Member for

14 years 11 months
Points
1084.00

Recent Comments

Date Title Body
As a Rackham alum who was…

As a Rackham alum who was here in the late 80s, I have a couple of specific notes to add to your impressive list.

Burton Tower: I don't doubt that a trip to top would be very interesting and enjoyable, but anyone who was on campus in 1987 might have a less happy association -- the suicide of the UM Regent who jumped from that spot. In fact, I think it happened in late March, when this group plans to visit. I was studying in Rackham when it happened, and I still can't walk by the tower without thinking of that day. 

Clements Library: I spent a couple of years working in the manuscript room at the end of the 80s, and you're right -- there are a lot of interesting things in the collections: the papers of a British general who fought the US during the Revolution (the Gage Papers); lots of soldier correspondence from the Civil War; a lot of rare book editions, etc. If I recall correctly, there is an important letter from Abraham Lincoln that they often bring out for visitors. Also, the map room has a lot of remarkable stuff, such as maps of "the New World" from the 15th and 16th centuries, which often gets overlooked. But, at least in the past, the Clements has very restricted hours, and it's really set up to accomodate researchers more than tourists. When I was there, the staff was kind of inconsistent about responding to visitors who weren't scholars. Sometimes visitors would get a very nice tour; other times they'd basically get the brush off. I know the staff is different now, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the most receptive place to visitors who just want to see interesting stuff.

And I'd add one spot: the Law Library, especially the underground addition. It's a very interesting architectural contrast to go from the neo-Gothic reading room upstairs to the modern underground addition, which has windows slanting below ground to provide natural lighting for all three underground floors.

Tirreno-Adriatico

Tirreno-Adriatico

Worst Boys

Worst Boys

It all depends on his field…

It all depends on his field. Social science? The Economist works. Liberal arts/humanities? New York Review of Books. The New Yorker is for scientists and doctors who want to seem cultured but don't know where to start.

Paying players in revenue…

Paying players in revenue sports is the right thing to do. But too many Power Five schools make bad decisions about how to allocate resources and they demand unnecessary cuts from non-revenue sports. Schools without lucrative programs in football and men’s basketball find a way to fund Olympic sports. If Power Five schools are demanding budget cuts from non-revenue sports, it’s a choice, not a necessity. As SaigonBlue noted, Stanford is a perfect example of how a school realized that cutting non-revenue sports might not be so “necessary” after all.

Well said, SaigonBlue

Well said, SaigonBlue

For what it's worth, here's…

For what it's worth, here's a small anecdote that may confirm Ross Dellinger's observation that Power Five athletic departments are preparing for a "Big Split" that will reshape college athletics across the board and change the way they are financed. I'm trying to anonymize the anecdote because I'm not sure how much of the information is public.

My two sons recently graduated from a Power Five school, where they played an Olympic sport. The sport has a long and celebrated tradition at the school going back to the 19th century, including multiple national championships, a few of them recent. The tradition also includes a unique approach to athlete development. The program invites any and every freshman to try out, regardless of whether they have played the sport before. Typically, about a hundred and fifty freshman try out, and most quit within the first month; a couple of dozen make it through the whole freshman year, and most of those quit before their sophomore year, when they realize that they're unlikely to make varsity. But every year, at least a handful of those freshman go from complete novice to eventual letter-winner; and many of these novice-to-varsity athletes have gone on to help win national championships for the school and Olympic medals for themselves. Many students, alumni, and fans know about and are proud of this aspect of the program, even if they don't follow the sport. This year, the athletic department told the coaching staff that budget cuts were coming and that the staff should consider whether it was wise to continue having open tryouts and carrying so many novice athletes in their freshman year.

When I heard about this development, I couldn't understand why the athletic department wanted to eliminate one of the signature elements of the program, especially when the conference was making so much money from TV rights and when the novice development part of the program has a very low marginal cost because so few of the novice freshman ever get beyond the try out stage. But if, in the near future, the university anticipates paying a share of a big settlement in the NIL cases, and if the revenue-generating sports are going to be severed from the Olympic sports, this kind of budget cutting starts to make sense. 

Even though I'm completely in favor of giving athletes a share of athletic department revenue, I also think it's unfortunate -- and wrong -- that universities are making these kinds of choices.

