MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

Things Discussed: Michigan vs Georgia recruitments revisited: things have definitely changed. We had to move heaven and Earth to get Will Johnson and that was a legacy. Sam shares a story that Harbaugh promised he was gonna be here and that got Will to pump the breaks on a USC-Ohio State decision. Remembering DJ Turner's recruitment. Yaxel? Is doing well at the combine. Think Michigan visit changed his mindset from "Michigan has to match" to "NBA has to match," but there's a very good chance that happens. Difference between early 2nd round and late 1st round isn't just money but end of the 1st round is where you find the best organizations, whereas early 2nd round could mean going to Phoenix. If a team promises they'll draft him in the late 1st he's gotta take it. If Yaxel comes: Big Ten PoY? In the conversation. Wolf-/Tonje-level impact. Forest view: plan on this happening every year, because one player can put you over the top and one way to get that one player is to get the best player in the country who's not in the NBA Draft. Speaking of best player in the country who's not in his draft…there's a LOT of positivity inside Michigan about Gavin McKenna. What does Gavin McKenna mean, non-hockey fans? He's the consensus #1 player in the Draft and in that tier with Connor McDavid, Eric Lindros, Mario Lemieux and Alexander Ovechkin where the franchise that gets him is instantly the team with that guy (Only tier higher than that is Crosby, Gretzky). Why is McKenna going to college? These guys used to play Canadian juniors, but that's a long season in a small town for money that Michigan could match, and for a player who's already guaranteed to be a top-5 pick there's no reason to slog through that when the Big Ten these days has higher competition. The example here is John Tavares, who was the CHL rookie of the year in 2005-06 and player of the year in 2006-07, and was the obvious #1 pick in the 2008 Draft then had to go back to the CHL for another year to no purpose. College gives that guy a step up in competition, a year in Ann Arbor instead of Oshawa, and the connections and future you get from association with a university. For us, that would make Michigan a focus of the hockey world for a year, and the rest of McKenna's career they'd be like "guy from Michigan." Meta discussion on last week's episode and politics based on the (overwhelmingly positive) responses we got from last week: We aren't planning to talk about partisan and identity politics that much going forward—there are certain instances when it's topical and we can't ignore it (e.g. Ono's departure), but mostly we choose to talk about ideas and values, and when they're not politicized nobody notices the politics. Penn State > Ohio State this year? We don't believe in Drew Allar. Ohio State's culture is clearly working for them.

Note: Do you hate it when politics are discussed in places you go for sports? Then skip this episode entirely or skip to 36:19. Things Discussed after 36:19 Leak to Thamel says NCAA told Michigan they'll suspend Sherrone for CMU and Nebraska. Sam: Leak is overblown—it's part of the back and forth with Michigan, not something that's been accepted. Would we take it? Brian thinks it's harsh but if this ends it, fine—you kowtow to the power and move on. Thamel aside, let's go over what Sherrone did. Facts we are relatively certain of: Sherrone deleted all of his texts off his phone around the time the Stalions thing came out, knowing he still has a copy of them. He then went and retrieved the texts for the investigators, and there was nothing incriminating on them. Seth: The question I have is whether he deleted those texts because he regularly cleans his phone, or was that unusual behavior? If it happens regularly this is just trying to make an innocuous thing sound as bad as they can. If it was unusual, then yeah, considering he's the coach now (he wasn't then), and considering how important we value transparency from people in positions of power, a two-week suspension (week->not an Urban Meyer suspension where you just sit out the game) is appropriate. Craig: Is it? If he did nothing wrong, why should he deserve a punishment? It's not a crime to not cover up what's not a crime. [Hit the JUMP for the rest of the discussion, the player, and video and stuff]  Things Discussed before 36:19: Santa Ono's departure and academic freedom (from start of the show): Turns out he was just another suit. Taking $3 million and taking his name of something he signed 2 weeks ago and go do what Ron DeSantis tells him tells you all you need to know. People are going to try to pretend this was taking a stand against the regents or because The Hammer is coming down or that this is about Warde's stance on NIL—whatever stupid narrative they want to believe in. People try to make everything fit the story they want to tell. You'd have to be a quisling to work at the University of Florida. Some empathy because becoming the face of something like that is a life-defining choice, and the nature of the job is you're going to have unreasonable people mad at you because, e.g., they think divesting Michigan from Intel will stop Netanyahu from killing Gazans to placate the far-right members of his coalition that are keeping him out of jail. Part of being the president of Michigan is you are going to have to take a stand for liberalism (as defined). Justice, knowledge, freedom of study: these liberal ideals are the foundational principles of our school, and our school is the best public university in the country. When those ideals are challenged, as they are now by an illiberal authoritarian administration in Washington, you have to tell them "No." And no, this isn't about their DEI policies either. The DEI Office was already was already the midst of being rearranged. And to be clear (Brian said, and I generally agree) we're in favor of that, because the expense of the university's bureaucracy (1 administrator to 5 students—don't quote us on that) is too much, and that money is better off being spent on housing, on improving the Go Blue Guarantee, and on more and better instructors. The most direct parts of the policy (e.g. student housing assistance) were also better off shifted, along with their funding, to parts of the administration that were already doing the same things, and the layers of forms and oversight were probably not the best way of accomplishing the admirable and necessary goal of taking responsibility for an equity of experience for students of certain minorities. Need to be clear: When the White House says "DEI" they aren't talking about Michigan's DEI office nor which books are in the library; they're talking about things like whether I can give a lecture to Dooley's class every semester on the history of integration in college athletics, or whether Women's Studies can be a subject matter. Next president, next on NIL (17 minutes) Next president: what do we want? Brian thinks it'll be another administrator off an expensive search. Seth thinks there are going to be big names calling the school because it's a prestigious job. We need someone who has values, someone who is going to stand up for the university, and (let's not forget) someone who is going to value athletics as an essential engine of the school's value. Brian's not concerned about that so much because the donors won't sit around long if we drop to 126th/134 teams in passing. It's not the donors worrying about that; it's the parts of the school that usually get lots of donations making that a concern. NIL: House settlement is going to include some sort of auditing process that is going to curtail the amount you can directly spend via NIL on players. Don't know how enforceable that is going to be. Congress is going to step in eventually to provide them an antitrust exemption or they're just going to keep getting sued. They might have done it by classifying the players as labor but that's unlikely if it happens now given the party in power who'd be crafting legislation right now is extremely anti-labor. We should say what we want in a president for Athletics: stand up for Michigan when the NCAA goes after them. Brian: Probably won't be facing any significant decisions since the big sports all have relatively new coaches (Why do you always say that?) What they need is someone who will have a spine. The Michigan community will support you. Seth: I'm not just looking for someone who'll rebel; I'm looking for someone who's going to win. Losing funding—which the government gave to the University not as a handout but because the People of the United States want, e.g., a cure for cancer and Michigan can put together the tools and best people to do that. Losing that funding would be devastating. It's not like they just stop doing the research—they already built the labs and financed it, so they'd be under water and lose capability to get it back. Brian: It's going to happen anyways. This is an administration of idiots making decisions based on wanting to hurt the people they don't like, and the University of Michigan is a bright blue beacon of every kind of value and kind of person they want to eradicate. Seth: So we don't just need a fighter; we need a uniter—someone who is going to get all the other institution's administrators (sorry, the faculty isn't the same thing), so when war comes they can win, or at least make it hurt. The towns that resisted the Danes got slaughtered and the towns that paid a danegeld just got more Danes; Alfred beat them by forming England. In the break: MGoBlog's readership, based on Google Analytics on how people voted for national offices, was about 55-45 Democrats to Republicans when I took over advertising in 2012. It's now close to 75-25, without shifting any other metrics about our readership, meaning we're still talking to (a lot more of) the same kind of (educated, hyper-curious) person, but that kind of person, if they ever were a Republican, is leaving the party now.

Things Discussed: Bryce Spring Review: Underwood actually made some JJ throws. Players who stood out on film review: Deyvid Palepale, more impressed with Jalen Hoffman, Avery Gach (pronounced "Gatch") had lots of +2s and –2s, Jordan Young is always around the ball, made the 4th & 1 stuff. OL thoughts by position: RT & RG: Sprague and Efobi were moving people—impressive when they do it Benny, not so much Bobby Kanka. Efobi is the high ceiling/high floor option, could be Hattar or Link. Gach was getting shoved backwards by Chibi Anwunah, who might be good. Think the battle in fall is Efobi the ceiling, Hattar the floor, Link the wild card. LT: ew. When Sam said Michigan should go in the portal for a tackle in spring that wasn't a hopeful statement, and that's how it worked out. Link is a D+, Babalola needs a redshirt, Brady Norton isn't going to happen, period. Ty Haywood, Blake Frazier might compete. Frazier was supposed to a 2-year build and it's been one year, so not expecting that yet. The way Gentry played out last year might have cost them their best option. C: Crippen has the job. Guarnera looked good but had some –2s in there. Strayhorn looked big and athletic but completely lost—at one point he stops mid-pull. WR: McCulley looked good on his one catch, a lot of opportunities to turn around and make a play when they didn't, think Goodwin is a fine 4th or 5th receiver. Semaj has been open, needs QBs to hit him. Haven't seen these guys with good quarterbacking yet so who knows: Bell, Moore, Morgan, Marsh—they could all be good and we wouldn't know yet. QB: We want to get Underwood running more—that 3rd read should be running not throwing a contested ball. RPOs: We're gonna see a lot more of them this year under Chip Lindsey, which means we'll see more man coverage, which then gets back to the receivers and who can win 1-on-1. CB: The flipside is JoJo Edmond was the guy in coverage on a lot of those passes, looks hard to beat, gave up the edge on the big Haynes run. Sug Hill? Sam says without saying that they want to keep him motivated to do things that aren't just his talent. DT and LB are STACKED. Will be very deep and strong this year and are set next year with Palepale and maybe Anwunah. Yaxel: Don't get your hopes up; pretty much every mock draft has him 35-38 and those are guaranteed contract positions so we think there's going to be an NBA team willing to put them on their roster next year. Hockey: Fascinating offseason as Michigan is trying to poach a goalie and most of their new top-six, including the #1 overall pick next year, from Canadian Juniors. Won't know until their playoff ends.

Special guest: Everybody wave hi to Mira. Things Discussed: Spring game: Craig watched the line, wasn't that impressed. Bryce was throwing flat; overthrowing McCulley is a sin. There's a guy across the aisle who's already mad. Seth thinks when the threw that small window past a dropping DE was good; Brian thought he didn't see the drop. Jadyn Davis: Didn't look that polished but much improved. Mikey Keene? Brian thinks he's not a P4 quarterback. Receivers? If you go in the portal you can get a bunch of CJ Charlestons at this point. McCulley had the one contested ball and did the George Costanza. Keeps the expectations for Bryce in context, because Trevor Lawrence had NFL wideouts to throw at as a freshman. Want guys to step up: Marsh, Browder: turn around and context that. Seth: comp is what Nebraska got out of Raiola last year. Need the running game to be the engine of the offense. Get to functional. Hey Sam, how many targets is Jalen Hoffman getting? Are they going to do zone reads for Bryce? OL: Sprague up, Link down—if they're not naming him the starter now maybe he needs to move inside. Sam thinks Frazier can get healthy and get back his agility. Seth thinks they're gonna survive until Babalola is ready, ETA midseason. Break: Sam talks about his colon (I left this out of the podcast version). Defense: Tackles go six deep with big dudes. With them it's more about who they're going against. Linebacker: We are RICH. Seth thinks we have two guys who are better than the top six guys in the Draft, AND Rolder made it through spring without getting hurt. Barham has many uses, Sam thinks he's going to be an All-American. Sullivan can do Barham things. Big Nickel Mason Curtis: think this is a thing. Seth thinks Efobi looked like he was moving them. Dom Nichols: not surprised that a guy who played a lot as a true freshman is getting talk as DE#3. Who's got bend? Sam says Barham is #1. Seth wants to see it from Edokpayi.

