two NFL gents now [Patrick Barron]

Unverified Voracity Avoided The Lions Comment Count

Brian April 29th, 2019 at 1:17 PM

The draft happened. Michigan results:

  • Devin Bush went 10th overall to Pittsburgh, after Detroit took a tight end. Later, the Lions would take another tight end. Keep on Detroiting, Detroit, the Bush family thanks you.
  • Rashan Gary went 12th overall to Green Bay, which immediately called him an outside linebacker. This was overshadowed by the general Giants-ing going on. For the record, drafting Rashan Gary as a specialist pass rusher is a Bad Idea.
  • Chase Winovich went in the third round to the Patriots, because of course he did. He said he was "awaiting further instruction" before talking to the media, demonstrating that he was already advanced in the ways of Belichick-fu. The Patriots then threatened to cut his hair, because of course they did. 
  • David Long went a couple picks later to the Rams. That seems like the Michigan steal of the draft to me. Long was hurt because no one dared throw at him. Criticisms of his game are about his height and how that hurts him on 50/50 balls, which I get but he put up a sub-4 shuttle at the combine and should be an elite nickel.
  • Zach Gentry overcame the ugly combine numbers to get drafted in the fifth round, also by the Steelers. That second TE the Lions took was Isaac Nauta, former five star everyone was desperate to get after. He went in the seventh. Recruiting is important—this year's five-star first round hit rate was off the charts—but it is funny how things work out sometimes. Behind The Steel curtain's scouting round-up on him has one of the sentences I feel deep in my core: "Warning, some of the tracks that accompany these videos contains profanity and most of the music is fairly bad."

Karan Higdon didn't get drafted, which says something about running backs in the modern NFL. If you aren't a major piece of the passing game it's a tough world out there.

[After: they Giants'd so hard they're now the Jets]

Speaking of the general Giants-ing. This may be peak People Are Just In Charge Of Things after the Giants picked a mediocre Duke QB 6th overall:

Three series. All Star game. "Professional quarterback" based on eye test. The Giants are doomed. But good move, Shea Patterson?

Trial stuff! Dan Wetzel on the latest in Yet Another FBI NCAA Corruption Trial. This is one of the most convincing assertions why this stuff is actually wrong—not technically wrong, or wrong in the eyes of the NCAA, or legally wrong, but, you know, unethical:

It would be more acceptable if this was about players getting some money — even if it was under the table. But what’s clear as you watch all of this is that it is rarely the actual player getting the money. It’s maybe a family member. Or maybe a hanger-on. It's maybe an intermediary, who has set up an entire business around working angles and then tricking kids into bad decisions.

Consider that college assistants offered no hesitation in steering their very own players to this crew.

Yet the assistants had no knowledge of these guys’ acumen, no reason to believe they’d be good at handling money or negotiating contracts. Blazer was the supposed financial guy, but he’d lost his trading license and is a complete snake who has pleaded guilty to numerous federal felonies related to stealing about $2.3 million from his clients. He's facing as many as 67 years in prison.

The undercover agent was, obviously, a complete fake and not qualified for any of these jobs. And Dawkins, as street-smart and ambitious as he is, was in his early 20s not an actual sports agent.

You could hardly find a worse team to represent a young multi-millionaire athlete, but no one cared to even consider that, research that, look into that.

The occasional attempts to rehabilitate guys in the recruiting black market as Robin Hood are badly misguided. Everyone's in it for themselves, and any benefit someone actually doing the work accrues is by accident or necessity.

Also in trial stuff, further wiretap discussions that put the thing everyone knows in the light:

The undercover video recordings with coaches and testimony also revealed interesting highlights, including a discussion that Clemson assistant coach Steve Smith said he had with the father of Zion Williamson. In the video, Smith and aspiring business manager Christian Dawkins talked about the struggle to compete with schools like North Carolina, Kentucky and Duke, where Williamson eventually enrolled.

Government witness Marty Blazer said in the video that those schools "have people in place who will be able to pay for whatever is necessary" to help recruit Williamson.

Honestly Michigan should just announce they're going to pay guys over the table and see what happens. It would be exciting! And maybe some of it would take place during the day.

Michigan hockey… summer? This is not how it's supposed to go:

Hayhurst had an 12-11-23 line in 36 games as a sophomore. If you're interested Sad ECAC Facts, here's one: Hayhurst led RPI in scoring both years. With 23 points. Yikes.

A guy with Hayhurst's profile is likely to be worth putting on the ice regularly. He's got 20, 23, and 23 points over the last three years for a terrible team in a defensively-oriented league. He was one of the NCAA forwards most likely to be involved in any particular scoring play where he was on the ice. His scoring drop last year came as he dropped from a shooting percentage of 14 (unsustainable) to 5 (unsustainable the other way). Give him some better teammates and get an increment better and he could be a solid secondary scorer on the second or third line.

Hayhurst is the second grad transfer Michigan's picked up in the last month; the first was BU defenseman Shane Switzer. Switzer is a Michigan native who averaged about nine games a year for the Terriers and is going to be a walk-on (one assumes), so he doesn't exacerbate the recruiting clown car. Hayhurst is from Ontario and could be expected to take a regular shift, so he's either a beaver pelt scion who doesn't care about international tuition at M or he might be occupying a slot. My take on next year's hockey roster is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Either way, I applaud Michigan yoinking the top scorer from one of the schools undoubtedly voting to keep college hockey's postseason the way it is. Add in Emil Ohrvall, seen here assisting on a Hayhurst goal in 2017…

…and Michigan is going to be playing two-thirds of what would otherwise be RPI's top line.

Etc.: Amen, Penn State student journalist: get NCAA regionals on campus. Part of the problem: the application process is ridiculous. Ann Arbor is not in the midst of a building boom. No Michigan players in the first round of the Athletic's 2020 mock.

Comments

MGoCali

April 29th, 2019 at 3:34 PM ^

This is my second formal complaint regarding hockey stats keeping. I know hockey players are dumb (I lived next to them from 2009-2011 on Packard), but we can just give two of goals, assists and points. It's a two dimensional problem, not three. 

It drives me nuts you guys. 

MGoCali

April 29th, 2019 at 6:18 PM ^

Good question. After some thought, give me attempts and field goals for a single player in a game. Once a number of shot attempts grows to a number that becomes representative of a shooters ability, FG% becomes the relevant stat. I don't care if someone is 587-993 = 37.2% at contested threes for their career. They are 37.2%, and good at shooting. I get your point though. Many stats in all sports are just functions of the others. That makes me just want to get the best parametrization, and then we can do some true modeling. Sometimes you need to re-parametrize to best represent the information. I'm a data scientist, and I'm suddenly seeing the potential of sports data and modeling. 

I'm still miffed about hockey stats though. What set me off in this post was the quoted 11--12--23 line. I can do 11+12, and so can most people. Also, why are points a unique stat. It must be some assist guy who was pissed that people who score a lot get all the credit, so they started adding goals plus assists and insisting that POINTS matter. Are assists equal to goals in value? Maybe, but even still I can just add them.

I'm truly baffled. 

1VaBlue1

April 29th, 2019 at 3:44 PM ^

"...and I saw a professional quarterback, after the three series I watched..."

You made this up, right?  Gentleman didn't actually say this, did he?  LMAO - WTF!!???!!

I mean, why can't I be hired to be an NFL GM?  I can scout better than that!