Five things I love about the NBA Playoffs

Marv Albert and Steve Kerr. Kerr is unbelievably good as a color man. He picks up on all those niggling little details that a color man should and explains things clearly--he and his TNT crew were all over the strange situation with Indiana's timeouts last night and the technical foul that was upcoming at the three-minute mark of the fourth quarter. Ultimately, it was a useless piece of information but I'm willing to wager Bill Walton wouldn't have mentioned it until the free throw was actually occurring and then he would claim it was because someone mouthed off to the officials. Kerr noticed something unusual and interesting and told me about it. Now I am smarter about basketball. Kerr does this all the time.

Kerr's also funny, and I have high standards for funny. He and Albert have great chemistry, bouncing insults off each other with a casual aplomb that lets you know that they actually respect and like each other--night and day from earlier this year when Mike Fratello was part of the broadcast crew and would sit there the whole game pissed off and bitchy. Now Kerr and Albert merrily insult each other and throw in the occasional shot at "the Czar" that can be interpreted as innocent fun but probably shouldn't be. (It's clear that everyone who worked with Fratello hated his guts. I would pay to see TNT studio dude Ernie Johnson go twelve rounds with Fratello.) That's the best part--envisioning Fratello stewing at home, gripping the armrests of his solid-gold armchair with a white-hot fury and frantically calling the TNT studios to threaten slander suits aplenty.

Marv Albert is Marv Albert, with just the right level of idiosyncracy to be weirdly entertaining but not grating and a honey-smooth voice that makes him one of the top play by play guys working today in any sport. Plus every once in a while you get to think to yourself "I can't believe Marv Albert likes biting hookers' asses really hard."

It gets no better than this. Other than Keith Jackson and anyone circa 1997 and maybe Gary Thorne and John Davidson there is no broadcast team better that Kerr and Albert anywhere.

In a related story, Charles Barkley. The man is a national treasure. Clear, blunt, hilarious, and completely un-PC, somehow the exact opposite of both Bill Walton and Stephen F-minus-minus Smith. Please go into politics, Charles. Please.

White bench scrubs beating the Pistons. That's right, I love it. Largely because every night that some floppy-haired guy from somewhere like Pepperdine does not start raining threes and dropping dimes like he came straight out of Compton there is an 80 percent chance of a Pistons victory. And even when that happens it's sort of amusing, because fans of the opposing team immediately make the scrub out to be the next Larry Bird until the Pistons crush his soul the next game and he shoots 2 of 14. (Don't worry, Mr. Scrub, they do that to Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant, too.)

The list here is getting pretty long: there was Brian Scalabrine and his weird red halfro, Luke Walton making me want to strangle his father even more than usual, Austin Croshere and his bald spot raining threes, and now Jeff Foster and his rebound machine. The Sixers would have taken their first round series against the Pistons to six games if they just had the common sense to start Aaron McKie and bring Korver off the bench for thirty minutes a game.

Darko. Darko was dubbed the "Human Victory Cigar" by Bill Simmons but I prefer to think of him as a seven foot two middle finger extended towards the rest of the league. Let me get this straight. The Pistons blow the second overall pick in the best draft since Jordan entered the league, missing out on Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and DWAYNE WADE in the process, and then proceed to steal certified lunatic Rasheed Wallace from the Hawks in exchange for about four Zeljko Rebracas and the stick of gum that came with the pack, rally back from a 3-2 deficit against the Nets, win the ugliest playoff series in NBA history against the Pacers, and then annihilate the Lakers to win the championship anyway? It was as if Joe Dumars decided this whole being a GM thing was just too easy so he needed to handicap himself because he couldn't put the thing on "Heisman."

In all seriousness, has something like this ever happened before? Usually picking the total stiff in a draft that good tanks your team for a decade or more as a sort of "We could have had him?" malaise sets in and everything the team touches turns to lead. The Stiff becomes a tragic story retold again and again by drunk fans of that team wherever they gather. It's late, the entire world is dark and you're with a bunch of guys so you can't cry about your wife leaving you or whatever, so you recount the Tale of The Stiff. It's practically guaranteed.

Not so with Darko. Even if Darko never turns into anything approximating an NBA player (and the returns at the moment do not look good), the Tale of Darko will be a merry comic farce. Chad Ford telling the world that Darko was a cross between Kevin Garnett and Jesus. The tape over his newly pierced ears in last year's playoffs. The rise and fall of the crowd with every Darko shot with two minutes left in a thirty point game. It would all be darkly comic, except there's no darkness here. Because no Piston fan will ever recount the Tale of Darko without remembering that he hilariously broke his hand in garbage time of game five of the 2004 Finals. The same game five that destroyed the Lakers once and for all, soured the entire country on Kobe Bryant, and ended with Ben goddamn Wallace holding the NBA trophy above his head and nobody rioting anywhere. That felt good. That felt Inigo Montoya "I want my father back, you son of a bitch" good. And Darko was the icing on the cake.

This:


Can anyone explain this? Can anyone explain this site? It appears to be a deranged twelve-year-old Japanese girl's tribute to the 2004 NBA Champion Pistons. I'd be cynical and horrible about it, but that's exactly how I feel about Ben Wallace so I think it is the best website ever.

Update: EVER!!!

Football: Uniform panic

Sweet fancy Moses.

There's a line-band-thing of the piping on the back. Someone shoot Phil Knight. The official site has an article headlined "New U-M Football Jerseys Blend Tradition, Technology" which means there's an iPod in there somewhere I guess. I'll probably get over this about ten seconds into the NIU game but right now this is an atrocity on the level of... well, not the Holocaust, but something pretty bad.

Football: Uni changes

A couple of readers pointed out that the new away jerseys being sold on the M-Den look like this:


Instead of this:



The home jerseys have changed, too, but the result is not as drastic on the less detailed blues.

Obviously the color on the first one is due to some weird lighting instead of a complete break with Michigan history. (Either that, or I have to raise a robot army to kill whoever's responsible.) I heard about the stitching change for the front numbers a while ago but didn't think they would change the collar, number position, and sleeves. Taken all together it's a pretty noticeable difference. I don't know what I think of it yet... I thought the new hockey jerseys they introduced a few years ago were going to look ridiculous but ended up liking them a lot. So judgment will be reserved.

Wow, that was a lot of free advertising for the M-Den. You can't buy this sort of publicity, mostly because I'm not selling it.

(Thanks to readers Douglas Dillon and Brent Accurso for the heads up.)

Update: Jesus Christ, there's a yellow stripe on those things. Look up at the shoulder... I completely missed it before. New opinion: goddammit.

Hockey: Major changes coming to Canadian junior

Bob McKenzie reports on TSN.ca that the Canadian Junior system will be radically revamped. Included in the revamp is apparently going to be some kind of limit on the number of Americans playing for CHL teams located in Canada. I blogged on this topic before and pooh-poohed the idea. Egg on my face? Maybe. We'll see what the limit is set at. If it's one, that's major news. If it's two, that's a minor inconvenience. Anything higher and it's basically a cosmetic gesture. I'm betting the limit is something like four per team.

There are a slew of other changes that were in the works but probably had their skids greased by the overwhelmingly negative reaction of the Canadian press to the OHL's decision to allow 14-year-old John Tavares into the most recent OHL draft. OHL teams will be limited to two 16-year-olds per team--approximately 120 across Canada--and the remainder would play midget AAA. There is also a proposal to block 15 year olds from transferring to the United States like Sydney Crosby and Angelo Esposito have to play at Shattuck.

In summary, the changes basically say: stay and play at home until you are 17 unless you are one of the top 120 16-year-olds in the country. I don't have any OHL numbers that indicate how many kids this will impact, but assuming that it's a significant number the changes proposed are a step in the right direction.

The impact on colleges will probably be minimal unless the CHL really clamps down on the number of Americans allowed, in which case a few players will probably end up in the NCAA instead of the CHL.

Football: Hulksters of Michigan!

It's too bad I can't take NationalChamps.net seriously, because they just declared Michigan's offensive line the best unit in the country. Unfortunately, an Estonian turnip farmer apparently wrote the article. Seriously:

Often, youth movements are also a precursor for more beneficial times, as we will soon see in Ann Arbor, where four of five "hulksters" return for '05.

...oh God. I think I'm going to pass out... can't... breathe... laughing... too hard SPOCK!


Sorry. Sorry. I've composed myself now. Fear the mighty Hulksters of Michigan!


What are you going to do when the Hulksters of Michigan run wild over you?

mgoblog has adopted a new piece of obscure lingo:
Hulkster (n.) - an offensive lineman, esp. one who is suspected of being on steroids and having silly facial hair. Example: Kyle Turley.

Football: Recruiting Board updated

Update 5/16:Added note that Michigan leads for KY DT Corey Peters based on post from KY Rivals guru Jeff Drummond. Used header of Scout article to assert that Nebraska leads for CA WR Menelik Holt.

