MGoPodcast 9.20: The Rational Take on Beilein
1 hour and 10 minutes
We are at the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, which is down to EIGHT conference rooms after that tourney, so book now before there are no rooms left!
We Couldn’t Have One Without the Other
We can do this because people support us. You should support them too so they’ll want to do it again next year! The show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan there would be VERY long hiatuses between podcasts.
Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: HomeSure Lending, Peak Wealth Management, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Michigan Law Grad,Human Element, Lantana Hummus and new this week introducing Ecotelligent Homes
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1. The Big Ten Championship Game
starts at 1:00
Ace and Brian opened a bottle of champagne. Kenpom time was not friendly, the score doesn’t show how much Michigan dominated the game. Despite Michigan going 3/11 on threes Painter switched up his approach because they were wide open. Z and MAAR did an incredible job on Carsen Edwards. The free throws. Who’s the MVP of this game? Does any other Big Ten team have a better claim to “best team in the conference?” State played nobody on the road and lost by double-digits twice to Michigan at home and at a neutral court. Purdue? Michigan went 30 minutes without a turnover.
2. The Rest of the Big Ten Tournament, and Seeding
starts at 17:58
Michigan versus Iowa was frustrating largely because the threes wouldn’t go, and the atrocious refereeing. Nebraska: Poole’s defense on Palmer was clearly below that of Matthews. Stop going at Roby—that guy is incredible. MSU: Why is Jaren Jackson playing for this program that won’t put him on the court in a crucial game? State was desperate: been owned by Michigan lately and the FBI is about to crater the program. McPoyle tweet rules! Change the end of basketball games: run off whatever’s left on the shot clock?
3. Bracketology
starts at 38:27
Michigan should get the Detroit seed over Michigan State. What scares us is how dumb the committee can be. Michigan had the harder Quadrant 1 schedule—hopefully that and, like, everything puts Michigan ahead of Michigan State and their four losses. Resume-wise Michigan goes above MSU. H2H Michigan goes above MSU. KPI hates the Big Ten in general. Feels like there’s one or two more teams than spots in Detroit. Xavier is 15th in Kenpom, is the 1-seed you want in your bracket. Z is the engine of this team right now, on both sides of the floor.
Next year: keep it rolling. Teske and Poole as fulltime players, some deadeye shooters coming in a super class. The Zavier Simpson murders the world year is going to put a smile on our faces no matter what happens in the tournament.
4. Ace’s Hockey Podcast wsg David Nasternak
starts at 56:36
Ace was kicked out for excessive I told ya so’s. Michigan punches their ticket despite a pretty bad Wisconsin Friday they pulled out with power play goals. Mel didn't surgarcoat: if we don't play better we aren't going far in this tournament. Prettiest goal of the year on a 4-on-1 started by Quinn Hughes. The Niko Porikos goal was kiss fingers. Complaint again about the stupid college hockey tourney: nice that Big Ten went away from that. Big Ten is a good hockey conference now because the bad teams got good--only MSU lags behind and that program made a good hire.
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MUSIC:
- “Empire State of Mind”—JayZ
- “The World is Yours”—Nas
- “Survival of the Fittest”—Mobb Deep
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link
- What's with the theme music?
And next year, when they lose in some stupid out of conference tourney in Atlantis, we’re not going to do this again. We’re not gonna freak out, Michigan basketball twitter. We’re just gonna be like, ‘Well that is unfortunate but I look forward to the improvement that is undoubtedly coming next year.’ That’s what we’re gonna do. We’re not gonna get in anyone’s mentions. We’re just gonna be like that was unfortunate, I hope it doesn’t happen again, and it probably will not. Amen.
Can't remember the last time I had 2+ hours of pure, unadulterated joy like that. Beilein orchestrating, Teske dominating, Moe dazzling and emoting, DRob doing the little things, MAAR quietly being the best player on the court, and Simpson - oh my lord - every time he had the ball in his hands, or was defending a Boiler, you just knew something good was going to happen. Every single player and coach contributed. It was Real. And man, it was spectacular. Go Blue - thanks for a memory I will cherish forever.
Those were some of the better lines that I have ever heard on the podcast:
"The rational thing to do is to be a stupid ass fan boy"
"The rational take about John Beilein is: he is wonderful, and I love him. I love him more than I love everything - except my son... maybe"
Well-played Brian, well-played.
been saying that to people almost since his arrival. Nah nahnah booboo.
Lunardi has Michigan as a 3-seed, but playing in Wichita; Purdue gets a 2-seed and the nod to play in Detroit. Michigan State drops to a 3-seed, but plays in Nashville.
On what planet - besides Michigan getting a 3-seed - does any of that make sense?
In his projection (and he is far from alone in this), he also projects Xavier to Detroit, which means us and MSU have to be assigned somewhere else. My guess is he has MSU as his highest 3 seed, as he also projects 3 seed Tennessee to Dallas instead of Nashville.
If that doesn't happen, I'd much rather see us in Nashville. That's worth a trip.
Wichita has always been the city about which I've said, "Nice place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there...."
After all, it's the human trafficking capital of the US.
It's a dump.
And we got the Preds, baby! Welcome to SMASHVILLE!!!
