X's and O's guy, but each half seemed like a different game.  In the first, Michigan's offense looked great.  In the second, it was more of a fight.  Perhaps Beilein had a strategy to attack the zone and Boeheim made adjustments at half.  Anyway, Michigan got only 25 points in the second half, compared to 31 for Syracuse.   Only three teams all year held Michigan to 61 points or lower in regulation: MSU, OSU, and Wisconsin.  Two of those three were losses.  The other was a 1 point win.  SUs zone is tough. Great win Wolverines!
6 weeks 2 days ago	I didn't enjoy his pain	Felt bad for the guy -- he could hardly watch the end. Sure, his 5th foul was a good call (1:14 left) , but the 4th one was iffy at best.  At that point, they had the ball down four with 1:40 left.  It was a pretty crucial turnover.
6 weeks 2 days ago	Pretty tame stuff	I'm thinking about what these boards would look like if the game went the other way, and I can  imagine a lot worse!
6 weeks 2 days ago	Stauskas	Well, one thing they talked about was that Stauskas would have to deal with a mismatch. Some people on here kind of scoffed at that, but clearly they had a point. He was a non-factor and saw few minutes. What had to kill them, though, were the three point daggers from Spike and another 30 footer from Trey. No defense can stop that. And their shooters were not on. Southerland had some open looks but only 1 fell in if I recall.
6 weeks 2 days ago	Syracuse's run started . . .	in the Big East tournament.  They have made it to the Final Four on the back of really great defense, holding opponents to a record-low point total.  Of course there will be hype.   If the media weren't hyping the zone, it would be something else. I don't think many Syracuse fans expected to get to the Final Four this year.  Last year, sure.  In February this year, no way.  They were beatable during the season.  So was Michigan, with 7 losses, including one to Penn State.  They are still both beatable now.  They have both been playing a lot better in the tournament than they were in February.   As wonderful as that amazing win against Kansas was, we are able to root for the Wolverines today because Kansas missed a free throw and Trey hit a 30-foot three-pointer.  in that same round, Syracuse was using heavily-favored Indiana as a punching bag.  I look forward to seeing whether the hype about the zone is justified, but I won't dismiss it just because SU had 9 losses (all of which were to NCAA tournament teams, btw).
6 weeks 2 days ago	I've been following SU all season	I've been following SU all season, and I am having a hard time figuring out which team will show up tonight. The one that gave Louisville it's only home loss?  The one that had Lousiville down by 16 in the Big East tourney with 16 minutes to go, or the one that gave up that 16 point lead and eventually lost by 17.  The one that lost to Marquette, Georgetown (2x), and Pitt, or the one that handled Georgetown capably in the Big East tourney and made Marquette and Indiana look silly in the NCAA tourney? Michigan has really been playing well in the tournament, but so has SU.  They have looked fundamentally different from the team they were in late January and early February.  It seems, however, that they could revert back at any moment.   Regardless, we can speculate all we want about whether Michigan can break the zone.  Our opinions don't matter.  We'll find out soon enough!
6 weeks 2 days ago	Yeah, well a	bunch of other teams figured out how to beat Wisconsin, but they still beat Michigan in the Big Ten tourney. Like Wisconsin, Syracuse has a system and they run it well.  That's not to say it can't be beaten, and Michigan definitely has the talent to do it, but predicting which way it will go tonight is not easy. I feel like Michigan's play at the end of the Kansas game and throughout the Florida game has made people forget that this team sometimes struggles.  Crossing my fingers that it doesn't happen tonight.
6 weeks 3 days ago	Overreacting...	Triche is a good, respectful kid.  Went to a local high school.  No reason to put him down. He thinks that they match up well against Michigan, and he's just saying what he thinks. Some reporter is using the quotes to make a catchy story. The truth is that SU does create mismatches in size against most teams.  Michigan is loaded with talent, but SU has a lot of talent too.  I'm really not sure how it all plays out, since it really depends on which shooters get hot and how well Michgan's POY can break down the zone, but it is clearly well within the realm of possibility that SU's defense will make life very difficult for Michigan.
6 weeks 3 days ago	Actually	Actually Carter-Williams said that whether Michigan puts Stauskas on Fair or Triche, they plan to attack him.  Specifically, he said, "I'm not trying to knock Nik or anything, he's a great player and a great shooter, but if we attack him, he's going to have to work." Doesn't seem that inflammatory or unreasonable at all.  If you had to pick spots on Michigan's D to attack, where would you go?  Even just reading this board over the course of the season, I've heard enough complaints about particular players' defensive skills to know where those spots are.  Syracuse's offense is not great, but defense is not Michigan's strong suit. I hope Stauskas gets hot just like he did vs. Florida, but Syracuse seems inclined to stop that from happening.  We've all seen games where Stauskas just doesn't have it.
