WTKA Roundtable 4/4/2024: A Chip and a Chair
Things Discussed:
- Dusty May's new staff: got himself a D guy and a recruiter.
- Good sign that he's addressing his first perceived weaknesses, bodes well for gathering the best players from FAU and bringing Khani Rooths back.
- Akeem Miskdeen: Like Dusty May, nobody has a bad word to say.
- Rebuilding a basketball roster: Feels confident they can get Davis and Goldin and others from FAU, adding Miskdeen gets them in the market for the Oklahoma State guys in the portal and Rooths, whom Miskdeen was recruiting to Georgia. Also after Yale's stretch C, Wolf. All of these guys are grad transfers or Yale. Say yes to a proven Big Ten player who's got a chip on his shoulder in Essegian, even if he's not a perfect fit for May's offense. Can add pieces from FAU's class to get some Zak & Stu types.
- Will they come? They all like May enough that they didn't leave FAU after going to the Final Four. Trey Townsend (Oakland) probably goes to MSU, isn't much of a fit because he's not a perimeter guy (35% but on just a handful of attempts from the arc).
- Will the NIL be right? Michigan won't commit the same mistakes again.
- Hockey: Two of the best third periods in program history. Has this been a turnaround in focus or in luck? Kind of both, but also Marshall Warren has come on, and now they're getting good shifts from everyone down the roster.
- The Michigan 2.0: GuloGulo reminded us Nazar did the same in his first game. Shall we watch it again? Okay!
Nazar with an unreal assist and Brindley makes it 4-2 Michigan pic.twitter.com/DNnLC5zyCr
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) April 1, 2024
- Now we just need the most iconic fight in college hockey history to have the Gordie Howe Hat Trick.
- Ira: Most satisfying playoff win? Seth & Brian: Hell no! [both start naming bangers at Yost].
- Seth: I don't hate MSU hockey fans. Brian: You must have a short memory. But rivalry doesn't feel hateful right now because MSU was so bad.
- Can they win the Frozen Four? They're facing the three best one seeds after knocking off #4 and #5 in the country, have a puncher's chance but the Boston schools are loaded to the gills with NHL prospects and Denver is Denver. Twenty percent? Will take it.
[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream.
Segment 2 is here. You can watch the video here:
The Usual Links:
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
-
Direct download link (right-click/save as)
- What's with the theme music?
There's no comparison to playing at the St. Louis Blues practice facility.
I'm not into hockey the way some of you guys are (looking at you I bleed Maize n Blue) but I'm old enough to know ANY hockey team has a chance if their goalie gets hot. And kinda lost in the excitement of our last two third period offensive explosions has been the huge improvement in the play of Barczewski. He's been rock solid for the past two games and if that continues I'd say we've got a hellofalot better shot at winning the whole thing than 20%.
Why not us?
There is a certain amount of randomness in two fairly close teams and one game series The miracle on ice happened.
I enjoy hockey but I’m not a purist like some of my buddies. I always thought the game would be more exciting and bring in more fans if you widened the net two inches on each side.
You would have higher scoring games, more exciting comebacks, and the better skating team would win more often.
Do I hate MSU hockey fans? No. Well maybe. Some of them. Most of them...? Do I hate MSU hockey? Yes. I hate Notre Dame hockey more though. Maybe some residual from formerly hating Notre Dame football more.
Over/under on how many times I've watched the Nazar pass to Brindley: 127
Yeah. It's kind of a distant memory since MSU has been so bad for so long, but the hate back in the 2000s used to be INTENSE. I remember one game in particular back when I was a student, we hosted MSU when they were #1 at the time. There was never (before or since) a regular season hockey game that I wanted to win more than that one (we lost a low scoring game, 1-0 or 2-1 or something like that). I had been dreaming all week of how Yost would have exploded if we knocked off the #1 team in the country (and MSU no less).
I feel like the ND hate really picked up as MSU declined (part of me wonders if MSU's declined played a role in ND's rise, since I don't remember ND being a top team back when MSU was still elite). But the latent MSU hate reminds me of probably my other most hated team at the time, Miami (OH), and their douchebag coach Enrico Blasi. Another team where the hate has faded to memories, as they've been downright abysmal for awhile now...
