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Date	Title	Body
4 weeks 1 day ago	Next Year	I will measure next years success based on play in the conference as one bad game or one hot opponent and the tournament run is over.  Staukus + Robinson + Irving should mean lots of  scoring potential.  The way Iriving plays should translate well to the college games.  I see this team competing for a Big10 title, especially since a couple teams will take a step down.  I see MSU and OSU as being the biggest competetors.   Here are my concerns. I agree with others that there is uncertainty at PG.  Walton is highly regarded.  But he has to show it at the next level where Burke was just the best basketball player in college period.  I know people were excited about Spike but other then one torrid half he has never produced for an entire game much less an entire season.  Does not mean he cannot, just that we do not know. McGary showed a lot of value even when he does not score that we can depend on providing he keeps the fouls down.  He has very high rebounding, and steal numbers.  What he has to show next year is can he score and not just finish.  To a lesser extent Robinson will also have to show this.  Both were on the receiving end of Burke.  Unless Walton seamlessly steps in both may be asked to score in more difficult situations. How far they go plus Walton's development will determine how far Michigan goes in the regular season and the tournament.  I think it is a given there will be plenty of perimeter skills.  Can McGary or Robinson score effectively without a perfect setup pass?  I think they have a good shot.
4 weeks 6 days ago	How to fix officiating	Another problem is it seems that the style of officiating is different between leagues.  There needs to be a standardization such that foul in the Pac10, isa foul in the Big10, is a foul in the ACC.
4 weeks 6 days ago	Only good things will happen	If THJ stays we have great senior leadership.  It is not clear to me if we would see much talent improvement over what he did this year.  However, leadership is a quantity that is impossible to measure on the stat line that would be missed.  If THJ goes it means more playing time for Irvin who probably has more upside.  There will be struggles early in the season and loses against some tough teams. If Hardaway stays the two people who could see minutes drop or not see a role increase are Stauskus and LeVert.  If Irving shows almost as  good a 3pt shot but better defense I could see Irving taking some of Stauskus minutes.  Also have to wonder how LeVert gets on the floor.  If we presume Irving is used to spell Robinson(not a given) your looking at 5 people having to share 120 minutes.  If we exclude the 4 position that would be 80 minutes for 4 people. I think we are a better team if Hardaway stays.  But if he is the only other player to declare early the team should be okay.
5 weeks 5 days ago	Marginal Players	Here is one problem of declaring early when not ready.  The NBA is an 82 game season with 41 road games.   That means a number of travel days.  Good teams might play 10-20 more games in the playoffs.  The way you get better is playing against your peers not sitting on the bench for 120 days. A player like Burke is going to get minutes and he has been the focus of an offense.  A player like Robinson III or McGary is not.  They will sit and not get better unless a coach wishes to sacrifice his job to develop them at the sacrifice of winning.  Both of these two in my opinion have a higher development curve in college because they will be the focus of next years offense and have an opportunity to test what they practice in real games.  Even if their draft stock does not change much the opportunity of a longer career is greater because they have developed skills that can only happen under durress and reality. The exception is a player who knows in their heart they do not have it.  If they know their ceiling is low despite the appearances of atheletic potential, it is better to take the contract now.  If your a Kwame Brown clone, you do not want the NBA to observe you after you have developed.  You want to get in the NBA ASAP.  Then you can make bigger money on potential before the NBA figures out you do not have game.
