Unverified Voracity Wants To Go To Yost So Please Get A Shot
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If you want a full Michigan Stadium/Crisler/Yost. The state government has set a path to full reopening based on vaccination rates:
At 65% they'll lift indoor capacity limits but still require social distancing. At 70% it's go time. If you haven't gotten vaccinated yet there are walk-in opportunities all over the state. Ken Haddad's twitter feed is the most comprehensively updated vaccine availability notification device I've run across.
Also, if you took advantage of Ohio's Yokel Factor and got vaccinated south of the border because of increased availability you probably want to tell your primary care physician.
[After THE JUMP: playoff expansion inevitable]
Playoff expansion coming. For all but a very limited subset of college football programs, the playoff is a total failure. That subset has dominated playoff bids, contributing to a talent concentration at the top that has made the Alabama/Clemson/OSU/Oklahoma axis increasing like Kansas in B12 basketball: ordained from the preseason to the postseason. That is massively boring.
Worse, the playoff has obliterated the perceived value of bowl games. Now you've got the Rose Bowl—when it's not hosting a semifinal—maintaining some of its old aura and a bunch of games stars are more than willing to skip. Michigan suffering multiple opt-outs before a "New Years Six" game against Florida State is evidence enough of the bowls' dimming prestige.
So:
Concerned that their four-team product has been harmed by the dominance of a select few teams from the same region, FBS commissioners are seriously considering expanding the College Football Playoff. And while it’s long been assumed that any change to the format would be modest, several influential decision-makers are suddenly open to a playoff system that skips past eight teams and into the double digits.
“I sense 12 teams is building support,” one Power 5 athletic director said.
Per Andy Staples and Stewart Mandel, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 16 team models are under consideration. There are the usual mutterings about how the current format still has majority support, but this is a world where BCS spokesman Bill Hancock spent a decade decrying the very idea of a playoff and smoothly transitioned into being the spokesman for the playoff. If they're talking about it, and it's public enough to result in long Athletic articles, it's happening.
And, fine, okay. The current system is the worst of both worlds. I used to be opposed to a large playoff because I thought it would take away from the urgency of college football's regular season. I did not imagine that a small one would be even worse, but it is. Woof:
Of the 28 available spots in the Playoff so far, Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State and Oklahoma have filled 20.
Expanding it to 12 would still reward making the top four heavily; it also wouldn't mean 80% of the Power 5 is playing for a bowl no one cares about anymore before the season starts.
Also: home games! (Probably.)
This is a lot of strikeouts. A record-setting number, in fact:
A record day for @alxsto_! 2⃣2⃣ Ks! #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/YKuJEByKf9
— Michigan Softball (@umichsoftball) May 5, 2021
Michigan won 1-0 in a flashback to softball of a couple decades ago.
People describe DeVante' Jones. First, DeVante' Jones:
“I feel like a lot of people have got it confused,” he said. “Last year, I was forced to score more than pass. That’s what my team need to win. I think I can do it all — pass, score, rebound at a high level, play defense, do all the little things — but more than anything, I’m a pass-first point guard. That’s my mindset. That’s what I’m going there to do.”
I was one of those people who got it confused, overlooking Jones's sophomore year and the top-50 assist rate he had during it. He still took a lot of shots, but at Michigan he's not going to be the only guy with any efficiency to him.
Various coaches on Jones:
“He’s an unassuming tough guy,” Howard said. “He never gets rattled. He’s always under control. No moment is too big for him. He never loses his composure. He’s a tough, gritty kid without letting you know that he’s a tough, gritty kid.” …
Howard’s only knocks were that Jones isn’t particularly explosive or athletic. “He’s not a ‘blow-by’ point guard,” Howard said. Instead, Jones can score from anywhere on the court, gets to the foul line often, and shoots 85 percent on free throws. Howard sees some of former Villanova point guard -- and national Player of the Year -- Jalen Brunson in Jones’ game.
Goodbye, Franz. Alas, Franz Wagner's delayed NBA draft announcement was not because he was being held in his brother's basement until he agreed to a return. I mean, probably. You never know.
From a basketball perspective, this is the move for me to make right now. (Plus, I mean, if Moe can play in the league — obviously they’ll take anyone.)
