MAAR Rips Maryland, NCAA's & More

Sorry for the delay – health issues and work are annoying distractions that sometimes get in the way of life….

I still think of Maryland as an ACC Basketball elite that used to always be in the discussion of winning ACC Championships in the past.  There have been a lot of “Big Games” between Maryland, Duke, north carolina, and other ACC foes in the old Cole Field house and now in the Xfinity Center that I’ve watched over the years. 

Ergo, I wasn’t expecting Michigan to go down there and pants the Terps.  But that’s exactly that happened.  I was expecting one of those nail biter games where a missed free-throw or blown turn-over was going to be the part of the game you looked back at, pointed to and said, “Damn.  We shouldn’t have let THAT Happen…”

I shouldn’t have worried.  This game was over in the first half.  I can remember a couple of 30 point leads happening in Michigan Hoops and the last one I can recall (without looking it up – okay – I looked it up) was 2014 at Illinois.  Which was Nik Stauskas’ last season, and he had something like 5 consecutive 3’s in the first half.  That was when Tirico was announcing with Dakich and Tirico made a comment, “How do you defend these guys??”

Another game that comes to mind was in 2013 when Michigan came out on Sunday during the road to the Final 4 and blazed the nets while destroying Florida.  That was also a great game with a huge early lead that only got worse as time went on.

But this game showed me something else (Besides the fact that MAAR can score 28 points):

Everyone is contributing at this point. 

Michigan is offensively and defensively on a ROLL!

Forget stats, RPI, BPI, KenPom, whatever.  Michigan is playing the best basketball of anyone playing NCAA Basketball right now.  Poole, Livers and even Matthews scored a couple of buckets which he desperately needed.  This team has forgotten where they were a month ago.  It takes awhile for the Beilein Offense to gel with everyone, but gelled it has!!!

They’ve arrived!!!

I know, there was Nebraska.  At the end of a 2 week grind with never more than 3 days between games.  And there was that oopsy-daisy in Columbus way back in November. 

Early season brain fart…

And two debacles with Purdue and that Northwestern mess…

THAT’S ALL IN THE PAST.

This team is a

TEAM FOR THE NOW.

Beilein has these guys playing loose and peaking at the exact time they need to.  I’ve completed my B1G Tourney Bracket, WHICH STARTS TODAY AT 5:30 PM BABY!!!

You may feel free to use this for your office pool.  This is money…

Sparty will be pesky, but I’ve stated it over and over this season:  Sparty turns the ball over way too much against good teams.  And Michigan’s “D” will smother them and force the TO’s.  Michigan then gets to atone for two losses to the Boilers. Michigan cuts down the B1G Tourney nets two seasons in a row for the automatic bid!!   

And maybe a 5-Seed? 

Games – Dates – Time – Result - Record

Illinois(H)                  January 6^th               Noon                          WON  79-69              14-3

Purdue (H)                January 9^th               9:00 PM                     Lost    70-69              14-4

Sparty (A)                   January 13^th              Noon                          WON  82-72              15-4

Maryland (H)            January 15^th            6:30 PM                     WON 68-67               16-4

Nebraska (A)             January 18^th              8:00 PM                     LOST 72-52              16-5

Rutgers (H)              January 21^st             Noon                          WON  62-47              17-5

Purdue (A)                 January 25^th              7:00 PM                     LOST  92-88             17-6

Northwestern (H)    January 29^th            7:00 PM                     WON  58-47              18-6

Minnesota (H)          February 3^rd             2:30 PM                     WON  76-73 (OT)    19-6

Northwestern (A)      February 6^th              6:00PM                      LOST  61-52             19-7

Wiscy (A)                   February 11^th            Noon                          WON  83-72              20-7

Iowa   (H)                   February 14^th           6:30 PM                     WON 74-59               21-7

Suckeyes (H)           February 18^th           1:00 PM                     WON  74-62              22-7

PSU (A)                      February 21^st            7:00 PM                     WON  72-63              23-7

Maryland (A)             February 24^th            Noon                          WON  85-61              24-7

That’s a regular season in the bag…

So, the big question becomes how does Michigan handle the down time and the extra week of not playing a game?  Beilein’s actually done this twice and has a pretty good method for keeping people sharp. 

A couple day’s rest, 3 days of practice, a 30-minute referee’d scrimmage, 3 days of practice, a little more rest and, hopefully a Thursday game in order to not have the one additional day off. 

B1G First Team, Second Team and All Defense Awards

I almost wasn’t going to post anything on this, but then my pissed off side got the better of me. 

http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/022618aad.html

Moe making the 2^nd team was fine, Duncan Robinson getting the 6^th man award was AWESOME, and MAAR getting an honorable mention is nice, but I think he could have been on the 2^nd team. 