2 hour and 14 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Spring Game Vibes and Offense Starts at 1:00 Michigan didn't televise the spring game so now you have to listen to this one! Shout out to men's gymnastics on winning a national championship. Blue team won 17-0, yay. Did Michigan have enough offensive players to reasonably fill out two offenses? Both QBs threw deep balls, most of them weren't particularly close. Bryce had a few Freshman moments as well and everything over 10-15 yards was very flat. There aren't very many receivers but Donaven McCulley wasn't even on the same team as Underwood and was benched after the first quarter (along with most starters). Marlin Klein and Hogan Hansen didn't play. The spring game is delayed on broadcast for a week because of the portal deadline. Haynes and Marshal are it at running back, Micah Ka'apana was slippery like Chris Evans but Michigan hasn't thrown to a running back since 2016. Bryson Kuzdzal looked pretty good! The receivers aren't adjusting to the ball much, Semaj also didn't do much. The 2nd string fullback (Jalen Hoffman) has gotten more targets in a spring game than Max Bredeson has in his whole career and is the highest stock rise of the spring game. Maybe they can stack two wide receivers on top of each other like Vincent Adultman. When Michigan had three tight ends on the field they ran the ball pretty well. According to Sherrone, the three offensive linemen who are locked in are El-Hadi, Crippen, and Sprague. Babalola is big but made freshman mistakes (which is fine).  2. Spring Game Defense Starts at 50:17 Michigan looks like they'll be very tough once again and has a lot of depth. Defensive end is loaded with Big Ten starters. Rayshaun Benny is established where we want him to be at this point in his development. There's going to be a drop-off from Graham and Grant but it'll be fine. It felt like the lines were two good units going against each other. We like the way Deyvid Palepale is shaped, he might be Brian Mone. We didn't learn much about the linebackers but Cole Sullivan was in the backfield a lot. The defensive backs played really well without Jyaire Hill. Shamari Earls is wearing #2 and is looking like #2. All of these defensive backs seem plausible, McBurrows hitting the portal makes more sense now. The secondary might not have any real stars but they won't have any holes, even without Rod Moore. Safeties don't have a real rock like we're used to.  3. Hot Takes and Michigan Hockey Roster Starts at 1:14:49 Takes hotter than the one guy across the aisle at the Spring Game who is already mad at Bryce Underwood. The hockey roster is in a state of flux, we're all awaiting what will happen with the CHL kids. Michigan gets four defensemen back and brings in some transfers and CHL players. Ben Robertson comes in from Cornell after averaging 21 minutes per game. The defense has nine players on roster currently which is probably too many. They could use a goalie! Right now they have 10 forwards on a team that usually carries 14. They have a roster spot for McKenna (the Bryce Underwood of hockey), can they get him? The Big Ten might be top-to-bottom the best quality hockey in the country that isn't the NHL.  4. Potpourri Starts at 1:52:20 Danny Wolf is officially out and headed for the NBA, Aday Mara commits. They're waiting on Lendeborg but they'll still be a good team without him. One more summer of polishing Will Tschetter could make him a really good 4. In football, Luke Bauer comes in as a punter from Missouri - he's an average punter. They get CJ Hester at running back from UMass to replace Ben Hall. He's a little bowling ball. The concession lines at the Spring Game were long! Michigan Stadium isn't catering to the average fan who wants to bring their kids. There are now kids who have attended the Spring Game and didn't have a good time and now they probably won't want to go next year.  MUSIC: "Let's Get Down"—Toni Toni Tone "Bendicion Mami"—Fat Joe "Check The Technique"—Gang Starr “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: Honoring the life of Mike DeBord. Long list of great players and coaches he created. Really kind man. Whoever you were, whatever you were doing, he wanted to make you better at it, and he leaves quite a legacy here. Bryce: What are you looking for? Want to see how he does against all the weird Minter stuff. I want to see him trapped against the right sideline, because that's how young Denard and JJ showed when they could do. Jadyn Davis: Sam says the confidence has been restored; the lack of confidence last year was a two-way street and they're a lot more committed to him. Seth says it was always a long-term project, but now we know he wasn't viable last year. If they weren't seriously investing him, showing confidence in him, he'd be in the portal. Chip and Sinagoga have invested in him. Perfect guy to have behind Bryce Underwood. Good thing for the program long-term that Keene got hurt in spring because they were able to get those two guys reps and put their eggs in the Bryce basket. OL: They miscalculated how bad they were going to be last year, can't do that again. Talked about going to the portal to get help at left tackle if they're talking about Brady Norton. Blake Frazier was hurt and that set back his physical development, Babalola has a lot to learn. OL is VERY hard to learn; you have to be able to ID what they're doing in a fraction of a second at this level or you're dead. "We're passing more this year." If you're going to do that you need to keep Bryce upright. Getting a receiver in the portal is impossible: in recruiting they're getting more traction because Bryce is there and there's time to see it. But they don't have anything to show, e.g. the guy from UConn, that they're going to have a passing game where they can be productive. Productive guys are NFL guys: big, fast, can catch, knows routes. Really hard to learn a new offense in fall. Defensively: Believe in the front seven enough that I would rather see the offense doing well against them. Not concerned about the DTs, DEs, LBs. Think they had everything break their way this offseason: kept both senior stars, Rolder is healthy, Sullivan is emerging, one of the freshmen (Owusu-Boateng) is showing out. Get Bowles back in fall. Want to see Mason Curtis at the big nickel position—haven't seen it since Michael Barrett in 2021 but it's a big deal in the NFL and addresses a thing that opponents have been hitting us with. TJ Metcalf is the leader at regular nickel. Brandyn Hillman has really come forward. Cornerback depth is a bit of a concern. Earls has a lot to learn, Sam: I wonder about Jyaire Hill—it's a matter of football maturation. Caleb Anderson might be dinged up. JoJo Edmond has the ability but he moved late from offense so he's got a long way to go. Might want to get depth in the portal. 

I made the cover thinking we were going to talk about spring ball and safety rotation. We just talked hoops. Things Discussed: Craig stopped being a Cleveland fan when they traded Rocky Colavito and says nobody will get that reference, Seth goes: "I like hamburger!" Aside: If you ever see a copy of Baseball Anecdotes by Daniel Okrent and Steve Wulf, I highly recommend you pick it up. Dusty May is able to multitask, unlike Tom Izzo. Realities of building a roster in 2024-25. Cadeau vs Donaldson: Michigan lost its top two shot creators in their two bigs so they needed creation. Concern is you need to put shooting around that PnR game, and Gayle/Cason a bit questionable as knockdown spacers. We're in a weird transitional period where House hasn't been approved yet and people are trying to get all their deals done—"Mad dash to hand people cash"—before this clearinghouse is checking NIL deals to make sure they're "fair market value." Dusty May listened to Dusty May saying "we need to get tougher." Morez Johnson: 100% chance Craig Ross is going to call him a "brute." Love the Pippi Longstocking pigtails. Dusty's mindset: I'm going after the best players in the country. Aday Mara: could be an awesome pickup. 7'3" finisher who had norovirus and lost some conditioning in the middle of last year, but when UCLA made their run he was playing up to 31 minutes. Would be a great one-two punch with Johnson, in that you've got the big motor guy and the extremely tall/long rim protector, who both serve the same role in the offense so you're keeping your offense the same, but need to be defended differently. Bigs have a slower progression. We can beat 2nd round money. Chances of getting NBA fours back: 5% for Wolf since he's projected to the 1st round. 20% for Yax. Izzo is not allowed to retire until he's had ten years of Paternoing. Better yet: MSU basketball should be U.Chicago football: ride your legendary coach into total irrelevance. Honestly though: developing players is a very good strategy, so long as they can do it. Izzo's mix of tryhad bigs, athletic guards, and lots of defense and rebounding has a ceiling. Trey McKenney scouting report: super strong dribbler, creates his own shot and makes it, can score in the mid-range. Question whether he's got that explosiveness—can he jump, can he move his feet well enough to be a great defender? Won't be a guy who guards quickness but he can help you with the Lu'Cye Patterson bullies, which you're going to see more of in the Big Ten than the super-quick guards. Like Trey in an offense with Cadeau because if you switch on the PnR you're creating bad matchups. Projecting development: it doesn't just "happen." It's about what these guys put in their workouts and hours of exercises and shot development that we never see. Hard for us to project what that is.

1 Hour and 28 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: Where is Everyone Going?   Opener Alex Loves Pistons Those Who Left... Who Do We Get? Segment 2: Frozen Four, Stick Ball, et al   Some Teams Are Still Playing Baseball Catchup Softball Update Someone Name the Athletics!   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "I Think We're Alone Now" -- Tiffany Ice Hockey (NES) theme

