Unverified Voracity Shows NO MERCY Comment Count

Brian

ct-more-victim-statements-larry-nassar-20180122

On the awful MSU thing. I have all these tabs open and am struggling to say anything that's not all-caps and spittle-flecked. Most of these tabs have the same theme: how on earth can these people survey the devastation wrought under their leadership-type substance and not commit career seppuku? The lack of shame on the part of MSU's leadership is unprecedented; all these people should be voted out, if possible. The two guys who would have been up for election in November are getting out of the way, but if I know anything it's that a... person like Joel Ferguson will try to bluster his way through:

As a reminder, here's Ferguson in March:

“But if Coach Klages was told as early as 1997 about this and didn’t do anything, isn’t the university at fault?” Jones asked.

“I wouldn’t say that at all,” Ferguson said. “That’s a bad decision that she made, and it has to be stretched to us by all the folks chasing ambulances, because there’s no payday by her.”

He's up in 2020, and if the state Democratic party knows what's good for them they won't let him get to the ballot. Does anyone know if you can recall trustees?

Meanwhile, Lou Anna Simon should not resign. She should be put in jail. She was told that there was a sexual predator at the university she purports to be in charge of, and she said "don't tell me about it," by her own admission:

"I told people to play it straight up, and I did not receive a copy of the report."

If three Penn State executives saw jail time for failure to report, Simon should too. It is absolutely indisputable that her purported leadership increased the number of victims from the worst serial sex assault case in American history. I feel like I'm going crazy here. At long last, does Michigan State have no shame?

The nice old man who expresses himself in Werther's Originals sculpture. A very John Beilein criticism is leveled here.

The man is himself, and nobody else.

Patterson status. Michigan is waiting on Shea Patterson's appeal for immediate eligibility, but the folks in charge are dotting and crossing letters before they make their move. "Late February" is the current timeframe; Sam Webb provides the most thorough update I've seen so far:

There are six other kids/schools I know of at this point – Houston (Deonte Anderson), Florida (Van Jefferson), Nebraska (Breon Dixon), Georgia Tech (Jack DeFoor), Central Florida (Tre Nixon), and UAB (Jarrion Street). My gut tells me that the process for gathering information for each kid’s appeal is painstakingly thorough and they all want to make sure no details are missed. So the delay is largely due to their desire to make sure no corroborating details are missed, because as one source close to Patterson’s circle told me… “you only get one shot at this. You can’t go back and add things after the fact.)”

There are several additional paragraphs at the link.

The delay comes from meticulousness as the lawyer who's working with these guys collects everything from all seven of them so he can present the best case to the NCAA that Ole Miss went out of its way to lie to that year's recruiting class so they would end up signing. NCAA waivers seem to make no sense from the outside but the large number of guys petitioning gives several different schools motivation to get this done, and collectively they should be able to gather sufficient hard evidence that Ole Miss got them to sign by lying their asses off to convince the NCAA of that fact. Hopefully that's enough for the waiver.

Hurst burst in first. Daniel Jeremiah ranks the top 50 prospects for the upcoming NFL draft; Mo Hurst lands at #21:

Hurst is an undersized defensive tackle with exceptional quickness and awareness. Against the pass, he has elite get-off. He explodes off the snap and has a collection of effective hand moves to generate pressure. His bread-and-butter move is a quick swipe before wrapping around the blocker and exploding toward the quarterback. Against the run, he relies on his quickness to beat cut-off blocks and disrupt. Occasionally, he'll get stuck on blocks and is moved out of the hole. His effort is excellent. Overall, Hurst is an ideal 3-technique and could emerge as one of the best interior pass rushers in the league.

No complaints with that evaluation. I do think that #21 might be low for him since the NFL is now such a passing-heavy league. The kind of interior disruption Hurst provides is much more important than his tendency to get clunked on the rare occasions anyone can land a clean shot on him. Naturally, PFF has him third overall because they're just behind Mo Hurst's mom on the list of entities that like Mo Hurst. (MGoBlog is #3.)

Never again. Stu Douglass has a story about offensive rebounding:

I think we all knew this in our hearts already.

Good move. Now generalize it:

The agent thing has always been more pressing in hockey because of competition from Canadian juniors. Agents prefer the security of a contract to the probable-but-not-definite relationship they had with an NCAA prospect as their "advisor," so the prevailing thought amongst college hockey coaches is that agents tend to push their guys towards the CHL. That barrier is gone. Probably won't change much in the ongoing CHL-NCAA blood war, but neither will it do anything to the competitive landscape of college hockey.

