Unverified Voracity May Have Tried To Be Sensible
Premature but okay. Joe Lunardi's bracketology is in the way (way) too early phase but yeah okay I'll mention this:
The other 1s are Gonzaga, UCLA, and Kansas. I think way too much is being made of UCLA's tournament run, especially given the possibility Johnny "Contested Twos" Juzang stays in the draft. Other Big Ten teams in this projection: Ohio State (2-seed), Purdue(2), Maryland(3), MSU(5), Illinois(6), Indiana(7), and Iowa(11). Northwestern(!?!?!?) is listed as the first team out, Wisconsin second team out.
The previous sentence makes me doubt the usefulness of linking this at all.
I am skeptical this happened. Dennis Dodd recently asserted on a podcast that Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell turned down an eight year, 68 million dollar contract from the Detroit Lions this offseason. This seems unlikely for one main reason: this is an entirely sensible thing to do if you are the Detroit Lions, and the Lions never do anything sensible. (On the other hand, failing to hire Matt Campbell and turning to some other guy named Campbell, who seems a little deranged, does seem like a Lions thing to do.)
If that did actually happen and Campbell didn't take the job that is a major indicator he's aiming for a terminal college job instead of the NFL. Michigan may be in the market for a coach after this season.
[After THE JUMP: Ol' Murderface returns to the column]
I completely believe this happened. Ben Mason doing Ben Mason things.
TE/FB Ben Mason didn't practice today because he worked so hard yesterday that he "tore the skin off the bottom of his feet."
— Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) May 15, 2021
AND THEN HE ATE IT
Obvious. Michigan-Washington is scheduled to be a night game.
I wanted this person to play in the Big Ten. Jalen Coleman-Lands was a Beilein-era recruiting miss who started his college career in 2015—the same year Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman did. Seven years later he's transferring to Kansas:
The 6-foot-4 Indianapolis native averaged 14.3 points and 3.9 rebounds last season at Iowa State. He shot 43.5 percent from the field and 39.5 percent behind the arc, ranking ninth and third in the league, respectively .
Before that he played two seasons each at DePaul and Illinois separated by a redshirt season in the middle.
Kansas has been cut off from the usual slate of blue-chippers—their top rated recruit is #46, which isn't bad but isn't up to Kansas's usual standards—by that FBI investigation and has apparently decided to recruit everybody in response. Coleman-Lands is their fourth transfer of the offseason.
I wanted Josh Langford to come back and Coleman-Lands to transfer into the league so that they could discuss Furbies, stovetop hats, and Punky Brewster during a halftime segment.
Prospects for non-Franz NBA draft candidates. Andrew Kahn gets a couple of scouts on the phone to discuss what's in store for Isaiah Livers, Chaundee Brown, and Mike Smith at the draft. It sounds like Livers has a shot at getting drafted despite his injury:
Grant said Livers projects as a spot-up shooter in the league who has “good enough size to avoid being a complete liability defensively.” In the NBA, Livers figures to be a small forward or a small-ball power forward.
Said another scout, who we’ll call Ian Malcolm, of Livers’ NBA chances: “If his shot is a knock-down shot, and he can defend a (power forward), he’s got a real chance.”
Brown doesn't seem to have enough of a track record to sneak into the second round but if he's able to maintain his contest-immune shooting it's not hard to envision him sticking on a roster in a three-and-D role:
“He’s 6-5, long, athletic, and he guards,” said Grant. Neither scout would be surprised if Brown landed a two-way deal after the draft.
“Is he good enough?” Malcolm wondered. “He’s going to get the chance to prove he’s good enough.”
Prospects are dimmer for Smith because of his size; you have to be electric to play in the NBA at "5 foot 11."
The whiff. Fascinating article at ESPN about the ever-rising strikeout rate in MLB:
In April, there were 1,092 more strikeouts than hits, the largest such gap in any month in major league history. The season strikeout record surely will be broken this year for the 15th consecutive time. In 2016, the percentage of plate appearances that ended in a strikeout was .211. It has risen, year by year -- .216, .223, .230, .234. Right now, it stands at .243. Those are, of course, the six highest rates in major league history. In 1968, the famed Year of the Pitcher, the K rate was only .158. …
"I love baseball," Bradley said, "but there are times I won't watch it because it's a little dull."
Featuring this incredible quote!
"I don't want to say that the baseball IQ has gone down, but the baseball IQ has gone down."
If you want a bunch of old man quotes and disturbing statistics this is the article for you.
Year two of G League competition didn't turn up much. An ESPN article on the now all-but-finished 2021 basketball recruiting class notes that the NBA's effort to get future high draft picks into their Ignite program didn't have many takers this year:
G League's impact shrinks: Last year, the G League poached four five-star prospects from the college ranks: Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Isaiah Todd and Daishen Nix. This year, it was only two: Hardy and talented forward Michael Foster. While the number of non-college options continue to grow for high school prospects, it simply hasn't impacted the college game to the point of concern. The introduction of name, image, likeness should also lessen its impact.
Maybe a pandemic thing?
Etc.: Don't click here. The Daily checks out the Michigan and State Theaters' tentative reopening. Rudy Tomjanovich makes the basketball hall of fame. Devante Jones working out. GM who selected Kwity Paye thinks Kwity Paye is going to be good.
Just like in 1968 baby!
Go get em Tigers ?!
I highly doubt MLB will ever move the mound.
Excellent points. I love the extra-inning rule of putting a baserunner on second, because it makes things happen.
I find college softball way more interesting. Maybe it's just because I like Michigan? But I think the shorter games obviously help. I'm sure it's sacrilege to suggest changing rules in a game dramatically where there's a billion unwritten rules people already worried about, but shortening the games and generating more hits would go a long way. Given, I have no idea how you can induce more hits but why not play 7 inning games? 5?
I wish the MLB would adopt the "Quick Counts" option that is in MLB The Show. Start every batter with a random count and see what happens. lol
Would definitely shorten the game.
I knew it was unique at the time but it is even crazier to me that the Royals won the world series by basically putting the ball in play and being aggressive as hell on the base paths. It was so much fun to watch and you constantly heard the announcers talk about them being "relentless". Looking back, they were really just hitting the ball and taking chances on the base paths.
You should have seen the '63 Dodgers, with Maury Wills et al playing small ball. Of course, they had Koufax and Drysdale on the mound, So, a couple of runs was usually enough.
Hell of an analogy, home run derby if pitchers were trying to strike out every batter.
Couldn't be more spot on.
...I just don't know how you fix it. How do you get more activity and action? Say 1 HR per inning or its an out? That is dumb, but I don't know how you adjust the rules and keep the ball in play.
HRs are only worth .5 runs? This is all ridiculous but it's going to take something we all thing is stupid.
You nailed it. Today’s players only want to hit home runs. It’s ridiculous that a team can put in a defensive shift and leave a gaping hole on the left side of the infield and hitters seemingly don’t make an effort to hit it “where they ain’t.”
The thing is, this focus on HRs for batters & Ks for pitchers isn't just organically being done by the players, as if the FOs are helpless to do anything about it!
It's completely being driven by analytics, as Data suggests exactly what the Royals fan above related - stringing together a bunch of hits is hard, and risking outs being aggressive running the bases makes it even harder!
Even beating the shift with weak opposite field contact - which seems SO obvious to us fans - only gets you a couple base runners tops, before the 3B goes back to guarding the line & the bag.
It's the length of the game. Pitcher's duels are fine when they don't last four hours. For reference, game 7 of the '68 series (which I bet you remember well, mgrowold) lasted all of 2 hours and 7 minutes.
i have loved baseball for all of my 55 years, and today's version - every pitcher throwing as hard as they can, on every pitch, and every batter swinging as hard as they can and either striking out or hitting home runs - is the most godawful boring brand of baseball ever played, just an entire generation of dudes negotiating their contract on launch angle, bat speed, and whether they hit 12 or 15 home runs.
one thing not brought up in the piece - but referenced in a sidebar - is the length of games, and it's at least partially due to the strikeouts. strikeouts take more pitches, which today are all thrown as hard as possible. more pitches, harder thrown => shorter outings => more pitching changes => four-hour games. it's unwatchable, and i love baseball.
Even no-hitters are becoming less impressive now. It seems like one is thrown at least every other week now
Same. I grew up watching the Atlanta Braves in the 80s and they were terrible, but I loved watching Dale Murphy, Glenn Hubbard, Bob Horner, Phil Niekro, Steve Bedrosian, Pascual Perez, Gene Garber, et al.
My love for baseball was solidified in the 90s with the so-called Young Guns (Smoltz, Glavine, Avery), the start of the run of division titles and World Series appearances (and the one win), and the revelation that was Greg Maddux - the man who could throw a 90 pitch complete game shutout without throwing a single strikeout or walk and an 85 mph fastball. He once threw a 76-pitch complete game and once finished a complete game in under 2 hours.
Also, I'd like to thank the Tigers and Cubs for Smoltz and Maddux, respectively.
I remember that 76 pitch game by Maddux. Was against the Cubs wasn’t it? That was a relatively fun era of baseball.
I linked to a study a couple weeks ago that showed a large percentage of the increase in time of games is the time between pitches. That’s a result of pitchers shaking off their catcher every at bat and hitters stepping out of the box between every pitch. The players have themselves to blame for a lot of this.
Don’t forget that you have 2 minutes 30 seconds every half inning for commercials, which becomes 2:55 if it’s a nationally televised game. Players only need about 90 seconds or so to get ready, take warm up tosses and such. 2-3 minutes wasted every inning adds up to 20-25 minutes right there. Cut into that and you’re down to 2:50 average for a 9 inning game instead of the 3:05 we have now.
Quick solution: instead of more commercials, put a small logo under the scoreboard/bar that is always on the screen. Announce that the 3rd inning is sponsored by Ford/Budwesier/Viagara/Trojan condoms/whatever. Instead of a 30 second ad, your logo appears on the screen for the entire inning. If you do it right, you may be able to charge more for that ad than a commercial. There's TV's incentive to swap out commercials for logos. Instead they want to capture an audience for 4 hours, including pre- and postgame shows.
Make all games 7 innings.
Would never happen, but it's the only way to truly shorten the game.
It wouldn't change the game though, because it would put more of a premium on guys who can throw hard. Pitching staffs would just need to be starters and a bunch of closers who can give you an inning.
"Michigan may be in the market for a coach after this season."
Seriously, Brian?
"May" - that's accurate isn't it?
By the same standard, he may be the US President in 2024.
The chances that JH will be let go at the end of this year is about the same as Rayan Day getting fired at OSU.
Having said that, Matt Campbell is viewed positively within the athletic dept, and should JH decide to retire in 3-4 years, Matt could be the replacement (assuming he is still available).
Anyone who thinks Harbaugh is guaranteed another year is delusional. People keep bringing up staff changes. What was he going to do? Keep Brown? About half of the staff is the same anyway.
Given how bad it was last year, Harbaugh got lucky it was a shortened season and we didn't play osu. If something like a 500 season stretches on for a full length season, no one here is going to be talking about keeping him another year. What would you even be anticipating for the year after? "Oh just wait until next year!"
I've maintained that not playing OSU has saved Harbaugh's job. If it weren't for COVID, I would bet that OSU would've shellacked Michigan 75-14 or as close to 100 points that Ryan Day promised Harbaugh pre-season.
Absence of something highly unusual (e.g., a scandal), I can guarantee that JH will be here for at least another 3 years.
He is not going to be fired for poor performance this or next year. As I have said it a number of times, he will retire before it gets that bad.
I might be looking through my rose-colored glasses, but I still have faith in JH to turn this around -- finally.
Mass, I'm willing to wager quite a bit JH is let go before he's elected president!
And Vegas would set those odds at about 10million-1, so I wouldn't even be getting much return on my wager - but I'd still be winning!
