BlogPoll Comprehensive Voter List

Voter Count: 57
Schools Covered: 36
Conference Distribution: Big Ten 12, SEC 11, ACC 8, Big Twelve 7, Big East 5, Pac Ten 4, Independents 4, MAC 3, CUSA 1, Mountain West 1, WAC 1.

Team Breakdown:

ACC

Site	Team
Eagle In Atlanta	BC
Clemson Tigers Sporting News	Clemson
Sporting Fools	Florida State
Section Six	NC State
StateFansNation	NC State
Heelsblog	North Carolina
Sexy Results	Virginia
Dave Sez	Virginia

Big East

Site	Team
WV Law Dog Blog	WVU
Pitt Sports Blather	Pitt
Knight Hawk	Rutgers
Orange Juice	Syracuse
Heelsblog	North Carolina
Before I Get Old	Louisville

Big Ten

Site	Team
mgoblog	Michigan
Straight Bangin'	Michigan
ParadigmBlog	Michigan
Rob in Madtown	Michigan
iBlog For Cookies	Michigan
Football Outsiders	Michigan
50-Yard Lion	Penn State
The Nittany Blog	Penn State
Bruce Ciskie	Wisconsin
The Bemusement Park	Iowa
SportsBiz	Northwestern
The Enlightened Spartan	Michigan State

Big Twelve

Site	Team
StrugglingJoe	Nebraska
Double T Ranch	Texas Tech
My Opinion On Sports	Oklahoma
The Gaylord Memorial Gathering	Oklahoma
Texas A&M And Baseball	TAMU
Hornsblog	Texas
Poliblogger	Texas
actionBERG	Texas

Pac Ten

Site	Team
TrojanWire	USC
Heismanpundit	USC
Boi From Troy	USC
Bruins Nation	UCLA

SEC

Site	Team
fanopticon.com	Alabama
EDSBS	Florida
We Are The Boys	Florida
Mississippi State Sports Blog	Miss. St.
UT Vols Blog	Tenn
Voluminous	Tenn.
Braves & Birds	Georgia
Paul Westerdawg	Georgia
Georgia Boy	Georgia
I'm A Realist	Georgia
The Cool Chicken	South Carolina

Independents

Site	Team
The Blue-Gray Sky	ND
Catholic Packer Fan	ND
Kelly Green	ND
King Mouse Football	Army

MAC

Site	Team
Ay Ziggy Zoomba	BG
Have You Met Tony?	BG
The djl Zone	BG

Others

Site	Team
Frank McGrath	Tulane
Wyoming Sports	Wyoming
mdgcfb	Fresno State

Football: Herrmann hilarity

IBFC has turned it up a notch. He's taken it to the next level. He's giving 110% percent, and taking it one game at a time. In a stunning piece of skullduggery, he's managed to get INSIDE THE FORT(!) and procure an interview with embattled genius Jim Herrmann. All right, all right... a completely fictional interview with Jim Herrmann. But it's awesome.

Both teams played hard.

Terry Foster robot slang!

I point out Terry Foster's new blog for various reasons.

First, he nicknamed himself "the Truth, " which is totally unfair. You can't nickname yourself, and you certainly can't nickname yourself "the Truth" unless you're a boxer or streetball legend.

Second... good God! It's like a beautiful trainwreck over there. Blackened shards of sentences have buried themselves into the surroundings, blown free from grace and elegance by tremendous forces that render the shrapnel, well, humorous. I mean, sure, I'll throw something up with the occasionally wince-worthy typo. My sentences will have some clunk to them on occasion. But I head over to Foster's new home and I see paragraphs without spaces between them, the word "pixie" spelled "pixy," and this goofy little passage:

All of a sudden you have a Philly team that did not believe, thinking it can win at The Palace. It is a can of worms you do not want to deal with.

Hurray for extraneous commas! Hurray for sentences that sound like a robot attempting to master hoonam slang!

HELLO CARL. WE ARE TO TALK THE SLANG. IT IS A CAN OF WORMS YOU DO NOT WANT TO DEAL WITH. I WILL EXECUTE THE WHOOP-ASS ON YOUR ASSOCIATED PROCESSES. DIVIDE BY ZERO ERROR!!! NULL REFERENCE EXCEPTION!!! I AM DYING I AM DYING. WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME CRUEL MASTER?

It's just so... so... bloggy, in the pejorative sense of the word. Bloggy in the precious 14-year-old on Livejournal sense, the "you are such an amateur" sense. I'm shocked, because I actually thought his column was one of the better ones in the News/Free Press. Now I come to find that a team of editors was probably working overtime to correct his broke-ass prose. (Foster's column got axed recently. ("Axed" as in cut, Foster. No, I'm not asking you anything.))

Well, that's great... good job, Brian. Now you get to put a checkmark next to Terry Foster on your "Detroit Sports media who hate you" list, assuming that he reads this (highly unlikely).

More offseason basketball stat wonkery on the way.

Task shirking

I note with shame that I have not been writing on the Pistons as promised. I hope to repair this failing by pointing out "The Pistons," a fledgling blog about... uh... The Pistons.

Pros of "The Pistons":

• Content

Cons of "The Pistons":

• Orange and black color scheme is probably radioactive
• The guy who writes it is Canadian
• Insert joke about Canadian dollar here
• Insert joke about being eaten by bears here
• This is all very postmodern

Worth a visit, it is.

Brief channelling of Instapundit

Heh.

Resume your normal business.

Football: More BCS trashing

The NCAA's hypocritical decision to allow a 12th game every year but continue with the creaky, broken BCS is catching flak from all over. The Daily Quickie is resorting to italics. CNNSI has not one but two columns up today trashing the BCS. Arash Markazi summons up the ghost of Jim Mora and his "Playoffs?!?" rant. Michael Bradley calls on Myles Brand to step in like Vince McMahon and deus ex machina up a solution.

Over in the blogosphere, The Blue-Gray Sky has an interesting take on the BCS revamp and what it means to Notre Dame. ND's arrangement with the BCS has gone from an all-or-nothing deal where ND would receive a full ~14 million dollar conference share if it made a BCS game but nothing if it missed to a less extreme system that pays ND ~4.5 million dollars if they're in and one million if they're out. BGS correctly diagnoses the new system as a surrender by Notre Dame. If ND makes the BCS only one year in ten, they still lose $500,000 dollars with the new system. I think they're hoping to visit a bit more frequently than that.

The BGS post also raises the spectre of--gasp!--Big Ten membership. If the Big Ten rolls round once more the financial details will be very different from the last time ND turned the Big Ten down like hot blog groupies after my Title IX post. The faculty clamors to join the Death Star of academic cooperation. The AD may come around if the numbers are good. This prospect, of course, horrifies ND fans. Come to us, precious... we wants it.

Football: Twelve games for really real

Yeah, that 12 game thing? Totally official. Also, you can count wins over I-AA teams every year, and the playoff thing is not happening for yet another year. Aaand the NCAA "strongly urged" schools not to adopt the new Title IX "Internet-based surveys" that have the very real potential of actually balancing athletic department spending with relative gender interest in sports. mgoblog hasn't had the opportunity to pontificate on Title IX yet in its brief run in the sun, but let it be known that this blogger thinks Title IX is the worst example of idiotic "gender equity" crap currently in existence in this country. No one gives a damn about women's sports... with good reason. They suck. No offense, women. I love your sinuous curves, etc. But I do not love the fact that you can't dunk or run fast or be interesting while competing athletically.

Crap. There goes my chance at getting hot blog groupies. Oh, wait. They probably don't exist.

Update: No, they don't. If Google don't find it, it don't exist. Yo.

Basketball: Lighty (very) likely a Buckeye

I have no link here, but scan an OSU or UM message board anywhere and you'll see someone claiming that Michigan target David Lighty has committed to the Buckeyes. I am a seasoned diviner of message board rumor accuracy, and this one seems very likely to be true. Lighty will announce officially on Monday. Expect it to be bad news.

If the news is indeed bad, this is a more a huge get for OSU than a huge loss for Michigan--Amaker has already secured a commitment from wing K'len Morris and prospective commitment DeShawn Sims plays a similar position, leaving little room for a third wing in this class. Not that Lighty is anything to sniff at--he's currently ranked as a five star by Rivals and a top-20 recruit nationally, though that ranking may dip since he tore his ACL a few months ago. OSU has already secured a commit from a five star shooting guard/small forward prospect in Daequan Cook, who committed about a month ago. A commit from Lighty would get the ball rolling in a major way. OSU is still in on Greg Oden, a center who is the consensus #1 overall prospect for the class of 2006, and his teammate and friend Mike Conley, a highly recruited point guard himself. Picking up commits from those two and a fifth top-100 recruit (any top-100 recruit) would result in a class that would at least equal the Fab Five. It's safe to say that new OSU coach Thad Matta is off on the right foot.

I wouldn't panic extensively, however. All indications, er, indicate that PG Tory Jackson and Sims are Wolverines in all but name and that center Tom Herzog is very likely to follow. Those three plus Morris are a certain top-10 class nationally. A fifth recruit, hopefully a post who can vacuum in rebounds and flagrantly elbow people, could push it up into the top five. Michigan isn't at the point where it has to worry about other Big Ten programs... get the house in order, make the tournament, and then look around warily. Still... Matta looks like a guy who knows what's he's doing. Maybe we can hire his defensive line coach.

Big Ten Football Season Preview

Welcome to mgoblog's unified Big Ten season preview page. As of right now, we have just the barest outlines of the goofy-ass glory that is to come. Each team will get a full season preview. Michigan, of course, will get coverage that should frighten and alarm Lloyd Carr. He may want to take out a restraining order.

Before giving me both barrels, be sure to check out this explanatory post.

Update 5/23: Indiana preview up.
Update 5/30: Minnesota is done.
Update 6/13: Penn State. Yo.
Update 7/11: Michigan State. Goddammit I need to do these faster.
Update 7/14: Iowa.
Update 7/26: Northwestern. A note: the text on this page was written before any of the previews and thus represents some ignorance, especially re: NU. I will fix when complete.
Update 8/7: Purdue.
Update 8/17: Ohio State.
Update 8/28: Wisconsin.
Update 9/01: Michigan.

To start, let's shamelessly steal from Bill Simmons. I've grouped the teams into three tiers, given them snappy names, and assigned each an official quote from The Big Lebowski, the official movie of mgoblog.

THIS IS A FUNNY-LOOKING BASKETBALL
Indiana: Hoep for the Futuer?
Official Big Lebowski Quote: "Shut the f*** up, Donny."
Why? Because they're out of their element, that's why! Because they have no frame of reference, that's why! Because the rest of the Big Ten can treat them with the same respect that Walter treats Donny... that's why. Gerry DiNardo is out and Terry Hoeppner is in, but the forecast for Indiana football remains mostly cloudy with a 10 percent chance of bowl.

Illinois
Official Big Lebowski Quote: "Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man."
Why? Ron Zook got run out of Gainsville on a rail but landed on his feet... well, knees in Champaign. He'd love to prove those guys at www.fireronzook.com wrong. Real darn tootin' wrong. Starting this year? Uh... probably not.

Wisconsin: Divest Your Stocco
Official Big Lebowski Quote: "Five thousand years of beautiful tradition from Moses to Sandy Koufax? You're goddamn right I'm living in the past!"
Why? On November 12th, 2004, the Badgers were 9-0, #4 in the polls and riding an intimidating defense to either the national championship game or the Rose Bowl. Badger fans would do well to wistfully remember that moment. Wisconsin was annihilated 49-14 by MSU the next day and proceeded to lose its next two games to finish 9-3. This year? That intimidating defense is in the NFL, smoking pot, or smoking pot in the NFL. Wisconsin's entire starting defensive line and three-quarters of their secondary was lost to graduation. Brett Bell, the only returning starter in the secondary, tore his ACL in January. Only five starters return on the other side of the ball, and one of them is quarterback John Stocco, who sucks. Close your eyes and think of Koufax, cheeseheads, because this year is going to be ugly.

Northwestern: Spectacularly Average
Official Big Lebowski Quote: "Jackie Treehorn treats objects like women, man."
Why? Northwestern appears to be relying on Brett Basanez's shaky arm (53.8 completion percentage in '04) to win games next year. They are confused. Basanez is "heady" and "a gamer" but in his case those are just nice ways to say "incapable of throwing straight." The vastly underrated Noah Herron is gone and Northwestern will badly miss his pass receiving and knack for squeezing out just enough yards. The bad parts of a horrendous defense return (so does injured DE Loren Howard, however, giving Wildcat fans some cause for hope). Never fear, Wildcats, there's always basketball season... uh, the hockey team... um... alums bashing everybody in newspapers nationwide. Yeah. That's the ticket.

DESPERATELY SEEKING SUN BOWL
Penn State: Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Robinson
Official Big Lebowski Quote: "Phone's ringing, dude."
Why? Penn State is entering its fifth year of attempting to deny the plainly obvious fact that Michael Robinson is a wide receiver. Robinson is scheduled to bounce passes five yards in front of his intended receivers for the Nittany Lions this year, and no amount of eye-closing, ear-plugging, and "I can't hear you"-screaming will transform him into anything resembling a quarterback. The good news is that the paper version of PSU's defense is a monster and staggeringly fast WR recruit Derrick Williams got drunk on root beer and faxed his LOI to Penn State. Expect Williams to throw his hands up in frustration a lot this year, just like Beaver Stadium attendees. Also expect a lot of repeats of the Iowa game, a 6-4 abortion that had viewers nationwide clawing their eyes out.

Michigan State: O Stanton Without Whom We Are Naught
Official Big Lebowski Quote: "Nobody f***s with the Jesus."
Why? If there's a Jesus in this conference, it's Drew Stanton. The Spartans will live and die on the feet and arm of Crazy Legs Drew. With him, they're an explosive offensive team capable of hanging 51 on you and overcoming their awful defense. Without him, they're Indiana. John L. Smith should tranquilize Stanton until the fall, and then wrap him in styrofoam before sending him out on the field. Expect Michigan State to win a game or two it shouldn't, lose to Kent State or Indiana, and finish in the middle of the pack, just like always.

Minnesota: Take The Over
Official Big Lebowski Quote: "Stay out of Malibu, Lebowski! Stay out of Malibu, deadbeat!"
Why? Minnesota has made it a yearly habit of approaching the bare-bosomed promised land of conference championships and New Year's Day bowls without ever actually coming anywhere near them. Expect this year to be no different. Glen Mason will hop out to a hot start and crumble under the bright lights of teams without two or three directions in their name. Pasadena (which is metaphorically Malibu for purposes of this conversation) will remain forbidding and aloof.

