Unverified Voracity Drops The Hammer? Comment Count

Brian

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[Patrick Barron]

Max out. Max Bielfeldt heads to Indiana unless he gets cut before the season starts, which is about 50/50 given Tom Crean's roster ADHD.

It'll be interesting to see how that works out for both teams: Michigan knows exactly what went down in practice and did not ask Bielfeldt back even after it became clear they had an open scholarship slot. Since Bielfeldt was out-performing Donnal late last year (Doyle was almost always the first option when he was not sick as a dog), the confidence expressed by that decision seems to be about newly-strapping DJ Wilson. Wilson is certainly going to be more of a defensive presence than the ground-bound Bielfeldt.

Rebounding? Eh… leave it to Walton. I may actually be serious about that. In any case, rebounding is the most replaceable skill.

Why Michigan was willing to let him go. UMHoops has an item on Michigan's pick and roll offense that highlights the production of their big men when they get the ball on the roll:

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That is a frequently-injured, pre-Sanderson, freshman Doyle outperforming everything with reasonable sample size except senior Jordan Morgan. (Donnal's numbers should be taken in context: there were a half-dozen roll attempts last year that looked good on which Donnal didn't even attempt a shot, kicking back to the perimeter instead of opting for what should be one of the most efficient shots in basketball.) Bielfeld had 12 pick-and-pop possessions, FWIW—on actual rolls to the basket he was at 23 points on 21 buckets. That's 1.09 PPP.

Doyle was on par or better than Bielfeldt at just about everything you can do on a court other than grab defensive rebounds. He should improve a great deal as he ages, and then you've got Wilson and Donnal… minutes are going to be scarce.

Speaking of Walton. Any fears you may have had that his foot thing was going to be a problem this fall should be put to rest:

Walton joins a Camp Sanderson field that includes almost the entire team plus guys like Nik Stauskas and Tim Hardaway Jr. Word is that one of the most impressive guys there is… Aubrey Dawkins. Going to be a good year.

Meanwhile, Spike's projected return:

Beilein also offered an update on Albrecht on Monday, saying that both of the guard's offseason hip surgeries were successful. Albrecht is still on crutches, but projects to a having a full return by the fall.

"In September, yeah, there's no question," Beilein said.

He should be ready for the season no problem.

A smart guy. Beilein on what the rules changes might mean:

Most focus on the offensive impact of the shot clock change, but the reverberation will reach the other end of the floor. Beilein noted that defenses will likely be more prone to shift from man-to-man to zone defense late in shot clocks.

"I think you'll see more teams flipping stuff and going zone later on because the ballscreen becomes so prevalent at that time," he said.

That would be interesting.

A litmus test. The NCAA just about gave up on serious punishments for anything short of child rape negligence after they threw the book at USC. OSU took a bowl ban and had to get rid of Jim Tressel after Tressel repeatedly lied to the NCAA, but they were spared the kind of scholarship restrictions that put a serious long-term dent in a program. Other than that it's been a series of wrist-slaps.

If anything is going to upset the current "do whatever it's fine" state of affairs, it is the situation at North Carolina. The NCAA at first decided to ignore it, but when forced to revisit the issue they seem to have done so with force. The notice of allegations has just been released, and it contains five separate "severe" violations, most of which are backed up by assertions of dozens of different incidents they encompass.

This will be the first truly major case since the NCAA moved away from calling everything from SMU to stretchgate "major" violations and implemented a four-level system. North Carolina is likely to admit lots and lots of "severe breach of conduct." The penalty guidelines for level 1 violations include:

  • 1-2 years of postseason ban
  • loss of 12.5% to 25% of scholarships
  • up to a half-year ban on a head coach

If the violations are deemed to have induced "aggravation" those penalties can double, and if they stack… hoo boy. The NCAA would be well within its rights to bomb UNC's major sports into the stone age.

Will they? I doubt it.

I'm not really paying attention to this any more. Phil Steele's All Big Ten teams are… well, there's a lot of them. They don't seem that accurate:

The Wolverines did have a few All-Big Ten honorees, however, led by senior linebacker Joe Bolden. Bolden, who broke the 100-tackle mark last season, is a second-team All-Big Ten pick, per Steele.

Linebacker Desmond Morgan (third), offensive guard Kyle Kalis (third), wide receiver Amara Darboh (fourth), defensive back Jabrill Peppers (fourth) and punter Blake O'Neill (fourth) also received mention.

Just from a Michigan perspective, no Jourdan Lewis, no Jarrod Wilson, and Kalis over Glasgow make me wonder if Steele does much more than look at stats and recruiting rankings and guess. (He also does the irritating thing where he throws corners and safeties into the same bucket of defensive backs.)

