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jenine agrees.

https://x…

jenine agrees.

https://x.com/j9howard/status/1769461493693571377?s=61&t=RXc5fcpfiPJBICMYVeRaBA

my daughter did her last…

my daughter did her last year at western as an exchange student in kyoto.  if you’d asked me to make a list of places i’d like to go, japan wouldn’t have made the top 50.  but go i did, for almost 3 weeks, and it was the greatest vacation i ever had.  i was on my own during the days, and met her after classes in the mid-afternoon to do stuff. 

SO, bullets:

  • food - the nishiki market was one stall after another of hyper-local food, all delicious and quite cheap.  i’d also highly recommend okonomiyaki, which is kind of an osaka thing, but is incredible.  and i would KILL for a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant place right now.
  • sightseeing - do:
    • the bamboo forest
    • fushimi inari shrine
    • kinkaku-ji temple (the golden temple)
  • lastly - after a week in kyoto, i took off for 4 days at monastery in koyasan…i’m not the meditative type, but the rustic lodging, the food and the local history (it was essentially the birthplace of japanese buddhism, IIRC), FAR from the city, were incredible.

i’m incredibly envious.  i’d go back in a heartbeat.

sampson is a scumbag.

sampson is a scumbag.

please refer to the last…

please refer to the last sentence of my prior post.

there were also a CC: murderwolf post, and a CC: jay wright post, so lets not pretend we have to take these dumb rando posts seriously.

yes, a discussion of the…

yes, a discussion of the transfer portal vis-a-vis juwan’s job security a few months ago is DEFINITELY related to what i said. sheesh.

let’s just try to do better than “here’s a random guy that’s probably a good coach,” mmmkay?  or not. whatever. 

yes, please. i’d like to…

yes, please. i’d like to ignore one post rather than twenty. 

i’m already sick of these…

i’m already sick of these dumb posts. 

right there with you,…

right there with you, brother.  i'd generally like our fans to stop saying "the basketball team sucks," given that we've got one really good one.  KBA has been here for 12 seasons, and we've topped 20 wins in every non-COVID season she's been here (and she almost certainly would've, in that season).

watch the ladies, y'all.  they kick ass.

here's how fucked-up the…

here's how fucked-up the culture is - jon sanderson decided to work for brad fucking underwood.

...aaaaaaand, wasn't even able to finish my sentence.

right there with you,…

right there with you, brother. 

college football is dead.  we're now at the point of the reading of the will, watching the low-rent assholes scrabbling over who gets what.

i've been saying it for…

i've been saying it for years.  rutgers and maryland to the big ten was the first sign of the college football apocalypse.  literally every move since has moved us closer to its inevitable demise, and make no mistake, its death is coming.

college football has been a great thing, specifically because it was a different sport from the nfl.  it isn't any more.  it's now just minor league professional football, and just like minor league baseball, or minor league hockey, or the g-league, it will turn out to be a crappy, lower-talent version of the real thing.

seinfeld joked that we're basically just rooting for laundry.  at least, up until now, i could push down that feeling by pretending that i had some connection - however tenuous - with the kids that wore the michigan jerseys.  not much longer, gang, at least not in football or men's basketball.  y'know that 'culture' we like to crow about?  bye-bye.

correct. playing at 4:30…

correct. playing at 4:30 after back-to-backs ending after 11 was a tough draw.  all the more reason to be better during the season to get that additional bye.

and iowa can be got, but we’re just not quite good enough to beat them without playing a near-perfect game.  

Big Ten and SEC will balloon…

Big Ten and SEC will balloon to 20, 22, or 24 teams…at that point you can have 12-team divisions and a conference championship at the Rose Bowl, or something.

i absolutely guarantee you that a 24 team “conference” (lol) will consist of four six-team divisions and a four-team conference championship tournament. 

this sport will cease to exist as anything but a crappy version of the nfl by 2034.  it’s practically there already.

bring on saint caitlin.

bring on saint caitlin.

lord.  bringing up will wade…

lord.  bringing up will wade, even in jest, is a "okay, that's enough for today, we'll see you next thursday" situation.

and thank you, brian, for hitting on something that's been rattling around in my own head for a while now.  the assholes that are in charge of college football are treating it as an asset to be mined and wrung out, and, just like the venture capitalists they aspire to be, have no interest in the long-term health or sustainability of the sport.  a leader of the sport would recognize that, in some cases, grabbing every dollar you can - for example, destroying another conference with whom you once had a great working relationship because dollars - damages you in the long term.  instead we get a sport "led" by a bunch of fucking tinpot gordon gekkos.

