Love your write-up. Pretty much spot on. It will be interesting to see if some of these players that made consistent makes can get coached up this week to make the necessary adjustments to improve their play going forward.
I was in Dallas two weeks ago visiting my son at SMU. I stayed in Highland Park (a neighborhood in Dallas) for those three days (arriving Thursday afternoon leaving Sunday morning). Highland Park Village was very busy. Every restaurant at the Village was packed inside and outside. The restaurants and bars on McKinny Ave were busy. There were many people in the stores without masks. I ran into the developer of the outdoor mall and he was telling me how the stores at the Village are very busy. From what I saw, everybody who was out and about looked happy. When people weren't wearing masks inside the stores that I was in, the operators of the store were not asking people to wear masks.
I left Manhattan last May after spending ten years in the City (West Village to be specific). I chose Charleston, SC because even at the time when the businesses in Charleston were closed (May 2020) everybody was pleasant and people looked happy. Most gyms, stores and shops have been open since late summer. I have had several friends visit from NYC, SF, MI and NC and they all comment on how happy everybody is here and how everything is open. I left NYC because everybody was miserable and why pay the NYC premium when everything is closed and the majority of the population is projecting their unhappiness and politics on you. I have been to NYC twice since I left and it is a far cry from what NYC was pre-COVID. It will bounce back but it will take a long time to get NYC back to the atmosphere it was pre-COVID.
Every time this fanbase (myself included) thinks that we are going to roll a team, we lose. UCLA is flat out out-hustling us. Their confidence went way up as the first half progressed. Let's see what JH does at halftime. JH has been strong with is half-time adjustments. I am only asking for a win. I don't care if we stuff them in a "trash can" as many on this board espoused the last several days.
I will be the first to say that I am not a fan of Brad Underwood, frankly, I think that he is douche but it was refreshing to see the Illinois players with around ten seconds left in the game congratulate the Loyola players. In light of all of the poor sportsmanship that we see in the media today, this behavior was refreshing to see.
To further that point, if anybody saw the Division 1 wrestling National Championships last night on ESPN, they would have witnessed athlete after athlete, winner, and loser, thanking those around them for their support throughout their career. It was great seeing you athletes appreciate and show respect for great competition and effort in their sports. The ability to recognize and acknowledge such success and effort will benefit these young athletes later in life.
Lessoned learned. Just trying to provide people with information to go to read on their own. I did not realize that the site was a pay-wall; My Apologies.
The second lesson learned from this post is that when you post on this site, you will immediately hear from the anal-retentive Michigan fanbase. I will not be posting going forward due to there being too many douchy fans on this site.
With Dickinson, we encounter the first player who was nowhere to be seen in the preseason version of these rankings. Now, suddenly, the 7-1 freshman is clocking in at No.5. Not a bad debut, one might venture to say. Dickinson's a volume scorer in the paint who's converting roughly three out of every four 2-point attempts. Not surprisingly, that was enough to earn the young man a starting spot after he had watched UM's first opening tips from the bench. If it's curious that the leading scorer (at 18 per game) for a team that might earn a No. 1 seed was left off last week's Wooden Award midseason top 25 watch list, it is a curiosity that can and likely will be rectified. Dickinson can still be included on the final ballot of 15 players."
My apologies. I did not realize that list was on a pay-wall site. In summary, Dickinson comes in ranked as the #5 player in the country by ESPN on the revised list. He was not on the pre-season list.
Great write up! Your write up and response to several questions by a reader really cleared up questions that I had. The program is lucky to have you. Go Blue!
I went two years ago for the College Game Day, White Out game where PSU whipped our asses. It was easily the best atmosphere that I have witnessed for a college football game. The place was rocking and the stadium was 99% PSU fans. Even though, I had no faith in O’Korn heading into that game, it was for a brief moment, 14-13 and then the slaughter took place. Their fans were incredibly nice to my two teenage sons and myself before, during and after the game. The crowd is very much made up of people from Pennsylvania and if you know anything about people from Pennsylvania, most are very humble and don’t gloat. I have been fortunate enough to attend some of the most memorable Michigan games (good and bad - comeback versus UVA, Colorado and the Catch, ND under the lights, MSU blocked punt to win the game) and as bad as it was to get slaughtered on national television the atmosphere at that game was amazing. With that being said, I do not need to experience a “Do Over.”
