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Umm, it's a division 1 head…

Umm, it's a division 1 head coaching job at a Big 10 school. A LOT of people want to deal with those problems.

Why don't you want all the…

Why don't you want all the games played at Crisler?

WHy don't you want Crisler…

WHy don't you want Crisler to be the permanent home? It NEEDS to be. We want a program that would NEED that facility for games (i.e. Wisconsin, Nebraska, Penn State, etc). Spiffy up the practice facility all you want, but we should want a program that can sell out the lower bowl (minimally) of Crisler. 

The top vball recruit in the…

The top vball recruit in the state this year went to Ann Arbor Skyline. And committed to.... Nebraska.

Gosh I'd love to see Brian…

Gosh I'd love to see Brian come back next week with the 2022 Ann Arbor City Council post, in which he totally tears down Bannister/Ramlawi/Nelson with their own words and actions.

*turns on #a2council bat signal*

Lol, wut? Zavier’s (lack of)…

Lol, wut? Zavier’s (lack of) shooting was reason #1 (of several) that they did not win it all.

 

(NOTE: I’m taking an insane scale here…. Natty. Win it all - your PG needs to be an above average shooter… not significantly below average)

Michigan plays Thursday at…

Michigan plays Thursday at 5pm for those unaware.

12 years ago was in a focus…

12 years ago was in a focus group as a student with some admin about expanding MR.

They don't want camping. Fine. They're also worried about those seats going empty for games.... get over it. The program is at a new place. The lower bowl student seats have pretty universally been full and if you make it easier for a student to be in the actual student section (not upper level, not the separated pizza wedge), then they will be even more likely to attend.

But they have no balls and are unwilling to make donors upset by moving them out of their seats. The problem with the lower bowl is that the people with those tickets are, majority, big donors that got those tickets who knows how long ago. They hold on to them, even though they might attend only a few games a year. They are not basketball fans, they are football donors. They are not incentivized to fill the seats when they don't use them. The University doesn't want to ruffle their feathers.

I've had season tickets for 17 years now. Currently in upper bowl. There's plenty of upper bowl people that actually attend the games that would love those seats. There's students that would love the seats. It's up to the administration to have the balls to make change... they haven't for decades and honestly I don't know what changes that outside an AD willing to lose some donors.

EDIT: Adding on.... Crisler is LOUD and rocks like the best of them when it is full and there's a big game. It's a matter of getting the tickets in the hands of the people (students and non-students alike) that want to be there. Also, the Maize Rage has gotten kinda weak in these past 10 years. They don't even popcorn anymore. Remember the H-Bombs? The player-specific chants? The "GO! BLUE!" alternating chant with the other side of the arena? What does the maize rage do anymore? I ask as someone that goes to every game and spent 5 years in the MR.

Northern schools have tried…

Northern schools have tried to push, but they simply will never have the numbers.

There'd need to be a big monetary reason for southern schools to give up their weather advantage... that can only come from TV. Right now, the CWS is in a really nice spot with respect to the sports TV calendar. After NBA/NHL playoffs, before people start caring about MLB and before many people are 100% off to summer vacations. I don't think ESPN would want a ratings-getter moved.

But, then a few things…

But, then a few things happened: they renovated O'baan and expanded the weightroom. But, the actual field part of the fieldhouse did not expand so it wasn't big enough for lacrosse anymore (I may not be remembering that correctly though so don't quote me on it). 

 

This is correct. If you were to go into Oosterbaan now, and haven't been in a few years, you'd find 2/3 a football field with the expanded weightroom taking up what was the eastern most third. It's more of a practice facility to baseball, softball, other sports now and doesn't have space for full size lacrosse/soccer/football anymore.

Yeah, that's the thing, it's…

Yeah, that's the thing, it's hard to know the context from a 9 second video. Immediately after this he could walked past a ref and said "You guys are fucking terrible" without anyone noticing it and that would be an earned UC flag.

But I didn't watch the game. If a ref gives Pat Fitzgerald a UC flag, I'm prob gonna trust the ref. His histrionics are tiresome and unnecessary. 

Tremendous support by the…

Tremendous support by the staff?

I'm pretty liberal and I acknowledge there's no way the more left-leaning-than-me faculty will accept the guy that was in charge during the Flint water crises.

Genuinely interested in…

Genuinely interested in hearing more. What leaked emails? The sexual assault stuff and Covid was either before his time or a pandemic, so I guess this is in regard to the responses to those things.