What exactly don't you like about that statement? If you polled Michigan fans, I think the vast majority would agree with it
It's the official Mgostaff hope. They've moved on already. Which is kind of amazing when you consider how poorly most football coach searches go.
I just read an interesting article at TheAtheltic.com about MLB experimenting with some rule changes in the low minors to find ways to inject excitement into the sport. All caveats about how unlikely these are to make it to the MLB in the future apply, but I found it interesting.
Basically they put a hard cap on number of pick-off attempts per baserunner and eliminated the ability for a lefty to throw to first without stepping off the rubber. As such, stolen base attempts are up like 60+% in the league and depending on which metric you use would bring the MLB equivalent either back to what was happening with SBs in the mid 1990s or all the way back to the 1900s.
Basically they put a hard cap on number of pick-off attempts per baserunner and eliminated the ability for a lefty to throw to first without stepping off the rubber. As such, stolen base attempts are up like 60+% in the league
Is that really the biggest issue right now though? Seems like the biggest issue right now is that strike outs are up, batting averages are down, and it's a game of home runs and strike outs with not much in between
I'd buy Nebraska as a just out more than Northwestern. It's not like Northwestern is adding a bunch of impact transfers or recruits, it's a lot of the same guys, so unless you think Nance and Buie have another level to develop to, why? Nebraska's adding one of the best recruits in the conference and the usual raft of transfers for a Hoiberg team, and as bad as they were much of the season they looked somewhat cromulent by the end?
Any idea if Mel Pearson going to fill his last spot on coaching staff?
There is no chance that Michigan is in the market for a new head coach after the season. The payout for all of the new contracts would be ridiculous.
Definitely an important point, and significant coming off the budget issues of 2020.
Aren't all assistant coaches on 1 year contracts? I can't imagine there was a special exception here. People thought no school would fire a coach last year, but it was a pretty normal cycle.
I believe they're on 3 year.
One of the things that makes college baseball so much fun is the fielders not being big leaguers - bases get stolen, balls in play dont always become outs, double plays are rare and fun - so hitters can and should hit grounders instead of waiting for the perfect pitch to launch to the wall, and end up striking out less.
3 true outcomes is making the majors more dull...BUT OH MAN TATIS JUST LAUNCHED IT WHOO!
That Punky Brewster episode where Cherie got stuck in a refrigerator playing Hide n Seek gave me an irrational fear.
Honestly, it would be way more Lions to take a shot at a barely-.500 college coach with no NFL connections who hasn't had to handle any real pressure in his career. I'm in the minority in believing that Campbell might actually struggle as an HC at a major program and that perhaps him going something like 5-1 in 1-score games last year might not be reproducible over the long haul. I think he's a good coach but much like this place's hyperventilation about Joe Milton last year, I have a bit more of a wait-and-see attitude toward Campbell.
I think Livers sneaks into the second round because he showed a lot of potential this season as a shooter and he performed against high-level competition. We'll see about Brown - he feels a bit like Charles Matthews in that he'd be a defense-first guy but with a bit more of an outside shot. Matthews, after losing a year to injury, is at least in the G League so there's hope.
Jim Harbaugh was the hottest coach in the country before Michigan. Rich rod was the hottest coach in the country before Michigan. Find the common denominator, folks. Some guy succeeding in the Mickey Mouse ass big twelve isn’t beating osu or competing for big ten titles at Michigan.
id love to be wrong. I just don’t see it happening until NIL levels the playing field for recruiting. And even then i don’t expect Michigan to adjust admissions.
No ace posts since last week's podcast. Is he on a break ?
I don’t think it’s a Covid thing in regards to the G league. I’m thinking these top guys see Suggs vs Jalen Green and recognize the bigger spotlight and the chance to build a brand with the backing of a university.
Nobody, outside of NBA circles, knows of Kuminga- everyone knows of Cade Cunningham. Nobody knows Jalen Green- we all know Suggs.. etc..
so that they could discuss Furbies, stovetop hats, and Punky Brewster
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