Never thought I would see Armando Bacot described as a "beanpole"...either an attempt at humor that went (way) over my head or perhaps a player mix-up? Bacot is about as beefy a beef can as they get while still being able to get up and down the floor.
I am extremely high on Diabate, but to come away from that video with "has potential to be the best finisher at Michigan over the last 20 years" is a TAEK if I've ever seen one. Guy is going to develop...but missing five dunks in the first minute of the video (sure, including a couple on which he's fouled) is not exactly ideal. Athleticism off the charts...finishing ability? Little ways to go there.
I love the basketball chatter, and I'm as big a Michigan basketball fan as there is - certainly excited for the season and thought we looked outstanding on offense against Bowling Green. Obviously the Oakland game was a hard fall back to earth, but I'm still hopeful this will be a fun, exciting, and solid team to watch throughout the season.
That being said, there are two all-time bad hot takes in this post, and one comically bad assertion.
1. Matt EM, on Dickinson: "Don't think there's any question he should be the primary option in half-court sets. Can consistently create for himself and others."
Uh...what? You don't think there is "any question he should be the primary option in half-court sets"? Look, Dickinson is going to be a very good, maybe great player at Michigan. He's already shown that he is an outstanding passing big man, he can use his body to get great position, he has some finishing touch, is a good free throw shooter, and is just plain huge. That being said, we're talking about a guy who has scored a total of 30 points in two career college games playing slightly more than 50% of available minutes, that against competition that will likely prove middling at best (Bowling Green, 163 on KenPom) and downright rancid (Oakland, 311 on KenPom) at worst. He made 4/7 field goal attempts in his first game and 6/8 in his second game, that coming against, again, what has been one of the downright worst teams in college so far this season. Both opponents were severely undersized in the post. Beyond the simple fact that we are WAY over-hyping the results we've seen so far, we are also talking about this same freshman being "the primary option in half-court sets" over the likes of Franz Wagner, Isaiah Livers, Mike Smith, and Chaundee Brown? This is absolutely absurd. Dickinson should continue to get more time and more touches as he continues to adjust to the game...if he's our #1 offensive option again this season, we are in big trouble. He has looked good so far, but frankly, his two best attributes to-date are his size and his passing.
2. Ace, also on Dickinson: "There are going to be some ups and downs but Dickinson is the most talented post player they’ve had in a long, long time."
Uh...WHAT?! I'm 100% on board with the first part of this take - there are going to be ups and downs, no question. The second best part...well, maybe Ace and I have extraordinarily different views on what constitutes "a long, long time" in college basketball (or maybe he's not thinking about it in terms of season to season but rather that it's been hundreds of days in real life?), but last I checked, Mo Wagner suited up all the way back in...2018...and Mitch McGary before that WAY back in...2014! My comment above already addresses this, but to insinuate that Dickinson, today, is a "more talented" post player than peak Wagner and/or peak McGary is a comically bad take. I understand that Wagner was much more skilled than a traditional big and did a lot of damage away from the basket, but he had a bevy of fantastic post moves throughout his career, and I don't even know how you could argue that Dickinson is more talented than McGary was at the end of his freshman season.
3. Seth, on playing Oakland: "I know we're not supposed to be mentioning football, but Oakland's zone was a Mark Dantonio July Drive(TM). Michigan clearly wasn't prepared for their opponent to switch up their defense."
This may actually be correct that we weren't prepared, but it would only be due to an extreme lack of scouting if actually the case. Kampe's Oakland teams play almost exclusive man defense most years, yes, but they've played essentially nothing but zone the first three games of this season...this was not Oakland "switching up their defense"; the staff should have known exactly what to expect.
Is there a reason you write for a college sports blog covering basketball specifically and yet constantly shit on college basketball?
Obviously the NBA has the most talented players on a pound-for-pound basis in the world. That doesn't mean that college basketball players are absolute garbage as you assert every time you comment on the state of the basketball world.
I rarely feel compelled to comment, as evidenced by my relative lack of points, and I hate even more to call out specific people/writers, but my goodness does Matt EM make a fool of himself here...
The hot takez came early and often ("If that's the new standard, CBB is effectively over.") and, surprisingly, just when I thought he couldn't stick his foot any further down his throat, he managed to do so! Like 15 more times thereafter!
I'm sorry, but an "insider" with no real inside information who offers nothing of substance as a writer or "recruiting analyst" and is blatantly and admittedly a bigger NBA fan than college fan probably should not find himself being paid by this here blog to disseminate his thoughts.
I don't doubt he is a good person and apologize for what seems like a personal attack - it is not meant as such.
I'm certainly no Courtney Sims hater...but have we already forgotten about Mitch McGary? Sure, McGary was maybe more than just back-to-the-basket, but to say that Dickinson is already more polished in the post is an absurd take.
