(Last because it needs a new name now). While updating my master roster database with this year's NFL Draft results I produced a rather striking analysis: Harbaugh's players were getting into the NFL at about twice the rate as his modern predecessors at Michigan. The data are here for anyone who wants to check my work, or you can go to my tweet storm to see the lists for Harbaugh, Hoke, Rodriguez, Carr, and Moeller.

Anyway today's goal is to explain this:

(Here's that same table if you're having trouble with the interactive version.) Blue means drafted, shaded by round. Yellow shades refer to undrafted free agents, with designations for guys who had full, long NFL careers (UDFA+), actually played in the NFL (UDFA), or just signed but never made a roster (UDFA-) with this year's guys in their own category of don't know yet. The sample includes counts scholarship players, transfers, and the type of walk-on who ascends to the Kovacsian Order of Glasgow. I also removed Xavier Worthy, though other non-enrollees who signed with Michigan are included, just because I didn't think it was right to count Worthy; YMMV.

Not counting guys still in college—and Hoke guys that Harbaugh's program probably deserves the credit for—Harbaugh's recruits are about twice as likely to sign an NFL contract, twice as likely to play in the NFL, twice as likely to be drafted, and twice as likely to be drafted in the first three rounds.

The social media explanation for this has been "player development," and there's truth to that, but it's hardly the whole truth.

What I'd like to do here is to use what we know of the players' stories to see if development was truly the big story. I suspect there's a lot more nuance here, that they were better at developing players than most, but also had some strategies for finding underrated talent, and geared their program in certain ways to make the players coming out of it more valuable to NFL teams.

[After THE JUMP let's talk about this.]

After attacking the portal with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind, Dusty May landed his second HS commitment when Lorenzo Cason signed with the Wolverines a few weeks back. 

GURU RANKINGS

On3 is the most bullish on Cason, slotting him just outside their top 150 prospects. 247 places Lorenzo just outside the top 250, and Rivals/ESPN have him firmly in "who-dat" territory. There is relative consensus in terms of size, as all services agree on 190 pounds at 6'2-6'3.

I have no basis for ranking any individual in the 2024 class, as I haven't seen enough of those prospects to have an informed opinion. But from a holistic perspective across years, I'd likely split the difference between On3 and 247. After evaluating multiple full games, I lean toward a Mid-Major/Mid-Major Plus grade. 

SCOUTING

Though I have sifted through full-game film, I have not evaluated Lorenzo Cason live. As someone that has scouted professionally for years, multiple live viewings always generate the most informed evals, so caveats apply and my word is certainly not gospel here. With that out of the way, let's get into it.

Playmaking/shot-creation for others is Cason's best facet in my opinion. He consistently identifies defensive coverages and takes advantage of the associated vulnerabilities. That is rare for a HS guard. 

In the clip below, Windermere Prep is consistently pre-rotating their weakside guard to take away the roll-man. Lorenzo sniffs that out with ease and repeatedly exploits the pre-rotation by finding the weakside teammate that has been vacated by the defense.  

And he manipulates drop coverage to optimize passing windows to create easy looks for teammates. In the clip below, Cason puts the opposing guard in jail (IE on his hip/backside) and dribbles right twice to force the opposing big to commit to him............and that allows the screener/roll-man a free walk to the rim for an uncontested layup.  

[After THE JUMP: projectable pull-up game with questionable athleticism]

May has arrived and with it comes the postseason phase of the baseball and softball seasons. The B1G Softball Tournament is currently ongoing, with Michigan playing their first game later today. Baseball is also down to the wire, the final two weeks of the regular season before the conference tournament takes place over Memorial Day weekend. A lot going on as the Michigan teams enter the home stretch and we will dig into it today: 

Softball: Good, but recently frustrating 

My last piece was introducing softball's big upcoming weekend against Penn State, noting that there were two series left in the regular season and a strong finish was going to be needed to differentiate this team from last year's squad, which bombed down the stretch. The good news is, Michigan mostly proved that this team is different. They swept a solid PSU team in Happy Valley and then came home and took the first game of the series from Ohio State. The win streak was up to 14 at that point and it felt like the hot streak was going to continue forever. Then the OSU series finished in disastrous fashion and dampened the mood significantly. Let's break it down below. 

The Penn State series was a good test for this Michigan team, a matchup between Lauren Derkowski and Bridget Nemeth, two of the better pitchers in the B1G. Nemeth has been probably the second best pitcher in the conference behind only Northwestern's Ashley Miller, so I was heartened to see Michigan have some real success against her. They only got two runs in the first game, but with Derkowski's dominant pitching, it was enough for a 2-0 shutout win. Their next games were better, getting a couple runs off Nemeth in brief work when she came in for relief on Saturday, and then scratched out three runs against her on Sunday in a gutty win in extras. In total, Nemeth surrendered 7 ER against Michigan in 18 winnings of work, a 2.72 ERA for a pitcher whose season ERA is 1.68. That's fine with me. 

Michigan was able to sweep the series because it was a strong weekend for Derkowski and the rest of the pitching staff, but also because the bats battered PSU's non-Nemeth pitchers in the Saturday game. That middle game was a 14-3 bludgeoning, in between the two close, "playoff" style 2-0 and 3-2 wins. Michigan was able to get the sweep because the power continued to deliver, home runs from Maddie Erickson and Keke Tholl on Friday and Sunday, respectively, which are so big against ace level pitchers. During the blowout win in between, Michigan got great hitting from all over, Erickson, Jenissa Conway, and Lilly Vallimont all socking long balls, in addition to another great day for Ella Stephenson. 

[Katelyn Mulcahy]

It was the satisfactory sort of weekend that sent a message that this Michigan team was for real, locking up a top two spot in the B1G Tournament by sweeping a top 40 RPI opponent on the road. The final weekend of the regular season was back at home against Ohio State, a decent but not tournament-bound opponent. The Friday game was a throwback to some of Michigan's mid-April games, where iffy pitching and dreadful defense buried Michigan into a hole and required the offense to dig out of it, which they gladly did thanks to more clutch hitting from Erickson (two huge RBI doubles) and Ella Stephenson (insurance 2 run HR late). 

Heading into the Saturday game, Michigan was only 0.5 games back of Northwestern, needing to win out and have the 'Cats drop one of their last two against Indiana to take the regular season title. The Maize & Blue got the help they needed on Saturday afternoon from the Hoosiers, but that's when things sputtered. Over the final two games of the series, Michigan would put together their two worst offensive performances since February, scoring one total run across the two games. This was a shockingly poor showing at the plate from a team that has been able to sustain lively offensive efforts against a number of different levels of pitching. Michigan's pitching couldn't answer the bell, particularly on Saturday, and they lost the two games 6-0 and 2-1.  

[AFTER THE JUMP: takes and baseball]