6 weeks 3 hours ago	3 Games 3 calls	So think of it this way.  In every game a call was made that shattered or greatly reduced a teams chances to win.  Unlike a 1st half call, little you can do to recover.   Chances are the same team wins.  But  what drama did not happen because of bad calls? 1. UM<>Syracuse.   Hardaway pushes off.  Instead of an offensive foul, UM keeps the ball and the Syracuse guard(I believe Triche) picks up a foul.  Syracuse still had a chance but their odds of winning went way down with the failure to flip that possesion.  The least impacting of blatant calls be Syracuse still had time. 2. WSU<>Louisville, Quick whistle gives the jump ball to Lousivlle.  With WSU down 3 no chance to win.  Odds are still slim as they gotta hit a 3 and not a great 3 team.  But chance to win goes to zero. 3. Non foul on Burke as him being pushed causes LeVert to be out of bounds.  With 40 seconds left and UM having posession being 4 down there is still a chance.  Not having the ball means they are forced to foul.  Chance to win goes to zero. 3 games, 3 blown calls.  All had a huge impact on the odds.  I know that officiating a game is hard.  But that success rate is not good enough.   Or is the new order of things that the outcome is determined by oficials making calls or failing to make calls over players making great plays?  What great plays and drama did not happen?
6 weeks 5 hours ago	Bad Ref's	The one thing I hate about officiating is the lack of accountability.  When players or coaches blow it they bear the brunt of a fan bases wrath.  When an official blows it we have to accept it as just bad weather and inevitable.  Maybe there is internal accountability.  But the public lack of it is in my opinion is the reason for the hate for any blown call.  When does an official ever admit he blew a call that decided a game?   About as often as the weather apologies. That all said I thought Louisillve was the better team.   We had no answer for their offensive rebounding.  The game was lost because McGary reverted a bit to making mistakes and we gave up 11 2nd half offensive rebounds.  Those bad 2nd half calls would have only given UM a chance, and the chance was still pretty small.  I saw two other second half calls that really changed the game. The 1st was the mysterious call on Harrell instead of Hancock who undercut the Michigan player.  The context of the game would have changed completely as Hancock was the only serious tripple threat and that would have been four.  This was huge as Louiville pretty much went only 7 deep.   They might not have had the energy to sustain that little run.  I did not even see Harrell in the play.  Interested if someone saw something else.  The other was the out of bounds call on Levert.  Burke gets knocked to the  ground and  into Levert.  The official has the eyes to see someone a half inch out of bounds but misses an obvious foul that would have stopped the clock and given Burke 2 FT's to cut to 2. Now we benefited against Syracuse as the Hardway pushoff that was not called had the same impact on Syracuse.   The game is completely different if Syracuse has the ball plus one less foul on a star player who eventually fouls out.  It is just so frustrating that when you are on the unlucky side there is nothing you can do but  scream at the darkness in impotence.  The same officials will be back next year, be called the best and destroy some other future teams dreams.   And just like in the movie "A Man for all Seasons", the tyrants get away with evil and live a happy, full, peaceful life, never suffering the consequences of their mayhem.  And three officials are clucking in self satisfaction because in their mind they called a good game. In closing it is amazing how games get disected down and every inch and second will be scrutinized.  Yet there is never an analysis of how well or how poorly an official does.  It is frustrating that we just have to treat it the same way as bad weather.
6 weeks 2 days ago	Key is the absence of Ware	I am going to add on to what "GREAT" mentioned as I agree Ware not in the rotation will be big.  This is a quick turnaround game.  Both teams get only 48 hours of rest.  Thus fatigue is going to be a factor like the Florida game.  Ware was the 1st guard off the bench and reason why Silva/Smith averaged only 30 minutes a game.   Both averaged 35 in the WSU win.  If Louisville presses, they will expend a lot more energy then Michigan.  The press is not really useful if the defenders are tired or slower. If Louisville presses with Silva/Smith playing 35 minutes I believe it will not be sustainable as they will get tired faster.  They will tire because they are forced to play more minutes and they are tired from Saturdays game.  If Louisville chooses to press with Silva/Smith getting less rest, it will not be as effective as the other G/F's or Henderson are not going to be as effective. My prediction is Pitino will attempt to pick & choose when he presses to attempt to generate a point run.  I believe he knows that on short rest an all out full court press will exaust his team. Without the constant pressing, Louisville is not the same threat.  They are pretty average in scoring out of the half court offense.  When we are in our half court offene one of the munchkins will have to guard one of our 6 foot 6 shooters.  I am not going to predict a Michigan win as lots of varience in tournament ball with the clash of conference styles.  But I think we have a pretty good chance of winning.  Michigan plays a style of ball where their starters can stay in for 35+ minutes a game.
