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This was replayed this morning on WTKA 1050AM’s Michigan Insider with Sam Webb and Ira Weintraub, and I thought I’d post it up here.  Here’s frequent WTKA call ‘Mark from Lansing’ dialing up the “Jack and Tom Show” from 1320AM in Lansing.

Hosts Jack Ebling (longtime LSJ sports writer) and Tom Crawford (M fan, of bitterrivals.com fame)  were discussing the Demar Dorsey media circus when Crawford admitted his disapproval of Dorsey’s appearance.  This prompted the  spirited call from Mark, who had concerns about Crawdaddy’s views and along the way blasted Drew Sharp and called Terry Foster an Uncle Tom.    From the WTKA podcasts, the clip:

 

 Mark from Lansing call: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

While Mark pounded away at Crawford, he didn’t say anything when Tom defiantly declared he had loads of black friends.  The “but I have black friends” defense  is pretty offensive on its own and didn’t help his explanation of the matter.

Wow nothing’s working.   So at the Camp Randall Classic Michigan struggled a bit in the first period, but seemed to dominate action in the second and for the majority of the third period.  I thought the first call on Summers that led to the Badgers’ equalizer was garbage.  The game winning shot was as gorgeous as it was devastating.

I keep looking for a sign that things are changing–for any of these teams.   We saw a glimmer after the UConn win with hoops, and the January run of the hockey team made a playoff bid conceivable.   After the beautiful Lynch goal that put the Blue up 2-1 in Madison, and with the way the guys were  controlling the puck and dominating the pace, I thought that this might be it.   Gut punch.

Play with the intensity exhibited in that game and they’ve got a shot to get in the playoffs via the regular season or by winning the tournament.   But it’s a long shot starting with the rare Tuesday game this week.   I’ll be up at Yost to take a look.

Press Box. At the signing day media event I asked Bruce Madej if I could get a shot inside the stadium.  I was denied (for a few different reasons – safety, security, contractor policy, etc).   That said, those watching the Big Ten Network coverage got a glimpse of inside the Big House sans Press Box:

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Via twitter thanks to @Michigan_Hockey and @JulieRobenhymer,  a few shots inside the squared circle of Camp Randall, preparing for today’s big game.  Of note, Chris Brown trying to smack a puck through the uprights and apparently no one made it, but Browny clanged one off the post:

Caporusso and Rust dropping off-ice skills:

Practicing:

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A consideration for your Super Bowl pregame activities, turns out U-M legend and Saginaw native LaMarr Woodley will burn a few frames Sunday at 2pm EST on ESPN.  From the press release:

NEW ORLEANS, La. (Feb. 1, 2010) – With the help of four Lumber Liquidators Professional Bowlers Association Tour stars and a star-studded lineup of celebrities, New Orleans Hornets All-Star point guard and avid bowler Chris Paul will again highlight his “second-favorite sport” in the second annual Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational which airs Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.

Celebrity icons Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Bowl wide receiver Hines Ward and linebacker LaMarr Woodley along with Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio teamed with PBA stars Pete Weber, Norm Duke, Wes Malott and Jason Belmonte in a unique doubles competition to benefit Paul’s CP3 Foundation.

The folks managing the event even shot me over this beauty of a photo, feature Wood about to crush pins:

Any avid bowlers out there?  Is it me, or does Woodley look like a bit of a trainwreck on the lane?   Appears he’s about to tip over, his wrist looks funny, eyes closed?   And everyone apparently chuckling in the background isn’t hurting my analysis.  (P.S. Love the Heisman-esque bowling trophy).

Check him out Sunday at 2pm.  More here:

Audio split out from the press conference yesterday of Rodriguez addressing questions from Dave Birkett of AnnArbor.com and Drew Sharp regarding the recruitment of Demar Dorsey:

 

 Sharp Birkett Dorsey RR: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Related:
* Signing Day Rundown

A few thoughts on the press conference and media activities down at the Junge Center outside the Big House tonight:

RR getting a bit thin up front, might need to go tight like the Webmaster

To start things off a frog throated Rich Rod, suffering from both the recruiting and flu seasons, gushed about the 27 commitments to the class and identified those responsible in the recruiting process.  Speaking of his voice, ironically an illin’ RichRod sounds very much like a healthy, wolf-strangling Mike Barwis.