Mel

Mel

The two Illinois cases you…

The two Illinois cases you cite are employment disputes in which the courts had to determine whether and to what extent an employer's handbook established the terms and conditions of employment. In the employment context, it's common for employers to distribute handbooks to all employees, even though not all employees have the same terms and conditions of employment. For example, handbooks may have rules for hourly employees that don't apply to salaried employees. If there are conflicts between the handbook and the terms of a specific employee's contract, the handbook may not apply.

That's a completely different issue than the issue of whether an organization can enforce its bylaws against its members. It would be very unlikely that the Big Ten did not make compliance with its bylaws a condition of membership in the conference. In that situation, the bylaws are, in effect, part of the contract between the members and the organization.

Parties to litigation…

Parties to litigation routinely issue discovery subpoenas to non-parties. And because both the court and CMU are in Michigan, the attorneys on either side of this case can issue a Washtenaw County Circuit Court subpoena directly to CMU; and CMU is subject to the court's jurisdiction.

I don't think anyone in the UM v B1G case needs or wants to get discovery from CMU, but they could do it via subpoena if they wanted to.

The NCAA doesn't need subpoena power to get information from CMU because CMU is a member of the NCAA and (I expect), as a condition of membership, has agreed to give the NCAA just about any information that the NCAA wants.

Michigan would move for a…

Michigan would move for a temporary restraining order (TRO) and a preliminary injunction. A court can issue a TRO "ex parte," which means "without hearing from both sides." It's common for parties to file a complaint and, simultaneously, move for an immediate TRO, solely on the basis of the allegations in the complaint and any documents or other evidence filed along with the complaint. A court can make a decision on the TRO solely on the basis of the plaintiff's filing, or it can ask for a response from the defendant. When the TRO seeks to stop something that is just about to happen or has just happened, courts usually make the decision ex parte; in less urgent situations, there's a greater chance that the court will want to hear something from both sides. If a TRO is granted, it's usually only effective for a brief time. Ten days is the standard period, but a court could set it for less. Regardless of whether the TRO is granted or denied, the preliminary injunction request is usually heard promptly, with a week or two, and both sides can present briefing and evidence.

Just so. I suspect that much…

Just so. I suspect that much of this letter was pulled directly out of notes, memoranda, and drafts that are being prepared in anticipation of litigation. If there's litigation, the complaint and the brief for the TRO/preliminary injunction are going to look a lot like this letter.

You’re right; it is theater…

You’re right; it is theater. But, at this point, only a few people should be on stage, and others are working behind the scenes. The university president, the A.D., the general counsel, and maybe the lead outside counsel all can make public statements. They can signal their intentions as a way to influence potential opponents, and, the general outlines of their strategy will be obvious, especially in a case like this. But the attorneys who are in the office doing research and drafting over the weekend don’t – or shouldn’t — start making statements to just anyone about the details of their work, not even friends or family. Disclosing even the most mundane details of your client’s potential strategy is still a breach of a client confidence.

You are right that the…

You are right that the element of surprise is not a big deal in this kind of case, but you still don’t want to broadcast your intentions since you are asking the court for relief without a hearing where the other side can be heard.

I am skeptical about the…

I am skeptical about the poster’s “source [who] works at the law firm.” It would be a flagrant breach of the attorney-client and work product privileges for anyone at a law firm to make this kind of disclosure. If attorneys were working over the weekend to draft the complaint, motion, and brief seeking a temporary restraining order, there will only be a small number of them, and they would know not to make these kind of disclosures. In general, when you are seeking a TRO, the element of surprise is valuable. It seems unlikely that attorneys planning this kind of filing would share information about their assignment with other people at the firm, except people who had a need to know, and those people would be few and would  also understand the need for confidentiality. I doubt that anyone (attorney or otherwise) with accurate information about something like this would go to a football game and start blabbing about it. And if Michigan’s law firm really does have people who are this careless, the firm is not serving Michigan very well.

This article makes Stalions…

This article makes Stalions sound a little like Rupert Pupkin in King of Comedy. Like Pupkin, he had a fantasy of fame and achievement, and he was overzealous and little unhinged about trying to realize it. Unlike Pupkin, he was actually competent enough to take a couple of steps towards his goal, and he probably isn't crazy enough to do something like kidnapping Jim Harbaugh and trying to take his place on the sideline.

RIP and condolences to his…

RIP and condolences to his family and friends. I discovered his food just before Tio’s opened. He was serving a taco special at lunchtime in a bar on South U. I think it was Good Time Charley’s or next door to it. His house made extra hot salsa (aka #4) was and is amazing. I would to Tios just for that. 