And its owned entirely by the Koch Brothers.
Why are the end of basketball games called "kenpom time?"
The KenPom rankings are based on scoring margin - Pomeroy found that more accurately predicted future results than just plain wins and losses. So a 20 point win will move a team farther up the rankings than a 9 point win, and a team will fall less with 6 point loss than a 15 point loss. This means the end of non-competitve wins and losses are KenPom time because closing or growing the final margin in garbage time will have an affect on the KenPom rankings. It mattered for Michigan yesterday because their jump up the rankings was somewhat muted by Purdue turning a blowout into a somewhat respectable score in the last five minutes.
That makes sense. Thank you.
"Tom Izzo, retire bitch" is a hell of a way to end a podcast.
I have questions. 1. how drunk on Prosecco did Ace get and 2. why did he drive home when he could have just gotten a room at the Residence Inn Ann Arbor
1. That was more pure joy and a lot of caffeine than prosecco. The three of us (Dave was there) split a bottle over the course of about two hours.
2. Had I not been in shape to drive, I of course would've stayed at the beautiful and conveniently located Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown.
The Underground T-Shirt crew needs to get on a Back 2 Back shirt design of some kind. Can't find one anywhere. That's the one I want.
Has anyone seen a B2B shirt?
Back to Back like I'm on the cover of Lethal Weapon
Back to Back like I'm Jordan '96-'97 WHOOOOOOOA
It should reference that song in some way. I'd buy 10 of them.
Pantsless podcasting > pantsfull podcasting
Thujone_pantsless_MichiganFan.gif
Sitting on the couch, sporting a cheshire cat grin..... I couldn't help but think "damn, this is what it felt like being a Michigan football fan, back in the day. Even after a couple bad possessions, having the confidence that they'll pull it together, get a stop, make a basket and its all going to be ok.
I hate the "prevent" offense we went to late.... when we spread the floor and were 100% committed to running down the play clock and 0% committed to getting a decent shot. Things got uncomfortable for a minute, thankfully the D smothered any hope for a late game run.
I completely understand using all the clock, but do it while running the offense that was so successful all game long.
GO BLUE!
The icing on the cake was when Coach B invoked Bo.
He can just let his behind-the-scenes awesomeness and ability to relate do all of the recruiting for him. https://t.co/DUBOOXtZ7J
— Brent Yarina (@BTNBrentYarina) March 5, 2018
1. Xavier. 2. Cincinnati. 3. Michigan.
Please, oh please, let this happen.
You either need Cinci to be a higher 2 seed than Kansas, or for Kansas to be a 1 seed but behind Xavier. You also need Cinci to be a higher 2 than Purdue, which I think they could be right now, and definitely would be if they win the AAC tournament. Finally, you either need Michigan to be a higher 3 seed than MSU, or for MSU to be on the 2 line behind Cinci.
I think if Cinci, Kansas, and Xavier win their conference tournaments, and UNC falls behind MSU, this happens.
Maybe, maybe not. But I have serious doubts Izzo returns. I've heard for years he was looking to end it. His team is going to be less talented next year. There is probably no upside to sticking around as far as competitive results.
I am not sure what the ESPN/FBI thing does to his thought processes.
I think he wishes he would have left before it happened. Now he looks like he is pulling a Hollis if he bolts.
You know he wants to restore his legacy and have a great team to go out on.
I can't find a Michigan State fan anywhere on line right now wanting to talk basketball. No fan base in internet history trolls and smack talks after wins like they do.
What a boring bunch. And this is hitting new levels of boring by them.
gonna keep that on my desktop forever, glance at it when I'm feeling down. OMG does that guy have the right attitude!
I was so psyched when I saw that. To see Matthews block the shit out of that shot and then get in his face made so proud. Made my day. Especially for a guy like Matthews who is struggling offensively but still plays great defense and hustles for boards and loose balls. Hell yeah, I love it.
That's the ATTITUDE I said this team needed to play with - they finally figured it out! If they get mentally tough and TAKE IT to their opponents every game who knows what they can do.
IN YO' FACE CHARLIE MURPHY, IN YO' FACE!!! GO BLUE!!
about losing an early tourney or even in January.. I think Frank at UMTailgate says it best..
We have reached that point in the season where we all start to doubt John Beilein’s team. Apologies will start just a few weeks later.
— umtailgate (@umtailgate) February 7, 2018
Change the end of basketball games: run off whatever’s left on the shot clock?I don't like runoffs, whether it's in football, basketball, the Tour de France, whatever. The clock is what it is - if you're supposed to play 40 minutes, you should play 40 minutes, not 39:30.
I suppose, but that's exactly the way it works in football, and people have adjusted.
I think that's an interesting idea. Punish the fouling a little more but still make it possible to have comebacks.
The hacka whack strategy, IMO, should be penalized more severly. Perhaps tie the penalty to the amount of a late game lead. Make all fouls in the last two minutes two shot fouls-for both teams. Allow two fouls by a team trailing by 5 points during this time and make all additional fouls get penalized with the 2 shots and possession.
Music selection: top notch. Nas and then a deep(ish) cut from Mobb Deep. They should play every game in New York.
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