Also, with Avery rolled up as the overhang defender, he was responsible for any play that comes outside the TE. Having both Kovacs and Avery take this responsibility is a redundancy that gives numbers to Wisconsin (besides, if Kovacs attacks from the weakside of the play, there's little to no chance that the RB makes it outside the TE). And the reason Avery can't just attack the weakside B-gap is because he has coverage on the TE should he release, relieving Kovacs of both of his responsibilities in the original cover-3 design.
Defensive formations shift judging by the way offenses line up. Kovacs missed one of these checks in the original play, but this is a cover-3 formation.
But the play didn't go to the A-gap. The cutback sent the play to the weakside B-gap. Weakside defenders can't just stand around and hope the play comes at them. Also, there wasn't a TE assigned to block Kovacs: the TE and LT doubled Van Bergen. Kovacs (until it was too late) was completely unblocked.
It's cover-3 but when Wisconsin uses twins to the strongside, Avery rolls up and covers Kovacs' zone. Kovacs needs to attack the backside of the play and Avery (essentially) has man coverage on the TE should he release upfield. Vinopal and Rogers also drop into, essentially, man coverage should both receivers run vertical routes. Underneath zones are handled by the linebackers and Gordon.
With the lack of a receiving threat on the weakside and Avery rolled toward the LOS as the overhand defender, Kovacs not attacking the play becomes problematic (hence, the result of the play). He needs to attack the backfield because Avery has coverage should the TE release. Kovacs removing himself from the play creates an even bigger numbers advantage for Wisconsin and opens the backside entirely.
You're missing a lot of stuff on this play. You keep ignoring the fact that there's actually a tight end lined up on the weakside of the offensive line. In the original play, the weakside defensive end (Van Bergen) is actually doubled by the LT and TE, and gets sealed to the outside. That's one of the reasons that he got taken so far out of position and there was a huge cutback lane. Also in the orginal play, the double team on Martin comes from the LG and C, and when that double releases, it's the LG that ends up blocking Mouton and opening the hole for the Wisconsin back.
In this play, however, the weakside DE (Banks) in only blocked by the TE, allowing him to get playside and close off the cutback lane. The LT releases immediately and blocks Mouton (like the LG did in the original play). Once again, the LG and C double Michigan's NT, but this time, the LG doesn't release from the NT.
On the playside, this is identical to how the original play happened: the RG is given a free release and is stuffed by Demens and the FB is hit by Ezeh in the hole. Why Wisconsin decided not to double the weakside DE and open that cutback lane when it worked so well the first time (and, strangely, deciding to double Patterson for the whole play rather than Martin when he was playing) is beyond me.
On BWS, I addressed what I think went wrong with the original play--mostly, that Kovacs was responsible for the cutback lane when Van Bergen was doubled--and had planned on posting this one tomorrow. But the point is, the only difference in these two plays is the blocking scheme on the backside of the play which allowed Banks to close off the cutback lane.
Yeah, there have been a ton of injuries in my games, but never the QBs (Koger, Moundros, Odoms, all come to mind as injury prone). There's almost certainly a slider where you can turn down injuries--I haven't looked--but if not, it could end up being a problem.
Putting the two-headed UM QB on that list makes no sense and completely defeats the exercise. Tate and Denard should be no where near that list. Neither should any of the skill position players on the offense for that matter, save maybe Odoms, but even he's a stretch.
Molk will probably show up on there and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the 4-6 range given the obvious impact he has on Michigan offense.
I think Roh is probably too young and unproven to get on the list at this point, especially with his move to linebacker. But we also might see Woolfolk pop up in the top 10.
Good points. But like I mentioned somewhere above, these teams know realistically the players they're going to get. If Manny is #10 on someone's draft board, he's not going to that team.
Again, take my pessimism with a grain of salt. I'm a noted Manny hater; I don't like his game or his upside, with empirical evidence to back my sentiments. Maybe he's someone's #1 pick and goes in the first round. I'd be willing to wager a pretty significant sum of money that he's no where near the draft.
Every team in the NBA pretty much will have the same top picks
This is almost certainly false. Teams likely don't build their lists of prospects off of the entire pool of players. That's a fools game and a waste of time because the Lakers and Cavaliers and Celtics know damned well they're not drafting John Wall. There's absolutely no reason to include him on your list.
These top 10 lists would cease to have any meaning at all--and given that they have pretty little meaning right now as is, that's saying something--if teams all included the top 10 prospects in the draft.
