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That was outstanding

It was almost worth the whole B-ball recruiting debacle just to read that piece. 

The 2001-2002 Team

had to be the most loaded team of HOF'ers in the last 40 years aside from some of the 80's Edmonton teams.  Look who's already in the HOF from that team:

Hasek

Robitaille

Hull

Shannahan

Yzerman

Larionov

Chelios

Lidstrom

Fedorov

Bowman

So 9 players plus the head coach, and we still haven't gotten to Datsyuk who will almost certainly make it when all is said and done.  That's incredible to think about - there are 19 players who take a regular shift each game (12 forwards, 6 defensemen, 1 goalie) and on this single team, over half of them will end up in the HOF once Datsyuk gets elected.  

Even crazier, every one of these guys was a first ballot HOF'er except for Shanny, who made it in on his second year on the ballot.  Oh yeah, and they were led by the greatest coach in NHL history who's also in the Hall.  It just goes to show what a grind the NHL playoffs are that you could put a team with this much talent and experience together and they still came dangerously close to losing in the first round against Vancouver. 

The first 6 games of the Conference Finals series against Colorado was the best playoff series I ever saw; so much skill and championship drive on both sides of the ice.  Game 7 was fun, but in hindsight I do wish that the Avs had had a little more in the tank for one more classic matchup.  That series was so great, it should have ended with another nailbiter win by the Wings rather than a 7-0 blowout.

 

I agree it's a dynasty

But I wouldn't say the 3 Cups in 6 years for the Hawks are any more or less impressive than the 3 in 6 years for the Wings from 1997-2002.  They should both stand on their own as the great teams of their respective eras, nothing more, nothing less.  The comment about the Wings being able to spend a ton of money in free agency is true, but let's also not forget the fact that the core of the Hawks was built through a series of high first round draft picks because the team sucked for so long. 

The Wings of the late 90's had been a consistent playoff team for a decade before they started winning Cups.  They didn't have the benefit of drafting high in the first round for several years, yet they still built their core through a series of drafts that were among the most impressive in modern sports history.  So if you want to ding the Red Wings a little for being able to outspend teams, don't forget to give that same team the necessary credit for outsmarting the rest of the league for several years in the draft, especially as it came to European players.  The 1991 draft, especially, was a clinic of how to strike it rich in the later rounds of the draft.  Fedorov, Lidstrom and Konstantinov all came from that same draft class.  

Several other big pieces of the core (Yzerman, Holmstrom, Osgood, McCarty, Kozlov) also came through the draft, as did key contributors like Keith Primeau and Ray Sheppard, who were traded in 1996 and 1995 for championship mainstays Brendan Shanahan and Igor Larionov.  Those moves had nothing to do with money - they were legitimate hockey trades where the Wings got the better end of each deal and found two big pieces to help win the Cup. 

I think the 2002 team was the only one of the 3 Cup teams where the Wings leaned heavily on free agency to get them over the hump (short term contracts for Hasek, Robitaille and Hull after the core had aged a bit). 

Both teams had good competition to fight through.  The Wings had to deal with the Avs, Devils and Stars while the Hawks have had to deal with the Kings, Rangers and Bruins (in terms of perennial contenders and high end teams of the era). 

Dude

Settle down. I remember when UM used to beat OSU on a regular basis. What I hate is that it doesn't happen anymore. It's a lot easier to come up with good material to bust on your rival when you don't lose to them every year. Didn't think I was making a very complicated point on this one, so congrats on making a mountain out of a molehill.

Also, from the Department of Are You New Here, you could answer your own question simply by looking at the "Joined" date underneath my logo.

What has he done to earn that kind of a contract?

I mean, besides going 39-3 in 3 years, playing in 2 B1G championship games and winning a NC of course. 

There's nothing worse than trying to hate on a rival when the team you root for hasn't been able to hold up its end of the bargain for over a decade.  Now I know what it was like to be an MSU fan from 1967-2007.

 

He's a little tied up in Edmonton

The party's still going on at Goose Loonie's, 27 years later......

