MGoPodcast 9.19: Vigilantism Not Sabotage
1 hour and 38 minutes
We are at the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, which now is the time to book those rooms for football next year because those fill up.
We Couldn’t Have One Without the Other
We can do this because people support us. You should support them too so they’ll want to do it again next year! The show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan there would be VERY long hiatuses between podcasts.
Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: HomeSure Lending, Peak Wealth Management, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Michigan Law Grad,Human Element, Lantana Hummus and new this week introducing Ecotelligent Homes
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1. Hoopscast
starts at 1:00
Zavier Simpson erased Tony Carr gnat style, Mo Wagner three that re-tied swung the game from a loss to a win. Yaklich has magnificently moneyballed this defense, forcing opponents into the least efficient shots, e.g. M funnels the ball to the post. Twice in a row Beilein has gotten a DC from a defensive mid-major that’s outplaying their level. Bench guys are developing well.
2. Big Ten Tourney, Hardware and Bracketology
starts at 35:12
A continuation of our This Week’s Obsession yesterday. Who’s the best center in the league (since the league didn’t name one)? When you watch MSU you’re most terrified of JJJ. Penn State always has a 2nd team all-conference two guard and nobody else. Z got robbed; when the only guards who have good games are dudes making bad ideas…
Brackets: UM up to a six, should probably stick there if they get 1-1 in the BTT. If they face MSU maybe a five. Win the thing: fourth seed in Detroit? Would love to face West Virginia, Cincinnati.
3. Drevno and the FBI
starts at 58:15
Drevno got axed in the most dignified way: Michigan tried to find him a landing spot but nobody took him. Warinner thing all makes sense now. Warinner: “Never leave that double until you smell the linebacker’s breath.” OSU’s offense was much more power and counter so it’s not a spread misfit. Got an OL commit in the meantime. Maybe they can pick up a stunt.
Go FBI! Correlation between the wanton NCAA rule-breaking and program cultures that hide actually heinous things. The spreadsheet is just the tip of the iceberg—there are plenty of other agencies out there operating this way. Adopt NHL draft/Olympic amateurism models. Base rookie wage scale on age so players aren’t incentivized to leave early/franchises aren’t incentivized to rush them out of school.
4. Ace’s Hockey Podcast wsg Ace Anbender (also David Nasternak)
starts at 1:22:50
Why are we in Fargo and Allentown two years in a row? The penalty kill is atrocious—don’t know if they can fix it this year. Any series win against Wisconsin probably puts them in the tournament. Outplayed in previous four games except for when goalie things went haywire. Even Ace has fond opinions on Quinn Hughes—one of his favorite things to do is pass it from the blue line then immediately asks for it back; shades of Jordan Leopold going Bobby Orr, and some Michigan examples Brian can sometimes pronounce.
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MUSIC:
- “Rock Steady”—The Whispers
- “Get Up & Get Down”—The Dramatics
- “It Hurts Until It Doesn’t”—The Mothers
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS
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- What's with the theme music?
you don’t want to see this is jordan poole for mr. spots? come on!
February 28th, 2018 at 8:25 AM ^
"Drevno and the FBI" is not a nice title.
Makes it sound like there is more than being bad at his job that got him, um, resigned.
"Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."
February 28th, 2018 at 9:35 AM ^
maybe he was an undercover agent. It's a working title for the next Michael Bay movie.
February 28th, 2018 at 9:51 AM ^
Is this the official - Brian has stepped away from the ledge - moment?
February 28th, 2018 at 11:43 AM ^
Brian is that character in Major League 2 that is crazy devoted at the beginning of the season, then turns into a morbid, jeering hater after too many losses, then returns to devoted fandom in game 7 of the ALCS.
February 28th, 2018 at 12:10 PM ^
Brian turning a bit positive on football is a good sign for great things to come !
In all seriousness, I can't believe Harbarugh had the 'nads to pull-off this offensive coaching makeover. I will be really interested to see if he actually names anyone as the formal OC or he is just going to do it himself. These are the two most important years - 2018 & 2019 - for his Michigan program to be where he strives it to be. These are his legacy type years.
