[fredsue]

we seemed focus on sully and did a decent job from what I saw (until later) but we did not box out that well on the perimeter and they really crashed the boards.

They were seemed focused on walling off hardaway and staying close to novak.

I actually liked what we got from the deep bigs that came in late because of the fouls....not that they were great but they were playing against a top end big and held their own in the short stints they had....

I agree with you about Missing Horford. Also is smot could have gotten off it might have changed the d a little...

[tin mad dog]

They had several good looks at 3 pointers but could not drain them. 3 or 4 were halfway down before coming back out.

[Dave Bing]

This is awful. TimBug junior can't hit the ocean. No post presence for us. Blah.

[Dave Bing]

I wonder if we can get FWMM to suit up.

[RugbyPike#11]

I totally forgot about the game, but from the score, sounds like I should be glad I missed it.

Here's a shameless plug for my somewhat Michigan related blog post: Dhani Tackles Nepal On Roads Less Traveled

[hack]

Was to be expected, IMO -- today was moo u's last crack at Michigan before the talent gap closes. When will Michigan be this physically overmatched again? Unlikely in the next while. Give Sparty credit tho -- they played amazing and deserved the win. If they get 90% of that defensive effort in the tournament they'll have an excellent shot at the Final Four.

Beilein's not doing much in-game to free up guys on offense, and he seems to be letting Hardaway sink or swim. If it were me I'd bench him if he doesn't start driving.

[Dave Bing]

Very cool, Pike. You know, I know Dhani a little bit. I'm seeing him next week. He's a legitimately good guy. Very philosophical. It's interesting to hear him talk about, not his retirement, but his re-wire-ment.

[hack]

You two aren't Eiffel Towering Karen Davidson, I hope...

[Dave Bing]

It's a thought...

[RugbyPike#11]

Thanks Bing. That's pretty cool. I've never met him but I really liked his show. I even got some Ohio State and Florida fans hooked.

[The King]

Man, Timmah has been complete shit for the past few weeks. Just garbage. He's been making terrible plays all over the floor. This team is in a funk right now.

[hack]

No, just he is. Burke's now scouted, but he's still making the most of his opportunities. TH2 is simply getting to enigma status.

[tin mad dog]

Nice comeback game for Timmay yesterday!

[tin mad dog]

wolverines!!!!!!!!

[tin mad dog]

Also, Coach Hoke got 6 verbal commitments (all 4*) for the 2013 class today.

[tin mad dog]

Highlight Of The Night - ESPN Video - ESPN

[tin mad dog]

Bilas knows

Jay Bilas @JayBilas Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
The more I watch, it's seems clear I haven't seen a better freshman point guard than Michigan's Trey Burke. He's a special player. Strong.
Retweeted by Michigan Basketball

[Kstat]

I would hope that was the consensus already. He's been the top freshman PG in college basketball since day 1.

[tin mad dog]

Originally Posted by tin mad dog

I'm not sure if I'd rather have RichRod new defensive & special teams coaches or a restart with Brady Hoke.

There's got to be a better option than either of those, yes?

Redirect to the "I WAS WRONG" thread.

[tin mad dog]

Originally Posted by tin mad dog

At this point, it's a "Meh" hire but he could pan out. I have an Amakery feeling about it, like when we didn't get Pitino.

There are plenty of examples of guys who weren't immediately embraced yet turned things around are out there (Tressel was OSu's 3rd or 4th choice, Pete Carrol was a bit of a headscratcher at USC, Gene Chizc? was ripped as he hadn't even turned a shitty program around before Auburn hired him and there are a few others).

At least he has a focus on D and, if you listen to guys like Cato June, he's a great recruiter.

God, I hope so!

It's probably too late to save this recruiting class but I'll be paying close attention to what happens in 2012.

Like the hire or not, he's the guy for now so I hope he turns things around.

I'll be interested in seeing how much fire he brings to his press conference today. If he doesn't mention beating Tosu, I'll be bummed.

Slight optimism.

[RugbyPike#11]

Oh man, I'm ashamed to admit how upset I was when Hoke was hired. He did a great job coaching the team in year 1 and recruiting looks to be MUCH better than the RichRod era. He also seems like a great guy and it sound like the players absolutely love the guy.

That said, Dave Brandon is still a giant dbag: Those Rumormongering Athletic Directors | mgoblog

[tin mad dog]

Originally Posted by *JD*

Trey Burke (Jr. year highlights)

This one I called right. I was high on Burke the moment I saw some of these vids.

