unverified voracity
nfl draft
joey baker
nba draft
nba draft makes me forever alone
luke schoonmaker
cj stroud
derrick walton
gary barta
people in charge of things are just in charge of them for no reason
kyle connor
hobey baker
adam fantilli
pairwise
dj turner ii
Turner waving goodbye to MSU [Patrick Barron]

Unverified Voracity Plays Knifey-Spooney Comment Count

Brian March 15th, 2023 at 4:00 PM

Baker back? Interesting roster development for basketball after last night's Toledo game:

We’ll see what happens,” said Baker on if he would apply for a sixth-year.“Potentially.”

“Absolutely,” he said on if he would come back to Michigan. “If I got it, I’m back here.”

Baker played a total of 18 minutes as a freshman; bizarrely these all came in late February or later. Usually this would not be grounds for a redshirt, but who knows these days. The NCAA is in its Security Guard Meme phase. It could happen.

Grimace dot emoji. Sam Vecenie's latest Big Board has Jett Howard 20th and Kobe Bufkin 24th. Hunter Dickinson is 83. No commentary on any of them, so nothing to quote. But maaan this thing where the NBA grabs Michigan players before they have their AA-type season is getting old.

The guy who did the thing, nope. DJ Turner ran a 4.27 40 at the NFL combine, which is sort of impressive:

The Athletic had a piece on guys who rose and fell based on said combine and DJ Turner did not come up at all. I mean… I think… he's a corner? Right? One Michigan player did show up:

A lot of tight ends had big days, including Darnell Washington, who put on a show that will only help fans of his game build a case for his value and potential as a receiver. Sam LaPorta is an all-around football player that does a lot of things well and had a great day of testing. And even a prospect like Luke Schoonmaker continues to become more interesting because he’s a tight end who has shown he plays in-line and his testing numbers hinted there might be more to tap into as a receiver.

And fair enough:

Ben Herbert hive grows ever stronger. Rivals has a piece on Turner and Mazi Smith moving up in draft evaluators' eyes. If Smith blows it out of the water at pro day—which is likely—he'll move up further.

[After THE JUMP: CJ Stroud and words: never again.]

Maybe stop saying things forever? CJ Stroud was already under suspicion of being a guy who shouldn't say things when he said that his two losses against Michigan shouldn't define him as a player, at a university that gives you little golden pants when you beat Michigan. The entire raison d'etre of OSU is to beat Michigan, and this guy's just going around saying that it doesn't even matter? What could possibly be wors—

Jesus Christ dude. This cues one of the greatest Twitter reply theads in existence, but as an Achewood fan this is my favorite:

Derrick Walton's played Knifey-Spooney before. He's now king of Australia I think?

I wonder about guys who are just hanging out in Fort Wayne in the G-League when they could spend their twenties hopping around Europe and Australia getting paid more in front of actual crowds. Didn't Graham Brown go play for a team in the Canary Islands? I mean… that seems good.

People in charge are just in charge, part four hundred and thirty two. Maybe you get sued for discrimination once and lose. Kind of bad, but woke America, right? Maybe you get sued a second time. Could happen to anyone. But get sued a third time, lose, and ask the taxpayers of Iowa to make up for your disaster? Well, ok, we'll do that too. But at least one person in a position of power is like… WTF?

“Under Gary Barta’s leadership at the University of Iowa Athletics Department, we’ve had the Peter Gray scandal plus three instances of discrimination totaling nearly $7 million in damages (setting aside other suits),” Sand said in a statement to other board members and first reported by The Des Moines Register. “After (a $6.6 million settlement to former associate athletics director Jane Meyer and field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum on gender and sexual discrimination claims), Barta asserted no wrong was done. Now we have a new matter for $4 million more, and for the first time, they want part paid from the taxpayers’ general fund, even though they now collect tens of millions annually (through) the Big Ten TV deal.

“Enough is enough. Clear personal accountability is necessary. I will not support taxpayers funding this settlement unless Gary Barta is no longer employed at the university and forfeits any severance or similar pay. I encourage you to join me. Real accountability will help prevent discrimination, protecting both taxpayers and future victims.”

That dude lost a 2-1 vote because partisan politics but one has to wonder what the hell Gary Barta has to do to get fired. I like Iowa. I may even love Iowa, and I find myself in a position where I want them to lose every football game 100-0 so that Brian Ferentz has to go into real estate and Gary Barta gets a golden parachute. (No: Fran stays. Fran forever.)

THAT'S RIGHT. Not sure if this was intentional from the athletic department but the implied shade in this announcement that Adam Fantilli is a Hobey Finalist hits the spot:

Fantilli's 1.88 points per game beat out Kyle Connor's 1.87 ppg for the best rate among U19 skaters since 2000. It's only second behind Johnny Gaudreau as the highest season-scoring clip in the last 20 years. The Nobleton, Ontario, native's points per game is also better than recent Hobey Baker Award winners Andy Miele (1.82), Jack Eichel (1.78), Cole Caufield (1.68), Adam Gaudette (1.58), Kevin Porter (1.47), Jack Connolly (1.46) and Jimmy Vesey (1.39)

Vesey of course beat out Connor for the Hobey in Connor's only collegiate year, because Vesey was old and the voters wanted to reward him for being old. Vesey's career-best NHL points total is 35; Connor has never scored fewer than 50 in a full season and is coming off a 93-point year. Good choice.

Slight Pairwise correction. On the podcast I asserted that 1-4 in Pairwise were locked in because that's what CHN's Pairwise Predictor was showing. It is no longer showing that.  It's still pretty close to locked in—Michigan is 80% to be 4th. But not quite. Interestingly enough, we were talking about Minnesota State as an undesirable first round matchup and it turns out that despite the Mavs currently sitting 13th there is almost no chance they stay there. There's only a 7% chance they don't move up or down; if Michigan does stick at 4 the most likely first round matchups are Cornell and WMU, followed at some distance  by Alaska, Merrimack, and MSU (not that MSU).

Etc.: Designated uhhhh. Remember the Jai Alai subplot from Mad Men? It's baaaack. Here's the most depressing story of the year. Why is Mel Pearson in the building? Let stats and history pick your bracket. Harbaugh fourth in Feldman's coaching rankings. (CTRL-F "Tucker": 0 hits.) Draft Olu. Likely pointless congressional hearing on NIL on the docket.

Comments

lilpenny1316

March 15th, 2023 at 4:13 PM ^

I almost feel like you can pair Mike Vick with another QB and be okay. If Vick and Lamar Jackson inspire you, or Vick and Vince Young, then cool, makes sense. But pairing Vick with Watson reminds folks you're a proud product of Everybody Murders U.

Joined: 11/19/2009

MGoPoints: 61836

L'Carpetron Do…

March 15th, 2023 at 5:11 PM ^

The good news here in Iowa is that the university stepped in and offered to reimburse the taxpayers the $2m for the settlement.  They're also working on a bill in the legislature that would make it illegal for the state's universities to draw from the general fund to settle lawsuits like this. Sand is actually a good public servant  but I'm disappointed in the "fiscal conservatives" who crafted and voted to approve the initial settlement. 

But Barta needs to gtfo but he's probably not going anywhere. 

Joined: 03/15/2010

MGoPoints: 8551

drjaws

March 16th, 2023 at 10:13 AM ^

corruption and partisan politics isn’t a conservative thing. it’s par for the course as a politician.

politics isn’t about you, me, making America better, fixing our problems, tackling the homeless and drug problems, or improving our infrastructure.

it’s about getting rich and getting re-elected to get more rich. that’s it. that’s all they care about. they don’t believe the shit they tell you that gets you all excited to vote for them. they don’t care if nothing they promise ever gets done. they care about putting on a show for re-election while insider trading. it’s insane that they can make $185k a year and after 4 years in office, have a net worth of $10 million or more

Joined: 02/26/2014

MGoPoints: 46776

L'Carpetron Do…

March 16th, 2023 at 1:20 PM ^

That's actually a rare occurrence and not characteristic of the typical congressman's experience. Some of them use their positions to get inside information to increase their portfolio but that's kind of hard to do (also most of them are pretty wealthy going into office so it's not a big surprise to see them have a jump in wealth). The bigger problem is the fact that they can retire and within a year get a lobbying gig that pays 5x as much as their congressional salary; a nice favor from the special interests they helped out all those years when they were in office. 