Then came the general media Q&A and things got interesting, and you’ll have much more tonight/tomorrow from the writers.  Dave Birkett of AnnArbor.com and Drew Sharp hit Rodriguez hard on recruiting Demar Dorsey, who was acquitted of some serious legal issues, as summarized by AnnArbor.com:

Dorsey, ranked the No. 2 safety and No. 12 player in the country by ESPN.com, was charged with two felonies while in high school, according to court records in Broward County, Fla.

He was acquitted by a jury on a 2008 charge of robbery with a deadly weapon, and had an earlier charge of burglary of an unoccupied dwelling dismissed.

Dave Ablauf had to step in and request the media move on, Rich Rod suggested people didn’t have the entire picture and then urged people to be positive.  Sharp wasn’t having it, and you can expect more tomorrow in his column.   Here’s the audio of the exchanges if you need it.

For whatever reason Drew doesn’t sit with the media–he stands over to the side.  So when he asks questions it becomes a mini production, Drew vs. Coach:

 
That’s Sharp in the back, with LL from LA to the left, and Borton looking stoic in the foreground

Beyond the Dorsey bombardment, the other interesting item came from Rich Rodriquez discussing negative recruiting in the conference:

It wasn’t as bad in our league, especially.  Maybe the other coaches can tell you otherwise.  There’s only one school, I think, in our league that we think was negative recruiting quite a bit. 

He later said the school wasn’t Ohio State.  And we’re pretty sure it’s not Michigan.  So scuttlebutt around the media narrowed the negative Ne11y (<—11, eleven, get it? I made a funny) to be: 
        * Michigan State – Understandable, given the common instate recruiting battles, turf, logo issues, the pounding vein on Dantonio’s head, etc. etc. 
        * Purdue – Due to the Danny Hope-Rodriguez feud including the lingering Roundtree-dipped-in-Snake-Oil-served-in-a-Wizard-Hat imbroglio. 
        * And a surprising third candidate?  Per an insider –>  the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Tim Brewster.  Wow, that’d be interesting but hard to fathom given how few common recruits the schools had.  But never discount the importance and bitterness lingering in the Jug rivalry.

I’m going with the Boilers and WCBN concurs.  I’ll ping insiders to get the scoop.

Other Rich Rod stuff:

     * It was assumed Michigan would hire a linebackers coach.  It turns out Greg Robinson will handle the linebackers and they’ll look to hire a coach to help out the safety position which will be one of the most watched positions this spring/camp/fall. 
     * Speaking of LBs, Antonio Kinard, LB from Youngstown, may have some difficultly qualifying academically.  If he doesn’t qualify RichRod confirmed U-M will continue to recruit him to Michigan.
     * So, Michigan may have 1 slot to fill in the next month but Rodriguez doesn’t think anything will happen with it.

About an hour after Rich Rod finished, the seven early enrollees met the media and posed for a few photos:

Austin White with the ball

Back to the negative recruiting, crown jewel of the class Devin Gardner (below) was asked quite a bit about the practice when he met the media tonight.  First, he said former U-M and current Florida QB coach Scott Loeffler did not use negative recruiting tactics vs. Michigan but did push him hard to reconsider his commitment.  Loeffler’s pitch involved Tom Brady and a path to the NFL.  No sale. 

Gardner

But Gardner had a message for the schools that did bash your Maize and Blue.  When asked if he experienced grief from negative ne11ies out there, Gardner dropped this classic blast:

Oh definitely.  Ohio State fans, on Facebook.  They were telling me some unforgiveable things.  But it’s okay.  They’re going to have to play me someday so I don’t know if that was a good idea.