I want to beat MSU hockey all the way, but I don't hate their hockey fans relative to other MSU and B10 fanbases. Other than the Tropp/Conboy incident, which attracted the toxic trash from RCMB, their hockey fans have always represented the better part of their fanbase to me. When their football team assaulted a dorm the first time, the hockey fans were the ones appropriately aghast at how unseriously the school was taking it. When the rivalry was at its height they were welcoming to Michigan fans freezing our asses off with them in the first outdoor game, and appropriately smug about Ryan Miller's evident awesomeness. If they failed to appreciate the manifest superiority of wide open Berenson hockey, we were dismissive of how hard it was for Mason to teach their skilled players to be as disciplined as they were.
I liked Wisconsin fans too. They left me a major false impression as to who their basketball and football fanbases were. Oddly Bowling Green, WMU, and Notre Dame hockey fans came off as worse to me.
I have a close friend who is an MSU guy and a huge hockey fan. He's been on cloud 9 most of the season and rightfully so. MSU hockey has been so bad for so many years. Well he was super loud and annoying at the Duel in the D. I didn't hear from him after the Tournament Championship because I was out of town. But then Sunday came and all was right in the world again. I got to work on Monday and didn't say a thing. Just gave him a smile that looked something like this.
FWIW living in Northern Ohio I find that I too have that same look on face quite frequently. And oddly enough I've had it for the past three years.
Go figure.
if it lasts that long i think you're supposed to go see a doctor. just sayin'
I get the sneaking suspicion that Brian doesn't like Ward that much... picked up some subtle hints...
It's interesting that we are coming in as an underdog in this Frozen Four. The things that we have complained about for years -- randomness in single-elimination hockey games, etc -- could work in our favor this time. It's an uphill battle, but Barzo is playing better, and there's always a shot in this format. Hot goalie, puck luck, and starting to click at the most crucial times....that matters as much as anything when it's win-or-go-home.
I LOVE me some Craig, but his refusal to see that Warde hiring Naruto (Which seems to be working out to say the least) was WAY overshadowed by his just swallowing actionable information about a sitting head coach is just baffling to me.
What does a kid ninja know about collegiate-level hockey anyway.
I wonder if he skates in the same style as he runs. Probably be hard to do any stick-handling with both his arms straight out behind his back.
If all teams in the Frozen Four had an equal shot, the odds would be 25 percent for Michigan. If Michigan is a slight underdog, say, 40% for both games, that's 16%. 20% seems pretty optimistic.
This podcast is one of my favorite parts of the week. I love the guys and all of their content and perspectives. With that being said, I always hate disagreeing with them, but I do want to make a couple of counterpoints to some of their basketball takes.
- Brian, Davis is not a point guard just because he had the best assist rate. He's a shooting guard or Wing.
- Seth and Craig, Davis is not a power forward just because FAU played a four-gard lineup.
- Brian did a great job of explaining why the two portal centers are going to be in such high demand, which makes me perplexed as to how anyone thinks we could potentially get both of them. Them. Neither has been able to capitalize on being on a high major team or with any nil and yet we're going to get both of these top transfer centers and have them agree to play 20 minutes each? That seems highly improbable though. Awesome! If it's a possibility.
- I'm also not sure in general that all of the FAU guys are going to line up to transfer for Dusty. It is encouraging that they stayed this year and ran it back at FAU, but now they're making a big move and have a second chance to make nil money anywhere they want. I think we'll get someone, but I'm hedging my expectations much lower than Brian's optimism related to getting all of these guys.
- I loathed the idea that we're even talking about playing both bigs together. The reality is vz have to wait and see what Dusty wants to do, but his track records suggests that he's going to have a floor spacing four and not a second big.
- I like that Brian suggested taking some flyers on FAU recruits to fill the bottom of the roster since we have so many holes. But I would just caution that if Juwan recruited an unranked player, we would have flipped out and now we're advocating for it? I think you consider taking the one kid who's ranked 185 but only after you see what else you've got first. The other two recruits are much lower ranked and probably not an ideal fit unless we're carrying empty scholarships
I optimistic discussions on basketball for the first time in forever. Let's just be careful not to be too optimistic considering we still have a completely empty roster and have a huge rebuild ahead of us.
Comments