2 hour and 14 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Men's Basketball Transfer Portal Starts at 1:00 Yaxel Lendeborg sounds Belgian but isn't, this starts out as a World War I podcast. Cadeau is a former five star who started for UNC, he has a Xavier Simpson assist rate but is not the most productive shooter. He also has an elevated turnover rate. Why this move feels like a wash coming from Tre Donaldson. Morez Johnson Jr. fits in well with Cadaeu, also he can thunder dunk the ball into the center of the universe. Illinois' offense would take a slight hit when Johnson is on the floor, but they get a +10 rebound rate with him. His best basket is a dunk. Unfortunately, the day Yaxel Lendeborg committed to Michigan he gave an interview where he said he wants an NBA contract and Michigan is the backup plan. Theoretically he's Danny Wolf but mean. Michigan needs a backup center but is otherwise in good shape. All signs point towards Nimari Burnett coming back. Brian is mad that Duke went 20 minutes without a turnover. We discuss Michigan's projected seed with the Yaxel situation and without the Yaxel situation.  2. Hot Takes and The State of College Athletics Starts at 42:40 Takes hotter than the best night club in Yaxel Lendeborg, Belgium. The state of things seem a bit perilous. Tre Donaldson hit the transfer portal with a broken heart emoji, what happened? It sucks that you don't really get to know players for multiple years up until their graduation. Part of the joy of college sports is watching players step up that you didn't expect to step up. The Big Ten needs an angry coach now that Fran is gone and Mick Cronin will step up. They should give schools incentives for keeping/graduating their players. The 1-4 seeds are all getting better and fans might get frustrated that more upsets don't happen. People want the chaos. Even Michael Jordan played three years in college, imagine if all the best players did that. This doesn't effect football quite as much. Fans and coaches all want roster continuity. Dusty May seems relatively well-positioned to maintain a lot of players. 3. Spring Football Bits Starts at 1:19:47 Spring Football is still happening. Updates on the offensive line, Evan Link has turned a corner after the Ohio State game. Crippen will be just fine at center. Andrew Babaloa won't be ready because he's a freshman and that's okay. Donaven McCulley is the real deal at wide receiver and everyone else is competing for the remaining spots. The running backs are good. The defensive line is not replacing Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant but it has depth. Are the redshirt freshman defensive ends turning the corner? It's being said that they are. Safety updates, with and without Rod Moore. They'll probably look for a punter in the portal.  4. Michigan Hockey Updates Starts at 1:55:27 Who hit the portal and what impact does that have? Michigan needs to get high-end defensive players. Does Gavin McKenna come to Michigan? He could be the number one overall pick. Why is Cameron Korpi in the portal? Is Michigan trying to get a CHL goalie? Or other CHL players? The CHL isn't happy about NIL.  MUSIC: "Consideration"—Rihanna ft. SZA "I'm Allowed"—Buffalo Tom "When I Get There"—Grady Strange “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Craig has an eye patch, Sam is ill. Things Discussed: Season Grade: A. Exceeded expectations, put up a banner, Sweet 16 after getting hosed by the committee. Dusty May is good at this: Michigan is really good in the last five minutes. They found guys they can use in ways other schools wouldn't have thought about. Knows how to put a roster together, which is critical in an age when you have to remake your roster every year. Why you have to rebuild your roster every year: The portal system isn't good for anyone. It's unfair to blame Dusty May (Tom Izzo!) for recruiting over Tre Donaldson because that's the game right now: they needed shot creation and went and got it in the portal. But this sucks for fans who lose the excitement of players getting better, sucks for schools that have to be constantly recruiting their own guys and everyone else's, and sucks for the players who have to transfer all the time. NCAA needs a holistic reboot based on contracts, and rewarding schools—perhaps with greater NIL cap space—for retaining and graduating their players. Are fans losing interest? They say they are, but it hasn't shown in the metrics yet. Maybe that's what has to happen? Craig: They need a collective bargaining agreement, and there's nobody to bargain with, and that's more than a year or two away. Michigan 2025-26: They have guards, need at least one more center and probably want to add another bench shooter (says Brian) or a starting four (Seth) because Johnson has a high foul rate. Depends which center they get and if he and Johnson can be on the court at the same time. Have Goodman to play some four, Grady to be that guy off the bench possibly. Nimari: Played very well down the stretch, was creating a bit as well. Big Ten Coaching Carousel: Think we won, think it's weird that everybody ended up in not the spot they were going. This time nobody made a bad hire: Nedved is a good fit for Minnesota, DeVries makes sense for Indiana, we like Buzz Williams (kind of a Harbaugh). Want to play at Penn next year to say hi to Fran and the Palestra. During the break: Craig grades all the NCAA Tournament officials. Football: Wide receivers got larger, McCulley sounds like he's going to be WR1 and nobody else is close. Still looking at a 6'5" guy in the portal. Need contested ballers and TEs this year to take pressure off Bryce Underwood. OL may be dodgy; they moved Link to LT and El-Hadi to LG. Like all the assistant coaches they added, hoping for a big 5th year from Crippen. Babalola? He might be a next-year guy because he's pretty raw. Defense: I need to make the Groves thing clear: I'm excited about Falcons on the roster but it's mostly a bit, and I don't want people to think my excitement over these guys is just that. Mangham is getting mention as a starting safety. Rod Moore's injury is holding him out in spring, which makes me nervous, but that could just be a precautionary thing. Quietest spring ever? The reporters are focusing on recruiting.

1 Hour and 59 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: NCAA Tournament Debate   No Goal...ies for OSU and BU MSU Conundrum What Does Minnesota Have to Show? Allentown and Friends Segment 2: Let The Grading Begin   Two Second Lines Two Fourth Lines Goalies and Genres Roster Breakdown   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "I'm So Tired" -- Fugazi Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 46 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Men's Basketball vs Auburn - Sweet Sixteen Starts at 1:00 It's times like this that make you think of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem Ozymandias which has a passage about "when you're leading by 9 points with 12 minutes left don't give up a 20-2 run". Michigan made Auburn as dumb as Michigan for a half and then Auburn remembered they were the #1 overall seed. Michigan gives up 1.04 ppp overall. Turnovers were tied but Michigan was obliterated on rebounds. The season-long issues with the front court came to light in this game. This ended up being what you would expect in a game of Michigan vs Super Michigan. We'll miss Vlad Goldin, Craig has some nits to pick.  2. Looking Back on the Season Starts at 21:51 Dusty May comes into a roster with Will Tschetter and Nimari Burnett, most of his FAU squad doesn't follow him (besides Vlad Goldin). But he assembles this motley crew of a team. The question coming in was "can he assemble a good roster or did he just have one good recruiting class?" Turns out he can assemble a good roster. Brian hoped this could be a 6-seed coming into the season and people thought this was crazy. They probably should've been higher than a 5-seed. This season earns an A for exceeding all expectations, not an A+ but an A. Dusty May was the better choice over Niko Medved.  3. Hot Takes and Looking Forward to Next Season Starts at 42:43 Takes hotter than whatever Craig is about to say. Michigan loses Rubin Jones, Jace Howard, Vlad Goldin, Justin Pippen, and probably Danny Wolf, You now have a roster cap of 15, they can be scholarship or not. They'll be looking for centers in the portal. Get ready for an L.J. Cason glow up. Looking ahead to Trey McKenney as a freshman. If Sam Walters was going to hit the portal, wouldn't he have done it by now? There appear to be a lot of high quality centers in the portal. Transfer portal targets, Brian wants Magoon Gwath. What's the ceiling for next year? They'll finally have some continuity on the roster. Just find a guy who's 7 feet tall and put him on the roster.  4. Michigan Football Spring Practice and Hockey Starts at 1:26:08 The only QBs available are Bryce Underwood and Jadyn Davis, Mikey Keene is injured. Otherwise we're not hearing much of anything. Shamari Earls is supposedly turning out and is Charles Woodson sized. There will not be Jeremy Clark slander. Michigan hockey had a disappointing end to the season, how will they bounce back? How much will Michigan pay for hockey after football and basketball? What does the rest of the Big Ten look like? MUSIC: "Cradle The Pain"—Morgan Nagler "Back to Earth"—Manplanet "I Wish"—Skee-Lo “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: Auburn: They're Michigan if Michigan was everything they wanted them to be. No turnovers, extremely high efficiency. Michigan's turnovers are mostly still Michigan's. Lately the first 5 minutes of every game they're on pace for 60 TOs and then they are not a high-turnover team the rest of the game. UC San Diego: Michigan was a terrible matchup for them. Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones is their top scorer and he was useless against Danny Wolf. They had a good shooting day and Michigan had turnovers to make it close. Texas A&M: Michigan put their effort into rebounding. A&M saying they couldn't score at the rim in the 2nd half but they've been a bad shooting team all year and the only thing that was working was Payne physically dominating. LJ Cason: Go ahead young fella! Dusty admitting he should have played him more during the season, but Cason wasn't very playable until recently. Gives Michigan a different attack because nobody's been able to attack the rim since Gayle's shooting issues began. It's also the way to break A&M, which wants to have one bad defender on the court for scoring purposes and can get away with it if you have an offensive weak spot on the court. Gayle: What a game! Not just the shooting; he was making big plays on defense and creating for others as well. But the shooting is the thing; he's been slowly getting his shot back, and that opens up all kinds of offense because letting him sit alone at the perimeter was the way defenses took away Area 50->1. Why didn't Nimari play much? Because he's not a rebounder and you're playing Texas A&M. Rubin Jones was a key player on the boards. Cason and Gayle were doing a good job of boxing out. A&M's rebounding isn't just the bigs; they get wings heavily involved and keeping them outside was key. Goldin tired? Put all of his breath into rebounding; flopped three times against Payne—as soon as Payne got tired A&M had no way to score points. Michigan scored 30 points in the last 10 minutes of that game. AUBURN: They're 8 seniors and a 5-star freshman who chased Tre Donaldson out of there. Maybe one of the best basketball teams the Tournament has seen in many years because they have these up-transfers who got a few years to play together and an extra season to improve their skills. Do we have a chance? They're an excellent team. They're better Michigan. They let off the gas a little against A&M and gave up 24 ORebs because Auburn had already clinched the SEC; before that their only losses were overtime vs (two-big) Alabama and at Duke. Brian says Michigan needs to use A&M's strategy—win a lot of rebounds and get 17 extra shots?—and shoot 40% from three. Seth thinks the key is make them pull Dylan Cardwell because the switching is forcing him to be an offensive nexus, and then have Goldin score on Johni Broome, who's more of a finesse center.

1 hour and 34 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Sweet Sixteen Vibes Starts at 1:00 Oh hey! We didn't expect to be here! Roddy Gayle just made more threes in one game than during Michigan's entire Big Ten schedule. He has risen from the dead and Michigan out-rebounded the best rebounding team in the country so here we are! Michigan got hosed by the selection committee but made it to the 2nd weekend anyways. Brian 'Roddy Gayles' the sponsor read. Going into next year, Dusty May needs a center and a backup center but should otherwise be set. 2. Men's Basketball vs Texas A&M Starts at 15:26 Nobody expected this game to go the way it did. Michigan started 1-7 on threes and then started hitting a lot of great shots against a top 10 defense. Michigan got a lot of un-contested rebounds which was weird considering that's Texas A&M's thing. Goldin was probably getting more tired than usual, he got pulled early. L.J. Cason was a game-changer in this one, he could be special next year. Why did Nimari only have 13 minutes? All of Goldin's energy went towards rebounding, his performance would've been very memorable if it wasn't eclipsed by Gayle. Just don't pass to Patrick.  3. Hot Takes and Men's Basketball vs UC San Diego Starts at 37:20 Takes hotter than RODDY GAYLE. UC San Diego is such a weird team. Brian still can't pronounce their star's first name who fouled out in 25 minutes. Michigan should've had the bigs dunk at the rim but UCSD defended them well. Roddy Gaye and L.J. Cason played important roles, not quite as big as in the TAMU game. Michigan's shot parity is only -2 which is good enough. If Wolf played better then maybe Michigan walks away from this one. They hit the Kenpom spread exactly. How well will we remember this game years from now?  4. Previewing Men's Basketball vs Auburn Starts at 1:01:34 Michigan has drawn the #1 overall seed in the tournament. Auburn's greatest strength is shot making and are the 2nd best offense in the country (1st is Florida). They have some super seniors from the Covid year. Auburn has a similar Bigs setup to Michigan so they can handle Goldin+Wolf. One of their biggest weaknesses is that they foul a lot. Personnel wise, these teams are very similar and both coaches will likely match each other. Jahki Howard might be the worst teammate in the country. Auburn will want revenge against Danny Wolf after last year's Yale game. Everyone was watching the Michigan game on Thursday since most of the first round games were uneventful. This Auburn offense is 8 efficiency points better than the 2013 Michigan offense.  MUSIC: "Where Do We Go From Here"—Charles Bradley "Monstera Escalito"—Ciao Ciao Marigold "What do You Like"—Tommy Richman “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: Michigan wins Big Ten Tournament, it doesn't matter for seeding, and then the get the strongest 12-seed in the history of Kenpom. UC San Diego preview: They figured out how to deal with a 7-footer in the third game against UC Irvine, the other good team in their conference of California state schools plus Hawai'i, but they haven't faced two 7-footers. Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones is their major usage guy who might end up having to play a lot of center because Nordin Kapic, their nominal big, is a 6'8"/245 stretch. PG Hayden Gray has the #1 steal rate in the country, and this is part from him harassing you from all angles all over the court, and part playing in a league of teams with bad handles. Need a plan for getting upcourt and warning when he's coming. Seeding: Proof that the Committee just needs to go, because they're trying to talk Kenpom now instead of rewarding seasons. Just use Wins Above Bubble like they do (with Pairwise) in hockey. Sam thinks they way overvalued nonconference games, which hosed Michigan given the context of Michigan's losses; some two-way thinking went on where close losses in the nonconference are a big deal but close wins in-conference are luck. The explanations offered up by the UNC AD were not inspiring. He was trying to make math cases but the guy is clearly illiterate in terms of math. Seth thinks they were trying to make a bracket instead of a field, using their own limited understandings of matchup stats to give top seeds easier paths, even though that's explicitly not what their job is. Evidence: they were talking about things like wins against Iowa State when their best player was out not counting as much. That's terrible. Round 2? Brian thinks Yale can beat A&M who can't shoot. They're the Iowa of basketball: they rely on Cooper DeJean returns. Seth thinks A&M rebounds too well and they always manage to hit stupid shots in the last minute. Nobotdy thinks we're getting past Auburn and Johni Broome, a point forward whose TO rate is 8. Louisville doing us a favor in Lexington? Chucky Hepburn isn't beating Auburn. How far is MSU going? "Cakewalk to Final 4" what? Auburn as well, unless ISU beats them, but their injuries are too much to overcome. Rooting for the Young Martellis (that's a 30-point spread). Remembering Giddy Potts. Theory: MSU has too many centers for Izzo. That's a great thing in the Big Ten where Our brackets? SEC-heavy. Florida, Auburn, Alabama…I mean I want to root for Houston but I hate their draw of upset specials and their slow pace that invites it.

