Unverified Voracity Thinks He's Younger Than Hannah Montana

Michigan's 2010 hockey recruiting class will be epic if the kids who have committed stick to their commitments. D Jon Merrill and F Luke Moffatt are generally regarded as the best kids at their position in their age bracket and are potential top-ten NHL draft picks. F Jared Knight is a bit less hyped but would have been an OHL first-rounder if he wasn't planning on going the NCAA route. His size will depress his spot in the NHL draft, but initial indications are he could be anywhere from TJ Hensick to Andrew Ebbett. (I haven't stumbled across anything that indicates how highly regarded Hotchkiss Prep D Mac Bennett, the fourth commit, is.)

The 2010 class will be super mega epic if F Colin Jacobs joins the show. Jacobs is getting oodles of hype...

“Colin certainly has huge upside and is a player we are monitoring closely,” said Chris Lepkowski, assistant personnel director for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program (NTDP), based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “Our program is one that requires the highest level of dedication by the player and his family. We are not only looking for the most highly-skilled player, but a player who has character, can handle adversity, and will be able to effectively manage his time. Colin’s on-ice talent is in line with the NTDP’s past players.”

... oodles ...

Some scouts hype Jacobs as the best American-born player since Mike Modano.

... and despite being ranked one of the top prospects available in the WHL draft he fell to the fourth round, an excellent indicator he plans on taking the college route:

Here is what Alan Caldwell had to say about Jacobs:

"Jacobs is one of the best 1993-born players in the United States. The fact that he went this low means he'll be a tough sell on the WHL. First-round talent if he comes."

If Jacobs doesn't end up in the WHL he's very likely to be with the NTDP. Just an advisory to keep his name in mind.

Oh, so that explains it. Bill Martin talked to the Big Ten Network, explaining that Michigan's basketball program now has the funding for a practice facility:



Now that we're practicing, look out, world.

Just one transfer away from a return. Indiana safety Jerimy Finch was a top-50 player in the class of 2007 who 1) committed to Michigan early in the process, 2) inexplicably visited Indiana with a bunch of his teammates, 3) even more inexplicably decommitted from Michigan and committed to Indiana, 4) decommitted from Indiana and eventually signed with Florida because Urban Meyer was apparently calling anyone on Rivals' top 100 list.

After his recruiting sojourn, we have more numbers: 5) got move to linebacker against his wishes, 6) broke his leg in the third game of the season, 7) pretty much failed out of Florida, and 8) is now transferring back to Indiana.

He's projected to be Michigan's starting free safety in 2010.

The Big Ten Network: feel the excitement! Presented without comment other than the obviously snarky lead-in:

Dance gala to be aired on Big Ten Network

"Performing Iowa: Dance Gala," the University of Iowa's first original non-sports cable TV program for the Big Ten Network, will be screened at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the auditorium of the UI Art Building West.

No, wait, one comment: damn you, Comcast. This is the last straw.

Speaking of, yet another article that claims a Comcast-BTN deal is imminent:

The Big Ten Network and Comcast — the nation’s largest cable provider that replaced Insight Communications this year in Springfield — likely will announce an agreement in late August, said John Ourand, a reporter for SportsBusiness Journal.

“Both sides are saying they expect something before the football season,’’ Ourand said.

An announcement could come in as soon as two or three weeks.

Late August or in two or three weeks? It don't matter to John Supinie of the Springfield Journal-Register! The article does have an interesting suggestion: though Comcast and the BTN always talk about a potential deal like it stands alone, the BTN's association with Fox means that there are dozens of channels and stations and so forth and so on in constant flux between the two media titans.

Side note: a WCHA channel? WTF?

Ha-ha. A reader sent along this lol-worthy State News piece wherein the outgoing sports editors "reflect on years of Spartan sports memories." You know where this is going: the Horror features prominently despite, you know, not actually being a Spartan sports memory in any way. Even weirder:

1. MSU football vs. Michigan, Oct. 1, 2005: Domata Peko’s 74-yard fumble return touchdown

1) Michigan State lost that game (obviously). 2) The play referenced here may in fact be the worst call in the history of college football. That sounds bombastic, but not only was Chad Henne's arm obviously hit during his throwing motion, just as obviously going forward at the time, and just as obviously propelling the ball forward before it hit the ground -- making this a trifecta of incredibly obvious items that indicate a forward pass -- but they actually reviewed the incredibly obvious forward pass and called it a fumble anyway. Incredibly obvious missed calls from yesteryear can't compete because they weren't validated by some batty old zombie up in the booth. (The video on the post disappeared, but if you want the relevant section of the NCAA rulebook it's here.) We actually spent the entirety of the remainder of the game bitching about that call, enraging an elderly Spartan fan to the point that he wanted to fight us.

Another editor cites the first half of a game Michigan State got blown out in; only the girl who is apparently one of the three Spartan hockey fans manages to name two things that are actual Spartan sports memories that aren't kinda humiliating.

Zing! SI's "Truth and Rumors" is basically a news aggregator that takes snippets from articles and reposts them to SI. Today we have this on GA S Darren Myles:

Coaches from Georgia, Illinois, Marshall, Michigan, Ohio State and Ole Miss were on hand to get a glimpse of junior free safety Darren Myles Jr. and his teammates during opening day of spring football practice at Carver on Monday. Myles, whose marquee scholarship offers are from programs such as Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, South Carolina and Tennessee, enjoyed a productive day at the Nike camp in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Saturday.

A wag in the comments:

So the hot news here is that if your school has a name, they are still in the mix of getting a commitment from this guy?

biminator | 05/06/08, 08:22 AM

That's all.

Etc.: Purdue teetering on the edge of APR sanctions; UMHoops analyzes the Udoh departure.