6 weeks 2 days ago	Teams selling out to stop Burke	Every team is selling out to stop Burke at all costs.  This has opened things up for other players.  Next year it will be a little tougher for McGary as he will be the target.  Burke has been our equivalent of the defensive tackle that gets double & triple teamed but allows for the End and Outside Linebacker to pick up the sack.
6 weeks 4 days ago	Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Discover May 2013	This is for Ace and anyone who has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.  Check out the Discover Article page12.   Chances are there may not be a monolithic cure as there may be multiple vectors.  The arcticle discusses the premise that B-cells become misguided because the T-cells accidentally tells them it is okay to attack the body.  They observed that rituximab reduced or removed CFS symptoms for a certain length of time until the B-cells recovered.  Suppressing the immune system may not be the best long term solution. However, this could lead to researchers zeroing in on the source instead of treating the symptom.  In the given study two thirds of the subjects responded positively to rituximab.
7 weeks 6 days ago	Leaving early for the NBA draft	Leaving early can be disasterous if you are not ready.  In he NBA there are 82 games and if you get on a good team the potential for another 10-12.   Throw in preseason games and that means you have about 100 days when you are not practicing.  Thow in travel days and the number goes up even higher.  If you know what you are doing and are a finished product this is not a big deal.  Howevr, if you have to work on major components of your game its not going to get done sitting on the end of the bench watching 100 games. You learn your game with practice and game situations.  A raw talent like Robinson the III is being projected as a mid round pick.   That means he is projected to be drafted by a playoff team.  So a coach is going to commit to Robinson learning the ropes while watching his playoff hopes and his job get dashed.  It is not going to happen.  The way declaring early helps Robinson is if he knows deep down he does not have game and he just wants to get that first big contract. If Robinson is half as good as everyone says he will play himself into a lottery pick next year.  So he can declare early and get taken late in the 1st round and sit on the bench for the entire year and stagnating collecting a mediore contract or wait a year, be a lottery pick, get a big contract, and most likely be a starter on day one for the team that picks him.  The NFL and NBA are different in that because there are only 20 games(4 preseason) and 10 travel days, a player can be developed.  There is a lot more practice time.  The NBA and NHL are grinds.  MLB has a minor league system to develop players.   If your missing something, the coach is not going to have the time on a 4 games in 5 day west coast road trip to put you through basic training.   A NFL staff can do that.
9 weeks 2 days ago	Freshmen and 2 Big's	So here is the experience for Wisc starting 5.  Senior, Senior, Senior, Junior, Sophmore, verse our starting 5 a Junior, Junior, Sophmore, Freshmen, Freshmen.  There is your answer.  Defense is something you learn after getting your butt kicked a few times.  This may be a misprint but according to ESPN GRIII and Evans are the same height and weight.  Yet one owned the other in the post.  Watching GRIII's response to Evan's moves it was not that he was muscled down but clueless on how to play defense.  We forget he was a late bloomer, not this finished basketball product. There was suggestion that 2 bigs would work better.  In college, runnning with two post players without one being a perimeter threat is really tough.  Recall Izzo's difficulties getting Payne and Nix on the floor at the same time.  It only really clicked when Payne became a perimeter threat.  If we still had Smotrycz I think you have something to work with.  But our bigs are currently not talented enough for that to work.  What is ironic is that Nix hit is career high today.  All that work for a Big10 career high of 17 points. Now there is critisim that Beilein cannot coach defense.  I would say that is by design.  Unless you can recruit superior atheletes ala Kentucky you have to pick & choose the character of your team.  It is sort of like critisizing Bo Ryan for Wisconsin never having a great offense.  You pick what you want to be strong at and hope that is good enough.  I think if Beilein was given last year roster for UK he would have done just as well as anyone else.  If Beilein can recruit good players including a few who will stay around for a few years, I think he can coach up the defense to be more then adequate.  Indiana improved significantly with a year of experience.