Small update but one with some actual news in it. Rumours that Michigan leads for Corey Peters of Louisville Central have been out there for a while but when the UK site's recruiting honcho says it that qualifies as news. Peters is a solid four star that may inch into the bottom of some top 100 lists by the end of the summer. He played next to James McKinney last year and some observers claimed that he outperformed the Michigan freshman-to-be. Worth keeping an eye on.

Basketball: OSU did bad redux

If you hit the first iteration of the "OSU did bad" post and have not revisited it you may want to do so now. It got updated with authorita(!), as Cartman might say. Definitely read that Stewart Mandel article, it's right on the money.

I fear you people sometimes

Did someone really reach mgoblog by typing death of mike woodford into google?

Am I really the only hit on the entire internet for "SHIREEN SASKI NUDE"?

Apparently so.

Basketball: OSU did bad

I know that's like saying "Jessica Simpson still dumb," but in about a half-hour OSU will be holding a press conference to announce the findings of its investigation into its football, men's basketball, and women's basketball programs after, well, you probably know already about the Clarett stuff and the Boban Savovic stuff... but did you know Dave Thomas tried to give Savovic money? Yeah, that Dave Thomas, the dead one from the commercials.

Might the hammer go down? Dunno, but the O-Zone is somewhat apprehensive. If it does, expect an awful lot of Ed Martin finger-pointing from Buckeye fans over the next few days... and a deep, evil cackle from mgoblog's mysterious underground headquarters.

Update: Press conference didn't announce anything earth shattering but bodes unwell for the OSU basketball program. The Ozone has a list of the NCAA allegations up (sans permalink, the bastards). All pertain to basketball save for the last one, which is about the Troy Smith fiasco at the end of last year.

Most damning is this one:

Former men's basketball coach Jim O'Brien, through then-assistant coach Paul Biancardi, provided a cash payment of approximately $6,700 to then-recruit Alex Radojevic.

That's a nasty, nasty violation if it can be proven to be true. Michigan's Ed Martin problem was an instance of a third party giving money to players as an extra benefit. That allegation is the head coach giving money to a player as a recruiting inducement. The amount of the payment is largely irrelevant to the NCAA once you get past a certain petty threshold, what's important is who is doing it and for what purpose. The head coach is the worst person to be doing it. A recruiting inducement is the worst purpose to have. Put them both together and that's asking to get gored by the NCAA's horns.

I think OSU's basketball program may have more trouble on the way. If those allegations can be proven to be true the NCAA will probably perceive the OSU violations as systemic and institutional and levy scholarship reductions and at least an additional year of postseason ineligibility. Still a long way to go before the end of this whole thing.

Update II: Stewart Mandel has a great article on the OSU infractions that explains everything very clearly. Mandel says $6,700 payment I referenced is not as bad as it looks at first blush but several other violations are quite serious and can be backed up by phone records and O'Brien's own testimony. Money graf:

While the Michigan scandal involved much bigger player names -- such as Chris Webber and Robert Traylor -- and larger amounts of money -- reportedly $616,000 in total benefits -- an examination of NCAA case precedent indicates the Ohio State findings may actually merit harsher sanctions than the Wolverines'.

Bingo, Mr. Mandel. Mandel also lifts a sentence from the the NCAA's report that upheld Michigan's appeal:

"A review of [past] decisions ... which upheld a postseason ban revealed the presence of one or more of the following factors in each case: repeat violator status, lack of institutional control, or academic fraud. None of these factors is present in this case."

Check, check, and check. OSU is not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination here.

Top 50 Hockey Recruits Breakdown

A by-team and by-league breakdown of the top fifty list follow.

By School

Team	Top 20	21-50	Total
North Dakota	#3, #7, #18 #20	2	6
Boston College	#6, #8, #19	3	6
Minnesota	#1, #7, #14	2	5
Michigan	#2, #4, #10	2	5
Minnesota-Duluth	#13	3	4
Denver	#15	3	4
Michigan State	#12	2	3
UNH	#16	2	3
Wisconsin	#5	1	2
Colorado College	#11	1	2
Ferris State	#17	1	2

Schools with one player after #20: Bowling Green, Alaska-Fairbanks, Dartmouth, Yale, BU, Miami, Lake State, Michigan Tech.

What jumps out at me: Minnesota-Duluth outdid themselves this year. They're probably an easy choice for the #5 class behind the big four of BC, UND, Michigan, and Minnesota. Maine got completely shut out and BU only landed one player on the list. Expect the recent western (read: WCHA) dominace to continue. Only 13 players on the list are heading to eastern schools and almost half of them are going to BC.

By League

League	Top 20	21-50	Total
USHL	#6, #7, #9, #11, #12, #17	10	16
NTDP	#1, #2, #5, #10, #14, #18, #19	6	13
Minnesota HS	#3, #8, #13	3	6
AJHL	#15	3	4
BCHL	#20	3	4
Eastern HS	#16	2	3
OPJHL	#4	1	2

Leagues with one player 21-50: GHJHL, SJHL, EJHL.

The dominance of the USHL is the main story here. It and the NTDP share over half the names on the list. The various Canadian junior leagues supplied 12 names.

I think when this is revisited in a few years the biggest systemic flaw in the list will be an underrating of eastern players. There will be players in the ECAC and Hockey East that will be given major opportunities and flourish with the ice time given them. The problem is I have no idea who those kids are. I'll probably do a final update in a couple months and perhaps by that time I'll have an idea about the eastern players who should be in the later stages of the list.

However, I am quite confident in the top twenty-five or so, and it paints an ugly picture for Hockey East teams not named Boston College. UNH is the only team that can be remotely happy with what they reeled in this year (though Maine has a deserved reputation for uncovering hidden gems).

Softball Destroy!

The softball team finished the season 55-4 (good) and was named the number one overall seed in the newly-expanded softball tournament. They'll be hosting a regional this weekend at Alumni Field against Canisius, North Carolina, and Seton Hall.

Odd how the softball team has turned itself into a perennial success but the baseball team labors to make the postseason. You'd think they face the same weather issues the men do. Perhaps the women... in the cold...

Nevermind. This post is over. Nothing to see here.

Football: Assorted links

The South Bend Tribune talked to Desmond Howard recently for reasons unknown.

The Indianapolis Star talked to Marlin Jackson because he's now a Colt. Jackson just got rid of his 1996 Suzuki Rodeo... should have gone to OSU, Marlin!

Finally, Jim Carty has an extensive discussion of the Big Ten's discussions with the various bowls not named "Rose." There have been some rumors about the Cotton, Citrus (Capital what?), and Gator Bowls forming a sort of second-tier alliance and swapping teams between the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big Twelve to get better matchups and prevent teams from going to the same bowl year after year. That's an excellent idea, hope it ends up working out.

Football: Lester Diamond, Internet Hero

There's a guy on Rivals who posts on the various Big Ten boards as "Lester Diamond." He generally posts on the impending rise of Indiana football in outlandish and stunning fashion. He's clearly a schtick played for laughs. Or, at least I thought it was clear.

His latest work appeared on the Penn State Rivals board and is copied here for posterity's sake:

Sources in the IU athletic department report that Penn State quarterback Anthony Morelli is indeed "very interested" in transferring to Indiana. Morelli is said to be "disheartened" at the prospect of playing in coach Joe Paterno's "outdated,archaic" offense. He believes the free-wheeling,point-a-minute offense of Coach Terry Hoeppner would be a natural fit for his ample skills. Insiders believe Morelli could win multiple Heismans and national titles piloting Coach Hep's spread attack. Allowing the transfer would signal a change in Coach Hep's "no-transfer" rule, as he previously dissuaded prize recruits Derrick Williams and Justin King from switching their allegiance to IU.

It is reported that Coach Hep engaged in a "heated exchange"(that began as an argument over the merits of the forward pass) with Paterno at a Chicago coaching clinic and the two had to be separated by fellow attendees. This may explain the abrupt change in Coah Hep's thinking. Adding fuel to the rumor is a recent trip Hoeppner took to State College. Insiders say that Hoeppner,ostensibly in town for an arm-wrestling tournament,met with Morelli and the two had an "involved,heart-to-heart discussion". Neither athletic department will comment publicly on the situation.

This is obviously a joke, and replies like "Nice work Les... appreciate the comic relief" and "not bad, I needed a laugh today" immediately popped up in the thread. Unfortunately for the editors of the Westmoreland Tribune-Review, crack Penn State beat writer Sam Ross, Jr. failed to pick up on this subtlety:

Morelli doesn't expect to be redshirted this year, but that doesn't prevent rumors from springing up on the message boards, like the one that recently had him transferring to Indiana of the Big Ten, ostensibly over his disappointment with his lot at Penn State.

Wow. Wow. Someone post a rumor that I've been hired by ESPN.com.

(hat tip: Matt Pargoff on The Wolverine.)

Football: Boren Official

Justin Boren is a Wolverine.



That's what I call an offensive lineman, kids. mgoblog on Boren here, updated recruiting board here.