THE CONTENDERS
Purdue: Quaker Oat Rampage
Official Big Lebowski Quote: "Jeffery. Love me." "Maude? That's my robe."
Why? Purdue recieved a gift from the gods above when both Michigan and Ohio State rotated off their schedule for the next two years. That alone won't make them a contender, but combine it with the return of every defensive starter and the makings of a promising offense and you have a team will surprise unobservant pundits nationwide.

Iowa: Not So Fast, My Ferentz
Official Big Lebowski Quote: "That rug really tied the room together."
Why? Iowa's stingy defense was built around its defensive line. All four starters graduated, causing chaos in Iowa's spring practices instead of opponent's backfields. Iowa returns Drew Tate, a potent passing offense, and two incredible linebackers, but... that rug really tied the room together. Iowa will have to find a new rug or get run over by Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio State. A shaky ground game almost has to improve but Iowa will live and die on Tate's arm and keeping blockers off of Abdul Hodge and Chad Greenway.

Ohio State: OMGINN
Official Big Lebowski Quote: "Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, but at least it's an ethos."
Why? Ohio State began last year fully committed to offensive nihilism. Midway through the year they converted en masse to to the Church Of Ted Ginn. The Buckeye's season depends on whether Ginn can morph from a freakish drag-racing novelty act (25 catches in '04) into the centerpiece of an effective offense. There is no established running back. The quarterback position is still up in the air--Troy Smith annihilated Michigan and then immediately got into booster trouble, leaving Justin Zwick to annihilate Oklahoma State. AJ Hawk and the defense should be able to shepherd the offense through some early-season growing pains, but when Tate, Stanton, and Henne come calling Ohio State will have to score often to win.

Michigan: A Tale Of Two Units
Official Big Lebowski Quote: "The Dude abides."
Why? The Dude has abided at the top of the Big Ten standings the past two years, but there has been something missing for Michigan fans. The program has reverted to its standard operating procedure after its 1997 national championship... consistently very good, never great. Can this change? Yes. Michigan returns more offensive talent than most teams see over the course of four years. The special teams look to be a strength. The consistently underperforming defense has the raw material to be an intimidating unit. But Michigan always seems to blow it. The next two years will either see Michigan emerge into a true national power or feature more teeth-grinding frustration. The Dude can't just abide any longer--he has to excel.

Holy Crap!!!!!!

I use a lot of exclamation points, usually with ironic flair. I've got nothin' on The Wizznutzz. I've been adding site feeds and links on the left instead of content. Content's overrated, anyway. What you want is links to content. That's my theory.

Football: Oh.

This was going to be a big exciting update with a ton of exclamation points pondering the direction of Michigan football and life in general, as I was under the erroneous impression that Michigan Stadium would host a night game next year.

Er... except it's at Northwestern. So nevermind the exclamation points.

Football: Tebow interview

Haven't discussed football recruiting in a while, largely because absolutely nothing has happened other than QB target Zach Frazer commiting to Notre Dame. I'll probably update the board in a few days with some guys who have emerged as targets and remove some of the more speculative "well, this guy might be interested" names I had up earlier.

There's a scout.com interview with Tim Tebow up, if you're interested. Tebow is either the #1 or #2 quarterback in the country and appears ticketed for Florida, but Michigan is in the chasing group with FSU, Miami, Georgia and Nebraska(?).

Michigan's summer camp will be the next big football event of the year. Usually there are at least a couple commits from the camp and this year it's looking like there could be several--many of Michigan's prime targets this year want to decide on a school before September. Last year Michigan picked up commits from Mister Simpson and Zoltan the Inconceivable.

Football: Iowa LT out for season

Iowa's lines have taken another hit. Lee Gray, who started at left tackle for 11 of Iowa's 12 games last year, has undergone surgery on his knee for the second time and will miss the 2005 season.

Sounds like Iowa will be able to replace Gray with another experienced lineman--5th year senior Ben Gates--but after that they'll be faced with playing JC transfers, converted TEs, or true freshmen (although they would be highly touted true freshmen).

Football: BCS manages to get worse

I didn't think it could be done, but they did it. There's now a fifth BCS game a week after the existing ones at one of the four sites. Does it match two of the four BCS bowl winners in a playoff-ish game? No. It's just the national championship game, like it was this year, except on something like January 8th. Two more teams will be BCS teams.

The "formula" is going to remain the same except the AP poll (which withdrew from the process and will crown its own champion) will be replaced with an as-yet-to-be-determined new poll. Auburn fans everywhere have died in vain.

What's so bad about a single added game? This is the same organization that stridently opposes a playoff on the grounds that it will compromise athletes' ability to keep up academically. mgoblog (and most people who are paying attention) call shenanigans. Shenanigans! The college hockey season lasts from October until March and even April for teams who make the Frozen Four, a full two months longer than the football season. I don't have any numbers in front of me at the moment, but I'll bet dollars to donuts that hockey players graduate more frequently than football players. Can we dispense with the obviously untrue, patronizing "it's for the children!" excuse for the bowl system?

There's one good reason to oppose a playoff: the Rose Bowl. That's it. The tradition and oft-referenced pagentry of college football make it what it is, and the Rose Bowl is the regal center of the whole enterprise. There's definitely an argument to be had about the pros and cons of a playoff, but let's be serious here: nothing on the pro or con side has anything to do with a few teams playing for an extra week or two. These kids are already majoring in football.

Salute to you, mystery googler!

mgoblog got a hit today from someone who typed this into Google:

"what the hell happened to Shazor and Browner"

I hope I answered at least half of his question.

Update: Two more good ones: "adam jones pacman bling" and "wtf shazor." Shazor should go undrafted every day!

Football: Long strange journey

And it all started with googling "Jason Avant." I ended up here:



That's Lamarr Woodley as a high school senior. Yes, he's eating a football.

Also, check the column headline from this edition of the Daily immediately following the UM-MSU basketball game that UM actually won:



Yeesh. (I grabbed both these photos from www.molophoto.com... dude used to work for the Daily. Hire him, so he doesn't sue me.)

Then there's this:



Uh. No comment on that one. It exists. That is enough. Also, did you know that the Purdue student newspaper is actually called the Exponent? I shi'ite you not. I feel much more secure in my belief that I am nowhere near the dorkiest person in a three state radius.

What does any of this have to do with Jason Avant? Very little. Also, mgoblog showed up on page 29. I find this disappointing, both in that I got to page 29 and that I didn't find me before then. Goal for football season... page 20!

Football: Draft... 2006!

Are you interested in a cracked-out 2006 mock draft? YES? You have severe emotional issues. Nonetheless, I provide.

Why do I say this draft is cracked out?
30. New England - Pierre Woods, LB, Michigan
Where's that damn emoticon... ah yes.
Also, infinitely more plausible, is this:
18. Kansas City - Jason Avant, WR, Michigan

And even that's a big stretch. I love Avant, but you can't expect him to run well enough at the combine to leap into the first round.

Update: Here's another draft, this one from CBS Sportsline. Watson at #16, and Avant (again!) at #24.

Football: Draft Articles

Jim Carty managed to write something that didn't call out Lloyd Carr. Ernest Shazor calls himself "the best safety in the country" in the Detroit News (except for that one dude from Albany... he's good!).

This Cleveland Plain-Dealer article features this bizarre passage: "By the time Edwards was 12, Stan knew he'd play in the NFL. Instead of fighting it, he joined him." Um... I don't think many parents who 'know' their kid will play in the NFL freak out and say "oh no! He's going to buy us Bentleys! Quick, break his legs!" It also says this: "[Edwards] also aspires to be a model." I need that {whoah} emoticon from the RCMB.

Found it!


This article from Indianapolis... well, I excerpt:

[Jackson is] the first cornerback taken by the Colts in the first round since 1984 when they used the first pick in their Indy era, No. 8 overall, on Vanderbilt's Leonard Coleman. Ironically, the only other time the team used the draft's 29th overall pick, in 1992, it also opted for a corner -- Mississippi Valley State's Ashley Ambrose.

Don't those two sentences directly contradict each other? Am I crazy? I had to read that paragraph three times... thanks for nothing, Indianapolis Star!

Update: I am crazy. In 1992 the 29th pick was a second-rounder. That's still confusing as hell.

Update II: This AA News article has more on Shazor and notes that he's signed with Arizona. It also mentions that Markus Curry signed with the Chargers and Roy Manning signed with Green Bay.

Football: Draft Review

The draft has ended, and the big story for Michigan fans is Ernest Shazor going completely undrafted. In fact, no Michigan player was chosen after David Baas, who went with the first pick of the second round to San Francisco.

Why did Shazor fall completely out of the draft? A number of reasons. He ran poorly (4.75) at the combine, leading teams to doubt his ability to play safety at the next level. After he nearly tore Dorien Bryant in half and ended the Purdue game, most of the Michigan defense decided to take the rest of the year off--Shazor was a part of that. The truth was that he ended up badly overrated by college football fans and media after the Bryant hit, which ended up one of the iconic plays of the season. His season-ending vacation got overlooked.

There were also rumblings that Shazor had... character issues. There had to be character issues, and severe ones, or someone would have taken a chance on him making the shift to linebacker or being able to play safety even if he is a tiny bit slow. There's no other reason a player projected in the fourth round by the most pessimistic analysts would drop all the way out of the draft, behind approximately 20 other safeties (including players from mighty Albany and both Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana-Lafayette). After the defensive implosion at the end of last year, insiders strongly implied that there was a lot of dissent and acrimony between a number of defensive players and the coaches, and the events of the past couple days point the finger squarely at Shazor.

Moving on... Let's check those predictions I made. And, hey, IBFC posted some predictions too. Let's have a contest!
Braylon: MGB wins by predicting him 2nd instead of 1st, since he went 3rd.
Jackson: IBFC got this one exactly right--29th to the Colts. Two points for IBFC.
Baas: I said #37 to the Titans. IBFC said #35 to the Eagles. IBFC wins.
Shazor: We were both really, really wrong. Call this a push.
Dudley: Both predicted him to go somewhere in the 7th. Both wrong. Push.

Final score is 3-1 for IBFC. Damn you, Khan!

I was basically wrong about everything else except "Aaron Rodgers drops like a stone," and I wish I was wrong about that because I could really have done without the four hour Rodgers infomercial/melodrama. So we'll gloss over the rest of it. Suffice it to say I'm not going to rush to Vegas to bet on the '06 draft.

Football: Sign that kid up!

Notre Dame, like a number of schools, has an official football t-shirt which they, in typical Notre Dame fashion, simply call "THE SHIRT." This year it's maize, and has this on the back: "If you could bottle the Notre Dame spirit, you could light up the Universe," which is totally dumb.

A poster named "Bluey" has proven this beyond a shadow of a doubt with his Top Ten rejected Notre Dame "The Shirt" slogans, which I seriously considered posting here unaltered and claiming as my own so that people would think I'm awesome. Instead, I link to it here, because it's less effort.

Football: Sporadic Draft/Pistons Liveblog

Right. Since I'm going to be half-watching the draft and then watching the Pistons game, I may as well live blog. Because it's snowing outside, dammit.

12:48 PM: First wrong prediction when Ronnie Brown goes to the Fins at #2. I had declared Braylon would go there after a Tampa trade up. Where is the excitement? We need the Vikings on the clock.

12:49 PM: Oh my god. Andrea Kremer looks like she got the Joan Rivers Face You Could Bounce A Quarter Off special at her local plastic surgeon. And Mike Vrabel, who went to OSU, is speaking coherently. The wonders never cease.

12:54 PM: Braylon goes to Cleveland at #3, so I wasn't horribly wrong. Torry Holt is actually on the set, by the way, instead of Michael Irvin. That's an upgrade. A six-year-old running his fingers over a blackboard is an upgrade over Michael Irvin.

12:57 PM: Holy crap. Braylon brought approximately 40 family members. One of them is wearing what looks to be a fedora.

12:59 PM: I'm not a huge fan of this Holt thing either, no offense to Torry. He's basically prohibited from saying anything interesting because he's a current player. He's going to play against these teams and players and Martz will kill him if he says anything remotely critical.

1:29 PM: Benson and Cadillac Williams go off 4-5. You know, for all the talk of how everyone lies constantly and you have no idea what anyone's going to do, the top five in this draft has been chalk. Tennessee could be the divergence point, though. They have a lot of directions they can go. A good start for the Lions, with all three RBs off the board already (as expected). Hopefully two of the three CBs go and maybe Troy Williamson. Then the Lions will be sitting at 10 with a ton of options and a number of teams scrambling to move up.

1:43 PM: Pacman Jones redefines bling with what looks to be a 85 carat diamond Pacman necklace. MTV's "Cribs" SWAT team is scrambling.

1:46 PM: From what I've seen, Merrill Hodge is the one guy who will call out players and make contronversial statements based on his beliefs. He absolutely tore Rodgers a new one a couple days ago, proclaiming him to be a certain bust, and now he just dissected Mike Williams.

1:48 PM: Vikings go with Williamson. Huge mistake. You take a guy who played in Lou Holtz's neolithic offense over Mike friggin' Williams? He's not as fast as Williamson, but come on. Arizona and Washington next with Rodgers, two corners, and Williams on the board. Lions are sitting pretty.

1:52 PM: I mean, seriously. Williams is 6'5", 230, and runs a 4.5 The absolute worst thing that can possibly happen with him is he's Herman Moore II. I think I'm talking myself into having the Lions take him at #10.

1:56 PM: Holt talking about Kurt Warner is interesting, and he did a good job of not being too easy on him. Thumbs up Torry!

Arizona is on the clock. Sounds like they're going CB... Rolle probably. Then Washington has an interesting choice between Williams, Rodgers and Carlos Rogers. Yup. It's Rolle. No matter what happens the Lions will have an interesting 15 minutes.

2:00 PM: T Minus 1 hour to the Pistons. I'm predicting a sweep and the mysterious disappearance of Carlos Delfino.

2:03 PM: Commercial, but remember last year when Irvin dogged Roy Williams for returning to school? Irvin somehow spun it into him fearing the NFL or something. That was the moment I wanted to be on ESPN the most, so I could say "maybe he was just enjoying college. You wouldn't know what that's like. You went to Miami." What does this have to do with anything? Nothing.