It's interesting that the…

It's interesting that the photo of his family is behind him, where he can't see it while working at his desk. It doesn't appear that there are any family photos on the desk, facing him.

I think you're right and…

I think you're right and that the NCAA's comment is framed with this provision in mind. The focus of the comment is that the case is "not about a cheeseburger," which seems aimed at refuting earlier public statements by Harbaugh and others. The rest of the NCAA comment is a summary of procedure and general policy, not a statement about details of Harbaugh's case. 

Mongolian BBQ on Main Street…

Mongolian BBQ on Main Street is gone. 

Miss Kim’s in Kerrytown for…

Miss Kim’s in Kerrytown for Korean. I think it's the best Korean in Ann Arbor. Perhaps surprisingly, it has a kids menu which is reasonably priced and has genuinely kid-friendly items that are still identifiably Korean -- unlike many other ethnic restaurants whose kids menu is just spaghetti, chicken fingers, and burgers, regardless of what the rest of the cuisine is like. Not a bad way to introduce kids to Korean food.

If you feel like going to Ypsi, there’s Thompson & Co. for Southern oriented pub food and the Wurst Bar for house made sausages. If you’re looking for a place just for drinks, try Wax Bar, also in Ypsi, for used records and surprisingly subtle Polynesian style cocktails. Thompson & Co. is more kid-friendly, Wurst Bar is probably borderline for kids, and obviously, it's probably asking too much of a kid to sit through a visit to a cocktail bar/used record store.

Supporting riders make the…

Supporting riders make the race easier for the team leader. The amount of power required to move a bicycle increases geometrically with wind resistance. Consequently, a cyclist expends much less effort when they can draft on other riders. When a team has riders who excel as sprinters, climbers, and all-around riders, that team can be sure to always have someone near the front of the race on whom the team leader can draft. That assures that the team leader is always in position to respond to attacks from other riders.

In addition, strong teammates can be helpful in both executing their own tactics or in controlling or defusing another team's tactics. For example, if Pogacar thinks that he can benefit from a fast pace in a particular stage, his team can send one or two riders out on an early, aggressive breakaway. The riders in the breakaway may or may not expect to win the stage, but their maneuver can make the whole peloton race faster than it otherwise might, setting the pace to Pogacar's liking. If Vingegaard's team wants to neutralize that tactic, it can send a rider or two along on that breakaway, for the purpose of drafting on the other riders in the break. That means that Pogacar's teammates have to tow Vingegaard's teammate, which makes their race harder and probably slows them down.

Seconded. Especially because…

Seconded. Especially because of the way that the Tour is broadcast this year. NBC has decided to put the live broadcast of the remaining stages behind the Peacock paywall. The daily stages are rebroadcast on USA at 2 am. So many cycling fans (who, like me, aren't willing to give Comcast any more money) will be watching each stage on DVR a day late.

 

I knew someone who was a…

I knew someone who was a server there in the mid-80s. Bill Frieder was there all the time. Once, he brought a recruit there and my friend waited on them. When Frieder ordered the recruit a beer, she carded him and almost lost her job.

I think the hiatus changed…

I think the hiatus changed it for the worse. From the time I came to Ann Arbor in 1984 until the original location closed, there was always at least one person on the staff who had worked with someone who had worked with the founder. But when it came back on Ashley, none of the old staff were there. Something was lost. My favorite staff member was Devi; she was always so nice to my kids.

As a certified old fogey who…

As a certified old fogey who rues the Birminghamization of Ann Arbor, I have a long list:

Joe's Star Lounge

PJ's Used Records -- Jeff and Marc Taras ran a wonderful business and a great place to hang out

Schoolkids

Mr. Rib -- especially Soul on a Roll (under $5!); RIP Jesse Campbell

Liberty Inn -- Ann Arbor is not the same without a true dive bar

Taste of Italy -- good food made by nicer people; a very sad ending

Steve's Lunch -- the original, with both standard lunch counter food along with Korean

The Burro -- surprisingly well-made Mexican with high-quality ingredients

La Piñata

Cycle Cellar -- on North Main

 

This tracks with what I’ve…

This tracks with what I’ve heard from a former employee — who quit because UWM reneged on a promised bonus. 

Along these lines, I have always thought it was odd that UWM is the Pistons’ jersey sponsor and that it advertises on television. The company does not sell any retail product or service. It’s a mortgage wholesaler that plays an intermediary role in the assembly of mortgages for mortgage-backed securities. The only reason they would advertise is because they always need new employees. What kind of company needs to do that advertising to maintain a moderate size workforce? One that abuses its employees.

