Member for

14 years 1 month
Points
344.00

Recent Comments

Date Title Body
We have a million wings?

We have a million wings? That's news to me. We have Irvin, Robinson, Dawkins and Chatman for two positions and LeVert if we are lucky.

Sounds like two starters and two subs. We have one 5 position and we have Doyle, Donnal and Wilson for that spot, with Teske coming in 2016. Any other bigs would be pointless unless they are of the dominant one and done variety because it would just be more players taking up one spot on the court. Can't play all of them so it would just be wasted scholarships. What we need are more guards so that we don't need to see walk ons playing major minutes. Spike will be a senior and after that there is only MAAR and Walton

When it comes to basketball, that is everyone's favorite thing to say though.. "MORE BIGS!!!!"
College hoops is a guards game and we don't have enough of them right now.. We made our runs with Burke and Stauskas, and we need to find more dominant guards

Different

Winovich is universally a 3 star OLB across the board though and that is the difference... 

Phillips was a 4 star on Scout and ESPN

David Johnson wasn't even rated as an OLB on Scout and was a 4 star on ESPN

Sean Duggan didn't have as impressive an offer list.. Winovich also had Michigan, Oregon and West Virginia but add OSU, Va Tech, FSU, Stanford, Tennessee, Miami, Missouri, and suddenly he has a significantly better offer list than Duggan

Holmes Onwukaife wasn't rated as an OLB on Scout and ESPN

Runyourpool

I run my pool with runyourpool.com.  There are a lot of great features, but there is a fee depending on how many members are in your pool.  

 

The website generates many reports for your pool including: standings, who to root for, possible outcomes, final four predictions and team-by-team predictions.  

 

It's a great site and I use it for March Madness and my NCAA Bowl pool.  I have zero complaints and it compiles many cool stats for you.  However, the only downside is the fee that it costs to run it.  It's not that big a deal to me though because I just take out the extra money out of the winnings and in the grand scheme of things it doesn't take much out of the overall pot.

Video

Yeah this video that was posted is not a good example, but he played 1 on 1 against 4 different guys who were picked after sending in "tryout" videos to the radio program.  These guys were decent and they lost by a total of 44-6.  So take more out of those 1 on 1 matchups than the 3 v. 1 radio guys.  

Wiig

Kristin Wiig was phenomenal on the show.. her skits were always the best so it definitely hurts that she is no longer on the show.  That said, if you haven't watched the show in the last 15+ years then you wouldn't know that.

Out

Isn't that what it is when you go out anywhere on NYE?  Unless you have a house party, most people in whatever city you are are going to be strangers and many likely will be from the area, home for the holidays.  Are you suggesting that nobody should go out on NYE?

Last year I visited my sister and went out with friends in Kalamazoo.  I'm sure many of the people who went out there were also townie strangers and I had a great time.  In fact, pretty much anytime you go out to bars the people there are strangers aside from the crew you are with.  Are you now implying that nobody should go out period because you will be there with strangers?

If I'm going to go out with "a bunch of townie strangers" what is wrong with going to the city where I had the best 4.5 years of my life?  I have never had a bad time in Ann Arbor even on the numerous occasions I have been back post-graduation (2008).  So sorry if I want to go out there.  Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?

 

 

To everyone else, thanks for the input!

Burke

Burke is running back to the other end... he knows it is in and doesn't even need to watch

Stunner

This is a complete shocker... almost every report had it down to Illinois and Michigan with Purdue and OSU on the outside looking in, and now he commits out of nowhere to OSU.. crazy

 

So unfortunate that our rivals are going to get a stud who was a perfect fit in Beilein's system.

False

You are just flat out speaking falsely right now.  The OL all had MAC offers except for Lewan?

Schofield had offers from ND and virtually the whole B1G.  He was a 4-star recruit.

Barnum was committed to Florida and had offers from Georgia, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, etc.

Mealer was a 4-star recruit with offers from most of the B1G (and a Lloyd recruit at that). 

Omameh is the only starting OL who didn't have a wide array of offers. He did have a Cincy offer, and you know who came in and offered at the last minute? Ohio State.

 

So you saying the OL is filled with MAC recruits is just flat out false. 

Justice Hayes

Yeah I'm with you on Justice Hayes. Borges has been saying that Rawls, Smith and Hayes have all been getting a good chunk of carries in practice. To me it sounds like Hayes should see at least some action tomorrow.

Last night - not good

Normally he will play some pretty good teams. Last night the team he played is terrible though. They won 1 game last season, and 0 the year before. So just a little perspective.