2:05 PM: Aaah! Andrea Kremer's back! Hey, and John Jansen talking about the 'Skins and the Jason Campbell hootenanny. John's eyebrows seem unnaturally far apart. Jansen's pushing for Williams, dammit. I want the Lions to take him. Seriously. Now Jansen's talking about Gibbs' offense being a "1992" offense. Kremer thinks Rolle's still on the board when he went with the LAST PICK. Maybe she was getting some more surgery done.

2:09 PM: That probably wasn't Kremer's fault. She's getting fed questions by someone and doesn't have time to really think about what's coming out of her mouth. Rolle seems significantly less of a punk that most Miami kids. Two minutes left for the 'Skins. Debate? Possible trade down? They're taking their sweetass time.

2:11 PM: Mort is talking about someone moving up for Jamaal Brown of OU... a RT, which is certainly a need for the Lions. Skins pick... Rogers! Mike Williams on the board! Rodgers on the board!

2:13 PM: Wow. Mort was talking about someone maybe moving in front of Dallas for DeMarcus Ware... this could be that point. Someone could move up for Williams. Derrick Johnson's sitting there. Aaron Rodgers is sitting there. Trade down. Trade down. Or take Williams.

2:18 PM: Lions pick in 2 minutes? Williams! Sweet!

2:21 PM: I find it hard to believe they couldn't find any better highlights for Williams. Other than that one-hander against Oregon State those weren't close to being his best plays. Mostly just really bad coverage and wide open catches. ESPN guys immediately speculate on Charles Rogers' future. Fair enough. I think the best part of this pick is that it will immediately lead to Harrington getting deep-sixed if he doesn't play well this year and there's a good possibility the Chargers will be forced to do something with their Brees/Rivers situation.

2:43 PM: 3-4 OLBs start flying off the board now. 12 picks deep and not a single trade. Shouldn't ESPN be popping up a stat about the last time this happened?

2:51 PM: There we go, and we get our first "Kawasaki Trade Recap." Kawasaki must be pissed. Saints hop in front of Carolina to grab Jammal Brown.

3:00 PM: Pistons! Oh. It's just the pregame garbage. Jalen's on the ABC coverage, though. Did I predict a sweep already? Yes. Screw it. Pistons in three! Rose is now talking about HWNBN, and Walton is trashing him. Damn you, Walton! I hate you! Stop being right! Whoah. The old guy says that if AI doesn't *average* 45 it will be a sweep.

Meanwhile on ESPN, Thomas Davis is the first linebacker off the board. Rodgers and Derrick Johnson continue to drop. Rodgers can't go any earlier than 24th to the Packers at this point. Johnson has to go right now to the Chiefs, though, right?

3:08 PM: Bill Simmons would probably be inagurating some sort of Aaron Rodgers Face at this point.

Meanwhile on ABC, a shot of Rasheed walking with that WWE-style championship belt on. Oh, Rasheed, you're a nutball but you're our nutball. Tipoff on the way.

3:11 PM: This isn't as interesting as I thought it would be. The livebloggin', that is. The game is four seconds old. And I don't mean the actual act of livebloggin', I mean the result. Sorry kids.

3:39 PM: Internet snafu prevented updating... hey, that's not Donovan McNabb's mom! I seen her, I seen her in the Chunky Soup commercials, and that ain't here. Meanwhile the Pistons are playing like stinkypoo, down 12 after 1. Prince just got dumped on a "clear path" foul, which is a rule I don't understand. How is one shot and the ball any better than just two shots?

3:43 PM: Meanwhile, there have been two picks in the NFL draft.

3:49 PM: Michael Phelps is getting interviewed by Jim Gray. Did I fall asleep and wake up in 2008?

3:51 PM: Pistons bench is making a bit of a run against the Sixers. Their lead is down to six. Arroyo is in Dr. Jekyll mode tonight. Jansen and his UNNATURALLY SPACED EYEBROWS are back on ESPN. Trent Green looks like Ralph Reed, if you're interested. Jansen and Green are ripping Moss; Vrabel defends him. Vrabel just said "arguably the best player in the league, Peyton Manning, hasn't won a Super Bowl." Wonder how Brady feels about that.

4:00 PM: Jack Ramsay keeps calling HWNBN "Chris Wallace." He is old. Pistons down down one after a HWNBN drive and finish, probably his first since 1998.

4:11 PM: At least I'm not this guy, Pete McEntgart:

2:41: Berman claims that his New York cab driver this morning was wearing a powder blue Chargers hat and told him San Diego would take pass rusher Shawne Merriman of Maryland, which is exactly what happens. Cute story, but we're betting it's purely Albom-esque. I've ridden in hundreds of New York cabs and have met only a few who could even identify the Chargers, let alone correctly pick their draft selection while wearing a San Diego hat. Now, if this was the National Cricket League draft, Berman's story might be plausible. At least it's mildly diverting, which is about all we can ask at this point.

Doesn't this guy know that this is Berman's "I talked to some dude in the front office and this is what he told me" schtick? He does it every year when it's the Bills' turn and always gets the pick correct. Why have someone covering the draft who clearly has no idea what's going on? I mean, look at the guy:


Nice hat.

Pistons claw back from 16 down to take a 2 point halftime lead, led by McDyess's 13 points on 6 of 7 shooting. I salute you, Joe D! Anyway, we've played a half of basketball and seen six picks in the NFL draft.

Matt Jones goes to the Jaguars at #21, and Mortenson goes into full Dick-Vitale-on-Duke mode. I think he's got a shot, but at #21? I know he's tall and can run fast, but he's never played WR.

4:36 PM: ESPN has been actively rooting for Rodgers to go off the board since about the 5th pick. It's getting a little tiresome. The Packers and the elderly Brett Fav-ruh are a possibility, but don't you want to give Favre some immediate help? If I'm the Packers I think you just have to accept that when Favre retires you're just going to suck for a couple years.

Also, Randy Mueller looks more like a choreographer than a former GM.

And there goes Rodgers, to the Packers. ESPN celebrates, and can move on. Prince gets called for goaltending. That's obviously wrong. Pistons up six.

4:46 PM: The amount of bitching in this basketball game is incredible... and most of it is absolutely deserved. Prince got as animated as I've ever seen him after the goaltend call, pointing at all three referees and telling them they were wrong. And now HWMNBN (thanks, Mr. Commenter) OBVIOUSLY bounces one in off the shot clock and that's not called. Is this Jim Hightower?

4:50 PM: Detroit is going to get a technical before the end of the third. HWMNBN is bricking everything in sight, and the Pistons lookg like the Pistons now, up 11 and suffocating Iverson. Iguana or whatever for the Sixers has Graham Brown bunny-missing disease. Aaaaaand they're still talking about Rodgers on ESPN. Christ!

5:03 PM: I failed to mention this earlier, but this year's equivalent of "Let's Get It Started" (i.e., song you'll hear 40 times each playoff game) is "Lose My Breath" by Destiny's Child. If you're interested. It could be a lot worse.

5:26 PM: Pistons crusing. I should retract my HWMNBN comment, since he has 27 points on something like 11-18 shooting. Lo siento. Draft continues apace with the Seahawks taking a center at 26, which is kind of odd, since interior linemen aren't usually high priorities. I mention it because it means that Baas is not the first interior lineman off the board.

Still a number of possibilities for the Lions in the second. Still on the board: Roth or Dan Cody at DE, Jackson, Browner, Miller, Webster, or Green at CB, Pool at S, and Heath Miller at TE.

5:30 PM: Darko time!

5:43 PM: Jackson goes #29 to the Colts. (I predicted him 32 to the Patriots... not *terrible*.) Well reviewed by the panel, saying that his lack of tremendous speed isn't a huge factor in the straight cover-2 the Colts run. Also, my mom went to high school with Tony Dungy. Funny how Berman knew that.

6:11 PM: It's guardfest at the NFL draft! Some dude from Fresno goes off to the Pats and then David Baas is the first pick of the second round to San Francisco. And of course, Gene Washington calls him "Davis Baas." Way to go, Gene!

6:16 PM: Heh heh heh. There's a company advertising on ESPN called "Michigan Power Rodding." Six picks before the Lions go again (and I sign off). Roth, both Codys, and a bunch of the corners are still on the board. Looks likely the Lions will pick up a useful defensive piece. WR goes off to the Eagles. Now it's definite.

6:22 PM: Berman keeps calling this Mankins guy a "football player" as if this distinguishes him from the other players today, who presumably play shuffleboard or croquet. Currently rooting hard for Roth to drop.

6:25 PM: One of the Auburn running backs, not sure exactly which one, has an absolutely uncanny resemblance to Marlin Jackson. Maybe he's the one who hit that guy with a bottle. Mike James and Jon Barry currently comprise the Houston backcourt.

6:33 PM: Hey, the Lions moved up to pick up Shaun Cody. I was hoping for Roth but I'll take Cody. Millen probably got two guys he really wanted... the Williams pick was sent at hyperspeed and the Lions moved up for Cody. They'll probably be pretty torpid the rest of the draft, though. They were already down a fifth and they probably gave up another pick this year to jump up for Cody. QB, OT, or CB in round 3.

And that's it for me. I've been sittin' here too long. Time to go do something else. Later.

Hockey: CCHA to change playoff format

The CCHA has decided to scrap its current playoff format in favor of a new one, according to the Omaha World-Herald (way to stay on top of things, Pitts!). The article does require annoying registration, so I'll summarize here:

The top four teams get first round byes. The bottom eight meet in first round playoff series at the higher seed's home ice. The four winners meet the four top teams at their rinks. The top four end up at the Joe.

Thoughts:

• This is pretty obviously another CCHA money grab, replacing the two sparsely-attended Thursday games at the Joe with two additional three-game series at someone's home rink.
• The change will hurt Michigan's chances to win the playoff title, since they'll have to play a better team in their home playoff series and then play a fresher team at the Joe. The overall impact will probably be pretty insignificant, though.
• The change should help Michigan's RPI a little bit, since they'll be playing that better opponent in the second round.

In summary, interesting... not earth-shaking.

TA-DA!

As you can see above, mgoblog's disgusting, ichor-filled tentacles have engulfed a sleepy, peaceful fishing village and transformed it into yet another Internet message board.

Check it out at www.mgoboard.com and, uh, post something, why don't you?

Football: ND D

The Blue-Gray Sky, a rather good Notre Dame blog, has a lovingly detailed post on ND's new "Apache" 4-2-5 defense. It's got pictures and everything.

In summary, they expect a defense that will disguise itself extensively before the snap and help address ND's recent deficiencies against the spread offense. Sounds like the D is heavily dependent on both the strong safety and 'weak' safety (the half-linebacker, half-safety that is the "Apache" position) being able to successfully contest both run and pass. It places a lot of pressure on the cornerbacks, too, as they have just one safety behind them playing the middle of the field and can't be too aggressive. Will it work? I dunno. The Irish should be pretty bad on defense this year after losing 8 starters. Michigan should be able to exploit a young, inexperienced defense with Hart, Henne, Avant, Breaston and company, especially since they'll only have one game under their belts. John L Smith discovered last year that taking a linebacker and giving him a fancy name ("Bandit" in MSU's case) and additional coverage responsibility can't cover up a severe talent deficiency.

The Notre Dame game will provide the first bellwether for the Michigan season. Michigan should be aiming to match the 38 they put up in '03, though ND will definitely not end up with the same 0 they had after that game. It could be a shootout if the Irish can grasp Weis' offense quickly.

Oh. My. God.

So, I graduated about two years ago. I still live in Ann Arbor. I still have friends who are students, so things sort of drift to me second and third hand, weeks after they happen. I have my finger on the pulse of someone who has his finger on the pulse of the University of Michigan. I have come to you today to talk about "facebook.com," which is sort of like Friendster. Only different. My interest in Friendster lasted just long enough to create a fake Lloyd Carr profile, but then I sort of drifted away. I didn't see the point. So I didn't understand what all the hoop-de-do was about "facebook," but my friends who are still in school reference it nearly as much as The Family Guy.

Then came yesterday. There has been discussion of Braylon Edwards on the RCMB lately, because they are bored and when you get bored on the RCMB it's time to trash Michigan. (Say what you want about the place, but it has its merits... minutes after someone posted a thread with the title "Why isn't anyone talking about Braylon Edwards being a headcase?" someone posted a thread titled "The official thread to talk about Braylon Edwards being a headcase.") Anyway, one of the BE threads had a mention that Braylon's "facebook" profile had a picture of him on his Bentley. So I, armed with an email address from the university which will never, ever expire, went ahead and signed up to see if this was in fact true.

And what do you know?

It is!

I thought this was odd. Why would Edwards have a facebook profile? Isn't he busy beating the crap out of sliced bread? Then I noticed a group called... "Michigan Football Players." No. It couldn't be. There is no frigging way.

Oh. My. God. Probably 70 to 80 percent of the football team has extensive facebook profiles. Garret Rivas is president of a group called "Henne's Hair." Gabe Watson is CEO. Braylon is a member of... "Braylon Edwards for Heisman." Prescott Burgess' girlfriend is unbelievably hot. A group called "Steve Breaston is my hero" is composed of about fifteen random Michigan students and... Gabe Watson. And then there's... this:

Sean Sanderson and Tom Berishaj Fan Club's Profile

Group Description: This group is dedicated to two of the most outstanding athletes to ever play Michigan Football.

Officers
#1 FAN Jeff Clancy
Berishaj autograph collecter Garrett Rivas
Sean Sanderson nutritionist Matt Studenski
Official Berishaj thigh massager Michael Mandich
Promotional Affairs Andy Stejskal

Words cannot possibly justify the way I felt, so let's just grab Tyler Ecker's profile photo:



Yes. That's exactly right. Thanks, Tyler.

And, though I knew what I was doing was definitely creepy, it sort of dawned on me that the whole enterprise was designed to facilitate, enhance, and provide creepy stalking opportunities to college students and that I still have my student ID, so I may as well stalk away.

I simply don't have time now to point out every bizarre, hilarious facebook artifact at the moment (I have 23 Internet Explorer windows open), but I promise that I will document these things in time, assuming I am not mysteriously assassinated for peeking INSIDE THE FORT or Lloyd doesn't just make everyone yank their profiles.

(Note for the fainthearted: in the interests of anthropological veracity or whatever, no editing will be done to what follows. Bad words appear! Hide the children!)

I will leave you with this, though... a snippet from Max Martin's profile. You can leave messages on people's profiles, sort of like Friendster testimonials. Michigan State offensive lineman Roland Martin left this beautiful sentiment:

fuck blue!!!!! GO GREEN!!!!
we goin to beat that ass this year and u no it nigga u watch
GO WHITE!!! Roland Martin #73 nigga ask about me!!!