One of Princeton’s assistant…

One of Princeton’s assistant coaches, Lawrence Rowley, is a 2017 Ann Arbor Huron grad (and one of my son’s teammates). Rowley played for Emory after Huron.

(No subject)

I wonder if this is a leak…

I wonder if this is a leak from Warren or his agent, designed to extract a favorable contract re-negotiation from the B1G. The report describes him as a finalist, not as the leading candidate ("a top candidate" and "among the final candidates"), and it notes that the final decision is weeks away. There's no reason for the Bears to leak this if they are still weeks away from a decision. But there is a reason for Warren to leak it on his own behalf. 

Not always quick; it depends…

Not always quick; it depends on whether they remove the torn piece or repair it. For small tears, removal can be a good treatment, and recovery from that is very quick. If the treatment is to repair the tear by sewing it closed, the recovery period can be much longer, usually at least three months. 

I'm not a former football…

I'm not a former football player, but I've torn my ACL and learned something about knee injuries as a result. From what I saw in a couple of replays of Corum's injury, I don't think he was injured by a helmet to the knee. 

From what I saw on video, I'm not sure that the second tackler's helmet actually hit Corum's knee. The impact to the knee seems to come from the second tackler's body, after his helmet passed by Corum's knee. On that play, there were two instances where Corum's left knee was subject to some torsion; and torsion in the knee joint is a very common cause of ACL and meniscus injuries.

The first instance happened when he was trying to step out of the first tackler's attempt to grab his ankle. At that point, he saw the second tackler coming for his knee, and started to turn to avoid the contact. His knee could have been subject to some dangerous torque at that point. It's hard to tell from the video, though. The second happened when the second tackler made contact with his leg while it was planted. I definitely saw some torsion there, when his upper body and thigh started to rotate while his foot was planted and his lower leg couldn't move in tandem with his thigh. After the second instance, he immediately grabbed his knee, reaching to cover his patella. 

When I tore my ACL, my upper body and thigh were rotating one way while my foot was planted and stuck in place. I heard a pop and immediately grabbed my knee at the patella. When I saw Corum's reaction in real time, I thought he'd torn his ACL.

But I think it's unlikely that Corum tore his ACL, at least not a complete tear. If he had, the injury would have almost certainly been apparent when trainers did the Lachman test, which they did while he was on the field. (That's the test where a doctor manipulates the joint to see if there is instability). They would not have let him go back in the game if the Lachman test suggested a torn ACL or serious meniscus damage. But he could have had a partial tear of the ACL or some kind of small meniscus tear, and those things might not have been detectable through the Lachman test or even an MRI. Maybe that's why Harbaugh said his knee was structurally sound. That may have been the apparent conclusion in the immediate aftermath of the injury.

MRIs are not perfect at showing everything that's going on inside a knee. Doctors may not have been able to be sure that Corum needed surgery until he had other symptoms or until symptoms like swelling persisted longer than expected. They might have done additional imaging or used other methods to figure out that surgery was warranted.

The demise of Mr. Rib,…

The demise of Mr. Rib, especially the loss of the Soul on a Roll, is an injury from which Ann Arbor has yet to recover.

You forgot:

Drakes on North…

You forgot:

Drakes on North U for hot chocolate

Mr. Rib or DeLong's near Kerrytown for BBQ

The Spaghetti Bender on Huron for Italian

Steve's Lunch on South U for Korean 

 

For all of its ACRA success,…

For all of its ACRA success, Michigan is just not on the same level as IRA programs. Even when Michigan raced at the IRA championships, they were, at best, in the back half of the petite final, usually 11th or 12th overall. In the last few years, Michigan and Wisconsin have raced in Indianapolis in the fall, right after Head of the Charles. Michigan sends its first varsity boat; Wisconsin sends its best sophomores, most of whom will never make its 1V. Wisconsin wins. In 2018 or 2019, Michigan’s boat had won the collegiate division at Head of the Charles (the IRA programs race in the championship division), but Wisconsin’s sophomores still beat them. And Wisconsin’s 1V has been a middle-of-the-pack boat for ten years or so, usually finishing 11th or 12th at IRAs.

I agree that scholarships…

I agree that scholarships aren’t the issue. Few scools in the IRA offer scholarships. Washington and Cal offer some. I know that BU offers a few partials. I don’t know about Syracuse. Wisconsin doesn’t offer any. The Ivies don’t have scholarships but find a way to get attractive aid packages to athletes.