[tin mad dog]

MICHIGAN landed two more 4* verbal commits today. That's EIGHT 4* players this weekend.

HOKEAMANIA is bitchslapping Linsanity!

[hack]

Originally Posted by RugbyPike#11

Oh man, I'm ashamed to admit how upset I was when Hoke was hired. He did a great job coaching the team in year 1 and recruiting looks to be MUCH better than the RichRod era. He also seems like a great guy and it sound like the players absolutely love the guy.

That said, Dave Brandon is still a giant dbag: Those Rumormongering Athletic Directors | mgoblog

No reason to be ashamed -- for every 9 nepotism hires there's a guy who looks every bit like one but actually it turns out that maybe somebody who had proximity to him at an earlier stage really did see the greatness inherent. And since everybody arguing for him was looking like a giant jerk-off for blindly supporting the ex-coach who was railroading the current coach, it was easy to object. I'm glad to be wrong about the guy but I'm not going to apologize for having what I see as a rational opinion at the time given the information available.

[The King]

What an amazing hire. I can't believe how quickly Hoke turned this team around. Wait until we get an actual QB.

[tin mad dog]

Crazy that we have 10 4* verbals already. We only have 12 4*/5* in the great 2012 class.

[tin mad dog]

Rivals.com says GR III is tops on their "most likely to rise in the rankings" list. He is #34 right now. They also list him now at 6'7".

Rivals.com Basketball Recruiting - Top 10: Candidates to move up in the Rivals150

[tin mad dog]

Oh, my......

[tin mad dog]

Hilarious

[DYNOMITE]

Serious question, Do you guys from the north really think OSU/Michigan is a big rivalry when it comes to basketball?Sure I want OSU to win, but I really want the conference as a whole to do well. I always root for any Big 10 school to do well in the tourney.

[hack]

I've never really extrapolated that football rivalry over to basketball, and I root for the conference more in a basketball context than a football one. I really have a lot of residual respect for Indiana, and would like to see Crean bring them back. Izzo's program is impossible to hate. I loved the early 90s days when the conference had 3-4 teams as 1-3 seeds. But that conference spirit doesn't extend to OSU. After the past year I've no respect left.

[Kstat]

The 1992 regional final is my favorite Michigan game of all time.

[tin mad dog]

Originally Posted by DYNOMITE

Serious question, Do you guys from the north really think OSU/Michigan is a big rivalry when it comes to basketball?Sure I want OSU to win, but I really want the conference as a whole to do well. I always root for any Big 10 school to do well in the tourney.

I was almost rooting for the Oden/Connely schmucks to win it all.

I generally root for all the B1G teams to make the Sweet 16. Beyond that, it gets touchy.

I don't share Hack's affinity for spartie. I mostly respect Izzo but he's gotten whinier over the last few years (maybe because he's starting to look more like Richard Dreyfuss?) and that one game where he ran the score up against Michigan still sticks in my head. He's still a great coach.

However, seeing spartie do well does work against Michigan for instate H.S. players. I don't need to see them make another Final Four (as amusing as it is to see them fall just short one more time) any time soon.

I want to see Michigan back as Kings of the State like they were for most of my basketball youth.

At least now, it looks like both teams will be alternating wins.

If, say Wisconsin wins it all. Fine. Indiana? I could be okay with that.

If ohio won it all this year, I could respect that. They've got a really good team. I don't like Crapped but he's gritty gutty.


Also, in football I generally root for B1G teams to do well come bowl season, save one or two teams....

[tin mad dog]

I guess I didn't really answer that question. ohio IS a rival in hoops but not as big as spartie. It's a flip-flop from football. I still consider Indiana a big hoops rival, even though it's been a long time since Bobby Knight was there.

I'd rate it this way:

1. spartie
2. ohio
3. wisconsin/indiana (tie)
5. Illinois
6. Purdue
7. Minny
8. NW
9. Iowa
10. Penn State/Neb (tie)

Kind of similar to the standings.

[hack]

Interesting. I think Michigan's going to be back as kings soon enough. Izzo's whining this year are one of several signs that he doesn't have it in him -- he's had the luxury of dominating the conference in a weaker era, when two of the traditional powers, Indiana and Michigan, were down. Agreed on the running up the score and the bitching after this year's loss to Michigan.

[Hobbs]

Yeah, uh, Izzo's the best coach in college basketball. He hasn't been getting the real stud recruits in quite a while though.

[tin mad dog]

spartie has a highly regarded class this year.

Izzo is a top coach but I don't know about "the best". They've had plenty of blue chippers there over the years. The Best should have at least 2 titles. I think he's below that level of Calhoun, RatFace and Roy Williams. Put him in with Pitino (taking 3 schools to a Final Four) and Boehiem and since Calipari blew a National Championship, I'll say Izzo's above him. Billy Donovan's arguably in that realm with 2 titles and 3 Final Fours.

Izzo still holds the crown (for now) in the B1G. There's a lot of coaching talent in our league, though. Bo Ryan, Mata, Crean, Tubby, Painter,Carmody and even hot seat sitter Bruce Weber are all solid to very good coaches.

Turning back to A2, I think we have ourselves a pretty damn good coach as well. He's won everywhere he's been and with not much talent. Now, the talent is starting to come. The next 5 years are going to be very interesting to see if he can keep building things up.

[hack]

My suspicion is that Izzo's just not willing to recruit to the level on which he can compete with some of those others. I think his vision for how a team should play is as good as anyone's in college -- be bigger, control the boards, defend, go into the tournament tested and seasoned, etc. I do think it's a knock on him that he hasn't adjusted his style to chase, incorporate, and win with one-and-done players. He never has top-flight talent and I suspect he has nobody to blame but himself, even with the dropoff in talent in the state since his rise.

[The Oracle]

Fuck Izzo. He's always been a whiney bitch. He's a great coach and human being but he's a whiney twat and has been that way way before Michigan started to even the score with him, mostly since Bo Ryan has been taking it to him. And he's had top shelf talent ever since he's won the national title. As much, if not more than any team in the conference outside of OSU.

[tin mad dog]

I was looking back at his recruiting classes and every year (save 2003, which Rivals doesn't list) back to Paul Davis, he's had at least a couple of players in the Top 100 and usually one of them is in the top 35. It may not be at the doook/Carolina/Kentucky level but it's above what most other schools get.

Beilein's just cracking that (2 Top 100 players) level with his last 3 classes and this year is his first with 2 in the Top 35.

[hack]

Interesting. But, yeah -- fuck Izzo. Stop whining and deal with it, or go find another conference that's weaker than usual so you don't have to compete so hard. As much as I respect him, I think M's rise is going to push him out the door faster and that will be enjoyable.

[tin mad dog]

MICHIGAN got their 21st win on Tuesday, at NW. I think I picked them to win about 21 games this year, going into Selection Sunday, so they are about to exceed where I thought they'd be.

Hopefully, they can get a round or two further in the NCAA's as well. I thought they'd still have a shot at the Sweet 16. Now, I think they should be a favorite in whatever 2nd round match-up they have. Of course, they have to win that first match-up for starters.

Hack, you'd better go to Senior Day!

[hack]

Goin for sure. Stand/cheer for Novak.

[Dave Bing]

UM lands wr prospect Jaron Dukes. Notable because he is a fine prospect but also because he hails from Columbus Ohio!

[ThaMaestro]

He's a spy. He's going to take them down from the inside.

[RugbyPike#11]

Originally Posted by ThaMaestro

He's a spy. He's going to take them down from the inside.

Just like that movie Salt where Angelina Jolie is a Russian spy sent over to the US as a child to take down the US Government, but then she marries and falls in love with an American, and has second thoughts. Jaron Dukes will fall in love with Brady, and defect to Hokemania.

[hack]

I found a picture of Hoke and Mattison recruiting near Columbus:

[El Axe]

I got this from Grantland's top-12 NCAA power rating article: Titus' Top 12 power rankings for Week 11 - Grantland

A recent poll conducted by Ohio State blog Eleven Warriors asked OSU fans whether a national championship in basketball or a win over Michigan in football is more important to them. Before I voted, I laughed to myself at how ridiculous the question was, because I was sure that nobody would seriously believe that a single regular-season football game matters more than the most celebrated national championship in college sports. But alas, more than 1,000 votes were cast, and 51 percent of those votes were for the football win over Michigan.

My only surprise was that the poll was that close. I'm guessing the blog writer is a basketball writer and so most of the poll takers were basketball fans.

The sad thing is the the writer of the article is from Ohio State. How can he not know this?

[hack]

Fully agreed.

[tin mad dog]

I think the poll will get a lot more lopsided once we start handing it to them on the football field a lot more often than the last 10 years.