6 weeks 3 days ago	On the one hand . . .	On the one hand, of course media hype is stupid.  It usually is. On the other hand, Michigan struggled during the same part of the season that Syracuse did.  A lot of people are running the Orange down based on their 30-9 record, as if Michigan's 30-7 record is vastly better.  And, yes, while the Big Ten was strong this year, the Big East has plenty of talent and two of the Final Four teams.  During part of its rough stretch, the Orange were down senior James Southerland due to academic elgibility issues and then Freshman DeJuan Coleman was out for knee surgery.  They are both back, though Coleman is not seeing much playing time.  Before the rough stretch, SU gave Louisville its only home loss of the season. Working at SU, I've followed the team pretty closely.  It's a bit of a mystery to me exactly what changed once the Big East tournament started, but they started playing really well.  I don't understand how they could lose to Georgetown by 11 at home, by 22 away, and then beat them in the tourney just six days after the 22 point loss.  But it was not just that game, something was different.  They lost to Marquette during the season but beat them handily in the NCAA tourney.  Indiana was not close. People have made a lot about how Louisville's offense exploded on the Orange in the last 16 minutes of the Big East champsionship game, and that was amazing, but SU was ahead by 16 points before that started.  They were playing quite well.  The jekyll and hyde nature of the team is a bit strange. I think Michigan is fully capable of shredding the zone.  If Stauskas shoots like he did against Florida, things will be good.  If Hardway gets hot, same deal.  Those things do not happen consistently, however.  In short, I find the outcome hard to predict, but I'm generally expecting Michigan to struggle but pull it out.
6 weeks 3 days ago	I'd like to hear the actual interview	Triche is not a smack-talker, so I'd like to see what he said in context instead of Meinke's tweets.
6 weeks 4 days ago	Agreed	It would be great if the hot shooting continued in the same way it was going in the Kansas game, but there's obviously no guarantee.  Syracuse also has some shooters that have been streaky.  Southerland went 9 for 13 from three point land against Arkansas, for example.  Triche had a pretty significant shooting slump in February, but he's also capable of getting hot.
6 weeks 5 days ago	Agreed ... SU is on a different level now	Many of the commenters on this board seem skeptical that Syracuse is for real.  If Syracuse plays like they did in February then, yeah, the game might not be close.  You are absolutely right, though, that SU's play since the start of the Big East tourney has been entirely different.  Impressive wins against several good teams, many of them the same teams that had beaten them badly just weeks before.   They have good play at PG, senior leadership, a tough defense.  I expect a close game.  Syracuse will probably not put up big numbers on office, but they generally don't need to.  The win vs. Marquette said a lot.  Marquette has been a tough opponent for SU, both in Big East play and in the NCAA tourney a couple years back.  They know the zone and have had success against it.  Yet, they were completely shut down.  Syracuse is simply playing better than before (and before includes a win at Louisville).
6 weeks 5 days ago	Recent 'Cuse play is different	Syracuse has not just had a good NCAA run.  The run actually started at the beginning of the Big East tournament, which it just seemed like they hit an entirely different gear.  Teams that beat them in Big East play, like Pitt and G'Town, were dispatched easily.  They had Louisville by 16 points before they completely fell apart in the Big East champtionship game.   Also, Syracuse beat Louisville at Louisville's home court this year.     In short, I would not take their rough patch in February as being the essence of this team any more than losing to Penn State is the essence of Michigan.
7 weeks 19 hours ago	And Indiana put up 50	And Indiana put up 50.
7 weeks 20 hours ago	Selection bias?	I wouldn't make too much of this one-sided highlight reel.  SU, after all, did build up a 16 point lead with 16 minutes left in that game.  Louisville had only 29 points after the first 24 minutes of play. What followed was an amazing collapse in which SU ended up losing by 17.  Outside of those awful 16 minutes in the Big East championship game, SU has been playing at a very high level the past three weeks. Moreover, this was Louisville's third game of the season against SU, and they play SU at least twice a season.  Like the other Big East teams, they have a lot more experience against this D.  It's not as easy to break down this D as the highlight reel makes it seem.  That said.  Go Blue.