Wagner's headed off to the lottery, and we get to console ourselves with this:
exclusive swanky vid of Franz Wagner saying goodbye to Michigan & heading to the NBA. recognize anyone in the ending? #GoBlue @umichbball pic.twitter.com/ez7hG6rEN8
— Swanky Wolverine (@swankywolverine) May 4, 2021
If you're interested in a DX-style strengths/weaknesses video here you go:
All of that is on point. Sam Vecenie has Wagner going 11th overall to the Pacers:
Franz Wagner | 6-9 forward | 19 years old, sophomore | Michigan
The player: Wagner is an interesting 3-and-D prospect with real size at 6-9. His movement is terrific, with great lateral quickness. He can guard a variety of perimeter players on the ball, but his off-ball instincts are absolutely spectacular. He knows exactly where to be positionally, and his reactivity to get deflections is outstanding. The big question revolves around his shot, which comes and goes far too often. Sometimes, he looks like a legit 40 percent 3-point shooter in the future. Other times, he looks like a 30 percent guy and totally non-confident in the jumper mechanics. Whichever one he is will determine his career. If he becomes that high-level shooter, he’ll be a very high-level role player. If he doesn’t, he’s more in the vein of his brother, Moritz, as an end-of-the-rotation guy.
The fit: The Pacers need someone like this within their core, a defense-first wing who can pass and be relatively low-usage for wings such as Caris LeVert and T.J. Warren to focus on scoring. The team has also struggled a lot on defense in the minutes and games that Myles Turner has missed this season. This is another excellent fit on draft night if the Pacers end up with Wagner because he really fits from a positional perspective rotationally as well as a team-need perspective.
Would I watch an NBA team starting Franz Wagner and Caris LeVert? Maybe!
Other names of note from Vecenie's mock draft:
- #6 Scottie Barnes, which vexes me because Wagner stuffed him in a trash can
- #8 Moses Moody, who was just a nice recruit ranked around 50th when Michigan lost out on him to Arkansas
- #19 Cam Thomas
- #23 Ayo Dosunmu
- #30 Aaron Henry (ed: ?)
- #31 Bones Hyland
- #33 Josh Christopher
- #35 Isaiah Todd
- #38 Luka Garza
- #41 Greg Brown
- #54 Kofi Cockburn
Kofi at 54 is relatively good news for Dickinson's longevity in college. (Only relative because despite that draft position Cockburn was two-and-out at Illinois.)
The suit. The backstory on Kwity Paye's NFL draft suit:
Kwity Paye (@OfficialKwity) told me earlier today that Chadwick Boseman being the first Black superhero meant the world to him, so his draft suit reflected that. Suit was made by former Packers player Adonis Jennings pic.twitter.com/tqZ7qLfnio
— Tyler R. Tynes (@TylerRickyTynes) April 29, 2021
And also the extraordinary backstory on Paye himself:
Soldiers had captured her cousin and taken a machete to his head, leaving a gash across his forehead and a pool of blood spilling out, then strapped a tire to his body to burn him alive. They would have completed their grisly task, if not for one soldier who'd recognized him and considered him a friend. He was a nice man, Cyrus; he'd become something of a favorite son around the camp, and that reputation was his salvation. He shouted the soldier's name. Help me! The soldier ran to him, pleading with the other soldiers. I know this kid; he's like my son. The soldier spared Cyrus' life, then rushed him to the Red Cross. Kwity remembers that now, always. How the simple act of being kind, of being a friend, saved Cyrus' life. How the simple act of Kwity being kind, of being a friend, might yet change his.
"Make sure you always be respectful; make sure you always put your best foot forward," Kwity says, reciting the mantra Agnes passed down to him. "You never know how that person may help."
That is a story his mom passed down to him; his mom is now retired.
After he was drafted by the Colts, Kwity Paye said his mom was "done working and she's retired."
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 2, 2021
From West Africa to the NFL, this is the story of how @OfficialKwity honors his mother for all the sacrifices she made so her children could have a better life. pic.twitter.com/vqVhnwDDIB
Maybe us someday. The Knicks are back! This is extremely relevant!
When we get hurt, we put up walls. It’s human nature. We remember what it feels like to be vulnerable—to care about something so much that you extend your arms to embrace it—and what it feels like when that decision backfires. We don’t want to feel like that again. So up go the walls, getting taller with each blow and bruise, brick by brick. Eventually, we can’t reach the thing we cared about anymore. But it can’t reach us, either.
The Knicks have spent the better part of two decades giving fans like me reasons to stack bricks. Between 2000 and 2020, chairman James L. Dolan cycled through eight front-office leaders, 14 head coaches, at least that many prospective saviors who didn’t pan out on the floor, and a frankly incalculable number of sideline pouts and lifetime bans. All that churn netted just five postseason appearances, four winning records, one playoff series win, more losses than any other team ... and many, many towering walls.
It takes a lot to break those down. This year’s Knicks are doing it.