9 weeks 3 days ago	Leaving early for the NBA	Only the most polished are the supefreaks go the first couple years.  No one on this roster is remotely close to a one and doner.  We had the good or perhaps misfortune of losing two PG's after two years.  Looking at what Moris has done in the NBA I question his decision to go early.  Not sure how well Burke will do. What I can say is I doubt there any more one and doners on this current roster.  Robinson has major problems everywhere.  He currently is the guy with the really deep voice who wants to go into radio and freezes up.  He will be back at Michigan in 2015 unless he is a fool and an NBA team is even more foolish.  Ditto on McGary and Staukus.   So I feel pretty good that we will have more experience the next couple years.  And then if those experienced players are making the same mistakes then we can fault the coach.
9 weeks 4 days ago	Too much Beilin hate	I know this was a frustrating loss, espcially in contrast to last years Novak/Douglus gritty overachievers.   So for those who say Beilin cannot teach defense what about last year?  This was one of the youngest teams in all of college basketball with five freshmen in the nine man rotation.  We also knew that all of the freshmen were incomplete projects.  Staukus could shoot but little else, Robinson was a late bloomer,  McGatry was way overrated and raw as an offensive player.   There are certain kinds of freshmen who are polished players and are obvious one and done products that are only in college because the NBA will not let them go directly to GO.  None of our frosh fit that description.   I am also frustrated as I must admit I do not like the current character of this team.  But expecting Beilin to have a final4 contender with such a young unseasoned team is unreasonable.  No one else could have done better.  If this group of freshmen are playing like this two years from now, then we can say Beilin has a problem. We get so spoiled and expect teenagers to be a finished product.   I remember the first fab 5 of Relford, Wade, Tarpley, Jokich, and Henderson.  Even with Eric Turner they were not so hot with Eric Turner leading the way either.  Its crazy that we say an offensive linemen is not worth poop until is 3rd year in the program and now we demand late bloomers and hidden gems to perfect their first year.
10 weeks 1 day ago	It is all about FT's	We can complain about offensive rebounds and bad defense but the reality is we were up 4 and on the line with 55 seconds to go.  If you cannot hit free throws to ice a game how can you be depended on to take a contested shot to win it?  The FT is the easiest hardest shot in basketball.  If you can't make don't bother considering a tourney run because you will lose every close game.
11 weeks 8 hours ago	Too much uncertainty still	The conference tounaments throw such a monkeywrench into any projection.  Imagine the seed spread between UM winning their last two regular season games and the Big10  tournament verses losing one more game(6 conference losses) and perhaps a loss in the 3rd game of the Big10 tournament.   That would make the difference from a #1 seed to as low as a #4 seed. Considering that the Big10 is considered by the pundits the most difficult conference, I can't imagine us not getting a #1 seed if we ended up splitting home & home with Indiana and having to two beat two of the premier teams to win the entire thing.
11 weeks 5 days ago	Young team and everyone has bad losses	I think people forget that the rotation contains 5 Frosh in the rotation of nine who play.  The reality is unless those Freshmen are lotery picks like UK last year they are going to be imperfect players.  We all agreed the expectations were all to high going into this season.  We have also observed more seasoned teams also have strange losses on the road against inferior teams.  I watched IU absolutely tank against Illinois the last 4 minutes of the game.  It happens especially when a shooter is getting good looks and gets hot.  This team has been winning games by being very efficient and mistake free on offense.  What we see with this team is what they are.  I suppose something might be being held back for the tounament.  But the reality is this team is a year away from being complete.  Whether it is better with Burke's absense is another question.