1 Hour and 19 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: What Happened Last Weekend?   Opener Old Friends and Around the League Pairwise Rankings and Rooting Interests Who Might Go Where Segment 2: Stick Ball Sports and the NHL   He Said/She Said Hardball Rundown Softball Catchup NHL Chit-Chat   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Praying For A Miracle" -- Dan Sartain Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 28 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. The NCAA Tournament and UC San Diego Starts at 1:00 Michigan is your Big Ten Tournament champions! There was a lot of doom and gloom at the end of the regular season so not many people saw this happening. Michigan might be the most boned team in the tournament draw. Wisconsin is an 18 point favorite against Montana, Michigan is a 3 point favorite over UC San Diego. UCSD is clearly a top 50 team but they can't match up with Michigan's Bigs. Get familiar with the name Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones (in pronunciation and basketball production). The Tritons give up a ton of threes. Yale is a popular upset pick over Texas A&M, TAMU's thing is missing shots but rebounding them. Who would you rather play, TAMU or Yale? That's a tougher question than it would seem. Clearly the results of the Big Ten Tournament don't matter because Michigan is seeded like it didn't happen.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Men's Basketball vs Wisconsin Starts at 32:43 The shooting percentages in this game were... ugly. Wisconsin had good looks but just couldn't hit them. Goldin seemed absolutely gassed this game. L.J. Cason really helped bail out Michigan. Michigan only had eight turnovers! But missed on the boards.  3. Hot Takes and Men's Basketball vs Maryland Starts at 49:43 Takes hotter than your Big Ten Champion Michigan Wolverine Football Basketball team. This is one of the worst officiating games we can remember. Roddy Gayle had a great game... and MADE A THREE. He only had nine points but that level of production is what Michigan needs. The final play was a football play in its design.  4. Men's Basketball vs Purdue Starts at 1:14:01 A nice bounce back game that happens from taking care of the ball. Why does everyone want to kick Goldin in the nuts? Purdue gets more goonish when they're tired and they were coming off a tough game against USC. Michigan wasn't turning the ball over and was assisting well for each other, this was the Dusty May team we love to see. Michigan gets the night game on Thursday and will be played at 5,280 feet. Please fly over right now and get acclimated, you're invited to sleep on my couch (IT'S A NICE COUCH, SETH). It may be a 50/50 chance we preview Auburn next week.  MUSIC: "Take This Job And Shove It"—Johnny Paycheck "F*ck You"—CeeLo Green "MUTT"—Leon Thomas “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

SKLARS TONIGHT Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle in Royal Oak. Show's at 7:30, doors at 6:30, VICTORS books for sale and signing after the show. HOT TAKES segment during the show if enough MGoBlog fans are there. Tickets. Things Discussed: Basketball big picture: they're a good team, though they've been more of a 10-seed than a 4-seed since January because they hit their ceiling. Strategy has stagnated but tactics are good, wins close games. Take Michigan in the 1st round vs a 12 or 13 because they won't have someone who can stop Vlad. Tre Donaldson needs to play better—ball is getting stuck in Wolf's hands, also Tre's defense has fallen off. Cason? Very high upside: defensive athleticism, #1 on the team at getting himself to the rack, shooting is just bad luck—big difference between his shots that circle the rim and Gayle's shots that barely touch it. But he's not going to be ready this year. During break: Craig uses the F-word. Is something wrong with Tre Holloman? Seth: If that guy played for us we'd love him. MSU floor-kissing: mostly nothing. Seth believes the rule should be whoever wins gets the midcourt/midfield logo. That game was over. Women's basketball: Michigan's playing five guards, the game has gotten much better, incredible what KBA did after her roster was gutted by the portal. They can stick with anyone in the country. Hockey: Need help. No bid stealers. Comfortable that one of the many Big Ten and Hockey East at-large teams will win their tournaments, need Arizona State to go out, need Quinnipiac to go out early enough not to pass Michigan or win their bid. Naurato: This won't be a problem again. What does he mean? Maybe he's going to raid Canada.

1 Hour and 33 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: Defense? What Defense?   Opener Puck Mismanagement So Many Goals for Everyone That OT Call Segment 2: No Bounceback Whatsoever   What Even Happened? Did You Expect That? Old Friends and Around the League Is There A Chance? Pairwise and Predictions   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Sports" -- Beach Bunny Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Sklars performing at Mark Ridley's in Royal Oak this Thursday at 7:30PM (doors open at 6:30) tickets: Supersklars.com We will be there having drinks with copies of VICTORS to sign after the show. If you can't make a weeknight they're performing 2 shows on Friday and Saturday night. 1 hour and 10 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Men's Basketball at Michigan State Starts at 1:00 We still have to do a podcast. Dave went to go enjoy the weather instead. This game was over in the first half. 3/24 on threes is not good! Last year's team would've given up at halftime, this team at least fought back a little. What has this team improved upon since their trip to California? Michigan doesn't have a guard that can generate offense. We thought a lot of these transfers would've turned a corner by now. This team still exceeded expectations for the season, the way they got there was just not how we expected. There's the potential for Michigan to not win another game this season.   2. Men's Basketball vs Maryland Starts at 21:11 This game was similar to the Michigan State game in that Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin were the only ones scoring. Maryland got to play a Maryland game and Michigan didn't have a plan.  3. Lukewarm Takes and Hockey vs Penn State Starts at 32:11 Just some lukewarm takes this week. Go see the Sklars in Ann Arbor this Thursday-Saturday! Hockey is now just 42% to make the tournament after getting swept by Penn State. Root for Western Michigan, Denver, and Quinnipiac. Friday's game was pretty fun at least! Despite giving up bad goals. It didn't feel like a super talented roster. Imagine if Michigan got goalie Trey Augustine instead of Michigan State. Goal-tending was unclear going into the season and seems like it will continue to be unclear.  4. Football Spring Practice Starts at 57:47 Spring practice starts soon! Is Bryce Underwood already the guy? Running backs have a top two, it's a battle for #3. Will the offensive line look similar to last year? There are some lower level transfers coming in but offensive linemen can flourish in the right system. Please hype up a wide receiver. Hopefully the two transfer defensive tackles come through. They'll be fine but it's still a huge downgrade. Cornerback will be an interesting position, we want to hear that Jyaire Hill is rounding the corner. How is Rod Moore's health? Who's the punter?? MUSIC: "Lie In The Gutter"—Peel Dream Magazine "Dollar Store"—Ben Kellar ft. Waxahatchee "Mr. Chill"—Friendship “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: They say I look like Mick Foley? I don't see it. Maryland: Vlad has to make >50% from two or you can't lose the shot disparity by ten, but you can't have both. Lots of mental lapses: Vlad on defensive boards, Wolf has 4 turnovers on 5 possessions, then Tre does something similar. Teams do things well. Illinois put on a clinic of what they do: spread it out, shoot a lot, and rebound bricks vs your guards. Maryland put on a clinic of what they do: Queen and Reece block a lot of shots and they get you switched onto matchups to dominate you in the paint, with their guards hitting threes off the dribble at critical times. What does Michigan do? We had Area 50-1 but when teams adjusted to that we didn't have the next thing. It could be Wolf shooting pullup twos, it could be something else, but Michigan hasn't adjusted to the adjustment to them. Maybe they can't? Maybe they haven't had time because they've played every 3 days since January. Sometimes you just aren't good at the thing you have to do to punish the adjustment. Maryland kept Michigan in the game by taking a lot of midrange shots. Vlad isn't a hedge and recover defensive threat. You're limited by your team. Can Donaldson be a true PG? His turnovers are kind of lazy perimeter passes; he's got more than he's given. Can be the guy who hits the big shots; Ja'Kobi Gillespie did that to Michigan when they were coming back. Can they play a 3-man game in the middle? Think that was the plan if they had Walters. Craig: Go look at the workout tape for Tevis Metcalf, the younger brother. He says it's jaw-dropping. Is Wolf a 1st round pick? Probably, because he's got a weird skill. Question isn't whether he'll be a better player if he returns; it's whether he'll be a better NBA prospect, and he's probably not.