We can say with near certainty that Manny is not a lottery pick, leaving 45 players left to get drafted. If we assume that even 33% of the teams in the league have him somewhere in their top 10--a specious statement, to say the least, given that a) being in the top 10 could mean, ya know, 10th and b) the three teams Ford breaks down is by no means an adequate sample size to apply to the whole league, but we're being optimistic for Manny's sake--it's a toss up.
Let's say, hypothetically, that Manny is #5 on 1/3 of the team's top 10s (put him dead in the middle of their lists for an overly optimistic percentage of the league). That's 40 "players". Take into consideration the fact that there's probably a lot of overlap between the team's respective lists and let's estimate that there's 15 players that Manny is considered amonst as reasonable draft prospects. So those 15 players are all in consideration for the 1/3 of the final 45 spots left in the draft (i.e., 15 spots).
So now you'll look at that and think, 15 players, 15 spots, he's likely to get drafted. But realistically, he could either be on far more or far less people's top 10 lists. And given what we know of Manny and his draft potential (the "eye test" mentioned above; an average sized, moderately athletic shooting guard without an outside shot), logic leads us to say that's probably tending toward the latter.
I've been a pretty outward Manny critic for a long time, so take it with a grain of salt, but even these optimistically hazy numbers paint a pretty grim picture for Manny's draft potential.
Even if 33% of the league has Manny somewhere in their top 10, he's a holy lock to go undrafted. There are only two rounds in the NBA draft (60 players). So unless Manny features in the top 1-4 for a non-lottery team--you have to assume that this evaluation is not including the likes of John Wall, Evan Turner, and the other high-draft locks in the top 10--he's not getting anywhere near the draft board.
I'm not arguing against the sentiment. But the article itself is half baked, and his arguments are too subtle to argue an institutional bias. Semantics can be explained away as a poor headline writer. Plus Chait's own admittance that different reporters can have different biases argues firmly against his cause.
Semantics are not evidence of an institutional bias but it is a symptom. Chait tries to take two different journalists covering different schools and with different biases/backgrounds--and more importantly, covering very divergent stories--and from that, attempts to construct institutional bias on the strength of poor headlines a story structure (something he prefaces with a his own admittance that different writers show their bias in different ways).
Shoddy reporting and poor editing, sure. Institutional bias implies something greater, and something that can't be constructed from the argument Chait makes here--not that I necessarily disagree with the conclusion. The article reeks of vengeance and is Chait looking for controversy in the details when it's standing broadly in front of him.
"Then you have Shannon Shelton, an MSU alum who is the opposite of Rosenberg, defending her fellow Spartan athletes at all costs"
This goes to prove my point: Chait begins his column by addressing that there are individuals with biases, but then goes on to attempt to argue that the entire paper has a bias. If we're looking at the approach of two different reporters, reporting on two wildly different events that were both approved (presumably) by the same editor, this doesn't necessarily constitute an institutional bias.
But if you take similar events, look at how they were covered (and editorially approved), you can start to make connections and accusations.
I suppose you can include those aspects, but the Feagin situation produced "win at all costs..." and Wiston's reinstatement got some column about retribution and second chances.
Problem is that, though the NCAA piece was poorly done, it was a different aim than this current MSU incident. One was an investigative report while the other is breaking news. The Freep didn't go back to Feagin's high school coaches or dig into his background. That's enough of a bias right there, especially seeing how they treating Winston on his return.
It's a moot point, and we all agree the Freep has serious issues in its coverage. But this Chait piece poorly proves it.
This article is pissy and poorly written. Not only is the argument behind the article inherently flawed--that the coverage of a potential major scandal requiring NCAA sanctions should be covered the same as the incident at MSU--but his approach to it is poor and based largely in the semantics of headline writing.
I don't disagree with the sentiment, but this is not the way to go about it. Similarities should be drawn between the Freep's response to the handling of the Feagin situation and the various Winston ones, as they are more similar situations and ones that drew drastically varying coverage. That would unveil a bias. This just sounds like petty bickering.
Yes. I know that. But what does that mean? Was my answer too smart to have come from me? It's a nonsensical reference. But judging by his output in the rest of this thread, that should be expected.
Getting players into space does not mean "We want them open". It means getting players away from the congestion of the O- and D-lines and allowing them to make plays against one or two defenders, instead of trying to run through or behind the O-line (like Wisconsin. Or Carr.)
We weren't out coached, but I can hardly see a way to view this game except as a failure in coaching, which is to say that I don't think Dantonio did anything particularly well in his scheme. But for most of the game, MSU was loading the box and rushing 6 or 7. They were able to do that because we spent a lot of time in a two-wide set. Every time we went three- and four-wide, we were successful, both in the run and in the pass. It was a disappointing game from RichRod.