You have to give Don Brown and the D credit, our D got progressively better as the game went on. Which was great to see. Hopefully, our O can get better.
What I love is that year after year, you see true freshman QB’s all over the country stepping up and and not killing their offenses, yet we can’t get seasoned 4* QB’s to simply game manage for us. Harbaugh did a great job with Ruddock but since that season we have been a hot mess at that position.
The hype train this summer around our offense as with every summer in general is out of control. Whether it is the coaches, players and or “sources” we are always over hyped which is why we are perennially one of the most overrated teams in the country. At some point, can we just shut up and actually earn respect. After the first two offensive series in this game, our offense looks so below average that it is embarrassing considering all the summer talk around our offense carrying this team to win the Big Ten.
Usually, if you are at all critical on this site, you get town apart. It is refreshing to see the Kool-Aid drinking bloggers on this site stand down for once.
Our coaching and execution is embarrassing. All of the off season chatter about this team competing for a spot in the CFP’s is a joke. Clemson would throttle us. Hell, MSU’s D will stuff our O. The three man front on 4th and 2 is a mind bending coaching decision. Why not call a time out and figure out how to get off of the field on 4th and 2.
McGreevy's is the place to go this year. I have been going to Sweet Carolines and Tavern in the Square for the last four years (my two sons live in Boston and I live in NYC). McGreevy's is more quaint and pretty solid over all.
How much of a Douche is Spielman! He can never make a positive comment about Michigan.
It's amazing how bad our team is after three years of supposedly great recruiting. This is embassing play on a nationally televised game. It's a good game for recruiting (sarcasm). We should be able to offer starting spots to 2014 recruits. The same recruiting strategy that we used the last three years!
Since arrival, Hoke has made all the right moves. I am curious to see what changes or improvements, if any, the staff can get accomplished this week. UConn might be on par with Akron so if we don't see any improvements this week, there will be plenty of anxiety on this board.
In the future, I won't reference Michigan as the "Big Blue" on this blog but for the record there are many former Michigan Athletes and Alum who from time to time refer to Michigan as the "Big Blue."
I go to Atlanta often. I recommend staying in Buckhead and commuting into downtown. Also, I have been to several Final Fours and you can usually pick up tickets at the stadium after Saturday's games from the fans of the losing team. They pretty much give them away.
I have been watching The Blue since '77. This is easily the most embarrassing loss for our MBB team in my life team. Why? Because, for the most part, we thought that this was a W. When in reality, this just shows that we are comletey in transition . THJ is a solid three star who cannot take over a game against a very good team. GRIII is a pretty good freshman who needs two more years in the league, Blouses is growing but still a good freshman. MM, is real but young. Trey is real but every once in a while is play for the scout (fade away three?) and crazy street ball shots.
We need two more years of true talen infusion. Go Blue, I still love you but we are still JV!
Look, if you are honest with yourself, we are the fifth best team in the B10! Hardway is good for 30 minutes against every other good B10 team. GR3, is a good true freshman who lost his mogo, Blouses is a solid freshman who every once in while can be lights out. Horford and Morgan have virtually no offense. We check out Sweek 16!!!!
Look, we all hope to win every game every season and we all hope to be a national powerhouse. However, we are far from being what we want. Hoke is a great coach and a great leader for our program. Overall we have a very good staff, however we kidding ourselves if we think that we have talent that can play with Bama, LSU, Oregon's of these recent years. I am comfortable that Hoke will get us there. However, games like today and years like this year are very painful. As long as we are moving in the right direction with recruiting, execution and the are kids getting coached up, I am behind this staff. And as much as I bitch and complain, we are completely headed in the right direction. Go Blue and I need to chill tonight!
It would be refreshing to see people on this board accept realty. We sucked today, our play calling and oline in the second half was embarrasing. We have another year or two before we are possibly competitive nationallyd. Until we are honest with our self assesment, we will always be consider alof, arrogant and out of touch.