HOWEVER, NOT ONE MICHIGAN PLAYER ON THE DEFENSIVE TEAM when Michigan ended the season leading the B1G in Scoring Defense? 

Seriously? 

There’s your WTF moment for the day…

The NCAA’s –Update

Michigan is pretty much on everyone’s 6-Seed line, with a couple of outliers moving them up to the 5-Seed. 

The best possible match-up?  Michigan playing Witchita State in the 2^nd round, recreating what should have been the 2013 National Championship!!!  Lunardi pays attention to stuff like that…

Remember when I said Lunardi pisses me off sometimes?  Right now he has both Baylor AND Texas in the Tourney and Nebraska as part of the First 4 out.  That’s kind of annoying as Nebraska is playing just about as well as anyone in the middle of the B1G and has 14 (FOURTEEN!!!) B1G wins.  I know the conference is down and unbalanced schedules and all, but still.  14 conference wins and you don’t make the NCAA’s?

That’s nuts. 

And it means that Nebraska is going to need to win at least 1 game in the B1G Tourney and that will have to come against – check the Bracket above – Michigan.  Ain’t going to happen.  Michigan vs Nebraksa overall record is 8-1.  I’m gonna guess that Michigan makes that 9 wins on Thursday.  Michigan should easily beat Nebraska on a neutral floor with appropriate rest. 

So I guess the Huskers are NIT Bound. 

Other things you should know: 

Arizona also lost key offensive players and will not be a good pick to go too deep with this season – not to mention the Head Coach is GONE – more below...

Auburn also has an injury to a key player and may not be a smart pick to take too deep…

Va Tech earned it’s way in (IMHO) with Monday Night’s win over Duke. 

And Buzz Williams gave us this:

And right AFTER I slam Kentucky, they get Vanderbilt back and they look like the REAL K-Cats.  Could be a sleeper team that makes the Sweet 16!

FBI Probe Update

Sean Miller from Arizona has probably coached his last collegiate basketball game.  Much like Pitino’s case, I really don’t see how that one “undoes itself”. 

Bridges threw $40 at a charity (or his half of a meal that was bought for him) and the NCAA said, “Okay – you’re clean on that one for now.”  Still haven’t heard about the $400 his old lady got...

Everything else is at least forcing the NCAA to have a discussion it doesn’t want to have.  Which is:  When we can’t police the bad stuff, maybe we should at least acknowledge that some of the bad stuff we think is bad really isn’t and maybe we should change our rules to recognize that.   

Yes, maybe, FINALLY, the NCAA will visit the “Amateurism” rule and at least let these kids sign agents (as collegiate Hockey and Baseball players can already do) and also let them get an endorsement deal or two with any shoe or shirt companies that they’d like.  Hell, more kids might actually stay on longer if they had some extra scratch in their pocket from an endorsement deal.  Notice I didn’t say the schools or universities have to pay ANYONE or ANY PLAYER.  I’m saying that student athletes should be able to make money in their chosen profession (and if that’s a sport, so be it), just like and Engineer can go be an intern somewhere using their training from school. 

Maybe some good will come out of all this. 

Men’s Hockey Sweeps Arizona State!!

And while that’s a good thing, not everything fell the way it needed to over the weekend to make Michigan a LOCK for the Frozen 4.  However, Michigan should be in based on what everyone is saying.  Win the B1G Tourney and that will help their case.

Softball IS STRUGGLING

Don’t ask me why I follow Michigan Women’s Softball.  I just do.  And they are having a tougher time than usual this season.  It would appear that Michigan has one pitcher, Beuabien, and that is ALWAYS a problem.  You need two and would ideally prefer 3.  But you need two. 

And one that can come into a crunch game and throw strikes for you.  Hutch as some work to do this season. 

PSU Goes Down, NCAA, FBI Probe & More

Duncan Poole – Wait – I mean Jordan Robinson – Wait – Ahh…screw it.

Robinson and Poole had GREAT GAMES on Wednesday! 

Here’s the first half “Poole Party Dunk!” in case you missed it. 

Whatever Robinson did on Wednesday he needs to repeat for each and every game left this season. 

What he ate. 

What he read.

His Undershorts – Don’t Wash ‘em!

Phone calls, texts – everything.

To say that he was “On Fire” implies that fire is merely hot.  Robinson played like a senior possessed, doing things I’ve never seen DR do before.