More from Gardner:

• Gardner said the Michigan playbook is almost identical to that of Inkster, just with different names for the plays. 
• He’s very comfortable with his classes at U-M.  Thinks the hype over the work/study load was overblown and he’s all over it.
• Called the drama over whether he’d be able to enroll early “one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of my life” and was relieved when he found out he was in. 
• Despite the focus on the non-criminal record, Gardner offered up a lighter side to Demar Dorsey, “He’s one of the funniest people I’ve met.  I enjoy spending time with him.”
• He has a roommate, Charlie, who has no idea who Gardner is.  Per Gardner, he’s got his nose in the computer all day [that’s weird.  Oh wait…..hey!]  And he doesn’t see him much other than when he hits the sack.   Here’s to hoping Charlie is a prodigy spelling bee/chess champ who was just as highly recruited to come to Michigan for academic reasons.  And he thinks Gardner is oblivious to the situation.  Someone get cameras to follow these guys around.

With signing day upon us it’s a good chance to recall a piece from a favorite interview of mine, Michigan legend Mark Messner.

I pick it up, Messner just had the time of his life on a recruiting trip at UCLA, and already told then-coach Terry Donahue that he was a Bruin.  Then this happened:

But Coach Moeller and Coach Bo knew UCLA was my last visit.  So when my parents and I pulled up the house on the way back from the airport, there was this Delta 88 by the side of the driveway.  It was like 9 o’clock at night and getting dark.  It’s January or December.  Both doors open up and out stepped Moeller and Bo.

Bo walks over, just hands me a tape and says [Messner in perfect Bo voice]: “You’re a Michigan man and you belong at Michigan.”  And got back in the car.

That was it.  He didn’t come in the house, they just took off.  I couldn’t believe he came back up there.

The audio clip is worth a listen, apologies for the background noise as we were inside a coffee shop up in Brighton:

 

 Bo closes Mark Messner .mp3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Mark Messner interview:
Part I:  Posted on these pages, Messner talks about his recruiting process, Bo and more.
Part II:  Mark Messner Interview (extended version)

Continuing my interview with Sam Webb, managing editor of GoBlueWolverine, Detroit News Columnist and WTKA 1050AM morning show host.   This time we take a look at Sam’s take on the morning show, what works and what doesn’t.  We then talk about Sam’s perspective of the rivalry between Webb’s GoBlueWolverine and The Wolverine, their competition.

You can also check out Part I, Part II and Part III here.

MVictors: How are the ratings for the morning show on WTKA?
Sam Webb: I haven’t seen a [ratings] book since Andy left. They changed the way they do ratings, it used to be with Arbitron and I haven’t seen anything since all that changed. The last book I saw, it might have been a few months before Andy left, we were actually the top morning show in this building.

MVictors: So are Cumulus and folks in this building happy with you and [WTKA morning co-host] Ira [Weintraub]?
Sam Webb: You know and if they aren’t, I haven’t heard about it yet [laughs].  When I first started the morning show one of the major things I was interested in, because I was not a radio guy by trade, was getting the best opportunity to be good.  Just give me an opportunity for it to work.     I think when we first started, that with my first partner there was just no chance of us ever being good. There was no chance.  Then when Andy came along we had that chance because Andy and I were naturally opposite enough that it really worked on the radio. He was super tall, I’m not. He’s white, I’m black. He’s square, I’m not [laughs]. I mean there are so many things that were different and then it got to the point where I knew what buttons to push with Andy. I knew what buttons to push where he would get really mad.

He’d be hot for awhile but it was always real. Our conflicts on the air were never contrived and that what really, really made it work. The thing with me and Ira is that there aren’t as many dissimilarities, so to speak. We are both short [laughs].

MVictors: Yep, you’re both short
Sam Webb: [laughs] And we both love Michigan. So finding that natural disagreement isn’t quite as easy so it’s a show that works for different reasons. Whether people like it as much, you know I don’t know. The feedback that I tend to get is pretty positive. I think any remnants of people pining for what was is just a product of people getting used to something. People get into a routine. For two years it was Sam and Andy. And people got used to that. When Andy left now they have to get used to something different and I just think that that’s a process.

It is also a process for Ira and I to find that chemistry. I think that’s the biggest thing that makes for a successful show in my opinion. It’s not necessarily all the shtick and these polished radio guys—it’s chemistry. The best shows have great chemistry. When I listen to Mike Stone, I don’t feel like listening to Howard Cosell, but it was the chemistry that he and Wojo had that really made that show go to me. That to me is the essence of what makes any show good; the chemistry between the hosts.