I know the city of Ann Arbor had some grumblers who wanted UM to be 100% remote, but I don't think you can find any U president who had a positive approval rating with their covid response. You'll have strong opinions across the board.

EDIT: Also, I'd like to hear more  about a divided board. Who was divided and in what way? Because Ron Weiser seems like the guy that the community would love to ride out of town, but he's an elected official. It makes me wonder if divided simply means he's one way or the other against all other regents.

538 is the one place that…

538 is the one place that gave Trump a realistic shot of winning. It is routinely the best predictor as it aggregates polls, relies on historical data and provides probabilities of outcomes. It doesn't necessarily predict outcomes. So, if 538 said Trump has a 25% chance of winning, that means that 1/4 times he's going to win. It's not that unlikely. Nobody's betting their house on those odds when you get once shot at it.

I don't get people that don't understand this.

"Should Sally submit her…

"Should Sally submit her test score if it's a 1250?"  Answer:  "We look at and review everything a student submits.  It's a holistic process." 

Honest question: Why would you expect a different answer?

It seems you are operating under the assumption that it is not a holistic process where everything is considered and there are black and white cut-offs. That's not the case, as we all know. I can see in the past a particular admissions rep might have said "well, X and you're in good shape." But even in the past 8 years things have changed so much. GPA is worthless and SAT/ACT we know to be inequitable measurements that are going to be phased out.

Founder of the D&D club!

Founder of the D&D club!

"Tell me about the D&D club?"

"Uhh... a group of us meet and play D&D during lunch sometimes"

"Ok."

From who I talk to, its about building a genuine narrative around your story. Maybe you did some silly behavior things and are more a B+/A- kid. But you might have worked in a bike shop every summer since you were 12 and then became an avid mountain biker and share that passion with friends or young kids. That's genuine. That's impressive - to hold down a summer job for 5 summers.

Every student has a different story so you can't answer the question "Should Sally submit her 1250 SAT?" because it is an unanswerable question without reading and evaluating the entire application.

For my HS aged student, the advice will be "work hard and invest in your passions. Be an excellent follower so you can learn to be a leader. Be a leader when the opportunity presents itself, build great relationships around respect and trust. Learn from others. Share your passions, be inclusive, invite people into your orbit."

None of those things is a bulleted line on a resume or a score that is above some imaginary threshold. But they seem to correlate awfully strongly to those students I see accepted into elite institutions.

They don't.

 

They don't.

 

Not discounting anything you…

Not discounting anything you say. As someone that also has close insights with college counselors and admissions folks, I don't think you can say for sure those students wouldn't get in.

SAT/ACT are very rapidly going away. I don't expect UM to even accept scores within 5 years.

They were already perceived to be more important than they actually are by the public. So, the question is, in the absence of that data, how does a huge school select applicants.

In short, they do better at knowing the applicants' school and school profile. They look at an applicant's transcript as it relates to that school (i.e. you only took 3 APs... that might compare poorly until admissions sees that actually those 3 APs were the only three offered by your school). They look at rec letters and essays, as they always have, of course, but people seem to forget that when discussing GPA (lol talk about a near worthless number) and SAT/ACT.

Miami is great, your son…

Miami is great, your son will love it.

Wish you got a better look at Michigan. To anyone reading this that will be in the college search: check out the IM building if you want to see a rec center. It is a beautiful rec center after the renovations that still keeps with the nostalgia and classic architecture. You can look out from the balcony over the track where Jesse Owens set 4 world records and then go play ping pong or basketball or lift or whatever.

Go walk down Liberty street to see how awesomely the campus is integrated with the city.

Check out North Campus and specifically the BBB - that building is boss and was one of my favorite study spots.

CCRB is a dump and is going away. Markley is a dump and probably has a limited life span... they've renovated every dorm around it. Not a leap to think that it is on the chopping block for either total destruction or major renovation. MoJo is beautiful and right across the street.

And, to further your point,…

And, to further your point, UM is a 25 minute drive from one of the biggest international airports in the country and a Delta hub. That is one of the most undervalued (not by me!) things about living in Ann Arbor.

RABBLE RABBLE UNACCEPTABLE…

RABBLE RABBLE UNACCEPTABLE RABBLE RABBLE

JBA is one of the most valued commenters on this board - I believe he is a significant member of the admissions department at UM. While it might be a slightly defensive post (understandably so), this commenter has probably helped more people on the MGoBoard than any other.

So, maybe don't be shitty and just accept that different schools and states had different COVID policies. Unfortunately, UM's COVID policies especially hurt the admissions tour process. 

Could there have been something more creative done? Maybe... I don't know. Outside of taking folks onto the Mich Stadium field and playing the hype video, they're slightly limited.

A tour is going to be on central campus around the diag. You can't go inside. The IM Building is awesome, but can't go inside and it's awesome in an old (but renovated) nostalgic way. ALmost no University can compete with OSU's RPAC. 

I guess what they maybe could/need to do is find a way to create an outdoor auditorium so they can play videos and create a more comfy waiting room type of deal. I dunno. I'm not gonna pretend like I know answers better than the people entrusted to the job.

If I want to drink at a pool…

If I want to drink at a pool, but not a spring break party type of drink at a pool, what are some of my better options?

Bonus points for swim-up bars.

 

+1 informative

+1 informative

Buying my plane tickets…

Buying my plane tickets tomorrow. It's going to be expensive, no way around it... that time of year. Will likely use miles.

We're a basketball school…

We're a basketball school now. On to hoops

 

Can we please stop this... we've been a basketball school for a decade. 

 

Here’s to hoping Brian is…

Here’s to hoping Brian is well and preparing to run for Ann Arbor City council when the conclusion of a recall campaign of a certain current member comes.

I’m only 5% kidding.

Well, he didn't say that "if…

Well, he didn't say that "if you're a fan of Barstool you're a 'shitty man'"

And the $41M raised for small businesses is a totally irrelevant point to the argument.

[insert organization] raised huge amount of money for [insert seemingly benign cause that helps said organization with good PR and winning over supporters]

Yeah, seems like a stretch…

Yeah, seems like a stretch to be "with it" and "hip"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeS-Xb5u4-U

 

 

I still don't understand the…

I still don't understand the name "Bucket Problem." Can someone fill me in? Sorry in advance for my ignorance.

You're very polite for…

You're very polite for replying to this boob. 

Thanks Matt, this is amazing, professional scouting/recruiting that makes this blog the elite blog it is.

I think what is a valid…

I think what is a valid argument for softball being exciting to watch (even though the HR/K issue is just as big in elite NCAA softball as MLB) is that when balls are in play the game is insanely fast.

Infield plays are always lightning fast. I'm always astounded by the speed of the infield play in high level fast pitch softball.

Maybe the solution is to add 5-feet to the basepaths. Make the diamond bigger, cut down the angles for infielders, create more infield hits. As it stands now, softball infielders don't really move left to right because they are close enough to the plate to drastically eliminate angles for the ball to get through (thinking especially of 3B).

They dug their own graves…

They dug their own graves prioritizing the home run over everything else. 

Teams wouldn't prioritize homeruns if they weren't the effective route to scoring runs. 

You paint a black and white pitcher when I think there's a lot more gray. Do we talk more about launch angles - yes. But we do that because the analytics say that homeruns are the better path to creating runs and thus winning the game. It's not like its some macho "Me want hit ball far, not do wimpy bunt." Bunting is ineffective at the major league level where the defense is spectacular. Groundballs are outs in the major leagues. 

I don't know your source on the idea that pitchers have always thrown this hard (and it's a radar gun usage issue). There's a lot of data that says that pitchers throw harder now, on average.

Also, managers have ditched old school pitching strategies in favor of strategies that increase the efficacy of their pitching (i.e. openers, loogy's). And they are simply reacting to the data. Teams score the most runs in the first inning. That's statistically well documented. So, enter the era of openers where you can let a guy loose on the most difficult part of the lineup and not have him save any gas in the tank for later.

It's all reactions to data and progressive coaches being willing to make decisions different than the norm that are supported by data. At some point, a bunch of coaches I'm sure told JD Martinez that he had to hit line drives and work on that. And then finally someone came along and knew what the data said and JD was turned loose to hit the ball in the air. But it was data driven, not some marketing ploy because 'homeruns are sexy.'

I think those unwritten…

I think those unwritten rules wrt throwing at guys have started to deteriorate. Much to managers' hate, umpires issue warnings to both teams even without a HBP, pitchers are quicker to get tossed - sometimes even if it was a breaking ball that slipped, etc. They don't get it all, but definitely more than 10 years ago.

That's good progress.

I think the only other 'unwritten rules' are things like not stealing when you're up 10+ late. 

