Unverified Voracity Waits Comment Count

Brian

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look, if they had a spring game you wouldn't have to keep looking at the same picture [Bryan Fuller]

Shea status. Michigan responded with a letter from Shea Patterson answering the questions posed, and Ole Miss said "whatever," more or less:

In communications this week, Ole Miss told the NCAA it basically had nothing to add.

"There is nothing new here," Bjork told CBS Sports. "We do not oppose the student-athlete competing right away if the decision is based on accurate information, NCAA bylaws, applicable waiver standards and relevant case precedent."

Patterson's attorney, Tom Mars, concluded, "Therefore, the case is ready to be decided. The timing of the NCAA's decision is a matter of the staff's discretion, so there is no timetable for when a decision will be made. I'm confident, however, that the staff will not take any more time than is necessary to come to the right decision."

The NCAA has all the information it's going to get, and it is a lot of information. Mars bombed the idea that Patterson hadn't added anything new in an interview with Sam. Patterson's letter was apparently 9 pages long; Ole Miss's response was a single paragraph.

Either way we'll know soon—but it had better be a thumbs up unless the NCAA wants a ton of awful PR for no reason. It's not like there's going to be a spate of free transfers from schools that get in trouble and lie about it—currently that list of schools stands at just Ole Miss.

Hang on to your butts. Neal Rubin has details on the terrifying but ultimately harmless plane crash before last year's Big Ten tournament:

…according to the transcript of the cockpit voice recorder, part of the investigative report released last week by the National Transportation Safety Board, the pilot’s terse “Abort” at 187 mph was met with a historically sensible, procedurally correct and potentially fatal response.

“No. Not above —” the copilot said, referring to takeoff speed. Then: “(Expletive.)”

What the captain felt in his hands, and the copilot had no way of knowing, was that the two-engine jetliner was not going to climb. The yoke “felt heavy, like there was a stack of bricks on the nose,” he told investigators, and so he immediately did exactly what pilots are trained to avoid.

The 881-page report is here if you have a great deal of time.

Tough sell for transfers; transfers a tough sell. Per Josh Henschke, South Dakota transfer Matt Mooney has dropped Michigan from consideration. This is not much of a surprise since he should be able to find 30 MPG somewhere else.

The only other transfer currently associated with Michigan is Robert Morris SG Dachon Burke, but 1) Burke is a sit one, play two kid with 2) a 102 ORTG in the NEC. I don't know what ORTG a sit-one-play-two low-major guy would have to have to be appealing given that Michigan currently has one open 2019 scholarship, but it's not 102. It's probably 130. Anyone talking about Burke seriously hasn't looked at Michigan's roster.

image

Carton's HS has great jerseys that Michigan should try to copy, too

Especially since… In the aftermath of Michigan's Final Four run, Beilein has started hitting up a bunch of top 50 guys. Michigan appears to be recruiting in the expectation they'll have two spots and they would like those to be a combo guard and a wing. With Duke folks still banking on Joe Girard, it's recently-offered IA CG DJ Carton who now seems like the most likely big-time combo addition. Carton's recruitment is nearly an entirely intraconference battle, with Marquette the lone school outside of the Big Ten drawing much mention.

Carton has four CB picks to Wisconsin on his profile but Wisconsin 247 guy Evan Flood seems like he's trying to let the locals down easy, saying that if he had an idea of where to flip his pick he'd flip it away from the Badgers. Guard depth is cited as a problem—a dubious assertion given Wisconsin's guard play and recent recruiting. Meanwhile Henschke seems fairly close to a Michigan crystal ball.

Nunez doesn't hit rim. Some highlights:

Much shorter reel than Castleton's but that form is so pure.

Final CSB. Players of note on the postseason Central Scouting Bureau's list of NA skaters:

  • #6 Quinn Hughes. Actually dropped from #4. Crazy!
  • #7 Oliver Wahlstrom. Wahlstrom decommitted from Harvard and is apparently choosing between BC, Michigan, and maybe a year in Europe. No news since Jeff Cox reported that a week ago.
  • #17 Bode Wilde. Will be a freshman in AA next year, also after decommitting from Harvard. Hopefully he and Wahlstrom are bros.
  • #154 Jack Randl. That makes Randl a late pick if he actually goes.

Michigan's other draft-age commits—Calen Kiefiuk and Jacob Semik—are not listed. That's not a huge surprise for either given their USHL numbers, though Semik has some peripheral stats that look pretty good. (More about that later.)

