gobluesasquatch

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Date Title Body
3 weeks 4 days ago Quick question

How does Toney Clemons get drafted ahead of Hemmingway? Sometimes I have no idea what NFL front offices are thinking. Then again, what does my opinion matter.
3 weeks 4 days ago being in the tempe area

That kid is a complete waste of talent. Cincinnati will soon discover that. 
3 weeks 4 days ago Honor them for what?

Working together to begin a dark period in Michigan basketball? Their B10 titles - nope never one those. There two back-to-back national championship losses - didn't tiny Butler accomplish that, and were at least somewhat competitve in both games. 

Honor the fact that they made a mockery of the integrity of the University. That whenever I mention integrity in college athletics one of the first topics brought up is the Fab Five, and the next group of recruits who took money. Great!

I know this is not the popular story, but while inventive and progressive for basketball, their damage to the legacy and reputation of the program is harmful. Under Freider and Orr (no saints themselves) Michigan was consistently competing for conference titles. Orr took Michigan to a championship game loss. Frieder's recruits won a title with then interim coach Steve Fisher. Since the recruiting classes of Webber, Rose, Howard, King, Jackson, and then Traylor, Baston, Ward, Taylor and Mitchell (btw - Mitchell was in my orientation group - of course he slept through it, which was why he was in orientation for the second time), Michigan basketball has either been a joke, or we've been giddy with finishing in the top half of the Big Ten and making the tournament. What a step down. 

Let this period die at Michigan. Let us move on, let those outside the university celebrate it, but for the University, no celebration, no forced apologies, no revisionist history. Most of them have proven that it's all about themselves, and never was about Michigan. 
3 weeks 4 days ago No one is stopping CWebb

Except there really isn't a his side to the story besides a selfish kid who thinks the rules didn't apply to him. He's always tried to play this reality that he's someone who he isn't. He had enough money to survive in college. The, "I can't afford a pizza, while they're selling my jersey" stuff was crap. Mitch Albom and anyone who believes that has little idea of what college athletes actually get. They get a training table with more food than they need. They have stipends when they travel, that most athletes end up having much more left over than they'd actually spend. 

Plus, forget about the degree potential. Let's be real, the two years at Michigan gave him time to develop as a basketball player, meaning he was more desirable as a basketball player to the NBA, meaning more money. 
5 weeks 6 days ago Seriously ...

This is Michigan fergodsakes!! We don't need a high profile athletics program for students to pound out applications to want to come here.

Even though I was a student-athlete, Michigan was near the bottom of the schools I applied to because of the huge athletic department (big time football schools can't really be serious about academics, can they?). I was wrong, but to many academically minded students, this can be a negative, not necessarily a positive. 

Continue on with the discussion.
12 weeks 3 days ago Mario Lopez

is trying so hard not to lose it as he's holding that microphone. That was painful to watch.

 
12 weeks 4 days ago Interesting perspective

However, again, having coached athletes, you realize that if he didn't care about them at all, he would have already removed them from the team for whatever their violations were, both serious or just consistent minor infractions. Sometimes, because you care, you actually have to say hard things to people.

My suspicion is that after much of a season where all efforts to get through to them have failed, he finally pushed the final button. What does he have to lose? Nothing. If the seniors have no pride, they'll quit, won't play, etc and that will be the end of their careers. If they have that special pride in them, they'll make corrections, grow up, and change their destiny. 

As for the rest of the team, do you think that there are others on the team, non-seniors, who probably are playing hard, doing the right things, and are sick and tired of seeing others not do it. They don't have a problem when the coach embarrasses those they already know to be screw ups. 

If you listen back to the audio, he is constantly referencing the long term impact on these kids lives, or ability to function in larger society. It might not be nice or pretty, but I can hear someone making a point much larger than basketball here. As a coach, I can tell you that is what every game, practice, workout, etc is about, a life lesson. Sports throws a lot of easily managed "adversity" at you (it really isn't adversity - I hate it when athletes say that), but it can help prepare you for those really adverse and challenging moments in life. I think this is where Pat is going.

Too much coddling these days, and not enough calling out and making statements that are more true than fair.
12 weeks 5 days ago That wasn't what I expected

Honestly, given that we don't know what has gone on with the team ... I'm not sure it was that bad. Honestly, the tone was actually quite calm. He was pretty controlled, but it sounds like his seniors are not working. 

Now, I'm not sure if you have been a coach before, but take over a poor program at any level, and it's difficult to come in, change the culture, when you have seniors who don't care and aren't doing what they need to do. As a coach, I can understand the frustration, and at some point, you need to say this, and if they aren't listening in private, you might need to go public and see how they respond. I hear the remarks and he's basically saying their childish and they need to grow up. 

I think it probably should stay in the locker room, but sometimes you have to do something extreme to get their attention, or shut them down permanently. 
15 weeks 19 hours ago Henson has a mixed legacy

Because during his junior year, he had Thomas in the backfield and Terrell and Walker to throw to, and I'm sure there was a TE who I'm forgetting, and yet his team finished 9-3, with losses at Purdue, Northwestern and UCLA (when he was injured). Granted, the defense was awful that year, but I'm still upset at his decision to not tuck and run (taking the sack) and keep the clock running against Purdue instead of trying to complete a tough throw. There is no way Dorsch hits a FG from more than a yard further out. 

I feel bad having Bass on the list given that it wasn't his fault he never met the hype. That knee injury was devastating. 
15 weeks 19 hours ago In all fairness

I believe Kapsner was behind two pretty good quarterbacks in Brady and Henson. 
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