I don't like the term "unwritten rules" because really it refers to one thing - the retaliatory HBP. So, let's just talk about that. 

I like the darker blue.

I…

I like the darker blue.

I HATE that the university that I spent 80k to attend to be a public servant is bitching at an independent blog for using a particular hue that the university has found some legal way to say is theirs.

Shit like that makes me want to NEVER donate to UM.

Kanab is fun and easy. Two…

Kanab is fun and easy. Two thumbs up!

Watched it all this weekend…

Watched it all this weekend. GREAT.

I had to bail on the second (I think) football iteration.. The constant barrage of f-bombs from the coaching staff was insane. I just couldn't watch that without thinking "why are we idolizing a dick like this."

Mosely (the hoops Last Chance U coach) is awesome. He has some temper tantrums, but never swears and clearly cares about the kids more than his name. The kind of coach that is both successful and one that players will love. A JUCO Juwan.

I think it might be more…

I think it might be more likely that they are working with fewer cameras/camera operators and are trying to do too much with too little.

It's not enough for us to…

It's not enough for us to tell, but I am sure they have more information than is shared on the COVID dashboard.

 I have a lot of small…

 I have a lot of small business owner friends (several that voted for Biden) that can't understand why they've been shut down, some forced into bankruptcy, but see little to no restrictions on things like big box stores.

 

I don't disagree with the sentiment of your post, but I never quite understand the big box store line. (And I admit, when I want to argue for something opening, I refer to grocery stores, so I am just as susceptible to using claims when they fit my arguement).

But, isn't the most obvious and simple reason: you can mask in a grocery store/best buy/meijer. You can't while eating food. I don't understand why people can't understand that simple fact.

It's not the school's place…

It's not the school's place to issue such statements.

And, as you admitted earlier, the school has not issued any statement about paperwork, so your stance here is really confusing.

So, you're admitting that…

So, you're admitting that the school is, in fact, not using "missing paperwork" as the reasoning, despite your rant about the school using that as an excuse.

Travel.

That's like 85% of…

Travel.

That's like 85% of it. Traveling sucks. Probably even more so than now. The advantage of not having to travel 600 miles before a game is huge.

I'm guessing it's a kinda…

I'm guessing it's a kinda joke that's not translating well.... similar to Shoresy on Letterkenny

 

"Fuck Jackson, he can't dribble with his left and always bites on pumpfakes.

"Fuck Leary, he always crosses over on a right hand hesitation move and never finishes left."

"Fuck Barrett, he was short"

And so on... roll the f-bomb into the critique and, at least in my mind, I see why it's an innocent kinda funny thing.

I had no idea so many people…

I had no idea so many people didn't have the ability to not click on something.

If only people could choose to exercise their ability to not read something they don't want to read. I wonder if we can come up with some technology or maybe make it so that there's a brief description of a topic and you have to click that topic to consent to being forced to read its contents. 

In D3, just about every…

In D3, just about every sports team is 'revenue' in the sense that if those teams didn't exist, those students wouldn't be at that school. It might cost $1M to run a d3 football program, but those 80 kids at -say- an average of $20k tuition (plus the small amount of revenue the sport brings) means that it becomes a net gain.

There are things that can be…

There are things that can be done in some sports to get them 'less in the red.'

For example, Eric Bakich has been one of the big proponents of shifting the NCAA D1 baseball schedule into the summer. 

Could you imagine a college baseball season that starts in April and ends in early August? Teams would sell out their stadiums every Friday night, maybe every weekend game. They - and softball - would be massive beneficiaries of only competing with MLB. You'd get rid of some of the expensive travel required by northern schools in February.

The ref under the basket…

The ref under the basket doesn't make goaltending calls. The trailing/deep ref does.

I missed that, so this was…

I missed that, so this was helpful.

It's not about feeling safe…

It's not about feeling safe.

It's about getting back to normal. Schools open. Sports. Concerts. Movie Theaters. I can be the safest person in the world and mitigate my own risk, but the more people like you who don't vaccinate and can spread the virus, the longer it takes for all those things to open.

It shouldn't be risky to go to school or to a football game. It will be until we all vaccinate. 

build-up my immune system

build-up my immune system

Lol, how does one build up their immune system? Do you go pump weights while licking dirt?

Sure, healthy lifestyle = less risk of dying from virus. It doesn't make you any less likely to spread it to others, though.