This class was hurt pretty badly by the uncertainty about Red Berenson; Pearson's tried to fill it in with various overagers as he seeks to bridge the gap between Hughes and Norris to the 2020 group. Flipping Wilde will be a big help there; a one-and-done from Wahlstrom would also be real nice. Also…

Obligatory Jack Hughes mention. Hughes draws a New York Times(!) profile. Most of it is stuff you're already familiar with if you follow Michigan hockey. A section at the end definitively states that he won't accelerate (boo), but then broaches the possibility of the #1 pick in the draft spending a year somewhere other than the NHL:

Hughes is undecided about where he will play after he is done with the National Team Development Program in 2019. He is considering college hockey and the junior ranks in Canada. “We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves. He’s just a kid,” said Jim Hughes, who now works for Pat Brisson, the top agent whose clients include Matthews, now a Maple Leafs star, and other N.H.L. players.

One other possibility is a year of pro hockey in Switzerland, where Matthews played, on Brisson’s advice, before being drafted. Going directly to the N.H.L. after the 2019 draft could be a stretch unless Jack Hughes adds plenty of pounds and bulk over the next 18 months.

That's not going to happen, right? When's the last time that happened? I don't even want to think about it. They'd still give the Hobey to Jimmy Vesey.

Exit fun guy. Alas: 2020 hockey recruit Antonio Stranges signed with London. May he have better luck than previous Michigan decommits. Fellow touted 2020 recruit Andrei Bakanov signed a tender with the USHL's Cedar Rapids after not making himself available for the OHL draft and is on track to matriculate. Bakanov has some stats:

Bakanov, a six-foot-two, 192-pound forward, spent the 2017-18 season with the Oakland Jr. Grizzlies, totaling an impressive 112 points (57G, 55A) in 77 total games between the program's HPHL schedule and U16 AAA schedule.

“Cedar Rapids has a great history of producing tremendous players," Bakanov said. "The plan that Coach Carlson provided my family and me not only for on ice development , but also developing as a student and person, far exceeded our expectations. I was able to see a game on my visit and the support of the fans for the team really excited me."

If he scores at a decent clip in his draft-1 year in the USHL he'll be a first round candidate.

Etc.: Awful Announcing on the Athletic's impressive growth. 2019 wing Jae'lyn Withers lists Michigan as one of four schools he's hearing the most from. Withers jumped 54 spots to 61st in the latest Rivals update. Zach Shaw says goodbye to Wagner. He's probably a second round pick. Ticket packs and prices announced. Baseball is "last five in" per D1baseball Dot Com

Comments

TrueBlue2003

April 19th, 2018 at 7:07 PM ^

There's already 5 in the 2018 class with 3 in the 2017 class. The quality of guy still available combined with the low likelihood he'd have of contributing probably makes taking someone at this point a bad idea.

Bank it for the 2019 class when that would be the only gauranteed spot (I think?) with a potential Matthews and/or Brooks departure being a possible 2nd/3rd spot.

Rabbit21

April 19th, 2018 at 4:03 PM ^

So the plane crash was due to aborting above refusal speed, that's actually damn scary and a good reason why experience in the cockpit is a good thing.  Still that was always a situation you never wanted to encounter as a pilot.  Glad the team came out of it okay.

Wolverine In Iowa 68

April 19th, 2018 at 4:47 PM ^

From what I skimmed, his actions "technically" broke rules, but faced with a plane he knew wouldn't be able to lift off, he took the best action he could, and ulitmately saved a lot of lives.

 

One article I read used the addage:  It's better to be on the ground wishing you were up in the air, rather than being up in the air wishing you were on the ground.

JamieH

April 20th, 2018 at 12:32 AM ^

There was a mechanical failure of the plane, and the pilot realized it.  The high winds earlier in the day had caused one of the elevators to get wedged into a stuck position.  The plane quite literally couldn't achieve lift.  If they had continued to try and take off, they most likely would have crashed horribly.  



The pilot recognized something was terribly wrong because he was getting screwed-up feedback through the flight-stick.  He recognized that the plane has suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure and was not going to fly, so he decided that aborting, even above terminal V1 velocity, was better than any other choice.  Super-gutsy call, and he probably saved the lives of our entire basketball program. 

NittanyFan

April 19th, 2018 at 5:26 PM ^

Aborting a takeoff beyond V1 speed --- a pilot will only do that if it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. 

E.g., he/she is completely 100% convinced the plane won't fly.

Once you hit V1, it's advised to get airborne EVEN in a situation like a single-engine failure on a 2-engine plane.  Getting up for a few minutes then landing is still safer than aborting.

Pretty damn scary incident.  Wow.

Erik_in_Dayton

April 19th, 2018 at 4:13 PM ^

That seems a little odd given that Z, Brooks, and DeJulius are all slated to be on the team that year.  I have to assume one of those guys has privately revealed to Coach Beilein that he is a replicant and that Coach fears he'll be "retired" before 2019.