1 Hour and 20 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: Low Event and OT Opener Nothing Happens Alternating Goals Finally, a 3x3 loss Segment 2: Almost Collapse Dominating Hockey Five Minute Review Old Friends and Around the League Ice Lions Again!   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Plant the Flag" -- Abronia Ice Hockey (NES) theme

GoFundMes to support victims of the fires in LA who are part of the MGoBlog community: General Fund. Reader's mother-in-law Anne Cohen. Reader Chef Robert. Reader Josh Bishop-Moser. Reader Mike on behalf of Mika Yoshitake & daughter Sora. Readers Liberty and Mark. 1 hour and 21 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Men's Basketball vs Illinois Starts at 1:00 Michigan was asking for a game like this after the last couple months, you can't give up 19 offensive rebounds in a game and expect to win. Illinois got 9 more shots than Michigan and their young guys went off. Vlad Goldin was the only one who was getting an advantage. Danny Wolf is officially in a funk, this likely doesn't affect his draft stock. Michigan might be a popular pick to get upset in the first round of the tournament. They're fading down the stretch and not getting better in a lot of departments, especially rebounding.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Men's Basketball vs Michigan State Starts at 23:06 This was a "make your shots" game, Michigan State hit their shots. Also Michigan had an 11 shot deficit. Michigan now has a worse 3-point shooting percentage than Michigan State. Roddy Gayle has not hit a three-pointer since January, nobody is covering him anymore and that extra player is guarding the paint. Tre Donaldson might've had his worst game.  3. Hot Takes and Men's Basketball vs Rutgers & Nebraska Starts at 34:06 Takes hotter than yours truly after the 19th Illinois offensive rebound. These two games were polar opposites in what basketball is. Michigan had poor shooting and looked tired after the Michigan State game. The three-point shooting has come down tremendously. Seth thinks the worse three point shooting is mostly random except for Roddy Gayle, opposing defenses can always plan for Roddy not being able to shoot. For one half, Rutgers was the greatest basketball team in the world, then it came crashing back to Earth. Is it time for L.J. Cason to play more? Sometimes he looks great and sometimes he doesn't box out at all. Vlad Goldin is just not a passer in the paint. Who would you take for free throws to win the game, Roddy Gayle or Nimari Burnett? 4. Hockey vs Ohio State Starts at 1:10:08 Michigan steals four points from Ohio State and has their tournament percentage up to 85%. Michigan hosts Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament but Penn State is playing very hot at the end of this season. The "It gets worse" call is now legendary. Win this upcoming series and you're in, get swept and... you might still be in.  MUSIC: "You Don't Know The Shape I'm In"—MJ Lenderman "Loser"—Jerry Garcia "Whip Appeal"—Babyface “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: MBB's shooting woes: they're at 27% going back to the last Rutgers game, Roddy Gayle is 1/24 in the Big Ten. It's a cascade: missed threes are creating runouts and Michigan has a massive difference between their transition defense (324th in the country) and their half-court defense (18th). Sam: Roddy's making them in practice. Tre Donaldson was their guy to get "bad buckets" but we think that opponents are taking even those away by packing the paint. Seth: Rutgers is a get-right opportunity because they'll need to help down low and that should create looks. RU preview: Dylan Harper is back, needs to be doubled. Their centers are two freshmen and a JuCo who was ruled out for the season at one point. Michigan's defense in the half-court has been really good, but MSU was getting a ton of offensive rebounds. Craig thinks that was mostly Vlad, and that there was an improvement against Nebraska. Also issues with the guards not boxing out MSU athletes. Will be critical against Rutgers. Dusty May retained: IU people are like "he didn't do a good job negotiating." Brian: I wouldn't be surprised if May's the Michigan basketball coach ten years from now. He turned down Louisville too; Michigan is his vibe. Sam: Where's Dusty in the conference now? Seth: the money isn't the matter. What's interesting is they mentioned NIL and program support, and then we heard from TMI's interview with Warde Manuel that 25% of the House settlement's $20.5 M is going to men's and women's basketball (don't worry; football can make money in other ways). That's a lot for a school like Michigan. It tells you what Dusty's priority was: he wants quality of life, and a commitment to being a basketball school. Is Michigan tired? Craig says kids don't get tired. Seth says Officiating talk part 1: Paul Szelc is the only ref to ever T up both John Beilein and Dusty May. What was the technical for? Sam heard it's for waving him off, but Szelc was 65 feet away on the other end of the court and Dusty was making the sign for a goaltend (he was correct). Incredible that this happens when Izzo is hurling abuse at them all game. Seth: Paul Szelc has conclusively demonstrated he's not going to give Michigan a fair shake, and should not be assigned Michigan games anymore, end of story. Officiating talk part 2: The awful replay rule got more awful because they can't call an obvious foul they missed that caused the ball to go out of bounds, so now their only option on review is to make the call worse. How is this not fixed when everyone has hated this rule since 2018. At the very least give the officials an option to wave off the review because they missed a call. It's absurd that we spend this much dead time to make the game worse. Baseball: lost some close ones, by 2 runs to potential #1 Arkansas and their 14-to-1 walk ratio at TCU was "suspicious" to Craig. Hockey: 11th in the Pairwise, so close to the Bubble. They're 70% to make the Tourney, finish regular season at #10 Ohio State and should get a home series vs PSU if they get points off OSU this weekend. Future: next year unknown because they're being quiet and might make a big splash from the CHL. The big class arrives in 2026-27.

1 Hour and 41 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: Scores, Standings, Pairwise   Opener Old Friends and the League Last Look at Ohio State Segment 2: Professional Wolverines   NHL Regulars Fringe NHLers Minor Leaguers   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Memories" -- Thutmose Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Things Discussed: We believe MSU is likely planting diseases in Brian's kid's school. Michigan State preview: They can't shoot; they're 354th (I was wrong on the pod) out of 364 teams in 3P%. But caveat: Jase Richardson can shoot and has been playing more, Frankie Fiddler career-wise can shoot, Fears is at 35% and Kohler is at 34%. It's Hollomon and Carr and Akins who give them that profile, but when only one is on the court they're fine. They are physical. Purdue is physical too but MSU is that and DIRTY. MSU vs Purdue: great coaching job. Strategy was switching, throwing guard after guard on Braden Smith, getting the Purdue backcourt trapped down low and running on rebounds. Also got Breslin calls on Trey Kaufman-Renn. Szymon Zapala is the dirtiest player to come through the Big Ten since Brad Davison and whinier than his coach. MSU's process involves getting called (Zapala has 6 fouls/40) but they roll four-deep a the five when you include Kohler. Key: Do not turn the ball over against MSU. They're excellent in transition, in the half-court vs zone they have to take pullup 2s and go for rebounds. Tschetter's rapid elbow: he knew the head was there. By the way: change the wedgie rule. Wedgie should be defense's ball OOB. Sam gonna die on the hill that Bill Laimbeer was a "physical" player. He was dirty. Seth's quick study on teams that get more home calls (based on the idea that it's normal to get about 1 free throw per missed shot at the rim vs top-100 competition, and teams get about 10% more fouls at home): Purdue gets the worst whistle in the league, Michigan is 2nd, MSU gets the best whistle and at home it's off the charts. Does Dusty need to work the refs better? I think he just needs to get to know them better. Michigan strategy vs State: Wolf needs to take advantage of Kohler, Goldin needs to give it back to Zapala. Illinois? They shoot a lot of threes and go for rebounds. Craig's Baseball update: They're very good! 4-0 with an extra innings win vs #2 Virginia and wins vs Rice, Villanova and Stetson in the Puerto Rico Challenge. Jonathan Kim and Mitch Voight are hammering the ball, getting great pitching from Gavin DeVooght, David Lally and Kurt Barr, who've given up zero ER in 17-1/3 innings. Next is TCU, KSU, and Arkansas in Arlington.

1 Hour and 33 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: Overtime Winner   Opener More Lack of Scoring Korpi to Stein and Goals Overtime Power Play Segment 2: Shootout Winner   Early Period Goals Cocaine OT and Shootout Old Friends and the League Four Nations Opinions   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Overtime" -- Cash Cash Ice Hockey (NES) theme

GoFundMes to support victims of the fires in LA who are part of the MGoBlog community: General Fund. Reader's mother-in-law Anne Cohen. Reader Chef Robert. Reader Josh Bishop-Moser. Reader Mike on behalf of Mika Yoshitake & daughter Sora. Readers Liberty and Mark. 1 hour and 42 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Men's Basketball at Ohio State Starts at 1:00 Bienvenue! Recorded remotely this week because Seth's 19 year old ski boots exploded. Michigan wins a defense-optional shootout, they rebounded half their misses which ended up being the difference (Ohio State just couldn't out-rebound Goldin and Wolf). There's a big difference between Goldin being the role guy and Tschetter being the role guy, so why did Goldin only get 24 minutes? Officiating in this game and how it relates to the Bo Ryan era. Don't elbow someone in the head but also don't put your head into someone's elbow. Roddy Gayle returns to Columbus and silences the boos out of timeouts. Stop missing dunks. Neither team got a double digit lead, the game was tense the whole time.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Men's Basketball vs Purdue Starts at 24:50 Michigan avenges a terrible loss to become co-favorites to win the Big Ten. Braden Smith plays an insane 12 minutes to open the game for Purdue, making the first half extra frustrating. His mid-range shots weren't even bad shots, necessarily. Rubin Jones and Roddy Gayle combined for 20 points and played excellent, annoying defense. They came through in a way that was required to win this game. Michigan shoots below their season 3-point average but only had 11 turnovers. They also got to the line a lot (off of some calls that weren't great). Caleb Furst should've fouled out in the first six minutes! The physicality of the Big Ten is more than Dusty May realized. Purdue had zero bench points.  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Minnesota Starts at 49:12 Takes hotter than Michigan basketball in a three point game. Michigan gets slightly more than a split against Minnesota which decently increases their NCAA tournament chances. A split with Ohio State and a first round win in the Big Ten Tournament should do it. Minnesota was out-shooting Michigan 12-2 to start the game on Saturday, not great! Welcome back, Michael Hage. Tyler Duke played a nice game when everyone else was gassed. Bye week upcoming so we won't know much about tournament chances for a while.  4. Tournament Outlooks Starts at 1:16:40 Men's basketball is now projected to win the Big Ten but Wisconsin is looming with the easier schedule. Purdue and Michigan State both finish with a gauntlet. Of Michigan's last six games, four or five of them will be against tournament teams. Finishing 3-3 could maybe be enough to win a share of the Big Ten and get a banner. It's been a while since it's come down to Michigan and Michigan State down the stretch. Torvik has Michigan jumping between 3 and 4 seeds, which takes win margin into account. Hockey is projected to play Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. They're now 80% to make the NCAA tournament but everyone ahead of them in the Pairwise rankings is pretty much a lock. The worst tournament in sports is suddenly in Michigan's favor! There's a regional in Toledo but Michigan probably doesn't go there. Shout out to Hockey Bear.  MUSIC: "Real Life"—The Marias "MUTT"—Leon Thomas "THE BADDEST"—Joey Valence and Brae “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

Things Discussed: Ohio State hires Matt Patricia: Brian: He'll have a Wile E. Coyote year with Caleb Downs but he's not a good coach. He does have a weird beard though. Seth if the idea is to capture what Michigan got in Wink Martindale they forgot the part where he invented the defense that Michigan runs. Craig: Nothing in his resume shows he's a good coach. Purdue game: Michigan had to try at least four defenses against Braden Smith to wear that guy out, finally got Danny Wolf to work. Seth: the zone was the most effective because it was forcing him into even worse stepbacks. But Braden Smith, gotdang is that a good basketball player. Gives them a floor for every shot of 0.9 points per possession. Physicality: Caleb Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn brought it, Vlad got chewed out but then he gave it back. Michigan: Massive effort, especially early from Tre Donaldson who led the first comeback by getting ball-dominant. Officiating? Craig takes the side of Szelc. Seth says it was bad; they let them play way too physically early on and then switched it up, which is how you get both of Purdue's forwards fouling out late after getting away with a ton early. Players hate inconsistency the most. Recognition for Roddy Gayle and Rubin Jones. Roddy filled the box score, can play the role of a secondary creator much better than the role of a fourth offensive option/spacer. You want him starting possessions not ending them. Shooting from either? Roddy's shot is broken—that high arc makes it travel further which means he's effectively shooting at a smaller target. That needs an offseason. Jones's shot looks fine; he's just got to keep taking them and playing as hard as he did. Dusty "inspiring" Vlad leads to two hard takes over TKR where he used his size advantage. Need that from Goldin. Dusty May's future: Brian thinks the pressure cooker in Bloomington with similar resources as Michigan makes Michigan the better job, but we all agree Michigan has to make an Indiana-level investment to keep him. At the outtro: congrats to Kim Barnes-Arico: the winningest basketball coach in the history of the University of Michigan.