Click on this profane haiku and it takes you to Martin's own profile, and... and... this...



Oh. My. God. I have to go have a lie down now.

New Commentin'

I added trackback, if you're interested. And by "added trackback" I mean "clicked a few buttons." But it's here. All previous comments have gone to comment heaven, but I'm confident the new generation will carry on okay.

Football: Good bling, bad bling

Braylon Edwards... well... see for yourself:

Yow. Bling bling bling! Blingity-blangity. Blingy-blingy-blang-blang. Uh. I'll stop now. There's an article about him, too, at the Detroit News.

Meanwhile, Tom Friend over at ESPN has caught Scoop Jackson disease. (What's Scoop Jackson disease you say? Scoop's conveniently provided a stellar, unreadable example just today.) Friend has an article up about who he would pick if he had his druthers in the top ten. I mention it because Friend is fawning about Braylon, who he has at #1, but the whole thing is an excellent example of the sort of sportswriting that should be taken out behind the barn and shot. It contains a lot of this:

Cedric Benson's a con, Ronnie Brown isn't. Cedric Benson cut off his dreadlocks to impress NFL people; Ronnie Brown simply ran at the combine.

That is, sentences that substitute know-it-all bravado for intelligent conversation and make bold pronouncements with absolutely nothing behind them. Benson a "con" because he cut his hair? I bet he wore a suit, too, the phony! The whole thing is Friend pulling facts about players' lives outside of football and using that to justify his selections. As such, it gets the (new!) official mgoblog Mark of Sportswriting Disapproval:



The Old Yeller Award! For stories so obviously pained at their suckosity that the only humane thing to do is put a (metaphorical) bullet in their (metaphorical) heads!

Feature Creep

You may notice that the left side has rearranged itself. Do not be alarmed. If you know of any relevant sites that I'm missing, especially other (regularly updated) blogs about Big Ten teams, please drop me a line above for at left.

Also, because I feel like it, I'll cover the Pistons playoff run. Because I like the Pistons. If this bothers you extensively, just pretend the Pistons-related posts never happened, like that Orange Bowl loss against Wake Forest. What Orange Bowl loss against Wake Forest? Exactly.

Football: News roundup

First, the most relevant: Clayton Richard will return in the fall, according to the Detroit News. He's also sporting a 0.46 ERA so far for the baseball team, which I hear is good. Richard will almost definitely be the #3 QB since he has taken the spring off and Gutierrez has recovered enough throwing ability for the coaches to be confident enough to throw him out there.

And with the draft closing in this weekend, everyone is talking about it. Including Marlin Jackson, who had an extensive chat at ESPN.com. I usually skim these things since they don't contain any piercing questions about the defensive breakdowns at the end of last year, and when they do, they work out like this:

guenther(ann arbor): What happened to you guys in the Rose Bowl this year? It seems like you guys couldnt stop Vince Young

Marlin Jackson: You nailed it. We just couldn't contain him and he won the game by himself.

But if you're interested, it's here.

NBCSports, long the eeevil propaganda arm of the flagging Notre Dame football program, has listed Braylon Edwards as a top-5 bust candidate. The snippet on Edwards then damns him by comparing him to... Keyshawn Johnson? Um. The same Keyshawn Johnson with almost 9,000 recieving yards? Weird. It does not mention Edwards' tendency to drop routine balls, which should be the #1 negative mentioned by everybody. No research! Just like I said!

Stewart Mandel at CNNSI has come down on the other side of the coin about Ernest Shazor, labelling him underrated in his latest column. This I am not so sure about, since he's probably going to go in the second round, which is about as high as safeties ever go. One or two a year slip into the first but it's usually the late first. Shazor's valued about where I would take him.

Finally, the Ann Arbor News has an mgoblog-worthy brick of a story on the new trend for players to ship themselves off to specialized NFL-draft boot camps in the hopes of pushing their numbers in the right direction. It contains a quote sure to set some of the strength-and-conditioning doom-and-gloomers' heads afire:

NFL agent John Drana, who represents 2004 draft choices Navarre and former Michigan offensive lineman Tony Pape, said, "If my son was a University of Michigan football player looking at the prospect of being drafted, I would tell him to stay put, don't leave campus. (Michigan strength and conditioning coach) Mike Gittleson is one of the best, if not the best, in the country."

Now, he's an agent so there's no reason to believe he actually believes anything he says. But I like tweaking people who think that the reason Michigan hasn't won 10 straight national championships is Gittleson. The parade of offensive linemen who leave Michigan and immediately claim starting jobs in the NFL should make it clear that Michigan's S&C program is at least as good as the ones at comparable schools across the country. The S&C is not a pressing concern in light of the fact someone like Cato-friggin'-June is the leading tackler of the Colts. June couldn't tackle a dead goat at Michigan, and it wasn't because he was lifting weights differently than the guys at USC.

Fin.

Football: Draft prediction time

The NFL Draft is this weekend. I plan on half-paying attention for a while, then checking back on what happens later. But now is the time where I must put my life... er, my reputation, uh... nothing in particular on the line! I'll do this by making predictions related to the draft which will be unerringly incorrect.

Michigan Predictions:
Braylon Edwards - goes second to Tampa or the Vikes after a trade. Miami has a glaring need at RB but there isn't a whole lot of difference between the top guys and they'll get one after a trade down.
Marlin Jackson - falls a little bit. Ends up last pick of the first round to the Patriots.
David Baas - goes to the Titans at #37.
Ernest Shazor - Taken in the 2nd round by the Steelers at #62.
Marcus Curry - undrafted.
Roy Manning - undrafted.
Kevin Dudley - goes in the 7th. No idea where.

Lions Predictions:
First Round: They'll take LB Derrick Johnson if he's around, otherwise they'll try to trade down into a good spot to take one of the defensive ends or offensive tackles.
Second Round:DE Matt Roth of Iowa or LSU's CB Corey Webster
Third Round: QB Adrian McPherson from FSU or OT Mike Munoz of Tennessee.

General Stuff:
Rodgers falls like a stone. One of the big three running backs, probably Benson, slips out of the top 10. The Bengals take someone way too high. The Raiders take Clarett in round 6. I giggle and pretend I'm retarded when/if Timmy Chang gets drafted. Someone jumps in front of the Redskins at #25 to grab Jason Campbell. Andrew Walter is the best quarterback out of this draft. Alex Smith is a bust of epic proportions.

Check back Monday to see how flagrantly wrong I was. Except about the Alex Smith busty-thing. Check back in five years for that.

Pay attention, EA!

EA didn't get the memo on Mike Hart. IGN has some screenshots up of the latest version of NCAA Football and included is this beauty:



Run, David, run! Uh. That dude should be much smaller and wearing number 20. Then there's this one:



This picture is very wrong--it shows Agim Shabaj actually in possession of a ball. The picture should show the ball bouncing along the ground and Shabaj trash-talking for no apparent reason. Also, Shabaj is being tackled by a guy wearing either 12 (decidedly non-black Matt Gutierrez) or 17 (Carl Tabb). The picture does show Ernest Shazor wildly out of position, though, so it has some accuracy to it.

Apparently the big new added feature this year is going to be a "Heisman" mode where you progress through a career as a player instead of a coach, going from a passing camp where your performance will dictate whether you get offered by Trojans of USC or the Trojans of Troy. I think I'd settle for a difficulty level between the incredibly easy All-American and the maniacally difficult Heisman. I can't really get into NCAA any more because I have a choice between annihilating everyone I come across or swearing repeatedly, throwing the controller, turning the Playstation off, and hiding the game so that I don't play it any more (this is NOT an exagerration). Can we have a difficulty level where I can win at home against Vanderbilt but not on the road against Florida? Maybe?

Hockey: Another news roundup

Interesting hockey stuff is coming with great frequency these days. May it last all summer... er, as long as it doesn't include stuff like "Tambellini signs with LA. (You bastards!)"

There's an interesting thread on hockeysfuture.com discussing incoming recruit Andrew Cogliano. HF's boards are an interesting mix of idiotic Canadian 13-year-olds and people who really know what they're talking about, and you can see the difference in that thread. Two people chime in on Cogliano who know quite a bit about hockey.

Canadian hockey journalist extraordinare Bob McKenzie's take:

...I watched him play about 60 plus games this year and let me assure you it is my opinion that there isn't a scared bone in his body (very, very competitive when it matters most) and he regularly pays the price to score goals or to set them up. As with all offensive players, his defensive game needs some work, but I would not say it's a really weak part of his game at all. IMO, the only knock he's going to get is his size, but a lot of scouts I've talked to about him aren't all that concerned for two reasons. One, world class speed. Two, very, very strong, both in terms of strength on his skates and strength (core stability) in fending off hits and playing in traffic. Lots to learn, but he's a great kid from a great family and the upside on this kid is tremendous. If there's a draft, I'll be shocked if he's not a solid first rounder in spite of his height. Dynamic speed, good goal-scoring ability, great playmaking ability, fearless, competitive and a character player, IMHO.

Now, it should be stated that McKenzie is not a disinterested observer here. His son Mike plays on the Buzzers with Cogliano (he's heading to St. Lawrence in '06), so he probably knows Cogliano quite well.

Second is a guy known only as "moosefan." I've been reading HF's boards for years and it's clear that he is a scout of some sort, probably for a junior team. He attends all the important events for kids in Cogliano's age range. He's seen him... a lot. His take:

I have seen Cogliano play many times, I really like him myself. IMO he is possibly up there with Brule, Ryan for overall talent. He and Bertram are the two fastest in the draft, and I would put Coglianos goal scoring ability up there with Brules. I think Cogliano is one of those players that if he goes around 15th to 25th overall in about 4 years teams are going to look back and say "why wasn't he drafted in the top 10 of the draft"

I think myself he would have been better off playing in in the USHL. But he can't change that now so...but this guy proved himself at the U17s last year in NFLD and at the U18s in the summer as one of the best offensive talents that Canada has for his age group...so really I don't think there is going to be much to worry about with him. The only concern I had with him and I don't know if he fixed it or not was his emotions on the ice...I found when I seen him play that he would sulk alot to the ref and try to get his way on the ice, and I found he would overract sometimes over nothing...he may have fixed this I don't know. But I do know that it was said he is scared...well to me I never seen that as he was in traffic and everything so I wouldn't worry about that.

But to me this guy is going to be a world class talent.

That should get you *very* excited to see this kid in a Michigan jersey. He was regarded as a top-10 pick when he committed to Michigan a year or so ago and he has that talent. Concerns about the level of competition he's facing and his size may knock him down to the late first round, but Cogliano will be coming in with more talent than anyone since Brendan Morrison.

Also, the NHL is going to try to bump back their draft age by about nine months so according to, uh, that Bob McKenzie guy. Right now anyone born before September 15th of the appropriate year is draft-eligible, which is extremely confusing to a lot of people. The NHL would like everyone born in a particular year to be draft eligible the same year, and they aren't keen on having 17-year-olds in the draft, so back it goes.

This should be a net benefit for colleges, as most players will now have the opportunity to prove themselves in their freshman year of college before being drafted. This should reduce pressure on players to take the pro-now CHL route. The USHL's emergence is also helping in this regard, as obliquely referred to by moosefan in the above cut and paste. They've moved to "Tier 1," which basically means they're spending more money, and that coupled with the collapse of the NAHL has really improved the level of play in the USHL. The hockey community is picking up on it, too. The USHL is clearly a notch above other junior leagues like the BCHL, AJHL, OPJHL, and NAHL and is attracting a fair share of top-notch talent. If the USHL continues to improve another incentive to head to the CHL--the ability to play high quality hockey at age 16--will evaporate and more high-end kids will find the NCAA route attractive.

Finally, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle has an extensive article on goalie recruit Billy Sauer with good news and bad news wrapped up in one little factoid: four colleges were recruting Sauer for '05, Harvard, BC, BU, and Michigan. That's a hell of a list of colleges pressing you to enter school early, which speaks well to Sauer's talent. It also implies that if Montoya returns and Sauer is asked to defer his enrollment a year that he'll have at least three sets of coaches in his ear about pulling a Lerg. Will he? Eh... probably not. And Michigan sounds like it has another excellent goalie coming in in Steve Jakiel, so losing him would not be a disaster, but it would certainly be a blow.

Football: Official Post-Spring WAG At Depth Chart (Defense)

Defensive End
1. Lamar Woodley (Jr.) / Tim Jamison (R. Fr.)
2. Pierre Woods (R. Sr.) / Jeremy Van Alstyne (R. Jr.)
3. Rondell Biggs (R. Jr.) / James McKinney (Fr.)

The spot opposite Woodley is one of the biggest tossups on the entire team--expect the battle for that spot to last well into the season. Van Alstyne, Jamison, and Woods all have legitimate shots at the position. The prediction here is that Jamison emerges by midseason, Van Alstyne gets a share of time, and that Woods rides off into "what could have been" history, taking his place in the Colossal Waste of Talent hall of fame next to David Bowens and Kelly Baraka.

Defensive Tackle
1. Gabe Watson (Sr.) / Pat Massey (R. Sr.)
2. Alan Branch (So.) / Will Johnson (R. Fr.)
3. Marques Walton (R. Fr.) / Will Paul (R. So.)
4. Terrance Taylor (Fr.) / Marques Slocum (Fr.)

All eight of these players could see time this fall. Branch was impressive in limited time as a freshman and continued his strong play into the spring. He will probably see extensive time spelling the two starters. Will Johnson seems healed from an ACL tear and has a size/speed combination rarely seen in defensive tackles. Walton and Paul have generated a minor amount of buzz.

Then you have the two freshmen. Taylor will be ready to play in the fall. He'll step on the practice field as Michigan's strongest defensive lineman. Slocum is also a candidate to see immediate time. With six linemen capable of playing in front of them, Michigan will have to quickly assess whether its worth burning redshirt years for Taylor and Slocum.

Linebackers
WLB/MLB/SLB
1. Chris Graham (So.) / David Harris (R. Jr.) / Prescott Burgess (Jr.)
2. Jacob Stewart (R. Jr.) / Scott McClintock (R. Sr.) / Shawn Crable (R. So.)
3. Brandon Logan (Fr.) / John Thompson (R. Fr.) / Pierre Woods (R. Sr.)