For Michigan, I think a boat house and the right kind of water for training would be a big obstacle to having a men’s IRA program. Now, the men’s club program trains at Argo pond, with essentially identical facilities to Huron and Pioneer high schools. Argo pond isn’t big enough for serious training. It’s impressive that Michigan does so well with such lousy training facilities.

The women’s team recently built a boat house in Belleville or thereabouts. I don’t know if it’s big enough for both programs. An NCAA women’s team and an IRA men’s team would probably have as many as 200 rowers total, for at least some of the year. I would think that, if Michigan was seriously considering a men’s varsity program, they would have established it when they built the women’s boat house and put other training facilities for rowers at the new athletic campus on South State.

It must be incredibly expensive to build a modern boathouse from scratch, especially for two programs. You have to acquire waterfront property on the right kind of water, build a big facility with a tank (an indoor rowing facility), and buy a lot of expensive boats. A decent shell for an 8 costs well over $50,000. Empachers (the gold standard shell) cost $75-80,000. And they’re made from carbon fiber so they tend to be pretty fragile and have a short life. For men’s and women’s program, you would need literally dozens of shells, and you’d probably spend several hundred thousand every year to keep the boat stock in decent shape.

Funding the construction (or expansion) of a boathouse, paying the training, equipment, and travel expenses, and hiring a full time coaching staff would be the main expenses. There’s a reason that IRA schools are almost all schools that have had rowing programs since the 19th or early 20th centuries. They’ve already paid the biggest capital expenses.

At least one rower in that…

At least one rower in that US boat would probably not give the cox any credit: Beau Hoopman. Whatever the cox was saying probably pissed Hoopman off.


I know about Hoopman through my two sons who rowed at Wisconsin. Hoopman rowed there and now is an assistant coach. (I suspect he’s the heir apparent to the current head coach). Hoopman says this about coxswains: “A cox can’t make a boat go faster; he can only make it go slower.” Coxswains, on the other hand, tend to think that they control everything. 


Hoopman’s an interesting guy, regardless of his opinions about coxes. He never rowed before going to Wisconsin, which prides itself on developing novices. Six years after he first picked up an oar, he was standing on an Olympic podium with a gold medal around his neck. He also won a world championship gold in the men’s 8 in 2005 and a bronze in Beijing in 2008. 


From what I’ve seen and from what my sons have said, disdain for coxes is a widespread if not predominant attitude among elite rowers.

This seems like a situation…

This seems like a situation where having an interim president impedes quick action. Formulating a comprehensive policy and strategy for coordinating NIL deals between donors and athletes implicates the university's overall relationship with donors and its strategy for seeking donations for athletic and non-athletic purposes alike. Any interim president would probably hesitate to make a decision that could diminish their successor's flexibility in crafting an overall development strategy.

In addition, it may be more difficult for UM to choose a development strategy that prioritizes NIL donations. Although UM has a big and relatively generous donor base, it's not the same kind of donor base schools like Texas, Alabama, and Georgia have. Let's say a donor has several million dollars to give to a university. It's one thing to donate several hundred thousand a year, every year, to fund NIL deals; it's a different thing to donate the entire amount in a single donation for the construction of a building that can bear the donor's name. I suspect (but don't know) that UM has a smaller pool of donors who are eager to fund NIL deals.

A university may have a big endowment or an impressive capacity for development, but that doesn't mean that it has a spigot for NIL money that it can just turn on.

For what it's worth, women's…

For what it's worth, women's lightweight rowing is not an NCAA sport; so I'd guess it does not count towards the Director's Cup. Like men's heavyweight and lightweight rowing, women's lightweight rowing is governed by the the Intercollegiate Rowing Association, which has its own championships that are independent of the NCAA.

If it somehow does count towards the Director's Cup, it's a spring sport. Stanford was ranked second at the beginning of the season.

I'll offer a super-niche…

I'll offer a super-niche dining recommendation: find a place with good fried clams. By "good fried clams," I mean, fried Ipswich clams, often called whole-belly clams. Ipswich clams are something that's unique to New England, and, more specifically, to the Boston area. The best ones come from the North Shore of Massachusetts. I went to high school in NH and college in RI, and I've traveled all over the US, and I've never seen fried Ipswich clams anywhere more than hour away from Boston.

When I travel, I generally try to find at least one restaurant that has something that's really good and that I can't get anywhere else. If you find merit in that approach, get some Ipswich clams.