Don’t get me wrong, this was a team win.  But if THAT Robinson shows up every game from here on out, look out.  I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again:  Dream all you want ‘cause this might actually happen this season!

Kudos to Wagner and the continuous elbows he took the entire game.  I think Mo Buckets pisses people off with his aggressive style and they take it out on him however and whenever they can.  I saw a lot of elbows going his way. 

MAAR, Teske – everyone contributed. 

Again, Great Win.  

Games – Dates – Time – Result - Record

Illinois(H)                  January 6^th               Noon                          WON  79-69              14-3

Purdue (H)                January 9^th               9:00 PM                     Lost    70-69              14-4

Sparty (A)                   January 13^th              Noon                          WON  82-72              15-4

Maryland (H)            January 15^th            6:30 PM                     WON 68-67               16-4

Nebraska (A)             January 18^th              8:00 PM                     LOST 72-52              16-5

Rutgers (H)              January 21^st             Noon                          WON  62-47              17-5

Purdue (A)                 January 25^th              7:00 PM                     LOST  92-88             17-6

Northwestern (H)    January 29^th            7:00 PM                     WON  58-47              18-6

Minnesota (H)          February 3^rd             2:30 PM                     WON  76-73 (OT)    19-6

Northwestern (A)      February 6^th              6:00PM                      LOST  61-52             19-7

Wiscy (A)                   February 11^th            Noon                          WON  83-72              20-7

Iowa   (H)                   February 14^th           6:30 PM                     WON 74-59               21-7

Suckeyes (H)           February 18^th           1:00 PM                     WON  74-62              22-7

PSU (A)                      February 21^st            7:00 PM                     WON  72-63              23-7

Maryland (A)             February 24^th            Noon

One more and the regular season is done!

Michigan has an opportunity to win 24 regular season games this year, nearly matching the 25 regular season victories from the 2012-13 season when they went to the FF!!!

The NCAA’s –Update

So the PSU win looks really good and with another Quad 2 victory.  Everyone now has Michigan solidly in as a 6-Seed, but looking at the other teams on KenPom and the BPI, I’m trying to figure out how to differentiate the 5 and 6 Seed lines.  Very small gaps here.  4-5-6 seed lines are blurry, at best.  Michigan could easily be a 4-Seed.  Win the B1G Tourney, perhaps?  The BTN analyst last night had Michigan as a 5-Seed, so everyone is confused.

Sparty would probably prefer the 2-Seed at this point as they’ll be playing at LCA in front of a home crowd. 

The suckeyes have slipped to a 5-Seed in Boise, which, have fun with that.  Boise?  As in Idaho?  Why have a round 1 & 2 in Boise??

FBI Probe Leaks Are Starting

This is a good article that takes a look at what the FBI probe may turn up and features information from people that have “Seen it all” meaning, the evidence and data and are telling Forde and Thamel that “Yeah, some big names and schools are going down…”

https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-spreadsheets-wiretaps-bank-records-detail-payment-scheme-hoops-corruption-case-001618078.html

So, putting 1 and 1 together to get 2, and looking at the committees first release of the 16 teams in the 2018 Tourney and figuring out where the 1 and dones went and who’s probably on the FBI list, I’m coming up with:

Villanova

Duke

Arizona

North Carolina

Kansas

Auburn

Cincinnati

And……

Michigan State

I suppose you could argue for Xavier in there, but not so much.  Those are the bluest of the blue bloods and they’ve all recently had some 1 and done players in addition to some “Late Flips” during recruiting.  (Yep – I’m looking at you Bridges)

Just sayin’.

I Wrote The Above On Thursday And Lookie What The FBI Fairy Gave Us TODAY!!

When I woke up this AM and was thumbing through Twitter, I stumbled on the article by Thamel and Forde (link):

https://sports.yahoo.com/exclusive-federal-documents-detail-sweeping-potential-ncaa-violations-involving-high-profile-players-schools-103338484.html 

There’s potential impermissible benefits and preferential treatment for players and families of players at Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC, Alabama and a host of other schools. The documents link some of the sport’s biggest current stars – Michigan State’s Miles Bridges, Alabama’s Collin Sexton and Duke’s Wendell Carter – to specific potential extra benefits for either the athletes or their family members.  

And lo and behold, look who is named as receiving “hundreds of dollars in advances!”

Among those receiving hundreds of dollars in advances, according to Dawkins’ expense reports:

·         The mother of current Michigan State player Miles Bridges.