Basketball: Final '05 rankings

Scout and Rivals have both published their final rankings for the class of '05. Kendrick Price checked in at #71 on Scout and #126 on Rivals; Jevohn Shepherd ended up at #97 on Scout and #125 on Rivals. Smith was nowhere to be found. Big disparity there on Price, but I can see people having wildly divergent opinions on a 6'8" stick of a small forward.

Scout also updated their '06 ratings: Sims is #30, Herzog #36, and Jackson #60. Shaw dropped off the face of the earth as expected.

Football: Recruiting Board updated

Update 5/13: Stopped pretending it was still April, added DE Brandon Spikes, CB Jovani Chappel, who I thought was already listed. Removed WR Wesley Lyons, QB Pat Devlin, QB Matt Stafford. Changed Cobrani Mixon's status after a scout article indicated that he was favoring the SEC. Added a bunch of scout links (suggest you look at the Steve Schilling pic--right out of Bo-era UM). Noted that FL leads for another QB--if he commits Tebow will head elsewhere.

Link is here.

Hockey: Top 50(!) Recruits Nationwide

Some guidelines: this is '05 college hockey recruits only. You don't have to be draft eligible. You can't be an '06 recruit. Players are ranked based on projected college hockey performance, not their NHL prospects. The upshot of that is that tiny fast guys who figure to score in bunches in college but get drafted in the 5th round by the NHL rate higher here than in NHL draft lists. I didn't attempt to rank goalies.

Check out a team and league breakdown of the list here.

A disclaimer: I have seen the NDTP guys a few times. I have not seen anyone else, except Brian Lee very briefly at the WJC. I am trying to bring together information from outside sources into a coherent whole. IANAS. (I Am Not A Scout.)

Factors considered: scouting reports from Kyle Woodlief, ISS, and USHR (the free variety of all). Message board flaming from USCHO. Scouting reports from knowledgeable people on Hockey's Future's forums. Personal observation of the NTDP. Bob Miller's opinion (tbarr on The Wolverine). Statistics. Quality of the league those statistics are garnered in. OHL draft position if available. NHL draft projections (CSB idiocy excepted). Relative youth of the participants... younger is always better. Chris Heisenberg's approximate ratings. How hot and heavy big-time schools were after a recruit. WesternCollegeHockey's lists for WCHA and CCHA schools. And, finally, how funny someone's name is.

One final note: the relative lack of information about junior hockey players and the near-futility of comparing players across vastly different leagues makes it very difficult to precisely rank players past about the top twenty. As such, the players ranked from 31-50 are placed in three bands of ten.

Feedback is welcome... this is most definitely a work in progress.

List update: Added Mason Raymond (31-40 range) and Chris Butler (21-30 range). Moved Andrew Kozek to 20. Flipped Chad Rau and Justin Abdelkader (11 and 12). Bumped Mike Karowksi and Jimmy Fraser out of the list. Bumped a few players down to make room, most prominently Swystun from 20 to the 31-40 range. Added Troy Schwab to the 41-50 range, replacing Chris Hahn after an LSSU fan convinced me he was the superior SJHL prospect.

1. F Phil Kessel - USNTDP - Minnesota
Why? Kessel is the most hyped American prospect since Mike Modano, and with good reason. At 17, he was the USA's best player at the World Junior Championships. He averaged almost two points a game with the NTDP. He's the odds on favorite to be the first overall pick in the 2006 draft. Beware of Gopher.
Could be lower because... he's not a four year player. There's no other argument against him. Okay, maybe he doesn't play much defense. But who cares?

2. D Jack Johnson - USNTDP - Michigan
Why? Johnson is a cross between Rob Blake and a PCP-crazed Godzilla, equally adept with and without the puck and liable to crush an opponent to tiny bits at any time. He may go #2 behind superphenom Sydney Crosby in this year's draft.
Could be higher because... Johnson will have more impact on both ends of the ice than Kessel.
Could be lower because... he will have to adjust to the higher quality of his opponents and rein in his headhunting a bit. Right now he's a little too much of a wildman.

3. F Jonathan Toews - Shattuck-St. Mary's - North Dakota
Why? Toews was the first pick in the '04 WHL draft and is projected to be a top-ten selection in the '06 NHL draft. He led uber-prep school Shattuck-St. Mary's in scoring as an early '88. Toews will have an immediate impact on the Sioux.
Could be higher because... there isn't really a good reason. Nothing against Toews, that's just how good Johnson and Kessel are.
Could be lower because... Cogliano's wheels may make him a better collegian. No one else can make a case for #3, though.

4. F Andrew Cogliano - St. Michael's Buzzers (OPJHL) - Michigan
Why? Cogliano's been destroying overmatched competition in Ontario Junior B for the last two years, patiently waiting to get to Michigan where he can do likewise to equally overmatched CCHA competition. Cogs recieved some early hype as a potential top-10 selection himself, despite being well under six feet tall, and has settled in as a likely late first rounder. Cogliano has speed to burn, "Bure-like" speed according to one knowledgeable scout, and hands to match.
Could be higher because... he is the best skater of anyone entering college this year by a wide margin. He'll be an immediate hit in Red Berenson's wide open attack.
Could be lower because... the OPJHL is not nearly as tough as the USHL or the schedule the NTDP tackles. Cogliano will be making a bigger leap from juniors to college than anyone else in the top ten.

5. F Jack Skille - USNTDP - Wisconsin
Why? Skille is a rare combination of size, ornery disposition, and sugar-sweet hands. He averaged almost a point per game with the NTDP this year and will be off the board at the NHL draft by the mid first round.
Could be higher because... Skille's a more physical player than any of the forwards in front of him. If he can score at a similar rate, his off-the-puck contributions would make him a better player.
Could be lower because... impact players in the WCHA are usually little offensive dynamos (or, in the case of Thomas Vanek, big offensive dynamos who play little). If the NCAA continues its crackdown on interference Skille may find himself in the penalty box more often than Wisconsin would like.

6. F Brock Bradford - Omaha Lancers (USHL) - Boston College
Why? Bradford is a diminutive scoring machine out of Western Canada headed to BC next year who looks to be a 2nd or 3rd round draft pick despite his size. Dan Bertram is his friend and apparent clone. Bertram, if you didn't notice, did all right at BC this year at exactly the same age as Bradford (i.e., young).
Could be higher because... has played out of his mind in short bursts, particularly upon his arrival in the USHL. Even though the USHL is a much tougher league than his previous home, the BCHL, Bradford burst out of the gates with 19 points in his first twelve games.
Could be lower because... Bradford's USHL resume is only fractionally more impressive than Wheeler's and he tailed off after that absolutely scorching start to the season.

7. F Blake Wheeler - Green Bay Gamblers (USHL) - Minnesota
Why? Wayne Gretzky shocked just about everybody when he made Wheeler the 5th selection of the 2004 NHL draft. Wheeler was regarded as an early second round pick, maybe a late-first, but the fact that he is 6'4" and not an idiot with the puck on his stick sold Wayne. Wheeler was Minnesota's Mr. Hockey in 2004 before heading over to the USHL last year, where he peformed well enough.
Could be higher because... he is 6'4". And Wayne Gretzky reportedly knows something about hockey. Wheeler's top end is as high as anyone entering college hockey this year and he has a better chance of sticking around for four years to realize it than many of the players in front of him.
Could be lower because... Wheeler did not dominate the USHL, ending up tied for 21st in scoring and posting a minus seven. Gretzky reaching for Wheeler may have inflated expectations for him.

8. D Brian Lee - Moorhead HS - North Dakota
Why? Lee may have been added to the WJC team because of politics, but that wasn't the only reason. An NHL team will take him in the first round because his two-way potential is very good. Minnesota's Mr. Hockey usually ends up making noise in college.
Could be higher because... Lee will probably see more icetime from day one with a needy North Dakota squad than most of the forwards in front of him.
Could be lower because... Lee will be making a huge jump from Minnesota high schools to the WCHA. He may need some time to get acclimated.

9. D Brett Motherwell - Omaha (USHL) - BC
Why? Motherwell was named the best defenseman in the best league that acts as an NCAA feeder. He is ready to step in to a collegiate defense right now and capably run a powerplay. He finished second in points by a defenseman in the USHL. His NHL draft stock is hurt by his relative lack of size but that won't be nearly as much of a factor in college.
Could be higher because... Motherwell is as proven as any player in this class after two stellar years in the USHL. His bust factor is almost nil.
Could be lower because... He won't bash anyone's head in and lacks the size to truly dominate in his own end of the rink.

10. D Mark Mitera - USNTDP - Michigan
Why? No college-bound defenseman has improved as much as Mitera has over the past year. Mitera isn't a forward-crushing offensive dynamo like Johnson, but he is huge, mobile, and disciplined.
Could be higher because... Mitera's ceiling is extremely high (he is young enough to be eligible for the 2006 draft), and if he develops at the same pace he has over the past year he will be the second best defenseman in this class.
Could be lower because... Mitera could just be on a temporary streak of good play. He probably isn't better than Niskanen or Fast right now.