They're not just unique. They're terrific. A lot of people want lobster when they come to New England, and, of course, that's a great choice. But Ipswich whole belly clams are outstanding, albeit in a different way. You can get very good lobster outside New England; but I'm not sure you can get Ipswich clams.

It's important to distinguish between clam strips and whole belly clams. They are not the same. A whole-belly clam is the clam itself; a clam strip is a piece of muscle that pokes outside the shell. Clam strips are cheap, and you can find them all over New England, usually in fried clam rolls. They are pretty good, but nothing like the whole belly clam. And Ipswich clams are the best whole-belly clams.

The linked article names some good places in the Boston area. I can vouch for Courthouse Seafood, which is within walking distance of the Garden, just across the river in Cambridge.

https://boston.eater.com/maps/best-fried-clams-boston

 

His memory will be a…

His memory will be a blessing. In 1995, during my last year of law school, I had the privilege of editing an article he wrote for the law review. I didn’t know what to expect when I first met with him about the article. I had never taken a class from him and he had a reputation as being imposing. His demeanor was consistent with that reputation — booming voice, dominated conversations, was often abrupt. I was a little anxious. He turned out to be an amazing person. We met in a seminar room, he had Zingerman’s sandwiches brought in, and he seemed genuinely interested in my opinions about what he could do better. He wasn’t looking for proofreading and line editing like just about every author in the law review. Even though he treated me more like a colleague than a student, he made it an educational experience for me and made me think about an area of law I had not focused on. A couple of years later, he gave me unsolicited support in a job application process even though I had never done more with him than edit his article. He made a difference in my life and I’m grateful to have known him. Rest in peace. 

The G League could have been…

The G League could have been -- and might still be -- a good option if he played for Ignite. But, from what I've seen recently, if you don't have some kind of contract with an NBA team, it can be problematic to play for most of the other G League franchises that are affiliated with specific NBA teams. NBA teams have something like 4 or 5 "affiliated players" on the roster of their affiliate G League team. Playing time and development opportunities can be tremendously skewed towards the affiliated players.

I know a kid who is with a G League team and isn't an affiliated player. He's on his third G League team and, on a per-36 basis, he's consistently averaged 20 and 10. But he can't get 36 minutes anywhere because he's never been an affiliated player and he's a bit of a tweener. He plays really well but it seems like the team won't play him more than 15 minutes per night, because they have two affiliated players at his position, and at least one of those guys is on the G League roster at all times. Right now, he's better than one of those guys, maybe both, but he's not getting a full opportunity to show what he can do because the G League team is -- understandably -- giving a priority to the development of the affiliated players. This kid is in his mid-20s and is closer to his full potential than the other two affiliated players.

Emoni can't be an affiliated player because he's not draft eligible, so he could find himself in a tough position with a regular G League franchise. Some of them give real opportunities to all of their players, but only some. And I don't know whether they would have the freedom to choose their own team. There is a G League draft, and I think that, for all of the teams except Ignite, affiliated players and the products of the G League draft take up virtually all of the G League roster spots.

Europe or Israel could be a better option from a strictly basketball perspective. I think Spain, some of the Balkan countries, Israel, and maybe Greece and Turkey have at least two levels of professional leagues where players can develop really well. If Emoni isn't physically ready to play against grown men in the top league, he can still get high level competition and good coaching at a lower level league. But living in Serbia or Israel or Greece is a really tough thing for a 17 year old from the US. And it sure isn't glamorous.

Overtime Elite is a possibility as well, but, in return for the development and protection -- and salary -- that it offers, I think players have to sign away a lot of their future NIL and other media rights. OTE is basically a media company that is making its own current and future programming. It's banking on having very favorable media rights deals with a handful of NBA players who are OTE alumni and who will give them all kinds of exclusive content.

All of this is why I think there are real problems with any development opportunities for a really precocious talent like Emoni. Any development path he and his family choose is littered with land mines and people who are only out for themselves, and many of those people are unscrupulous grifters who will use a kid up and spit him out. It's really hard to find a "safe" choice where he and his family can feel confident that his future will be determined by his effort and talent. 

 

I'll agree that, viewed in…

I'll agree that, viewed in isolation, starting your own fake high school and sending your kid to it is not a good idea. But you can't view that decision in isolation; you have to think about what the alternatives were. For a 15 year old with NBA potential, I think the alternatives fit into three categories: (1) transfer to a public or private high school that plays better competition than Lincoln does; (2) go to an established "prep school" like Oak Hill or Monteverde; (3) play abroad. It's possible that there was a real problem with the available options in each of those categories, and the family started Ypsi Prep because they thought they could pull it off and it would be better than the specific alternatives they had at hand.