Guys that agree on everything make, for me, a boring product.  And again what makes this work a little bit better, even if Ira and I agree on everything, is that a lot of the crowd, I mean there’s 40-50 percent of the crowd, doesn’t agree with what we say. So they provide the disagreement that tends to make the show work a little bit more.

MVictors:  How is your relationship right now with The Wolverine guys? I notice you don’t really sit together at most press conferences.
Sam Webb:  I will be candid with you.  It is not a friendly rivalry.

MVictors: Why do you think that is?
Sam Webb:  It’s probably rooted in their conflict with Tom Beaver [Ed. Discussed in another portion of the interview, Beaver had a falling out with the folks at an earlier incarnation of The Wolverine] but by extension by everyone else is drawn in.  Any attack on GoBlueWolverine, even if it’s just intended for Tom, is an attack on me. I can tell you that I don’t have any issues with most of the guys over there.  One guy in particular I think has been extremely petty.  With me, I think it’s a straight up competition.  If you beat me, you beat me.  I’m not one of those guys that just cries if I get beat, I say you beat me.  Not everyone is like that.  Some people can’t take the ‘L’.  I can take the ‘L’ if I am beat legitimately.

In the first month at GoBlueWolverine we were reported to the NCAA because Tom’s former status was that of a booster to the University. In order to start GoBlueWolverine he had to shed his booster status, meaning he could no longer donate to the University.  So he ceased being a booster and followed the guidelines that were laid out by Compliance. You can not be a representative of the University.  A representative of the University means you are representing their athletic interests so I can’t say, “You should go to Michigan,” or anything that would be advocating for Michigan.  On the flip side of that, when it comes to dealing with Michigan, I can’t give them any discounts when it comes to GoBlueWolverine or anything like that.

MVictors: So you assume someone from The Wolverine blew the whistle to the NCAA right when you got started?
Sam Webb: I don’t think there is any question about it.  A lot of it is a clandestine sort of thing about what happened.  Later on, I started putting pieces together based on information from coaches.

I am good friends with Charles Ramsey who’s now over at Eastern Michigan. One afternoon I was having lunch with him and I guess one of the guys from The Wolverine saw us.  Next thing you know one of the SIDs gets a call saying, ‘Hey, it’s in appropriate for these guys having lunch together, and it’s a violation’ and all that.  I was having a beer with a friend.  There were no illegalities, so to speak, going on.  But that was the contentious nature of how things sort of started off.  And in fairness Tom did a lot of ribbing at the beginning [laughs] and I think he harbored some ill feelings toward them. Eventually it drew me in because it wasn’t just about the barbs back and forth anymore.  Now it got to the point, you’re trying to put us out of business. I mean you aren’t even trying to compete.  It would be different if you’re trying to put us out of business through competition. It wasn’t that way.  I think it was only one guy over there doing it.

I think The Wolverine publication is an outstanding publication.  I think their yearbook is still the best Michigan yearbook out there.  It’s outstanding.  I think John Borton is a good writer and I have a tremendous amount of respect for Josh Helmholdt. I have respect for what they do.  One guy in particular I just don’t think he competes the right way.  I think he does sneaky, conniving sort of things.

Related:
Interview with Sam Webb Part I - Recruiting, Carr, Rodriguez and more.
Sam Webb Interview Part II - Radio, recruiting trends and more.
Sam Webb Interview Part III – Beginnings and Gut Feelings.

In 1958, in the midst of a brutal football season and in particular, a 55-24 loss to Northwestern, some students banded together & hung a likeness of Michigan coach Bennie Oosterbaan from a tree on campus.  You stupid turds.  The incident is still recalled by many Michigan fans today.

This week someone is offering up a wire photo of the event, which took place October 20, 1958, for bid on eBay:

Oosterbaan is arguably the greatest athlete ever to step on campus.  He was a three-time All-American in football, an All-American in basketball and all conference in baseball.  All told he won nine letters in Ann Arbor.  Sports Illustrated recently created a ranking of the top Michigan athletes of all-time and slotted Oosterbaan #1.