Next Ten (11-20)

Rank	Pos	Name	Team	College
11.	F	Chad Rau	Des Moines (USHL)	Colorado College
12.	F	Justin Abdelkader	Cedar Rapids (USHL)	Michigan State
13.	D	Matt Niskanen	Virginia HS	MinnesotaDuluth
14.	F	Ryan Stoa	USNTDP	Minnesota
15.	D	TJ Fast	Camrose(AJHL)	Denver
16.	D	Keith Yandle	Cushing Prep	UNH
17.	F	Dan Reidel	Lincoln(USHL)	Ferris State
18.	D	Zach Jones	USNTDP	North Dakota
19.	F	Nathan Gerbe	USNTDP	BC
20.	F	Andrew Kozek	Surrey (BCHL)	North Dakota

Next Ten (21-30)

Pos	Name	Team	College
D	Taylor Chorney	Shattuck St. Mary's	North Dakota
F	Brock Trotter	Lincoln (USHL)	Denver
F	Tom Gorowsky	Sioux Falls(USHL)	Wisconsin
F	Jason Lawrence	USNTDP	BU
D	Tim Kunes	NE Junior Falcons(EJHL)	BC
D	Chris Butler	Sioux City(USHL)	Denver
F	Ryan Bellows	Ft Erie (GHJHL)	Dartmouth
D	RJ Anderson	Centennial (MNHS)	Minnesota
F	Michael Gergen	Shattuck St. Mary's	UMD
D	Chris Zarb	Tri City(USHL)	Ferris State

Next Ten (31-40)

Pos	Name	Team	College
F	Tim Kennedy	Sioux City(USHL)	Michigan State
D	Tyler Eckford	Surrey(BCHL)	Alaska-Fairbanks
F	Justin Mercier	USNTDP	Miami
F	Matt Watkins	Vernon(BCHL)	North Dakota
F	Tyler Swystun	Camrose (AJHL)	Michigan
F	Todd McIlrath	Indiana(USHL)	Bowling Green
F	Trevor Smith	Omaha(USHL)	UNH
F	Mason Raymond	Camrose(AJHL)	UMD
F	Andreas Vlassopoulos	USNTDP	Colorado College
F	Benn Ferrerio	Gov. Drummer(NEHS)	BC

Next Ten (41-50)

Pos	Name	Team	College
D	Brandon Gentile	USNTDP	Michigan State
F	Jerry Pollastrone	Salisbury Prep(NEHS)	UNH
D	Tim Filangeri	Waterloo(USHL)	BC
F	Justin Bostrom	Sioux City(USHL)	Minnesota
F	Jared Boll	Lincoln(USHL)	UMD
D	Julian Marcuzzi	Salmon Arm(BCHL)	Denver
F	Jason Bailey	USNTDP	Michigan
D	David Inman	USNTDP	Yale
F	Troy Schwab	Kindersly(SJHL)	Lake Superior
F	Ryan Angelow	Oakville(OPJHL)	Michigan Tech

Football: Recruiting board updated

Update 4/11:Added DT Aundre Henderson, DT Jason Kates, LB Akeem Hebron, asserted that Justin Boren should commit within a couple weeks. Added link to Mitch Mustain's website (free video). Linked to Tebow's Elite 11 inclusion.

Link is here.

Comment comments

Several people have left comments that should be addressed in a more prominent space than a several-days-old-post backwater. Therefore this post exists. On with the show.

After I told Terry Foster that he got served, billfer of the Detroit Tigers Weblog left a thoughtful and rational comment. I don't much like thinking or rationality, but I'll make an exception in this case, since I did use the man's stats. I highly suggest you read the comment he left.

My comments on the comment... he's right, of course. Blogs and journalists are not filling the same ecological niche, nor should they. That would be redundant and useless. But I have this anger switch that flips on whenever a journalist puts on his "poser" cap and gets all tough to proclaim on something he has absolutely no knowledge about, which Foster did in his blog entry. That's a red cape and I'm a bull.

That is out of character for Foster, though. He is far from the worst offender in the area--I should lay off him. Of the sins it's possible for a sportswriter to have, broke-ass prose fits snugly in the "venial" category. Creating controversy for personal benefit is what roasts my goat.

I pointed out heismanpundit.com's crystal-meth influenced Top Ten list and the operator of the site rose to his own defense, inviting me to "feel free to actually argue for or against the teams (including your Blue at No. 7) on their merits." Do you bite your thumb at me, sir? I think that you do!

I'm only going to do this for Boise State. This guy ranks them #4.

It's extremely hard to make pronouncements about college football teams that you can really back up. Game comparisons don't really work. Hawaii beat Michigan State. Boise State waxed Hawaii by 66. Michigan State took Michigan to the wire. Therefore, Boise State is about 8 touchdowns better than Michigan. But let's just sanity check this, shall we?

His placement of Boise State implies that he believes that if the blue-field Broncos were magically transported to the ACC, Big Ten, or Big Twelve they would be the best team in that conference. Ninety-nine percent of college football fans just went "pfft, that's ridiculous, this guy's insane." If you are one of these people, feel free to stop reading.

If you're still here you probably run that site. I'll continue: The Broncos certainly light up scoreboards across the WAC but this is a team that beat 4-8 Tulsa by 3, 5-6 BYU by 1, and 2-9 San Jose State in double overtime. The Broncos have proven that they can't stop anything resembling a half-competent offense. Their most impressive result was either a win over 7-5 Oregon State or a four point loss to Louisville. Yes, the Broncos return eight starters on both sides of the ball and will annihilate the WAC again this year. They may even beat Georgia. They have the offensive firepower to do a lot of wacky things. But put them up against five top thirty teams like they would see in a major conference and their defense would collapse in every one of those games, leaving the Broncos with a 2-3 record at best.

Switch Texas Tech and Boise State. Do you see a difference? Neither do I.

I consider the matter closed. I win by unanimous decision.

Finally, I posted on Josh Elliot's rules changes article at CNNSI. A commenter points out that I misinterpreted his desired starting yard line for the OT possessions. He wants it to be at the offense's 35 yard line, which does explain the "absurdly close" sentence. I consider that absurdly far, if you care to know.

Basketball: Maceo Baston par-tay

So, Maceo Baston plays for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel, who just won their second consecutive European Championship and came home to this:



Yow! Good on yer, Maceo. Perusing his "deatiled" stats reveals something about the level of competition he played at, though: it is muy baddo. Maceo shot 77 percent in the "Premier League" (probably the Israeli domestic league) and 68 percent in the EuroLeague! Flabbergasting. My flabber is totally gasted.

My favorite part of the whole thing? Under Baston's personal information it says this: "Married to Yolanda + 2." Yolanda + 2? What does that mean? What can that possibly mean?

(Hat tip: yocohoops via the ACC Basketblog and the New England Patriots)

Update: Check out this extensive scouting report on Maceo. Sounds like he could be back in the NBA next season.

New favorite search term ever

Somebody found mgoblog by typing " Balki Bartokamous videos" into Google. I can die happy.

Another search that recently found mgoblog: "CAL HARTLINE GRAND NATIONAL DRAG RACING VIDEOS." Thanks, Internet!

Update: Dear Carl, searching for "please post this search string on mgoblog" isn't fair because there's no way a search term containing "mgoblog" won't link to my page. That's the advantage of making up your own word.

Hockey: Another newsdump

First, I said that Blake Geoffrion wasn't drafted in last week's OHL draft. This is true. However, the reason is because he was drafted in last year's OHL draft. He went in the second round to Brampton. He obviously did not report.

On to NY D Nick Petrecki, who is not the OHL lock I asserted he was over the weekend. Petrecki probably won't report this year, and even Plymouth GM/Head Coach Mike Velucci says drafting Petrecki is "a big gamble on our part." Petrecki's plans appear to be to stay in the EJHL this year and then make a decision. What will that be? Well, Bob Miller on the Wolverine speculates that Petrecki was slated for Kitchener before Plymouth played spoiler, but that he is still likely to end up in the OHL anyway. Miller says Petrecki is "still a Michigan target to a small degree"--I wouldn't hold out much hope.

That post by Miller came from this thread on The Wolverine which is an interesting read if you're into the hockey recruiting... so that would be Maize, Packer487, and nobody else. And they probably already read it. Oh, well.

On to the '05 team instead of the composition of the '06 and '07 teams: Mike Spath reports that Michigan is "more than 90 percent confident" that Montoya will return for his senior year. Goalie recruit Billy Sauer, who was tenatively scheduled to come in next year, will delay until '06 and return to the USHL. The chances of him Lerging (defecting to a hated rival in order to get to school a year earlier) it are low. Sauer split time with UW goalie recruit Shane Connelly last year and could use an additional year as a full-time starter to hone his game before reaching the NCAA. Spath also reports that in '06 there will be a pecking order with Sauer on top and Jakiel second, though Jakiel will be a much more significant threat to play than Noah Ruden or Kevin O'Malley in days gone by.