There are plenty of ex players and people who understand football on this board who express their unhappiness. If the people on this board want to all hold hands, do group hugs and never listen to fellow Wolverine followers criticism then let's state that as a rule in the header of the board. Too many people on this board attack posters if that don't write a positive post. That is a joke, in my mind, this board is a place to create debate and express views.
Average season in a very shitty conference. We let the Bucknets go undefeated. We have a lot of heart but average talent on the field. In the end, we are a very average team. I am still hopefull that Hoke can get us to the next level.
Onto basketball. Hopefully we can deliver on our pre-season expectations because obviously we shit the bed in football.
Borgess will find a way to out do his second half performance in the final seven minutes. Furthermore, good job ABC putting the ultimate OSU slappy to call this game. Our OLine is as soft as any in the last forty years of Michigan football.
Unbelievable. Our oline is awful. Not only can they not get a push upfront but their ability to protect is awful. We are overrated. The B10 is awful and we are a middle of the row B10 team.
The play calling in the second half has been mind boggling. How do you constantly run Vincent Smith or Denard up the gut on. Furthermore, leave Gardner in so that he can stay in rythm.
Gardner's ability to make plays with his arm force's defense's to respect our passing game and quit crowding the line of scrimmage. Here's to looking to the future!
Recent Comments
Love your write-up. Pretty much spot on. It will be interesting to see if some of these players that made consistent makes can get coached up this week to make the necessary adjustments to improve their play going forward.
Zero pressure from our Dline.
O looked organized and executed very well on that first drive, which is not the norm for our program in recent years. Very curious to see our D.
I was in Dallas two weeks ago visiting my son at SMU. I stayed in Highland Park (a neighborhood in Dallas) for those three days (arriving Thursday afternoon leaving Sunday morning). Highland Park Village was very busy. Every restaurant at the Village was packed inside and outside. The restaurants and bars on McKinny Ave were busy. There were many people in the stores without masks. I ran into the developer of the outdoor mall and he was telling me how the stores at the Village are very busy. From what I saw, everybody who was out and about looked happy. When people weren't wearing masks inside the stores that I was in, the operators of the store were not asking people to wear masks.
I left Manhattan last May after spending ten years in the City (West Village to be specific). I chose Charleston, SC because even at the time when the businesses in Charleston were closed (May 2020) everybody was pleasant and people looked happy. Most gyms, stores and shops have been open since late summer. I have had several friends visit from NYC, SF, MI and NC and they all comment on how happy everybody is here and how everything is open. I left NYC because everybody was miserable and why pay the NYC premium when everything is closed and the majority of the population is projecting their unhappiness and politics on you. I have been to NYC twice since I left and it is a far cry from what NYC was pre-COVID. It will bounce back but it will take a long time to get NYC back to the atmosphere it was pre-COVID.
Every time this fanbase (myself included) thinks that we are going to roll a team, we lose. UCLA is flat out out-hustling us. Their confidence went way up as the first half progressed. Let's see what JH does at halftime. JH has been strong with is half-time adjustments. I am only asking for a win. I don't care if we stuff them in a "trash can" as many on this board espoused the last several days.
I will be the first to say that I am not a fan of Brad Underwood, frankly, I think that he is douche but it was refreshing to see the Illinois players with around ten seconds left in the game congratulate the Loyola players. In light of all of the poor sportsmanship that we see in the media today, this behavior was refreshing to see.
To further that point, if anybody saw the Division 1 wrestling National Championships last night on ESPN, they would have witnessed athlete after athlete, winner, and loser, thanking those around them for their support throughout their career. It was great seeing you athletes appreciate and show respect for great competition and effort in their sports. The ability to recognize and acknowledge such success and effort will benefit these young athletes later in life.
Thanks for putting together the very good write up from the Wolverine in Columbus!
Lessoned learned. Just trying to provide people with information to go to read on their own. I did not realize that the site was a pay-wall; My Apologies.
The second lesson learned from this post is that when you post on this site, you will immediately hear from the anal-retentive Michigan fanbase. I will not be posting going forward due to there being too many douchy fans on this site.
"5. Hunter Dickinson, Michigan Wolverines
With Dickinson, we encounter the first player who was nowhere to be seen in the preseason version of these rankings. Now, suddenly, the 7-1 freshman is clocking in at No.5. Not a bad debut, one might venture to say. Dickinson's a volume scorer in the paint who's converting roughly three out of every four 2-point attempts. Not surprisingly, that was enough to earn the young man a starting spot after he had watched UM's first opening tips from the bench. If it's curious that the leading scorer (at 18 per game) for a team that might earn a No. 1 seed was left off last week's Wooden Award midseason top 25 watch list, it is a curiosity that can and likely will be rectified. Dickinson can still be included on the final ballot of 15 players."
My apologies. I did not realize that list was on a pay-wall site. In summary, Dickinson comes in ranked as the #5 player in the country by ESPN on the revised list. He was not on the pre-season list.
Thanks for pointing out my oversight.
Are we watching the best team in the country?!? Just saying. The hype train is about to go off the rails.
"Who has it better than us!"
Great write up! Your write up and response to several questions by a reader really cleared up questions that I had. The program is lucky to have you. Go Blue!
I went two years ago for the College Game Day, White Out game where PSU whipped our asses. It was easily the best atmosphere that I have witnessed for a college football game. The place was rocking and the stadium was 99% PSU fans. Even though, I had no faith in O’Korn heading into that game, it was for a brief moment, 14-13 and then the slaughter took place. Their fans were incredibly nice to my two teenage sons and myself before, during and after the game. The crowd is very much made up of people from Pennsylvania and if you know anything about people from Pennsylvania, most are very humble and don’t gloat. I have been fortunate enough to attend some of the most memorable Michigan games (good and bad - comeback versus UVA, Colorado and the Catch, ND under the lights, MSU blocked punt to win the game) and as bad as it was to get slaughtered on national television the atmosphere at that game was amazing. With that being said, I do not need to experience a “Do Over.”
“We are very close to hitting on all cyclinders.”
You have to give Don Brown and the D credit, our D got progressively better as the game went on. Which was great to see. Hopefully, our O can get better.
What I love is that year after year, you see true freshman QB’s all over the country stepping up and and not killing their offenses, yet we can’t get seasoned 4* QB’s to simply game manage for us. Harbaugh did a great job with Ruddock but since that season we have been a hot mess at that position.
“We are going to make a statement” Patterson better be buying his defense dinner.
The hype train this summer around our offense as with every summer in general is out of control. Whether it is the coaches, players and or “sources” we are always over hyped which is why we are perennially one of the most overrated teams in the country. At some point, can we just shut up and actually earn respect. After the first two offensive series in this game, our offense looks so below average that it is embarrassing considering all the summer talk around our offense carrying this team to win the Big Ten.
Usually, if you are at all critical on this site, you get town apart. It is refreshing to see the Kool-Aid drinking bloggers on this site stand down for once.
Our coaching and execution is embarrassing. All of the off season chatter about this team competing for a spot in the CFP’s is a joke. Clemson would throttle us. Hell, MSU’s D will stuff our O. The three man front on 4th and 2 is a mind bending coaching decision. Why not call a time out and figure out how to get off of the field on 4th and 2.
Red Velvet cake with Nutella layers.
Mike is legendary amongst amongst the Michigan Football fraternity.
McGreevy's is the place to go this year. I have been going to Sweet Carolines and Tavern in the Square for the last four years (my two sons live in Boston and I live in NYC). McGreevy's is more quaint and pretty solid over all.
Wow. I can not believe that I am watching this implosion happen.
How much of a Douche is Spielman! He can never make a positive comment about Michigan.
It's amazing how bad our team is after three years of supposedly great recruiting. This is embassing play on a nationally televised game. It's a good game for recruiting (sarcasm). We should be able to offer starting spots to 2014 recruits. The same recruiting strategy that we used the last three years!
Since arrival, Hoke has made all the right moves. I am curious to see what changes or improvements, if any, the staff can get accomplished this week. UConn might be on par with Akron so if we don't see any improvements this week, there will be plenty of anxiety on this board.