The 1958 team ended up 2-8-1 to make Oosterbaan’s overall coaching record 63–33–4.  He retired after season and was replaced by former Michigan star Bump Elliott in November.  All told, Oosterbaan delivered three conference titles, a Rose Bowl victory and the 1948 national championship.  Those titles came in his first three years after replacing legend Fritz Crisler.  For his effort Oosterbaan’s name remains on the indoor practice facility where my pal Rogie caught a Hail Mary from Josh Cohen that delivered an IM football championship back in 1992.

As despicable as this whole act is, the U-M students responsible get a slight reprieve as apparently the effigy craze was in full force in 1958.   When asked to rank the greatest Spartan football coaches of all time, many today will point to Duffy Daugherty, who’s name, like Bo’s in Ann Arbor, adorns the school’s football complex.  And there’s little argument in Columbus that barring a string of national titles out of the Sweatervest, Woody Hayes will always be king at Ohio State.  Believe it or not both Hayes and Daugherty were hanged in effigy on campus that year as well, along a Minnesota coach:

It’s remarkable to consider that Oosterbaan, Hayes, and Daugherty were strung up in 1958.  These are seriously a few of the most important names in Big Ten if not college football history.

The ‘everybody is doing it’ excuse only goes so far here and the Oosterbaan hanging might have triggered the whole thing.  Turds.  By the way, even if a handful of bad apples assembled and performed the hanging, it doesn’t look like anyone bothered immediately take it down.  The media obviously had time to snap this photo, and judging from the notes on the back of the photo it might have been snapped the day after.  Bunch of turds.

After the season Benny Friedman, Oosterbaan’s teammate, quarterback and P.I.C. on the Benny-to-Bennie lethal combination in the 1920s jumped to his side.   Check out this letter Friedman sent to Sports Illustrated, nominating his friend as Sportsman of the Year:

SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR (CONT.)
Sirs:
I, too, would like to second my teammate at Michigan, Bennie Oosterbaan.

This year Bennie has gone up and down the ladder of success. First, the students at Ann Arbor praised him when the team did a fine job against Michigan State. A couple of weeks later the students hung Bennie in effigy because Michigan had lost so badly to Northwestern, but through all the vicissitudes Bennie has kept his head above water and has maintained himself with a sense of dignity and sportsmanship that has made his critics very little people.
BENNY FRIEDMAN
Athletic Director
Brandeis University
Waltham, Mass.

You can buy the effigy photo for $9.99.

Related:
* SI’s Top 10 Michigan athletes of all-time (Oosterbaan #1)
* eBay Watch: Have a Highball with Bennie Oosterbaan
* eBay Watch: Ox, Moose and Whitey (1949) – Oosterbaan photo with the Wisterts
* eBay Watch: The Wolverine Pack & 1926

The Spartan hoops head coach joined Jim Rome in the second hour today, talked about the state of his team of course, but also reflected on the early days of the Michigan rivalry, much about the new Spartan logo, and finally on kicking Kalin Lucas out of practice.   Audio, approximately 11 mins:

 

 Tom Izzo on Rome 1-29: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

• Izzo joked that the 2000 NCAA title seems like it occurred “100 years ago”
• Admits he was “Too fixated” on Michigan basketball in his early days.
• “To this day I still love Chris [Webber].”
• On the “uproar” [Rome’s words] on the new MSU logo.  “We didn’t get a chance to sell the whole package [because the logo leaked out].”
• Izzo admits is that it was frustrating swapping logos/emblems over the past several years.
• On the resistance to the logo: “I was shocked…I could hardly tell the difference.”
• Izzo mentioned that several folks have likened the change to changing the U-M helmet, which Izzo dismissed because the winged helmet’s been around for many years [Izzo said “90 years”, technically it’s been 71 – history nerd!] and the Spartans have changed their logo several times over the years.   We all recall when Tom Goss tried to put ‘Hail to the Victors’ inside the maize wings of the winged helmet, but Jon Falk thankfully nixed it.
• Rome emailer Stu from Manhattan had his own suggestion for the new Spartan logo.
• On the Lucas situation, like everything, Izzo downplayed it. 
• Izzo is first class, he’s loyal to his school and to AD Hollis and obviously an outstanding coach.   I think there was a period, probably a couple years ago, when I think Michigan fans had a more favorable impression of Izzo than many Spartans.   [Wouldn’t it be a hoot if they ran political-type favorability ratings on coaches, athletic department policies and the like?]   I think last year’s Final Four run put that to bed for now at least.