Finally, about that hated rival... MSUStudent, a well respected poster on the Yost Post board I've been referencing like mad, confirms that Tom Goebel has left Michigan State, likely for Ohio State. mgoblog posted on this a while ago using an RCMB rumor as a source. MSUStudent's independent confirmation raises my confidence in the veracity of this rumor to around 99 percent.

Update: Find more OHL draft fallout at WesternCollegeHockey. He points out that OSU may have some worries about freshman sensation Tom Fritsche and that '07 UNO recruit Anthony Peluso may bolt.

Update II: Goebel's departure is official.

Football: Argh! Feldman!

Bruce Feldman has an ESPN Insider blog. He's been posting on it for several months and until today had never linked to another blog. What incredibly awesome foot-blog did he bless with ESPN approval? The frequently updated, maniacally comprehensive, swashbuckling marvel of mgoblog? No? How about some heisman blog that's been updated once this month? Goddammit.

No, I'm not bitter. Not even a little.

Okay, I'm bitter. Look at this guy's top ten list:
1. USC
2. Florida
3. Louisville
4. Boise State
5. Texas A&M
6. Texas
7. Michigan
8. Utah
9. Virginia Tech
10. Cal

What? WHAT? This isn't six years into an NCAA 2005 dynasty, bub. Boise State could win the Super Bowl and still finish 11th in the coaches poll. Texas A&M is one inconsistent Reggie McNeal and a pile of doo. He's banking both on Urban Meyer magic (UMM) turning Florida into a BCS title game participant and the lack of UMM not harming Utah in the slightest. mgoblog's new publicity strategy: obvious severe wrongosity. This will cause Bruce Feldman and others to point my blog out for being idiotic, thus garnering me traffic and power.

I will miss the feeling of being infallibly correct about everything, but sacrifices must be made. I will destroy this blog in order to save it!

Football: Pencil in Boren

BuckeyePlanet tracks OSU recruiting like a hawk with OCD, which is always handy when Michigan goes up against the Bucks for a recruit. As per usual, the two rivals are battling for a number of recruits, and one of the most important is Justin Boren. Boren is the top offensive lineman in Ohio and the state's second-ranked player overall according to Rivals. Reading the tea leaves over there... well, let's let them say it. Nevadabuck qualifies as an insider over there. Here's Nevadabuck on 2/23:

Boren will be a Buckeye.

3/13:

just rehashing what I've been saying for over two months...Boren will be a Buckeye...
do you think I'm just guessing??? LOL

3/14

any more doubters out there?? LOL My info is pretty solid......
(and yes, this was a feeble attempt to boost my flagging post count)

3/15:

well thanks for insuring that I won't be thrown off the site if a 18 year old kid changes his mind.....LOL
I'll stand by my predictions(they are A LOT more than just informed guesses--but I guess inside info does have its privileges, doesn't it???)
I think my "batting average" with these kids speaks for itself...LOL

3/28:

Boren will be a Buckeye.

4/15:

I will state on April 25th at 8:10 pm Pacific Time that Boren will be a Buckeye--
This is a very very savvy young man who is also looking at life after football---and is there ANY better business position to be in, living in Columbus, then ex-OSU football player???
He is well aware of this fact, and will make the right decision.

Then, Rivals100 posted an article on Boren($) today that sent BuckeyePlanet into a tizzy.

Hey, NevadaBuck... how do you feel today?

I'm trying to decipher between what might have been said publically(ala Farrell) with what might have been said privately--
its not exactly jiving....

What's that? A classic "insider CYA" post? What happened to "Boren will be a Buckeye LOL LOL I am so 31337"? Read between the lines, kids... Boren won't be a Buckeye. Boren is only considering one other school: Michigan.

Is this a big deal? Yes. My recruit Spidey-sense tells me that Boren is the kind of kid who can come in, redshirt, and then start for four years like Jake Long. Michigan's interior line is a crowded place for the next few years but Boren might be the best prospect of all of them. Boren--son of Mike Boren, who was a LB for Bo in the 80s--was on Rivals' initial top 50 list and will probably stay there after doing 40 reps of a Honda Civic at the AA Nike Camp. He'll definitely be ranked as one of the top five interior linemen in the country--maybe number one. To boot, his little brother is 7'8", 450 pounds. Or something like that. He's a big dude.

Celebrate, for recruitin' news has come again.

(Thanks to reader TheMile for the tip.)

Update: NevadaBuck's latest: "Just got off a phone call that was not the least bit encouraging..."

Also, another site-moderator type guy called Boren and interviewed him tonight: "In my opinion, it seems that this great lineman is going to follow in his fathers footsteps and play for Michigan."

The recruiting board has been updated.

Football: Tuman article

Pittsburglive has a good article on Jerame Tuman up. Tuman hasn't exactly lit up the NFL since entering the league in '99 and now has to deal with Heath Miller, the Steeler's first rounder this year.

And now Rage Against the Machine is playing as an intro to some Pistons highlights... Zach De La Rocha, your name is hypocrisy!

Football: Recruiting board updated

Such a good boy am I...

Update 4/9: Added FB Luke Schmidt, OL Matt Carufel, OL Bartley Webb, LB Eric Gordon, LB Travis Goethel, LB Toryan Smith, CB Brantwon Bowser. Linked to free Demarco Murray video. Asserted that TE Dedrick Epps will likely commit at camp.

Link here.

Football: Recruiting Board updated

Update 4/8: Added CB Steve Brown and LB Thaddeus Gibson. Added speculative co-lead for QB Tim Tebow. Noted that PSU leads for WR John Maddox. Also noted that Gibson is down to UM and OSU.

Tebow news is big. Rumbling from all over on this one, partially spurred by the fact that UF just got a commit from Jevean Snead, a top 100 QB in his own right.

Update update: Added link to sunshinepreps.com video of Tebow.

Football: Rules changes

Josh Elliot has an article up at SI.com on NFL rule changes he'd like to see.

Interestingly, four of the changes he wants to see are already implemented in the college game: the overtime format, the 15-yard maximum on pass interference, the number of feet required inbounds for a completion (one for college, two for the NFL), and whether a receiver forced out of bounds by a defensive back without getting his feet down will be given credit for a completion (no in college, yes in the NFL).

He mentions something in his discussion of the overtime format that I have wanted to see myself: moving the OT starting point back to the 35 yard line instead of the 25. (He calls the 25-yard line "absurdly close," which is stretching the boundaries of the word "absurd.") The biggest flaw in the current system is the fact that it can literally take forever. A few six- or seven-overtime games have been played, leaving both teams exhausted and pissed off when they get waxed the next week. Moving the starting points back ten or fifteen yards will force teams to get a first down before moving into reasonable field goal range and increase the chance that a team will end up not scoring on their drive, increasing the variance of each possession. Make that change, declare the teams tied after three overtime sessions, and call it a day.

When it comes to pass interference I'd actually like to see colleges add a flagrant version of pass interference that would be a spot foul without the 15-yard maximum. The rule as currently structured can lead to a situation where intentionally committing a penalty is a good thing, which should never be the case (I'll probably subject you to a diatribe on that subject as it applies to the end of basketball games eventually). The flagrant version would probably be an exceedingly rare call, as it would only be assessed when the defensive back was intentionally committing interference, and how many times is a defensive back badly beaten enough to want to interfere intentionally and able to do so? Infrequently. But when it happens it should be penalized appropriately.

Elliots other four suggested changes are less interesting to consider. One ("don't show that blue LOS line on TV") isn't even a rule change. Another ("no cut blocks") is a radical departure from the current NFL rules that will never see the light of day. The last two are impractical. He suggests that the ground should be allowed to "cause" a fumble, which makes no sense. If the ground causes a fumble it's because you've hit it. You're down by definition. Changing that rule introduces a heap of inconsistencies my brain doesn't want to deal with. Finally, he suggests "no fair catches," which is an invitation to murder punt returners unless you reintroduce the much-reviled halo rule. It was also a feature of the ill-fated XFL, and my motto is "find out what the XFL did and do the opposite." (If you're curious, no, my motto doesn't come into play all that often.)

Hockey: OHL Draft results

Why am I talking about the OHL draft? Well, there's a weird dynamic going on there with potential NCAA players. OHL teams draft on a combination of talent and the likelihood of a particular player reporting. For instance, Andrew Cogliano was obviously the most talented player available in his draft year and would have gone #1 overall if he wasn't committed to Michigan. Instead he went in the third round to St. Michael's, his hometown. The chance a talented player will end up in the OHL is inversely proportional to his draft status, so it's worth seeing where potential NCAA recruits end up.

Given that interpretation of the results, Michigan fans can exhale after some tension about Tristan Llewellyn possibly defecting to the OHL's Kitchner Rangers. Llewellyn went in the fifth round to Saginaw, ending that speculation and seriously reassuring this fan. In addition, Kevin Shattenkirk went in the 11th round and Ian Cole in the 12th, strongly implying that they are headed to college. Shattenkirk and Cole are two high-end '07 defense prospects. Blake Geoffrion went undrafted.