I like how you shoot down a report that has, more or less, an insider report from someone who apparently talked with Tate about the injury and then give your own completely random prognosis based on... how you feel.
I'm probably wrong here, but I thought Boren re-injured himself recently and was going to be out for weeks with a possible October return. Can anyone confirm?
I know. I'm an editor at a magazine. We deal with this frequently. But the copyright laws vis-a-vis public forums are kind of blurry. I don't know that there's a documented case of a publication filing and winning a law suit in such an instance. (Brian/MGoBlog would likely be the one they'd go after, and we don't want that, but in this stage of new media, it would be a difficult case to make still. Is quoting and not linking a similar violation? Yes. But there are no cases in that instance either--something the Freep itself would largely be guilty of.) In any case, I do mention that it would be nice if they excerpted quotes here, because really, I don't care about the rest.
No. We don't copy and paste $ articles. Free ones, especially ones from the Publication That Must Not be Named, you can post... or at least post interesting tid bits from it.
Dude, this isn't The Wire...
That said, if they can supply sufficient evidence that M breached established "laws" put in place by a legitimate governing body, and these records would go to prove it, there's no reason this wouldn't be approved.
Also, y'all shouldn't get in a tizzy about this. This, this, is actual reporting. It does make me laugh, though, that the Freep's apparent only form of reporting for their big stories comes on the back of text messages (if this does end up becoming something).
Listen, if we broke NCAA rules, by all means, punish us. The real contention and anger about this article is that they didn't do any reporting and that we (maybe) didn't break any rules. Now, this doesn't negate the fact that this looks more and more like a witch hunt. But in their eyes, this may be successful if they find something we did wrong. It just would've been nice if they had done such reporting before they released the initial article. Ya know, that reporting thing again.
The problem with this is that unless there's a text that says, "We're pulling your scholarship if you don't come to this workout", there's really nothing that these texts can do. Saying, "You're not going to play if you don't come work out" doesn't make the workout mandatory.
This is more yawnworthy news. If it even is news. Which, right now, it's not.
Yes. He said IU was good and wasn't sure how we'd handle them.
A little secret about Michael Wilbon that a whole lot of educated people might try to hide from you: Michael Wilbon is a raging idiot that knows dick about sports.
Rain obviously affects all aspects of the game, but it's largely been my belief that it most significantly affects the passing game (for obvious reasons: ball slips out of QBs hands, harder to catch, etc.). Rodriguez has been able to establish one of the most potent and effective running games in the past and will likely have similar packages at M. Unless you assume that we suffer more turnovers because of rain than other teams, I would assume that the ability to go to an effective, run-heavy attack would benefit our team against teams that air it out (in the rain, anyway).
Recent Comments
Also, with Avery rolled up as the overhang defender, he was responsible for any play that comes outside the TE. Having both Kovacs and Avery take this responsibility is a redundancy that gives numbers to Wisconsin (besides, if Kovacs attacks from the weakside of the play, there's little to no chance that the RB makes it outside the TE). And the reason Avery can't just attack the weakside B-gap is because he has coverage on the TE should he release, relieving Kovacs of both of his responsibilities in the original cover-3 design.
Defensive formations shift judging by the way offenses line up. Kovacs missed one of these checks in the original play, but this is a cover-3 formation.
But the play didn't go to the A-gap. The cutback sent the play to the weakside B-gap. Weakside defenders can't just stand around and hope the play comes at them. Also, there wasn't a TE assigned to block Kovacs: the TE and LT doubled Van Bergen. Kovacs (until it was too late) was completely unblocked.
It's cover-3 but when Wisconsin uses twins to the strongside, Avery rolls up and covers Kovacs' zone. Kovacs needs to attack the backside of the play and Avery (essentially) has man coverage on the TE should he release upfield. Vinopal and Rogers also drop into, essentially, man coverage should both receivers run vertical routes. Underneath zones are handled by the linebackers and Gordon.
With the lack of a receiving threat on the weakside and Avery rolled toward the LOS as the overhand defender, Kovacs not attacking the play becomes problematic (hence, the result of the play). He needs to attack the backfield because Avery has coverage should the TE release. Kovacs removing himself from the play creates an even bigger numbers advantage for Wisconsin and opens the backside entirely.
You're missing a lot of stuff on this play. You keep ignoring the fact that there's actually a tight end lined up on the weakside of the offensive line. In the original play, the weakside defensive end (Van Bergen) is actually doubled by the LT and TE, and gets sealed to the outside. That's one of the reasons that he got taken so far out of position and there was a huge cutback lane. Also in the orginal play, the double team on Martin comes from the LG and C, and when that double releases, it's the LG that ends up blocking Mouton and opening the hole for the Wisconsin back.
