Does he have any eligibility left? Check out the arm on this Phillies fan who dead-eyed the drunk atop the street sign with an empty bottle last night. While we’re talking recruiting, can Beilein call this cat? And I mean cat like quick and clever. Check out this video of a UK-based street ball legend Stuart Tanner hustling New Jersey Net Devin Harris, thanks to BiggieMunn for passing this along:
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Jim Carty Interview: Part I, Getting to Know JC
Jim Carty is not a popular figure in the blogosphere but I think this town was better off for having a guy at the News who was willing to say what he felt, despite of the fallout. Judging by my recent poll on the subject, most of you were happy to see Jim out of your morning fishwrap but wished Carty would have chosen law school in Haiti instead of Toledo. Some folks put him in the category of a Drew Sharp who appears to create controversial opinions for the sake of pissing you off and thus getting your attention. I’ve met Jim Carty before briefly and he never struck me as that guy. He’s busier than ever in his life, so he was very gracious to sit down and spend an hour with me answering a few (sometimes silly) questions. Like some other recent interviews, I’ll break it down into a few parts. In Part I we touch on his decision to leave the News, on his new blog, the day Lloyd Carr canceled his subscription thanks to a JC column, some recent criticism he launched at his former employer, and finally….his no-holds-barred feud with Michigan syndicated radio host Bill ‘Huge’ Simonson. MVictors: You left a position at the Ann Arbor News where you were rabidly criticized by fans,…
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Power Index Week 9: Penn State back to the top
No surprise, after swapping the top spot with Ohio State over the past couple weeks, the Lions are back on top. Two questions: 1. What does JoePa listen to on those headphones in the booth – Paul Harvey? Matlock? 2. Is it possible that Michigan hid Sam McGuffie inside the Paul Bunyan trophy in an attempt at a modern day Trojan horse gambit? Gilliam the Badger is revived “If Texas loses to Texas Tech next weekend, Penn State has a shot at the national title game. The Michigan – Michigan State game was fun, but you can see why the pollsters favor the SEC and the Big 12. Dantonio is the right kind of coach for that program: disciplined and classy. If Rich Rod is going to start recruiting smaller, faster athletes from out of state, then he better be sure he’s getting every one of the best Michigan defensive players to coming up. Michigan State’s defense is better than Wisconsin’s, so I give State the advantage next weekend. Ohio State and Penn State are the new Big Two. What a great PSU team this year. Apparently Tim Brewster was a good choice for the Gophers. He’s going to start keeping a lot more kids in-state. It’s going to hurt Bret Beilema’s recruiting in the future.” Lew, the Hoosier (this…
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Wayne Wants a WVU Refund
I’ve been keeping an eye on the letters section of the Ann Arbor News to see the stream of Rodriguez hate letters, especially after the Toledo loss. Here’s a beauty: I hear this take a lot. Rodriguez should alter his style to get the most out of the players he has, and therefore we wouldn’t be in this mess. Translation: run Lloyd Carr’s offense. Look, Michigan hired Rodriguez based on his track record. Few deny that Rodriguez can coach; he’s proved this everywhere. But he proved it doing things a certain way, that is, running his offense. There’s a reason why coaches would travel to Morgantown to see him and learn from him. I know they weren’t there for the fine dining. There is clearly a learning curve that needs to be traversed to pick up this system. For Rodriguez (or Beilein while were at it) to abandon his scheme that now that he’s hit the big time would be asinine. Getting players is part of it but it’s not like Michigan has sub-Toledo talent. It has a lot to do with players being comfortable in their role on the field and having the confidence to fly to their spot once the ball is snapped.
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Rodriguez Contract and Tax neutralization: Shand was right
Thanks for the comments, emails and the feedback on the Dave Shand interview. The Blog that Yost Built called it “one of the best things I’ve read on the blogosphere. Ever.” And there’s been all kinds of discussion on various parts of the interviews on blogs and on all the major message boards. It’s always fun to see how people react to things you post, this was a thrill. Anyway, with Coach Rodriguez signing his contract last week we’ve got some specifics on the deal and at least part of what Shand revealed in the interview is confirmed. Recall that Shand said he heard that Rodriguez didn’t realize that the buy-out portion that Michigan paid to West Virginia was taxable, here’s part of the interview: So it cost Michigan, they say $2.5 million. But I’ve heard, through back sources, that Rich Rodriguez did not realize that the $2.5 million that Michigan is paying on his behalf is taxable, so Rodriquez is going to have to pay taxes on that. Michigan… has paid taxes on the [buy-out funds] it paid on his behalf which is all taxable income… Thanks to the contract being available via FOIA, we know that this is true (here’s the full contract), see section 3.02, part (g): Shand also said he heard that the University paid all…
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Fragile Wolverines Fall
Free Press One of the hardest parts about watching this team is that I’ve lost that comfort in knowing that we’re the stronger team on the field. A lot of the games over the past few seasons were painful because you felt like Michigan, with a few exceptions, was the better team, but you never really felt like they were out of any game. In general, Michigan had the players and the ability to string a few big plays together a mount a comeback even in the worst situations. People ask me about the 2008 squad and I often I say “fragile”. Everything they do seems fragile, any success they have on the field seems to be finessed, earned not by overwhelming the opponent but rather just getting a couple guys loose or making a good play on defense. And like a flash it goes away–with a string of three and outs on the offense, or giving up a pass over the middle on third and long. Even with Michigan up 21-14 yesterday I still felt like they would need a big mistake or some dumb luck to hold the lead and pull off a big win. A few more thoughts on the game: * Give credit to State for sacking up and winning that game–no Spartan Robert, no strange…
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Rx for Pre-game: Larry Foote on WDFN (audio)
First off, here’s Larry Foote on WDFN back in July with his special message for Michigan State: “Go Blue and Michigan State, y’all always gonna suck.” Here’s the unabashed Rich Rodriguez backer and current Steeler on the radio today with Stoney and Wojo: Foote admits he like Tom Izzo and notes that they have some fine women up there in East Lansing. Hilarious moment, listen to him at the end of the interview sing the company line for the NFL.
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Open Hoops Practice
Nice recaps of the open practice: Michigan Sports Center UMHoops.com