One more defender Michigan was recruiting heavily, Nick Petrecki, was drafted in the first by the Plymouth Whalers--he's gone.

Overall, good news for Michigan. Holding on to Llewellyn was the most important thing by a wide margin and it looks like that is likely. Petrecki going to the OHL is not a huge surprise and if Llewellyn stays with his commitment Michigan will not have a huge need on defense that year anyway.

Hockey: Tavares Hubbub

So there's this kid John Tavares in Canada. He's 14 and good at hockey. So good that the OHL is going to allow him to be drafted this year in an attempt to get more fans to their rinks. To relatively sane people this is obviously wrong, but the culture of hockey, especially in Canada, is anything but sane. There are a few people out there getting fed up with the direction things are going. Damien Cox of the Toronto Star is among them. His most recent article ripped the OHL to pieces.

Seriously. This is his lede (he's in Austria for the IIHC World Championships):

It's heartening to know that while the world tries to celebrate the badly battered game of hockey here in Europe, the sociopaths who run the Ontario Hockey League are helping to soil the sport just a little more.

Wow. Sounds like me talking about Terry Foster. The rest of it is equally savage and paints the CHL in a dim light indeed. Cox beautifully sums up any NCAA proponent's argument against the CHL right here:

Anybody with a conscience has had to be troubled by the OHL's act in recent years, how the league has continued to allow teenagers to punch each others' lights out every night so they can impress NHL scouts with their toughness, how teenagers are getting the same $60 a week they were getting more than 40 years ago, how teenagers can be traded from Kingston to Sault Ste. Marie to Plymouth, Mich., in the middle of a high school year without anybody batting an eye.

Amen.

I should state for the record that the US system is not leaps and bounds better. Goalie recruit Billy Sauer, for instance, moved from upstate New York to Chicago this year to play for the USHL's Chicago Steel. His family did not accompany him. Many of the elite US players end up far away from home playing for the NTDP right here in Ann Arbor or at Shattuck-St. Mary's in Minnesota. The life of a teenage hockey player is generally a strange, somewhat sad thing spent far away from home, eating some other mom's dinners. Elite Minnesota high school players and eastern Junior B players manage to avoid getting shipped off at 16, but most kids chase their NHL dreams thousands of miles from where they grew up. At least in the US they aren't spending two weeks at a time on the road, away from anything resembling a classroom, and when they get to college they graduate. The OHL's education packages, which are generally partial and expire if you play more than a year of professional hockey, present a Solomon's choice for fringe NHL prospects--give up the dream you've chased across timezones, provinces, and states since your childhood or risk getting coughed up at 24 or 25 by minor pro hockey without a degree of any kind.

Hockey youths: Go to college. There are sorority girls and education and stuff. It's the bomb, yo, to use the particular vernacular you are accustomed to, dawg.

Football: Recruiting Board Update

Update 4/6: Added WR Jamar Hornsby, RB Anthony Elzy, DT Jason Pinkston. Noted that GA leads for WR Chris Slaughter. Noted that USC and M are listed as co-leaders for WR Andrey Baskin. Added link to some free video of WR Menelik Holt.

Link is here.

Mitch doesn't learn his lesson

It's bash the media day at mgoblog, I guess, and Mitch Albom's next in line. Undeterred by his national spanking after making up stuff... oops! He's done it again.

His latest faux pas:

I went down to Joe Louis Arena earlier this week. The halls were dark, the tunnels empty. I was about to leave when I heard the sound of conversation.

"And that makes one year," a voice whispered.

"One stinkin' year," said another.

"Happy anniversary."

"Yeah. Happy stinkin' anniversary."

I crouched low. Through the dim light I saw a stick and a puck. The stick had hundreds of notches on its shaft. It had just cut a new one. I'm not sure how, since a stick has no arms. Then again, sticks aren't supposed to talk, either.

"Three hundred sixty-five notches," it said. "Three hundred sixty-five days. One full year. No Red Wings."

"One full year," the puck said, glumly.

Nice try, Mitch, but everyone knows that sticks don't talk and even if they did they wouldn't talk to pucks, because pucks are black and sticks are really racist. When is someone going to hold this guy accountable?

A Useful Illustration of the Differences Between Blogosphere and MSM

I do not come here to praise newspaper media. I come to bury it.

I've harped on the general shoddiness of professional sportswriting before, and I have a crystal clear example now.

Terry Foster's latest:

The Tigers dipped to 3-8 in one-run games following Thursday's 2-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Comerica Park. It is a disturbing trend considering they were 12-27 in one-run games last season. It is not a coincidence. It is a trend. And it is a trend that must stop.

This concludes Terry Foster's in-depth examination of the situation. But wait! Let's hear from The Detroit Tigers Weblog:

Using data from Retrosheet, I looked at every team's performance in one run games from 1970 to 1993. The result is 903 team-seasons of data to look at.... (extensive analysis) ... As you can see there is no correlation from one year to the next.... This leads me to believe that performance in one run games has more to do with luck and less to do with skill.

So what does this mean for the Tigers who's .325 one-run winning percentage was the 13th worst since 1970? Since it is pretty rare for a team to perform that badly once, chances are the Tigers will do better. Of the 83 teams who had a one-run winning percentage less than .400, only 4 were worse the following season. In fact, of those 83, forty of them posted a .500 or better winning percentage in one-run games the following year. Now the Tigers 0-5 start this season has put them in a hole for finishing over .500, but the Tigers stand a good chance of improving over last year. Furthermore, much of it will come down to luck as opposed to a failure of the offense, bulllpen, or the manager.

You got served, Terry Foster! YOU GOT SERVED!

Hockey: ND's new coach... Jeff Jackson!?

INCH has an article up quoting ND alum and current Gopher coach Don Lucia that he expects ND's next coach to be none other than... Jeff flippin' Jackson! Why am I exclaiming and questioning all over this post, you ask?

Well, Jackson coached Lake State two national championships in the early 90s, presiding over the heyday of the Laker program. When he departed the job he moved over to the NTDP and then the OHL. He was rumored a candidate for the Michigan State job but he wanted no part of the NCAA's restrictions on recruiting and practices--he was openly dismissive of the whole idea even though Jackson is a Spartan alum!

And now he's back? At Notre Dame, a school that plays in one of the worst facilities in DI hockey? A school that broke its NCAA tournament cherry last year and then proceeded to flip belly-up and die this year? Quick, ND, sign this guy to a 20 year contract before he sobers up. Jackson won three-quarters of his games with the Lakers and only a miraculous Maine comeback in 1993 prevented him from winning three straight NCAA titles. He's good, good enough turn Notre Dame into a power if he can get a new building.

Yow!

Update: Another, less optimistic take can be found at "CCHA and WCHA Info."

Update II: Jackson is official.

Football: Recruiting Board Updated

Finally! The board isn't up to date at the moment but I moved it a little closer to reality:

Update 4/5: Added QB prospect Jeremy Ricker, removed two ND commits, moved several players to different positions.

Hockey: Anecdote of interest

I forgot to relate this yesterday, but the sun rose today so I have been given a second chance. I attended the Pistons-Sixers game 5--still not sure how the Pistons won since I don't remember anyone playing particularly well except Dalembert--on Tuesday with some friends. One of my friends has cerebral palsy, which means his legs don't work. Because of this genetic mishap, we generally ride the VIP elevator up to our nosebleed seats. We did this on Tuesday, and four familiar-looking guys came into the elevator after us.

Why would four people all look familiar to me? One, sure, probably some guy who I shared a class with or beat up in a drunken rage. Four? All here at the same time?

I then recognized one of the guys: Michigan backup goalie Noah Ruden. With a "Michigan hockey" context the other guys soon revealed themselves to be Jeff Tambellini, Andrew Ebbett, and Some Guy With His Back To Me. At essentially the same moment the doors of the elevator opened and ejected our twelve-dollar-ticket-possesing asses. The hockey guys continued their ascent to their luxury suite no doubt filled with Cristal, Bentleys, and more bricks than you can shake a ho at. (NCAA violations? Sorry, Spartan fans--Tambellini's dad is kind of vice president of the Canucks.)

As the doors closed, I immediately panicked. A missed opportuniy! I could have asked Ruden why Montoya decided to reside on Planet Suck this year, or badgered Tambellini about returning, or asked Ebbett... uh, something awesome. This was a chance for mgoblog to make it big! Uh... by talking to guys even someone as obsessive as me had a hard time recognizing. Never mind. Damn it.

RIP Don Canham

Former AD Don Canham died Tuesday at 87.

I was nine when Don Canham retired from his post as athletic director at Michigan. At that point in my life I had no idea what an "athletic director" was, so I am not an appropriate person to offer perspective on his life and what it accomplished. You can read the thoughts of people who know better than me at the Detroit News, Free Press, and official UM site.

RIP Don.

Update: Read about Shippensburg vs. Slippery Rock, Canham's brainchild. They've sporadically announced Slippery Rock scores for a long time now, but infrequently in recent years. Bring back the Rock!
Update II: In the Free Press today: Carr on Canham. Plus I missed this Rosenberg article yesterday.

Football: Herrmann is a... genius?

Words cannot describe the cognitive dissonance I experienced reading this gem from the Penn State scout site.

Next up from Scout.com: "Chris Webber for pope!"

Basketball: '06 and '07

There's a nice/free article up at PrepSpotlight with impressions on the recent play of the kids on Michigan's AAU teams. Recruits of note for Michigan fans mentioned: Tom Herzog, DeShawn Sims, Tory Jackson, K'len Morris, Dar Tucker, and Alex Legion. Don't let the 1930s web design fool you, these guys go to the games and have connections.

Of note: Sims is moving more towards PF status as he ages. When his name first started popping up as a high-major recruit he was mostly talked about as a wing, but his 6'7" size and advanced post game (plus the dearth of big men on Michigan's radar) now have people referring to him as a combo forward.

Update: Prep Spotlight has a second free article up on James Dews, an Ohio shooting guard who Michigan is on the verge of offering. If Sims is a power forward then Dews seems to be a good fit for Michigan's fifth scholarship in the class of 2006. Dews is a dead-eye perimeter shooter who has been performing at a high level on this summer's AAU circut.

Football: Reportin' flaky message board rumors

Someone over at the PSU Scout.com site says that he's one of Myron Rolle's track coaches and that Michigan is Rolle's favorite. Is it true? Well... maybe. The guy has a low number of posts, always a red flag, but seems legit. Somebody on some board or another pointed out that his username is very close to the last name of a guy listed on the Hun's website as faculty, which is totally creepy but reassuring.

Read the post and judge it for yourself. I'm pushing my tiny Myron Rolle figurine a little bit closer to Michigan because of it. (That's metaphorical... or is it?)

mgoblog's impression of the ArborBlogs aggregator

humorless lefty politics
humorless lefty politics
15 pictures of an Asian dude eating a sandwich
humorless lefty politics
srah talking about her socks (high point)
humorless lefty politics
mgoblog's trademark wit and savoir faire
humorless lefty politics
humorless lefty politics
ypsi~dixit attending a local government meeting of some sort
humorless lefty politics
sorority girl asking if anyone has psych 100 books she can borrow
humorless lefty politics

(Yes, this post is a joke aimed at three people: the other three people who subscribe to the ArborBlogs feed aggregator. I hope you enjoy it, because lord knows no one else will.)

Blogs of Note

I've been scoping out blogs of relevance in order to praise them and link to them so they will do the same to me, boosting both my self-esteem and traffic. (I figure if both of those things of mine get high enough I will become Russell Crowe.)

I've found a couple of excellent local blogs that I would (and do!) link to even if they think I suck and never return the compliments/flowers/slave children:

Blue Cats and Red Sox is written by a Bostonian transplanted to UM for Art School. A girl, even! She's probably completely insane, but she likes sports and Franz Ferdinand. And she writes a friggin' TON. It's unbelievable. I am in the process of not believing it right now. Right now it's all Red Sox and Tigers but I figure when there is no baseball there may even be Michigan related content. I mean, who would write about Michigan when no one was playing any games? A freak, that's who.

The Detroit Tigers Weblog is not creatively named, but it is excellent. It's even got statistical regression charts! This is not a selling point for you? Oh. Well, it's also got a lot of interesting content... but you're probably going to be pissed off if you hate charts, because they're coming here eventually. So go over there now.

Official mgoblog Pet Peeve List

Many people on the Internet are very, very dumb. Not you, you read mgoblog. You're the Internet Elite. But other people are, and it makes me alternately amused/saddened/angry, and when you're all three of these things it's time to make fun of some dumb dudes.

The following is a list of my Sporting Internet Pet Peeves. I am taking suggestions for the extension of this list... I wish it to be comprehensive! What are your hated pet peeves? Tell me! I'll skewer!

Stupid, juvenile nicknames
Most relevant to Michigan fans is the infamous "scUM," but this idiocy affects many fan bases. Any "State" school is liable to find a dollar sign replacing the S in their abbreviation. In a rush to damn the NCAA people will completely disregard the fact that "NCAA" doesn't have any S's in it and go ahead and make the same swap anyway. Penn State gets called "State Penn" whenever a player gets drunk and frisky. Morons spell out "University of Spoiled Children" over and over again to display their disdain for USC.

EXAMPLE
"scUM and the University of Spoiled Children are playing in the Ro$e Bowl because the NC$$ needs the money."

DIAGNOSIS
This person is a moron who is under the erroneous impression that he is being funny, like that one uncle who tells the same joke every Thanksgiving for 30 years. This affliction is always, always a sign that you can safely ignore anything the person says, as they are either twelve or have Down's Syndrome.

CURE
Insert bullet travelling at extremely high velocity into skull.

SUSCEPTIBLE FANBASES
Most common with universities best described as "technically not high school" or fanbases in areas where there is no pro alternative. Obviously, then, this is an absolute plague amongst OSU fans, and is rampant at MSU as well.

EXCEPTIONS
"tOSU" is permissible to use in a slightly disdainful fashion since OSU fans tend to use it themselves.

"Stud"
Everyone and everything is a "stud," which always conjures up the most homoerotic images imaginable. NTTAWWT.

EXAMPLE
"I saw Bob Recruit on television the other day. His tight pants revealed a set of rippling muscles that would look fantastic in a Michigan uniform. He repeatedly thrust himself through the opposing line, time and again burying himself in the opponent's backfield. I can say without hesitation that Bob Recruit is a stud."

DIAGNOSIS
This person is attempting to deny his homosexuality by being a huge sports fan.

CURE
A bottle of whiskey and a ticket to San Francisco.

SUSCEPTIBLE FANBASES
All. This generally doesn't happen to the Indianas of the world, though, as they don't have any "studs."

EXCEPTIONS
"Stud" is permissible when talking about nails and/or horses.

U R A CHEETER!!!
Hey, if you can't beat 'em, bitch about how they cheat constantly and the reason they don't get caught is because the NC$$ needs to protect them because said successful school actually makes a lot of money, unlike your loser alma mater that scrapes together enough wins to go to Boise in December once every five years.

EXAMPLE
"Michigan's been paying players for years. How else would you explain all the recruits they get? It's not like they have the largest stadium in the country and a track record of success spanning back to the 60s. How do these recruits even hear about Michigan and their so-called 'winged helmets'? They're on ABC and ESPN... who even gets those? Alaskans? Proof? Remember that one time their basketball program got in trouble? QED."

DIAGNOSIS
This person cannot bring himself to admit that his school is markedly inferior to his opponent's school for legitimate reasons.

CURE
Suggest this person cheer for the Yankees.

SUSCEPTIBLE FANBASES
Junior-college-esque state schools who can't stand the success of big brother. Michigan State, UCLA, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State.

EXCEPTIONS
Basketball teams coached by Billy Donovan, Quinn Snyder, or Jim Harrick and SEC football teams not named "Vanderbilt" can be freely tarred with this brush, because the chances of you being wrong are tiny.

It's a picture of boobies!
Ever open a fifteen-post thread at work and get two different 800x600 pictures of impossibly fake boobs alternating for pages and pages? And then have your boss walk up behind you? Thanks, internet hero, for turning my idle surfing of a sports site into a firing offense! No one needs to see the same set of fake gazongas eighty times accompanied by your three words of deep insight into the team of your choice.

EXAMPLE
Go to Rivals and click on a thread.

DIAGNOSIS
Person is fourteen and has a constant boner. Likely to turn into a guy who says "stud" constantly after being rejected by women for the next ten to eighty years.

CURE
An introduction to life's harsh realities, hopefully beginning with a slap upside the head.

SUSCEPTIBLE FANBASES
Anybody with a site on Rivals.

EXCEPTIONS
Arguments about hot chicks are always welcome as long as denoted in the subject title and the specific purpose of a thread. Also exempt are pictures of Scarlett Johansson.

We Never Wanted That Program Savior Anyway
A classic refrain whenever a big-time prospect selects another school, especially unexpectedly: we never wanted him anyway. He's a head case, a loser, afraid of competition, who wasn't any good anyway, who beats his mother I heard. He isn't man enough to play for Old State U. He lied to the coaches. He looks suspiciously like a witch. Let's kill him!

EXAMPLE
"Chad Henne chose scUM because he is scum! He obviously doesn't have the mental toughness to play for Joe Paterno and has instead chosen to play for a coach who can feed himself. I hope that stud Dan Connor rams into him again and again, that stud. What a stud."