I don't know what they were thinking. I wouldn't have made the same choices as they did if it were my kid. But I'm not going to condemn the family's character or decision making because Ypsi Prep didn't work out and because Emoni's having a tough freshman year at Memphis.

We're talking about a 17…

We're talking about a 17-year old kid.

A lot of adults, who don't know him and have absolutely no concern for his interests, have been creating unreasonable expectations for him since he was 11. They made a spectacle of a sixth-grader because he had "potential." Now people are rushing to judge him and/or his parents because his freshman year at college isn't going as well as it might. They want to make a spectacle of his "failure" to reach their own expectations.

Give him a break. Why is it necessary to make a judgment about his future or his character or his father's parenting decisions on the basis of a tiny body of preliminary evidence about his ability to play basketball at the very highest level? It's quite possible that he's good kid with a good family, and that things just aren't going his way. For now. 

I know EJ Bates slightly. During the 2000s, one of my sons played with one of Emoni's half-brothers in a high-level AAU program at the elementary and middle school level. I was an assistant coach in the program, and saw EJ regularly. He was anything but an overbearing or controlling parent. When Emoni was still very young, around 2010, EJ started his own business as a trainer and personal coach in Ann Arbor, which turned into Bates Fundamentals. From what I can see, EJ has tried to put Emoni in good situations that give him an opportunity to develop. To some extent, there is some overlap between EJ's role as a business owner and as a parent, but I don't see anything to suggest that he's exploiting Emoni or making terrible decisions for him.

The fact is that there are a lot of people associated with youth basketball who do want to exploit kids and use them to make money. I know first-hand about several AAU programs in Michigan that are run by people like that. I also know first-hand that a lot of high school programs in southeast Michigan, some very highly regarded, are not good places for player development much less personal development; and a couple of those programs are run by genuinely terrible people. I've seen family members send their kid to a high school and/or AAU program in return for cash under the table, regardless of what's good for the kid. It's really, really difficult to steer a talented kid through all of the nonsense around youth basketball and have him come out in one piece. It's even harder to steer a talented kid to the NBA. So many kids with potential crash and burn long before stepping on the court for a high-level D1 program.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that EJ has been trying to keep Emoni out of those bad situations and to create a positive environment for him. One of the guys with whom I used to coach now coaches elementary school kids for Bates Fundamentals. My former colleague is a terrific guy who always puts kids first. I'm very confident that, if EJ were running a bad program, or was an exploitative person, my former colleague would not be involved with him. But even the most capable and best-intentioned parent or coach can't make everything perfect. They can't flip a switch and fulfill the unreasonable expectations of arm-chair coaches or back-seat parents. The fact that Emoni's parents might have made different decisions that would have worked out better for him does not mean that they're bad parents or even that their decisions were wrong. Sometimes, life doesn't go the way you'd expect.

I hope Emoni starts having some success on the court and makes the most out of his talent, regardless whether that happens in college, the G-League, Europe, Asia, or the NBA. Above all, I hope he has a happy life. If he doesn't fulfill the predictions that he would be the next Kevin Durant, it won't be because he or his parents have bad character or made bad decisions. Mostly, it will be because journalists and "recruiting experts" and "scouts" aren't that good at making predictions for 11-year-olds -- or about making judgments about 17 year-olds on the basis of highlight videos and internet chatter.

That's fair. I made an ill…

That's fair. I made an ill-considered comment, which I would delete if I could.

As you may have noticed,…

As you may have noticed, these days, "LGB" has multiple meanings, some of which inspire or are associated with, how to put it . . . strong feelings. Some of those feelings are even stronger (and sometimes more controversial) than support for the University of Michigan. I tried a certain kind of joke, which, I now realize, is not well suited for this kind of format.

LGB?

You must mean "Lesbian…

LGB?

You must mean "Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual," right?

I'm glad you're proud to be woke.

It's not hard to enforce. My…

It's not hard to enforce. My partner runs a performance venue that has a vaccine/negative test requirement. Patrons have to show vaccine card or other proof of vaccination outside the front door, before entering the lobby. If they don't have proof of vaccine, they can show proof of a negative test within 24-48 hours (I forget exactly what the time window is). If they don't have proof of a negative test, there is rapid testing available on site. If someone can't satisfy any of these requirements, they can go home.

