Diabate Out for Tonight's Game
Apparently, whatever mysterious illness knocked Diabate out of last game after seven minutes is still bothering him.
“I just pray that he gets healthy,” Howard said. “I’m not concerned about how fast he gets back on the floor to play. I know he’s concerned, because he’s such a fierce competitor. I just want Moussa health-wise — whenever he’s able to return, he returns at 110 percent healthy. There’s no rush to get him back. We truly miss him and obviously we need him.”
It seems like Howard hinted that it might just be the flu that is going around. Diabate is traveling with the team to Nebraska though, so who knows.
December 7th, 2021 at 8:41 AM ^
Considering how we've been playing, not having him or for a B1G road game is not good. Hunter needs to pace himself and come up big. Get well soon, brother Moussa.
December 7th, 2021 at 8:42 AM ^
If he actually *is* sick still, I doubt he would be traveling. Maybe just not 100% yet.
December 7th, 2021 at 8:45 AM ^
True. Kind of feared it was going to end up like Zeb, where he's traveling with the team, but just isn't playing. Hopefully this is just a matter of getting his conditioning back after extra rest the last few days.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:26 AM ^
It was encouraging to see Zeb get a few minutes on Saturday. I had the game on while we were getting ready to head to downtown Indy, but unfortunately I wasn't paying as much attention as I usually do, but I did notice Zeb in the game.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:46 AM ^
It's still early in his rehab but the initial results were not too promising.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:56 AM ^
his rehab for what? has that been disclosed?
December 7th, 2021 at 9:30 AM ^
Or maybe just something non contagious, it's not like a "physical" injury a pulled muscle or something?
December 7th, 2021 at 8:42 AM ^
If he's travelling with the team then it can't be all that serious, right? And definitely not contagious. What a weird situation
December 7th, 2021 at 8:47 AM ^
If he’s still ill, he probably wouldn’t (or at least SHOULDN’T) be traveling with the team
December 7th, 2021 at 8:48 AM ^
Nowhere has it said he's out for the game. You seem to have made that up.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:37 AM ^
I don't know, maybe this translates different in your language: I just want Moussa health-wise — whenever he’s able to return, he returns at 110 percent healthy. There’s no rush to get him back. We truly miss him and obviously we need him.”
December 7th, 2021 at 10:10 AM ^
Whenever could be tonight. That very much doesn't say he's not playing tonight. You are making an assumption that this comment implies missing a game.
It sounds like he is missing the game but that isn't the quote I would use to prove it.
December 7th, 2021 at 8:49 AM ^
Rumor he has mono per Kolesar99 (diary where he second hands info from an "insider"). Would explain why he would be able to travel with the team.
If true this is no bueno, especially if he has splenomegaly.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:32 AM ^
Per Mlive
The Wolverines could be missing a starter in Lincoln. Moussa Diabaté has the flu, or at least he did on Saturday, when he had to leave about seven minutes in due to illness. Several of his teammates have caught the bug in recent weeks.
“I just pray that he gets healthy,” Howard said. “I’m not concerned about how fast he gets back on the floor to play. I know he’s concerned because he’s such a fierce competitor. But I just want Moussa, health-wise, whenever he’s able to return, that he’s returning 110 percent healthy. There’s no rush to get him back. But I will say this: We truly miss him, and obviously we need him.”
December 7th, 2021 at 10:34 AM ^
I was wondering if it was that or maybe his appendix.
December 7th, 2021 at 8:59 AM ^
The article you linked seems to imply that he is likely not traveling with the team to Nebraska:
“However, it didn’t sound encouraging that Diabate would be making the trip to Nebraska with the team.”
December 7th, 2021 at 9:07 AM ^
Diabate is actually NOT traveling with the team tonight. I completely misread the article. My bad. That makes way more sense to me. That is what I get for wearing my wife's reading glasses instead of mine.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:10 AM ^
In your defense, this is a horribly-written sentence that can be interpreted in more than one way:
"However, it didn’t sound encouraging that Diabate would be making the trip to Nebraska with the team."
December 7th, 2021 at 9:21 AM ^
I guess expectations for writing and editing are low at the Detroit News.
December 7th, 2021 at 10:03 AM ^
I think there are plenty of competent and talented writers in the field of mainstream journalism.
Very, very, very few of them are sportswriters. Brian Cook has more writing ability when he's blind-drunk in a BPONE funk than most sportswriters have on their best, most alert days.
December 7th, 2021 at 10:48 AM ^
Way back, as I understand it, sports writers were hacks, with a few exceptions like Grantland Rice. But the late 20th century fostered improvements. Three sources come to mind: Sports Illustrated hired reporters who were good writers; the New York Times encouraged its writers to look at larger cultural and political contexts of the games, an expansive view that blended into good writing; and the Michigan Daily sports writers tended (tend) to be good writers.
But it feels as if the situation has reverted to where it was a century ago, a few exception in a moderately literate crowd, mostly homers. Part of the fun of MGoBlog is that we're lucky that Brian, Seth & the gang are among the exceptions who write well.
(P.S. Brendan Quinn wrote fancy but not always well. I know he got praised here occasionally, and got hired in what must have been a step up, but he seemed mostly to impress with big words, whether or not they were apt for the meaning he intended.)
December 7th, 2021 at 11:27 AM ^
I don't know if the quality of sportswriting is down but I think proofreading has suffered in the internet age. We no longer expect to wait until the next day for our articles about sports, we want them ASAP. Newspapers don't have hours to review their articles, just minutes.
December 7th, 2021 at 1:48 PM ^
Exactly.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:12 AM ^
Username…
December 7th, 2021 at 11:30 AM ^
Are we going to be making jokes about one of our own players' names all season? Feels like a bad look.
December 7th, 2021 at 9:25 AM ^
Johns needs to have a great game tonight. I hope he really steps up.
December 7th, 2021 at 11:35 AM ^
I am actually curious what we do with our lineups today. I think we will see Williams in the starting lineup instead of Johns at the 4 (though Houstan and Williams could be interchangeable at the 3/4). We probably need to keep Johns as the reserve at the 5 (and at the 4) for when Dickinson needs some rest. Hunter has to be ready to play 35 minutes though just in case Johns is performing poorly or has foul trouble.
December 7th, 2021 at 11:41 AM ^
Johns seems to have caught a severe case of fumbleitis in the offseason. Dude cannot catch the ball.
December 7th, 2021 at 11:54 AM ^
Or shoot it
December 7th, 2021 at 12:57 PM ^
Putting more on his plate seems like a recipe for disaster but I'm not sure what options we have. The only other scholarship big is Tschetter.
December 7th, 2021 at 2:41 PM ^
So we're fucked then j/k
Every time Johns does something positive, it gets me hopeful that he's finally taking that step and say out loud "there you go!" as if he could hear those encouraging words
But then something bad happens (offensive charge, picks up foot before dribbling, passing up open looks in favor of bad ones). You can do it Brandon!
December 7th, 2021 at 9:34 AM ^
This is bad news..this is going to be a very tough road game and now without him? OUCH
December 7th, 2021 at 10:37 AM ^
Really what needs to happen is Houstan play consistently like the NBA first round lock he's suppose to be.
So far based on what we've seen from him, he'd be better off playing here a couple years.
Hes certainly not an offensive juggernaut and his defense has been suspect.
December 7th, 2021 at 10:54 AM ^
What we really need is top 25 point guard play. College teams are DOA without it. Especially young teams.
December 7th, 2021 at 11:04 AM ^
Sure feels like more than the flu etc... mono seems like the likely culprit when howard says "i pray that he gets healthy". not sure you need to pray for that with the flu or a cold that resolves in days. Same with a non-break/other injury which nobody is speculating.
Sounds like something that has no real time-table and will probably keep him out for a long while. team struggling already but... dig deep!
December 7th, 2021 at 11:33 AM ^
It's obviously not optimal to be out a big part of your team but at least Nebraska looks to be a reasonably beatable team if they play like they did against SDSU.
December 7th, 2021 at 5:26 PM ^
Unfortunately I don't think we can count on Dickinson and Houstan going 7/8 from 3 often.