Super
Streaks
In case you hadn’t heard, Michigan’s Men’s Baseball team
and Michigan’s Women’s Softball team are both on unparalleled winning
streaks. The Baseball team has won 20 in
a row (after starting 4-11) and the Softball team has won 14 in a row. While that’s no biggie for Hutch and her
crew, the Men’s Baseball team hasn’t won 20 in a row since 1987! And 20 game wins streaks just don’t happen
that often in Baseball at ANY level.
The Softball team is Nationally ranked at #14 and the Baseball
team still hasn’t punched their way into the Top 25, based in no small part to
the overall and historic weakness of B1G Baseball. Cold climates do not attract top baseball
talent. Hutch, being Hutch, can recruit
the best Softball players around cause she’s Hutch.
If you’re looking for something to do on a Friday night or
a weekend, head down to the Wilpon Complex and catch one of these teams while
there’s still a few home games left, assuming you can get tix. Sotball vs. the suckeyes is already sold
out!!!
The
Commission Has Spoken
And they didn’t say much more than “Follow the rules and we’re
really going to punish you hard (if we catch you.)”
Sure. Right.
Like how you really dropped the
hammer on the Miami Hurricanes after F’ing up the investigation? Like you punished north carolina for openly
committing academic fraud??? Like when
you punished Pitino with a 5-game suspension as a result of Stripper Gate? At least Louisville had to forfeit their NC
from 2013…
I understand that the Commission’s Task/Goal was poorly conceived
and even worse, there’s legal proceedings that still need to be settled
regarding the coaches and shoe agents that have been charged in the FBI probe
that shouldn’t be interfered with.
However, there’s a consensus pretty much everywhere that “stricter
punishments aren’t going to curb the activities of the underground economy. The rats are just going to go deeper and find
new ways to not get caught.”
Brilliant. The Idiots
In Indy stick their head in the sand and will get “surprised” again when the
next scandal surfaces.
Great article by Bill Connelly really nails the issue down
with the “hypocrisy” and duplicitous tactics of none other than the domers and
how they’re tweeting about and promoting they’re school by touting the mock
draft status of their premiere players.
Classic…
Dan Wolken from USAtoday chimes in and more or less calls
the entire committee a farce and a collosal waste of time and productivity:
One interesting thing in Dan’s article was how the report
from the committee (linked in the USAtoday article) has a page and a half of
language addressing ACADEMIC FRAUD (see page 50 in the report) and how major
reform is needed in this area to give the NCAA more latitude and control in
this area, taking that power away from member institutions (I don’t
know why they simply just didn’t reference the north carolina case, but
whatever)
The
MMQ’s Solution:
The Idiots In Indy should at least consider adopting
the Olympic Model temporarily (2 years) observing and monitoring that activity CLOSELY
and see how that works, and then make adjustments or tweaks as needed based
on results.
That’s fair for the student athletes and the shirt and shoe
companies and removes some of the sleaziness of the AAU arrangements that seem
to prevail today.
Draft
Day
Or
As Lions Fans Like To Call It, “The Day WE Win The Superbowl!”
Used to just be another Saturday in late April and you
could hear about updates on the news.
But it wasn’t televised. It wasn’t
even all that interesting, until it was.
I remember hearing about the draft as a kid and there
were only 5 stations on television if you counted Channel 20 and 50. Channel 56 was public TV and didn’t
count.
But in 1980, that ALL CHANGED. ESPN was a thing and they were
looking for live TV content. Here’s an
idea: Let’s put a bunch of fat guys in
suits in a big room with phones and stuff and televise them drafting college
football players! And let’s have draft
experts make bold predictions about when and where guys will get drafted and
how great their careers will be! It’ll
be great!
I remember thinking at the time that had to be the dumbest idea
ever…
But
what do I know?
Now, the NFL draft has bloated into a 3-day event
that airs in prime time and pulls pretty big numbers when it comes to ratings.
To sit and watch guys in suits pick players for their NFL team…
Granted, you get the drama of watching a player
like Brady Quinn slip all the way down from being a “Top 5” lock, and some even
had him as the number 1 pick, to number 22 for the Cleveland Browns.
And what would we do without Mel Kiper making some of the
dumbest predictions about players ever?
I mean, here’s a guy that claimed that Jimmy Clausen would be a standout
NFL QB and he (Kiper) would retire in 2018 if that didn’t materialize.
Clausen has been out of the league since 2015…You’re all
done, right Mel?
And yet…and yet people sit around and watch this crap.
Anyway, while I might tune in for a few minutes, I prefer
to just wait for the end and see who ended up where.
Men’s
Basketball 2019 B1G Schedule
One season you get hosed, the next season you get handed a
gift!
It’s hard to believe, but Michigan actually received a
favorable road and 1-game match-up in the re-vamped 20 Game B1G schedule.
Home: Nebraska, suckeyes, Purdue
Away: Illinois, Iowa, Rutgers
Home/Away: Indiana, Maryland, LNU, Minnesota,
Northwestern, PSU, Wiscy
So, of the 20 games, projecting W’s and L’s based on last season’s
performance and who will have rosters retuning and who will probably be
rebuilding, I see the following:
Nebraska – W
Suckeyes – W
Purdue – W
Illinois – L (They are and will be a much-improved team!)
Iowa – W (lost a lot of players…)
Rutgers – W
Indiana – W/W
Maryland – W/L
LNU – W/W (LNU is
slipping as is their head coach, and psychologically, Michigan owns them right
now)
Minnesota – W/L
Northwestern – W/W
PSU – W/L
Wiscy – W/L
The MMPG’s Count: 15-5 (O/U - 2 W's) and, even though I have NOT reviewed everyone else’s schedule, I will
optimistically state that the Wolverines are in the driver’s seat to win a
legitimate B1G Title against some of the B1G’s top teams, not like LNU’s
dubious B1G Regular season in 17-18 that only played 3 of the toughest teams
in the conference.
