Today's Random Questions
Hope people aren't getting sick of these! Personally I love these kinds of 'what if' scenarios, although it seems harder and harder to come up with questions. Here are the ones I came up with today while daydreaming during work:
1) Which nonfootball/hoops championship would you rather have: '19 baseball, '18 hockey, '16 softball?
2) Pick a former M football/hoops player that you would have really wanted on your favorite pro team
3) Top 3 football games of the decade
4) Top 3 Basketball games of the decade
5) Pick an injury to reverse: '12 Denard Ulnar nerve @nebraska, '13-14 McGary issues, '14-'16 Levert's foot, '15 Ryan Glasgow gets hurt, '16 Speight's shoulder... etc.
My answers:
1) '19 baseball because M would have stuck it to all the major powers of the sport, plus the rarity of the achievement and overall talent of the team
2) Obviously Brady on the Lions, but a more nuanced one would be Jamal Crawford on the early 2000s Pistons as a 6th man/bench scorer, could have helped them go back-to-back in '05
3) '11 ND, '13 ND, '12 NW (No Harbaugh win has been as exciting as these IMO due to the star power of Denard and DG (at least in the moment) in '11 and '13 respectively, and the '12 NW game was a crazy finish)
4) '13 Kansas, '17 Ok St., '13 MSU
5) A lot of tough choices, but for me it's '16 Speight. Potentially gets M through the OSU game undefeated which would almost certainly get them in the playoff in JH's 2nd year. Denard in '12 is a close #2 though.
1) Baseball 100
2) Wish Caris Levert was on the Sixers
3) 100% agree on the ND games. Hell, even add the '10 game in South Bend where Denard ran over the Irish literally. Even though most of those ND-Michigan games proved to be meaningless, the memories are classic.
4) '13 Kansas, '13 Syracuse, '13 MSU. Trey Burke. Nuff said.
5) Jabrill Peppers '16. We beat FSU pretty comfortably imo.
Edit: I'd like to add 2011 OSU to the list along with the ND games for question 3 b/c I'm coming around to the sobering reality that it's the only W over those bastards Michigan will have in my adult lifetime.
Re: #5
That's true about Peppers, but also remember Jake Butt's injury during that game. Man, for being a bowl game, that game was just brutal.
The worst part was, offensively, we dicked around for the better part of 50 minutes and still managed to come back and take a lead - only to blow it. It is just dumbfounding how this program has managed to lose every single game (save for one) against a Top 15 team away from Michigan stadium (neutral site included) since RichRod became the coach.
1) I guess baseball for the novelty and recency bias reasons. Generally I think the power-sports have more of an impact on the brand, the recruiting, etc. but that baseball team was fun and I wished they had won.
2) You should have said "besides Brady" because that's the obvious answer. I like the Crawford pick or Woodson. A dark-horse would be Duncan on the Pistons to actually give them a second functional outside shooter....but after reading the UV post today there's no way the Pistons develop him.
3 & 4) I'm bad at picking these so I'll go with the popular opinion here.
5) I think McGary and Levertt might have resulted in major titles. But I think you have to go with the football answers because they potentially change the narrative and direction of the program. You mentioned most of the big ones, but you could even go farther with Rudock getting knocked out of OSU, Peters getting knocked out against Wisconsin, Grant Newsome setting back our OT situation for years, or even Peppers getting hurt and missing FSU.
Rudock wouldn't have helped us against OSU in 2015. Michigan had no DLine (kinda like this upcoming year unless the kiddos make massive jumps) in that game. Zeke would run over us regardless.
'17 Peters and '16 Newsome. Sigh... Who knows where program perception would be if those two stayed upright.
Good point on Rudock. For some reason I thought he got hurt earlier than he did. Looked at the box score and while it was 14-10 at the half it was 35-13 when he got hurt.
1. '19 Baseball because we were so stinking close
2. Brady of course. Otherwise, does Derek Jeter count somewhat for taking classes at Michigan?
3. '11 ND, '11 OSU, '16 Wisconsin
4. The Houston buzzerbeater, The Kansas OT game & The Purdue game for Senior Day a few years back
5. Speight of course
Hockey but baseball is close
Woodson to the Dolphins
3 and 4 the No Duh games
2016. My memory is mush I don't even remember the Glasgow injury.
1. ‘18 hockey title because hockey is the best sport
2. Probably Charles Woodson on the Lions but I’d be ok with Ty Law, Branch or Hutchinson on the Lions as well.
3. 2011 OSU, 2011 ND and 2016 Florida
4. Staus’kiss, Kansas in the tourney, and M destroying UNC
5. Either Speight’s shoulder or Gardener’s foot
1. Baseball 'cause I knew a guy on that team.
2. Jabrill Peppers with the Seahawks.
3. 2k16 OSU game, 2k11 OSU game, 2k19 MSU game.
4. 2k18 MSU game, 2k13 Kansas game, 2k17 Big Ten Championship.
5. '16 Speight's shoulder.
18 hockey
Anyone
11 ND, 11 Sugar Bowl, 11 OSU. Thanks for depressing me.
Kansas, Cuse, MSU home game that year
McGary puts us in the FF
Easy solution: Don't click.
1) '19 baseball. It would have been such an incredible story.
2) The Lions would have ruined Brady. Give me Jeter as a Dodger, because it also would have made the Yankees much worse.
3) '16 Wisconsin (the JL pick is an absolute all-timer to finish a W), '19 MSU (no mercy), '19 ND (same)
4) post-plane crash B1G tournament games - absolute courage to get back on a plane, then an ice-in-veins run through the tournament
5) Tie: '16 Speight's shoulder / '17 Speight's neck / '14 McGary's back; all three had significant post-season implications, the latter having much bigger downstream impacts due to herbs
2) Jamal Crawford was drafted by my NBA team and he was awful. (I had season tickets then, foolishly and unfortunately.) Took him several years to develop. So I’d say Trey Burke.
NFL wise, I just root for Michigan guys no matter where they go. I stopped caring about Da Bears soon after arriving at Michigan. Is that weird?
5) Newsome’s knee injury in 2016. Both because of what it meant for him personally and the team, but also for how fucked it was to end a career on a cheap ass shot.
Love these threads. Keep ‘em coming.
1) 2019 baseball. Would’ve struck a huge blow to a sport that caters solely to southern teams. It would’ve gone down as one of the biggest miracle runs in the game, I’m sure, and would’ve been the first B1G to win it all in decades.
2) Brady in Tampa, but hey, looks like my wish come true.
3) ‘16 MSU, ‘11 OSU, ‘11 ND
4) ‘13 Kansas, ‘11 MSU and the Aneurysm of Leadership, ‘14 MSU, Stauskas blowing kisses to Breslin, bonus pick is ‘17 Louisville, running Pitino out of town and getting some semblance of revenge for the title game.
5) Speight, easily. A healthy Speight beats Iowa, and probably beats OSU. And just like that, the fortunes and narrative of Harbaugh’s Michigan program are forever changed. Michigan knows it can finally beat a good OSU team, In Columbus no less, and all the pressure is off, paving the way to more victories.
1) Baseball. First season I've really followed a non hoops/fball sport. Plus Brian Boesch was killing it on the announcing for the tournament
2) Vincent Smith on the Panthers. Barring Tom Brady which is a boring answer, no one is going to push to them to a Super Bowl victory. So I'd have liked seeing Vincent Smith tote the rock and catch a few swing passes to have more time in the NFL.
3) 2010 ND with Denard running all over ND; 2019 ND with our team running all over ND; 2011 OSU because of the sheer joy of Denard eating all game. Bonus 2017 MSU; sucked losing but it was my first time in the stadium since childhood and that rainstorm was nuts especially the student section before the 4th.
4) '13 Louisville. Yeah, we lost, but Spike hitting whatever 3 he felt like in the first half was the most ridiculous sports experience I can remember in my lifetime. I mean, he was true freshman who we stole from App State. '13 Kansas, '13 Florida when we ran them off the court.
5) '16 Newsome. I think we can withstand Speight's injury with Newsome on that line. Plus the severity of it.
1) 19 Baseball - great team, great characters, great coach, and the best underdog story Michigan has had in a while
2) Breaking the rules to pick Quinn Hughes to the Red Wings
3) 2011 OSU, UTL #1, 2018 MSU
4) Burke v Kansas, Poole Party, 2017 B1G championship run
5) McGary in 13-14
1. '19 Baseball
2. I barely care about pro sports. I would have liked to see Levert on the Spurs. He gives them a nice wing on a team sorely lacking them. With a great coaching staff and organization around him I think he becomes a perennial all star.
3.'11 ND (first night game and epic comeback), '11 OSU (obvious), '16 MSU
4. '13 Kansas, '18 Houston (game kinda sucked but the shot is all-time memorable), and of course '11 MSU https://mgoblog.com/content/get-my-court
5. Speight. We are very likely in the playoff with him healthy.