The linebackers were far and away the team's most disappointing position group last year. Pierre Woods went AWOL, Lawrence Reid was slowed by a degenerative neck condition that eventually ended his career, and Scott McClintock was all right but nothing special. Next year Michigan seems prepared to throw out three super athletes and see what sticks.

Graham has generated immense buzz since his arrival at Michigan and has a solid lock on the weakside linebacker position. Graham's probably only 5'10" but can fly and arrive with a pop. Harris was looking very good two years ago when he suffered an ACL tear. He's a better athlete than McClintock and will probably split time with him this year; McClintock is the most proven linebacker in pass defense (2 interceptions and 6 PBU's last year) but lacks big-play ability. The strongside position will be Burgess's first opportunity to prove that his five-star rating was for real. He's more of a weakside athlete but since Graham has a death-grip on that spot he'll have to play over the tight end. Crable will also figure in here and potentially as a pass-rushing defensive end.

Cornerbacks
1. Leon Hall (Jr.) / Grant Mason (Sr.)
2. Brandon Harrison (Fr.) / Charles Stewart (R. Fr.)
3. Darnell Hood (R. Jr.)/ Morgan Trent (R. Fr.)

The thinnest area on the team by a country mile. Lloyd Carr did recently say that Leon Hall "had a chance to be one of the best cornerbacks we've ever had here." mgoblog isn't buying that, but Hall has the capability to be a solid All Big Ten-type in the Jeremy LeSeuer mode. Grant Mason has a season's worth of experience as a nickel/dime back and will probably be all right in a starting role. Past that there is a lot of nothin'. Michigan WRs have been torching the DBs all spring and while it would be nice to think that everyone on the offensive side of the ball is Jerry Rice, the truth probably isn't so nice. Michigan has a major depth issue at CB. Brandon Harrison will be given every opporunity to leap into playing time this fall. Johnny Sears will also be given a close look, but he's probably headed for a redshirt since he's so raw.

Safeties
Free/Strong
1. Ryan Mundy (Jr.) / Brandent Engelmon (R. So.)
2. Willis Barringer (R. Jr.) / Jamar Adams (So.)

The strong safety position is another that probably won't be resolved until midseason. Jamar Adams seemed like Shazor's heir apparent last year but made a couple of glaring errors when he saw the field late in the year. Engelmon has made a push. Michigan seems to want to give the physically imposing Adams the job, but Engelmon is probably the smartest kid on the team and would be the safer choice. After the spate of huge plays the defense gave up last year, Michigan will likely err on the side of caution and Engelmon will win the job.

Mundy will be the free safety. He'll have to improve his tackling and angles to become a net benefit. There has been some mention that Mundy has been playing well, but not a ton.

Football: Official Post-Spring WAG at Depth Chart(Offense)

That's Wild Ass Guess for those of you needing some unabbreviation help. This two deep is largely unchanged from the one posted right after the season's end. The major differences lie in the offensive line, which has been shuffling people all over the place due to injury, and fullback, which has the notable omission of Ryan Allison, who is unlikely to play this year with a nerve condition. At least, it's probably Allison... Carr referred to someone sitting out for an extended period of time, and all signs point to Allison as the unfortunate player.

Quarterback
1. Chad Henne (So.)
2. Matt Gutierrez (R. Jr.)
3. Clayton Richard (R. So.)
4. Jason Forcier (Fr)

No surprises here. Forcier will redshirt unless something catastrophic happens. Gutierrez has returned to the field but is unlikely to unseat Henne as the starter.

Running Back
1. Mike Hart (So.)
2. Kevin Grady (Fr.)
3. Max Martin (So.)
4. Jerome Jackson (Jr.)

Also no surprises here. Grady has come in and impressed. He keeps getting smaller and heavier (probably about 5'8", 230). At this rate by the time he steps onto the field in September he'll have an event horizon.

Fullback
1. Obi Oluigbo (R. Jr.)
2. Brian Thompson (R. Jr.)
3. Mike Massey (R. Fr.)

Allison's disappointing injury situation has thrust Oluigbo into the starting spot for the time being, but reports are that he is strictly a blocker--as was Dudley. Mike Massey has practiced some as an Aaron-Shea-esque H-back but blocking isn't a strong suit for him yet.

Wide Reciever
1. Jason Avant (Sr.)/ Steve Breaston (R. Jr.)
2. Doug Dutch (R. Fr.)/ Carl Tabb (R. Jr.)
3. Adrian Arrington (So.)/ Mario Manningham (Fr.)
4. Antonio Bass (Fr.) / LaTerryal Savoy (Fr.)

All accounts of the spring have had Dutch as one of the standout performers. Tabb over Arrington is a guess. Tabb is a burner who's made some nice plays in the past--most notably a couple of key catches against OSU in '03 when Avant got injured. He was banged up last year. If healthy I think the staff will go back to him.

Tight End
1. Tim Massaquoi (R. Sr.)
2. Tyler Ecker (R. Jr.)
3. Mike Massey (R. Fr.)
4. Carson Butler (Fr.)

No movement in this position group, either. Carson Butler will definitely take a redshirt.

Offensive Tackle
1. Adam Stenavich (R. Sr) / Jake Long (R. So.)
2. Mike Kolodziej (R. Jr)/ Jeremy Cuilla (R. So.)

Cuilla is a real shot in the dark here. Kolodziej is obviously the primary backup at both tackle spots, having started the '04 season at RT and having played LT in the Rose Bowl. But past him there isn't really anyone else on the roster who looks like a backup tackle, given that there's no chance in hell any of the three freshmen coming in play this year. If two tackles should go down to injury Ruben Riley will probably end up shuffled out to tackle and one of the interior line backups will draw into the middle.

Interior Line
1. Leo Henige (R. Sr.)/ Ruben Riley (R. Jr) / Matt Lentz (R. Sr)
2. Alex Mitchell (R. Fr) / Adam Kraus (R. So.) / Brett Gallimore (R. Fr.)

Major guesswork here as well. Henige hasn't gotten through a season yet without his knees giving out and so must be regarded as a question mark. Lentz will start at RG. Riley will start at LG or C. Kraus was believed to have the inside track to the center job but an injury has halted his progress. Mitchell was singled out for praise by Carr.

All in all, things look settled almost everywhere on offense. FB needs to be addressed and the interior of the line still needs sorting out. Other than that, Michigan looks loaded. One spot that looks thin is RT. Long is a great player, but there isn't much behind him. Kolodziej doesn't have Long's run-blocking power.

Hockey: WTF?

Michael Spath has an information-laden post up over at the Wolverine. To summarize:

• Three Cs next year on Montoya, Tambellini, and Ebbett. No alternates. What the sam-hell is that? I have never ever in one hundred billion years heard of such a strange captaincy arrangement on a hockey team. Further indicates that Tambellini and Montoya are returning (although Mike Van Ryn did get an A immediately before his departure).
• Pat Kane and Blake Geoffrion are "not in the fold yet" but are "potential commitments," which is phrased in an odd way that makes it seem like he's backing off a previous strong statement that Kane and Geoffrion are coming. That information must have slipped past my radar if that is indeed the implication. Getting Geoffrion is important, as most of the high end '06 forwards have been snatched up already and Michigan hasn't acquired any of them. Kane is an '07 recruit, and you know what that means. The worst player to commit that early to the Wolverines was Dwight Helminen, who was damn good. Others who have done so: Jack Johnson, Andrew Cogliano, Tristin Llewellyn. Blue-chippahs.
• Not in said post, but being batted around on USCHO is this: if Montoya returns Sauer will return to Chicago of the USHL. He and Jakiel will both enter as freshmen in '06 and stage a spirited battle for the #1 goalie spot.
• Left unstated is this: Swystun should come in with the '06 class. He has not ripped up the AJHL this year and is still extremely young. Coming right now would probably mean fourth-line duties or a redshirt year, neither of which seems appropriate for someone with Swystun's latent talent level. Will Michigan ask him to? Almost certainly not after the Bryan Lerg and Matt Nickerson defections. They may ask, but they've made room for him in this class and will take him if that's what he wants.
• Packer487 has been posting informative updates on our recruits in their playoff series. Check them out here, here, here, and here.

A vow

Let it be known far and wide that this blog shall never, ever use the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid" except perhaps to mock it or people who use it.

That is all.

Basketball: Recruiting panic subsiding

Do you have a pencil? Suggestion... print out this handy list of Michigan's '06 recruits:

1. K'len Morris

And write in "Tory Jackson." (In pencil, mind.) At least, that's what the Wolverine would have you believe, what with the title of this($) article: "Tory Jackson: I was ready to commit." That's a strong statement, especially for the title of an article. Usually they're like "Tory Jackson: Does he still have all his limbs? FIND OUT INSIDE!"

Also, the Rivals 100 dudes think DeShawn Sims is "Michigan's to lose." So things are back to the status they were a couple weeks ago, before a day with a couple of articles that sent those who follow these things into a tizzy.

Now for the standard disclaimer: Crawford blah blah blah Hairston blah blah blah Horford blah doesn't mean anything until they sign doesn't matter until they step on the court anything can happen recruiting is a crazy game.

The summer AAU circuit is now in full swing and the gurus are watchin'. Rivals' Top 150 will be updated soon and it sounds like you can expect Sims and Jackson to rise. Sims may end up in the top 20. Michigan target Matt Shaw will probably drop like a stone. David Lighty will probably drop as well--he tore his ACL a few months ago. Herzog? Probably static.

Also: Michigan PG target Scotty Reynolds beamed up to Oklahoma. Har har har.

2005 Michigan Football Preview

Hello, traveller. Immediately after the Rose Bowl I found catharsis by typing up a lot of words about Michigan's prospects for the upcoming season. The events of spring practice have obsoleted portions of the preview, especially when it comes to the linebacking corps, but I still believe it to be reasonably intelligent. There are some cracking good bon mots in there, too. I like the bit about the punters dunking their legs in Gatorade.

Read away:

Offense

Defense

Special Teams

Hockey: Goebel departs MSU?

File this under "unsubstantiated rumor," but there is a post on the RCMB that claims MSU forward Tom Goebel has left the team. I mention it because the same RCMB poster had accurately posted that AJ Thelen had left the Spartans the day before the news officially broke.

If this is true, it bodes very poorly for Comley's future. Goebel was a Comley recruit who was the centerpiece of the MSU class a couple of years ago. He had an impressive freshman campaign with 15-17-32 in 34 games but regressed as a sophomore, notching only 21 points. Goebel was supposed to be part of the wave of talented, creative players that would transition MSU from Mason's trapping style to a more upbeat game that presumably wouldn't get shut out in 800 straight NCAA tournament appearances.

Now MSU is left to wonder if getting shut out in the first round is really all that bad.

Football: More draftery

CFN still thinks that Braylon should be #1... mostly. Jeffri Chadiha on CNNSI has a tidbit about Jackson in a story on the "Five People You'll Meet On Draft Day" (weird Albom reference? You make the call). iBlog For Cookies has a Michigan draft-stock summary that I believe to be accurate, though I think that some GM will see Shazor in a good light and grab him somewhere in the second.

And something almost draft related, but not really. An emailer to Peter King asks thusly:

"When it comes to quarterbacks --watching film, working them out, giving them intelligent tests --that's all good. The one question I'd ask is, when your team is down by six with two minutes left in the game, who is going to lead you down the field? What team over the last couple of years has been in that situation and been successful? That's who I would go with.''

Amen. This leads to discussion of Brady vs. Tim Rattay and Spurgeon Wynn, which of course favors Brady. My personal memory of Brady was formed around the Penn State game, the Alabama Orange Bowl, even that Plaxico Burress MSU game we lost but were charging back at the end of. Brady was stone cold killing people in incredible pressure-cooker situations with nary a flutter. That's a quality you don't find in many quarterbacks. The ones you do--Montana, Elway, Brady--well, you remember them. Anyone like that in this draft? No. At least not someone who looks like they're first pick material. Both guys look more like Cade McNown than Brady. BE, maddening though he may be, is the closest thing to a lock this draft has.

Football: Spring practice news roundup.

You're probably a busy, on-the-go type without much time to scour the various dusty corners of the interweb in search of the tiniest motes of information regarding Michigan's 2005 football team. Luckily for you, I'm not.

The Good

Gutz Not Dead Yet
With Clayton Richard playing baseball and erstwhile starter Matt Gutierrez recovering from a torn labrum, an injury to Chad Henne seemed certain to derail what could be a promising season. Never fear, as Gutierrez appears ahead of schedule and ready to handle any work that comes his way. He still has a way to go in terms of arm strength, but any panic about a prospective Henne injury can be minor panic.

Hello 4-3, My Old Friend
Michigan has abandoned its one-year experiment with the 3-4 and returned to a more conventional alignment, one that better takes advantage of the personnel along the line (and was predicted by mgoblog immediately after the season). New defensive line coach Steve Stripling--liberated from East Lansing--is an actual defensive line coach instead of a converted LB coach. He is also bald, fat, and moustached, three critical attributes when making broad generalizations about coach quality.

Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Aye, they said Grady would be a monster. They said Max Martin was an excellent back in his own right. And Mike Hart is Mike Hart. All three had excellent springs. The two prospective backups bring something that Hart does not--Grady (now apparently 5'2", 320) cannot be stopped on third and short, while Max Martin has the precious "breakaway speed" that Hart lacks. If Dudley can be adequately replaced and the offensive line worked out, Michigan will have a backfield reminscent of the early 90s.

Guided Missile
Michigan will feature a heavily revamped linebacker corps in the fall. Pierre Woods is playing defensive end. Roy Manning has graduated. Lawrence Reid had a career-ending neck injury. The only holdover appears to be MLB Scott McClintock. Flanking him will be sophomore Chris Graham, who has been getting raves from the day he stepped on campus. Graham is short, fast, and mean and looks to have a kung-fu death grip on the starting weakside LB spot. Hopes are high that he and junior Prescott Burgess will turn last year's horrifying weakness into a strength.
Braylon who?
All right, that's going a little far, but a healthy Steve Breaston is looking more like his freshman I-can-walk-on-water self. Jason Avant is Jason Avant. Redshirt freshman Doug Dutch has impressed in his pursuit of the third WR position. Expect little drop off in performance from this position group.

The Bad

Offensive Line Chaos
The offensive line has had several players banged up and held out of practice. Other players have been shifted around, taking snaps at positions that they may or may not start at in the fall. Despite the fact that Michigan only graduated a single offensive lineman last year--center David Baas--there will probably be some unpleasant moments in the fall as the line works itself out.