I don't even know what that would look like anymore because Michigan has that great big wall at the end of every season, but maybe one day.
Etc.: If Michigan really needs a mascot this is a candidate. Transfer portal reporting has gone too far. Baseball on track to make the tournament. Zion got money (surprise), would have gotten a lot more in an NIL world (surprise). Adding Jones moves Michigan up to #6 in Gary Parrish's early rankings, one spot behind OSU. CBS ranks Jones the #8 committed transfer.
If 70% don’t get their annual booster vaccine, do we shut down simply because of that?
I guess I am confused by this question. The 70% threshold is for re-opening, not shutting down. Any future shutting down would presumably have a different set of criteria (such as hospital utilization) which is why I mentioned that.
I assume what happens when we don't hit 70% with at least one dose (fairly likely as you said), alternative criteria will have be considered.
Also, there is no FDA approved vaccine, the vaccines have been fda authorized for emergency use only at this point
Yes. We can get pedantic about it if you want, but I am hard-pressed to believe the FDA would authorize a vaccine for emergency use only if they found it ineffective and/or dangerous, which is more my point. The fact is the vaccine was clinically tested and has since been administered to many millions of people and has generally proven to be both safe and effective from what we've observed so far.
What are "reliable resources" in this context, then? Are you expecting people to read published articles (some of which, we've found, haven't been validated or peer-reviewed) and make their determination from that? Watch some YouTube videos? Should they just review their friends' Facebook posts?
Honestly, people should talk to their physician and get a specific outlook for their personal medical situation. Anything beyond that is going to just lead to disinformation and confusion.
Most hospitals were never overwhelmed. That didn't really happen, most places. The fear of it did, though.
Doesn't that mean our preparedness was successful then? We knew the possibility of our hospitals being overwhelmed existed, and took action to prevent the very worst outcomes from happening.
I was worried that people will look in hindsight and conclude "it wasn't that bad", likely because the measures we took worked (though the latter part will probably be lost).
For F(*(SAKES JUST LOOK AT WHAT IS HAPPENING IN INDIA!!! That could have been us if we did not take precautions and still more than half million people were killed in this very country.
I have nurse friends who can show you evidence that your comment is complete bullshit.
It must be sad to live like this.
We have over a year of evidence that "do some research" by ordinary, untrained people leads to just some awful decisions. I mean, if you consult with your doctor and you agree that the vaccine doesn't make sense for you, so be it. But people "researched" hydroxychloroquine usage and the FDA wound up having to issue a warning telling people to stop using it to treat COVID-19 unless directed by medical professionals. These vaccines are safe for the vast majority of Americans and healthier for them than contracting COVID-19 organically. You can't force people to do anything but we also don't need to validate every half-cocked rationale for not taking it.
Nationally about 85.9 percent of Americans regularly wear their seat belts, according to the study.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/04/the-shockingly-l…
Sure people can make an informed decision, but if a business doesn't allow them on their premises because they opted not to get vaccinated that's their right.
State needs to add, that if numbers are not achieved, then photo ID and vaccination cards are required for entry to the following facilities/events............
That will inspire people who want to go to certain facilities/events to get vaccinated!
Too logical for mainstream politicians to figure that out. We need more politicians from logic-based professions/majors instead of all these ...........mindless lawyers!
You need to establish incentives for individuals, not just some mass concept. Because that obviously has not worked from the very beginning.
anyone who WANTS them
this isn't polio man, this is something that the government promoted as DEADLY DEADLY when it is only in a small % of people and then used it to bully people into vaccinations.
these days it is WHO DO YOU TRUST??
NOT the government, not the scientists who are being paid by them to push this thing.
our state is a joke around the country just like it was when Granholm was in charge and we lost hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Indiana and Ohio thank our governor every day for her idiocy and blind faith in her fellow crooks in DC.
I'm all for 12+ teams in the playoff. Championship game is at the Rose Bowl every year at sunset.
I agree that the 4 team CFP is worse than the old 2 team BCS. Now the top teams just have more wiggle room to take an L or two and still get in so it actually removed the intensity of having to win every game. Going bigger should at least spread out the talent and hopefully mix in some new teams. 4 team playoff has been terrible.
Also HOME PLAYOFF GAMES. DO IT
At 65% they'll lift indoor capacity limits but still require social distancing. At 70% it's go time. If you haven't gotten vaccinated yet there are walk-in opportunities all over the state.
Not sure if Michigan will ever get to 70%. It's absolutely wild to see the mental gymnastics some people have used to justify going from making fun of all anti-vax people to being hardcore anti-vax.