1 Hour and 24 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: BAD...but Lucky!   Opener Power Play Goals Korpi Wins It Is That Enough? Segment 2: Friday But More State Goals   Korpi Hangs On For 30 The Dam Breaks Old Friends and the League Gopher Redux MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Get Ready For This" -- 2 Unlimited Ice Hockey (NES) theme

GoFundMes to support victims of the fires in LA who are part of the MGoBlog community: General Fund. Reader's mother-in-law Anne Cohen. Reader Chef Robert. Reader Josh Bishop-Moser. Reader Mike on behalf of Mika Yoshitake & daughter Sora. Readers Liberty and Mark. 1 hour and 28 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Dusty May Talk Starts at 1:00 Welcome to the Plodcast. This game had the awkward undertones of Mike Woodson getting "fired" and Indiana wanting to hire Dusty May. What's a better job, Indiana or Michigan? Indiana is home for Dusty but there's also a lot of pressure there. If Michigan needed the money to match, they could get it. He did turn down the Louisville job so maybe the biggest thing that would bring Dusty May back to Indiana is that his mom still lives in Bloomington.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Men's Basketball vs Indiana Starts at 22:30 Once again it is the story of the season where Michigan gets a big lead and then suddenly looks like they forgot how to play basketball. Kenpom said Michigan would win by four so maybe we're overexaggerating. They've gone from a top 10 team to a top 25 team, so a 5-6 seed in the tournament. The turnover margin between the most turnovers and the fewest in the Big Ten is only four turnovers. Three point shooting was extremely frustrating. Gayle is driving to the basketball when he should be shooting a 3. Screwing up the foul on Goldin really hurt Michigan. Nimari Burnett's shooting percentages have simply fallen back down to earth.  3. Hot Takes and Men's Basketball vs Oregon Starts at 41:22 Takes hotter than the Indiana fanbase when Dusty May spikes a three hundred million dollar offer in their faces and says "I'm a Michigan man forever, babyyyy". Another game where Michigan had a double digit lead that they almost blew! Roddy Gayle got to the line a lot but also traveled enough that John Beilein would've ripped his esophagus out. Will Tschetter had a nice game and led the team in scoring. The bench players aren't quite ready and that's okay. Is Supreme Cook the best version of Brian?  4. Michigan Hockey vs Michigan State Starts at 1:13:28 Michigan picks up a split against the #2 team in Pairwise, getting one win was the best possible scenario. Both games were about the same but Michigan State actually scored in the second game. Michigan is a team of just guys. Nobody really pops besides Hage. The WWE aspect of these games in the 3rd period against Michigan State has become a bit much. Michigan has a 70% projected chance of making the field, which feels great right now. Is the most boring Michigan hockey team in memory? This isn't a bad team, they're just not the team last year that booted Michigan State out of the tournament. Pre-season expectation was to hopefully make the tournament and that hasn't changed. MUSIC: "Aston Martin Music"—Rick Ross "Waiting For The Bells"—Joel Alme "Vines"—Cameron Winter “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: Signing Day: Got the most talent on offense since…1998? Down the list: OL: Two of the highest-ranked OTs in the history of the program, Gach was a Priority 1 for the program, Strayhorn is a center. RB: Jasper Parker the sites just missed; poorer man's Adrian Peterson. M thinks DJ is healthy. WR: Marsh was a big pull vs heavy hitters, Year 1 player. Browder needs development but Junior Hemingway upside. Washington is tall and can move well. TE: Owens is a Bredeson, really hurts that they missed on Olesh. DL: We love the heavy-handed build-a-bears that Esposito recruits. Remember his WMU guys? Moten and Patterson are going to be those guys too. Lou is convinced Benny Patterson is the guy. Kanka is a Godin. Marshall was a Priority and a big win. Can't expect them to get the scouting coup of the century with Graham and Grant every year but they can scout and now they can win the guys they scouted. Basketball: Every guy is good with a tradeoff, and that tradeoff is turnovers, e.g. look at the defense that Roddy Gayle (and Pippen) played on Ace Bailey. Rutgers: We got a break by missing Harper, who just shredded Illinois. Oregon game: the mental errors are baked in at this point, like they're not going to score at the rim as well as you want them to. Also baked in is the fact that they switch everything and play drop coverage, so your Shelstad types who make 50%+ of other twos after attacking a Goldin or Wolf are going to score. Sugarplum vision of a top-3 seed and winning the B10 is probably gone. All but one of their remaining games (all but Rutgers at home) are Kenpom A (top-50) tier, IE Q1 opportunities.

GoFundMes to support victims of the fires in LA who are part of the MGoBlog community: General Fund. Reader's mother-in-law Anne Cohen. Reader Chef Robert. Reader Josh Bishop-Moser. Reader Mike on behalf of Mika Yoshitake & daughter Sora. Readers Liberty and Mark. 1 hour and 9 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Men's Basketball vs Rutgers Starts at 1:00 Brian returns after a week (or two) of trying not to die ala ice and norovirus. The Rutgers game was a weird game of two offensive-oriented teams not scoring much. Rutgers has 15 more shots than Michigan and still loses due to poor shooting. Michigan did a great job defending Ace Bailey. Rubin Jones made a two! Rutgers likely won't make the tournament but this was still a solid road win. Tre Donaldson is averaging 1.7 fouls per game, can't just pull him with two fouls. Things feel bad but Michigan has a tournament bid pretty much locked up if they stay the course.  2. Men's Basketball vs Penn State and Purdue Starts at 21:34 Penn State is the most Clingon team in college basketball. Tre Donaldson was the hero with 21 points, also the Vlad Goldin "empty tubes" game. Only nine turnovers was a great improvement against a team that forces a bunch of turnovers. Speaking of poop, the Purdue game! This was not a game from the start. Michigan can't handle Purdue's pace and then the second half is just coasting home for both teams. Every Michigan coach has to get their head caved in by Painter once. It was discombobulating to see Michigan so discombobulated. The final stretch of this schedule is a gauntlet, they're all quad 1 games (besides maybe Rutgers). If Michigan finishes .500 they'll be fine.  3. Football Stuff Starts at 41:23 Ross Dellenger got a leak of a portion of Michigan's NCAA response. Michigan is taking the route that the allegations are unsupported and should be level 2 allegations. In the past they've laid down and taken it for allegations. All the released texts about Connor Stalions within the program almost sound like they're annoyed with him. The portal has been pretty quiet recently, this might be it for the incoming wide receivers. All signs point towards Ty Haywood coming to Michigan. The NIL values you see are probably made up.  4. Michigan Hockey vs Penn State Starts at 56:09 Michigan is down to 14th in Pairwise and on the bubble. The remaining games are the hardest part of the schedule so they need to go at least 3-3 to try and get into the tournament. This is such a frustrating team to watch. In some years, the Michigan defense can do spectacular things while making mistakes, this year they just make mistakes. They're running out of time to figure stuff out.  MUSIC: "Alaska"—Maggie Rogers "Help Me"—Joni Mitchell "Don't Dream It's Over"—Crowded House “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: Mostly we discussed the Dellinger Leak and Michigan's response to the NCAA re: Signgate. I'll have a UV later today on it. Michigan has a very—extremely—strong case that they did very little wrong. Most of the in-person scouting was for teams not on their schedule, all of the evidence for a coverup is flimsy: Sherrone deleted texts: Only off his phone, because he knew they had imaging, those were provided to the NCAA, and they were completely innocuous. Mike Hart was told that Stalions was "extra" which: yeah. That's it! That's all the evidence! Most of the report is just a glimpse into how sign operations worked—Stalions was sharing signs with Rutgers and Nebraska, who just used wristbands when they played Michigan. It also showed just how marginal sign-decoding was: Sherrone was told to change his signs before Ohio State and said he'll "think about it," Partridge yelled at Stalions about trying to use a team manager, etc. It has a name! Signal organization stupid thing, or S.O.S.T. NCAA's position is basically "We know we broke our bylaws and this isn't remotely just, but we need to humiliate you because look how mad all the Bielemas are." Michigan has requested a prehearing because the NCAA has at least one in-house source that refused to be identified, which we've just now learned is apparently against NCAA bylaws. No idea if the COI has to grant that prehearing The process is meant to be collaborative; it completely breaks down when the two sides have entirely different realities and goals. That's a big problem for Michigan because the NCAA's purpose here isn't to be reasonable or just. The fear here is NCAA's main motivation is relevance; they can't do anything about paying players, which has been their raison d'être, so this is the one field where they can demonstrate any kind of power. Legal challenge? Seems they'll go that route if things proceed as they seem to be. Guessing that's what the NCAA wants so they can placate the Bielemas by saying "it was the courts, not us." Seth: don't underestimate the difficulty of winning this case in court. Like the Tony Petitti thing, when it's not about constitutionality or the law, courts often default to whatever the agreement between parties is, and Michigan's agreed to be under NCAA judgment whether it's fair or not. With Tennessee: 1) It was their attorney general flexing power on behalf of the only thing his state cares about, which isn't who Dana Nessel is or how Michigan politics work, and 2) that was about paying players, which got into a constitutionality issue of denying the free trade of services. Guess how it plays out: NCAA goes overboard, Michigan takes them to court, court takes a long time, and when it's settled nobody cares because it's been too long and we all have more important things going on. Story Time: Just like 1928! Non-S.O.S.T. thing: Jim Knowles off to PSU for a lot of money! What does it mean? It means anyone who can is getting away from Ohio State fans.

1 Hour and 23 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: Watchalong Collapse   Opener Scored Goals! Blown Lead #1 PK, Outshot, Goalie-ing Segment 2: Saturday Collapse   Gramme's Got Free Stuff Another 2 Goal Blown Lead, but the Extra Point! Old Friends and the League PSU Again   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Somebody's Watching Me" -- Rockwell Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Watch Party: Basketball and Hockey tomorrow night.    Things Discussed: Lions: You can't hurt me. Oh they lost—we lost the DPOY and everyone else on the starting defense. They're taking our coordinators—when's the last time a Lions coordinator left for a head coaching job? Wink to Lions? Sounds like he's a tertiary candidate, most of the positions looking at him have been filled. Why aren't OSU's coaches candidates for better jobs? Brian Hartline only. Sam: Pro position coaches don't make more than college anymore (except Jim paid his guys to come with him); you go pro to get away from recruiting. Coordinators don't recruit as much anymore. Sherrone does a lot of the recruiting himself. If no Wink: the "internal" candidate is Doug Mallory. Les Miles's old coordinator, has recruited the SEC. Called the coverages vs OSU 2021-2023, called the coverages in the national championship. Waiting as DB coach for Ravens but might be the rare guy (older, played for Bo) who would retire here. Sam adds they'd be able to elevate someone to a "co-." Danger of losing Wink is he might pluck some of his guys. Good news is he's probably not going anywhere right now. Staff is pretty intact. Would like to establish some long-term guys. Wanted Elston to stay forever. Want OL recruits to be recruited 2 years by the guy who will coach them 4 years and still be here when they come back to visit in 4 years. Pantsless Championship: They want to call a 14-2 season the best ever? They're the worst champions ever. They went 1-1 against Oregon who had a better season. They lost their most important game, at home to Michigan. The commemorative ball has all the game scores on it. Sam's buying it. Playoff system: Can you imagine designing a system where Michigan and Ohio State are both happy at the end of the year? Hoops: Teams are learning to take away the roll. Minnesota game was a bit of a fluke—Goldin went 4/13 at the rim when he's been the best finisher in the B10 for the last month—but Northwestern went all in on it. Need to find ways to punish that, either with Wolf following Goldin into the lane or shooting an open three. Goldin: quietly Michigan's best player lately, despite 4/13. His threes open up the offense vs teams like Northwestern and their paint-bound truck driver. Purdue: Will be a different challenge because TKR can switch. Need defense to show up.