In the future, I won't reference Michigan as the "Big Blue" on this blog but for the record there are many former Michigan Athletes and Alum who from time to time refer to Michigan as the "Big Blue."
I go to Atlanta often. I recommend staying in Buckhead and commuting into downtown. Also, I have been to several Final Fours and you can usually pick up tickets at the stadium after Saturday's games from the fans of the losing team. They pretty much give them away.
Fortunately for me, I am going! Go Blue!
A Michigan Wolverine!"
A Michigan Wolverine!"
Who would have thought that we would have lead the game by double digits the entire game!
What a pick up by Beilein. Spike has been a blessing coming in off the bench for Burke.
I think McGary just picked up his fourth foul. We have trouble when McGary is not in. Hardaway needs to start taking the rock to the rack. Hold tight!
How I am over reacting when we could lose by 40. Come on. Be real.
I have been watching The Blue since '77. This is easily the most embarrassing loss for our MBB team in my life team. Why? Because, for the most part, we thought that this was a W. When in reality, this just shows that we are comletey in transition . THJ is a solid three star who cannot take over a game against a very good team. GRIII is a pretty good freshman who needs two more years in the league, Blouses is growing but still a good freshman. MM, is real but young. Trey is real but every once in a while is play for the scout (fade away three?) and crazy street ball shots.
We need two more years of true talen infusion. Go Blue, I still love you but we are still JV!
Sugar Free Baby! Fab Five all day never emabarrsed us!! They played with everybody and all comers!
Look, if you are honest with yourself, we are the fifth best team in the B10! Hardway is good for 30 minutes against every other good B10 team. GR3, is a good true freshman who lost his mogo, Blouses is a solid freshman who every once in while can be lights out. Horford and Morgan have virtually no offense. We check out Sweek 16!!!!
So that players don't get called for hitting a "defenseless player" let's eliminate pass plays.
Look, we all hope to win every game every season and we all hope to be a national powerhouse. However, we are far from being what we want. Hoke is a great coach and a great leader for our program. Overall we have a very good staff, however we kidding ourselves if we think that we have talent that can play with Bama, LSU, Oregon's of these recent years. I am comfortable that Hoke will get us there. However, games like today and years like this year are very painful. As long as we are moving in the right direction with recruiting, execution and the are kids getting coached up, I am behind this staff. And as much as I bitch and complain, we are completely headed in the right direction. Go Blue and I need to chill tonight!
It would be refreshing to see people on this board accept realty. We sucked today, our play calling and oline in the second half was embarrasing. We have another year or two before we are possibly competitive nationallyd. Until we are honest with our self assesment, we will always be consider alof, arrogant and out of touch.
There are plenty of ex players and people who understand football on this board who express their unhappiness. If the people on this board want to all hold hands, do group hugs and never listen to fellow Wolverine followers criticism then let's state that as a rule in the header of the board. Too many people on this board attack posters if that don't write a positive post. That is a joke, in my mind, this board is a place to create debate and express views.
Average season in a very shitty conference. We let the Bucknets go undefeated. We have a lot of heart but average talent on the field. In the end, we are a very average team. I am still hopefull that Hoke can get us to the next level.
Onto basketball. Hopefully we can deliver on our pre-season expectations because obviously we shit the bed in football.
Borgess will find a way to out do his second half performance in the final seven minutes. Furthermore, good job ABC putting the ultimate OSU slappy to call this game. Our OLine is as soft as any in the last forty years of Michigan football.
Let's put Bellamy in. That would really throw the Bucknuts D off.
Unbelievable. Our oline is awful. Not only can they not get a push upfront but their ability to protect is awful. We are overrated. The B10 is awful and we are a middle of the row B10 team.
The play calling in the second half has been mind boggling. How do you constantly run Vincent Smith or Denard up the gut on. Furthermore, leave Gardner in so that he can stay in rythm.
Gardner's ability to make plays with his arm force's defense's to respect our passing game and quit crowding the line of scrimmage. Here's to looking to the future!
The Big Ten has three in the top five.
MBB doesn't start soon enough.
I would love to see Bellamy get a Touch under his belt to give him some confidence. Gallon did a good job of getting that first down.