Dear Diary Is Just Someone You Met Online Comment Count

Seth

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A sixth year senior? Fake! David Jones|Star Tribune

What is existence, really? If a person who was never born dies, but you believed they had been alive, is not the mourning real? Who among us has never felt sad for the death of a fictional person—okay put your hands down Millenials who cried about Dumbledore. You too people who fell for the character of George O’Leary in George O’Leary’s Resume. I mean just a few years ago there was that legend of the basketball player who would appear every year on a different team until his knees…

Okay so I’m being told that Trevor Mbakwe actually exists. Apparently I have not only seen him play basketball as recently as 12 hours ago, but many other independent sources have all confirmed that Mbakwe still has some eligibility left despite the fact that Manti Te’o’s fake girlfriend was in fake middle school when this dude was hawking rebounds for Marquette. How this is possible I'm not sure but one reader in the game thread suggested it might be because they're putting his brain in the stomach of an exosuit:

"Mbakwe looks like Krang from Ninja Turtles. –Dubs

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Okay I kinda see it. Also not a myth: Mbakwe is the only member of Minnesota’s starting five who’s not averaging 10 ppg, via the quick preview by robbyt003. LATE BREAKING: the rest of the schedule previewed by mistersuits.

We saw last night just how non-mythological this Michigan squad really is, doing to the Gophers in their building what a million KP100 teams couldn't (the Duke loss was at a neutral site). Before the last 5 minutes turned into Foul Fest '13, Michigan was shooting 58 percent, and not the "they're just going in" kind of 58 percent (like Stauskus couldn't make a 3 for awhile) but the Mr. Hardaway is sick of hearing about how athletic their forwards are kind. Highlights:

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"Center the ball! Center the ball! Center the ball!" –Dickie V

Hypothetical Wolverines of the 21st Century: Now that the 2013 class has progressed to the point that M is actively turning away offensive linemen (this is true!) we’re starting to get the comprehensive 2014 lists. Allin4Blue kindly collated the bigger Michigan targets. To recap, Michigan has commitments from LB Michael Ferns and OT Denzel Ward, and is the presumed leader for a handful of other dudes. Long way to go before signing day. The 2014 Recruiting List (originally published in June) is now updated.

Hypothetical Meaning of Football-Related Activities: Ever since he took my suggestion of adding lolcats to his posts, LSAClassof2000 has been getting progressively more interesting. This time he compared the top teams to their performance in top general stats (offense link, defense link) to see which are greater indicators of a team’s likelihood to succeed. Being good defensively seemed to be a slightly better predictor than being good on offense. Otherwise stat values by category:

  • Very valuable: Yards per play, Total TDs
  • Somewhat valuable: Total yards, yards per game
  • Only a little valuable: Number of plays

Takeaway: the object of offense is to score. Don’t let anybody tell you different.

The University of Michigan baseball team lost to Nebraska, 15-2 at the Wilpon Baseball Complex in Ann Arbor, Mich, on  May 17, 2012.

MGOBLUE

Hypothetical Fourth Major Sport: There was a time in 2006 when baseball got really good and people cared. Becoming nationally relevant again is not likely to happen until either a.) NCAA tells the southern teams they can’t keep starting the season in mid-winter, or b.) global warming makes that irrelevant for every state but Alaska. Or perhaps c.) Young coach who turned Vanderbilt into a power is hired, given massive budget and A++ facilities, and gets to go around offering Michigan degrees. Raoul wrote two baseball-centric diaries this week, one to bring you up to speed on Erik Bakich’s program, and a second on the in-state recruiting efforts, which I’ll warn you are like hockey/hoops in that kids commit right after potty training.

I’ll admit what usually gets me to a game a year is when there’s a future MLB’er on the roster so I can later say I saw him in college and sound like major baseball dude. Michigan’s not projected to be very good this summer spring late winter, but there are two speedy outfielders who could see The Show: junior Michael O’Neill who’s the better all around player, and returning captain Patrick Biondi (pictured above), who was a Tigers draft pick out of high school and steals everything in sight.

The Best of the Board

SENIOR BOWL PROGRAMMING GUIDE

All hail chatster for putting together a list of where the seniors we care about will be playing in the various senior bowls. He includes a lot of former opponents but here’s the former Wolverines:

  • Last Week: Stonum played in the Casino Del Sol game.
  • Tomorrow at 3 pm: All-Star Clasic: Roundtree (#89 in red)
  • Tomorrow at 4 pm: East-West Shrine Bowl: Campbell (#73 for West)
  • Tomorrow at 5 pm: NFLPA Collegiate Bowl: Mealer (#76 for National team) will play tackle. Also appearing: McGuffie.
  • January 26 at 4 pm: Senior Bowl: Denard playing receiver for North.
  • February 2 at 2:30 pm: Texas vs. the Nation: Kovacs is playing for Nation.

Siri, remind me at 3:55 pm on January 26th that it’s my last chance to see Denard in a winged helmet.

WHAT KIND OF OFFENSE NOW GUYS?

This question from Hail-Storm will be answered in depth in the coming months (hopefully in super detail in HTTV—maybe Chris Brown will step up to that one?). Basically he’s asking what kind of offense would best suit a team that has a few short but good receivers, questionable running backs of varied talents, a very young interior line, very good offensive tackles, and Devin Gardner at quarterback.