mark my words.  college football will go the way of every legacy media company and be dead meat inside a decade.

better to be silent and be…

better to be silent and be thought an idiot than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt. 

turning this into a warde…

turning this into a warde manuel problem is so very mgoturd of you.

yes, that will definitely…

yes, that will definitely make a difference.

you win. caitlin clark was…

NVM

caitlin clark shot 33% from…

NVM

clark is as great an…

clark is as great an offensive player as the women’s game has ever seen, just absolutely incredible.  

she’s also a piece of shit.  she’s bitched about every single solitary call for four years now, with zero exceptions.  she’s a lousy teammate - watch her roll her eyes when anyone cheats her out of an assist, or gets beat on the defensive end.  watch her ignore her coach.  watch her play matador defense on half of her trips.  watch her wave her arms to get more attention every other trip. watch her flail when she gets brushed against on a layup.

the good news is we won’t have to endure a national title for this giant group of entitled assholes, because my LORD they are brutal defensively, just an absolute layup drill every night (the hell is it about iowa hoops, by the way? none of these turds can guard anybody, men or women both).  at a certain point, someone will light them up, clark will go 2 for 12, and it will be byeeee saint caitlin.

but, yeah, she’s great.  logo threes, right?

lol, nicely done, you got me…

NVM

we’re not “average.” 35% is…

NVM

this is one of the better 3…

NVM

there's some chatter in iowa…

there's some chatter in iowa city that clark might come back for her covid year, actually. that's not just wishful thinking - she can make as much in endorsements, and the WNBA salary cap is honestly just crazy low (as in, a TEAM cap of $1.4 million, or thereabouts).  plus she gets the adoration of an entire state of drooling sycophants.  i've been to clark's B1G tournaments, and iowa fans are worst fans i've ever seen, just screaming in ecstasy every time clark breathes and rending their garments at the injustice of it all when anyone gets in her zip code on the defensive end.  sparty and ohio state people are personally loathsome, but at least some of them know ball.  probably.  not iowa fans, brother.

anyhoo.  they'll be good. stuelke will be the lead dog on the offensive end, albeit as an inside scorer.  their problem will be the same as it has been for the entirety of bluders tenure there - they're a truly terrible defensive team.  herhoopstats.com recently had them as the 167th in defense, which is the BEST they've been since they started keeping stats (!).  pace and SOS adjustments get them to 23rd, last i looked...but that doesn't really pass the eye test - if last night was the first time you've seen them, it was pretty indicative.  lighting it up offensively but a layup drill on the other end.  they can't get a stop, like, ever.  it ain't getting better next year.  iowa basketball, man.  ever is it so.

Michigan is 8-17 on the…

Michigan is 8-17 on the season and 3-11 in conference play, still in dead last, but perhaps a win over the Spartans will save a little face for the season. 

can it, though?

i'm not and never will be …

i'm not and never will be "fire this guy."

i do not think that the problems in the program can be put solely on juwan howard, or, for that matter, warde manuel.  there are structural problems in michigan football and men's basketball that can only be overcome by exceptional, among-the-very-best-in-the-world leadership / coaching figures like jim harbaugh or john beilein.

the comparison to 2020 football is both enlightening and damning.  harbaugh, as a generationally-talented coach, deserved a mulligan for 2020.  anyone that thought otherwise at the time was, not to put too fine a point on it, an idiot.  the man had proven repeatedly that he was going to be able to turn it around.  using the way he wore a mask over his headset as an exemplar otherwise (which people did, sadly), or reading into anything else that happened in that cursed year was silly.

juwan has earned no such mulligans.

i don't want him back, personally, and it pains me to say that.  i really like the guy.  but it's basically impossible to come up with an argument that explains how or why next season will be different, with an almost-certain roster exodus on the horizon and uninspiring recruiting.  jump on transfers and cross our fingers?  are we sparty football?  we are not.

it's time.

momentarily unblocked…

momentarily unblocked mgoboard from my ipad to say that every fucking one of you is really fucking boring, and i don’t miss a single one of your posts.

i appreciate what you do,…

i appreciate what you do, brother, but i’m not really talking about the content (although that’s part of it), or the civility / decency (although that’s definitely a factor, too).  to me, it’s more the same problem that eventually kills every board or social network - negative voices eventually just overwhelm everything else.  it makes me anxious and unhappy to read most of the comment threads, so i’m just not going to do it, certainly as much as i used to.

as i said, the front-page posts are, without exception, excellent, so i’ll be around. but the board just messes with my brain in a bad way.