It's past time for everyone to get that consideration.

Don't get it stolen, don't get it blocked. Defense by possession start:

Fairly intuitive. It is interesting that first possessions are so bad even relative to normal half-court offense.

Etc.: Quinn Hughes is the #4 NA skater in the CSB midterm rankings. Incoming D Bode Wilde is #22. No one else makes the list except 2019 recruit Phillipe Lapointe, who's #201—in the usually undrafted range. Angelique on Grant Newsome. On Dakota Raabe's first goal. If I had one critique it's that the sword is nowhere near big enough. Abuse enablers for jail.

Comments

Space Coyote

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:15 PM ^

And Donald was way more productive (which is crazy given Hurst's production) and was still selected 13th overall.

Both are undersized, both have great interior quickness for their size and can general interior pass rush (the most disruptive type of pass rush). That Hurst is predicted to go in the 1st round despite his size is a testiment to his ability and skill. But there are other good DTs around him, and Hurst isn't necessarily a great fit in all schemes. That likely drops his stock, which is why he's typically mocked late 1st to early 2nd.

Space Coyote

January 23rd, 2018 at 4:35 PM ^

There are up to 6 DT prospects this year that were better than the next best DT the year Donald was taken. While it's a game of imitators, having slightly undersized DTs for pass rush isn't exactly brand new.

So I think there is still enough holding Hurst back, and there may be some other guys that are very different types, but may be better scheme fits and be viewed as more "sure things" than Hurst is. I think he's mocked about appropriately, personally. Could be a very, very good NFL player, but NFL OL is another beast all together as well, so there isn't a sure thing that his game automatically translates.

Still say he may have been the best Michigan DL this century, despite both Graham and Woodley being in that group of players. That's how high I think of him as a college player. But it's about translating it to the NFL.

Michigan4Life

January 23rd, 2018 at 4:13 PM ^

were out of this world.

His senior year stats were like this:

59 tackles, 28.5 TFL, 11 sacks.

 

Mo Hurst's senior year stats:

59 tackles, 13 TFL and 5.5 sacks

 

Aaron Donald was a freakish athlete that tested out at the 99% percentile and has the power to take on double team. Mo Hurst is not in the same stratosphere as a prospect as Donald was.  He might be a candidate for a draft "slide" due to his size at 6'1" and 280 lbs and possibly short arms so combine measurement is going to be huge for Hurst because NFL generally do not like small DTs.

bronxblue

January 23rd, 2018 at 5:52 PM ^

Yeah, Hurst was always a bit of an outlier given his size and what NFL teams look for. I still think he goes earlier than 21, but the draft is always more of a need-based ranking system than a productivity one. There will be QBs and OTs taken before Hurst who aren't as good but the teams need them.

Benoit Balls

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:52 PM ^

1 - CLE - Which ever QB ends up being the worst in the draft class (Theyre gonna pick Darnold and hes going to have ball security issues and its gonna suck and I will cry as Baker Mayfield turns into Drew Brees 2.0)

2- NYG - A QB who ends up falling backasswards into at least 1 SB ring (Rosen)

3 - IND - Bradley Chubb - Colts are DESPERATE for outside pass rush

4 - CLE - Minkah Fitzpatrick, who tears both patella tendons on way off stage after hugging Goodell

5 - DEN - Mayfield or Josh Allen

6 - NYJ - The last of the "big 4" QB's 

7 - TB- Saquon Barkley

8 - CHI- Ridley

9 -SF- Q. Nelson

10- OAK- Roquan Smith

Hurst may be the first interior DL taken but it wont be until the mid teens at best.   

Please please please God, dont let Mo go to CLE. Also, please find a way for Jabrill to get out of Cleveland

( I am a Browns fan, they're going to suck forever. I no longer want Michigan players on the Browns. The mouthbreathing Cleveland Buckeye fans dont deserve them)

Ali G Bomaye

January 24th, 2018 at 1:44 PM ^

The front office and coaching staff is completely different than when they took Trent Richardson overall. It's nonsensical to say "because Richardson sucked, Barkley isn't worth a top 5 pick." Ezekiel Elliott and Leonard Fournette have shown what a big difference a stud RB can make as a rookie, even in a passing league.

TrueBlue2003

January 24th, 2018 at 2:52 PM ^

was not worth a top 5 pick (at least, not this season).  The Jags were good this season because their defense was elite.

Fournette had a pretty pedestrian 3.9 ypc, and the team was 7-6 in regular season games he played. They didn't miss a beat without him and actually won the three games he didn't play (with Ivory and Yeldon combining for more ypc combined than Fournette averaged).

