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I've been very hard on this…

I've been very hard on this team's defense and effort level all season, so I must give credit where it's due. Against what I thought to be all odds, they turned it on tonight and played their most complete game of the season to keep the streak of ending Minny's B1G tournament going. Giving up the late goal late was not ideal, but Minnesota is a good team so it's hardly disappointing or surprising that they managed in desperation time with the goalie pulled to get one back. You can afford that when you do the right things the rest of the game to earn a two goal lead. Completely turnaround from a couple weeks ago when we choked away a three goal lead, and then a one goal lead late to have to win in OT. Proud of the effort and hope it resonates enough to keep it up for three more weekends. It sure looked like it did in the postgame celebration at least.

It was nice to have fewer penalties across the board but I am still baffled by how these games are called even in "playoff mode". Minnesota had at least three pretty egregious boarding hits, the likes of which these days can often even be called major penalties for better or worse. Meanwhile, Edwards gets the lone penalty called on us for a pretty standard hit finish, yet Estapa got away with pretty flagrantly belly bumping the goalie.

He must have gotten tired of…

He must have gotten tired of recruiting and coaching good RB units just to see them completely underutilized in crunch time.

Winning in the end is nice…

Winning in the end is nice but it's just way too hard for me to get excited about a run with a team this terrible at keeping the puck out of their net. Yes, plenty of it it was West with some head-scratching but I just can't get over Rutger completely falling asleep after himself getting a go-ahead goal. Just mind blowing gaffes that shouldn't be happening after the second or third weekend of the season and impossible for me to believe aren't going to be what bounces us from the tournament or prevents us from even getting there. Makes me sick that MSU has won a Big Ten regular season before us after just two seasons of finally having a coach, and Wisconsin is right there with them after just one year.

It's the AD's fault for…

It's the AD's fault for doing something one way for decade(s) and then suddenly changing it, and apparent lying about not changing it to boot by claiming they sent an email they actually did not.

Not sure why you're referring to Purdue either, because that actually assists my argument, not yours. Hockey is so popular right now it's very hard to get new season tickets. As I myself exemplify, not only do season tickets holders go for the advance purchase when it isn't 8 months in advance, we buy even more than our usual quantity because we have a better opportunity to bring friends and family than our normally inflexible season tickets allot us. Now a bunch of Notre Dame fans who know there's an 80% or more chance they'll be travelling to Yost next weekend all have a crack at a public sale and also know that if it doesn't pan out they can probably make their money back and perhaps even turn a profit reselling them.

But hey, at least they sold those tickets a little bit faster so it hits the balance sheet in February instead of March!

That is patently false. As…

That is patently false. As of this writing, there is exactly one sideline section left with tickets for Saturday and it is single seats only. There are only three total sections with more than single seats left. Friday is better and still has a fair bit in one endzone, but will probably be down to singles soon enough.

So not only am I probably going to be stuck going solo to one or more of these, if at all, I won't even be able to have my normal seat. If you don't think season ticket holders deserve any kind of perks then I guess you think like our ever increasingly greedy athletic department does but considering they've been doing it the way they have for at least a decade, it'd have been nice to know they were doing that instead of pulling the rug out. Literally just a couple months ago season ticket holders got first crack for B1G and playoff tickets for football, again like always, so why the hell would we believe that was going to change now?

Hell, back in the CCHA days, at least with the student season tickets, they just straight up gave us first round tickets assuming we wouldn't be any worse than whatever the cutoff was to host the first round.

They have historically done…

They have historically done both. I don't pre-purchase because I can't possibly know that far in advance if I'll be able to make it, much less how many I might want for other people. I go to 90%+ of the games so that fear is not important for the regular season, but why the hell would I commit a half year or more in advance to a few individual games that might not even happen, and thus I've effectively given the AD a zero interest loan.

I double checked my email and my spam folder and also did not receive anything. Would be curious if anyone else actually got this email.

"Ann Arbor is the best U.S…

"Ann Arbor is the best U.S. city for quality of life.*"

*If you're filthy rich or taking on an enormous about of student debt.

Someone needs to blindsided…

Someone needs to blindsided these refs. No way they don't have money on this game.

Both of these refs are…

Both of these refs are fucking crooks and I hope they blow their knees out by the end of the game. Absolutely bullshit the whole game.