This is an epically bad hot take regarding Ted Valentine. I get it, the guy has a personality. I...don't think that's a bad thing. Why do referees have to be wholly robotic? Give me a good/very good ref who likes to joke around a little bit (BTW, if you think he wasn't just pulling a little joke on Berry you are comically mistaken) over an incompetent robot any day of the week.
We know you don't watch a lot of college basketball (not necessarily a bad thing) and thus rely almost exclusively on advanced analytics to form your opinion of things, so why not look at KenPom's handy "Officials Rankings", which has Valentine rated as the 4th-best ref in college this season based on the quality and number of games he's been selected to do?
Instead, you seem much more inclined to go off the "I have seen that ref before and remember his face so therefore he must be horrible" method. No ref is perfect, but Teddy V is one of the best in the game. It's a shame that the NCAA has deemed upwards of 100 referees more worthy than a guy who has proven time and again to be excellent at his job.
This is interesting stuff for sure, and a nice catch. I'll be watching for it in coming games.
With that being said, I think it actually directly contradicts the hypothesis at the beginning of the post that "(Duncan) seems to be defending the post more frequently than last year relative to defending the perimeter. This is obviously something Michigan would want since he’s much more capable of using his length to make shots tough in the post rather than trying to guard the perimeter." While I don't disagree that Duncan has looked pretty adept defending post-ups in recent games, if you take a closer look at all three of these plays that have been clipped, you'll actually notice that the action is designed to switch Duncan off of a post player and onto a wing/guard/shooting threat.
Plays 1 and 2: Robinson is looking to switch off of Nate Reuvers, a 6'10 forward who has attempted nearly 70% of his shots inside the arc, onto Brevin Pritzl, a 6'3 guard who has attempted 64% of his shots from three-point range.
Play 3: Robinson switches off of Keita Bates-Diop (don't think I need to mention his skillset) onto Andrew Dakich (ditto).
So, while Duncan may be defending post-ups better and more, these picture pages would not support the notion that the coaches are trying to get him off of shooters and into potential post-up D situations.
Agreed that Requiem for a Dream is a damn hard film to watch, but I think it's pretty important and almost feel it should be required viewing for HS seniors/college freshmen/young men and women somewhere in that age range.
Eraserhead is just weird, man.
A Clockwork Orange isn't the easiest flick to watch either, even though I think it's incredible.
Agree with pretty much everyone else on here. I actually was never a huge Star Wars fan growing up and only just watched the first six last year about this time in preparation to see The Force Awakens, but I'm getting more and more into it, and Rogue One made me happy about that decision.
Felicity Jones was great (as was pretty much the entire cast), K-2SO is amazing and really, really grew on me throughout, and Vader was epic.
Only thing I disagree with on here - didn't think the opening was slow, per se, but rather the first 20-30 minutes were a bit jumbled and hard to follow. Not sure if it was any easier to follow for those who have seen everything in the Star Wars universe 100 times or not.
I see your profile picture and now have to ask you a question. I'm going to Boston next week with the lady friend for a long weekend and am considering making the 3.5ish hour trip up to Hill Farmstead for a day, as I found out it is their anniversary week and they'll supposedly be having a celebration all week. My question for you: how worth it would it be? Time is the biggest issue, as I want to see as much of Boston as possible, but it would also mean renting a car for the day. My girlfriend and I both love stouts, porters, sours, quads, tripels, etc. Not a huge fan of saisons and generally stay away from IPAs/PAs.
Sorry to butt in to your conversation here, but Toppling Goliath got my attention. Not a hop head by any stretch, but I'm a huge stout guy, and I've heard wonderful things about KBBS, Mornin' Delight, SR-71, etc. I know these aren't easy to get your hands on, probably regardless of how close you live, but any chance you have "access to" any of these or have one or more in your possession that you would be willing to part with?
Also the reason I think Muhammad Ali may be the most overrated athlete of all time. I'm not a boxing fan, so maybe I'm way off here, but from the clips I've seen of him fighting, his greatest skill was simply taking a beating and subsequently wearing his opponent down until the opponent had nothing left in the tank.
I think that pizza place in a remote-ish Colorado resort town is owned by a former Michigan football player (or players). Couldn't tell you who, but I believe I've seen someone comment on it before around these parts.
+1 for the weird guys comment...but not sure where these rape allegations are coming from? You may be thinking about Adriean Payne and Keith Appling...
Stu is probably my favorite Michigan basketball player of all time (2008-09 was also my freshman year), and you are right that he set the all time games played record (136) at the end of his senior year, but Jordan Morgan surpassed that two years later with 140.
Stu is probably my favorite Michigan basketball player of all time (2008-09 was also my freshman year), and you are right that he set the all time games played record (136) at the end of his senior year, but Jordan Morgan surpassed that two years later with 140.
