This Month in MGoBlog History - May 2006
Previously:
May 1 – Monday
The NFL draft happened over the past week and apparently the ‘M’ blogosphere is in a panic because only three players were taken, especially in comparison to many Buckeyes drafted. Brian says don’t worry about this; be rational. This could be a good mission statement for the blog:
This space strives to be reasonably balanced about all things largely because relentless neg- or pos-itivity is almost always irrational and therefore infuriating; I find this desire places me in the 95th percentile of Michigan (Internet) fans on the Pollyanna scale. I find this extraordinarily annoying.
May 2 – Tuesday
This appears to the first use of the MGoMailbag. This edition addresses the use of Carlos Brown. Will he play on defense or offense?
Ah Michigan football in 2006, when our biggest concern could be laughing at ridiculous, middle-aged, Notre Dame fans dancing during a tailgate. I think we’ve lost some innocence since then.
May 3 – Wednesday
Hello from Martell Webb. Reported that he wants to be a WR.
Here is a look back at Rivals top 50 from 2002. Brian rates each player based on college performance and determines that their rankings were fairly accurate. Top 5 were: Vince Young, Haloti Ngata, Lorenzo Booker, Ben Olson, and Reggie McNeal.
May 4 – Thursday
Recruiting Board Update. Brandon Saine has likely committed to the Buckeyes. This is surprising news.
May 8 – Monday
Hello from Epke Udoh. This is sort of prophetic:
Oklahoma post Epke Udoh has committed to Tommy Amaker and the star-crossed Michigan basketball program. Normally this would be grounds for massive skepticism and cynical jokes about his decommit ETA, but he's actually signed a letter of intent so the chances of that are slim.
May 9 – Tuesday
Ben Huff died. If I knew this at the time, I didn’t remember it. I mainly remember Huff for being one of those players who seemed like he was around forever (I think this was due to getting a 6th year, but I could be wrong).
A round up of hockey news. Trevor Lewis continues to impress.
May 10 – Wednesday
The Pistons are up 2-0 on the Cavs, and Brian is losing his mind. Looking back, I think of these as the frustrating years after the championship, but I forget how good this team continued to be. I guess they were frustrating because they were so good, but couldn’t get to the finals again. Also, Brian loves the TNT studio show (which is amazingly still going 10 years later):
More Barkley: "I took some good players over to Europe to play, and he [Dirk Nowitski] dropped 50 on us.... so I ask him 'How old are you' and he says '19' so I tell him 'I'll give you any amount of money in the world if you go to Auburn"
Kenny Smith: "Isn't that cheating?"
Charles Barkley: "We're in the SEC, if you aren't cheatin, you ain't tryin. We got Alabama, Georgia, Florida..."
May 11 – Thursday
Unverified Voracity: Hockey Drinking looks at how the new NHL is doing in the playoffs, specifically the Oilers-Sharks series. Also, there are plans to expand the student section, move the band back into the student section, and possibly…add microphones on the band so it can be heard throughout the stadium.
Recruiting Board Update with a Boubacar Cissko mention!
May 12 – Friday
Jerimy Finch says ‘M’ is his school of choice, and he looks like a great prospect to pick up.
Unverified Voracity: My Name is Bill Rock features the results of a caption contest of a no-longer-existing picture of Bill Laimbeer and Kid Rock. Also, Finch did indeed commit, though he’s going to take other visits and there is a small chance the commitment won’t stick (spoiler: it doesn’t).
May 15 – Monday
Unverified Voracity: links to a MSU preview. The prediction is 6-5, like normal.
May 16 – Tuesday
After winning the first two games, the Pistons have lost two in Cleveland. Defense isn’t a problem, but the offense is struggling.
May 17 – Wednesday
Brian will be gone to NYC.
May 22 – Monday
The Pistons finish off the Cavs, holding them to only 61 points.
· I continue to insist that Tayshaun Prince is one of the most underrated players in the league. He was probably the best player the Pistons had over the course of the series; in game seven he was killing the Cavs everywhere he went. Flip Murray couldn't check toast and got abused; Lebron ate a few layups, and whatever Prince missed he rebounded. Carmelo? Whatever.
I know the Darko pick will forever be seen as one of the worst ever, but that pick in light of what Dumars knew he had in Prince (and the faith in him), makes sense. I wouldn’t trade the ’04 championship and the following conference title round run for several years of a malcontent Carmelo (tough in hindsight I would have traded that 3rd pick for parts that could have furthered the run).
May 23 – Tuesday
Brian recaps all he’s missed the in the last week or so. Of note ten years later, the regents have approved Bill Martin’s plan for stadium renovation.
May 24 - Wednesday
Added a set new offers: PA TE/WR John Ditto, NY TE Rob Gronkowski, CA CB Donovan Warren, and CA OL Mitchell Shwartz. Removed Josh Marks (Penn State).