Fournette wasn't an impact player. He might become one, but he probably wasn't worth a top 5 pick when you consider what the alternatives could have been.

Elliott was perhaps worth his lofty draft position, because it did seem this year that he was a difference maker for his offense. 

But people forget that their All-pro LT, which is a much more important position, went out when Elliot did and when he came back, the Cowboys offense was back to dominating (they were 0-3 without the LT, and 3-0 with him but without Elliott and Morris ran well in those games). When healthy that Dallas O line is so good it can open holes for anyone to run through.

RB is a mostly commodity position.  If you don't have a good O line or QB or both, there isn't a RB in the world that will make a difference.

Ali G Bomaye

January 25th, 2018 at 1:02 PM ^

Good argument and support. I agree that RB is mostly a commodity position, but I think the one reason that RBs might still be worth high picks is that RBs age faster than any other position. Most RBs are only productive until their late 20s, which means that their productivity mostly occurs during their rookie contract. Teams can acquire other positions in free agency, but if you want a top RB, you pretty much have to draft him. That means either you find a diamond in the rough like Kamara or Hunt, or you have to spend draft capital.

Space Coyote

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:10 PM ^

It's also, I assume, retaining possession after a "tie-up" or gaining possession from the same. Therefore, it includes retaining the ball with a few seconds left on the shot clock (worst case) or getting a dead ball out of bounds in the best case. Neither leads to any transition opportunity.

Space Coyote

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:46 PM ^

The median team averages about 6.5 steals per game (so 13 steals total in a game). There are ~8 times more steals than jump balls, which equates to 1.625 jump balls per game? Maybe this is within the error from the quick lookup I did (and includes OT jump balls), maybe a change in possession on a tie-up is a dead ball TO instead? I don't know, but struggling to get to jump balls just being the first possession.

Alton

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:40 PM ^

There have been 3711 NCAA basketball games involving D1 teams so far this year.  There have been 232 overtime periods.  That's 3943 "true" jump balls in D1 games.

This shows 5369 "jump balls."  I don't know if he used a D1-only sample, or used every game that had available statistics, but you can't get to 5369 if you count every held ball situation and the start of every second half as well.  

The Fugitive

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:11 PM ^

I wish I was surprised Izzo wouldn't say anything regarding Simon when he had the chance. HE is the face of the university, not the president or anyone else. When given the opportunity to speak up and defend the victims and do the right thing, he shrunk. What a fucking coward. I'm sorry this has been so hard on you, Tom. Much harder than being sexually abused and told to GTFO for 20 years. My hatred for this wee little man is justified.

FUCK YOU.

Maison Bleue

January 23rd, 2018 at 3:32 PM ^

Well, he did say "I hope that the right person was convicted" and "There is no way I can waiver in my support of President Simon." LINK

Which set off a stream of angry tweets at Izzo from the mothers of some of Nassar's victims, including Aly Raisman. LINK

That is some cold-hearted shit right there. Tom Izzo is an ass hole.

Ziff72

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:14 PM ^

Does anyone understand why Simon would not look at the report?   She sems to make that point very clear likes she's proud of it and to me it makes her appear to be a moron.  

At least throw a subordinate under the bus or something.   From how I understand this is they came to MSU with an open investigation on one of their employees and they chose to stick their head in the sand until due process took place?    How does someone not look at the report?

Space Coyote

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:20 PM ^

the folks in charge at MSU have tried to make it abundatnly clear that they are ignorant, out-of-touch, morons in order to avoid culpability. Instead, they appear culpable, while also appears ignorant and out-of-touch.

It's one thing if this happened in isolation, for a short duration of time and to a limited number of women/girls. It didn't. It happened for a very, very long time. It happened to an extreme amount of women/girls. If it wasn't handled at a lower level, that is an indictement on the management of the university and your leadership, not an excuse for ignorance. They don't seem to understand that, which is turning an awful, awful situation into an awful, awful situation with tonedeaf leadership acting like they are above the issue.

Maison Bleue

January 23rd, 2018 at 3:37 PM ^

At best she knew about the accusations against Nassar in 2014 (through Title IX and police investigations) and allowed this predator to continue the awful for 16 months.

She needs to be jailed.

go16blue

January 23rd, 2018 at 6:15 PM ^

I hate to ask this but it's clear I'm not on the same page here, so here goes: once she's aware there's an investigation going on what is a university's president's responsibility exactly? She can't exactly fire him when the investigation is still underway. And the report, to my understanding, didn't find him guilty of anything. It seems like the investigators and his immediate supervisors are more responsible here.