12 weeks 9 hours ago	The dangers of drafting a certain style in the NFL	Good article but I want to make a comment on insisting on playing a particular style.  The NFL is a copycat league.  Once a particular style gets popular for example Walsh style West Coast offense every team will compete for the same limited group of players.   The cap guarantees you will be unable to spend your way to success.  A good example in my opininon was the sudden popularity of 3-4 defenses after NE had success.  All of a sudden there was competition on the draft and in FA and it became much harder for NE to sustain a great defense.  On offense I believe flexability and a willingnes to change is much more important then a style.  Again looking at the best in NE, the offense seems to be remade every year.  They go from a feature NFL back(Dillon) to a feature receiver(Moss), to spread & shred with role players, two spread with two TE's. The one advantage of college is unlike the NFL all teams are not treated equal.  The brand teams can recruit as many great players as they have scholarships and the SEC teams more.  In college if you are picking the best players of a type you will at least have success against your little brothers on talent alone.  Whether your finished product really is better or your technique better will not become apparant until you play another team on equal footing.  And of course if you have the misfortune of playing Alabama you will be the little brother and your technique and style will be irrevlevant.
12 weeks 6 days ago	How about looking at money?	If you want to figure out why Alabama and other SEC teams do so well at football look at how much money is spent on the football program.
13 weeks 2 days ago	Michigan PSU prediction	Option A.  UM blows out PSU early and cruises in the 2nd half.  UM 80, PSU 55. Option B. UM comes out flat.  PSU hangs around.  UM gets down to business in the 2nd half and pulls away.  UM 80, PSU 55. Option C. Treat Options A and B as discrete quantum states and Option C is a superposition of A and B with the outcome of UM 80 PSU 55. Any other deviation from a UM blowout would be a violation of the laws of physics and I would have to dump the standard model to explain such a violation.   But kids seem to not want to follow rules which is what makes college sports so fun.  Let us hope for at least one day that the magic that is college sports does not happen and reality stays the course for one day.
14 weeks 2 days ago	Still a very young team	We need to remember there are four freshmen playing significant minutes.  Despite the heart breaking loss I like the position of this team for a run in either tournament.  Winning the Big10 regular season would be nice.  But I thought that was going to be really hard with such a young team. I will agree with the others I would prefer to defend the inbounds pass with my tallest player as it makes those bullet passes much more difficult.  In the case of this specific event a running 40 footer is still a crazy shot.
16 weeks 5 days ago	Harbaugh is not Manball	I find it hillarious that everyone keeps insisting that Harbaugh is manball smash mouth football only.   One of his great innovations that is working so well for the 49'ers is running read option and using James as a complement to Gore.  He is willing to use all tools at his disposal be it smash mouth or spread unlike other closed minded coaches.  I saw a QB in the NFL run for 160 yards in a half and then the read option was used as a decoy to prevent the Falcon DE's from crashing in on the QB.   So by just showing the ball, the 49'ers were able to constrain what the Falcons could do on defense.  But I agree he is not a very nice person.   I had friends in South Quad at the time and from their accounts Harbaugh was a bit of a bully and tyrant.  So the fact he says hurtful things in a spontaneous manner does not suprise me.
19 weeks 1 day ago	Way to opptimistic and Hart	The passing game looked very good with DG in only because he had the opportunity to play some terrible teams.  Not saying he will not be good.   Just have to account for that.   Regarding Hart I saw a comment that it waa teams daring Henning to beat them.  I disagree as a Big10 team should be able to clobber a MAC team even if they put 9 in the box.   Its not like UM's running game got stuffed when Navarre was forced to play for an injured Henson against CMU.   I think we both agree getting Green is pretty important.  But your not going to get 40th if Green does not show.   DR got 100 yards as a RB with the same supposedly impotent Oline that the others could not run behind.   DR got just as many yards with vision and ruggedness as speed.  So I will stand by my assertion the Oline was not as bad as people claim.