1 Hour and 18 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: Friday Night Points!   Opener That Goal Fighting Back TJ Hughes Talk Segment 2: Saturday Night at Munn   Down in a Big Hole Non-Gameplay Discussion Old Friends and the League Badger Rematch MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "On Melancholy Hill" -- The Gorillaz Ice Hockey (NES) theme

GoFundMes to support victims of the fires in LA: https://gofund.me/79ecde48h https://www.gofundme.com/f/ysggb https://gofund.me/79ecde48 https://www.gofundme.com/f/liberty-mark-need-our-help?attribution_id=sl:bdeebeeb-00cf-4385-9fae-567d43bae218&utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link  1 hour and 29 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Football Portal Starts at 1:00 Find out which MGoPodcaster almost ran over Craig. Michigan picks up UMass wide receiver Anthony Simpson from the portal, hopefully he can be Drew Dileo. They also get Louisiana cornerback Caleb Anderson, he played injured last year so his PFF grades weren't terrific. He's a great tackler. OT Ty Haywood has de-committed from Alabama and was set to visit Michigan over the weekend. Apparently he wanted early play time. Cade McNamara has committed to ETSU. Ohio State and Notre Dame is not a meteor game, the choice here is obvious!  2. Men's Basketball vs Minnesota Starts at 17:47 Lack of toughness was not the issue! Minnesota hit 50% from mid-range which was the difference between OT and a Michigan win, they usually don't make these shots. The Gophers also changed their lineup quite significantly. Nimari Burnett was held in check (and was in foul trouble), Roddy Gayle was having an off game as well. Giving up 71 points in regulation to Minnesota is concerning. Need Will Tschetter to be able to put up 6-8 points per game.  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Michigan State Starts at 37:22 Considering Michigan State is currently #1 in the country, getting some points over the weekend is nice. Michigan is giving up a lot of goals in the five-hole. They were was able to hang with #1 MSU but there is a skill gap, Michigan doesn't have a dynamic skater and is playing a lot of freshmen. There were three penalties in Yost on Friday and 21(!) in Munn on Saturday. TJ Hughes has 10 points in six games, How should Michigan approach player development moving forward? Need to win three of the next four.  4. Men's Basketball vs Northwestern Starts at 1:05:35 Attending this game in person was torture because you can't even see what they're reviewing. Can't have your foot too close to the jingle jangles. Goldin is 9 of 16 on threes! He needs to wear a cup or something. Is this Michigan's first game this season where they had fewer turnovers than the opposition? The offense needs to diversify because opposing defenses are collapsing on the center and Wolf has been having issues. Is Tre Donaldson or Roddy Gayle the answer? Gotta respect Chris Collins for having a competitive team every year. Purdue is smaller than we're used to seeing but playing them at Mackey is a tall order.  MUSIC: "Trouble"—Father John Misty "Never Ending Math Equation"—Sun Kil Moon "One Of These Days"—Michigander “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: Hoops: We are still fascinated by Mick Cronin, even as he turns a top-25 road win into just another bottom-of-the-B1G team. Wolf back next year? Musselman clearly trying to talk NBA into existence, but NBA is listening. Big Ten MBB looks like a Michigan-Michigan State race with Purdue and Illinois on the 2nd tier, though Illinois can beat anybody—they're weird because they rely on the three. Brian: MSU is a better shooting team than they look: Akins is at least, and they hit free throws. Craig: MSU is really good, unbeatable when Izzo can browbeat the refs into letting them be handsy. Counter: they don't take many threes, with three primary players on the court non-shooters: using Jaxon Kohler as a shooter, using Jeremy Fears as a shooter, Xavier Booker as a shooter. Booker is a frustrating guy, more evidence that Izzo doesn't develop guys. It's also weird that Frankie Fidler hasn't been that good, and Calipari turned Johnnell Davis into a bench player. Shoutout to Dusty May, and what he's done with Nimari Burnett. Seth: he's not the 5-star Texas Tech thought they were getting; he's the guy Alabama thought they were getting. It's about anticipation; the game is coming to him so slowly. Brian: He's Bobby Hull! We eat crow for saying the two big lineup won't work—in our defense… https://twitter.com/EvanMiya/status/1879650374128447983 During break: Effort to bring Brandon Graham to Michigan; now he's going to keep playing. The guys do math. Speaking of Eat Crow: Wink Martindale NFL interest? Sam says they'll have to pay him; Seth says someone will because he's too good of an idea for an NFL team: NYG are 28th in DVOA and blitzy/1-high again with out him, meanwhile he's beating OSU with QQH. He's the guy who invented the most popular defense in the league, regardless if people want to claim Mac and Minter's defenses are "Fangio-style." But they're going to have to commit to him: he's not taking a pay cut. Michigan would have to put an extension in front of him as well.

1 Hour and 19 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: Expected Win   Opener Another Rough Start Taking Control Shutdown Third Segment 2: Goals in 32 Seconds   Where's the Defense? 32 seconds of scoring...twice Old Friends and the League First Look at MSU   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Whatever You Say, Say Nothing" -- Makem & Clancy Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 32 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Football Transfer Portal Starts at 1:00 Wwwwwwelcome! To one of the internet's college football podcasts. We can't wait to talk about Mick Cronin. The defensive front seven looks pretty set for next year, now just need a cornerback (which happened after recording). OL Lawrence Hattar transfers in from Ferris State, he will likely move to guard. Still need a tackle but most plug and play guys are off the board. Everyone is nervous about wide receiver, this is problematic because Chip Lindsey wants a balanced attack. They might have to overpay for a receiver at some point. Michigan is good at tight end (unless it's one that looks like a wide receiver). WE HAVE A LONG SNAPPER.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Men's Basketball vs UCLA Starts at 26:22 The win over UCLA is probably not going to look as good by the end of the year. Michigan had an 18 point lead, then was down by 5, then wins by 19 (something similar may have happened under Juwan Howard?). Tre Donaldson has not had to put the team on his back until now. Which Michigan team was the best shooting team? This team is up there. Nimari Burnett has finally found his place. Vlad Goldin with 36 points, and now he's a shooter! Michigan is currently favored in all but two of their remaining games. 3. Hot Takes and Men's Basketball vs Washington Starts at 54:28 Takes hotter than Mick Cronin when somebody did something wrong that's not him. Michigan's bigs get into foul trouble early but collectively pick up one foul in the 2nd half. It was a parade to the basket. Great Osobor is tough to cover for anyone who isn't Goldin. How worried should we be about free throw shooting? Michigan matched their missed two pointers with their offensive rebounds! Michigan's turnover rating on Kenpom is out of the deep blood red (it's still red, just not the worst red). They're the best offense in the country if they can just stop turning the ball over.  4. Hockey vs Notre Dame Starts at 1:19:09 The hope for this team at this point is just to make the tournament. This has been a very good defensive team, giving up three goals in 32 seconds is nearly impossible. Michigan doesn't have top-end talent and especially doesn't have back-end talent. The Big Ten is a tough conference, need to scrap for points where you can. Michigan State got really good really fast.  MUSIC: "Can't You Hear Me Knocking"—The Rolling Stones "Unforgettable"—French Montana "Giving Up"—Michigander “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: Hoops: Wolf is having a lot more creation put on him than he did at Yale, turnovers can still go down. Danny Wolf NBA hype. Officiating vs UCLA was about the worst we've ever seen: Wolf picks up two awful calls in a row that take him from 2 to 4 fouls. Cronin's presser: It's maybe the most program-destructive one we've ever seen. He's the guy who put a power forward against Vlad Goldin. Man is it going to be easy to recruit against that guy. Hopefully this doesn't break them so badly that this win doesn't stand up. Tre Donaldson star-making trip. Twenty points is his best output of the year, he wasn't even on the court because he got autobenched in the 1st half, maybe that was a good thing because he played the entire 2nd half. Weakness: Michigan needs one more creator: Gayle, Jones, or one of the freshmen, or else they need Tre or Wolf on the court at all times. Nimari Burnett: premier shot absorber. Michigan set up for a Big Ten title run: already 3-0 in their 6 toughest road games. Max Bredeson returns: HUGE. Bigger than Underwood for next year. He's the kind of guy you can build the offense around, need to develop him in the passing game. Portal: Michigan needs to figure out a reciprocity system for athletes like every other school does so you can complete a degree. I don't think it makes us a better academic school—the point of reciprocity in these cases is to let you get a better caliber of grad student by having them finish their undergrads. Playoffs: Craig does it by vibes. A cute exhibition at the end of the season, but it's hard to take this as a national championship when it's a bunch of 2-loss teams. Drew Allar wants to come back and be Hackenberg.

1 Hour and 15 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: Outdoors, Cold, and Sad   Opener The Fun 30 Minutes The Bad 30 Minutes Korpi and Penalties? Nothing on 5v5? Segment 2: Points, At Least   What a Dreadful Start Clawing Back and OT Old Friends and the League A Preview of South Bend MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Wrigley" -- Kid Copter, Cremini Jicket, and Morel Dilemma Ice Hockey (NES) theme

2 hours and 2 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Retrospective Vibes Starts at 1:00 The second funniest game of the season, and our lives. After three first quarter turnovers (plus a turnover on downs) it was about to become frustrating if Michigan lost. What was the low point of the season for you? 19 is a fun number for Bryce Underwood. The defensive performance against Alabama is encouraging for next year, which should be set. Still some work to do on offense. Michigan needs to do a better job at developing relationships with guys hitting the portal.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Offense vs Alabama Starts at 23:58 All things considered the offensive line performance was encouraging. Check Sarah Jessica off your bingo card for this podcast again. Jordan Marshall - Blake Corum comparisons are made. PFF said everyone had solid pass protection except Sprague, but Sprague had the best run blocking. Where does Frederick Moore fit on the depth chart that would make you comfortable? Ben Hall was okay, he was less patient than Marshall. Davis Warren tore his ACL, if he's back in time for Fall camp would he even be an option? Expect the beginning of next season to have Bryce run packages but not be fully deployed.  3. Hot Takes, Defense, Special Teams, and Game Theory vs Alabama Starts at 54:36 Takes hotter than your 15-2 Detroit Lions. Michigan sacked Jalen Milroe 11 times in the year 2024 (six in the Rose Bowl, five in this bowl). Michigan's ends got in the tackles' heads and the blitzes prevented Milroe from escaping up the middle. Credit Wink Martindale for understanding how to coach college kids mid-way through the season. Alabama's run game was relatively non-existent. Bring on analyst Don Brown. Aamir Hall had some Will Johnson-esque plays towards the end of the season. Zvada remains very good. Let's talk about the timeout at the end of the first half. Do you kick that field goal to go up 16-0 or try for a touchdown? Any deviation from 1950s football would've lost this game. 4. Basketball vs USC Starts at 1:34:30 This game was frustrating, sometimes they had it together, then lost it, then fixed it, then didn't. Let's play the game of "did they have more offensive rebounds or misses from two?". Danny Wolf had a superlative game (please don't go to the NFL). The fouling was a bit out of control but that went both ways. Can two teams just agree to fire the refs mid-game and play without them? There are too many Big Ten teams now, we don't want to know about USC. How far do we expect Michigan to go into the tournament now? UCLA forces a lot of turnovers which will be interesting against Michigan. MUSIC: "Can't You Hear Me Knocking"—The Rolling Stones "Unforgettable"—French Montana "Giving Up"—Michigander “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