DBs As Deep As Paris Hilton
Leon Hall is a good Big Ten corner and Grant Mason will probably be all right. Past that there is a great wilderness of nothing in particular. Darnell Hood, Charles Stewart, and Morgan Trent do not look ready to play. Incoming freshman Brandon Harrison has the opportunity to be the nickel back by the time he steps on campus. If Hall gets injured, panic.

Watson Is Fat
Reports vary on how Watson is playing, probably because he's looking unstoppable half the time and just damn fat the other half of the time. Carr has publicly badgered Watson about the shape he's in. Is that just a ploy to get him in better shape or is there reason for serious concern? It's hard to believe that Watson can stare a potential top-ten draft pick in the face and not get motivated to, you know, do some running and stuff. Michigan will have to have a dominant line to keep heat off the shaky secondary and Watson is the center of that effort, literally, metaphorically, and gravitationally.

The Indifferent

Position Switches
Pierre Woods is now a defensive end opposite Woodley. Jacob Stewart, who you may remember streaking towards the endzone during the epic comeback against Minnesota two years ago, is now a weakside linebacker. Crable has been competing with Burgess at strongside linebacker and has been tried at defensive end. Redshirt freshman WR Morgan Trent, who is totally way faster than Ted Ginn, is now a cornerback. Redshirt freshman S Keston Cheathem is now a WR. Bodes unwell if anyone was banking on him getting signficant playing time ever.

Football: Twelve game schedule clears second-to-last hurdle

The rumblings have been that the 12 game schedule was going to be a go for a while now and they are coming to fruition. Wow, awkward sentence there. I'll do better next time. Editing is against the blogging ethos, you know.

Final word on whether Michigan will get to schedule another MAC team in '06 and beyond will come on April 28th.

Hockey: Final grades

I posted a set of midseason grades for the hockey team when the blog was still eating carrots from a jar, so it only seems appropriate to do likewise post-season. I have attempted to not let my disappointment over the season's end cloud my judgement... all in all it was a pretty good year, with the CCHA double and an NCAA tourney win. It could have been better, yes. The CC game will long linger with me as an official Stomach Punch game. The way the team was playing, the firepower they had... it could have been a Season For The Ages. Now it was just pretty good and fun to watch.

There are worse things.

Again, to recap the way this works: Grades should approximately average out to the overall grade for the season, which is sitting at B+. Players are graded on overall impact mixed with expectations... a fourth liner who performs admirably in his role can't get an A because he's a fourth liner, but he won't get a D just because he's a fourth liner.

Forwards
Jeff Tambellini: Why yes, I do take personal responsibility for the fact that Tambellini turned on all sorts of awesome after the midway point. If Sharp can take credit for MSU's Final Four run, I can take credit for Tambs. After all, gave him a harsh B+ and said that he was "capable of dominating like TJ but hasn't." And then... he did. Even though TJ Hensick was the Hobey candidate, Tambellini was the team's MVP, finishing third in the nation and first on the team in points with 57 and leading the team in plus/minus with a ridiculous +30. Tambellini managed to do this without dominating the puck nearly as much as Hensick and while backchecking furiously all season. Tambellini was a one-dimensional goal scorer as a freshman but a terrible season-long slump as a sophomore taught Tambellini all the things he could do without putting the puck in the net. This year Tambellini A and Tambellini B met and joined together Voltron-style, creating one hell of a hockey player. A. Probably going to return next year. If he does, a mortal lock for the C and a favorite for the Hobey Baker.

TJ Hensick: Michigan's designated Awesome Center Who Can't See Over A Steering Wheel got dogged in various quarters for being soft, hating physical play, hogging the puck, and playing crap defense. And I'm here to say that... well, all those things are basically true. But there isn't a player in college hockey who dares challenge him at the blue line on the power play, and when the puck is on his stick you had best be on the edge of your seat lest you miss something spectacular. Hensick's 23-32-55 line netted him a Hobey Baker nomination and the focus of every team Michigan played. A-. Deserved his benching after the Minnesota game but established himself as one of the nation's premiere offensive players. Flaws in his game may catch up to him in the pros but expect another Hobey candidacy next year.

Eric Nystrom: Nystrom never turned in to the kind of player you expect a top-ten NHL draft pick to be. His point totals decreased every year he played at Michigan and it looked like that would continue for a third straight year at the midseason point, when he had three goals and six assists after the GLI. Still, no one was upset with him. Nystrom had been moved to center on the checking line with nary a peep and had been busy playing the other end of the ice. He was what he was, and no more. Then a funny thing happened: pucks started going in all over the place. They were never pretty, never slick, but they were deserved. All the things that Nystrom did that never showed up on the scoreboard, well, started showing up on the scoreboard. And he picked up the team, and drove it, and Michigan was composed, firey, and cruising... until the collapse. When the dust cleared, though, you could see what the Flames saw in Nystrom. How could he not play in the NHL? A-. A worthy successor to Jed Ortmeyer, and that's the highest praise I can give a player.

Milan Gajic: About two and a half years into his Michigan career the light went on for Gajic and he turned into what Michigan fans expected when he arrived after lighting up the BCHL as an overager: a point-per-game scorer. Or close, at least. Gajic's patented left-faceoff-circle one-timer became a regular feature of the Michigan power play and chicks started wearing "Gajic Is Majic" t-shirts even though is name is pronounced "geish" (-ish). Gajic ended up a good second-liner for Michigan. B-. Still never figured out that defense stuff... Gajic's final shot in a Michigan uniform somehow found Curtis McElhinney's stick.

Andrew Ebbett: Can't shoot! Just can't! Doesn't! Won't! But he can pass and stuff. Witness his line this year: 6-31-37, mostly without the benefit of Hensick and Tambellini on his line. Ebbett did get benched for a weekend for unecessarily crosschecking a Western Michigan Bronco in the face immediately following a Bronco goal (which led to another power play, another goal, and a tight game in what had previously been a laugher), but after he returned he blew up, scoring 21 points in his final 18 games. He even scored a couple goals and stuff. When he isn't crosschecking opponents in the face, Ebbett can take those faceoffs: his 55% led Michigan this year and is an impressive number by itself, but especially so compared to Michigan's other centers. Ebbett is an effective player who'll find himself playing all phases of the game as a senior. A-. Leading candidate for the David Moss unsung hero award next year.

Kevin Porter: Porter finished an impressively diverse freshman year, playing in several different roles on several different lines throughout the year, eventually ending up as the guy riding shotgun with Tambellini and Hensick on the Line of Doom. Porter played on the second line with fellow freshman Chad Kolarik, on Eric Nystrom's checking line, on the penalty kill, on the power play--basically everywhere except defense. In doing so, he accrued a nice stat line: 11-13-24 and +11. Porter doesn't have the offensive creativity of fellow freshman Chad Kolarik, but is a much more rounded player than Kolarik who is effective on both ends of the ice. B+. Porter's already one of the better forwards on the team but isn't the kind of player opponents have to gameplan against.

Brandon Kaleniecki: Kaleniecki took a step back numbers-wise this year but that's not entirely unexpected. His 20 goal sophomore campaign had career year written all over it, and sure enough Kal dropped back to 13 as a junior. Kaleniecki can bury chances he's provided with and scrap for goals in the crease but can't do much to create his own chances. C+. Good as a crease-mucker and shooter and plays with grit but lacks ice vision.

Chad Kolarik: Kolarik filled the stat sheet out but his freshman year was a lot hollower than Kevin Porter's. Porter actually outscored Kolark at even strength17 to 15, as 18 of Kolarik's 35 points were on the power play. Kolarik didn't kill penalties either, and never will. That said, Kolarik is a creative, smart offensive player who has a knack for taking tricky shots. He's the better offensive player of the two freshman by a long shot--he's sort of a cross between Tambellini and Hensick. B+. Poised for a huge sophomore year flanking either Hensick or incoming goal-ninja Andrew Cogliano.

David Moss: As previously mentioned, there's a David Moss Unsung Hero award. This year it goes to David Moss. Moss is the kind of player who, say, ends up with 30 points at the end of the season without doing much except getting in the right positions at the right times and making intelligent decisions, which is exactly what happened this year. Moss bounced around from wing to center his entire career, from checking lines to scoring ones, played on the penalty kill and on the power play. He was effective at everything, but not a standout at anything. B+. Failed to reel in cousin Phil Kessel and got dinged up at the end of the year, but everything else was good.

Mike Brown: Really fell off after a very good freshman season, regressing in points (from 13 to 8) and leading the team in minors with 35 despite missing seven games and not playing extensive minutes. Last year Brown's speed and hard-nosed, physical play were noticable on the ice and he quickly became a fan (read: mgoblog) favorite. mgoblog even predicted that Brown would captain Michigan as a junior (ie, now), which looks sort of silly at the moment. Hopefully Brown can bounce back, with or without a letter on his jersey. C-. Brown was just not much of a factor this year unless he was heading to the box.

Jason Ryznar: Ryznar's career will always be what-might-have-been. He could not stay healthy for any of his four seasons at Michigan and could only occasionally flash hints at the massive potential lurking somewhere deep beneath his hulking frame. The story of Ryznar's career: coming off an early-sophomore-season injury, he took over the NCAA regional game against CC, annihilating the Tigers almost singlehandedly. He then continued his dominance into the Frozen Four against Minnesota--he would have scored the gamewinner if not for an amazing diving stick save by Gopher defenseman Keith Ballard (with mgoblog sitting right behind that net, mouth agape, hopes shattered)--and then immediately got injured again to start his junior year. Aye, what might have been. As it ended up, Ryznar was an effective checker and penalty killer who, when healthy, was dominant on the boards in both ends but never asserted himself offensively like he might have. B-. Good luck in the NHL, Ryz. There will always be a place for guys like you there.

Michael Woodford: Woodford was in and out of the lineup as a senior, but that wasn't entirely his fault. Michigan had more capable forwards than they knew what to do with and someone who could play defense but not much else got passed over in favor of more rounded players. Though prone to bad penalties and not much of a threat to score, Woodford was effective in his role and played capably down the stretch when he drew into the lineup after the move of David Rohlfs to defense. B-.

Charlie Henderson: Henderson was always a sentimental favorite of mgoblog since he seemed to sit out for most of the season and then score two points the first game he managed to get in by working his tail off and finding himself in the right place at the right time. On another team in the CCHA he would have been a regular. Hell, on most Michigan teams of the past decade that weren't healthy-scratching NHL draft picks he would have been a regular. Charlie, whose father is a die hard Spartan who may or may not actually be Tom Izzo (mgoblog research assistants are looking into it right now), opened the scoring in Michigan's wild and wooly 5-4 win over MSU this year and thus has eternal bragging rights in his family. Irrational B. Best walk-on in recent Michigan history. (Also, if mgoblog ever finds a second life as a whiteass rapper, that's his name: Irrational B. Yo.)

David Rohlfs: Rohlfs will face my judgement next year (tremble!) in the defensemen category, but since he did play most of this year at forward, he goes here. Hopes were high for Rohlfs going into this year, as Berenson had shown some affection for the jolly giant late in his freshman year, playing him on the second line and the power play despite his underwhelming numbers. The year definitively revealed that Rohlfs is a very large guy with decent mobility but little ability to play the puck. Next year he have new life on Michigan's bottom defense pairing, where his lack of hands won't be as much of a factor and his 230 pounds will help immensely. C+.

Defensemen
Eric Werner: I'll miss Eric Werner, even if I did frequently want to kill him. He represents everything I love about Berenson's high seas adventure style of hockey, and given the choice between remembering him skating back into his zone furiously after giving up yet another two-on-one or plunging into the slot--cutlass gripped between his teeth, eyepatch askew, parrot panicking, singing a song with lots of "yo-ho-ho"ing--to fire one past a confused landlubber of a goalie, I'll take the latter, dammit, and something for my scurvy while you're at it. (How about that sentence? Take that, Faulkner!) Werner was always limited by his size but was never a huge liability in the defensive zone. He occasionally made bad decisions, but proved over time that he made enough good ones (8-23-31 this year and +21) to forgive his gaffes. B+. Hyaaarrr! Avast! The only thing that consoles me about Werner's departure is that I expect Jack Johnson to be a cross between Werner and Godzilla.

Brandon Rogers: Rogers made a major leap between his freshman and sophomore years and then levelled off for the rest of his career. Fortunately for Michigan, the level was proficient offensively (5-22-27) and defensively(+21)--and nearly all-conference (second team as a junior, honorable mention this year). Rogers has been a consistently good performer for three straight years now and will be missed next year. He was never a dominant force like Komsarek, but he ends his career as one of the better Michigan defenders of the past 10 years. B+.

Jason Dest: Hello. My name is Brian, and I have a problem. Every year I pick a Wolverine defenseman and hate him with burning intensity for his various fobiles, screwups, and turnovers while completely ignoring anything positive this designated whipping boy may do. It's a sickness. Dest was that whipping boy for the first half of the season, but the screwups got so infrequent and the positive plays got so common that I had to shift my Palpatine-esque hatred to fellow sophomore Tim Cook (more on him later). Dest... actually played really well the second half of this season. He was able to cut down on his turnovers, step up his physical play, and generally play a very solid, capable game next to whirling dervish Eric Werner. By the end of the year, Dest was by far Michigan's most physical defenseman and became very effective shutting down opposing rushes. Dest had only eight points on the year but that's excusable since he saw almost no power play time and had to play good cop next to Werner. B. Would be higher but a poor first half holds him down. Actually a player I like seeing on the ice now, a remarkable in-season turnaround.

Matt Hunwick: Hunwick defines the term "quiet effectiveness" as it applies to defensemen in hockey. Did he really score 25 points? Yes. How? Dunno. He did end up with a +15, which was actually sort of low for a Wolverine defender (it's a good year for plus-minus when you play a team as bad as ND six times), but since he was invariably tasked with shutting down the opposing team's top line, I wouldn't place too much emphasis on that stat. Rogers and Hunwick took the toughest minutes Michigan's opponents could throw at them and came out sunny on the other side. B+. Look for more of the same next year.

Nick Martens: Full disclosure: I know a guy who knows Martens' brother. You don't really need to know that but I always wanted to say "full disclosure" like a big shot. Anyway, Martens was a mostly solid bottom-pairing defenseman who would occasionally make a glaring error. His job was to go out there and not screw up against middling opposing forwards and he did it for the most part. C.

Reilly Olson: Well, Olson finally got on the ice for Michigan and didn't play too badly, though it's clear by this point that he is very limited with the puck and has some issues with his skating. He'll probably return for a fifth year and compete with BU transfer Adam Dunlap to see who gets to be the guy who plays in the GLI and when Berenson gets pissed off at Cook. Incomplete.

Tim Cook: This season was a disaster for Cook, who managed to go the whole year on the nation's best offensive team without collecting a point and then got benched because Michigan decided that a forward could play defense better. Cook proved absolutely unable to stay in front of any forward with flash and/or dash and was finally bumped at the end of the year to make way for David Rohlfs. F. Nothing redeeming in this season for him. He must bounce back in a big way next year, as Michigan will have to play him.

Goalie

Al Montoya: Anyone who's read this blog for longer than, oh, about four minutes knows that it has dogged Montoya all season for playing sloppy, unfocused hockey. That won't change here. Montoya did have a very good game against Ohio State in the CCHA final, but one game shouldn't overshadow a season of erratic play and soft goals against. Montoya would occasionally emerge to show everyone what the big deal was with a monster save--most notably robbing WMU's Brent Walton with a second remaining to preserve a 5-4 Michigan victory at Lawson--but often the reason the monster save was relevant was because Montoya had allowed a goal or two that he absolutely should not have.

Montoya managed to get away with this and not sink the team's fortunes solely because Michigan had a historic season when it came to lighting the lamp. Can his awful save percentage (.895, good for 61st nationally) be explained by similarly awful defense? No. Michigan returned the exact same team Montoya played behind last year minus average defenseman Andy Burnes and checking center Dwight Helminen. Helminen was an excellent defensive player, but when 16 of the 18 skaters return you can't expect the team's average shot quality yielded to skyrocket. Can it be explained by simple random chance? Perhaps in some part, yes, but Montoya had 940 chances to prove himself this year. The likelihood that his save percentage doesn't reflect his performance this year is very low. There's no getting around it: Montoya was not a good goaltender this season. D.

I don't mean to come off like one of those guys who's main goal in life is to trash the things purportedly enjoys. I think Montoya is a fine person who can potentially be an excellent goalie. He was not this year. That much I believe is black and white for anyone who watched Michigan play. The numbers support that opinion. Montoya is capable of much better if he returns--which I had assumed was unlikely, but given the continued NHL turmoil is looking like a possibility.

Michigan's overriding theme next year will be redemption, and if Montoya returns, it will start with the man behind the mask.

Basketball: Money for nothing, stats for free

I love it when I get to point at someone else's content and claim it as my own. Valley Hawk over at Hawkeye Hoops has posted an interesting (if somewhat unattractive) graph of the Big Ten's various teams' offensive and defensive efficiency ratings. In a word... ugh. Michigan occupies a spot best described as about halfway between Penn State and Northwestern, which is somewhere you do not want to be in college basketball.

The graph also makes a decent case for Iowa improving next year in the win column, which will make Michigan's attempt to climb over them more difficult.

Let's tuck this graph away and compare about midway through the conference season next year. Michigan will have to be improved in offensive efficiency. It is inconcievable that they won't be. But the defensive efficiency number is extremely disturbing. Michigan had far less cause to suck on defense than offense this year. Was it due to turnovers? Walk-ons being as inelegant on the defensive side of the ball as they clearly were on the offensive side of the ball? Or was it just crap defense? I think the answer to the above is a little of all three.

Football: Gutz back in authoritative fashion

This Detroit News article covers one of the major stories of the spring: Gutierrez is back and looking like he always did, except with significantly reduced arm strength. He is expected to recover the latter by the fall. If he does Michigan fans should breathe a sigh of relief, as the huge question mark at backup quarterback will be resolved.

Might Gutz turn the period representing the starting spot in to a similar question mark? That's mighty unlikely and would probably only happen should Henne struggle significantly, something Michigan fans obviously don't want to see. But there are mutterings by people watching on a regular basis that Gutz has absolute command of the offense.

Might Lloyd go with... two quarterbacks? Well, not if he's learned his damn lesson, he won't. At least not in games against stiff competition. But mgoblog is going to bet that Gutz gets significant work against the MAC opponents and maybe a meaningful series or two against Notre Dame, just in case Henne gets hit by a bus.

Basketball: Shepherd shows well

The basketball recruit mgoblog has its all-seeing, Sauron-like eye on, Canadian Jevohn Shepherd, played well in the grandiosely titled "Nike Hoop Summit" over the weekend, displaying excellent athleticism and, as they say, the ability to get to the rack. Booyah. Shepherd scored 14 points on 6 of 15 shooting and grabbed 7 rebounds in 25 minutes.

Chad Ford gave Shep a thumbs up in his article on the game, stating that

Canada's Jevon[sic] Shepard[sic, come on Ford] looked like the
best player on the team during the practices and had a nice game for the
international squad. He already has NBA athleticism and a good body, but he's
going to have to work on his perimeter game.

mgoblog suggests that if you are going to imagine Shepherd (platonically, please), you should imagine a raw version of Bernard Robinson, Jr. that doesn't turn the ball over quite as much.

Oh, yeah, Tory Jackson! Bill Martin says that he and Amaker are "joined at the hip," so I wouldn't worry about TA's job security too much. You might worry about his freakish siamese-twin condition, but you can't have everything.

Duh Liveblog Collection

mgoblog is a reasonable blog... except when it's watching sports. Then everything that is good is WONDERFUL!!! and everything that is bad is THE WORST THING EVER!!! and referees are all threatened with castration.

Usually post-game everything settles down and mgoblog immediately regrets the things he said and thought and assaulted. This worked out great before the whole blog thing. Now the muttered or screamed impreciations against God and fate are preserved in Internet formaldehyde, so the only thing to do? Point 'em out!

June 9, 2005 -- Softball National Championship
June 6, 2005 -- Softball Championship Series Game 1/Pistons-Heat Game 7
April 23 2005 -- NFL Draft/Pistons-Sixers
January 15, 2005 -- Basketball @ PSU
January 8, 2005 -- Hockey @ WMU

PS: Firefox f... mess up.

Does anyone wise in the ways of CSS know why mgoblog displays wrong on Firefox? I wish to fix this but am stumped. Drop me a line at left if so.

Albomtraversy! Plus venting!

It's not a word. I don't care. But Mitch Albom got in some hot water for Jayson Blairing a recent column by referring to the nonexistent Final Four attendance of Mateen Cleaves and Jason Richardson as if it was, in fact, a fact. Now he gives the mea culpa.

mgoblog... sides with Mitch? What? Is that right?

Apparently it is. The column is indeed pretty embarrassing after the fact--Mitch refers to the attendance of the duo in the past tense several times and weaves a magical tapestry of nostalgia and triple rah rah rah from the amazing dedication of the Spartan pros. However, it can be safely filed under 'harmless.' It's a little sloppy, but I think Detroit gave up on the idea of "Mitch Albom, Sportswriter" long ago. He's now "Mitch Albom, Dispenser of Mediocre But Comforting Ideas About the Afterlife." Occasionally he deigns to descend from his Scrooge McDuck-like mountain of money to pen some misty human interest story when MSU is in the Final Four or the Pistons are in the Finals or Michigan is in the Rose Bowl or the Lions... well, he doesn't write about the Lions. He didn't uphold rigorous journalistic standards in his latest column but, uh... who cares? That's not his job. It's isn't really any sportswriter's job.

Because, fundamentally, holding up rigorous journalistic standards is about being trustworthy. It's about knowing what the hell you're talking about. It's about being taken seriously as an authority on the subject you're talking about, be it foreign policy, home repair, or sports. Unfortunately, It appears that 'trustworthy' is about as useful as 'willing to eat bugs' when it comes to getting a sportswriting job (note: I haven't ever looked for one, nor do I want one. I have a job in an entirely different field that I like). Who do I trust and believe when it comes to sports opinions? Uh. Lem Pasquarelli, Dr. Z, Bill Simmons, and John Hollinger. That's it. The rest of 'em I'm indifferent to or actively loathe, because its obvious that there's absolutely no thought put into 90% of today's sportswriting. I don't know whether it's a lack of time, intelligence, or motivation, but when's the last time you read something from the MSM and really learned something? When's the last time you read a really incisive, interesting article on any major sport?

mgoblog is beginning to come to grips with some terrible truths about sportswriting. It's hard, for starters. Even this half-assed no-revision embarassingly-typo-ridden version I purvey on a mostly daily basis is hard, and I am accountable to absolutely no one. I have this irresistable urge to pontificate knowingly on subjects I am completely ignorant about. I have come to grips with the fact that my knowledge is extremely limited... I know a ton about anything Michigan and a decent amount about anything regional, but nationally? I don't have the time or the desire to appropriately inform you, the reader, about what to expect in even the slightest way. That's why this is "mgoblog" and not "nationalcollegefootballgoblog."

And the thing is... my coverage of Michigan isn't absolutely comprehensive and knowledgable. It just isn't, and believe me, I spend a far greater portion of my life collecting and disseminating Michigan-related info than any sportswriter in the country spends on any particular team, beatwriters excluded. If I spent eight hours a day doing nothing but collecting information about one nationally popular sport, I would still be largely ignorant. I think this is a fundamental issue with sports writing, the mgoblog Sportswriting Uncertainty Principle: You can have either very deep knowledge about a narrow area or shallow knowledge of a wide one, but not both. Its collorary: Anyone who attempts to talk about everything is usually talking nonsense.

Even if the sportswriters of the country had mystically bestowed absolute knowledge they'd still be largely unreadable, though. Grantland Rice is dead and gone and there's no one to replace him. I mean, the nation's iconic sportswriter is... Mike Lupica? Woody Guthrie or whatever from Denver? Bob Ryan? Stephen A. Freaking Smith? No, no, no, and Jesus God no. I think the closest thing there is to National Sportswriter Laureate is none other than Bill Simmons, who, due to a fortunate confluence of sports pop culture drift, historic redemption in the Boston sports scene, and, you know, actually being a likeable normal guy instead of some bitter weirdo (guilty), has been a must read for myself and most people I know for the past few years.

Why? Well, MSM guys don't seem to give a damn what happens. If 'we' win, they write florid drippy tributes. If 'we' lose they write scathing calls for accountability. The check is the same size no matter what. I have a hard time believing that someone like Sharp or Guthrie or Lupica sits in front of the television actively rooting for a team. It shows in their writing, which is not anguished and suffering in bad times and is not genuine in good times. They just want somone to, in the immortal words of Rasheed Wallace, CTC. Cut the check.

In contrast, read Simmons. Who does he remind you of more... Sharp, Albom, Parker, Lupica, Ryan, Smith, et al, or, say, Big Ten Wonk, MidMajority, Yoni Cohen, and the burgeoning horde of unabashed fan bloggers that finally seems to be taking root? Anyone who lumped Simmons in with the first group, please slap yourselves. Simmons remains first and foremost a Boston sports fan... anyone reading his bizarrely hopeful and poignant column about the return of Antoine Walker, of all people, to the Celtics can't deny that Simmons bleeds and dies with his teams. The pure joy that leapt from the page during last year's World Series was not the broad, bland "hurray college" type stuff recently displayed by Albom or sportswriters in general when they're trying to pretend that they're not hardened cynics--it was deeply personal, about his dad, his friends, his city, his entire life. He's suffered with his teams and celebrated with him, and I can respect that.

That's what separates him from the rest of the MSM pack. He has a nigh-spiritual connection with the Celtics, Red Sox, and Patriots that drives him to pound out 2,500 words on Antoine Walker or 50,000 on the Red Sox World Series. He loves his teams. Sharp loves nothing except flagrantly disgusting hentai porn (if you are a Free Press lawyer, I am joking). Albom loves nothing except Morrie. Morrie and his pile of money. Simmons was and is... a blogger, an obsessive nut who writes for no other reason than to write, and that's why he's the man, man. The fact that he gets paid? Well, it's good to be the man.

Holy crap! Where did that come from? I guess I have a deep festering discontent with the assumption by newspapers and television networks that because I like sports that I can only understand the basest simplifications. And that it helps if the person giving me these simplifications YELLS REALLY LOUD. And then I was reading Big Ten Wonk's farewell week and it just struck me how mindbogglingly good it was, especially when compared to the tepid MSM stuff he links to with frequency. Who is John Gasaway? Where does he come from? Who cares? He is a dedicated fan, a hell of a writer, and funny as all git out. If you read nothing but Big Ten Wonk you will be better informed about the state of Big Ten basketball than if you were to read everything else. Period.

A salute to you, mysterious bloggerman! Return vengeful and unsated in the fall.

Fie to you, cynical and uncaring mainstream mediaites! Fie and woe!

Basketball: Lunardi not a believer

Joe Lunardi, he of the "bracketology" running feature on ESPN has a 2006 Preview up with 7, count 'em, 7 Big Ten teams... and no Michigan, who check in at #4 in "last four out."

Where to start? Well, how about here: what? The Big Ten looks very shaky next year. If 7 Big Ten teams end up in the tournament I'll eat my hat (I don't own a hat. I'll eat your hat). If 7 Big Ten teams end up in the tournament and Michigan isn't one of them, Tommy Amaker will be on the next donkey back to Durham.

Football: Some GBW content

GBW's posted a top 10 QBs nationally and how Michigan stands with each. Currently pinning hopes on Mitch Mustain of Arkansas. Big names Tebow and Stafford are probably out of the picture. Neil Caudle and Zach Frazer are plans A1 and A2... sounds like TX QB Sean Hakes is plan B.

Also, showing a sense of timing almost as bad as mgoblog's basketball season preview, GBW previews... Illinois! Yow!

Upcoming: full-season hockey grades (which you may have seen in an incomplete, screwed up form a couple days ago... think of it as an ultrasound) and a small tribute to the hockey seniors.

Basketball: Expectation level set.

Good news if you love Tommy Amaker. Good news if you hate Tommy Amaker. There seems to be a growing body of opinion that UM is a tournament team next year and that Amaker has assembled enough talent to demonstrate whether or not he can coach his way out of a wet paper bag.

CBS Sportsline's Gregg Doyel is the latest to chime in like so, adding Michigan to his list of ten new tourney teams for '06. Vegas odds that at some point next year CBS or ESPN shows an Amaker montage backed by "Under Pressure": pick 'em.

Football: Terrell to Pats

Hey, remember the Orange Bowl? I do. I remember screaming "throw it to Terrell, dammit!" every time Michigan did anything other than throw it to Terrell, dammit. Tom Brady remembers, too, and apparently urged the Pats to sign DT after he came on the market after a Bears career that can be fairly described as sucktastic.

This idea? Friggin' brilliant for all involved. DT now has a living breathing QB throwing to him, one who he knows quite well. NE picked up a guy, for all his attitude issue and lack of production, who has a ton of talent. Chances are that Terrell will get in line now that he's being coached by the NFL equivalent of God, Bill Belichick, and having balls tossed to him by the NFL equivalent of Jesus, Tom Brady.

Two words to sum up: Fantasy. Sleeper. (Also: giant. dork.)

Football: TSN Draft Capsules

TSN's posted a bunch of draft analysis as part of their "pay for this 31337 coverage" teaser, and several Wolverines are noted. Braylon, of course, along with Shazor, Baas, and Dudley, though Dudley's profile basically says "is a fullback."

Marlin Jackson is nowhere to be found on their top five cornerbacks list although he's likely to be one of the top five cornerbacks taken. Shazor and Dudley are both ranked #2 at their respective positions, though it seems like Dudley is still unlikely to be drafted. That's going to be a mistake if he's not. I know fullbacks are not exactly high in the NFL pecking order, but Dudley erased projected top 10 pick Derrick Johnson (Rose Bowl stat line: 1.5 tackles, 1 forced fumble) and any other linebacker he faced. He never caught the ball, sure, but if you've got third and two he's your man. He's well worth a late round draft pick for a team in need of a road grader.

Basketball: East Lansing Riot 2: ELPD's revenge

All right, I was somewhere between somewhat and and very intoxicated while this was going on, but I remember watching news coverage of what went on in East Lansing after MSU's loss to UNC and it was... weird. There were scattered students all apparently in transit from bars to their homes, cops in riot gear, and completely unnecessary tear gas.

The RCMB has a picture-laden rant detailing what certainly sounds like a huge overreaction by the ELPD in their anticipation of another Duke 1999 fiasco. Some dude with a much better camera also has a visual summary up. My favorite:


All in all, though, it looks like MSU students got done wrong here.

Basketball: State of the Program

A note: PPWS is Points Per Weighted Shot. See this post for a more detailed discussion.

I did this backwards, looking at next season before I looked back at this one. I was planning on correcting that, but... well, do you really want to read about last season? Do I want to write about it? Can we all agree that last season didn't actually happen? Ok! Super. The 2004-2005 basketball season was mysteriously cancelled, the rest of the nation had a mass delusion that it is still occurring and that I'm second in my NCAA basketball pool, and only fans of Michigan were mysteriously exempt from this bizarre paranormal phenomenon.

Okay, that's settled. I feel better. Now. Next year. Next year is The Year for Michigan and Amaker. Another bad season and recruiting class will sentence UM to more purgatory. A breakthrough and a class with DeShawn Sims, Tory Jackson, Tom Herzog, Klen Morris, and Someone Else and we're rolling. Next year is The Year. It's make or break time, kids.

On with the show.

Backcourt
Depth at last, depth at last. Sweet God Almighty, depth at last. Michigan will go from two scholarship players for the 1, 2, and 3 spots to seven. Lester Abram will return from a shoulder injury suffered at last year's NIT. Daniel Horton will return from suspension. Three freshmen will join them. Canadian Jevohn Shepherd is the most likely to receive extensive playing time.

The backcourt will be vastly improved. It would be hard not to be. Last year Michigan played Dion Harris almost 40 minutes a game and surrounded him with the kind of guys who make good human interest stories when they graduate with their degrees in astrophysics but look as out of place on the court as an Ohio State linebacker in class (zing!). This year, God willing, Michigan will start Horton, Harris, and Abram and keep them fresh with Jerret Smith, Jevohn Shepard, and Ron Coleman. Walk-ons petrified at the thought of shooting will no longer occupy the court at all times.

Junior SG Dion Harris gained a ton of valuable experience this year as the only offensive option on the floor and was forced to learn how to create his own shot while all five defenders were exclusively focused on him. He was erratically impressive towards the end of the year, breaking 20 points frequently despite Michigan's inability to take pressure off of him. In comparison, next year will feel Charmin-soft to Harris. His PPWS numbers and ATO ratio are bad, but if anyone gets a free pass for last year, it's Harris. He was often forced to jack up tough shots late in the shot clock simply because there was no one else who could possibly find a shot. Surrounded by scholarship players who can shoot, Harris should see his shots and turnovers plummet while his shooting percentage and assists rise.

Senior PG Daniel Horton regressed as a sophomore after a dynamic freshman campaign and had a star-crossed junior year where the focus was more on his injured knees and off-court behavior than on anything he did with the basketball in his hands. Assuming he returns with his head on straight next year, he should be an alternately acceptable and maddening next year. Horton is not the program savior he appeared to be when he was the Big Ten's Freshman of the Year in 2003. He is a streaky shooter who will take bad shots outside of the context of the offense. He is not much of a ball distributor and will turn the ball over more than a starting point guard should. He is not an all-Big Ten type player. He has never shot better than 39% from the field. He has never had an assist-to-turnover ratio above 1.2. This is unlikely to change.

Junior SF Lester Abram was desperately missed last year after leading Michigan in scoring in '04, despite taking 109 fewer shots than second place finisher Horton and 90 fewer shots than third place Bernard Robinson, Jr. Abram's shooting totals were flat ridiculous: 49% from the field, 41% percent from three, and 84% from the free-throw line. For a turnover- and rebounding-challenged team like Michigan, his offensive efficiency was the lifeblood of the team. And then it was gone. Abram is not a good distributor--in '04 his assist-to-turnover ratio was under one--and is only an adequate defender, but he takes good shots and makes efficient use of offensive possessions, unlike every other Wolverine not named Courtney Sims.

Sophomore SF Ron Coleman will benefit more than anyone else from the variety of weapons Michigan will have at its disposal next year. If Abram, Horton, or Harris manage to get dribble penetration, opponents will have to leave Coleman and his three-point stroke unguarded. Coleman has the chance to develop into a Lavell Blanchard-type small forward... if he develops. He'll never be the type of player to create his own shot, but he showed last year that he can be sporadically deadly given the opportunity to spot up and receive a kickout pass. If he can turn "sporadically" into "consistently" and drain 40% of his threes he'll be a very useful piece of the puzzle. He must improve his defense immensely if he's going to be anything other than a role-player, however.

The three freshmen arrive at Michigan sight unseen by mgoblog, unfortunately, but should contribute. Freshman PG Jerret Smith arrives as a "true point guard," which usually means that the player described as such can't shoot. This is true of Smith. It also usually means that the player described has a great assist-to-turnover ratio. This is not true of Smith, unfortunately, who is prone to bad decisions and bad turnovers. He'll fit in the Michigan backcourt perfectly. Snide comments aside, unless Smith undergoes a Barry Bonds pre-roids to Barry Bonds post-roids transformation it's unrealistic to expect much from Smith over the course of his career. If he can replace Horton for ten or so minutes a game, get his turnovers under control, and run what passes for an offense at Michigan, consider it a win.

Freshman SF Kendrick Price will face a difficult transition from high school to college. His height (6'8") dictates that he play inside at Buckingham Browne and Nichols, his high school, but his weight (approximately 6 pounds) and shooting touch appear to point to a college career at small forward. Price will have to adapt to an entirely new position and role on both offense and defense. The good news is that Price is a great athlete with a high ceiling who could develop into a poor man's Kevin Garnett who fills out the stat sheet with points, rebound, assists, and blocks. Sky is the limit here, but there's also strong bust potential.

Freshman SG Jevohn Shepherd will be the most immediate help to the Wolverine backcourt. Shepherd is Canadian and thus way off most guru's radar and way too into putting gravy on his fries. Vince Baldwin is a big fan, though, claiming that if Shepherd was American he would easily be a top 50 recruit. Shepherd is reputed to be an athletic slasher who can get to the hoop and finish, something that Michigan lacks at the moment. Another exciting athlete, Shepherd has a much more polished and college-ready game than the other two freshman and should immediately see playing time spelling Abram and Harris.

Frontcourt
Unless '05 recruit Uche Echefu chooses Michigan over schools like Duke, North Carolina and Wake Forest (uh, unlikely), Michigan will return the same frontcourt rotation it used this year minus turnover machine JC Mathis. Any improvements will have to come from within.

Senior PF Graham Brown is maxed out as a player. He'll scrap for you, dive for loose balls, rebound, take charges, and get his shot blocked with alarming consistency. He'd be a good 10-15 minutes a night role-player for any Big Ten team, but Michigan will probably be forced to use him more. The fact that he's not much of a scorer shouldn't be much of a problem as long as he's not on the floor with Smith, Coleman, and Petway at the same time, and he'll play with intelligence and toughness.

Junior PF Brent Petway can rap, poorly. He can also jump tall buildings in a single bound. He can't do much offensively other than throw down thunderous dunks, but he brings rebounding, shot blocking, and tremendous energy as a bench substitute. He should see about 20 minutes a game alternating with Brown, as they’re both non-scorers but bring a lot of intangibles to the table.

Senior PF Chris Hunter has turned out to be exactly the player recruiting gurus projected to him to be: a skilled offensive big man who shows little fire on the defensive end of the court and is a below-average rebounder. Hunter has a diverse offensive game that extends from the block all the way out to the three point line and was highly effective when healthy this year, but that was infrequent. Hunter sat out large sections of the season nursing various ankle sprains, bruises, and other Vince-Carter-ish “suck it up and get out there” injuries. Hunter, when healthy, should provide scoring punch off the bench next year but there will be many situations that he will be ill-suited for when he is matched up against a stronger, meaner post.

Junior C Courtney Sims is the key to next year's frontcourt. You know what you're going to get from Brown. Petway's offensive skill is unlikely to take a quantum leap forward. Chris Hunter is going to be injured and poor defensively. If there is going to be a frontcourt centerpiece, it will be Sims.

There's no questioning Sims' shot blocking and post ability, but he has shown little fire or competitiveness in his first two years at Michigan, often getting dominated by players with half his physical gifts but twice his determination. Sims got shoved out of position far too much for a player with his size and skill, failed to rebound effectively, and often disappeared for long stretches at a time, especially when matched up against high-quality opposition.

Sims' year was not the complete loss many made it out to be, however. He averaged a decent 9.8 points and had a very respectable PPWS of 1.26--up from 1.14 as a freshman--in about 23 minutes a game. He increased his shooting percentage, free throw percentage, and rebounding average. He made a step forward. It was not the giant leap many expected at the beginning of the season, but it was not a disaster, either.

The disturbing number for Sims was his shot attempts: 200, only eight more than his freshman year. Sims was healthy, unlike the rest of the roster, shot almost 60% from the field, and was unquestionably the second offensive option behind Dion Harris during the Big Ten tailspin, but could not get off any extra shots, partially because his passive play forced Amaker to bench him (thus the 23 minutes a game) when he has the skill to be All Big Ten.

Keys to Next Season

Get Horton under control.
Horton needs to understand that he is the third or fourth offensive option on the team, behind Sims, Abram, and possibly Harris. Amaker must not tolerate Horton taking rushed shots without even attempting to find an open man. Amaker, for the first time in his tenure at Michigan, will have the option of yanking players who displease him. He must use it early and often to reign in the often out-of-control Horton.

Get Sims more shots.
This is half on Sims and half on the guards. Sims is a deadly efficient post player when he gets position. Michigan must work the ball around to get good entry angles to pass into the post, and Sims must get better position on the block on a more consistent basis. If Sims averages 14 or 15 a game, Michigan will be in good shape. This is a huge test of Amaker’s ability to coach up kids. Sims has the tools. Amaker must install the attitude.

Penetrate and dish.
Michigan's "motion offense" largely consists of passing it around the perimeter between Graham Brown and Brent Petway before a rushed, off-balance three by a player guarded by two opponents and a Doberman pinscher. Michigan must find a player who can consistently break down opponents off the dribble, force help defense to respond, and find the open man. Harris is the likely candidate after his trial by fire last year, but watch out for Jevohn Shepherd.

Box out.
For Christ's sake. Just do it. There's absolutely no excuse for Michigan to get horribly out-rebounded with more legitimate Big Ten post players than any team in the conference.

Play smart.
Amaker's teams have often looked like five headless chickens running around wondering what all the fuss is about. This cannot continue. The offensive deficiencies this year can be excused, but the multiple and flagrant defensive breakdowns (dunkfest vs. MSU prominent amongst them) cannot. Amaker has not shown he can produce a disciplined team that gets the most of their talent.

Outlook
The team will be better. Michigan loses no one except seldom-used JC Mathis and will have five players at its disposal that were not available during the tailspin at the end of last year: the three freshmen, Horton, and Abram. Abram's return is the key. If he can perform like he did as a sophomore he will be by far the team's best player and a strong candidate for next year's All-Wonk team. His PPWS as a sophomore was an excellent 1.28, higher than anyone on the team this year. It would have been good for a tie for seventh in the Big Ten this year.

The million dollar question: is this a tournament team? A lot of people think this should be a lead-pipe cinch or Amaker should be sent packing. I disagree. Amaker's put together a decent roster and rebuilt a program in utter shambles before his arrival, but there are serious issues with this team. Daniel Horton is simply not a high caliber point guard, as his numbers show. The frontcourt is inconsistent. The team can't rebound for beans. Expecting Michigan to explode next year is unrealistic.

That said... yes, this is a tournament team. Michigan will be deep and experienced and should have three of the conference's better players in Harris, Abram, and Sims. MSU and Illinois should be significantly weakened by graduation losses and NBA defections. If Michigan does not make the tournament, fans and media will start preparing the hangman's noose for Amaker, and it won't be without reason.

The Prediction
Abram returns and is rusty for a while. Harris gets a lot better surrounded by living, breathing players. Horton disappoints again. Shepherd makes a splash. Sims takes another step forward and becomes a little bit more consistent.

The offense is radically better but still turnover prone. The defense is mediocre at best and has several ridiculous breakdowns. Rebounding improves a little bit.

The scoring punch of the backcourt wins Michigan some games it shouldn't but the inconsistency of Horton and Sims costs Michigan some games it should win. Michigan finishes with around 22 wins, gets a 7 seed in the tournament, wins a game, and bows out in the second round.

Something happen!

Arrrgh. Would something relevant happen? Please? A commitment, maybe, or some encouraging news or something. You, blog readers! Go do something Michigan-related and newsworthy.

Eh. Word-brick coming up on bball pretty soon. Hang in there.

Courage.