7 weeks 20 hours ago	Allegiances to both schools . . .	Graduate degrees from the University of Michigan.  Prof. at SU. If you had told me before the tourney began that one of these two teams would make it to the championship game, I would have been thrilled, and I am.  I've decided that I'll just take whatever comes.  The disappointment of one losing can be counterbalanced by the other winning. SU looks like different team than it did late in the regular season. Except for 16 awful minutes against Louisville, in which a 15 point lead became a 17 point deficit, they have been playing at an entirely different level in the Big East and NCAA tourneys. Boeheim says this is one of his best defenses ever, and that is food for thought.  It's not just a zone D, it's their personnel and that they play this D almost exclusively.  On the other hand, I don't think Beilein (unlike Crean) is going to show up unprepared for it.  It should be a great match. Go Blue.  Go Orange.  (sorry, if it were football I'd be Blue all the way)
8 weeks 4 days ago	Sorry Jackrabbits	Sorry Jackrabbits, but today I root for my alma mater and not my home state's university. Any other day, though. Go Blue! signed: DakotaBlue
15 weeks 1 day ago	Time	The non-call did cost SF enough time for one play post-punt.
15 weeks 2 days ago	That's	apples and burnt oranges.
15 weeks 2 days ago	Well	In general, I might agree with you, but this is a private matter. Corporal punishment would seem to be extreme in this case.
16 weeks 10 hours ago	Here's a story for you	http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/14/thomas.football.brain/index.html Besides, the effects of brain injury may not be seen until years later.  It's not just NFL guys like Leroy Hoard who suffer later in life.  For guys who never go pro, there is indeed "nothing to fall back on." The NCAA doesn't provide health benefits for former players who suffer from the after-effects of football, like getting dementia in their 50s.
27 weeks 17 hours ago	Was I just wearing	maize-colored glasses or were Northwestern's recievers holding nearly every time the play involved a run to the perimeter? Hoke and the players keep saying they need to "do a better job shedding blocks," but I thought I saw defenders being prevented from moving sideways because the blocker had them by the numbers.
1 year 30 weeks ago	Read Uncle Tom's Cabin earlier this year . . .	and the irony is that Tom is a non-violent man, refuses to follow the master's orders to beat others, and gets beat to death himself (without resisting) for his disobedience.
1 year 46 weeks ago	Actually, the quality . . .	pretty good.  I tried it last night and am impressed by the results.    Moreover, frustrated with how much cable costs compared to how little I watch it, I cut the cord earlier this year.  Apple TV fills the gap, bringing movies and shows through iTunes and Netflix.  Now, I am completely thrilled to that I'll be able to get the football games too.   And, cutting the cord paid for the Apple TV in less than two months.
2 years 14 weeks ago	Well . . .	Given the way that Brandon handled the situation, I think it would have been fair for RichRod to take far stronger shots than he did.  He endured a month of non-stop media speculation about his being fired, a premature announcement that he had been fired (likely the result of leaks from anti-RR factions within the AD), and then the actual firing.  On top of that, there's the idiotic drumbeat that he didn't understand our traditions.   Can imagine the toll that this would take on you and your family?  And after all that, he makes a mild dig at Bradon being a corporate CEO who may not understand the challenges he's faced as coach.  He remained nothing but professional throughout all this. He's gone now, why can't the haters just let him go without piling on?
2 years 17 weeks ago	You just made Brian's point	I agree with you that the issue was coaching, but that's the point of the discussion.  Coaches rarely deviate far from their base offense.  Will Borges truly adjust to take advantage of Denard's unique talents? It's an open question.   Clearly, aggressive play calling does not require a spread offense, but bringing in Rodriguez was clearly intended to bring a major shift away from the moribund, conservative offense that had been the norm.  I think it was working, but it was not all the way there yet.  We lacked a Steve Slaton to go with the Pat White, Denard needed a bit more accuracy in passing to avoid those interceptions that cost TDs, and there were still too many key fumbles.  What the offense would have looked like under a junior and senior Denard is something I would love to have seen.
2 years 17 weeks ago	Beg to differ	It may be the exception that proves the rule.  Brian's point is that, generally, coaches do not move that far from longstanding philosophy.  No matter how many times Carr might have heard complaints about boring play calling, the only time we see the offense really opened up is for a bowl game, when there were several weeks to prepare a specific game plan designed to utilize the team's talents against a opponent's weaknesses. It was not Carr or DeBoard's bread-and-butter offense to be sure.  If they came back the next year, would they have adopted this style wholesale?  You know the answer. Anyway, we can debate this all we want in the hypothetical.  We'll see what actually happens in the fall.  I would be happy if Brian were wrong.

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