Unverified Voracity Has No Cones Comment Count

Brian

Cone deficiency. The news that Conelius Jones will not be with the program this fall is not exactly news today, but permit me a day to recover from my World Cup hangover. This is the reason:

According to Brown, Jones went through a rough stretch with personal issues over the winter. Although he graduated with the rest of his class and maintained a 2.5 grade-point average, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Jones struggled with the SAT, which kept him from qualifying.

That must have been a rough stretch with grades almost at rock bottom, since Jones claimed he had a 3.7 GPA and offers from Wake Forest, Duke, and Stanford when he committed to Michigan. A decline that steep probably means the initial GPA report was a bit inflated.

Unlike Dorsey and his immediate enrollment at Louisville, Jones will head to Fork Union in an effort to get qualified, at which point he'd come in as a mid-year enrollee. This means he's honestly just a hair away from qualifying—the NCAA severely restricted how much grade magic prep schools could work a couple of years ago—and has a decent chance of getting in in January. Michigan has taken kids from prep schools, although not particularly successfully: Marques Slocum spent a semester at Milford and Arizona CB Quinton McCoy spent a prep year before ending up on campus. Neither lasted two years.

As far as the 2010 team goes, Jones's absence creates a distressing lack of Cone in the hairy depths of the quarterback depth chart, and that's about all.

I don't think Dorsey's situation is at all related to Jones and Kinard. Dorsey was qualified; the other two guys are headed to prep school. That doesn't have anything to do with hypothetical anti-Rodriguez forces executing their dastardly master plan. And even if the academic side of things is cracking down, they have a very good reason to do so: Michigan's latest transfer-saddled APR score is ugly, and Michigan is going to have to put up a major improvement lest they fall below the 925 line of doom.

Meanwhile, the other blame meme floating around is that Rodriguez is bringing in a lot more kids at academic risk. That may or may not be true but unless Jones's transcripts and offers were just totally fictional this doesn't seem like an example. It's one thing to take a guy who has a lot of work to do, and another to take a guy well above the minimums only to watch him collapse.

What happened with Cissoko? In other happy news about never-were kids, Boubacar Cissoko pled guilty to four separate counts of robbery and faces sentencing that won't be 45 years but hypothetically could. The News takes an in-depth look at what happened to a high school kid no one thought would have problems until he got out of this protected environment:

He was intentionally protected, growing up on Rosa Parks Boulevard in Detroit, a neighborhood that was rough-and-tough 40 years before Cissoko got there.

"He came from a sheltered background," Willis said. "By 10:30 he was in, home. He was driven to school, driven home. We are a close-knit family, we were tight on him."

Even the history of the riots which began along what was then known as 12th Street was kept from Cissoko, by the family.

"He's a good kid," Willis said. "When he left, he was praying five times a day."

Isn't there a show about Amish kids who head out into the world for a year or two and go totally nuts? In this case it seems that protecting Cissoko from negative influences left him unprepared to deal with them. He was unvaccinated. Bonus points to the News for deploying one of those beautifully dry newspaper sentences that radiate detached authority:

Less than worldly, he was suddenly thrust into a scene in Ann Arbor in which young adults believe they have achieved a level of sophistication that they may well never attain in life.

oh-snap

Oh, snap.

Another oddity: court documents show Cissoko's age is actually two years older than Michigan (and Cass Tech) listed him, which might explain why he didn't live up to the recruiting hype.

Burn the regionals down. It takes some doing to make me livid about something that won't happen until 2012 and involves a committee making a decision, but holy aarrgh I want to punch a wall:

First, the announcing of four more regionals means we won't be seeing the slightly less moronic proposed tournament format, which at least included one playoff round that made some sense.

The second problem is the hosts themselves.  The hosts will be Minnesota, Michigan Tech, Holy Cross, and Fairfield/Yale. If it feels like a repeat, it's because it pretty much is. The two eastern ones aren't that big of a deal. They're sure to be boring, empty arenas for critically important games, but there aren't really any better options. Plus, with now-defunct Fairfield helping host in Bridgeport, you get the joy of the 17 people in attendance saying, "What the hell is that deer doing in here?"

Tech is hosting in Green Bay, which is WCHA territory. This will be the fourth consecutive year that Minnesota hosts something. They were awarded regionals in 2009 and 2010, get the Frozen Four in 2011, and now have another regional in 2012. WCH points out that over that time span the entire CCHA gets to host three events.

It is ludicrous that the next two years will see zero regionals in CCHA territory. I hope the St. Louis regional is attended by five people. Are any CCHA teams even bidding for these things? Why hasn't Michigan put in a bid using the new rink in Toledo? I'm not sure where the breakdown is, but something's got to change.

Solar domination. The American Solar Challenge is Michigan's. If you don't think this is a big deal, look at the size of the trophy:

solar-car-win

It's a big deal. From the looks of it, it's about three times as big a deal as the World Cup. This is Michigan's third straight national title. Seriously: Directors Cup this event, yo.

An actual loss on the tubes. EDSBS found 40 minutes of youtubery not posted by WolverineHistorian. It's the 1988 Michigan-Miami game that Michigan ended up losing 31-30. Though it is depressing, the pants are very tight and Al Trautwig's doing his very best Data impression:

Draft disappointment. We knew that Michigan's 2010 hockey class had collectively slipped in the eyes of NHL evaluators, but the extent to which they did still surprises:

  • Jon Merrill fell into the early second round, going #38 to New Jersey.
  • Alex Guptill went in the third round to Dallas.
  • Luke Moffatt and Lee Moffie were both seventh-rounders.
  • Clare, Fallon, and Deblois did not go.

That's disappointing from a talent standpoint. At least Merrill and Guptill went to generally patient, NCAA-friendly organizations. Michigan might get an extra year out of Merrill and stands a good chance of hanging on to Guptill.

Etc.: Nebraska fans are preparing for Big Ten hate. Michigan is not featured. Woo 8-16!

Comments

Ziff72

June 29th, 2010 at 2:19 PM ^

Where's the freakin instant replay when you need it. Mcmurtury gathers possession after the 1st bobble before he goes out of bounds, game over we win......on a side note M. Taylor what were u thinking??   The ISQBD is wide open for the 1st on that play run son run......

Hate this fucking game, I hated the Canes and Johnson so bad back then.

Six Zero

June 29th, 2010 at 2:23 PM ^

I was one of those who started questioning the frequency of troubled youth being signed on by Rich, and yes, I even dropped the word 'integrity.'   And, so, Coach Rodriguez, since we all know you read this blog every day under an assumed identity (I'm betting you're not MGoDC), I owe you this much...

Sorry bro.

antidaily

June 29th, 2010 at 2:27 PM ^

Cissoko was a high 4 star on Rivals and a 5 star on Scout. 

He joins Justin Feagin, Taylor Hill, Brandon Smith, Sam McGuffie, Marcus Witherspoon, Kurt Wermers, and Dann O'neill as an early departer. 

psychomatt

June 29th, 2010 at 2:33 PM ^

I was at that game and it is the nightmare game that will be forever burned into my mind. Single worst game I've ever attended (yes, worse than Colorado and worse than the Horror).

MGoShoe

June 29th, 2010 at 6:48 PM ^

...was at both of those games and I agree with you about the Minnesota loss.  Rickey Foggie’s shocking run around end to set up Chip Lohmiller’s game winning field goal for the Golden Gophers was practically beyond belief when it happened. 

Clarence Beeks

June 29th, 2010 at 2:51 PM ^

"Meanwhile, the other blame meme floating around is that Rodriguez is bringing in a lot more kids at academic risk. That may or may not be true but unless Jones's transcripts and offers were just totally fictional this doesn't seem like an example. It's one thing to take a guy who has a lot of work to do, and another to take a guy well above the minimums only to watch him collapse."

They weren't.  David Cutcliffe had very high praise for Jones in several interviews that I saw last year and offered him in person.  Knowing what I do about Jones' high school (which is a very good school), I highly (and I mean HIGHLY) doubt that there was grade inflation.  That would be a really big deal here and I haven't heard anything about it with any athletes and that school regularly puts out division one athletes in multiple sports.

One thing that is very important in discussing the GPA issue is that there is a key difference between the quote as originally reported on Scout and the quote that Brian used fromm AnnArbor.com.

Scout says:

""Academically (GPA-wise) he wound up fine ... his core is 2.53-2.55."" (emphasis added)

AnnArbor.com says:

"According to Brown, Jones went through a rough stretch with personal issues over the winter. Although he graduated with the rest of his class and maintained a 2.5 grade-point average, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Jones struggled with the SAT, which kept him from qualifying."

That distinction is hugely important in this case.  It doesn't mean that he had a 2.53-2.55 overall GPA, but rather a 2.53-2.55 GPA in core classes.  It is core class GPA, not overall GPA, that the clearinghouse uses to evaluate qualification.  The higher the core GPA, the lower the SAT/ACT that you need to qualify.  The problem with core GPA in this case is that it is highly weighted toward grades nine through eleven, which is when Jones had some pretty severe personal and academic problems, including being out of school for a long period of time.  That obviously would not help his core GPA.  It is entirely possible that he did, in fact, have an overall GPA of 3.7ish as of last fall as was reported last year, but a much lower core GPA and overall GPA by the time the end of the senior year came around due to the personal problems that Brown touched on in the article.

st barth

June 29th, 2010 at 2:38 PM ^

They've been making these futuristic, streamlined solar race cars for twenty years now.  Winning is great for school spirit and all...but isn't it about time we start seeing the focus shift to a more practical, street ready vehicle?  I mean, the racer would be cool for me but what about picking up groceries or taking kids to school?

gbdub

June 29th, 2010 at 4:23 PM ^

The Michigan car that just won the Naitional Championship is worth about 2 million dollars - the bare, unmounted solar cells alone are worth several hundred thousand dollars. The car weighs only ~700 lbs (which is pretty heavy for a solar car actually), and a single not-too-large person can just barely squeeze inside. There are no side view mirrors, no AC, no heat, no entertainment system, no headlights suitable for nighttime visibility, no bucket seats, and no power locks (or any locks, for that matter).

Despite all that, the car only produces about 2000 watts of electric power - that's just a hair over 2.5 horsepower. While it can maintain highway speed, doing so in anything other than direct sunlight will drain the batteries after a few hours. Well, it would make a perfect commuter car, you say. Unfortunately, the acceleration is atrocious (because of the low maximum power, you just can't generate enough torque without overloading the system). Old ladies at stop lights would be Mario Andretti to your Mario Kart. Oh, and the solar cells are so fragile that simply leaning on them will cause them to crack and degrade.

Even in the future, you'll never see a pure solar powered car as an everday conveyance. Why? Physics, my friend. Every square meter of Earth's surface receives, on a clear day wih the sun overhead, roughly 1000 watts of energy. So, say you have 8 square meters (a reasonable number for a full size car) of magical solar cells that are 100% efficient (physically impossible, and current cells max out around 30% efficient). You would still have only about 10 horsepower to work with. Most lawn tractors have more power than that. Looks like the kids are going to have to walk to soccer practice (don't worry, it builds character). You may in the future see solar cells used to supplement the power production of electric cars, if high efficiency, durable solar cells can be made cheap enough to be worthwhile, but you will always need another energy source.

So what's the point of Solar Car? Well, some of the non solar technologies that were first used on automobiles in solar car competitions (e.g. Lithium Polymer batteries and high-efficiency DC brushless motors) are already finding their way into vehicles like the Tesla Roadster and Chevy Volt. More importantly, it trains some damn fine engineers (I know it helped me get my current job). Finally, it gives us Wolverines another means for demonstrating our clear superiority over other academic institutions.

evenyoubrutus

June 29th, 2010 at 2:57 PM ^

although it surprised me to see that the guy who wrote that article had nothing to say about any kind of (potential) bad-blood between Nebraska and M, especially the whole 1997 thing.  Then when he described Northwestern I thought he could have been describing Michigan fans (because we hear that stuff all the time about us).  So if you check out the comments:

If you want to know which school plays the "academic elite" card the worst, it's not Northwestern, It's Michigan. Wolverines are by far the most arrogant fans in the Big Ten in regards to their school's perceived superiority. (And it's only gotten worse since their football program tanked.)

(Stop, you're making me blush.) While I'm not sure where this douche is coming up with the paranthetical portion of his statement, it sounds about on-par with any MSU or OSU fan I've ever heard make this kind of attack.  So a few comments down:

Michigan does have some academic bragging rights - they are the top public school in the Big 10 and one of a small handful nationwide. They have perhaps the finest public law school in the country.

Maybe I won't end up hating Nebraska as much as I had expected I would.  But who knows.  A lot can change in a year.

Blue in Seattle

June 29th, 2010 at 7:00 PM ^

The Coaches poll created the issue.  One anonymous coach put Michigan at #4.  This was the same year that the Governor of Tennessee complained to the Downtown Athletic Club.

My father (a Michigan Alumni and Football Fan) lived in Tennessee during that year, and the hatred toward Michigan and Charles Woodson in particular for taking away Peyton's trophy was very high.

So high, that ironically this website proclaimed Peyton's four years at Tennessee the best ever.  I guess they didn't update the website after Tennessee won the national championship in 1998.  After Peyton was gone.

http://smokeys-trail.com/peyton/manning.html#Southern%20Boy

I don't blame Nebraska for that at all.  I don't blame most of the coaches as it was tough to pick Michigan or Nebraska (all prejudice aside).  I blame the ballot that place Michigan at #4

 

M-Wolverine

June 30th, 2010 at 8:38 AM ^

Even the Huskers don't believe it was just the effort and love for their poor, announcing his retirement just at the right time coach-

On Scott Frost-

He also gave a surprisingly persuasive speech on the podium after the 1998 Orange Bowl that likely swayed crucial votes toward NU’s fifth national championship.

http://www.huskerlocker.com/blogs/browse/t/most_viewed/official/y

Bronco648

June 29th, 2010 at 3:09 PM ^

@st barth - the rules pretty much specify how to build the car, if you want to be competitive in the ASC.  If they were to change the rules to specify a certain amount of "grocery space" and that the vehicles must seat 2 (or 4), then the cars would look more familiar.  I will say this; Bochum's car looked like it could have sat 2 comfortably.  It was a little bigger than an original Honda Insight.  Mounting the solar cells is an issue (esp. the gallium arsenide cells UM uses).  The mounting surface needs to be pretty flat for them to continue their max. output.

UMfan21

June 29th, 2010 at 3:12 PM ^

So...how weird is that about Boubacar's age?  I don't remember hearing any examples of this in college football where a player lies about their age.  Can anyone else remember any cases?

Sopwith

June 29th, 2010 at 4:59 PM ^

Hardly.  Cissoko's got nothing on the all-time best college football case of an older player trying to extend the glory days.  To wit, the distinctly curiouser case of Ron Weaver, the 30-year old Texas Longhorn CB who pretended to be a 23-year old JUCO transfer named Ron McElvey until fleeing the team the week before the Sugar Bowl when his identity was blown by his hometown paper.

Matt Hinton's nostalgic look back:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Nostalgia-Ron-Weaver-McKelvey-fake-name-real-;_ylt=ArnZKNmsJHhhO6sNZjyrnIHynYl4?urn=ncaaf,239313

Original 1996 SI article:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1007649/1/index.htm

jamiemac

June 29th, 2010 at 3:35 PM ^

Miami 1988

Do you know that Michigan went 9-2-1 that season, won the Rose Bowl and lost by 2 and 1 points to the eventual #1 and #2 teams in the final polls. Those losses came in the first two freaking games

Thats bullchips. Lame Independents.

This game happened a week after the Reggie Ho, missed Mike Gilette field goal against the Domers

Best 0-2 team ever. Muy better than 2007. Still hurt, though.

Let's not speak of this Miami game. One of the few games that still scars my emotions. I was a fiery teenager back then and did not respond well to the outcome.

Blue in Seattle

June 29th, 2010 at 7:04 PM ^

that defense wins championships.  By the 8 minute point of that video for a second there I thought I was watching the LB's of the 2009 Defense not stop Penn State receivers in the flats.

Bo why didn't you let Moeller call any aggressive plays in the 4th quarter?  Why did you sit on that huge lead?

Well things will surely change once Bo retires.

M-Wolverine

June 30th, 2010 at 8:30 AM ^

Was a senior accepted to Michigan.  I could not believe this shit was happening again, after the Ho incident, and I was showing it where I was watching the game.  Just shows torturous blown games did not start or end with Lloyd.  Those two weeks were as bad as anything.  Well, not the last two years...but you know what I mean.

jamiemac

June 29th, 2010 at 3:36 PM ^

Also, there is plenty of evidence out there that Rodriguez is also bringing in stellar kids academically. Dileo, for one, comes to mind.

It's just lazy interpretation to say its an example of how Rodriguez is ruining the program or whatever. Haters are gonna hate. Dont listen to them

Go Blue!

a2bluefan

June 29th, 2010 at 3:55 PM ^

I watched that game on TV from home, and heading into a commercial break, Keith Jackson uttered the phrase that is my favorite thing I ever heard him say:

"And the big bowl is hummin'...cuz the home team is winnin' "

JD_UofM_90

June 29th, 2010 at 6:35 PM ^

as a student.  We started chanting a bunch of sh@# during the 4th quarter cuz we were up by almost 2 scores.... then everything went to hell..... this game is in my top 2 most depressing Michigan losses of all time next to the 70 yard bomb by C.S. during the Colorado game....

Section 1

June 29th, 2010 at 11:53 PM ^

Coming off a National Championship year.

And we had them down three scores, and the students were all chanting, "Over-rated! (clap-clap, clap-clap-clap) Over-rated! (clap-clap, clap-clap-clap)..."

Three Steve Walsh scores later, the chanting had stopped.

Back then, I was a few years out of law school (my seats were in the North endzone then) and I remember thinking, "Uh, this guy Walsh looks like a pretty decent NFL quarterback; I know we've played a great game, but it might be a little early to be counting up a win..."  I felt like a kind of grouchy old adult. 

I've never, ever, forgotten about what a premature chant that was.

WolverineHistorian

June 29th, 2010 at 4:41 PM ^

I have a good copy of the 84-Miami game coming in the mail probably some time this week.  I'll be sure to post it. 

22-14 win over the #1 Canes and 6 interceptions against Heisman trophy winner Bernie Kosar.

Craig

June 29th, 2010 at 5:04 PM ^

The best line in that Nebraska article:

"Spartan Fans Quoting 300

Not a bad movie, but it no way relates to the exploits of Jeff Smoker."





I'm guess Smoker's life was more like the movie Blow.