He has the defense all set to be top 5 in the nation with Don Brown.
He has landed a #1 QB recruit who has SEC experience (backed-up by two young guys who are like top 10 in their class), he has two top 5 recruiting classes that will be rounding into their peak performance years, he landed maybe the top pure OL and WR coaches available in college football, he trusts Pep to be a good teacher ... so why not just take on the OC duties himself? If we see every game planned/called like that 2017 OSU game, the opportunity for Shea-based greatness is his to lead.
Go Blue !!!
p.s. MGoPodcast is the best thing going - music, banter, content - thank you guys!
February 28th, 2018 at 12:44 PM ^
#11 in KenPom with an anticipated improvement in the future?! That was a fun portion of the podcast.
Really ace? Have you never heard that word pronounced out loud?
Also, at the point where athletes are getting paid, what is the point of them being students? Literally the only purpose of being students now is that it is the crux of the amateurism model. They are amateurs recompensed with the free opportunity to be students. At the point where they are professionals making money and are getting compensated with actual dollars... what is the actual point of them being a student or getting a degree? I guess they can get it if they want to but it seems weird to impose being students on them once you blow up the foundation of the system.
My college experience was I was at Michigan to work on the Daily, which if you're trying to have a career in journalism that becomes a time commitment on par with athletics. Many schools offer journalism degrees, but several people I spoke to in high school said the Michigan route is better: the Daily is a real newspaper under real newspaper standards, and to be a good writer you have to have a sound basis of knowledge in everything else, and preferably a deep basis of knowledge in something.
A lot of Daily people take English--that gives you a stronger understanding of how language is used and that helps a lot when trying to interpret what people are saying or finding your voice. I chose history because it's like having the opportunity to cover hundreds of thousands of years of stories. Whatever you take you can make it relevant to your career. Foreign language opens up new pathways in your brain and new ways of thinking. So does studying foreign cultures. Social work gives you a grounded basis in the real lives of people under tremendous stress.
Michigan State's journalism school doesn't give you this basis, and it's rare to find a graduate who's in journalism rather than marketing. They know how to structure stories but not how to find them or tell them. They know how to sit in an room and cover a press conference but not how to put the readers in the room and get their questions answered.
I think athletic degrees would be much the same: you can major in basketball if you want to, but you won't be prepared to do more than basketball. I don't see anything wrong with offering that since it's a highly developed skill that translates to a highly competitive career. Future coaches especially woudl benefit from that. However like writing it's not just an intellectual exercise: you have to have chops, you have to have creativity, you have to practice and practice and practice. And you're going against other crazy talented people who are just as mad as you are about improving the craft.
I don't know what cognates well with sports, but the degrees that many athletes take today are instructive: communications, kinesiology, sports management, African-American Studies, etc. Fans are quick to believe that major sport athletes in these majors are not getting a serious education, and in some cases that's true (ahem, North Carolina). But consider what career paths often open up to them because they competed at such a high level of athletics: coaching and broadcasting. If you're going to be an athletic director one day, a college education in kinesiology and sports management is necessary. If you're aiming to be a high school coach at a school that produces a lot of black ahtletes, you also are going to have to be a teacher, and a Michigan undergrad degree in African American Studies can put you ahead of other candidates for good teaching schools and jobs. A lot of these guys also aim to start non-profits, using their athlete connections to build support networks and gain press--imagine how many degrees would be useful for that.
But who are we to force these majors because they might be helpful? The reason they're often seen--and treated--as a joke is because of the appearance that they're only taking them because they can't major in football or basketball. If you have football and basketball majors available, those who take that can hone their craft without the bullshit of pretending to be learning a different one. And I beileve, given the value of cognate degrees to futures in highly competitive, talent-based fields, you will still have plenty of athletes choosing not to major in their sport, or choosing schools that don't offer them as majors. Frankly I think it works out for everyone, except the NCAA in court if they're still trying to hold onto the fiction that college athletes only compete for fun.
The better solution is to stop paying assistant football coaches $1,000,000+ per year and start rolling that money into the university’s general fund.
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