MGoPodcast 8.17: Freckles Like the Sprinkles on Top of a Ridiculously Good-Looking Man Sundae
Marc-Gregor Campredon
We Couldn’t Have One Without the Other
We get to make audio content because we can afford the studio time and equipment to make it happen, and that’s thanks to the people running ads between segments.
The show was recorded in the Michigan Room of the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown. It is presented by the Bo Store, UGP & Moe's, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan we probably would have jobs we might lose for googling the things we google for work sometimes.
The others: Homesure Lending, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Deo Bookkeeping, Michigan Law Grad, Defensive Drivers Group, and Peak Wealth Management.
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1. That Basketball Season
starts against 1:00
Why doesn’t Kenpom let us sort stats by before and after an Illinois player calls the team “white collar”? Since then Michigan’s been legitimately the 4th best defense in the conference, the 6th best offense in the country, and the second-best team in the Big Ten. Other than Zak Heroball what’s the worst shot Michigan takes?
2. Maverick Morgan Memorial Bracketology
33:20
Big Ten MVP is the poker of the bear. Graham Couch’s plan to get MSU to stop gaming RPI to get on the bubble despite an atrocious season is a brilliant one. BTT: Get past Purdue and it’s four games in four days versus the short bench for a B1G title. Will it take that to get off that 8-9 seed line?
3. Gimmicky Top 5: Upside Down BTN Personalities
starts at 50:55
Stephen Bardo set a new record for worst sports broadcast by a sober person, inspiring our top five list of worst BTN commentators.
4. Harbaugh vs Everybody
starts at 1:10:40
We catch up on an offseason’s worth of Jim Harbaugh at the business end of some of the dumbest national media takes in the history of sports hot takes. Why is Pete Finebaum mad about Harbaugh trying to hire an NFL WRs coach? Why is Stewart Mandel hyperventilating about Michigan having exactly 85 players for exactly 85 scholarships? Basically there’s nothing that unethical cheating hypocrites hate more than a competitive, ethical, authentic, rule-abiding innovator.
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MUSIC:
- "Sabotage"—Beatie Boys
- “All Our Songs”—Built to Spill
- “It’s Raining Men”—Weather Girls
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS
Steven Bardo is bad, but I tried to listen to Bill Walton last week do a game on espn and the babbling and incoherent drivel that he talks about is on a whole new level. I seriously wonder how stoned he gets himself before going on air.
Walton's utter disdain for Dave Pasch - his partner - makes me kind of love him. Also because he calls games stoned.
I often telll my kid I am going to eat him or sell him the circus. When it's the former, he'll occasionally offer a limb for my consumption; when the latter, he'll often say, "Circus!" in the most gleeful tones.
...or whatever the heck that show is called. i have literally never watched that show, ever, but i was all keyed up after the hamblasting and decided to watch for a few minutes. the walton / irvin segment was delightful, and the tracy abrams piece was well-done.
but izzo, man. i noticed the same thing, tweeted about it, and shut off the tv. literally the first sentence out of his mouth: "senior day is a recognition of all the people who have given ME their blah blah blah." godDAMNit. a few years ago, i noticed that he literally cannot speak about his team without saying "i" or "me." i mean, EVER. once you notice it, you can't not notice it.
the worst part about sparty missing the tournament this year (which they will) will be izzo's sanctimonious, megalomaniacal goddamned face all over the in-studio segments between games. i almost want them to make it so i don't have to see that shit.
Fun drinking game - drink whenever Shon Morris uses the phrase "paying dividends."
Somewhat hot take: the Karl Ravech and Dan Dakich combo is almost as fun as Gus and Raftery. Also good: McDonough and Bilas or McDonough and Burke.
Izzo becoming a pardody of himself. Even his players not buying it the last few years.
pays players or gives them impermissible benefits of some sort?
Bo admitted to cheating once. Contrary to NCAA rules Bo would allow non-scholarship players to eat the same food as the scholarship players. Cheater!
I don't think anyone claims Michigan players never got an impermissable benefit. Plenty of people embedded in the community have stories and I've heard a few myself. What Michigan does have is a credulous compliance department that is super serious about investigating and preventing it.
You'll note the cover we promoted last year's HTTV with had a stormtrooper on it. That was because compliance said we can't use a current student athlete. When I tried to say WTF I learned the way our athletic department works is compliance says and we do, not the other way around.
The way NCAA compliance works is not like the NCAA are the cops. The cops are at each university, and overseen by each university. The NCAA is more like Internal Affairs. You'll note the big violations they hand out are "Lack of Institutional Control" and "Failure to Monitor" or "Failure to Promote a Culture of Compliance." The fact is most schools these days purposely fail to monitor, promote a culture of non-compliance, and if they lack institional control it's because the guy the coach talks to for making things happen has stopped listening to the coach. In the South paying players is a totally functional black market, complete with networks, burner phones, and money laundering (mostly done through churches because who's going to investigate a church?)
Michigan and others like it are exceptional because they literally do promote a culture of compliance. Talk to any former Michigan player and they'll have a story about how compliance was up their ass over something like a friend fixing their car or a girlfriend who got a good deal on a laptop.
These are still highly valuable athletes getting highly underpaid relative to their free market value, and markets always find a way to correct. The difference however is not just in degrees but the kind of enforcement going on here is above the written expectations, while the norm is the Old West.
It's a shame that so many programs pay players (or provide other material benefits instead) b/c it ruins the product, creates competitive disadvantages, etc.
Programs with more $$$ already have a competitive disadvantage but this obviously doesn't violate NCAA regs. Still $$$ allows programs to hire more staff, and just use that $$$ in creative ways, e.g., 30+ satellite camps, etc. Some things the NCAA can't prohibit, but some things they might.
That said, beyond (prohibited and creative) uses of $$$, there are other ways that programs can cut corners that also create competitive disadvantages, e.g.,
- oversign (over the 85 limit)
- force kids to transfer or take medical DQs
- hire the coaches of recruiting targets
- allow high schools to use the facilities
While Michigan might not engage in handing over cash to recruits/players to gain a competitive disadvantage, Harbaugh definitely engages in creative uses of $$$ in the deep Michigan coffers. And some uses are so creative that the NCAA is reviewing them. And he has also engaged in roster management techniques such as 2-4 (above). So for these reasons I do think it's fair to say that Harbaugh is different from previous HCs like Bo, Carr, et. al.
Note: many elite programs also engage in creative uses of $$$ (e.g., hiring analysts, etc.) and 1-4, so I'm not singling out Harbaugh. Just pointing out that he's different from previous Michigan HCs in terms of spending $$$ to gain a competitive disadvantage as well as things like 2-4 (above); and as such some people believe that Harbaugh is changing (to some degree) the brand and image of Michigan football. And most welcome that change. But again, it's a change.
he makes me laugh really good. Best off just watching with mute.
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