1 hour and 25 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Alabama "Preview" Starts at 1:00 Welcome to the utterly meaningless bowl game we are less excited for than any Michigan game before. Now that we're paying the players, shouldn't they be expected to complete the season? Contracts would do that. Is Alabama interested in showing up? They have a few players like Milroe who need to show something. Michigan's offense was bad to begin with so what are they now? Jadyn Davis should play at least. Glorified spring game bits: looking forward to seeing Andrew Sprague, the running backs. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Portal: Offense Starts at 19:59 Mikey Keene is a floor, played with Dillon Gabriel (and Chip Lindsay) at UCF so it's not the first time he's been with a talented dual-threat. Thrown a LOT of passes, can loft one downfield, isn't a run threat, was probably a scramble after Billy Edwards didn't want to compete with Bryce. When do you start Bryce, because Game 2 is in Norman and Game 3 is in Lincoln. They got OL Brady Norton who's an addition to the 2023 class, Donaven McCulley we like as that downfield threat. Wanted to see more WRs and a TE and better luck at OL: Josh Thompson chose LSU. 3. Portal: Defense Starts at 43:50 Hot takes segment has ideas for retaining the Outback Bowl legacy. Damon Payne is a very good pickup even though he's not flashy because DTs are a premium position and he's a decent SEC player. Troy Bowles was in a stacked LB room, comp is Hausmann. Metcalfs played at Chip Lindsay's high school in Pinson, Alabama, TJ is a high floor for the safety position and Tevis is a developmental cornerback. Don't have any glaring needs. Discussion of Barham's move to edge—think it's a Jaylen Harrell position thing in the 5-2, which is more about holding the edge than rushing it. Always get a 5th year cornerback, but they can get that on the cheap later in the process. 4. Basketball vs WKU/PFW and Big Ten Outlook Starts at 1:04:48 After the Oklahoma loss that we're STILL MAD about, the threes are falling, which makes this team utterly terrifying. WKU chose not to defend the perimeter, had a lot of injuries, and PFW was also super small up front so those are not great tests. Good news: Big Ten doesn't have a lot of NBA guards who can tear them up by driving. USC-UCLA road trip next week will be fascinating—USC is a bunch of power forwards even with T-Will out for the season and UCLA is all defense. MUSIC: "Antarctica"—Divorce "Cinderella"—Remi Wolf "Everyday Hustle"—Metro Boomin and Rick Ross     “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: Seth on early to talk about Lions injuries, Ira gives us a short history of Detroit-Buffalo friendship. Oklahoma: Yes they got absolutely jobbed by Szelc. Yes, it's the #1 story of the game. Pushoffs, moving screens, 75 percent of Fears's free throws, and then a soft whistle at one end while ignoring a two-handed shove at the other end. Both of those were Szelc calls. Michigan won't get a fair whistle against this guy tbut what are you gonna do about it, have Warde complain to the Big Ten? They don't care. Rest of the game: Thruck was thruck. Michigan is a good team that gets the best shots in CBB. They're doing it with the big-on-big, and they're starting to know each other. Seth: pay attention to where Goldin gets his passes, where he likes it. Gonna need a team with extreme athleticism and NBA shot-blockers to contest them. Portal: Sam runs us through the QB options. DQ is a good one, Brendan Lewis is the one we like the best, Mikey Keene is a decent floor—he played for Lindsey at UCF—but you don't want a pocket-bound popgun arm before Bryce, do you? Lindsey connection got us the Arkansas brothers. Good athleticism and presence, but see TJ Metcalf as a high-floor Walker not a difference-maker. Always want a 5th year guy at nickel from now on. Brian: Can Morris come back? Sam: It's possible; he had concerns about the offense so if they have an OC and a QB now things could change. He hasn't set up any visits. Offense needs some bodies at OL: the guy they got is a development prospect. They're all in on Josh Thompson, who's checking out Auburn and Tennessee.

1 Hour and 19 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: The Games   Opener No One Score Again A Lead Through Two Periods Blown Third Period with an OT Winner Segment 2: Takes, Everyone Else, Outdoor Preview   First Half Takeaways Old Friends and the League Wrigley Preview MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "You're Not Gonna Score" -- Untamed Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 43 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where we recorded this. 1. Chip Lindsey and Transfer Portal Starts at 1:00 The first half of this podcast is not just talking about how Michigan beat Ohio State 13-10. Imagine your season ending on December 21st in Columbus, Ohio. Mark your calendars for Davis Warren day on October 13th! Chip Lindsey is the new offensive coordinator out of North Carolina. The run game will be the run game, he's going to be the passing game coordinator. We are feeling exactly whelmed about this hire. Donaven McCulley comes in at wide receiver from Indiana, he's a legitimately good Big Ten receiver. Still need at least three more receivers. Billy Edwards comes in from Maryland and the worst offensive line in the country, he's a big guy. On the offensive line they bring in Jordan White from Liberty, need a tackle. It's been frustrating that Michigan hasn't brought in as many new players as we'd like to see. Derrick Moore and TJ Guy are back next year.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Basketball vs Arkansas Starts at 36:36 Arkansas 89, Michigan 87. This basketball game was three different basketball games. Michigan goes from a four point lead to an 18 point deficit once they start turning the ball over in the 2nd half. The boxscore is fun at least. There were some desperation zones. The shot distribution was as good as you could expect. Goldin's usage has finally gone up and Wolf is making the plays he needs to make. Roddy Gayle has been making some bad decisions. Should Michigan slow it down a bit? Are the turnovers mental because they tend to come in bunches? Wolf is the alpha on offense (get it?). The rest of the non-conference should be wins and then they ease back into the Big Ten conference play against USC.  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Wisconsin Starts at 1:03:45 Takes hotter than the Heisman voters who got it right for once. Hockey finally scored a goal! And they're still 9th in Pairwise. Take a breath into the break and say "it's fine." Michigan probably isn't winning the Big Ten but they're not bad, they're half of a gritty hockey team. Wisconsin is a good team, they've just been unlucky on their shots this season. Right now Michael Hage is really the only guy driving plays. 3-on-3 overtime needs a shot clock! They're good enough to be a tournament team and the shooting will probably get better.  4. Gimmicky Top Five   Starts at 1:30:24 Gimmicky Top Five worst bowl matchups! Marshall entered the transfer portal and opted out of their bowl game and now Louisiana Tech has to face a furious Army team.  Seth has real world bowls, Brian has hypotheticals. Don't play BYU in Miami. A bowl game in Middle Earth. PLAY A BOWL IN DUBLIN.   MUSIC: "Q4" -- Father John Misty "Love Town" -- The Glands "What's The Rush?" -- Jesse Woods “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: The Book: It's what we would have wanted. Kickstarter backers: I wrote an update but the gist is tracking numbers might come after the books because USPS. Ohio State is Flag-Mad. Brian: 11W and MGoBlog diverged in business models a long time ago: they do clickbait, we make big books. Seth: The reason this hits Ohio State so hard is they have nothing else to be proud of anymore. They bet everything on beating Michigan and then got absolutely punked again. Symbology is all that's left. Chip Lindsey: Came up through high school so he's got a lot of different ideas. Lots of coordinator experience. He develops somebody else's quarterback. QBs take fewer sacks, run less (more scrambles than called runs). Lindsey's philosophy, if there is one, is to run what works best for the players he's got. He doesn't want to have a "blob" on usage distribution—wants you to worry about screens and downfield, outside runs and inside runs. Portal? UNC guys of interest (Hampton is probably going pro). Michigan's portal strategy: looking for guys they can get value. ZVADA is the epitome of portal success: a guy who's going to be more valuable to you. Part of that value is seeing if you can make more out of a player (Barham, Stewart, etc.) than he is. You're in a salary cap world. Kentucky guys? Miller Moss? Feeling different because he's getting big portal offers. Brendon Lewis—that would be a dude; he's a Year 6 guy, probably will come down to dollars because it's not certain there's an NFL future. Don't be too worried about Underwood in Year 1 because he's not turning 18 until August. Billy Edwards? Sam nodding. UMD had the worst OL, Edwards is a perfect example of a guy who looks a lot better as a 25x/game thrower. Hoops: Danny Wolf is the tallest 5-10 guy we've ever seen. Sucks to lose to Calipari. Craig says hit your free throws. In a dozen years we'll say "I remember getting beat like that by Boogie Fland in college."

1 Hour and 9 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1: WOOOOOOOOOF   Opener Lots of goals More Goals Against We Have to Talk About Something Segment 2: Better But No Goals   Can't Win With No Goals Weekend Takeaways Old Friends and the League Wisconsin Preview MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Gopher Guts" -- Aesop Rock Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 59 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where we recorded this. 1. Michigan Men's Basketball vs Iowa Starts at 1:00 The first half of this game was a battle of mid-range jumpers and not turning the ball over (Iowa) vs going to the rim aggressively but turning the ball over a lot (Michigan). Michigan's amplitude of proficiency changes throughout a game are huge. This team is dead set on not taking mid-range jumpers. Addressing Michigan's rebounding woes. Did they play great against Iowa and Wisconsin? Not really. Are they still 2-0 in the Big Ten, though? Yeah. Danny Wolf turns the ball over too much by throwing the ball too hard. The play of the game played off of the big pick and roll. Michigan vs Iowa is an oddly friendly rivalry. Be careful with playing neutral site games when it comes to NET rankings.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Transfer Portal Needs Starts at 35:24 Michigan needs an offensive coordinator first. Jason Candle (Toledo head coach), Dan Mullen (former Florida head coach), and Joe Craddock (Tulane offensive coordinator) are among the biggest names rumored. Scott Frost mentioned! Michigan needs a quarterback and multiple wide receivers. Running back might be okay? Offensive line is a lot more interesting. Would like to get a defensive tackle since you're not getting either starter back. Linebacker is probably okay.  3. Hot Takes & Transfer Portal Names Starts at 58:13 Takes hotter than the fact that Georgia should not be in the playoff because they don't have their starting quarterback. Miller Moss would be the ideal scenario at QB. There's a case for Billy Edwards out of Maryland! The list falls off pretty quickly after that. Ideally you want someone to start for the year and then Bryce Underwood gets ~100 snaps. Michigan has some connections with Oklahoma Wide Receiver Nic Anderson. Michigan needs to get as many as they can. A biomechanical engineer out of Rice would be nice. There will be some players from playoff teams that hit the portal later.  4. The 2025 Recruiting Class   Starts at 1:39:02 Bryce Underwood is not allowed to be the answer to any of these. Favorite guy in the class? Most unlikely to be in this class? Sleeper of the year? Most Important? Michigan is 9th in recruiting but recruiting at the same quality as Ohio State. It revolves around one guy.   MUSIC: "It Ain't Easy" -- 2Pac "Vaping In Vegas" -- Wolves of Glendale "Let's Go Back" -- Jungle “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra