MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

Things Discussed: Rundown of the ton of false reporting. NCAA is in town: False. WSJ says offer rescinded: False. Thamel says all the B10 coaches are repeating Ryan Day's talking points: False. It's one thing to sensationalize—ESPN sensationalizes all the time—but they're getting provable facts wrong. Getting it right means calling someone who could tell you your reporting is wrong. Craig Ross: Shares the time Sam had it from someone that Carr was against the Harbaugh hire and he checked on it with Carr who said he loves Jack Harbaugh and he'd be the biggest fan of the hiring of Jim Harbaugh. How much does it matter? Run-pass is the best you can tell; it matters, not as much as how the right tackle's foot is aligned, because the RT's half step is more important than hiding your intentions from the defense. James Franklin: Nobody needed your signs to know you were running a zone read on 4th & 2 vs OSU in 2018. Nobody said we need to start a federal investigation against Northwestern when they had Michigan's signs that day. Schiano's the biggest sign-stealer in the league, because nobody changes their signs. Sam: they're mad about Stalions though. That wasn't Schiano's halftime comment. Want to shut them up? Everyone turn in your sign-stealers and go to wristbands and microphones. Stalions on CMU's sideline? Possible that McElwain didn't know who Stalions was. Seth: Is it possible that CMU borrowed Michigan's sign-stealer to try to beat MSU? Would explain how he got a placard, how he knew how the coaches were dressing, etc. It wouldn't implicate Michigan, because they get no benefit from that, but would fit Stalions's profile. Brian: If Michigan's moving ahead with their contract for Harbaugh their internal investigation found no evidence that Balance of news is positive; now we're just down to coaches complaining. Do you think these guys are interested parties? The check? Ryan Day doesn't care about the check; the commissioner of the league is a TV guy, and a TV guy is not going to devalue the TV conference's most valuable property because they will get sued by Fox and NBC, and guarantee that Michigan will leave this conference for the SEC. Guy who said it's a three-touchdown advantage $1 it's Franklin. And you still lose. Ryan Day you still lose too. Why aren't OSU/PSU clamoring to play Michigan without their sign-stealer? Brian: "If you actually believe what you're saying you would be, but you don't because it's crazy." Maybe you guys need to get good; we're a TV product and you guys are unwatchable. This conference is Michigan and Ohio State and the four teams we're importing because the rest of you are unwatchable.

Things discussed: At Ohio State: The Devante' Jones Game. Craft in his game finally adapted to the Big Ten. His shooting changed OSU's plan to go under screens. T-Will: Unlocked by transition. Officiating was unacceptable. Not the usual bad Boroski stuff: They let Liddell get away with everything. Michigan defense: brought doubles from the baseline to generate 11 steals. Turnovers and ORebs were the difference in the game. Houstan: Not a guy who can shoot off screens. He needs to be set. His defense was strong but against just-a-shooters. Offseason work: Learn to finish. He can get to rim but he's terrible once there. Indiana: One good player team. Race Thompson is a guy who works on a better team. Bad matchup for Michigan at guard. Can we get these guys back? Houstan yes, other guys not likely? Seth: have to change their mindsets. If Michigan can put $1 million on the table for Hunter, sure. Is Michigan ready to do that? Makes the most sense if he's getting good advice. Diabate too. But what's the likelihood they're getting good advice? Break: Bilas thinks you should be allowed to dick punch if you're Boeheim's kid. Football: McCarthy injury, how it affects the QB competition. Hockey: Playing MSU is bad because you're surprised next series when you have to play hockey again.

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. [Writeup and Player after THE JUMP]   Segment 1: All About the Finishing An Opener Many Shots Against Scoring the Chances ALL OF THE GOALS AT THE END Segment 2: An Epic Comeback A BAD! Start Not Goals, Goals, and Penalties Whooping in the Third Old Friends and Around the League Wisconsin Preview MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" -The Tokens Ice Hockey (NES) theme

2 hour and 26 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, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Nebraska Starts at 1:00 Is yogurt, honey, and granola a snack? Dave Nastersnacks will give us the answer. Oklahoma was a 24-13 loss but it felt worst than that, this was 30-27 win but it felt better than that (but also worse!). The domination on both lines was more notable than some of the silly, bad things that happened. Between Oklahoma and Nebraska, Michigan hasn’t had a complete touchdown drive (but this game had an 8 minute drive to go up by 10). Caveats aside, we’re on the verge of saying Greg Crippen is good after he blocked three guys on one play. Running stretch is hard and they’re running it quite well. McCulley had a great game but was to blame on Semaj’s throw being incomplete. Zero drops otherwise and ran guys over. Everyone else? Not so great. Gotta catch the ball on a slant, get used to passes from Underwood. Should they throw it to Peyton O’Leary? The running backs sure toughened up in this one. Max Bredeson blocks everyone like they’re Caleb Downs in the Rose Bowl. Not many Bryce critiques. Catch the ball. Guarnera is just not making mistakes. What’s the next good defensive line that Michigan will play, Ohio State? Michigan consistently got a play in, saw the look of the defense, and got a new play in.  2. Defense vs Nebraska Starts at 46:58 Time for a Wink Martindale argument? He doesn’t need to do anything fancy. Just run the Iowa defense, you’re not going up against an NFL offense. Brandyn Hillman is being asked to do things outside of his base job. 27 points, seven are on Biff, seven are on Hillman taunting, three are on Mangham missing a sack. Otherwise it was pretty good? Raiola was getting sacked every other play. Too many safeties missing sacks. Complaining aside, they got to the quarterback a lot and tackled well. Sanders has been playing a lot and there haven’t really been any negative feelings about him. Wink would be a better poker player than Mike Debord but not as good as Jesse Minter. This game felt like Trey Pierce arrived. Cole Sullivan has absolutely emerged, he’s little bit of everywhere and has freaky long arms. Defensive backs played well. The Shamari Earls PI was a bit weak. Brandyn Hillman needs to grow up, that was the most obvious personal foul in a minute. Brian usually defends players celebrating and even he says that’s an obvious foul. Was it a targeting call at the end of the game? Let’s talk about the Hail Mary. Why was TJ Guy dropping? Why was there a spy?  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:25:17 Takes hotter than a Wisconsin fan looking at whatever the shit that was on Saturday. If you’re Nebraska, would you go for it on 4th and 2 on the opening drive? Should Michigan have called timeout at the end of the first half? Maybe Sherrone could make a better call here but we can’t know that. Zvada hit a 56 yarder and a chip shot to seal it, yay. Punting was okay, how do you recruit punters? What’s with Semaj at punt returns? Punt returning has been a problem for a couple years now. Kendrick Bell got the onside! Gary Danielson and Brad Nessler are washed. The turf was a little slippy?  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:51:48 Indiana 63, Illinois 10 This is the most points a top 10 team has been beaten by. This looks like Michigan’s boxscore against Central. Cignetti is vindicated. How much is this Indiana being legit and Illinois never being top 10 team? Maryland 27, Wisconsin 10 The boxscore shows a relatively even game, BUT Maryland blocks a punt, field goal, and gets one of the easiest interceptions you’ve seen. Luke Fickell is done. The boo birds were just apathetic, which is worse than booing. 61 rush yards for Wisconsin on 42 attempts.  Oregon 41, Oregon State 7 Oregon State has fallen on hard times since college football ejected them. This game looked like a controlled scrimmage. Is Oregon really good or just beating up on bad teams? We’ll see how Oregon does during a whiteout at Penn State next weekend.  Notre Dame 56, Purdue 30 Purdue’s defense is really bad. Purdue is Purdue.  Iowa 38, Rutgers 28 Iowa returns the opening kickoff for a touchdown and could not stop Rutgers’ QB. Both teams went up and down the field, what is happening??  USC 45, Michigan State 31 The boxscore looks a little close but MSU gets a 75 yard drive down three touchdowns. Mostly a blowout. The Spartans’ defense did not have answers to USC’s running game. Aidan Chiles had some explosive plays.  Washington 59, Washington State 24 Another Pacific Northwest rivalry that college football has ruined. Does Washington have the best complete package for skill position players in the conference? We don’t trust Ohio State’s run game.  MUSIC: "Wave Goodnight"—Jeff Rosenstock "Alien With a Sleep Mask"—Batboys "Big Dipper"—Built to Spill “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 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, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Central Michigan Starts at 1:00 Michigan's biggest blowout since the 2016 Hawaii game. This game was trending towards a total rutger for a while and was a nice palette cleanser. More Biff Poggi interviews, please. Listen for the Chip's chips. Do we think "Sherrone's not here so let's play with the kids"? Who's your Crippen comparison, Andrew Vastardis? David Molk? This is what Bryce Underwood looks like when he's not under siege. What did Bryce see on the interception? He had someone open. One of the special things about Bryce is he can just go and get you 20 yards on the ground. Is he putting a little extra zip on the ball? McCulley had a couple nice catches, other guys need to catch the ball. Running backs did a better job of re-gapping in this game. The offensive line had a nice day with some [redshirt] freshman mistakes. Jadyn Davis played several drives with no passes.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Central Michigan Starts at 44:32 Couldn't quite get a total rutger but felt like it would for a while. They played a 3-4 for most of this game. Jaishawn Barham found the backfield a lot. Manuel Beigel had some meaningful time in the first quarter. Central Michigan ran a lot of down G. A lot of guys were hurt in this game but backups looked good. Michigan has a little Channing Stribling now. Rolder was up and down but had some good stops. Does Biff even understand Batman's hero abilities work??  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:05:11 Takes hotter than the Georgia Tech radio announcer after the bees hit a fire drill field goal from 50 yards and they SOUNDED EXACTLY LIKE THIS. There's a list of things you can't bring into the stadium but they're handing out versions of the thing! Someone teach the students how to do the wave and when to do it, we didn't even get a fast or slow wave. And not when the game is happening! We like Jake Butt as a commentator. What's Semaj's plan when he's fielding punts? Definitely a sad field goal.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:38:31 Too many Big Ten teams so notes are reduced. Nebraska 59, Houson Christian 7 Maryland 44, Towsend 17 Penn State 52, Villanova 6 Penn State is struggling to convert on 3rd down on Drew Allar's arm. Rutgers 60, Norfolk State 10 Iowa 47, UMass 7 Indiana 73, Indiana State 0 ISU with 77 total yards, not a total rutger. Oregon 34, Northwestern 14 Most of Northwestern's yards were in the 4th quarter while down 34-0, but Northwestern had a pulse at times. Alabama 38, Wisconsin 14 No Billy Edwards in this game. Wisconsin couldn't do anything, this was a debacle. If they don't beat Maryland, do they get a win the Big Ten? USC 33, Purdue 17 It wasn't particularly close, but Purdue had some long drives (that ended in picks).  Michigan State 41, Youngstown State 24 This was a bit of a game for a little while?? Michigan State was always in control but gave up some big plays. The Spartans lost some starters to injuries. Ohio State 37, Ohio 9 The score looks close but it was not. Ryan Day's decision making kept the scoring low. Illinois 38, Western Michigan 0 Is Illinois really a top 10 team? Which Memorial Stadium is the real Memorial Stadium? California 27, Minnesota 14 A game that was fairly even statistically except for a couple turnovers.  New Mexico 35, UCLA 10 UCLA is BAD bad, and they fired their coach. This was not a fluke. New Mexico got pressure on 52% of Nico's dropbacks. The Big Sky says "no thanks" to adding UCLA. 

1 hour and 48 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, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Oklahoma Starts at 1:00 How bothered/upset are you right now? Seth says this game was 2004 Notre Dame. It feels like they're playing for 2027 but you need some momentum if you want to get more wide receivers. You want Bryce Underwood to let it rip but instead the offense played way too conservatively. Michigan didn't keep it close, Oklahoma kept shooting themselves in the foot to keep Michigan in this game. Oklahoma knew Michigan would run a bunch of freshman quarterback plays and blew them all up. It's possible that Michigan didn't drop back much because they offensive line couldn't give Bryce enough time and the coaches knew this. Maybe the coaches are just trying to keep Bryce from getting hurt and that means playing conservatively in a non-conference game. Why are there so many runs and screens on 3rd down? Just throw it on 3rd and long and see what happens. How much of the Jim Harbaugh stuff is sustainable without literally Jim Harbaugh? Sometimes Crippen just isn't strong enough for his assignment.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Oklahoma Starts at 29:45 That felt like it should've been about 24 points. John Mateer also did some incredible things and came up positive in the random number generator game. Michigan wasn't able to get after Oklahoma's freshman left tackle. There was some cute Wink stuff again that the personnel couldn't execute. He reverted back to some of his ways from early last year. When Oklahoma did run it up the middle the defensive line was what you wanted it to be. Overall, the defense was okay, just not #1 defense in America okay. TJ Guy getting shut down by a true freshman tackle says "we're just not there." Was there much of a difference with and without Jaishawn Barham? Oklahoma seemed to adjust to his absence but Michigan didn't.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 53:11 Takes not quite as hot Billy Napier's hot seat. Number changes must be approved by a sickos committee (unless it is to make the quarterback #98). Michigan elected to kick from the plus 38 yard line, this is indefensible when you have Zvada. The point of being Michigan is that you can get that 4th and 2. Sherrone should be old and young enough to have played Madden from the age of six. Go let Zvada (and all the guys who make plays) go make the plays they're supposed to make. There was no mention of Semaj getting targeted and looking woozie. In case you're wondering the difference between running into the kicker and roughing the kicker... that was roughing the kicker.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:21:51 Too many Big Ten teams so notes are reduced. Penn State 34, FIU 0 Indiana 56, Kennesaw State 9 Minnesota 66, Northwestern State 0 Minnesota running back Darrius Taylor went out with an injury. Ohio State 70, Grambling 0 Nebraska 68, Akron 0 It should be a little bit easier to run against Nebraska than Oklahoma at least. Wisconsin 42, Middle Tennessee 10 This game was actually close for a while. Wisconsin couldn't run the ball well at all. USC 59, Georgia Southern 20 USC with 11.3 YPP through two games. They have one touchdown per 6.5 snaps. Washington 70, UC-Davis 10 Northwestern 42, Western Illinois 7 Purdue 34, Southern Illinois 17 Illinois 45, Duke 19 Duke is not a terrible ACC team, they outgained Illinois. How valid is Illinois being ranked #11? Duke had five turnovers. Illinois got a first down after Duke had two guys wearing the same number on a punt. Iowa 13, Iowa State 16 This was a perfect rendition of ¡El Assico!. Zero explosive plays between both teams. Neither team got to 300 yards of offense. The same guy kicked the same game winning field goal for the 2nd year.  Rutgers 45, Miami (NTM) 17 Rutgers has scored on 12 of their 16 drives this year. There's a legit passing attack here. Oregon 69, Oklahoma State 3 Mike Gundy complained before the game that Oregon spent a lot of money on their players. Then oh no! Oklahome State is an OSU that looks too much like Oregon State apparently. Michigan State 42, Boston College 40 (2OT) Aidan Chiles can be anything in any given week and this week was Good Aidan Chiles. Is Michigan State's pass defense worse than Fordham's? UNLV 30, UCLA 23 Going to UCLA is telling on yourself. UNLV's first win over a "Big Ten" team in 22 years. Alex Orji's only appearance was one running play. Maryland 20, Northern Illinois 9 Would you rather take the Maryland job or the Virginia Tech job? Would you rather have mayo dumped on you or lose the Mayo Bowl? MUSIC: "What's the Move"—Friendship "After the Flood"—Jesse Woods "Take My Heart"—Florry “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours and 40 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, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs New Mexico Starts at 1:00 When's the last time you've ever seen an offensive lineman run away from a fight? Probably the funniest thing all night. New Mexico came out like they wanted to make a statement for a new era of New Mexico, and they may have an endless well of College Crappe that they can run. Let's talk about Bryce Underwood, it took one game for Brian to become a believer. Bryce just turned 18 but we're making critiques that you would make about juniors and seniors. He's got a thing for parabolic arcs. We're finally seeing the Semaj Morgan we hoped to see when he was a sophomore. The whole stadium stopped and turned to Brian on the play action pass to Max Bredeson. Bryce is very accurate when he can throw in the pocket, if Channing Goodwin hadn't put his hands up the ball would've just gotten stuck in his facemask. They're not running Bryce but then he's throwing a monster block with his throwing shoulder. Offensive line kept Bryce from getting lit up so that's a W, especially against a couple decent transfer edges. So was Justice Haynes worth the price? Overall, Channing Goodwin was encouraging. Fred Moore had a bad drop.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs New Mexico Starts at 51:04 A little tricky to grade the defense. They gave up some stuff but some of it was aided by the officials. Wink seemed to struggle with the College Crappe a bit, but Ohio State doesn't run that and you need Wink to beat Ohio State. QB Jack Layne was a fearless dawg who kept getting back up all game. Michigan had a lot of rotation all game. Brandyn Hillman hit a guy hard enough that you didn't need Grapentine to tell you who it was, Jyaire Hill got beat. Enow Etta played more than was expected. Seth got deported from the Vatican once. Jaishawn Barham is probably the worst person to get hit by on this team. The defensive line doesn't have a superstar but it's deep like the 2022 line.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:17:56 Takes hotter than Michigan Stadium after Jaishawn Barham got ejected. Michigan punted on 4th and 1 on their own 49, three thumbs down. Andrew Marsh fumbled a kickoff and hesitated on one he brought out but he's a true freshman so it is what it is, it'll get better. Hudson Hollenbeck was fine, there's room for improvement. Discussing the targeting call, note that this was recorded before the "upheld" decision. Oops, we've been pronouncing "Sprague" wrong apparently. Maybe we midwesternized his name.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:58:00 There are too many Big Ten teams so there are fewer notes for some games. Purdue 31, Ball State 0 Maryland 39, FAU 7 The Maryland freshman QB looks pretty decent. Total yardage was somehow even. Penn State 46, Nevada 11 Penn State might be a boring team to watch until they play Oregon. Iowa 34, Albany 7 The Iowa QB was still pretty pedestrian. Oregon 59, Montana State 13 USC 73, Missouri State 13 Welcome to the FBS, Missouri State. Illinois 52, Western Illinois 3 Northwestern 3, Tulane 23 Preston Stone had -42 rushing yards. The Northwestern head coach says to "believe in this quarterback". Indiana 27, Old Dominion 14 This Indiana team feels less explosive compared to last year. Washington 38, Colorado State 21 Jonah Coleman had 177 rushing yards on 24 carries, the Huskies are looking more explosive this season. They could be Pacific Chaos Team but their defense is still suspect.  Utah 43, UCLA 10 "Committing to UCLA is telling on yourself", Nico Iamaleava was 11/22 for 136 yards, 1TD/1INT. UCLA is still who they've been. Utah was 14/16 on 3rd down conversions. Michigan State 23, Western Michigan 6 Michigan State struggled to stop Western's edges. 138 yards in the last nine drives isn't great. MSU did get a 21-0 lead early, though. Rutgers 34, Ohio 31 Not a great start for Rutgers. Overall, an exciting game. Minnesota 23, Buffalo 10 This is much more of a blowout than the score indicates. Minnesota QB is 19/35 for 290 yards (2TD/1INT). Buffalo is a good MAC team, too. Wisconsin 17, Miami (Oh) 0 Billy Edwards is injured and Wisconsin struggled to move the ball. But Miami struggled more. Nebraska 20, Cincinnati 17 Dylan Raiola was 33/42 for 243 yards but it was mostly to the backs. Former Indiana QB Brendan Sorsby was the Cincy QB that threw the final interception. Half the event was that Taylor Swift was here. Ohio State 14, Texas 7 336 yards for Texas, 203 for Ohio State. The Buckeyes can't really run the ball. There was some "oh no" from the Ohio State fans. Texas got stopped four times on 4th down, twice inside the 10. Texas also has two massive facemask penalties. Ohio State also had weird drops from the receivers. When's the last time Ohio State had less than 200 yards of offense? MUSIC: "Sunday Eve"—Bonnie Calista "Spin Me Around"—The Marias "River Song"—Dennis Wilson “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    

1 hour and 38 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. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: HomeSure Lending, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, and Information Entropy, the Raw Power app for iOS by Gentleman Coders, and SignalWire, which is the virtual office platform we recorded on during the pandemic because we’d had it up to here with Zoom (use the code MUPPETS and they’ll buy your team lunch!) This episode was supposed to be recorded at Prentice 4M, on the other end of The Bridge, started by a couple of readers to have the perfect, affordable, safe, and clean living/renting/working space near campus. 1. Offense vs WMU starts at 1:00 Do we start with the good news (they can run), the bad news (Bell), or the future news (McCarthy). #SpeedInSpace is over—there were no reads and lots of fake reads that burned downs or delivered safeties and linebackers to the running backs immediately. In this game at least the RBs could put those defenders on their asses. JJ seems to be erratic. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Defense vs WMU starts at 28:58 One drive of bleeding plus a Not Angry About That throw over Gemon Green (and a taunting on Ojabo) and then not much. Just a few gashes from LBs getting out of position. Hinton looked like their best DT, Hutchinson got to spend a lot of time on the sideline while they rotated a lot of guys. Mike Morris, hello there. Secondary looked okay but shaky—they’re better as a zone team. 3. Hot Takes, Special Teams, and Game Theory starts at 44:45 The hot takes are half the segment even though there was a lot of special teams, because the only game theory stuff was at the end of the 1st half (learn to manage a clock!). Much of the game was spent waiting around for Brad Robbins punts to land. Using Bell as a returner. Foug’ing it. 4. Around the Big Ten, wsg Jamie Mac starts at 1:00:35 We go long this time of year because there are so many games. Jamie does not recognize the existence of Iowa. MUSIC: “Stop Making This Hurt”—Bleachers “Stay High”—Childish Gambino “Nothing Else Matters”—cover by Phoebe Bridgers “Across 110th Street”

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, Venue by 4M where usually record this, and new this week the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, and the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre. 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    

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    

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    

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    

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 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    

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    

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    

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    

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    

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