This is a too-short answer but I’d say it’s obviously to live on the edges. Find a guard among the kids who can pull really well and make the base play Toussaint or Gardner running outside, keeping the defense honest by running against their strength when they cheat to Lewan’s side. If it works the corners (who get edge duty) won’t be able to play man on Gallon and Dileo so much. If we can find a tight end who can block, sweeps. If not, there are things you can do with Funchess to keep the LBs from cheating outside. Actually it might not be so different from what Ohio State ran this year. Again, pass with max protect—Gardner can create, is liable to do insane stuff if you make him dodge more than one dude.

THE ROCK OF MY IMAGINATION

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So BlueBarron got to shoot a Slippery Rock game earlier this year. When their scores come up at Michigan games I always imagine it as this clearing in the middle of the forest with a rocky little brook cutting through the back of one end zone. Which was actually kind of close. What I didn’t imagine is how similar they look to…you know, that one guy what’s his name…sorry hang on my little brother is jumping up and down with his hand up right now…dude stop I’m trying to think who this Division II team reminds me of.

ROUSING SALUTES TO EACH OTHER

Three threads hit this week for the people in the comments to make comments about people in the comments. In the first we all reminisced about the great posters of yore who are no longer with us. I arrived late but my blanket answer to most of the “where did _________ go he was hilarious!?” questions is “I finally got sick of his shit and caved him.” If it wasn’t that he’s probably writing for another site right now. Like remember how those dudes took some mention of the spread being “communist football” and made that a running theme? They had a blog. What happened to the dudes who wrote that blog? I don’t know. I still have Sharik’s cell from the one time I wrote a diary about safeties and he was like “you are wrong about everything—quick come meet me for a beer while I explain this to you!” which is among the most awesome experiences of my blogging career. I don’t know where he went off to. Others I miss: Meechigan Dan, MCalibur, Space Coyote.

Thread the second was for your favorite posters among the dudes still here. It pretty much devolved into a posbang thread, if one of the more epic of that persuasion.

Thread the third lets you call a press conference and announce something. Already used this week: I have a fake dead girlfriend; I am an athlete and I admit to doping/steroids/HGH; I am a famous person and I love this other person whom I lived with for 20 years and raised some kids with; and two Spartans beat up some dude for no reason.

WHAT IS ACTUALLY A CHARGE?

The thinly disguised post-OSU ref bitching thread yielded an interesting conversation between Tom from AA and Ghost of Yost on the proper calling of blocking fouls and why a defender with a sliding foot who makes contact can still draw the charge. Yes I just linked to something people moderated as “trolling” – sadly this still happens to the guy taking the position that doesn’t side with Michigan, even though I think in this instance Tom from AA is right.

OBLIGATORY TE’O THREADS

Glimmers of the Pattern. Open thread yesterday. Press conference react. He kept talking about her. Sadly none of it explains why he seems to become a non-factor when linemen get the luxury of meeting him downfield (see: Alabama, Michigan in 2010), and yet he kills everything otherwise (see: Michigan in 2012).

Your Moment of Zen:

MGoVideo

Comments

Commie_High96

January 18th, 2013 at 8:20 AM ^

Aside from the senior bowl are any of these games worth watching? Also, is the senior bowl one where players slap the logos from other schools on their helmets? I might vomit if there is a Sun Devil Pitch fork or a UTEP whatever on Denards hat.

Raoul

January 18th, 2013 at 8:53 AM ^

Thanks for the shout-out on my baseball diaries. Just a small correction—it's Michael O'Neill, with two l's. For those who don't know, he's the nephew of former Major Leaguer Paul O'Neill.

4th and short

January 18th, 2013 at 8:58 AM ^

January 26 = Denard' s last day in a winged helmet.                                                                                    Green' s first day in a winged helmet?                                                                

laxalum

January 18th, 2013 at 10:57 AM ^

While my background is lacrosse and I'm as in to football and basketball as the next red-blooded American, I'm also a sports fan who is just as likely to stop channel surfing at a volleyball game or a tennis match as anything else, especially if there's a block M on one team's jerseys.  There's a natural spring sport rivalry between lacrosse and baseball, but I happen to love baseball.  I went to a lot of games at Fisher when I was a student.  It was often a lonely endeavor, but I loved the feel of them on a warm, sunny afternoon.  The cheesy baseball muzak.  The chatter.  The clang of aluminum on ball.  I miss that.  I would love to see the baseball program get back to the glory days of the 80s when Sabo, Larkin and Morris were preparing for their MLB careers by dominating the rest of the Big Ten.  I don't know if that kind of success is possible for a northern team again, but Bakich seems to be the right fit to get the ship pointed on that heading.

Both baseball and lacrosse have third or fourth major sport standing on other campuses.  I think either or both could reach that level of following and support at Michigan.  While I personally think lacrosse is more likely to eventually capture the Michigan fan base due to national trends in growth, TV coverage and the UM demographic, I'm pulling for both.  If you're in Ann Arbor, go to a baseball game and see if you can find the same feeling I did.

Artie

January 18th, 2013 at 8:40 PM ^

Ask Shane Battier about that. I've always thought that it must hurt to shave his head with all those peaks and valleys on his head. It seems like you'd really have to get in there with the trimmer to get all the hair, haha.

Vote_Crisler_1937

January 18th, 2013 at 12:17 PM ^

M baseball won the 2006 Big Ten. I really thought we (NU) had a good chance to win the title that year winning 4 straight on the road in Ann Arbor and only being bumped to second on the final day of the season. /Good memories

ziggolfer

January 19th, 2013 at 4:33 PM ^

There is a college called Grove City near Slippery Rock that looks similar to another familiar team

 

Colors are a little off, but they are also wolverines.