DIAGNOSIS
This person has absolutely no self-esteem, probably because they are completely worthless. Instead of accepting the fact that high school seniors change their minds constantly, this person is deeply hurt by the recruit's rejection of his chosen school. Why? Because rejection is all this guy knows. He hasn't been on a date in three to five years. He's stuck at the same dead-end job. He escapes his miserable life by obsessively following his college football team, and you don't want to be a part of it? Bastard!

CURE
Inform this person that the 5'8" two-star DT they just got is a real sleeper.

SUSCEPTIBLE FANBASES
Most, though this is a Penn State speciality.

EXCEPTIONS
Anyone who goes to Tennessee, as all that stuff about them beating up women is probably true. Also Joe Crawford.

Football: Braylon Screwed By EA

Braylon Edwards is not going to be on the cover of NCAA Football '06. Outrage!!!

What's that? Desmond Howard is? Uh... never mind.

Basketball: Third-party wonkery

Ken Pomeroy has a "state of the game" post up which is, in the words of Napoleon Dynamite, flippin' sweet. It includes a graph charting field goal percentage, game pace, and offensive efficiency since 1948 with significant rules changes highlighted.

Pomeroy points out two main trends: the number of threes being launched continues to skyrocket and the pace of the game continues to plummet... 2005 marked an all-time-low. These are conveniently two of the three things I love to harp on when I talk about why I don't get behind college basketball as much as the pro game (number three: excessive timeouts). The three-point line has been the subject of much discussion in recent years. It got bumped back a little for the '03-'04 season but the nine inches they added have obviously failed to halt the three's rise to power. Pomeroy suggests that moving it back even further (perhaps to the full NBA length) is something that will happen in the near future.

What of the shot clock? Well, Pomeroy suggests it should actually be increased in order to force teams to play a more aggressive style of defense instead of waiting around for their zones to get cracked. That makes little sense to me, but who do you trust, me or Pomeroy? (ME? Wrong answer.)

I would prefer a vicious crackdown on charges, including a no-charge circle similar to the NBA's and the implicit understanding that if it's at all close the tie goes to the offense. The ability to drive and finish or kick out should be much improved. I fear that increasing the shot clock will invite bad teams to slow the game down extensively, like Michigan did against teams with a pulse last year.

Anyway, run over there and check it out. Pomeroy is the man, man.

Football: ESPN on the BT's Spring

ESPN.com has a huge article that goes team-by-team in the Big Ten and details questions and answers heading into the fall. It's very comprehensive... props to Brett Edgerton, who put the thing together. Too bad you're credited as a "researcher."

Maybe you should start a hippin' and a hoppin' and then youd be on page two with all the big ballers. Wizzle nizzle fo' shizzle.

Basketball: Offseason stat wonkery as promised

First off, does anyone have advice for converting what Excel spits out as an HTML file into something Blogger-acceptable? It's all style-sheetin' and meta-datain' and Blogger does not like you to put such tags in post bodies, so I have to make GIFs of the charts. It's not a big deal--the GIFs are actually smaller than the html page--but it's time consuming.

Anyway. I've done some number-crunching, stat-smooshing, your general what-have-you and present the results to you. mgoblog would also like to introduce a pet stat of his own: Shots Per Possession, which is basically exactly what it sounds like. More on that later.

On with the show, first with adjusted rebounding statistics. Raw rebound numbers are often distorted by possession variance. A better way to look at rebounding numbers is a simple percentage of available rebounds garnered. I've done this for both offensive and defensive rebounds for all teams in the Big Ten (conference games only):



Ewwww. Amaker haters, here's your ammunition. Michigan had sporadic injuries to frontcourt players--Hunter missed seven conference games, Petway two, and Brown one--but at all times there were three legitimate options in the frontcourt. Injuries cannot explain away the fact that Michigan was far and away the worst defensive rebounding team in the conference.

Michigan was about average with its offensive rebounding, which is still somewhat disappointing with a jumping jack like Petway on the team. Offensive rebounding is more athleticism and skill than defensive rebounding, which is mostly a matter of boxing out your man, and Michigan had one of the better offensive rebounders in the league in Petway. He got no support from anyone else, however.

The offensive rebounding is not the real issue, though. Michigan must improve its defensive rebounding next year to have a real chance in the Big Ten. There's no reason they can't do so. The only reason they were horrendous this year was poor coaching. mgoblog will be watching Def Reb % like a hawk next year... it's the canary (in a coalmine) stat for '05-'06.

As for the rest of the Big Ten... MSU's utter dominance certainly leaps out at you. This probably a combination of Izzo coaching and Paul Davis definitively proving that he is not a "disappointment" or "soft." Davis is a bad mutha (scroll down) on the boards. The only guy better is his teammate and football-moonlighter Matt Trannon.



The hits just keep on coming. Ugh. Unlike the rebounding numbers, I do believe that the turnover percent can be explained away by injuries. The Michigan backcourt morphed into Dion Harris and Three Guys From The IM Building midway through the season and that was it as far as turnovers went. Dion played 40 minutes a game as the only offensive option. He got tired and turned the ball over, so someone else would bring the ball up the court and turn the ball over.

Will this improve significantly next season? Yes. It almost has to. Michigan won't leap up into the top half of the Big Ten--Horton, Harris, and Sims are all very turnover prone--but hopefully they can get to about average.



And now the pet stat: Shots Per Possession. There are two version of this stat per team, one offensive and one defense. The formula for both is (FGA + 0.44 FTA) / Possessions. It is exactly how many shots you get or yield per possession, an important measure of offensive efficiency that combines your rebounding and turnovers into a single stat that shows how effective you are at getting off shots. It obviously does not address shot quality.

What jumps out at you? How about Illinois' SPP of 1.00... a whole shot per possession! That essentially means that Illinois had one offensive rebound (161 on the year) for every turnover (160 on the year). They were 39-2 for a reason, kids. Michigan's OppSPP of 0.97 is bad but nowhere near as bad as their regular SPP of 0.89, which beats only Northwestern.

Take the difference between the two SPP stats and multiply it by the average number of possessions in a game and viola, Shot Differential. Shot diff passes the initial sanity check... all five tourney teams at the top, Illinois at the tippy-top, and Michigan State close on their heels. Michigan, of course, sucks at everything. Other things of note: Wisconsin's hands-off defense has its costs They give up an unusually high number of shots for a good team, largely because they're tied with Penn State for last in opponent's turnovers. Minnesota's reputation for hard-nosed defense is well deserved. It appears to be the only thing that they do well, but they did it well enough to make the tournament last year.

Finally, pirate rating weights parrot percentage very heavily and successfully negotiates a balance when it comes to eyepatches--having too few relative to parrot percentage (signifying you're a bunch of posers) is punished just as harshly as having too many (signifying you can't control your parrots and they keep pecking out eyes). When Michigan lost Horton for the year it lost both a source of PP and a guy who could reliably handle a parrot without risking an eye--something John Andrews and Dani Wohl found to be difficult, to say the least. Michigan should improve here.

Summary: Ewww. These stats are totally gross for Michigan, especially the defensive rebounding number, which is awful and not explainable by pointing to injuries. Anyone questioning Amaker's coaching ability should point to that stat first and foremost. The numbers reflect what I've muttered privately for a while: Michigan is not only a bad team, it's a dumb, inefficient team. The stats that seem to relate to talent and effort (offensive rebounding and opponent's turnovers) see Michigan in the middle of the pack. The stats that are mostly intelligence, technique, and coaching (turnovers and defensive rebounding) see Michigan at the very bottom. Michigan may slide by next year with good shooting, shotblocking, and perimeter defense, but if the latter statistics don't improve over the course of a few years Michigan will never be a threat to win the Big Ten or advance deep into the tourney.

Football: PSU Nike Camp

The Penn State Nike Camp recently finished up. Michigan is recruiting a number of the big names in attendance, including camp co-MVPs Dorin Dickerson and Myron Rolle, QB Jeremy Ricker, and Woodland Hills CB Darrin Walls.

There's an informative article on the WPIAL guys like Dickerson and Walls up at PittsburgLive. Dickerson played the entire camp at wide receiver, which was news to me--I was under the impression he was a linebacker recruit--and tested in the "freak athlete" range. Apparently he's not bad catchin' the ball, too. Michigan will probably take him at either WR or LB. Walls did not test as well as Dickerson, running a 4.6 40, but played well in drills. He and Rolle are Michigan's top CB targets... both are good possibilities.

mgoblog's lingo glossary

It is a rich tradition of many half-assed sportswriters to write jaunty columns full of specialized jargon of origins unknown. This document is here to clear up mgoblog's unfortunate predilection for this vice.

Acker (v): To do something so mindbogglingly badly that people wonder whether you should be mercy-killed. Origin of term. Sentence: "Boy, Jim Herrmann sure ackered the Ohio State and Texas games."

Hulkster (n.) - an offensive lineman, esp. one who is extremely good or suspected of being on steroids and having silly facial hair. Example: Kyle Turley. Origin of term. Sentence: "Returning hulkster Jake Long should be an All-American candidate by the end of the year."