19 weeks 1 day ago	Way too optimistic on the offense	I believe the author is way too optimistic on the state of the offense.  A lot of these concerns get fixed if Green does commit.   But sans a good RB, a running game behind a good offensive line can look pretty bad if there is no one to carry the rock.  As a good sample space look at the first 3 games of the 2004 season.   Even against Miami of Ohio we were unable to establish a running game.   Then Mike Hart gets carries midway through the 1st half against SDSU and we magically have a good running attack.  If there is no running threat you can kiss any improvement you believe in passing goodby as decent teams will just blitz like crazy and ignore Borges futile blind look play actions.   So you should pray for Green or the 2nd coming of Hart as everyone that was not DR failed terribly. Now if Green commits lots of good things happen.   Green would have a very similiar impact in my opinion as Clarrett did on the OSU offense in 2001.   Clarrett made the difference between stink and just good enough.  Were talking the same kind of RB.  Not only is Green supposedly a rugged runner who has vision & moves, but he also understands the passing game.   Were talking somone who understands route running and identifying blitzes, items that most young RB's are clueless on.   And when those young linemen blow an assignment, Green is rugged enough to turn a one yard loss into a two yard gain. Just as a NT is the keystone of the 3-4 defense, I see Green as the keystone for success on offense. ND will not be a pushover either.
19 weeks 5 days ago	Sample space to small	I also agree the sample space is way too small.   When you are comparing a coach with 2-3 years of work verse ten years local events and luck will not weigh out.   For example Hoke did not have PSU and Wisconsin on his schedule.   Combine that with the decay of Iowa and the destruction of Illinois and I think you can make a case that the Big10 was a much stronger conference three years ago.   R^2 was also stuck with a debacle at QB his first year, a true freshmen his 2nd, and a raw but talented sophmore his last.   Compare to Hoke who has been able to make a go with junior, a senior the first half of this year plus Gardner on the back half.   All of these things even out.  How well will Hoke do when he Dcoordinator is only human and not a God?  Mattison will not be there forever, though it would be nice. Since some people are putting in predictions for next year if we do not bring in a top RB, next year will be very tough.  A lot of people are assuming the RB problems are completely on the line.  If we go back to 2004 Michigan was also struggling.   Somewhere in the 1st half, Lloyd Carr inserts Mike Hart and the rest is history.  Furthermore, look at any game from 2004-2007 and compare when Hart played verses not playing or being hurt.   It is the same line yet one RB was succesful and everyone else was not? So before we run our graduating senior linemen under the bus let us put things in perspective.  Next years young uber recruits will only do as well as the RB.  So pray for Green.
19 weeks 5 days ago	Sample space to small	I also agree the sample space is way too small.   When you are comparing a coach with 2-3 years of work verse ten years local events and luck will not weigh out.   For example Hoke did not have PSU and Wisconsin on his schedule.   Combine that with the decay of Iowa and the destruction of Illinois and I think you can make a case that the Big10 was a much stronger conference three years ago.   R^2 was also stuck with a debacle at QB his first year, a true freshmen his 2nd, and a raw but talented sophmore his last.   Compare to Hoke who has been able to make a go with junior, a senior the first half of this year plus Gardner on the back half.   All of these things even out.  How well will Hoke do when he Dcoordinator is only human and not a God?  Mattison will not be there forever, though it would be nice. Since some people are putting in predictions for next year if we do not bring in a top RB, next year will be very tough.  A lot of people are assuming the RB problems are completely on the line.  If we go back to 2004 Michigan was also struggling.   Somewhere in the 1st half, Lloyd Carr inserts Mike Hart and the rest is history.  Furthermore, look at any game from 2004-2007 and compare when Hart played verses not playing or being hurt.   It is the same line yet one RB was succesful and everyone else was not? So before we run our graduating senior linemen under the bus let us put things in perspective.  Next years young uber recruits will only do as well as the RB.  So pray for Green.
20 weeks 2 days ago	The case for Schwartz and perhaps Mayhew	Here is my reasoning why Schwartz should not be fired.   Going into the 2012 draft the Lions had some huge needs.   In my opinion they needed a shut down corner, another safety, a run blocking guard, and a pass rushing DE.   Instead they drafted an offensive tackle with their 1st pick and a injured wide receiver with their 2nd pick.   This was puzzling since Backus and Burlson were not going anywhere.  The only thing I could think of is that Mayhew was conceding 2012 and playing for 2013.  Both Burlson and Backus will be gone and then the picks make sense. Now we can argue whether playing that far ahead is a good idea.  If the consensous is that is a terrible idea then we can talk about Mayhew being fired.   The bigest problem with the Lions  in my opinion is horrible play in the secondary.  3 10+ 2nd half leads were lost and multiple other games lost because we did not have a corner who could cover a dead opposum.  That was not Schwartz's fault. Maybe Schwartz is a terrible coach after all for other reasons.   But he can only work with the players given to him by the GM.   And yes, the Fords have no clue how to be competent owners of a NFL franchise.