According to the documents, Dawkins has dinners listed with plenty of boldface names in the sport – Tom Izzo, “Villanova coaches,” Fultz and the family of wayward five-star prospect Mitchell Robinson

LNU & Izzo:  I have two words for you: 

You’re Screwed

And before every Sparty out there reading this writes me and tells me that it was “only” a couple of hundred bucks and these other kids were getting THOUSANDS”, I’ll politely remind you:  The Domers just had 21 games vacated due to a couple of term papers that were written by one of the kid’s girlfriends.  Same punishment as Louisville for Hosting Stripper and Prostitute Parties.  No Difference in the Eyes of the NCAA.  The NCAA doesn’t care how much you got, just whether or not you got ANYTHING. 

In the eyes of the NCAA – You can’t be just a little bit Pregnant.

What does all of this mean?  Are all of these schools going to sit the current players listed in this article?  (There’s a total of about 25 active, by my count, but there could easily be more).

I dunno’.  I mean, if they’ve already played, game vacating is coming anyway.  Why not just try to win and take the rap 4-5 years down the road, similar to Louisville?

That may end up being the strategy that these schools decide to move forward with. 

Here’s what the head NCAA Ass Hat had to say on the matter:

NCAA President Mark Emmert issued a statement early Friday morning about the Yahoo report.

“These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America,” Emmert wrote. “Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules. Following the Southern District of New York's indictments last year, the NCAA Board of Governors and I formed the independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to provide recommendations on how to clean up the sport. With these latest allegations, it's clear this work is more important now than ever. The Board and I are completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity. We also will continue to cooperate with the efforts of federal prosecutors to identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts.”

Larry Nassar University REALLY DOESN’T GET IT!

Engler blew Crisis Management 101 (Keep your mouth shut) in his first week talking without thinking and “condemning” the ESPN’s Paula Lavigne OTL article.  I thought he would know when to remain silent on such issues.  And now there’s this:

In an attempt to discredit Paula Lavigne and ESPN in general, there’s a fool (An Attorney who’s also a Sparty Grad – so, you know what that means) out there by the name of Sean Campbell that wrote a piece entitled, “Paula Lavigne is a Liar”.  A link to that article can be found here:

https://smc68az.wordpress.com/

https://smc68az.wordpress.com/2018/02/19/paula-lavigne-is-a-liar-part-i/

(It’s a lengthy article, but I can summarize:  Sean tries to defend each and every investigation with “They were never charged” or “After Questioning, there wasn’t enough evidence to support a charge or an arrest” or “The coaches went by the book when investigating this assault”.)

What Sean fails to comprehend, assuming you’re taking everything he lays down here as the truth (I don’t) and is in complete transparency, is this:

It’s too late.  Larry Nassar Happened.  The Barn Door is

WIDE OPEN.

Everything IN the ESPN article that was laid out by Paula Lavigne HAPPENED!!!

You can’t deny that Payne and Appling double teamed a coed in their dorm room.  That happened.  There was questioning and an investigation.  That happened.  No charges, so no big deal? No Blood, No Foul?  Travis Walton HAPPENED!!!  HE HIT THE GIRL!!!   And was ultimately charged for littering…

But not sexual assault or aggravated assault.  That’s essentially Sean’s impossibly weak position here that he state’s ESPN has sensationalized.

The entire point of the ESPN article was to paint a picture of a university that has a pattern of repeated alleged sexual assault, regardless of the eventual outcome.  There’s no defending it at this point.  Its indefensible because it HAPPENED!

For anyone trying to defend anything that’s happened at MSU over the last several years, some advice:  Once you’ve had a scandal like Larry Nassar hit your university, it’s time to say less and do more to fix the problems.  You can’t lash out at people that are using your own history and events against you.  Whether they’re right or not. 

The Incidents ALL HAPPENED!!!

And when you do go on the attack, like Sean did, you make Paula’s point CRYSTAL clear.

All Paula needs to do is reference Sean’s article above and say, “Look.  They are once again going after the victims and trying to defend the programs and the players.  It’s an atmosphere that condones and allows predatory sexual acts to happen.” 

And she’d be right.  By trying to defend anyone in any of these alleged crimes or investigations, you’re propagating the image of being a University that supports sexual predators.  Now is NOT the time…

If Larry Nassar hadn’t happened and ESPN writes the “smear” article in an attempt to bring down MSU, THEN MAYBE you could try to do something like this. 

Not Now.  It’s too late.  The Barn Door is OPEN.

I really hope this isn’t something that’s being pushed and supported by the brass at LNU.  If it ever got out that they ANYONE FROM LNU’s LEADERSHIP TEAM was supporting this type of attack piece, look out.  You might as well lump LNU in with anyone else that is not part of the #METOO movement.