 

Still, racking up 300 yards against the bad teams is exactly what a great back is supposed to do so glad to see him showing that he's a man amongst boys out there.

Last year

It seemed like they did that alllll the time last year too. I was hoping they would figure it out because it is so easy for teams to just pull their ears back and rush in when they know when the ball is going to be snapped. Gotta learn to mix it up.

2nd year

2nd year, yes, but barely more NBA experience due to the lockout.. D-Mo had no summer league last year, barely played during the regular season, and had very few practices even because of how many games were packed into the shortened season. I'm very happy to see Darius doing well. Hopefully he gets a spot in the rotation this year.

Sweet Lou

Stauskas can be the new Louis Bullock #11 too as our sharpshooter!

Stauskas

Stauskas is 6'6 now so to me he looks like he can easily be 6'7.. most of the recruiting websites haven't updated Stauskas' size.  To me, I felt the opposite as you when I looked at the photo. I thought instead of GRIII looking short, that Stauskas and Levert looked like very good sized SG/SF prospects.

Agree

I agree. I think Henson can be a good NBA player. It would be nice if his frame allowed him to put on a bit more weight but I'm not sure he'll ever be a guy with meat on his bones. He will be like Durant or Tayshaun in that he's permanently skinny, but he's a great athlete and Pistons could use the length.

Didn't watch much Pistons?

Didn't watch much Piston basketball this year did ya?  In the games Stuckey was healthy he actually had a good year. He and Knight play really well together. Stuckey has gotten a bad rap in Detroit for some reason, but he was the 15th pick in the draft (not a top 5 pick) so I'm not sure what people were expecting out of him.

 

Sure he's not perfect and he's not a superstar, but he has been infinitely better than most of the players drafted after him. He had 9 games this year where he scored 25+ points which is waaaaay more than anyone drafted after him can say aside from Marc Gasol (and nobody wanted Gasol, he was a late 2nd rounder). 

 

If you are expecting him to be D-Wade, he's not that. But if you want a solid 2-guard he is that. It's not even like he is being overpaid. I will never understand the disdain for Stuckey around here. He's actually been a great role model for BK too. BK was interviewed during a Tigers game last week and said he and Stuckey have been in the gym pushing each other every day since the season ended.

yup

Everyone loves to say this ridiculous misnomer. Taco has addressed this one many times. He starts in the 4-3 and every other defense that his team runs besides the 3-4. When they run the 3-4, he comes out. If everyone wants to overreact and call that "not starting" then more power to ya, but it's similar to saying Chris Leak didn't start for Florida because he came out when they would run their Tebow packages.

 

People will play with the facts to prove their point, but this is a common misconception. If people want to say he is ranked appropriately because he hasn't proven enough in pads on the field that is one thing. But to say he is ranked so low because he "didn't start" is a very buckeye thing to say.

Greenwood

I'm not much older than you.. I graduated in 2008 and I lived on Greenwood. It was a blast living on that street. The parties were epic. I miss those days.

?

Did you watch the same game as me? Eso looks so slow when he is out on the court and cannot handle the ball very well. Michigan has to use 3 guys to break the press whenever he is out there because he cannot get the ball over half court otherwise.

 

To me, it worries me that CB can't beat him out because CB should have far more raw talent. Eso doesn't do anything that is a "plus". It seems that when he is out there we are just hoping to survive until Burke comes back rather than impact the game.

 

You clearly must be watching something different if you think Eso needs more minutes. He is the least quick PG I have ever seen, he cannot create a shot, he is slow on defense, and his ball handling ability isn't very good. All he can do is knock down an open shot.

 

And this is not to knock Eso.. it isn't his fault. He is a walk-on for a reason though.

D-Mo

This is the area of the game where we miss D-Mo the most. Darius Morris had the size and ability to make the passes in the pick and roll game that Trey just cannot do. Has nothing to do with Trey's ability, but everything to do with his size leading to less court vision. Darius Morris may not have been the scorer that Trey is, but his vision and pick and roll ability made every player on Michigan better. I'm sure Tim Hardaway misses getting all of those open looks he got last year, and Jordan Morgan certainly does not have the same offensive impact as last year. J-Mo and D-Mo had the pick and roll game down pat last year. It is clear that either we will need to get better at the pick and roll game or we will have to emphasize another area to improve offensively.