But interestingly enough

There likely would have been a full blown QB controversy heading into the 89 season had Brown not been kicked off the team. Brown was wildly erratic in his only full season as a starter (87) but came on strong late in the 88 season after Taylor went out for the year with an injury, including season ending wins vs OSU and then USC in the Rose Bowl. Think about how crazy that is. In my entire lifetime, UM has only beaten USC once in the Rose Bowl and the QB of record was Demetrius Friggin Brown.

I approve

Because duh.....

If I could travel back in time

I would start by going back to around 8:00 this morning and advising the poor OP not to even bother starting this thread because of how miserable this and every other Michigan fan board has become over the last 8 months (GBW, 247, MaizeNBrew, etc).

After that issue was solved, I'd travel back to the last time there was a really big lottery jackpot that didn't pay off, find out what the numbers were, go back in time to the day before that and play those numbers. 

Once that happened and I became a filthy rich millionaire, I would immediately stop giving a shit about every awful doomsday scenario for Michigan football that people keep coming up with during the offseason.  Instead I would buy a lifetime's supply of Cheetos just because i could.  I would then stress over what to do with a lifetime's supply of Cheetos, and perhaps post the occasional OT rant on this site about my Cheetos problems. 

Mmmmmm......Cheetos.

 

 

 

 

I scanned this entire thread

looking to see if anyone mentioned Motor City Willie because he and Ward were the first names that popped into my head.  Everyone remembers Ward, but let's not forget that Mitchell was a very heavily hyped member of the "New 5" - Conlan, Taylor, Mitchell, Baston and Ward. 

I would more generally make the argument that this class as a whole represented the very essence of wanting more.  Their time in Ann Arbor exactly coincided with mine - 1994-1998.  And in their four seasons paired with various big names such as Ray Jackson and Jimmy King (1994-95) and Traylor and Bullock (1995-98), here were their collective team stats:

- Zero regular season conference titles

- 1 Big 10 Tournament title (inaugural tournament in 98)

- 3 NCAA tournament appearances

- 2 first round exits

- 1 2nd round exit

- 1 NIT championship

- 1 Timeout Redux (Maceo Baston vs. Texas late in Round 1 in '96)

This class completely turned me off to Michigan basketball after awhile because year after year they simply underachieved.  And when they finally looked like they had put it all together in 1998, they promptly went out and laid an egg against 6 seeded UCLA in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. 

There was no way of knowing it at the time, but that would turn out to be Michigan's last tournament appearance for 10 years.

If MGoBlog had existed during the age of the New 5, the threads would have been epic.  Between the emotional highs that came with landing these guys and some of the early season starts (especially in 96-97), coupled with the embarassing lows that transpired (missing the tournament in '97 after being ranked in the Top 5 and beating Arizona, blowing a double digit lead in the 2nd half to Western Kentucky in the 95 tournament, Maurice Taylor's role in the Mateen Cleaves recruiting trip that helped unravel the entire program, Motor City Willie eating his way out of Ann Arbor and the inability to do anything of note in conference play), this site would have exploded several times over. 

Everyone who went to Michigan in my time always thinks fondly of the 97 NC football team and the 96 and 98 NC hockey teams, but talk to any of us for a few minutes and it won't take long to recall what a frustrating group of underachievers the basketball team was during that period, led by the New 5.

 

 

Best thing I saw all day

Until I caught the halftime score of Dook-Mercer.......

THE MILK'S GONE BAD!

Hey bitch - go over there and have sex with Charlie Murphy!

Six more days

Until I'm in Vegas.  Hopefully Michigan will be getting ready at that point for a Sweet 16 matchup with UMASS (my wife went to school there so would be fun to have a little family war break out) or Dook (rekindling an old rivalry in a non-Cameron setting). 

In the past I always went to Vegas for the first 3 days of the tournament but the logistics this year didn't work out.  So it's on to Plan B - Vegas for the Sweet 16/Elite 8, and the iPad at work streaming all the games in Rounds 1 and 2**.

 

** I refuse to acknowledge that yesterday/today is "Round 2" and tomorrow/Sunday is "Round 3."  I don't care how many times CBS uses that nomenclature - I'll never capitulate!