That Michigan forum…

That Michigan forum gradually got out of control because the lead moderator allowed political discussion to go unchecked (I was opposed to it), which in turn attracted too many clowns and idiots to join while numerous long-term members got fed up.

wow, politics reference aside, that sounds familiar.  

i still love the front-page pieces here, and might comment on those posts occasionally, but i’ve blocked the mgoboard domain from my devices for the last week or so and i don’t miss it a bit.  was wondering what i’d missed, though, and between (apparently) some sort of warde fat-shaming and stick-figure blowjobs, i’ve definitely made the right choice. it’s a bummer, though.  used to be cool here.

the thing that bugs me about…

the thing that bugs me about all this is that they're just.  so.  crappy.  just a crappy basketball team with no identity.  they just don't do anything well, and there's really no reason to think it's going to change.

it echoes the darkest days of brady hoke.  those guys were trying (i will never go for the incredible laziness of the "they're not working hard enough" crap) but betrayed by a lack of any cohesive plan or approach.  a lousy football team, with no reason to recommend it.  same thing.

what a lousy, uninteresting…

what a lousy, uninteresting basketball team.

small, semi-irrelevant point…

small, semi-irrelevant point, but cam martinez was a quarterback in muskegon (big reds and muskegon catholic REPRESENT), not grand rapids. i don’t believe he was ever a wideout in columbus, but im not sure about that. 

(he’s now at boston college, where - if they’re smart - they’ll put the ball in his hands. he was an electric offensive player in high school)

this. was awesome. 

this. was awesome. 

i absolutely hate this place…

i absolutely hate this place.  not michigan athletics - i love that, wholeheartedly.  i hate this message board.  what a miserable bunch.

it was a drop, dummy. 

it was a drop, dummy. 

you.

are a fucking idiot.

you.

are welcome to fuck right off.

in all likelihood the…

in all likelihood the football program will go into slow decline.

lol. 

#firekba, or whatever. 

#firekba, or whatever. 

the point isn’t why he did…

the point isn’t why he did it. the point is that he did it at all.

i’d also point out the list of ex-head coaches that spent a year in saban’s garage while they waited for their next gig.  it’s not a positive or negative, it just is. 

i’m not sure if warde should…

i’m not sure if warde should be retained or fired.  because i, like the VAST majority of people here, have no earthly idea what an AD’s actual, day-to-day job actually consists of.  i’m pretty sure it’s way more than the hiring and firing football and basketball coaches, though.

we lose at ohio state, and y’all want him to behave like you do, which is to have a very public freakout, and when he doesn’t, you lose it.  his hire of a basketball coach (almost universally admired at the time, except by the ‘get pitino” types) turns out poorly, and since he hasn’t fired him yet, you freak out again.  we lose a coach that wants to win a super bowl, and since he didn’t make him forget his literal lifelong dream of winning a super bowl, you freak out again.  these things all suck, of course, but bad things happen and you fight through them and keep working.

i have no idea if this guy…

i have no idea if this guy is a legit candidate for anything, but that kind of change isn’t unheard of when there’s a change at the top.  jim leonhard going from DC to analyst comes to mind.

i think it’s pretty clear at…

i think it’s pretty clear at this point.

go google jesse minter’s pre…

go google jesse minter’s pre-michigan resume.

none of the this has…

none of the this has anything to do with the actual story of the game, which was the officiating, which took our players off the floor and made them tentative when they returned.  at the end of the third quarter, fouls were 18 to 13 and free throws were 20 to 6.  we never had a chance.

no, the majority of michigan…

no, the majority of michigan fans didn’t, because most fans are not screaming morons. this board is another story.  

there were many “fire harbaugh” posts at the time, and you know it.  

oh, pay attention. this…

oh, pay attention. this board fired him a dozen times in 2020.  but the manner in which he kept him supposedly pushed him away? which is what y’all wanted in the first place? the gymnastics you idiots perform is really astonishing.

so he gets no credit for not…

so he gets no credit for not firing the one guy, but blamed for not firing the other guy.  got it.

because they know there’s…

because they know there’s way more to the AD job than what y’all see publicly.

“passed over” is some loaded…

“passed over” is some loaded language.  also dumb.  mostly dumb.