Ratings up. If softball seems like a bigger deal than it did a few years ago, you aren't alone:

ESPN saw record viewership for the 2015 Women’s College World Series, notching its top two most-viewed Women’s College World Series bracket round games ever this past weekend. LSU/Michigan on Sunday averaged 1,950,000 viewers for the company while UCLA/Auburn on Saturday drew 1,612,000 viewers. Overall, the 2015 Women’s College World Series bracket round (May 28-31) averaged 1,055,000 viewers. Meanwhile, the 2015 Women’s College World Series Championship Finals Game 1 on Monday drew a 1.0 overnight rating, which is tied for the highest-rated WCWS Championship Finals Game 1 on record (since 2007) and a 43% increase (0.7 overnight) from 2014 WCWS Championship Finals Game 1.

The final two games may have beat that admittedly short-lived record.

Bracing? ISS has its final draft rankings out:

Hopefully neither of those guys ends up in the wrong place. IE: The Kings or a like organization that doesn't want their guys to play college.

Etc.: In expected news, JT Compher is your hockey captain. Incoming forward Brendan Warren profiled. I could describe a great deal of commentators as "continual boofheads." AFC Ann Arbor origin story. You can chat with Stauskas and Beilein, get autographs and the like, for #chadtough.

Comments

Tate

June 4th, 2015 at 1:41 PM ^

What do you mean by "most impressive guy there" when referring to Aubrey? Improvement from last year or just a weight room stud?

Don

June 4th, 2015 at 1:56 PM ^

Forget his endlessly touted predictions record and player analysis—he exaggerates his prowess with the former and the latter is generally superficial. IMHO the much bigger value of his yearly CFB publication is just the sheer quantity of statistical stuff.

Space Coyote

June 4th, 2015 at 2:20 PM ^

Is easily Jake Butt. That one confused me.

Also, the B1G may go three teams deep (or more) of DL that end up getting drafted. I actually don't have a huge issue with Michigan not getting any mention there, the B1G is still stacked on that side of the ball (I'd personally have a Michigan DT on the list, but I understand not having one).

LB has a serious drop off after the 2nd team. Morgan is solid, but the others on the third team...

Lewis should easily be on there as well. I actually don't have an issue with Wilson not being on there, especially because he put Peppers on there based off of him being Peppers.

dragonchild

June 4th, 2015 at 2:26 PM ^

He did something I've noticed for a while now in replays as I flail and thrash in my pathetic attempts to touch the bottom of the net.  On approach he whips his right knee upward, Double Dragon II style.  I see the same leg kick coached in layups and that does seem to give me more control when I do it, but does it also help with getting vertical?  Every "how to jump high" article I could find recommends some variation of weight training & jumping a gazillion times, which makes sense, but none I found go much into technique, let alone mention the knee kick.

Doctor Wolverine

June 4th, 2015 at 10:00 PM ^

It looks like a pretty standard approach from what I can tell. As a kid, it is drilled into your head that for a right handed layup, you jump off your left foot and bring your right knee up. I am sure that at this point in his career, it is just second nature. I doubt that it has much impact on vertical.

funkywolve

June 4th, 2015 at 2:26 PM ^

That chart could be fairly misleading.  I'd much rather see a chart that encompasses the results of all the pick and rolls each big man was involved with, not just how much the man setting the pick scored.  

How many turnovers did the big men have off the pick roll?  How many times did the player with the ball score off a jump shot or drive to the hoop?  How many times did the pick and roll work good enough that an off ball defender had to help which freed up his man for an open jump shot.  

 

BlueCube

June 4th, 2015 at 2:33 PM ^

I think McGary was also there before he took in the WCWS games in OKC.. I wouldn't be surprised if he comes back. This says a lot about the benefits of Camp Sanderson.

Michigan4Life

June 4th, 2015 at 3:22 PM ^

where JB wants to continue to develop young players by playing them more on court as opposed to Max blocking their PT.  Max is what he is, an average B1G player who will provide depth. 

I think that's the biggest reason why JB chose not to pursue Max. JB look at his team long-term, not short term.

gwkrlghl

June 4th, 2015 at 6:13 PM ^

and I think it's finding a niche nationally. Maybe not during the regular season when it fights against hockey, basketball, and lacrosse periodically. But it's different enough from our typical dude sports and still entertaining enough that I can definitely see why it's going. It definitely has a home amongst Michigan fans now.

It's one of two sports I think really does better with women (volleyball being the other)

Undefeated dre…

June 4th, 2015 at 9:08 PM ^

Fun to watch, because of...

  • Shorter game
  • Vocal cheering from dugout
  • Underhand pitching

I don't love homerball (unless of course it's Michigan doing the dinging), and umpiring could be better (always), but dang it's fun to watch a women's softball game that matters.