Fellow WC alum here (2008)! Go West and Go Blue.
Our (WC's) fight song needs to be re-written though. For those who don't know, it's pretty much MSU's fight song (same school colors as well) with different words. Believe a Sparty wrote it.
Enjoyed a nice OddSide Cuckoo Wheat (with coffee added) while washing the clubs before heading up to Treetops for a couple days. Should be a good weekend.
Words can usually only go so far. I'm a native of Grand Rapids currently in Lansing and I can't wait to move back one hour West some day myself. People have covered the vast majority of the major pluses - water, beaches, beer, great jobs, no traffic, four Pure Michigan seasons, friendly people, small city feel/big city opportunities, no natural disasters, etc. etc., - but sometimes a three-minute video is a nice, ringing endoresement of a city. This is one of the best I've ever seen, and it's all so true too.
This video was shown before all the Movies in the Park (which is absolutely amazing BTW - a giant blow-up screen is brought to Ah-Nab-Awen park (right next to the great Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum) to show movies on Friday evenings in the summer right across from downtown with BYOB) and gave the vast majority of the audience chills every time. The views of the city from that spot are pristine.
Actually, I have seen first-hand personalized responses from President Schlissel to multiple students, so he definitely does read through many of his emails and responds when he feels compelled to.
If he ever does respond to an email you send him in the future, don't be alarmed if it comes off as being overly casual...just saying, he's not too worried about 100% proper usage of formal grammar.
I actually agree with 90% of what is written here and have so much more to add on but so little time.
I haven't been able to read through all 300-some responses, but I will say the one point you completely lost me was with the "On one hand a TO in this game might be valuable; Hoke clearly wasn't going to concede defeat, and a wasted down running the ball was preferrable to not being able to stop the clock."
To me it looked like Hoke had conceded defeat a few minutes into the third quarter. I can live with trying something new at QB in the first half, and maybe even letting Morris stay in there for a series in the second half to see if there's any chance he was the right pick to start, but to keep him in series after series when it was clear that he was not going to lead a come back and after he was increasingly hobbled just pointed to Hoke's overbearing stubbornness.
It was almost like he was saying "this is what you asked for, this is what you get". Just as he refuses to wear a headset over and over and over again despite it being more and more apparent that he has no idea what's going on on the field, Hoke was going to continue sticking Morris out there play after play because that was the decision and there was no changing it, score/blowout/fan base be damned.
And lastly, perhaps what irks me most about the situation is that the ONE reason I have ever heard Hoke say he doesn't wear a headset is so that he can get a better "feel" for what's going on in the game, on the field. So now we have a clearly hobbled, possibly concussed QUARTERBACK and Hoke claims he had no idea and can only speak for himself. As a head coach, you need to be able to speak for every player and coach that is a part of the team. End of story.
Just in case any prospective, future, or current students read this comment thread and shy away from taking a class taught by Markovits I thought I would share my own perspective.
Andy, as he likes his students to call him, always seemed very approachable to me. Yes, he is an academic to a T and lets that be known to his students, but that wasn't much of a turn-off. Most professors at Michigan (and I assume at other elite schools around the country) are quite proud of their work and their research and Andy is no different.
In class, Markovits is a bit flighty, literally jumping from topic to topic on a wide blackboard filled with short quips to be discussed throughout lecture, but he's also very engaging with students. At times he would maybe get a little frustrated with students taking a bit longer to pick up on the material at hand, but he would only get short with a student if he/she asked a stupid question (and in my class, it was always the same kid asking stupid questions that EVERY other student in the class would groan about when his hand went up).
When my friend and I did decide to talk to him after class one day, we ended up staying about 20 minutes after and talked another 10 minutes or so about Michigan basketball with him as we walked out of Angell Hall. We eventually formed a friendly relationship and Andy took us out for a nice dinner a few months after our class had ended to catch up.
In short, I would recommend a Markovits class (some Politics and History of Sport was the one I took) to anyone who can. The professor that looks like he's Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future and dresses like he just woke up is simply classic.
Funny aside: one day one of those people trying to pass out fliers for gimmick jobs to a lecture hall was in Markovits's room before the start of class, went through his talk, and started trying to pass stuff out before I believe DPS came in to escort him out, the guy went to the other side of the classroom, and Markovits basically ran him out of the room himself.
One of the football recruits (I believe McDowell), clearly the biggest one there, sitting right in the front row of that section, slept through the majority of the second half of the basketball game. Thought it was interesting.
It really is amazing how much a player's looks affect who we compare them too. Obviously Booker looks pretty similar to Rivers, and I'm not saying I disagree at all with the comparison (I actually don't think it's a bad one), it is just weird that whenever most people try to compare somebody to someone else they almost always first pick out guys that look very similar.