Maison Bleue

January 23rd, 2018 at 9:23 PM ^

At the very least he should be suspended pending an investigation. You can't let a guy keep seeing new patients when there were already multiple patients accusing him of abuse.



How many more girls were abused by this ass hole in the 16 months after President Simon learned of the accusations? I don't know the answer, but even one more is too many and justifies her being thrown in jail.

Arb lover

January 23rd, 2018 at 7:34 PM ^

It's a talking point her general counsel (the same one who has been implicated in this whole thing as having been told but done nothing with it) probably gave her telling her as long as people know you never looked at a report you're good, so she's waiving it around as if that point is her salvation or something.

yossarians tree

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:18 PM ^

MGoLawyers approach the bench, please.

A caller, he sounded like a lawyer, on Sam Webb's show yesterday said that Molest U would be protected from civil penalties because of the state's strong "governmental immunity" laws. He said that the university would have insurance protection and that Simon and the trustees are being dictated to by the insurance company lawyers on how to respond to the crisis. Any validity to this?

Alton

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:32 PM ^

However...

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(nismwyfjb1ba3keolmh1olp0))/mileg.aspx?page=getobject&objectname=mcl-691-1407

I don't see any way that the governmental immunity statute could apply here.  Surely they can't claim that MSU was "engaged in the exercise of a governmental function."  Also, part (2)(c) seems to specifically exclude cases of "gross negligence."

I think President Simon herself might be personally immune from tort liability, but that certainly doesn't mean that Michigan State University would be immune as well.

 

Glennsta

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:53 PM ^

It looks like there were plenty of complaints by students, going back almost 20 years.  Causation may be a problem of proof for the earliest allegations, i.e. the refusal to fire Nassar might not be the cause of damages until it became clear enough that he was a predator and until failure ot remove him rose to the level of gross negligence.

Also, if I am Bill Schuette and am running for governor, the last thing I want to have to tell my assistant AG's to go into court and argue in defense of civil lawsuits by Nassar's victims is that the women shouldn't collect a dime from MSU because of governmental immunity.  PR nightmare.

Arb lover

January 23rd, 2018 at 8:02 PM ^

Also to clarify, just because an organization has some elected leaders or board and receives some state/federal funds, doesn't grant it governmental immunity from pretty much anything. The fact that MSU is huge and has so much in the way of resources is what gives its claim of governmental immunity any sort of second look, especially if you are a little guy. The state isn't going to defend MSU, though I suppose they could file amicus curiae if the interests were aligned. 

Personally I think what's going to end up getting MSU nailed the hardest here is that they had cause to investigate many times over, and did not do so, or their investigation would not pass any smell test. They can argue till they are blue in the face that they had no proof that the allegations were factual, but a public institution of learning is required to conduct detailed investigations these types of allegations.

For example, the only quasi real investigation was conducted in 2014, and consisted of examining the claimant's written statement. Nassar was then given an opportunity to respond. His response (by email) was essentially that he was sickened just reading that statement (and would never do something like that). Inexplicably, MSU then took the claimant's statement that was in the predator's own words "sickening" and said that based on her own statement they weren't doing any more investigation because it was clear that she simply didn't understand (that her allegations were a legitimate medical procedure). Nassar himself provided email response directly contradicting the university's official position that the allegation was simply a proper procedure. Now the university didn't expect Nassar's email to ever be made public, but that's the sort of thing that is going to sink MSU on this one.

Ziff72

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:36 PM ^

It does appear that they are being told to be very careful with their wording to avoid the civil penalties.   I don't know if this makes any sense legally, but for armchair lawyers that is the appearance.

My point about not looking at the reports would seem to be a lie and negligence so I don't think she would do that if the Insurance lawyers told her to do so.

 

NateVolk

January 23rd, 2018 at 3:34 PM ^

If anything, the fact of Nassar engaging in intentional acts might limit or absolve the insurance company of underwriting responsibility. Depending on the policy language.  But that would be determined in some sort of cross complaint and probably fought out in a separate breach of contract suit. Likely after the victims have been paid.

Somebody is going to pay and pay huge to these victims. Who ultimately ends up paying the most at the end is likely more complicated. 

More to the caller's point: That would be one heck of a strict governmental immunity statute to cloak the school from liability in this case. 