Aside #1 – one of Rome’s favorite guys is Jalen Rose, who we all know was at the Michigan State game.  I didn’t want this photo to escape, thanks to Said Alsalah the Michigan Daily, JR in his epic velour [or corduroy, per Tim at MSC] suit:

I also props to peewee second from the left rocking his tunes at midcourt, as if he had more important things going on at that moment.  Love it.   And this was not Jalen’s first trip out in public in the shocking red, no one forget his fly suit on NBA Draft day:

Aside #2 While poking around for the Izzo audio, eventually provided by reader Matt, I checked out Rome’s new Facebook page.   One of the fans of the site uploaded this photo, Tiger Woods as Butthead, awesome:

Per the Detroit News, the Cold War deal is done between MSU and Michigan and will be Saturday December 11th at 3pm.   Earlier this month Rick Comley made some snarky remarks about assuming the game wouldn’t happen, but as I mentioned in that post I thought this was merely Comley taking a pot shot at U-M on local radio.  

Given that this is going to happen, I restate my plea to Marty Bodnar and the ticket office: Take care of the hockey season ticket holders.  There are obviously plenty of seats to go around.

Via WTKA 1050AM podcast, here’s Coach Beilein joining Ira and Sam in the wake of the Michigan State loss:

 

 Beilein WTKA: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Of note, Beilein explains that the play down the stretch that resulted in a Peedi airball three wasn’t definitely not the play as written up.  Beilein wanted Manny to take the ball to the rack but didn’t blame Sims for trying the shot given he had just hit two in a row.

Continuing the posting of my interview with Sam Webb.  GoBlueWolverine.com just posted another portion of the interview and you can view that here.   The rest will be in the next issue of GBW and will eventually be here on MVictors.  

One thing I’ve noticed having interviewed a few folks in the media biz: people, like Sam, who interview a lot of people give excellent interviews themselves.

Here’s a few excerpts for you, first on how Sam got started in recruiting:

MVictors: So how did you get started in the recruiting business?
Sam Webb:  It was never planned.  I was going to Michigan to get a computer engineering degree, don’t laugh [laughs].  At the time, and I think it was around 1997 and recruiting on the internet was just starting.  I remember being in the computer lab over on North Campus and going in there one late night to work on some ungodly program.  One night I went in and there was this website that someone had left on a computer called GoBlueWolverine.com.   On that site was basically anything you could have possibly wanted to know about Michigan recruiting.
So I started looking at that site incessantly.  And not long after that site morphed with what is now The Wolverine, and the guy that was managing it was Tom Beaver.   Then I started reading some information about a certain guy on the team and I’m thinking, ‘I know that guy, I don’t think that’s right.’  Or, ‘I think I’ve got some different information about that.’

MVictors: So you had friends on the team.
Webb: Yes, I grew up with Andre Weathers and one of my side hustles was cutting hair, and I cut the hair of some of the guys on the team.  So I knew a few things.  I would send Tom information from time to time.   One day out of the blue, he sends me an email and says he wants to meet with me.

MVictors: And it wasn’t to cut his hair.
Webb: No, it wasn’t to cut his hair [laughs].  So we met and after that I kept him sending more and more information.   I was going to school part time and working two jobs.  One of them was handling database management for a trucking company, putting that whole Michigan deal to good use.  But I wasn’t getting paid for the info I was sending to Tom and the volunteer thing started to eat into my time and that caused some friction in the household of course.  And my wife’s first bought with cancer came right about this time.   So I approached Tom and said, ‘If somehow we can make a little money at this, that’d work for me because I just can’t spend the time with this.’  So then he started to pay me for my contributions.  But then Tom had a split with The Wolverine.