The thing that people forget most about Izzo is not that he has brought State to the level they are at while Michigan floundered over the same time period (which certainly played a part in MSU's dominance), but that he was HANDED the reigns of the program from Jud Heathcote, and it's not like Heathcote was some slouch of a coach that left a bare cupboard. Izzo had the luxury of taking over a good program for which he had already been an assistant with for 12(!) years. Heathcote made the NCAA Tournament five of his last six years at MSU before retiring and had his team in the top three in the Big Ten in four of those years. Izzo then proceeded to miss the Big Dance his first two years leading the program.
Tom Izzo is a solid coach and a very good recruiter, but give me the choice between him and Beilein and I will take the latter every day of the week, no question. And I have said this since the day we hired Beilein. It's not really fair to compare them by record, you have to go off what you see on the court and how well each can coach a team with varying levels of talent.
You people who are ripping on this kid have to keep in mind that he is basically Moss Point's whole team. You can see him being double- and triple-teamed nearly every time he touches the ball in the OP's video, yet he still makes a number of nice-looking shots. Obviously it was probably a bit of an off-night with a lot of missed looks, but no one makes every shot. Trey Burke doesn't make six of every 10 he takes. Have to keep it in perspective.
If we plan to go to a game that someone has already bolded on the schedule (take this Friday's De La Salle/Pioneer matchup) should we even bother adding our own name?
Although from what I've heard many of those younger and inexperienced players will make up the core of Brazil's team come 2014, notably Neymar, who seems to be a rising star. It is really quite amazing to me sometimes how quickly guys seem to fade from their prime in soccer. Ronaldinho was often placed among the best players in the world around 2010 but I don't even think he played a minute in the 2010 World Cup.
While a run by the US may be unlikely, I think it would pique the interest of soccer fans here, whom I would presume to be around 90% pro-USA. Obviously we are struggling a little bit in the qualifying stages and haven't looked very good since the 5-0 pummeling of Norway a couple months back; at the same time, however, we also need to realize that Klinsmann is bringing with him almost a completely revamped attacking style (as opposed to Bradley's favorite sit back and counter approach), and that this will take time to provide positive results (much like implementing a new system in American football). In two years' time, perhaps we will be in the conversation to reach the quarters or even semis.
I'll be the first to admit I was behind in picking up on the soccer trend (started to follow somewhat in 2006 World Cup, have been trying to follow soccer relatively closely since 2010 World Cup), but I'll do my best to assess the US squad on the same measures:
3 (Attack - solid but not great with Dempsey, Altidore, Boyd, maybe Agudelo, half-Donovan)
4 (Midfield - Donovan should still be top three player for us and Bradley has impressed)
3 (Defense - assuming Gooch is gone)
4 (Goalkeeping)
2 (Depth)
3 (Cohesion/tactics)
19/30 may be a bit ambitious and somewhat biased, but I think it's a reasonable rating.
While the 4-1 mark Brazil put on us in a recent friendly looks horrendous, we really had a number of impressive chances and seemed to at least belong on the same field as them.
I'll be interested to hear other input here specifically on the US side.
My cousin dated Chris Stapleton for a while back when she went to Michigan, and Chris became friends with my uncle (cousin's stepdad). Later on he gave his 1992 Rose Bowl hat to my uncle, who gave it to me a few years back. White corduroy snap-back that has seen its fair share of Michigan parties by now.
Harris has only been offered a scholarship for football at Michigan. If he accepted that, yes, he would probably be able to join the basketball team as well, but he has not been offered a basketball scholarship.
I was at the camp most of the time and talked with Joe a little bit about Brown's performance. In my opinion, Vitto Brown was without a doubt the MVP of the 5-on-5 play. He has a college-ready body, is a legit 6'7/6'8, is very athletic, tenacious on the boards, showed a decent midrange game, blocked a number of shots, and really displayed a refreshing positive attitude, unlike many players these days it seems. He's going to be a solid player wherever he ends up and seems like a good option to keep on the board. We are not full for the 2013 class yet either...Reggie Cameron is the number one priority right now, but if we miss on him I have to hope Brown is still an option.
Also, as for kids getting offers on June 15, I think Booker, Bates-Diop, and Bluiett are locks for an offer while Jae'Sean Tate is also very likely to receive one. I also disagree that no one is likely to drop for us early. I think there is a very good chance Booker commits within a couple days of getting an offer.
Recent Comments
Never thought I would see Armando Bacot described as a "beanpole"...either an attempt at humor that went (way) over my head or perhaps a player mix-up? Bacot is about as beefy a beef can as they get while still being able to get up and down the floor.
I am extremely high on Diabate, but to come away from that video with "has potential to be the best finisher at Michigan over the last 20 years" is a TAEK if I've ever seen one. Guy is going to develop...but missing five dunks in the first minute of the video (sure, including a couple on which he's fouled) is not exactly ideal. Athleticism off the charts...finishing ability? Little ways to go there.
Double post
I love the basketball chatter, and I'm as big a Michigan basketball fan as there is - certainly excited for the season and thought we looked outstanding on offense against Bowling Green. Obviously the Oakland game was a hard fall back to earth, but I'm still hopeful this will be a fun, exciting, and solid team to watch throughout the season.
That being said, there are two all-time bad hot takes in this post, and one comically bad assertion.
1. Matt EM, on Dickinson: "Don't think there's any question he should be the primary option in half-court sets. Can consistently create for himself and others."
Uh...what? You don't think there is "any question he should be the primary option in half-court sets"? Look, Dickinson is going to be a very good, maybe great player at Michigan. He's already shown that he is an outstanding passing big man, he can use his body to get great position, he has some finishing touch, is a good free throw shooter, and is just plain huge. That being said, we're talking about a guy who has scored a total of 30 points in two career college games playing slightly more than 50% of available minutes, that against competition that will likely prove middling at best (Bowling Green, 163 on KenPom) and downright rancid (Oakland, 311 on KenPom) at worst. He made 4/7 field goal attempts in his first game and 6/8 in his second game, that coming against, again, what has been one of the downright worst teams in college so far this season. Both opponents were severely undersized in the post. Beyond the simple fact that we are WAY over-hyping the results we've seen so far, we are also talking about this same freshman being "the primary option in half-court sets" over the likes of Franz Wagner, Isaiah Livers, Mike Smith, and Chaundee Brown? This is absolutely absurd. Dickinson should continue to get more time and more touches as he continues to adjust to the game...if he's our #1 offensive option again this season, we are in big trouble. He has looked good so far, but frankly, his two best attributes to-date are his size and his passing.
2. Ace, also on Dickinson: "There are going to be some ups and downs but Dickinson is the most talented post player they’ve had in a long, long time."
Uh...WHAT?! I'm 100% on board with the first part of this take - there are going to be ups and downs, no question. The second best part...well, maybe Ace and I have extraordinarily different views on what constitutes "a long, long time" in college basketball (or maybe he's not thinking about it in terms of season to season but rather that it's been hundreds of days in real life?), but last I checked, Mo Wagner suited up all the way back in...2018...and Mitch McGary before that WAY back in...2014! My comment above already addresses this, but to insinuate that Dickinson, today, is a "more talented" post player than peak Wagner and/or peak McGary is a comically bad take. I understand that Wagner was much more skilled than a traditional big and did a lot of damage away from the basket, but he had a bevy of fantastic post moves throughout his career, and I don't even know how you could argue that Dickinson is more talented than McGary was at the end of his freshman season.
3. Seth, on playing Oakland: "I know we're not supposed to be mentioning football, but Oakland's zone was a Mark Dantonio July Drive(TM). Michigan clearly wasn't prepared for their opponent to switch up their defense."
This may actually be correct that we weren't prepared, but it would only be due to an extreme lack of scouting if actually the case. Kampe's Oakland teams play almost exclusive man defense most years, yes, but they've played essentially nothing but zone the first three games of this season...this was not Oakland "switching up their defense"; the staff should have known exactly what to expect.
Is there a reason you write for a college sports blog covering basketball specifically and yet constantly shit on college basketball?
Obviously the NBA has the most talented players on a pound-for-pound basis in the world. That doesn't mean that college basketball players are absolute garbage as you assert every time you comment on the state of the basketball world.
I rarely feel compelled to comment, as evidenced by my relative lack of points, and I hate even more to call out specific people/writers, but my goodness does Matt EM make a fool of himself here...
The hot takez came early and often ("If that's the new standard, CBB is effectively over.") and, surprisingly, just when I thought he couldn't stick his foot any further down his throat, he managed to do so! Like 15 more times thereafter!
I'm sorry, but an "insider" with no real inside information who offers nothing of substance as a writer or "recruiting analyst" and is blatantly and admittedly a bigger NBA fan than college fan probably should not find himself being paid by this here blog to disseminate his thoughts.
I don't doubt he is a good person and apologize for what seems like a personal attack - it is not meant as such.
I'm certainly no Courtney Sims hater...but have we already forgotten about Mitch McGary? Sure, McGary was maybe more than just back-to-the-basket, but to say that Dickinson is already more polished in the post is an absurd take.
This is an epically bad hot take regarding Ted Valentine. I get it, the guy has a personality. I...don't think that's a bad thing. Why do referees have to be wholly robotic? Give me a good/very good ref who likes to joke around a little bit (BTW, if you think he wasn't just pulling a little joke on Berry you are comically mistaken) over an incompetent robot any day of the week.
We know you don't watch a lot of college basketball (not necessarily a bad thing) and thus rely almost exclusively on advanced analytics to form your opinion of things, so why not look at KenPom's handy "Officials Rankings", which has Valentine rated as the 4th-best ref in college this season based on the quality and number of games he's been selected to do?
Instead, you seem much more inclined to go off the "I have seen that ref before and remember his face so therefore he must be horrible" method. No ref is perfect, but Teddy V is one of the best in the game. It's a shame that the NCAA has deemed upwards of 100 referees more worthy than a guy who has proven time and again to be excellent at his job.
This is interesting stuff for sure, and a nice catch. I'll be watching for it in coming games.
With that being said, I think it actually directly contradicts the hypothesis at the beginning of the post that "(Duncan) seems to be defending the post more frequently than last year relative to defending the perimeter. This is obviously something Michigan would want since he’s much more capable of using his length to make shots tough in the post rather than trying to guard the perimeter." While I don't disagree that Duncan has looked pretty adept defending post-ups in recent games, if you take a closer look at all three of these plays that have been clipped, you'll actually notice that the action is designed to switch Duncan off of a post player and onto a wing/guard/shooting threat.
Plays 1 and 2: Robinson is looking to switch off of Nate Reuvers, a 6'10 forward who has attempted nearly 70% of his shots inside the arc, onto Brevin Pritzl, a 6'3 guard who has attempted 64% of his shots from three-point range.
Play 3: Robinson switches off of Keita Bates-Diop (don't think I need to mention his skillset) onto Andrew Dakich (ditto).
So, while Duncan may be defending post-ups better and more, these picture pages would not support the notion that the coaches are trying to get him off of shooters and into potential post-up D situations.
Agreed that Requiem for a Dream is a damn hard film to watch, but I think it's pretty important and almost feel it should be required viewing for HS seniors/college freshmen/young men and women somewhere in that age range.
Eraserhead is just weird, man.
A Clockwork Orange isn't the easiest flick to watch either, even though I think it's incredible.
Agree with pretty much everyone else on here. I actually was never a huge Star Wars fan growing up and only just watched the first six last year about this time in preparation to see The Force Awakens, but I'm getting more and more into it, and Rogue One made me happy about that decision.
Felicity Jones was great (as was pretty much the entire cast), K-2SO is amazing and really, really grew on me throughout, and Vader was epic.
Only thing I disagree with on here - didn't think the opening was slow, per se, but rather the first 20-30 minutes were a bit jumbled and hard to follow. Not sure if it was any easier to follow for those who have seen everything in the Star Wars universe 100 times or not.
To State fans/friends, I usually pull the "We have one thing in common...we both applied to Michigan."
Oh, the looks on their faces...
I see your profile picture and now have to ask you a question. I'm going to Boston next week with the lady friend for a long weekend and am considering making the 3.5ish hour trip up to Hill Farmstead for a day, as I found out it is their anniversary week and they'll supposedly be having a celebration all week. My question for you: how worth it would it be? Time is the biggest issue, as I want to see as much of Boston as possible, but it would also mean renting a car for the day. My girlfriend and I both love stouts, porters, sours, quads, tripels, etc. Not a huge fan of saisons and generally stay away from IPAs/PAs.
So, your thoughts?
Sorry to butt in to your conversation here, but Toppling Goliath got my attention. Not a hop head by any stretch, but I'm a huge stout guy, and I've heard wonderful things about KBBS, Mornin' Delight, SR-71, etc. I know these aren't easy to get your hands on, probably regardless of how close you live, but any chance you have "access to" any of these or have one or more in your possession that you would be willing to part with?
"Call it."
"What do I stand to win?"
"Everything. You stand to win everything. Call it."
Perhaps the most terrifying villain in modern cinematic history.
Also the reason I think Muhammad Ali may be the most overrated athlete of all time. I'm not a boxing fan, so maybe I'm way off here, but from the clips I've seen of him fighting, his greatest skill was simply taking a beating and subsequently wearing his opponent down until the opponent had nothing left in the tank.
I think that pizza place in a remote-ish Colorado resort town is owned by a former Michigan football player (or players). Couldn't tell you who, but I believe I've seen someone comment on it before around these parts.
+1 for the weird guys comment...but not sure where these rape allegations are coming from? You may be thinking about Adriean Payne and Keith Appling...
Stu is probably my favorite Michigan basketball player of all time (2008-09 was also my freshman year), and you are right that he set the all time games played record (136) at the end of his senior year, but Jordan Morgan surpassed that two years later with 140.
Stu is probably my favorite Michigan basketball player of all time (2008-09 was also my freshman year), and you are right that he set the all time games played record (136) at the end of his senior year, but Jordan Morgan surpassed that two years later with 140.
Our (WC's) fight song needs to be re-written though. For those who don't know, it's pretty much MSU's fight song (same school colors as well) with different words. Believe a Sparty wrote it.
W7, Row 45 with a couple buddies.
thanks work interwebz
Had to log in and upvote just to share my solidarity with other beer (read: stout/porter) lovers who hate beers on nitro.
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Words can usually only go so far. I'm a native of Grand Rapids currently in Lansing and I can't wait to move back one hour West some day myself. People have covered the vast majority of the major pluses - water, beaches, beer, great jobs, no traffic, four Pure Michigan seasons, friendly people, small city feel/big city opportunities, no natural disasters, etc. etc., - but sometimes a three-minute video is a nice, ringing endoresement of a city. This is one of the best I've ever seen, and it's all so true too.
This video was shown before all the Movies in the Park (which is absolutely amazing BTW - a giant blow-up screen is brought to Ah-Nab-Awen park (right next to the great Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum) to show movies on Friday evenings in the summer right across from downtown with BYOB) and gave the vast majority of the audience chills every time. The views of the city from that spot are pristine.
Actually, I have seen first-hand personalized responses from President Schlissel to multiple students, so he definitely does read through many of his emails and responds when he feels compelled to.
If he ever does respond to an email you send him in the future, don't be alarmed if it comes off as being overly casual...just saying, he's not too worried about 100% proper usage of formal grammar.
I actually agree with 90% of what is written here and have so much more to add on but so little time.
I haven't been able to read through all 300-some responses, but I will say the one point you completely lost me was with the "On one hand a TO in this game might be valuable; Hoke clearly wasn't going to concede defeat, and a wasted down running the ball was preferrable to not being able to stop the clock."
To me it looked like Hoke had conceded defeat a few minutes into the third quarter. I can live with trying something new at QB in the first half, and maybe even letting Morris stay in there for a series in the second half to see if there's any chance he was the right pick to start, but to keep him in series after series when it was clear that he was not going to lead a come back and after he was increasingly hobbled just pointed to Hoke's overbearing stubbornness.
It was almost like he was saying "this is what you asked for, this is what you get". Just as he refuses to wear a headset over and over and over again despite it being more and more apparent that he has no idea what's going on on the field, Hoke was going to continue sticking Morris out there play after play because that was the decision and there was no changing it, score/blowout/fan base be damned.
And lastly, perhaps what irks me most about the situation is that the ONE reason I have ever heard Hoke say he doesn't wear a headset is so that he can get a better "feel" for what's going on in the game, on the field. So now we have a clearly hobbled, possibly concussed QUARTERBACK and Hoke claims he had no idea and can only speak for himself. As a head coach, you need to be able to speak for every player and coach that is a part of the team. End of story.
Very, very happy to see this. Haters gonna hate.
Nothing to see here. My comment was moved to a reply.
Just in case any prospective, future, or current students read this comment thread and shy away from taking a class taught by Markovits I thought I would share my own perspective.
Andy, as he likes his students to call him, always seemed very approachable to me. Yes, he is an academic to a T and lets that be known to his students, but that wasn't much of a turn-off. Most professors at Michigan (and I assume at other elite schools around the country) are quite proud of their work and their research and Andy is no different.
In class, Markovits is a bit flighty, literally jumping from topic to topic on a wide blackboard filled with short quips to be discussed throughout lecture, but he's also very engaging with students. At times he would maybe get a little frustrated with students taking a bit longer to pick up on the material at hand, but he would only get short with a student if he/she asked a stupid question (and in my class, it was always the same kid asking stupid questions that EVERY other student in the class would groan about when his hand went up).
When my friend and I did decide to talk to him after class one day, we ended up staying about 20 minutes after and talked another 10 minutes or so about Michigan basketball with him as we walked out of Angell Hall. We eventually formed a friendly relationship and Andy took us out for a nice dinner a few months after our class had ended to catch up.
In short, I would recommend a Markovits class (some Politics and History of Sport was the one I took) to anyone who can. The professor that looks like he's Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future and dresses like he just woke up is simply classic.
Funny aside: one day one of those people trying to pass out fliers for gimmick jobs to a lecture hall was in Markovits's room before the start of class, went through his talk, and started trying to pass stuff out before I believe DPS came in to escort him out, the guy went to the other side of the classroom, and Markovits basically ran him out of the room himself.
Meyer actually works with the wings. Think Hardaway, Robinson III, Stauskas, etc. He also happens to be the Beyonce of the staff.
One of the football recruits (I believe McDowell), clearly the biggest one there, sitting right in the front row of that section, slept through the majority of the second half of the basketball game. Thought it was interesting.
It really is amazing how much a player's looks affect who we compare them too. Obviously Booker looks pretty similar to Rivers, and I'm not saying I disagree at all with the comparison (I actually don't think it's a bad one), it is just weird that whenever most people try to compare somebody to someone else they almost always first pick out guys that look very similar.
The thing that people forget most about Izzo is not that he has brought State to the level they are at while Michigan floundered over the same time period (which certainly played a part in MSU's dominance), but that he was HANDED the reigns of the program from Jud Heathcote, and it's not like Heathcote was some slouch of a coach that left a bare cupboard. Izzo had the luxury of taking over a good program for which he had already been an assistant with for 12(!) years. Heathcote made the NCAA Tournament five of his last six years at MSU before retiring and had his team in the top three in the Big Ten in four of those years. Izzo then proceeded to miss the Big Dance his first two years leading the program.
Tom Izzo is a solid coach and a very good recruiter, but give me the choice between him and Beilein and I will take the latter every day of the week, no question. And I have said this since the day we hired Beilein. It's not really fair to compare them by record, you have to go off what you see on the court and how well each can coach a team with varying levels of talent.
You people who are ripping on this kid have to keep in mind that he is basically Moss Point's whole team. You can see him being double- and triple-teamed nearly every time he touches the ball in the OP's video, yet he still makes a number of nice-looking shots. Obviously it was probably a bit of an off-night with a lot of missed looks, but no one makes every shot. Trey Burke doesn't make six of every 10 he takes. Have to keep it in perspective.
If we plan to go to a game that someone has already bolded on the schedule (take this Friday's De La Salle/Pioneer matchup) should we even bother adding our own name?
Too funny to be soon.
Is this "added bonus" a FREE ADDED BONUS for us???
-Department of Redundancy Department
Is Kyle Bosch enrolling early?
Although from what I've heard many of those younger and inexperienced players will make up the core of Brazil's team come 2014, notably Neymar, who seems to be a rising star. It is really quite amazing to me sometimes how quickly guys seem to fade from their prime in soccer. Ronaldinho was often placed among the best players in the world around 2010 but I don't even think he played a minute in the 2010 World Cup.
While a run by the US may be unlikely, I think it would pique the interest of soccer fans here, whom I would presume to be around 90% pro-USA. Obviously we are struggling a little bit in the qualifying stages and haven't looked very good since the 5-0 pummeling of Norway a couple months back; at the same time, however, we also need to realize that Klinsmann is bringing with him almost a completely revamped attacking style (as opposed to Bradley's favorite sit back and counter approach), and that this will take time to provide positive results (much like implementing a new system in American football). In two years' time, perhaps we will be in the conversation to reach the quarters or even semis.
I'll be the first to admit I was behind in picking up on the soccer trend (started to follow somewhat in 2006 World Cup, have been trying to follow soccer relatively closely since 2010 World Cup), but I'll do my best to assess the US squad on the same measures:
3 (Attack - solid but not great with Dempsey, Altidore, Boyd, maybe Agudelo, half-Donovan)
4 (Midfield - Donovan should still be top three player for us and Bradley has impressed)
3 (Defense - assuming Gooch is gone)
4 (Goalkeeping)
2 (Depth)
3 (Cohesion/tactics)
19/30 may be a bit ambitious and somewhat biased, but I think it's a reasonable rating.
While the 4-1 mark Brazil put on us in a recent friendly looks horrendous, we really had a number of impressive chances and seemed to at least belong on the same field as them.
I'll be interested to hear other input here specifically on the US side.
MORAN!
My cousin dated Chris Stapleton for a while back when she went to Michigan, and Chris became friends with my uncle (cousin's stepdad). Later on he gave his 1992 Rose Bowl hat to my uncle, who gave it to me a few years back. White corduroy snap-back that has seen its fair share of Michigan parties by now.
Harris has only been offered a scholarship for football at Michigan. If he accepted that, yes, he would probably be able to join the basketball team as well, but he has not been offered a basketball scholarship.
I was at the camp most of the time and talked with Joe a little bit about Brown's performance. In my opinion, Vitto Brown was without a doubt the MVP of the 5-on-5 play. He has a college-ready body, is a legit 6'7/6'8, is very athletic, tenacious on the boards, showed a decent midrange game, blocked a number of shots, and really displayed a refreshing positive attitude, unlike many players these days it seems. He's going to be a solid player wherever he ends up and seems like a good option to keep on the board. We are not full for the 2013 class yet either...Reggie Cameron is the number one priority right now, but if we miss on him I have to hope Brown is still an option.
Also, as for kids getting offers on June 15, I think Booker, Bates-Diop, and Bluiett are locks for an offer while Jae'Sean Tate is also very likely to receive one. I also disagree that no one is likely to drop for us early. I think there is a very good chance Booker commits within a couple days of getting an offer.
It appears that Trey Burke got another tattoo on his front right bicep...interesting.