21 weeks 2 days ago	Lions win SB first	The Lions have a better shot and here is why.  In the draft all things are equal.  At some point the blind squirrel that is Ford senior will stumble into a good GM and coach. Though UM has the brand to recruit well, SEC teams and USC will always be able to recruit better.  Though there is more varience in any college game it is really hard to beat a team that as a significant talent advantage.  That all said I think UM has a better chance of getting to a NC game then the Lions getting to the SB.  It is just they will be like ND and face planted by Alabama.
21 weeks 6 days ago	Not a good fit	I have observed two diferent threads.   There are those who claim R^2 is not a story and they do not care.   And others who declare that R^2 was just not a good fit for some reason.  The level of R^2's success at other programs is meaningful to me because if his success at Arizona is equivalent to West Virginia then the question is not whether R^2 was a good fit but what is wrong at Michigan. This may seem to be a silly question but there once was a great company called General Motors.  GM onced owned 50% of the NA automobile market.   They thought they were the best and were ruled by insiders.  An outsider was never considered for a fresh perspective because he would not be a good fit.  GM had a long way to fall, but fall they did.  If the rulers and shakers of Michigan football treat themselves like 19th century European royalty where the only acceptable marriage material is your cousin from Bulgaria, questioning whether a long fall is possible is a reasonable one to me. In my opinion if this team had been stuck back in 2009 or 2010 it would at best be a .500 team.  The only reason why it will not be a .500 team next year is the Big10 might arguablly be the weakest of all the major conferences.  When beating NW at home is your signature victory and you still are unable to recruit a blue chip RB or WR tells me that something is still amiss.  Is it bad luck or are the old boys out of touch with todays recruits.  If Green selects Michigan that concern will be less.  Some presume it is inevitbale that dominating seasons are inevitable.  But I would warn so did the board and their cronys also believe such destiny at GM back in the 80ties and 90ties.  We will be back at 50% market share in no time, I meant 40%, actually 30.  So when I hear the words not a good fit for a person who succeeds everywhere but here, I shudder.
22 weeks 4 days ago	Browns fans the worse	My aunt is a season ticket holder for the Colts since they arrived in Indy.   Her group often travels to games if not west of the rockies.  The one place her group will no longer go is Cleveland.   Every time their group goes there is at least one major altercation.   What is interesting is the complete lack of intervention by the security guards.   Her description was very similiar in that security was either not interested or would blame them if a member of the group reported a problem.  They will travel anywhere else without too much issue as they are mostly older middle aged ladies who enjoy watching football.
23 weeks 1 day ago	Recruiting	I agree with some of the posters that it appears that RB's with lots of stars are more likely to work out then lets say an offensive linemen.  That all said it is still a number based on potential, specifically NFL potential.  What is often overlooked is recruiting players that fit a scheme.  The Weis classes were noted did not reflect in wins.  But they were acting like a bad NY Yankee team in that they were more a collection of talents then a coherent set of classes.  There are certain programs that have had great success identifying players that match a scheme and playing to that scheme.  At their best Iowa did this.   Wisc also has had a lot of success without neccesarily uber recruits.  Oregon is a BCS player not every year without neccesarily relying on top15 classes every year.  Ultimately there has to be a trust of the coaching staff.  Moving to basketball which is much easier to scout because they play so much more, it is amazing that Beilein identifies lower level recruits that either explode as seniors or explode in college.  So if Mattison is all excited on a 3 star and passes by a 5 star, I am going to trust Mattison over any recruiting agency.

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