In this play, however, the weakside DE (Banks) in only blocked by the TE, allowing him to get playside and close off the cutback lane. The LT releases immediately and blocks Mouton (like the LG did in the original play). Once again, the LG and C double Michigan's NT, but this time, the LG doesn't release from the NT.
On the playside, this is identical to how the original play happened: the RG is given a free release and is stuffed by Demens and the FB is hit by Ezeh in the hole. Why Wisconsin decided not to double the weakside DE and open that cutback lane when it worked so well the first time (and, strangely, deciding to double Patterson for the whole play rather than Martin when he was playing) is beyond me.
On BWS, I addressed what I think went wrong with the original play--mostly, that Kovacs was responsible for the cutback lane when Van Bergen was doubled--and had planned on posting this one tomorrow. But the point is, the only difference in these two plays is the blocking scheme on the backside of the play which allowed Banks to close off the cutback lane.
Tax free might also mean Miami.
Yeah, there have been a ton of injuries in my games, but never the QBs (Koger, Moundros, Odoms, all come to mind as injury prone). There's almost certainly a slider where you can turn down injuries--I haven't looked--but if not, it could end up being a problem.
I was going to make some joke about how 500 drinks in 12 months seems light, but the math works out. Carry on.
Yeah, Operation Sports was a mess yesterday. Just found Fairdale Kings a few minutes ago. Thanks all.
Putting the two-headed UM QB on that list makes no sense and completely defeats the exercise. Tate and Denard should be no where near that list. Neither should any of the skill position players on the offense for that matter, save maybe Odoms, but even he's a stretch.
Molk will probably show up on there and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the 4-6 range given the obvious impact he has on Michigan offense.
I think Roh is probably too young and unproven to get on the list at this point, especially with his move to linebacker. But we also might see Woolfolk pop up in the top 10.
Good points. But like I mentioned somewhere above, these teams know realistically the players they're going to get. If Manny is #10 on someone's draft board, he's not going to that team.
Again, take my pessimism with a grain of salt. I'm a noted Manny hater; I don't like his game or his upside, with empirical evidence to back my sentiments. Maybe he's someone's #1 pick and goes in the first round. I'd be willing to wager a pretty significant sum of money that he's no where near the draft.
This is almost certainly false. Teams likely don't build their lists of prospects off of the entire pool of players. That's a fools game and a waste of time because the Lakers and Cavaliers and Celtics know damned well they're not drafting John Wall. There's absolutely no reason to include him on your list.
These top 10 lists would cease to have any meaning at all--and given that they have pretty little meaning right now as is, that's saying something--if teams all included the top 10 prospects in the draft.
We can say with near certainty that Manny is not a lottery pick, leaving 45 players left to get drafted. If we assume that even 33% of the teams in the league have him somewhere in their top 10--a specious statement, to say the least, given that a) being in the top 10 could mean, ya know, 10th and b) the three teams Ford breaks down is by no means an adequate sample size to apply to the whole league, but we're being optimistic for Manny's sake--it's a toss up.
Let's say, hypothetically, that Manny is #5 on 1/3 of the team's top 10s (put him dead in the middle of their lists for an overly optimistic percentage of the league). That's 40 "players". Take into consideration the fact that there's probably a lot of overlap between the team's respective lists and let's estimate that there's 15 players that Manny is considered amonst as reasonable draft prospects. So those 15 players are all in consideration for the 1/3 of the final 45 spots left in the draft (i.e., 15 spots).
So now you'll look at that and think, 15 players, 15 spots, he's likely to get drafted. But realistically, he could either be on far more or far less people's top 10 lists. And given what we know of Manny and his draft potential (the "eye test" mentioned above; an average sized, moderately athletic shooting guard without an outside shot), logic leads us to say that's probably tending toward the latter.
I've been a pretty outward Manny critic for a long time, so take it with a grain of salt, but even these optimistically hazy numbers paint a pretty grim picture for Manny's draft potential.
Even if 33% of the league has Manny somewhere in their top 10, he's a holy lock to go undrafted. There are only two rounds in the NBA draft (60 players). So unless Manny features in the top 1-4 for a non-lottery team--you have to assume that this evaluation is not including the likes of John Wall, Evan Turner, and the other high-draft locks in the top 10--he's not getting anywhere near the draft board.
U.N.K.L.E. - Rabbit in your headlights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cud_k9f6tqk