The real problem that she's encountered is hostility from people who don't like the requirement or who claim to have not been informed about it. She's taken an enormous amount of verbal abuse from people who "forgot" their vaccine cards and don't want to take a test. If there's this kind of conduct at a performing arts venue, I can imagine that it will be much, much worse at a sporting event, where many of the patrons think that the verbal abuse of opposing players and fans is part of the "fun."

I'd guess it was planted by…

I'd guess it was planted by Trace Armstrong. 

Beat writers for pro teams rely heavily on agents and team front office members for "leaks." Agents plant leaks with reporters to benefit their clients and/or themselves. The article has strong indicia that it comes from Armstrong himself. It notes that, "according to league sources," Armstrong "discussed" a management position with the Bears last month at a memorial and that he is "very interested." Who is in a position to know what Armstrong and the Bears might have discussed, when and where the discussion happened, and what interests Trace Armstrong? Trace Armstrong is. Armstrong is motivated to plant the story because one of his clients, Nagy, appears on the brink of firing. He mentions Day as a possible replacement for Nagy because it's a way to generate public interest in an Armstrong/Day pairing, and that public interest may be a way to move the Bears in his direction. In addition, even if the Bears have utterly no interest in hiring Armstrong, Armstrong now seems like a candidate for front office jobs around the league, just like Leon Rose, Rob Pelinka, and Bob Meyers went from being agents to GMs.

Another possible source is someone on the Jaguars, who doesn't like Urban Meyer. A quick Google search shows that La Canfora has written multiple articles this fall on the "dysfunction," "discord," and "disaster" that characterize Meyer's head coaching in Jacksonville. Somebody in Jacksonville is feeding anti-Meyer information to La Canfora, and that person or persons may have an interest in seeing the Ohio State job open up, creating an exit strategy for Meyer from Jacksonville. The anti-Meyer person tells La Canfora that he is hearing that the Bears are interested in Armstrong and Day That might explain why this story comes out right now, just after the Jags' owner said that he plans to keep Meyer. Some anti-Meyer person in the Jacksonville front office is trying to give Meyer a reason to jump ship, in the event that the owner doesn't push him. La Canfora has reported that Jags' GM, Trent Baalke, does not like Meyer. Maybe Baalke owes Armstrong a favor.

Either way, you're probably right that it's BS.

I agree with everything…

I agree with everything until your last sentence, with which I partially agree.

Since Miles Brand became its president (and possibly before), the NCAA has embraced the idea that revenue-generating college sports must be a "massive marketing billboard" that generates revenue for the support of the non-revenue sports and, possibly, the university's general fund. Brand explicitly and aggressively applied this conception of the athletic department to his conception of the entire university. For Brand, money-making departments of the university (the hospital and medical system, the academic departments that produce valuable IP, the football and/or men's basketball team, et al.) should be organized to maximize their ability to produce revenue for the university, which would be used to subsidized "money-losing" departments (like all of the humanities departments and most social sciences, et al.).

The NCAA staff and leadership, including Mark Emmert, venerate Brand and have adopted his vision of college athletics as the justification for the existence of the NCAA and for its policy approaches, which, always and everywhere, are tailored to protect the economic value of the NCAA's product, not to provide "student-athletes" with a good experience. The NCAA views the maximization of revenue at all costs as a necessary aspect of its service to universities.

For what it's worth, I think that Brand's conception of college athletics and of the university as a whole is widely accepted across academia and is the source for many of the worst problems associated with contemporary higher education. I came to Michigan for grad school in the mid-80s and have lived in and around Ann Arbor for just about the entire time since. UM has changed dramatically since then, often for the worse, and I attribute most of those changes to its aggressive pursuit of revenue-generating enterprises, both athletic and academic, at the expense of its core mission of educating students and developing knowledge. 

This is why athletic departments everywhere try to ignore allegations of sexual misconduct against athletes (see Robert Anderson, MSU, OSU). This is why university administration does the same thing when there are sexual misconduct or other scandals in the academic departments or university administration (see Martin Philbert). Shameful or problematic conduct has to be swept under the rug because, above all, the university's all-important commercial functions and brand image must be protected. These are dramatic examples, but they do represent a broader problem of sacrificing the interests of students and staff at the altar of revenue.

From my perspective, the NCAA isn't the main problem; the NCAA is just one instance of a broader problem with how the university understands its purpose, and that problem is money.