May 25 – Thursday
Posts mainly about videos that longer work ten years later are mysterious.
May 26 – Friday
Bullets from the Pistons’ game, though no mention of what the score was. And yes this was written ten years ago, not three months ago after a certain ‘M’ basketball game.
· We all know ESPN is violent death as a sports broadcast, but really, that awful camera angle with the sliding camera that's way too close to see the corners and at an angle in which you can't understand anyone's movement is beyond even my expectations for their stupidity. As King Kaufman always says, "show the game."
May 29 – Monday
The Pistons lost to the Heat and are now down 2-1 in the Conference Finals. Interesting ideas about judgement over knowledge in making good decisions. Brian sides with judgement.
Prince struggles against Walker like he does against most players who are 50 pounds heavier than him. None of this makes any sense. Gladwell sounds the bell for the sports fan who can't believe how... why... aaargh:
The point is that knowledge and the ability to make a good decision correlate only sporadically, and there are plenty of times when knowledge gets in the way of judgement.
It's a cold comfort.
May 30 – Tuesday
I hate this losing stuff on a variety of levels, but since people actually started reading this thing the worst part is having to sit down and not call for assassinations. I try to keep an artificially even keel when things are in progress but going badly; when the need for a post-mortem arises one shall be given. This is not that time. Yet.
Unfortunately, Brian would be able to hone his skill of writing post-mortems in the coming years.
May 31 – Wednesday
The second half of Brian’s answers from a roundtable with Burnt Orange Nation.
Your head coach comes down with a mystery illness and has to step aside. You get to hand pick the replacement for the 2006 season. Who gets your vote?
Spurrier. Not only would Spurrier bring his frenetic offensive game, hilarious comments directed at opposing coaches, and visor, but he would probably cause noted anti-luxury-box crusader John Pollack's head to explode, Total Recall-style. I have nearly as much of a mancrush on Spurrier as the lads at EDSBS, and seeing phosphorus and water get together could be... wait for it... explosive. H!IKM*
One of my favorite What if games to play... What if the Pistons chose Carmelo or Wade instead of Darko. Pistons won because of their teamwork more than their talent, so very possible we don't win that year. But would Wade's presence entice a Shaq/Bron level player to give the D a chance .. Does the Pistons environment turn Carmelo into a more complete player and we become a juggernaut?
It is an interesting thought exercise, because there are so many variables. For all of that, I take D. Wade and let the chips fall where they may. He showed with the Miami "dream team" that he's fully capable of accepting a co-lead (or even supporting actor) role and excelling. He would have been a great addition to that team.
Optimal situation would have been a trade down to Miami, assuming (I've not researched this) that Miami would have taken Darko. Or, better yet, draft Darko and trade him for Wade plus an unprotected first round pick in a subsequent year.
ALSO, thanks to the Maize.Blue Wagner for doing these. It was an interesting time of Michigan football going into the maelstrom of a decade of mediocrity, though few of us saw the dim prospects ahead.
Yeah, I think I would concede that taking Wade would not have cost us that 1st championship and would have set us up better for the future as Rip, Sheed and the crew got older. The only issue with that is that it never would have happened i.e. anyone in that 2nd spot was picking Darko or Melo. But maybe going against the grain, makes D Wade a hated pick and gives him even more motivation to become great (which he did anyway).
At the time, Wade wasn't on anyone's radar. It was a mild surprise he even went fifth overall. The debate was strictly Darko vs. Carmelo.
But why draft Wade when you already have Rip and Chauncey in the backcourt?
It made sense to go for a big man. Darko just happened to not pan out.
Should have gone with Bosh or even Kaman over Darko.
Wow, I don't recall hearing about Ben Huff dying. Very sad.
I found this blog in the early RR years. Since that time there hasn't been much talk of the Pistons. It's interesting to see they were a hot topic back when they were interesting. They were a fun team with Chauncey, Rip, Sheed, Prince and Ben Wallace. Not as fun as the Bad Boys but still fun to watch and root for.
Also interesting to see the names in recruiting like Jerimy Finch who I thought was going to be really good. And to see Gronk on the recruiting board with Donovan Warren.
Fun to read - thanks for posting this and I'm looking forward to the next one.
This is interesting, but I think that you're crashing the server by hitting archived pages during your research.
It's very weird to go through names of recruits that look like: nobody, nobody, nobody, NFL mega-star, nobody, nobody.
Details about the information is very nice for every person who are engaged with your website for a long period of time. Heathrow car parks
Wow. Those were simpler times.
I miss 84'
Kenny Smith: "Isn't that cheating?"
Charles Barkley: "We're in the SEC, if you aren't cheatin, you ain't tryin. We got Alabama, Georgia, Florida..."
I could not make it through that ND tailgate video. Why would anybody post that where it could actually be seen?
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