Sam

Yeah Sam made it sound like it was less about Danny O cooling on Michigan and more about Michigan cooling on him. I think the staff decided if they are only going to take one more defensive recruit they might rather have a DB like Yuri Wright. 3 of the final 4 spots will go to an offensive player (Diamond/Banner, Dunn - fingers crossed, and Darboh/Payton) and only one will go to a defensive player so I have no problem with it.

 

With Godin, Wormley, Pipkins, Strobel, Ojemudia, and Pharaoh I think there are plenty of guys who are on the DL (with Godin and Wormley as possibilities to play on the inside). I think CB may be a bigger priority because Standifer may move to safety and therefore Terry Richardson would be the only CB in this class. And as talented as Terry is, it is not a sure thing that a 5'8-9 170 lb. CB will ever see the field. Yuri Wright is a stud and given the choice of him or Danny O I'd take Yuri.

 

I think Danny will be a stud but I think with scholarships low, we need to address our needs more.

Why?

Why the hell would you draft 3 QBs?  Especially when one QB is Drew Brees! You will only play a backup QB one week the whole season and you already have a good backup QB in Stafford! Waste of a draft pick

....

Again though... if you are tall and shifty most likely you are a 5 star and you are not coming to UM the last few years. 

 

Steve Breaston, Mario Manningham..... I can't think of many others who are a combo of taller and shifty.

 

Braylon, Terrell, Walker, Avant, etc. were not shifty at all. In the NFL, Andre, Calvin, Randy, T.O., etc. are not shifty guys.

 

The point is that in the slot position RR wanted shifty guys.. the taller guys are for the outside wideouts.  He wanted shifty, quick guys being matched up with linebackers and safeties.  Short guys just happen to be a hell of a lot shiftier/quicker than taller guys.

 

The most quick/shifty wide outs in the NFL are short too.  Wes Welker, Steve Smith, Desean Jackson.. all short and shifty.

 

It's not so much that he specifically WANTED short guys. Given a choice of short and shifty vs. tall and shifty I'm sure he'd choose tall every time. The point is that most taller guys do not have the hips and foot quickness that shorter guys have. It's just the facts.

Missing point

I think you are still missing the point of what he said so I will repeat. It is not necessarily that he wanted short guys. There are just far more guys who are shifty and quick that are short. If there were more guys who are 6'2 and shifty then he'd recruit them.  The fact of the matter is those guys are few and far between.  If you have that kind of size AND are quick and shifty you are probably a 5 star or a high 4 star. 

 

Guys over 6 foot who are super quick and shifty do not grow on trees. So there is a skillset that RR recruited for the position and it just so happened that more short guys fit that skillset. 

No idea

I have no idea.. I thought that was weird too but I managed to fix it

Makes no sense

That doesn't even make sense.

It isn't like college sports where you recruit players for your system and those are your guys.. coaches just coach whoever the GM assembles on the roster.

Other than the year he was interim coach for Byron Scott in 2004 where you could argue he used Scott's sets and plays, he coached for 5 more seasons. Those were all Byron Scott's teams? That doesn't even make sense.

 

Sure he isn't a slam dunk hire, but IMO he was the best of the candidates that the Pistons interviewed.  He is well respected around the league and he has a lot of experience.

Good hire

Very good hire.  I think he was a much better candidate than Laimbeer, Kelvin Sampson and Mike Woodson.  Supposedly the vets in Boston really liked him and he was well respected in that locker room.  Combine that with experience and a little success and he's a definite upgrade.

Care to say why you feel that way?

Care to say why you feel that way? 6'6, 290, very athletic.  Stars are about projecting to the next level, and if he ends up as a 6'6, 310-320 lbs offensive lineman with good athleticism why is he not a 5 star?  A guy with that kind of size AND athleticism is tough to come by

Rivals is slow

Man Rivals sure is slow to evaluate players. How have they not evaluated Kaleb Ringer and Mario Ojemudia, let alone Allen Gant and Anthony Standifer?  It is not like these guys are under the radar players. And Mario/Ringer are highly rated guys, while Standifer has blown up over the last month or so.  They all have some major offers.  Rivals just really tends to do a poor job of evaluating Midwest talent.  

Clarification

Yeah someone asked one of the scouts on Scout.com about that and he said that is just a technical error right now and he isn't sure how long it takes to update the stars on the players.  But he said Trey Burke is definitely a four-star.

Link

What's the point of the embed code if it didn't embed?  You'd be better off posting the link so that we can go to the video.

 

EDIT: Thanks for doing it in the reply!

BTB

Yeah although I fully condone the usage of the Fleetwood Diner, BTB is the classic on campus drunk food in AA.