Astounding how people's views can flip 180 solely due to political affiliation, regardless of facts.
Exactly. People need to stop worrying about who is telling them what to do. Do the research for yourself and make an informed decision. Please don’t trust politicians on either side.
I think it should be clarified that nobody is being forced to get vaccinated. Also, I really disagree with the "do your own research" take.
What research are most people going to do that is better than that of Pfizer, the FDA, the CDC, virologists, and epidemiologists?
I guess when I hear "do your own research" I hear "check Facebook", but if you mean something as simple as talk to your PCP about it then, yeah.
Do your own research just indicates they have a dumb opinion that can’t be backed up by the evidence. The “research” allows them to search the internet to find other people with the same dumb opinion so they can delude themselves into thinking they are not an idiot.
"do your own research" means "find information that backs your viewpoint" and usually is only said by people with the minority anti-science opinion
Here is the CDC's tweet from February of 2020. They say they currently do not recommend the use of facemasks to help prevent the coronavirus. There were plenty of people doing their own research and buying facemasks at the time. If we had listened to them and started masking up, maybe the spread of the virus would have been mitigated. We know from experience the CDC is overly cautious and/or slow to update their recommendations. I think they get it right more often than not, but every once in a while the outsiders are quicker to pick up on what's happening than the experts within huge bureaucratic institutions.
By the way, these are the CDC's food temperature recommendations. If I like my hamburger medium rare, and don't cook it to the minimum recommended temperature, are you going to call me anti-science?
username most definitely does not check out.
I was one of those who took advantage of Ohio's early decision to vaccinate anyone regardless of residency. As a California resident, I would like to thank the yokels of Ohio for making this possible during a March business trip.
As a Pacers fan since their ABA days, all I can say is, "Yes, please."
First time seeing the Paye piece. If you don't shed a tear watching that thing, your not human.
It seems like the rate of vaccinations has slowed. Some states and communities are using incentives to try to get above the 70 percent vaccination rate. I hope Michigan football and basketball will use proof of vaccination to enter. There's no reason we cannot have a full house of fans if everyone in the stadium has had their vaccinations.
Too bad XM was banned. The comments section would be gold. I got my second shot at the end of January. There is zero chance the state of Michigan gets to 65%.
All those threads for years where XM talked about his black experience... what a lunatic that man is for faking to be black
Wait what? Didn't he also post diaries about his child's fb recruitment process? Was that a lie as well?
The guy behind XM used his work email (which always have a combo of your first and last name along with company name) for his mgoblog account. A quick LinkedIn search by the Mgo staff revealed he was a white guy living in traverse city. He’s literally batshit insane, would not believe his recruitment stories.
Dude, wait...WHAT? Holy fucking shit. He had the most elaborate back story, involving raising young Black men out west, no? This blows my mind.
Pretty sure he’s back under another name...
There’s someone who hadn’t posted in a few years that started making threads when he was banned
An obvious solution: abandon the playoff altogether. Embrace the national championship as an absurd fiction. Focus on winning your conference and your conference's No. 1 bowl. We had it good and got greedy.
It was plainly obvious at the time they created the four team playoff that it would result in talent coalescing around a few teams. At the time I commented here and elsewhere that an "arms race" was on, and if Michigan didn't get its act together, a window would close and Michigan would be on the outside looking in. That's what happened. Had Harbaugh leveraged his 2015 trajectory into a sustained line of improvement, then Michigan might be in the conversation. Right now they're not.
An 8 team playoff doesn't fix this. Even a 16 team playoff will simply result in the same 6 or so teams curb-stomping the others who get into the playoffs. The top recruits know which teams *win*. A team like Michigan would have to get in year after year and show the possibility of playing with the top teams to move the needle. A blowout loss might be worse than not being there. Ask Michigan State; ask Notre Dame.
Taking the playoffs out of the picture would be the answer. Give blogs and sports talk stations something to debate and discuss.
It'll never happen, of course. There's way too much money involved.
The Vaccination thing seems pretty simple to me, but I think we're all suffering from some issues with what we can see and what we know. We are all highly online people who likely know how, when and where to get the Vaccine. And even in my case, I had already had COVID and was perfectly content to wait until getting the vaccine was easy, and was lucky that Vanderbilt health called me and enrolled me and it was super easy.
Now imagine you are NOT a highly online person and this is what you, somewhat vaguely, know about the vaccine:
1. You're probably still not eligible for it as they're trying to get old people and medical folks first.
2. People who have had it get really sick a couple days later(for example I was FAR sicker during the eight hour stretch that began about 36 hours after the second shot than I was with the actual virus, people hear stuff like this ).