I agree with you on Brent

See my earlier post for reasons why.  It's probably a generational thing.  For those 25 or younger, they probably only caught the tail end of Musburger's prime and thus, don't have the same appreciation for his calls or the way he could make a game feel truly "big".  I'd still take Keith Jackson every time over Musburger for a big Michigan game, but Musburger was no slouch. 

Some of his calls are so classic in part because they precisely captured the enthusiasm for the team that had just made a huge play at a critical juncture.  To the fans of the team who made that play, his call sounded like pure elation and an extension of what they were already celebrating in their living rooms; to the fans of the team who the play was against, his call sounded like having the opposition fan right in their faces, celebrating their team's failure as loudly as possible.

I remember some time ago reading on 11W how a bunch of those guys thought Musburger was biased against OSU in the 90's, but then realized after OSU turned the tide against Michigan in the 00's that it wasn't really the case.  He simply always got excited for the team that made the big play in the moment, and was very effective at communicating that excitement.  It's why in Columbus to this day they still celebrate his calls for "Holy Buckeye" in 2002 vs. Purdue and the ridiculous Anthony Gonzalez catch in the 2005 game vs. Michigan, while in Ann Arbor we'll always celebrate 4th and 1 and "THEY LEFT HIM ALONE!"

 

Griese

I think Griese's got some pretty good potential for a higher profile analyst role.  His commentary has really improved over the last 4 years.  If he was on BTN, he'd easily be their top color analyst.  Hell, even if he showed up drunk and disoriented he would still probably sound smarter than Glen Mason. 

I'm a big Spielman fan as well

I know, I know.....OSU and all that shit.  But I grew to respect the guy a ton when he played for the Lions and then when he ultimately retired from the NFL to help his wife as she went through her horrible battle with cancer.  His analysis is always pretty good and I like when he does B1G games specifically because you can tell he knows the history there. 

If Michigan is playing like crap, for example, he's not afraid to compare and contrast what he's seeing vs. how he saw Michigan execute in the past when they were more successful.  He keeps the hyperbole to a minimum while still conveying legitimate excitement/interest in the game he's analyzing.  I don't find him to be biased towards OSU in any way during his broadcasts, similar to how Bob Griese was pretty good at masking his internal bias whenever he used to broadcast Michigan games in 1996 and 1997.

I also like that Spielman is understated as an analyst/ESPN personality relative to Herbstreit.  I have no problem with Herbstreit when he's actually doing the games, but part of the problem with being the lead college football analyst for ESPN and co-host for College GameDay is all the "rah rah" propoganda you're required to do to increase viewership.  Over the last few years, that's meant blatantly trumpeting the SEC until we all get sick of their exposure.  In 5 years from now, it might instead be the Pac 12 or the B1G.....doesn't really matter because either way it will still be overly annoying.  Since Herbstreit is such a focal point for ESPN's college football coverage, he easily gets associated with all of this and becomes more annoying as a result.  I'm not even going to get into the whole Les Miles incident from 2007 but uhhh......yeah.

I guess I'm in the minority of people on this post who will miss Musburger.  I think it was definitely time to put him out to pasture as he had lost his fastball, but he was a damn good announcer for ABC/ESPN over the years, as well as for CBS in the 80's.  Some of his calls still give me chills whenever I watch replays of older Michigan games (Harbaugh's bomb to Kolesar in '85 vs. OSU, Grbac to Howard on 4th and 1, Dreisbach to Hayes against Virginia in '95, Gallon's "they left him alone!" miracle catch and run against ND in UTL I are just a few examples that readily come to mind).

He was at his best when he was partnered with Vermeil and then later with Danielson.  Those guys were both great analysts for Brent's style and they helped create a great 2nd pair announcing team during the latter years of the Keith Jackson era.  I didn't like Brent as much with Herbstreit, as they didn't seem to have the same type of chemistry that Brent had with his earlier partners.  I'm guessing some of that was the age differential.  But Musburger was pretty damn good until about 5 years ago or so.  When I look at the current lead announcers who are out there doing college football, I can't really think of anyone who's close to Brent in his prime aside from McDonough and Nessler. 

 

What if I told you.....

that Scotty Pippen was a crybaby?

that Kevin Duckworth was mentally soft?

that a microwave was built like a truck?

that this joke has gone on way too long?

 

 

One correction

The head banging happened in the '87 ECF, Game 7 at Boston Garden.  AD was still on the team in '88 when the Pistons beat the Celtics in 6 games in the ECF, only to lose in a classic 7 game series against the Lakers.  AD was then traded about halfway through the following year for Mark Aguire (aka Pumpkinhead according to John Salley), who went on to play for both championship teams in '89 and '90.

LeBron is not

better than MJ in his prime.  I hated, HATED MJ and that entire Bulls team, while other than the stupidity of The Decision I have no ill feelings towards LeBron.  So if anything, I should be biased against MJ in favor of LeBron.  But facts are facts.  LeBron's a hell of a player, easily one of the 5-7 best I've ever seen, but he's in the Magic/Bird/Kobe grouping (at least thus far).  MJ was a cut above all of those guys.  If and when LeBron ends up with 6 NBA titles and Finals MVPs, a 72 win season and an entire highlight montage of game winning/playoff game winning shots, then I'll be willing to have the discussion about him being MJ's equal. 

The one thing I simultaneously respect and hate about MJ is this - as others have noted, he achieved greatness during a time when touch fouls weren't called and you had to be a MAN to continually drive to the basket against the top defensive teams in the league.  He earned his greatness that way, but in doing so, he, Pippen and Phil Jackson bitched about the officiating so much that the league forever changed the way that fouls were called. 

As a result, guys like LeBron now play in an era where imaginary fouls are called in favor of superstars driving to the hoop on a regular basis, making it easier for them to decide games.  Had LeBron played 25 years ago, he still would have been a great player but I'm not sure if he would have seemed quite as imposing physically.  It's a lot harder to look that dominating when defenders are allowed to hand check you before you start your drive to the hoop and then can lay the body into you on the drive without fear of a whistle being constantly blown.

I agree

Louisville's doing what they've done in most years under Pitino (aside from last year) - field a pre-season Top 10 team, hit a little bit of a lull during Jan/Feb where they fall off the radar for a bit, and then come roaring back in March just in time for Tourney season looking like a real pain to play against.  Last year, by contrast, they were pretty dominant for the bulk of the year.

If I was making a list of teams I'd like UM to avoid playing right now, Louisville would be at or near the top of that list.  Despite the loss on Saturday to Duke, I'd put UNC up there as well, along with Wisconsin.  I'd be more worried about playing against these teams than Florida, if that makes any sense. 

While I think Florida has a very good team, the fact that they haven't been tested in-conference very much will come back to haunt them in the mid to late rounds of the tournament.  It's not their fault, but have they even beaten a quality team this year?  They lost to Wisconsin out of conference, Kentucky turned out to be overrated and Tennessee is ok.  Everyone else in the SEC falls under the description of "not ok."  I give them credit for going 18-0 in-conference, but with the understanding that the SEC in basketball is simply a mid-major conference with brand name recognition.  Kind of like the Big 10 in a certain other sport that shall not be discussed today.......

 

 

 

Holy crap

That IS completely meaningless and arbitrary.  Guess I should have looked closer when you said "Wolverines" and realized you weren't just talking about Michigan. 

Regarding your first point

That's not true.  Michigan played UNC in the tournament 3 years in a row - lost in the 2nd round in '87, lost in the Sweet Sixteen in '88 and won in the Sweet Sixteen in '89 on the run to the NC.  We also played Temple in back to back years with the Fab 5 - won in the 1st round in '92 and won in the regional finals in '93.

Injury history

The 2009 playoffs were definitely when the inury bug started to hit a bit, especially in comparison to the 2008 run where the team emerged relatively unscathed.  In 2009, Datsyuk missed most of the conference finals and the first 4 games of the Cup finals with an injury, Rafalski's back/shoulder were messed up and rendered him less effective than the prior year, and Lidstrom missed a couple games after Patrick Sharp did painful things to Lidstrom's man parts with a stick.

But 2010 was the real year of injuries - the entire team seemed crippled at one point or another and it was a constant rotation of guys to the IR all year long.  They got most of them back for the playoffs but were completely gassed from the prior 3 years of runs and didn't do much in the 2nd round.

The team was much healthier in 2011 and played like it for most of the season, aside from an early season fluke injury to Mike Modano.  The problem that year was that they got down 3-0 in the 2nd round to the Sharks before fighting back to even the series.  Prior to that series, Franzen had already messed up his ankle in Round 1 and then in Game 7 of a one goal loss, both Cleary and Bertuzzi got concussions.

2012 had some injuries but nothing out of the ordinary until Lidstrom and Helm got hurt.  Lidstrom never really recovered and was a shell of his normal self in an embarassing first round playoff loss to Nashville.  Helm was hurt for most of the last 2 months of the season, came back for Game 1 against Nashville and promptly got hurt 10 minutes into the game, knocking him out for the rest of the playoffs. 

2013 had some injuries, but I thought by and large the team was ok healthwise last year - they're biggest challenge was figuring out how to move on without Lidstrom in a lockout-shortened season.  Overall they figured it out at the end of the year and had a good run in the playoffs against two of the best teams in the league (Anaheim and Chicago).  Last year's run created a ton of optimism for this year.

This year has been either the worst or 2nd worst year of injuries over the past 5 years (it's either 2014 or 2010, both of which were awful).  I would argue that this year might be even worse since at least in 2010, Zetterberg and Datsyuk were mostly healthy down the stretch.  Unlikely that this will be the case this year, and the team is relying on those guys even more now than they did 4 years ago.  I thought that the bad breaks might eventually end in the 2nd half of the season, but it certainly does not appear to be the case.  Unless Zetterberg takes a month off and is able to come back pain free, this team probably has little shot of making any noise in the playoffs this year, assuming they even get there in the first place.

Not to be juvenile but

I like to think that my Sword of Testicles hovers above all.....or at least it hovered above that one girl......that one time in Amsterdam...... in the Red Light District....she said she loved me.....ummmmmm.....moving on.

I think the most concise way to summarize BiSB's original post in a message that even the dumbest among us should be able to understand is as follows:

No matter what happens to Michigan tomorrow, try not to fuck it up as a fanbase.

 

 

I'm not so sure

that wasn't the best Dan Dierdorf imitation I've ever read.

I'm not so sure

that you didn't just miss the joke I was going for there.

I am

not convinced that you didn't just use the old Dan Dierdorf double negative routine to make a speculative point. 

Hot women in MQT?

Yes

Hot women in the room where 3 men share one bunk bed?  Not so much, unless you guys are going to do your best "Jersey Shore/MVP" imitation.

I was going to argue with you on this

But then I saw your avatar and all was immediately forgiven in my mind.  Plus I have shit to do at work.

Sounds like

a regular sausage fest.  Forecast calls for a high chance of meat sweats.

Yeah

Well that's just like his opinion, man....

Here's the math

Miles = 1.0

Minutes to run said miles:  10

That ought to do it!

Hey Mr. Serial Downvoter

This is a Posbang, not a Negbang.  Don't be such a Debbie Downer.

Realization I had this month

It's amazing how much you stop caring about the ins and outs of recruiting drama when you actually have a team to root for that's performing well on the court or on the field.  Fuck the future - I just want to enjoy the current run this basketball team is on.  Hopefully the football team can follow suit with a strong performance in 2014.

Recruiting rankings would play a role

Considering that over half of the total returning roster from last year is comprised of two consensus Top 10 recruiting classes, many of whom now have 1-2 seasons of actual game experience, I'd say talent is not the issue. Talent development, scheme, focus and youth seem like the bigger concerns to me.

The exciting part

Is seeing if you can go faster than 60 mph with a Michigan license plate and avoid a speeding ticket.

The 2014 class is already closed

It just hasn't yet been made official. 

There were 4 real positions of need and we did a good job filing 3 of them  - QB (Speight), high end WR (Harris), high end CB/athlete (Peppers), high end pass rushing DE (closest we got was Marshall).  Considering the small available size of the class and the lack of drama outside of Hand/McDowell, the 2014 class should be considered a success. 

There's enough talent up and down the roster now along with some meaningful game day experience to make real progress on the field over the next year or two, regardless of whether anyone else is added at the end of this class. 

It's really all about the game day coaching now.  That's the part we should be more concerned with rather than whether we're able to poach another 4 star player or two before NSD.

I think you guys

are confusing the legal driving age with the legal consent age in Kentucky. 

I'm actually torn on that

While I like Peppers better as a potential gamebreaker than Hand, it could be argued that there was more of a position-specific need for Hand.  It all depends on what you think of the existing group of DB's already on the roster.  Personally, I think Michigan's secondary (for a change) isn't the biggest problem on defense.  The D-Line has been a sore spot for the last 2 years and doesn't seem to have enough gamebreakers to really push through. 

At least in the secondary, we've got two pretty experienced CBs in Taylor and Countess, and two young guys who seem to have good potential in Lewis and Stribling and got meaningful game experience this year.  Sure they got burned on a few memorable plays but at least their positioning was pretty solid.  They look like they can actually play tight man coverage without getting completely lost, so picture that technique mixed with more seasoning and some additional weight put on each of them as they become sophomores and juniors. 

To me, choosing Peppers over Hand is all about how much you believe in Lewis, Stribling and Dymonte Thomas long-term.  If you think only one of those guys will really pan out as a good-great player, then I can see where Peppers becomes more of a need than Hand.  Otherwise, I still say Hand because who in the current 2-deep on the D-Line do you see as having the potential to truly create a consistent, organic pass rush?  Frank Clark, maybe, and he's entering his last year anyway so he's not exactly a long-term solution to this problem.

Thanks, although

there may be a flaw in my argument if Harris doesn't have his driver's license yet.  Anyone know the legal driving age in Kentucky?

My choice both before and now

would be Hand.  Top 10 caliber talent at a specific position of need (pass rushing DE).  I get that McDowell could fit that mold as well so I'd have him #2 on the list, but since Hand was the better prospect I'd rank them as Hand, McDowell, Campbell and Harris.  As much as I'd love to have Harris, I feel there's more need from a high-end talent perspective in the near term at DL and WR than at RB.  After getting Green and Smith last year and having a realistic shot at Weber next year, Harris was (relatively) more of a luxury than the other guys. 

I respect Sam Webb

a lot and believe that he and TVH are the most accurate sources out there for predicting Michigan recruiting outcomes, but I don't think there's a chance in hell that Campbell's coming back into the fold.  Harris I'll buy, but not Campbell.  I hope I'm wrong.

Most surprising part of that post

is the reminder that JV is already 31.  I still think of him as a 23 year old high end prospect, but that was 8 years ago now.  Crazy to think that the Tigers have now been a legitimately good team for the better part of 8 years, considering what transpired from 1989-2005.

Finding his way back to Michigan from Kentucky

is a no-brainer.  Just take I-75 all the way and he should be golden - he should be there in about 5-6 hours depending on traffic conditions.  Problem solved!

(Shrug)

I love lamp.......I love lamp

Just when I think a Posbang Friday can't get any better

I get this wonderful (automated) e-mail below from the good folks at mgoblog.  Edit wiki pages and still retain the ability to create meaningless posts during a site lockdown?  Sounds much better than doing actual work!

Hello_Heisman, Hi. You've posted enough junk to be automatically promoted to

a new role. Role: trusted user Points Required: 500 The upshot: if you're now

"basic" you can post new threads on the message board. If you're "trusted"

you can edit the wiki pages on the site, which are mostly under "useful

stuff." Sometimes the board goes into lockdown mode; when this happens you

have to be basic to post anything and trusted to start a new thread.

 

So

MANY ACTIVITIES!!

I love lamp

I love lamp

Wait, what?

Who in their right mind could possibly downvote what turned out to be the most important basketball signing for Michigan in the last 20 years?  Plus on top of that, the gif makes him look like a DJ spinning a record while signing.

Dude

Your post just gave IU the Heisman.  Hello!