Don't forget

Don't forget we root for Cal over USC today.  USC is creeping up on the bubble.

 

Another may be Arkansas over Tennessee

 

Georgia Tech over Virginia Tech

 

And I can't decide on the UAB-ECU game.  We want UAB to win that conference tourney so that CUSA is a one bid league, but if they lost early to a team like ECU it might take them down to the wrong side of the bubble.

Who

Who's the dick here?

yeah

Yeah he does a good job when he does his final Bracketology projections. It would be a totally different set of results if you took into account his projections weeks before Selection Sunday. 

 

When it gets to Selection Sunday I think most people could at least be somewhat close with their projections of who will make the tourney.  I think it is more impressive the way B101 does it where they predict how things will play out for each team.

We want Kansas

We want Kansas for multiple reasons.  For one, we played Kansas so that helps our SOS.  In addition, Kansas State is firmly right on the edge of the bubble.  Michigan needs bubble teams to lose so that they can sneak up.  KSU was in the tourney with Lunardi's latest projections on ESPN despite the fact they are below .500 in the Big 12 and are 0-7 against the RPI top 25.  For comparison sake we are 6-7 Big Ten, 0-6 vs. RPI top 25 so they are direct competition. We do not want Kansas State to win by any means.

 

There is no question that we want Kansas. Rock Chalk!

LOL

LOL this argument makes no sense.. Your math is way off here.  There are 200 minutes of playing time available (40 min games, 5 players on the court at a time).  I assure you, 30 minutes out of those 200 will not send Stu Douglass to the end of the bench never to play again. But I will say, I do believe Stu will play fewer minutes next season, as will Darius Morris.

no doubt

There is no doubt that he needs to get stronger. But so do Hardaway and Horford and Smotrycz. It's just the way freshmen are.  Gotta get through the freshman season on talent and provide solid minutes here and there and then after an offseason of strength and conditioning you are ready to make the jump your sophomore year a la Darius Morris.

 

Burke will get about 15 mins a game next year I predict and Brundidge probably about the same and in their sophomore seasons will be when they contend for starter type minutes.  These guys have ridiculous talent levels and both provide something that this team doesn't currently have.

I love

I love when I hear people start talking about redshirting basketball players.  Basketball players are VERY rarely redshirted.  Last year was a rare exception because Jordan Morgan was injured and Blake McLimans was a bean pole.

 

I guarantee that not only will Burke and Brundidge not redshirt next year but they will also be SOLIDLY in the rotation.  There is currently no backup point guard for Darius Morris and Burke will provide a very nice change of pace and allow Morris to get a breather here and there.

 

On top of that Morris is the only player currently on the team who can take the ball to the basket and create offense for others.  Hardaway is getting there but his ball handling isn't quite there yet.  Brundidge and Burke will immediately be the next 2 best playmakers and ball handlers on the team after Darius Morris. They will both get time at the 1 and 2. Burke is a great shooter and ball handler and Brundidge is a pit bull and knows how to get to the rack.

 

They will provide a much needed element that is missing from this team.  I will give anyone 50-1 odds for anyone who wants to take me out on it that NEITHER player redshirts next year, barring some sort of injury.

argument

This argument about whether fans know the coaches is irrelevant.  Because the recruits know the coaches.  The coaches are the ones who recruit the players to the school.  So while we may not know them, the recruits do in fact know the coaches and I don't know how big a factor race plays into it but it is certainly possible.  I know Tony Dews and Fred Jackson and Soup Campbell and Corwin Brown are all known as great recruiters.  Maybe it is their personality or maybe the young kids relate to them better.  I don't know what it is.

 

But if you do a search on those teams coaches, OSU has 3 black assistants on staff, but ND and MSU have only 2.  We will have 2 on staff after Jerry Montgomery is officially hired.  So maybe it won't be a big deal in the end, but you are kidding yourself if you think it is entirely irrelevant.  On the actual football field it is irrelevant, but recruiting players and their families it matters.  2 may be enough for that. 1 would have been walking a very thin line so I'm glad we hired Montgomery.

It's a big boy

It's a big boy business.  I would expect a coach to do that no matter where he went to school. And I would've hoped if Michigan hired him he would use some of the things he knows now about ND to recruit against the Domers.  So should Montgomery not be able to recruit against Iowa.  And if Mattison recruits against Wisconsin when he grew up right in Madison then shame on him!