Arb lover

January 23rd, 2018 at 7:48 PM ^

It wouldn't surprise me, I suppose, if MSU had a contract with an insurance company for these sorts of things. If so it's fairly common for corporation types (and pretty standard to at a minimum share all incoming complaints prior to response), but institutions that are supposed to serve the public good and not generally speaking for profit? I suppose. Actually it wouldn't even surprise me if one of the regents' brother, etc is a CEO for the insurance company and if MSU is acting like  C corp.

However the caliber of legal support say Michigan could provide vs what an insurance company is going to give, even in protecting their own interests, if Michigan has insurance for this sort of issue I would not be surprised if it has negotiated to keep its response strategy in house.

gpsimms not to…

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:22 PM ^

Does the fact that it is so low imply it is actually a better strategy to purposefully concede the tip?

In return, you get to start the 2nd half with possession, and that is just off a normal inbound.

Or, does it simply imply that the first offensive possession of the game is rocky?

MH20

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:51 PM ^

Your scenario assumes there are no tie-ups in the first half of the game.  If Michigan loses the tip and then a tie-up occurs at some point before halftime, the opposing team would get the ball to start the second half.  Second half starting possession is based solely on which direction the possession arrow is pointing at the end of the first half.

gpsimms not to…

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:59 PM ^

The point is that by conceding the tip, you get the next possession. If that first possession is worth way less than others, it may be worth it to just give it up, right?

On second thought, that is dumb, though. The team winning the tip starts the game winning 0.8 - 0. Which is obviously a good thing for that team.

Alton

January 23rd, 2018 at 3:05 PM ^

If that is indeed the first possession of the game that's rated at 0.896 points, I would be curious to know the number for the second, third, and fourth possessions.

In other words, it might be the case where a team just starts out with a baseline of 0.90, and as play goes on, fouls are called, players warm up, etc., that slowly works its way up to 1.10 or something like that by the middle of the second half.  If that's the case, maybe that 0.90 is just a side effect of players coming in to the game "cold" on the first possession (and defensive players all with 0 fouls playing good, aggressive defense).

mgobaran

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:23 PM ^

Nassar is ruining this cartoon for me:

My girlfriend has been putting off watching anything from this case until just yesterday and then she couldn't stop watching testimonial videos. Hearing it all back to back to back like that is just sickening. We know Nassar will rot away in jail, but there seems to be no way they are going to get charges pressed against everyone who deserves it. Hell, those trustees need to lose their positions immediately for standing by someone as terrible as Simon. I wouldn't oppose jail time just for them referring to the case as "this Nassar thing."

Hello! It is much more than just a "thing." Being asleep at the wheel got you here in the first place! This case is the most important thing going on at that University. This case and figuring out how the hell to fix your institution of higher education so that no one else could ever be in that position again! 

Needs

January 23rd, 2018 at 2:28 PM ^

FWIW, all statewide elective offices in Michigan, save for judgeships, are subject to recall. Article II, Section 8 of the Michigan constitution:

 

"Laws shall be enacted to provide for the recall of all elective officers except judges of courts of record upon petition of electors equal in number to 25 percent of the number of persons voting in the last preceding election for the office of governor in the electoral district of the officer sought to be recalled. The sufficiency of any statement of reasons or grounds procedurally required shall be a political rather than a judicial question."

 

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(jzrub23k1mmgjbgsxp1xp2eo))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=mcl-Article-II-8

Everyone Murders

January 23rd, 2018 at 3:02 PM ^

I've been beating the "MSU knew / was complicit" drum for a while.  The evidence is overwhelming.

In every tragedy there are bright spots, though.  And this portion of 15 year-old Emma Ann Miller's (assaulted by Nassar at age 13) victim impact statement yesterday was amazing.  The poise and fortitude of this young woman astounds:

"Are you listening, MSU? I'm 15 years old and I'm not afraid of you, nor will I ever be," Miller said. "At 15, I shouldn't know the inside of a courtroom, but I'm going to become real comfortable in one. So should you. ...I didn't choose this circumstance. Nassar made that choice for us -- your 20-year child-molesting employee. This is a burden at 15 I shouldn't have to bear. But believe me MSU, bear I will."

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/emma-ann-miller-confronts-larry-nassar-court/story?id=52528764

Also, gymnasts are almost uniformly a bit nuts and driven.  Monomania is almost an occupational qualification.  Fixating on a difficult goal with a lot of hurdles and pain to get there - that's innate in every successful gymnast I've known.  Put simply, these victims aren't going away quietly, nor should they.

The victims deserve better, MSU writ large deserves better, and the people of Michigan deserve better.  The "leadership" at MSU is atrocious, and heads should roll.