TrueBlue2003

April 19th, 2018 at 7:21 PM ^

ominous for any of the current guys.  They'd still be looking at 1ish guy at the spot in each class. 2019 would look like:

Sr. Z

Jr. Brooks

So. DeJulius

Fr. New Guy

With Poole the only other combo guard that can create on the roster, there are enough minutes or at least a path to minutes for all those guys.

I would expect Brooks to look elsewhere if he gets passed this year by DeJulius.  He's in a bit of an Ibi Watson situation. And if he leaves, you'd definitely want a guy in the 2019 class.

 

FatGuyTouchdown

April 19th, 2018 at 4:38 PM ^

and out of touch, but maybe it's the coach in me... I hate Nunez's highlight video. Not the highlights themselves, but the way the clip is put together. Too many flashing lights and colors, too much slo-mo and zooming in and out at inconsequential times. The scream in the beginning. If this kid was some no name, I honestly think I'd throw out his highlight right away because of how gruesome the video production is. He's a baller though, so I don't wanna make it seem like I'm criticizing his game.

jbrandimore

April 19th, 2018 at 4:46 PM ^

"Either way we'll know soon—but it had better be a thumbs up unless the NCAA wants a ton of awful PR for no reason. It's not like there's going to be a spate of free transfers from schools that get in trouble and lie about it—currently that list of schools stands at just Ole Miss."

What are the chances that MSU is telling recruits the truth about the potential jeopardy they are facing?

jbrandimore

April 19th, 2018 at 6:11 PM ^

a letter of inquiry from the NCAA. It is also known that they have responded to it.

No one knows which issues are of interest to the NCAA, as MSU will not reveal either the letter or the response.

As you say, this may not affect football or basketball or anything.

However, don't you think that 100% of recruits and their parents are asking about this? Wouldn't you?

From the performance of Simon and Engler to date, it isn't much of a jump to assume they are telling recruits this entire thing is fake news and limited to gymnastics.



Hence the distinct possibility they are lying their asses off.

Mr Miggle

April 19th, 2018 at 6:50 PM ^

Is MSU football? I don't know, but I rather doubt it.

Not only did Ole Miss tell easily disproven lies to recruits about the violations, they also fed false stories to the media. There's no point to MSU doing the same, if only because of the timing. The NCAA notice and MSU's response will be made public long before signing day.

I'll just add that if the timing were different, it would still be very unlikely. Engler is a very short term president. I believe he'll step down once they've settled with Nassar's victims and those negotiations are supposed to start next month. While Dantonio probably knows Engler would never fire him for dishonest Ole Miss style conduct, he can't be so sure about the next president. If MSU is interested in reestablishing their reputation, the next president is going to deal harshly with the first scandal on their watch.

charblue.

April 20th, 2018 at 10:37 AM ^

board accountable and making survivors financial offers they can't deny in public or otherwise. It's all good. Just keep downplaying the problem, pretend it doesn't exist along with the people behind the curtain. It's all good, we got the NCAA on our side. Maybe someday they'll get around to looking into things. By then, the clock will have run out. So, now you know the strategy, study something to death until the clock expires.

That's what happened at UNC. That is what is happening at Ole Miss. And you can see the writing on the wall in East Lansing. When you're boxed in, play four corners defense.

bronxblue

April 19th, 2018 at 5:36 PM ^

"Either way we'll know soon—but it had better be a thumbs up unless the NCAA wants a ton of awful PR for no reason."

Have you met the NCAA, Brian? They basically invented the "hold my beer" meme.

robpollard

April 19th, 2018 at 5:58 PM ^

That is the truth.



I think UM's basketball jerseys have been really mediocre for quite some time. While we've improved from the tire tracks shorts and the ripped jerseys of the Adidas years, that's a low bar.



The tops look like they are pinched / too tight up top. As a result, the "MICHIGAN" looks like it barely fits.



Additionally, on our blue jerseys, the lettering looks more like gold than maize, and it looks like that lettering/numbering was ironed on.



We have great colors and some great jerseys in our past. Not sure why we can't have great jerseys now.

charblue.

April 20th, 2018 at 10:42 AM ^

most recent filing. Just that, we have nothing to add to make our case look any more believeable than what we already tried to bullshit our way through. At least, that is my specially interpreted between the lines analysis.

LKLIII

April 20th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^

Would we really know soon? Or is it possible NCAA waits for the other 4 or 5 petitions of former Ole Miss players at other schools and review/rule on them in the aggregate? Especially if the fact patterns are overlapping.