I was an anti-corruption researcher for years and while generally what you say is true: Many politicians are motivated purely by self-interest. But many of them are not. Despite what you may think, there are a lot of politicians who are actually interested in doing the job.  But there are a handful of them who are seriously - and perhaps irredeemably -  corrupt (but its a lot more than you think). 

Joined: 03/15/2010

MGoPoints: 8551

dragonchild

March 15th, 2023 at 6:05 PM ^

If discrimination settlements are coming out of the general taxpayer fund, that means you’ve institutionalized it, period.

You’ve literally turned discrimination into a taxpayer-funded endeavor. Shove that “woke” shit, you’re entirely out of excuses.

Joined: 10/13/2011

MGoPoints: 60910

MGlobules

March 15th, 2023 at 6:49 PM ^

Interesting that--forgive me, I guess this is politics but in the end what isn't--the bank these guys keep their money in goes upbelly and the government makes the bank whole, but Zuck lays off 10,000 and no one really even peeps. 

Joined: 11/17/2008

MGoPoints: 47648

bsand2053

March 15th, 2023 at 9:19 PM ^

Younger fans may not appreciate how important Derrick Walton Jr.was to this program.  Some fans (including me) were starting to get a bit restless until Derrick Walton put the team on his back after Maverick Morgan called them white collar

Joined: 04/14/2010

MGoPoints: 19337

oriental andrew

March 16th, 2023 at 10:01 AM ^

On NBA draft prospects, ESPN ($) also has Jett in the top 20 "stat-based" prospects (at #17):

Playing for his dad, longtime NBA standout Juwan Howard, Jett has averaged 14.2 PPG as a freshman with solid production across the board. Howard's 7.3 3-point attempts per game are sixth most among players in the top 100, suggesting his 37% accuracy has come on unusually difficult attempts.

In a mock draft, ESPN ($) has Jett going #15 to the Raptors and Kobe #21 to the Nets. No Hunter.

Howard has still flashed what makes him an intriguing NBA prospect as a 6-8 wing with dynamic shooting ability and range, ability to pull up off the dribble and impressive vision passing on the move, but he has been somewhat passive inserting himself into games. His exceptionally poor playmaking numbers defensively (0.5 steals, 0.9 blocks, 3.6 rebounds per 40) are certain to hurt him with NBA analytics models. Some teams wonder, however, whether he will return to school for his sophomore season considering his father, Juwan, is his coach and he wasn't initially considered a one-and-done candidate. Missing the NCAA tournament could accelerate that process, and potentially cause teammates Bufkin and Hunter Dickinson to consider doing the same.

While Howard has been streaky, Bufkin has taken his game to another level over the past 10 games, ramping up his aggressiveness significantly, improving his perimeter shooting (45% 3P%) and emerging as one of the most disruptive defenders in the Big Ten. With his outstanding open-court speed and increasing comfort as a ball handler, decision-maker and pull-up shooter in the half court -- and because he's the same age or younger than many freshmen projected to be one-and-done -- there's a lot to like about Bufkin's long-term outlook.

Finally, in ESPN's top 100 players, Jett is 15 and Kobe is 24. Again, no Hunter. 

Other players from the state of Michigan in their top 100 include Emoni Bates at 56 and... that's it. 

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 56088

lhglrkwg

March 16th, 2023 at 12:14 PM ^

Gotta be honest- on the field I never remember looking at Schoon and thinking 'wow what an athlete'. Dude's a solid TE and I figured he'd spend some good years in the league, but I'm quite surprised his measurables have turned out so good

Joined: 07/03/2008

MGoPoints: 87934