Just super tired of this…

Just super tired of this bullshit. Goals being scored because the other team makes a dumb pass... And it works because we can't get a stick on a pick when it's coming straight through us

The hockey team feels as soft as OSU's football team, and the fact they're still doing such dumb shit in their own end makes me completely lose faith in the coaching staff. I reckon we should let it roll another year to let him show he can turn it around but right now it is painfully in obvious our head coachbis an offensive coordinator and not a head coach. We're not just bleeding the season series south to MSU for the first time in recent memory, we're helping ensure theybwin a regular B1G title before us, all because we just can't be bothered to give a fuck in our own end.

We did. He flipped his…

We did. He flipped his commitment.

Watching it live I was not…

Watching it live I was not as impressed with the offense tonight as you were. We definitely got some chances but I felt there was quite a lot of passing pucks to nobody tonight and also a lot of settling for bad shots when there was no real pressure to do so that are faceoffs at best and turnovers at worst. I also felt we flubbed a few good chances by failing to shoot when the moment was open, and the highlight WTF was whatever the hell happened when MSU got caught changing and trying not to take a too many men penalty. And when we weren't screwing up on our own, MSU was up to the task defensively, hence the single goal that had to come from a single fantastic effort.

While the number on the scoreboard was less bad than it has been when you take out the empty nets, I still don't like the way we seem to let whoever feels like it go for a weakly contested skate with the puck and get a shot away of any kind, and far too often good ones. MSU's first goal was essentially that; random dude just kinda decides to skate right around some defenders and just walk right in on the goal. Absolutely backbreaking and especially so soon after we had finally broken the scoreless tie.

We're in a bit of a gap year…

We're in a bit of a gap year from the blip in getting rid of Mel. Assuming they don't turn on us like Augustine did we should get back to where we were the last couple years.

I expected us to take a little bit of a step back this year but I also expected that to be because we lost competitive games to teams with a little more than us, not because we can on most nights achieve way more offensively than I thought we could while simultaneously playing some complete garbage in our end. We didn't give ourselves the chance to tonight, but we've blown so many multi-goal leads this year it is maddening. At some point you expect the guys on the ice to get tired of losing that way and put in the effort to buckle it down a little, but these guys just aren't doing it and I think that speaks volumes about both them and the coaching.

Hopefully they at least get their shit together enough to put up more than 1 goal tomorrow. We have a nice winning streak on the game in Detroit going against them but I don't think there is any question about who wants it more right now. They've been a doormat to us for a decade and a half now and we clowned them on their own ice on the opening game and were doing so nicely at home before they turned it around.

MSU has a real chance to win a regular season B1G title before Michigan does. If they don't, it'll probably be Wisconsin, another program that has been complete dogshit through a couple of coaches now and in one year has it completely turned around. That really pisses me off with the kinds of players we've had coming through here. The Duel in the D is nice and so is the B1G tournament, but those are the two lowest sample size and least resistance pieces of hardware we can earn in a season. Wining the regular season title and the national championship are harder and mean more and we haven't even done the former since I was a student.

This team is so frustrating…

This team is so frustrating. Had really hoped after they embarrassed themselves at home this last time to MSU they'd finally turn a corner but the bad defense continues and now tonight when MSU is not converting the mistakes to goals, they play like total shit on offense instead to get embarrassed again.

We have the talent but we do not have the toughness at all.

I remember Jim's first year…

I remember Jim's first year when we were about to secure a third straight shutout over Northwestern, who I believe was pretty hot that year up until that point. Crowd started chanting "defense" and it really stuck with me in the stadium. Got a copy of the game later and was pleased to see it resonated on TV as well.

I don't know that I'd be…

I don't know that I'd be throwing "full of shit" stones at Penn State over their attendance. We're pretty well known for pulling shenanigans in that department too.

At the end of the day, everybody knows we have the biggest stadium.

This is getting really old…

This is getting really old. Coach deserves a lot of credit for keeping the offense humming after all we've lost, even with the high level of talent we still have, but at this point I have to pin the blame for how bad our defense is on him. Michigan's calling card has never been shutdown defense, but we've never been terrible at it when we had good teams. Last year we were rather bad, this year we are worse. Need to figure it out or hire himself an assistance to be a defensive coordinator.

And why shouldn't we have…

And why shouldn't we have ponied up the extra money? That's chump change to the athletic department. We wouldn't even be flinching if we were talking about adding that much to a football contract, possibly even a COORDINATOR if it was the right guy.

You are correct that we struggled a bit before going on the run. Doesn't change we made the run and that it was made possible by his recruiting guys a chunk of whom are now playing in MLB in spite of those disadvantages, and that he was turning that run into even better recruiting before he left for Clemson and they followed him.

We had a window of opportunity to potentially solidify ourselves as a top program in spite of the geographical disadvantages and certainly assert ourselves at top contenders in the conference and he let it slip away. All over as much money as we make off less than a tenth of the attendance to one football game against a baby seal.

Being hard to get along with…

Being hard to get along with doesn't mean that Jim is always in the wrong, it just means he's on a different wave length and doesn't particularly make an effort to meet anybody even a little ways in between. I don't know what "facts" you are looking for on that because that is entirely about how people feel and my assertion is from the fact that many, many people have shared Harbaugh interactions as why they feel the way they do about him and at least professionally speaking there have been plenty of bad ones.

None of that means he is actually a bad person or that he deserves some of the bullshit that people who don't like him have put him through, but it does make it easier to understand how and why it happened and why he and Warde might not get along. I'm expressing that Warde needs to go not only because he failed to keep Jim regardless of that, but also because he's frankly been terrible at other parts of his job too and this is the icing on top of the cake.

Maybe it's true that…

Maybe it's true that everybody else loves Warde. That would certainly track with Jim's history of wearing out his welcome even in the face of great success, but that doesn't change that your job is to retain a national championship winning coach no matter what you think of his personality and not doing so is a failure, just like everyone else who let Jim go.

Maybe it was inevitable Jim left even without the friction, but Warde's recent track record with hockey, volleyball, and what it sure looks like he's going to do with basketball leaves no benefit of the doubt in my mind that he is not the right man for this job. That's without even getting into the more mysterious things like Simpson crashing a car that belongs to him.

Edit: Forgot that he let Bakich get away too. Why is this man still employed again?

Went to Ann Arbor/Saline…

Went to Ann Arbor/Saline Meijer around 6 and did not find a trophy. Also cannot find any information anywhere to verify any of this. Boooooo

You forced me to research…

You forced me to research this to confirm that you are, in fact, smarter than the rest of us. Not only would it have been a touchback but based on a more complicated variant of this that happened once in the NFL, he could have have the ball knocked out of his hands on a non-fair-catch and still gotten a touchback for it as long as he did not cleanly possess the ball (essentially same burden of possession as a WR catching a pass).

I logged into commend you and I look forward to being the only person in the room who knows this when it happens at a game I'm watching with other people thanks to you.

But sadly I now have no reason to be happy with Thaw because it means the only redeeming thing he did on the play was not fumble when he got hit. He made the trifecta mistake of trying to fair catch inside the 5, muffing that poor fair catch decision, and then deliberately trying to keep it at the 1 while exposing himself to a bigger hit for a bigger possibility of fumbling instead of simply falling on it in the endzone for a touchback.

sigh

Much closer to a…

sigh

Much closer to a breakthrough than usual, but still zero clutch with this team and big fat L.

DeBoer's year at Indiana…

DeBoer's year at Indiana also overlapped with Mike Hart's time there.

I get the impression that,…

I get the impression that, on a game to game basis, we tend to be on the quieter side. Against opponents we don't perceive to be a threat, we just don't tend to get that loud.

At key moments against even middling opponents, and more importantly in big games though, we are as loud as anybody and neutral observers back that up. Home opener tends to be a little more hype too even if the opponent stinks.

I think the field goal was…

I think the field goal was the right decision considering we were 4 years short. I wasn't aware in real time that Johnson was out until later in the drive when I didn't understand why he wasn't on Harrison and noticed he wasn't out there at all. I still think that was the right move even so with it only being one minute, just have to make extra sure you have a second guy glued to whatever Harrison is doing.

If the 3rd down play gets us to 4th and 1-1.5 my opinion changes and I think that would have changed Moore's opinion too. In fact, I think the play call on 3rd down was with the intent of getting it close enough to go for it and it just didn't work out. You can complain the play call was too conservative even assuming going for it, but we had been pretty successful on that drive up until that point running the ball so I don't think it was absurd.

Definitely would have liked a little more creativity on the previous drive to get the TD following the Edwards pass though. We ended up chewing 7 minutes up on the next drive, but that was by no means a likely thing to happen and would have been much happier with a two touchdown lead instead of just two possessions.

Annoyingly denied yet again,…

Annoyingly denied yet again, although much closer to the cut line than ever before. Sure am glad I took advantage of those bonus points during COVID, they've really come in handy. /s

Already secured secondary market tickets though, which are much cheaper than last year. Probably could have waited and gotten a little cheaper like I did last year, but I'm happy with the location and having them on lock down for not even as much as face value for the OSU game technically was.

Definitely agree. I noticed…

Definitely agree. I noticed on the walk down Pauline there were a lot fewer of them at various tailgates than I am used to seeing and that was definitely the least number of them I've seen in the stadium ever since I've been going to games in 2008. I'd say that was probably about as good of a ratio as can be expected, since some leakage is inevitable with a game like this.

It was actually kind of cute hearing the tiniest little rumble in background while we were on offense.

I don't care if it was…

I don't care if it was revealed that he knew or was involved. We still should have moved ahead with the lawsuit.

That was always about striking back at the flagrant overreach of the Big Ten and their very personal vendetta against Harbaugh. The merits of that argument do not change just because the scheme was known to another assistant coach.

Even if we failed to get a TRO, we could still have pursued the longer case and forced the Big Ten to admit it was wrong in very specially shafting us in ways never before seen by a conference on one of its own members.

If this is really the only reason we're rolling over and allowing this travesty to stand, then fuck the people at our university who made that decision. I just hope the team is as tough as we think they are they are and we get to force the pissant at the top to hand us a trophy in Indy.

PS, I don't believe for one nanosecond the Big Ten is done screwing us if they find even the tiniest shred of reason to abuse to do so. After all, we just threw away our chance at protecting ourselves from conference vindictiveness, so there is nothing to stop them from going back to the well again. And we all know there is no chance these standards ever get applied to Ohio State or anyone else.

Hot damn. I know the last…

Hot damn. I know the last two years have been pretty brutal in the non-conference, but it's definitely worth it to have tickets locked down for next year. The way the home/away split for conference games is though makes me severely question whether we'll actually be playing Oklahoma or doing the return trip to Texas though.

Did he have an erection that…

Did he have an erection that lasted more than 4 hours?

Needs more RGB.

Needs more RGB.

Didn't go to school with any…

Didn't go to school with any of them, although Rob Renes was a teacher at my middle school (didn't have a class with him though). I believe he is now a principal in my district.

Have to tip your cap to the…

Have to tip your cap to the B12. Ever since Nebraska bolted it feels like they're on the verge of collapse every several years and yet here they are about to survive longer than the PAC12, gaining some of their refugees in the process, including one of their exes back.

Less than zero interest in…

Less than zero interest in adding Cal personally. The B1G can get a school that is both strong academically and not a dumpster fire athletically. And one that produces less embarrassing alumni.

If we're assuming we take exactly two more, I'd go Stanford and Notre Dame. Stanford is bad in the big sports but very good in all the rest and bring as much or more to the table academically as Cal. Bring them in probably pushes Notre Dame over the edge; the B1G will have all of their traditional rivals except Navy at that point if I'm remembering them all. Yes yes, to hell with Notre Dame and all, but thinking purely business it makes sense and I think even they have to see the writing on the wall this time and they are going to want exactly zero to do with the SEC culturally.

I think it is more likely…

I think it is more likely the opposite happens and the MWC "raids" the remainder of the PACX. They have a TV deal already and the PACX doesn't.

Only went a few times…

Only went a few times because I never wanted to wait that long. Breakfast was solid but ironically I liked the burger than the breakfast if I'm being honest. As a cultural mainstay it will be missed but judged purely for the breakfast... Northside Grill is better.

*ducks*

Honestly now very hot at all…

Honestly not very hot at all in my books. As the sequel trilogy unfolded, I sort of realized that if I'm being honest with myself, Star Wars has been more bad than good, so in reality, am I really a "Star Wars fan?"

I didn't watch Star Wars until sometime shortly after episode 3 came out on DVD and then I plowed through all 6. I did the weird thing by watching them in timeline order instead of production order. Naturally I knew a few things that were unavoidable knowledge, but other than Anakin becoming Darth Vader I didn't have a clue about anyone else, so I had the benefit of surprise with most of the character twists that any other fan would have known were coming and I still thought they were pretty meh. Most critically, the original movie that seems to be held in high esteem by most people, was also pretty meh. I'd rather watch Spaceballs. Episode 5 was at least pretty legit, but then episode 6 was also pretty lackluster in my mind as well.

Episode 7 was pretty decent mostly because it was very safe, if not a little lame in that it was again about exploiting poor engineering choices. And then 8 and 9 were also pretty meh.

So yeah. Can't honestly say I'm a Star Wars fan, but my reasons are opinions shared by many Star Wars fans, so I feel like a lot of people out there are not actually Star Wars fans but haven't come to terms with that. I'm happy to learn that I am apparently not as a lone as I thought I was.

Rouge One, though, was really good. Would watch again.

I knew JK Simmons was born…

I knew JK Simmons was born in Detroit but did not grow up there. I had no idea he had subsequently moved to Columbus and adopted Ohio State.

I feel like a close friend has died.

Interesting, so they only…

Interesting, so they only need to be 11th worst to have a shot at 1st and 12th worst to have a shot at 2nd?

I mean, I guess lucking out and getting 1st overall would be nice if Bedard is all he's said to be, but adding Fantilli would be amazing for my Michigan ego lol

Maybe I'm wrong, because it…

Maybe I'm wrong, because it feels like they tweak something every year, but last I recall the top 3 spots are lottery draws and you have to be one of the 10 worst teams to have a shot at those lottery spots. Detroit is riding that line right now and I am kind of hoping they mini tank a little just so they at least have a shot, as low a percentage as that may be.

That being said, it doesn't have to be Detroit, any team not in the basement but not quite playoff capable would reasonably want to add him right away if they should be so fortunate as to get the #2 pick in spite of very long odds.

I think Fantilli is going to…

I think Fantilli is going to depend completely on who gets him. If it's Chicago or San Jose, they have no reason to rush him into a rookie contract and would let him stay one year (or dare I even say, possibly even two years). You basically saw this with Owen Power; he could have done as soon as he was drafted by Buffalo knew they weren't ready to compete and Owen was very much cool with staying in college, so they let him do it. Fantilli certainly seems like he is at least as wanting to stay in college and someone on the front end of a rebuild gets him, they have every reason to let him.

On the other hand, if say, Detroit ends up with the last lottery slot and manages to go up to #2, Adam has the capability of making an impact right away on a team that should definitely be capable of making the playoffs. They should sign him and he should do it.

Fitting that the final nail…

Fitting that the final nail is another brutal, lazy turnover from Luke Hughes.

Very hard to win hockey…

Very hard to win hockey games when you're basically gifting the other team their offense.

Old bad habits have come…

Old bad habits have come back with a vengeance so far. Defensemen just totally falling asleep over and over and giving up odd man rushes like candy at Halloween. No idea what Portillo was thinking on the first goal; clearly saw the puck land and then... didn't move at all to provide a nice backboard and then gives the Pikachu meme face.

Two periods to get it together and make up for it.

Don't have any problem with…

Don't have any problem with a little talk. Don't even have a problem with them doing the reing thing to the crowd or each other. Getting in someone's face like that, multiple times, making gestures, is more than talk.

Very much. If someone in a…

Very much. If someone in a men's game pulled the shit she was at the end getting in their face pulling a John Cena, they'd have been laid the fuck out.

Honestly, been a little…

Honestly, been a little skeptical of the coaching for a good portion of the year. On paper we seemed to be having an excellent year considering the absurd amount of adversity we faced, but yet at the same time, watching the team on the ice I couldn't help but shake that the team's biggest problems seemed to be what ought to be some of the most coachable corrections.

But there is no denying that we did do well for all the circumstances to weather and there is definitely no denying that whatever he's been preaching, the team has started practicing because they have been dynamite since the B1G semifinals.

Ultimately making him the permanent coach was always going to be the right move when it was clear the team was not cratering, but now I don't think there is any doubt he is more than just the best available, he is THE right choice outright. Excited to see this ride to it's conclusion this season and looking forward to what he can do with more time and a return to a more average level of team adversity.

Was doing some bar hopping…

Was doing some bar hopping that ended up moving at some inconvenient times, but from what I did catch of the game, it lived up to what I was expecting to when that became the matchup. Not a watcher of women's BB (or much of any basketball) but that was just plain fun to watch. Hope Iowa can put away LSU and win at all.

Also shoutout to a former high school of classmate of mine who is one of the trainer's for Iowa. Reckon she's enjoying the ride as much as the players are.

Raise the field up and…

Raise the field up and expand it into the front rows until it is large enough to suitably hold a soccer field within more typical international dimensions so that Michigan Stadium can start hosting big time soccer games on the regular.

To make up for the loss of the front rows, add upper decks to the endzones and complete the upper concourse all the way around the stadium. Scoreboards would be raised up above and behind the upper decks and possible get another size bump to account for the extra distance for people looking from the other endzone.

Wifi service needs to be improved. There are way too many breaks in football now for me to not be able to at least check some other scores, if not briefly watch them if it's halftime and band is done with their show. This is especially true since they've really reduced how much they do of "out of town" scores on the downtime.

More bathrooms and drinking fountains wherever it makes to to reduce the lost game time when nature calls.

Hang a bunch of TVs on the girders of the concourse to show the game while it is going on and you might be stuck in a line, and/or show other athletic events going on that are happening at the same time in the rare cases there is a conflict.