 

People overreact to this recruiting against Michigan stuff.  If he isn't employed by Michigan then he needs to do his job elsewhere or else he won't even have a job.  Michigan and ND happen to go head to head on a number of recruits so it happens.  Man up and quit whining about it. 

and you know?

And you know that he was making an effort in practice how?  Based on the comments he made when the coaches were fired I would venture to guess he didn't make a great effort in practice.  The comments he made were classless and shows that he probably didn't give his full effort for them.  Cox definitely has some raw talent, but you need to be able to pass block and catch passes out of the backfield in addition to just running the ball if you want to be an all-around back.  

 

You honestly can tell me that Cox was making mistakes with high effort?  And even that concept is ridiculous... if he makes mistakes but gives a lot of effort he is no different than Rudy.. Coaches need to have confidence that you are not going to make mistakes in the games if they put you in.  You can't just say well you work hard, but there's a decent chance that you will miss an assignment or fumble the ball.. we'll put you in anyways.  If there are players who don't miss assignments and give high effort WITHOUT the mistakes then they are the ones who need to see the field.

can't reward

You can't reward a player by playing him in the games if he isn't getting it done in practice.  What is the team going to think if he gets to play while Shaw, Fitz, Smith, Hopkins sit out even though they outperform him in practice?  This is just another case of people thinking the backup is better than the starter based on very limited information.  I will trust that the coaches, knowing winning is very important, would not have benched Cox if they actually thought he was better than the other RBs.

 

Also those stats Cox has put up were against Eastern Michigan, Delaware State and Bowling Green so take that with a grain of salt.  If you are honestly going to say he is the most productive back on the team based on limited action against those 3 teams then you are crazy.

 

You and I and nobody else has seen him play against a legitimate team, nor have we seen him in practice so it is completely asinine to insist he is the best RB on the team.

Agree

I totally agree... Brian is entitled to his opinion of which I agree with. He isn't saying Hoke can't win games. He actually said the opposite.  He will win games and get around 9 wins a season just like Lloyd and go to BCS games and struggle.  My guess is 75% of Michigan fans would be happy with that, just to get back to the old ways.  Brian, and myself, were in the boat hoping for a home run hire on the national championship level as opposed to a Big Ten title once every 4 years.

 

Time will tell but he is using facts for his critiques so you can't just blindly call him wrong when facts support a lot more than saying "that school in Ohio".  Rah rah speeches are good but we have to wait until we see them play on the field to know what we have.

did you read?

LOL did you even read the article?  It is not an expose on Jim Harbaugh. There are a couple short quotes from him in the entire article and it's not something Rosenberg directly asked him.  Just because you write an article about the Stanford football team does not mean you have great sources there.  I could've written the exact same article and I have no sources there.

Rosenberg

Rosenberg doesn't have good sources. He is a hack just like all of the other Freep writers. His only sources were connected to Carr and that's why he was so bitter the last time around. I won't consider any sources to be very credible until after the game tonight when Harbaugh is officially talking to people.

Bandwagon

Hey I still like watching the Pistons because I'm not a bandwagon fan who only watches the local teams when they win.  It's funny watching all of the Pistons fans who came out of the woodwork to be these "huge" fans when the Pistons were making the NBA Finals and winning all those games are suddenly nowhere to be found.  There is nothing that makes me more irritated than bandwagon fans.  Root for your team whether they are winning or losing.  Sure it's more fun to watch wins, but I have been a Lions, Tigers, and Pistons fan my entire life and for the vast majority of my life most of them have been bad.  

Denard Robinson

You don't think the bowl committee would have wanted to host an exciting player like Denard Robinson?  That is a little more than just the Michigan name.  On top of Michigan having a large following, I think by bringing Denard to town it ensures some quality ratings which has a lot to do with RR. Denard is not Denard without RR.

I think Michigan's players

I think Michigan's players and coaches will have good focus in preparation for this game, as they understand its importance. This could be the difference between the NIT or no postseason.

 

I'm not crazy about that quote. There is NO way the team is thinking "hey this game could be the difference in us playing in the NIT or not."  In their minds, and really even in our minds, we should not be conceding anything at this point.  It is way too early in the season to not have the NCAA tournament as a goal.  I am an extreme realist and quite frankly, an NIT berth would be a great season for this young team.  However, if Michigan heads into the Big Ten schedule 10-2 I would hope the team is feeling confident and believes they can win on any given night.  If they win the games they are supposed to and pull off a few upsets they could contend for the tournament even in a very difficult Big Ten.  It is just way too early in the season to say one game is make or break between making the NIT or no postseason.  That just doesn't make much sense.