3. They put one of the vaccines on pause because it was harmful(Yes, yes, I know it's not true, but I am not arguing for what I know).
4. No-one has reached out to you to get it.
Add it all up and you're going to have to take time out of your day to figure out if you're even eligible for this thing and likely time out of your day a couple days later due to the side effects in order to get the vaccine and for what? You've probably already been going to work on site all year and on a certain level about the only way your life has changed is you're wearing a mask everywhere and you have to drink at home. So what's the benefit? Right now the benefit appears to be "Well, the people who are cautious might finally allow themselves to be less cautious, but because you can't prove you've had the vaccine, the people who are cautious are going to go ahead and continue to be cautious and not change a damn thing about their lives because caution." In other words, NO BENEFIT to you at all, so how about we change this approach?
For example that chart Brian shows is awesome as it shows how to get out of all this bullshit. Now, how is this information being distributed? Is it still dependent on the highly online model? or are they going on the radio, taking out billboards, etc. And is the message "This is how we get back to normal." or is it the super-persuasive "You're a fucking idiot for not getting/doing it." which has been nothing but effective all goddamn year.
I am sure that the "But Trump said not to get one" crew is existent, just as the "But Tuskegee" group is existent. I just happen to think neither of those groups are nearly as explanatory or nearly as large as the group I just described. I know we all want easy villains, but sometimes they aren't the be all/end all causes of all our woes.
Don't plenty of places have walk in vaccine clinics at this point?
Across much of the country local grocery stores, wal-marts and many national drug stores are giving the vaccine shots for free. It is so much easier than just a month ago. No excuses People!
The stupidity of Michigan's setting opening based on vaccination rates is that it ignores covid induced immunity- at the very least if they are hoping to get to 70% they should add people who've had covid and not been vaccinated to the total who are vaccinated.
We don't know how long immunity lasts but studies on other coronavirus's show at least one year of immunity and probably several years. In most cases, immunity from actually having an infection is more effective than a vaccine.
Anecdotal evidence is precisely that, but a friend's parents both got COVID twice. From what I understand (and I'm not a doctor unlike everyone else on the internets) it's rare but far from impossible.
Your last point just isn’t true. There’s no head to head studies yet, but unless covid put you in the hospital, you’re most likely NOT more protected from reinfection than the vaccine. The vaccines overload your system to generate a ton of antibodies. Said this above, but particularly in Pfizer and moderna, you get tons more spike protein antibodies than you get from a normal infection. And this is what actually helps against the variants. Even though variants like the one from the UK have changes in the spike protein, the vaccine overloads you with enough antibodies to fight this.
But there have been head to head studies. Look at the Novavax South African study. Novavax showed 60% effectiveness against the South African variant but people who started the study and already had Covid-19 antibodies were no more or less likely to get Covid than those who didn't have antibodies. That's a very strong signal that immunity may not protect you at all against variants. You can also look at Manaus, Brazil. They got wiped out twice by the virus. The second time by the P1 variant.
my last point is correct- look up how often you need a whooping cough vaccination versus immunity granted by having Whooping cough- it depends on the vaccine and we don't know what the case may be -
This is false and username checks out.
The CDC recommends that people who got covid still get the vaccine and your immunity from the vaccine is much better than getting covid because you are essentially overloaded with antibodies
Is that the best ladder they could find for cutting down the nets?
I thought the same thing. Can’t we paint that thing maize and blue prior to next season (remove the duct tape first).
Michigan did not have sit-outs against Florida State in their NY6 Bowl Game for the 2016 season (unless you count Peppers missing the game). The sit-outs were two years later against Florida following the 2018 season: Bush, Higdon, Gary, etc.
Just chiming in to note Peppers never played a bowl game for Michigan.
I'm all for a 16 team playoff with home games. Model it after the FCS tournament. DO IT!!
Hot take...
Just go back to the poll era. Bowl games mattered, you didn’t have to make college kids play upwards of 16 games. Having a clear cut “champion” isn’t really worth a neutered Rose Bowl or amateurs playing more violent, risk filled games than some pros
Plus, it gave fans a great topic to discuss and argue about from January 2nd to September 1st.
The BCS and the playoffs was a money grab, and it's turned out awful. The awfulness was totally predictable.
I completely agree that arguing about whose team was best was fun. "We don't have a clear national champion" was not a real problem.
Kwitty Paye is a Michigan Man.
i swear to god, i clicked to the ren hefley article and thought it was just poorly written satire, and spent the first moment or two trying to figure out the inside joke i was missing.
i've literally never heard of this person.
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