MVictors:  What happened?
Webb:  Initially GoBlueWolverine dissolved when Tom Beaver went to The Wolverine and he worked there for two or three years or so.   I wasn’t an employee of The Wolverine; I was more of a employee of Tom Beaver.  While the details are hazy, what I remember is that there was a post on the message board that Tom took offense to.  And I think he deleted it and called it questionable by the content.  I can’t remember exactly what it was, but it was the cause of a massive falling out between him and some members of the message board.  But, most notably with the guys at The Wolverine.   It just could have been a lightning rod for something that was already there.

Next, on Sam’s patented gut feelings including some exclusive content not found on Scout:

MVictors: Your “gut feelings”…
Webb: Ahhh [laughs].

MVictors:  In the last year, it’s become quite a big deal on the internet when Sam Webb has a “gut feeling”.  To me it means things are looking really, really, really good for a Michigan with respect to a particular recruit who’s hasn’t officially committed.
Webb: I have a tightrope to walk, and it’s all related to our discussion about developing and maintaining trust.   You tell people that you aren’t going to reveal something they told you and at the same time you have a job to do.  The ‘gut feeling’—that’s me walking that tightrope.  What I can tell people about the gut feeling is that is always based, ALWAYS based, on credible information that I’ve been given.  It doesn’t mean that things can’t be fluid or change, but rest assured that at the time that I give you a ‘gut feeling’ call, it is certainly, without question, based on extremely credible information at that time.

MVictors: Did you consciously come up with the ‘gut feeling’ phrase to handle these type of situations?
Webb: Yes, because when I give my gut feeling I’m giving you an opinion. I’m not giving you a report. Is that just semantics? In a certain respect, maybe it is. It’s a way to protect the information that I’ve been told while also giving people an extremely informed opinion about where things stand. So I can do my job, while at the same time keeping some information that was given to me in confidence. It’s a tightrope act. I could get on the air tomorrow and tell you every secret I know and never get another secret. Or, I could walk this tightrope and for those people who listen to the show often, or at least frequently enough to get an idea about what a gut feel was all about, and they’re able to follow along and I can clue people into what’s going on.

MVictors: So how did the gut feeling start?
Webb: It was a couple years ago. It was hatched with Andy Evans’ idea about having The Recruiting Round-up [the daily segment each morning on WTKA when Webb provides an update on recruiting]. When Andy suggested it, I was like, ‘Recruiting Round-up? Why the hell would I want to do a Recruiting Round-up for?’ because I had GoBlueWolverine for that. But I’d be on the air for 3-4 hours and we get recruiting calls every single hour. So having the Recruiting Round-up was a way to streamline when we got recruiting calls in. People would ask questions and they want insight. They don’t just want to know that this guy visited or whatever. They wanted insight into what’s going in. So I can’t pinpoint exactly when I came up with the gut feeling, but I remember sitting down and trying to figure out how I could keep people informed while not letting the cat out of the bag as a report that’s going travel all across the web.

Much more here on Scout.com/GoBlueWolverine.   And don’t forget about Part I and Part II of exclusive content on this site. 

Had a chance to roll up to The Palace to the see the Pistons face the Trailblazers who picked up former Fab Fiver Juwan Howard last fall.    Howard’s the last of those guys playing and I was in school when Juwan first took the court at U-M back in 1991.  He didn’t start but played most of the game in the 97-93 Blazers win. 

He didn’t do much in those minutes–he tallied a bucket, picked up a couple fouls and missed a few shots and free throws.  But he was involved in a scuffle that migrated off the court in the second half, netting the Nook a technical foul [video here].  Piston Charlie Villanueva was the featured Piston bobble head for the fans, and he delivered the hard foul that started the fracas.

Speaking of the Fab Five, part of their legacy is the baggy shorts and black socks and right now an eBay seller is offering baggy shorts that allegedly belonged to wingman and occasional M hoops local radio color man Jimmy King.   Unwashed?  Unknown.  But they want $425 and here’s the photo:

Authenticity?  Tough to say, but the seller claims, “My older brother attended Michigan and his roommate was a team manager during the Fab Five time.”  So there you go.

Back to Juwan, here’s a few photos of the big man in action, including a couple of the brawl:

Charlies: