In this blogcast we talked to the excellent Tim Williams of The Blog That Yost Built, the place to go for Michigan hockey information. We discussed Michigan’s season and their draw in the NCAA Championship Tournament among other hockey topics.
Enjoy:
…because I’m pseudo/fully lazy.
Important games today:
Hockey Sophomore Louie Caporusso has been named a finalist for the Hobey Baker award. Great honor for the young player, though his torrid goal pace from the beginning of the year didn’t hold up.
Michigan Sports Center has your first glimpse at the 2009 student football shirt. For the record, I don’t mind the slogan on the back, more as a reminder to those who wear them than as decoration for other people to see.
Saturday’s basketball game against Oklahoma will take place at 5:50 PM EDT. Don’t forget to check out last night’s victory post, and I’ll have your preview of the Sooners coming tomorrow.
Speaking of posting previews on the weekend and such, I know the semi-regular schedule around here has gravitated toward “hectic and random” of late, but it’s a fairly busy time, what with the basketball team in the Tournament and all. Once they bow out, the football-centric Varsity Blue you know and love should return.
Recruiting Update coming this afternoon.
Posted under Baseball, Basketball, Blog News, Hockey
I’m not sure why this became such big news on the internet last week, since it’s been known for like 2 months, but Michigan’s spring practice does indeed start this weekend, and the spring game will indeed be on April 11th. For said spring game, I’m certainly interested in a VB tailgate or even a Michigan blogosphere-wide tailgate. More on that as the date gets closer, I presume. My actual spring coverage should commence once spring practice is underway and there’s Actual News to report.
The beginning of spring practice always brings with it a host of junior visitors hitting campus, and this year is no exception. The first official junior day of the year is scheduled to be this weekend (more on that later this week).
Of course, it wouldn’t be spring without a preliminary injury report: Both Michael Shaw and Jonas Mouton are expected to miss the entire spring with injuries, and Mouton’s may be serious enough to keep him out this fall as well. As of now, those are the only two guys who are reportedly injured, but as actual drills commence, that number is certain to increase.
Speaking of spring injuries, last year, Corey Zirbel suffered one of the career-0ending variety. However, Zirbel is still hanging around Schembechler Hall, now serving as a student assistant to OL coach Greg Frey.
Basketball
Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims were named first- and second-team all-conference, respectively, by the media (Sims dropped to third team by the coaches).
Hockey
The long-awaited announcement about an outdoor game at Camp Randall Stadium finally came out last week. The new buzz has Michigan hosting an outdoor contest of their own in December 2010. Candidates for an opponent would be Michigan State or a rematch with the Badgers.
Baseball
FormerlyAnonymous should be out of commission for a couple more days, but will be back with a vengeance when he returns. Expect a flurry of baseball updates, especially with a huge series looming this weekend at Arizona.
I apologize for the quick-hit style of this post, but that’s life sometimes, I guess.
Posted under Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Spring Coverage
The shooting data can be founf in .xls format here, and the differential data can be found in the multi-game UFR post from earlier this week.
Individual Players
| Stu Douglass 31min -19 | |||||
| Quality | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
| Lane | |||||
| Midrange | |||||
| 3-pt | 4/7 | ||||
Not a bad shooting game, but holy hell look at that terrible differential number.
| Zack Gibson 4min -3 | |||||
| Quality | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
| Lane | |||||
| Midrange | |||||
| 3-pt | |||||
Didn’t get very much run at all. Had 1 legit and 1 crap moving screen go against him in the first half, and I think the foul trouble and the shaken confidence it gave him combined to keep him from playing too much.
| Manny Harris 38min -1 | |||||
| Quality | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
| Lane | 0/2 | 0/2 | 2/2 | 0/1 | |
| Midrange | 0/3 | 0/1 | |||
| 3-pt | 0/2 | 1/1 | |||
His shooting wasn’t particularly bad, especially considering many of those misses in the paint should have been called fouls, but he made some really bad decisions. Way too many “1”s.
| CJ Lee 36min -20 | |||||
| Quality | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
| Lane | 1 | ||||
| Midrange | |||||
| 3-pt | 0/3 | ||||
grumble grumble running set plays for CJ to shoot 3s grumble grumble. Also, the shifts in which he didn’t play were ALL positive except for one.
| Laval Lucas-Perry 17min +6 | |||||
| Quality | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
| Lane | 0/1 | 0/1 | |||
| Midrange | 0/1 | ||||
| 3-pt | 1/3 | 0/1 | |||
Had a pretty good differential, but missed a few shots that he had absolutely no business missing. I’m coming to realize that he should be utilized more as a slasher in addition to a shooter (a role in which he’s recently struggled). And no, I’m not kidding.
| Zack Novak 41min -13 | |||||
| Quality | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
| Lane | |||||
| Midrange | 1/1 | ||||
| 3-pt | 1/1 | 1/2 | 1/4 | ||
Man, if this guy could just shoot as well every game as he did against Minnesota.
| Jevohn Shepherd 3min +3 | |||||
| Quality | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
| Lane | |||||
| Midrange | |||||
| 3-pt | |||||
Surprisingly, he was one of the few people not in on a negative shift. Of course, that is largely because he barely played at al..
| DeShawn Sims 32min +3 | |||||
| Quality | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
| Lane | 0/1 | 0/1 | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Midrange | 0/2 | 1/3 | 0/1 | ||
| 3-pt | 1/3 | ||||
Was a victim of the poor officiating (though not nearly as much as Manny), but other than that, had a lackluster day.
| David Merritt 14min +3 | |||||
| Quality | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
| Lane | |||||
| Midrange | |||||
| 3-pt | 1/2 | 0/1 | |||
grumble don’t shoot grumble. Played decently enough.
| Kelvin Grady 0min | |||||
| Quality | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
| Lane | |||||
| Midrange | |||||
| 3-pt | |||||
DNP – coach’s decision.
On the Officiating
After people’s reactions in the comments, I thought I might have been a bit harsh in my criticism of the officiating in this game. Upon further Review, I’m even madder than before. Of course, bad calls went both ways, but Michigan by far got the shorter end of the stick. I don’t want to become a boy who cried wolf, so I’m going to refrain from mntioning officiating in the future unless it’s particularly egregious (as it was in this game), but I stand by my previous comments that this game was one of the most poorly reffed I’ve seen all year – and that’s saying something.
Posted under Analysis, Basketball, Hockey, Misc.
Comments Off on UFR: Iowa II
The action should get going shortly before 7:30. Be here or be gueer.
Posted under Hockey
An Open Letter to MSU Director of Athletics Mark Hollis,
Mr. Hollis,
As I’m sure you are well aware by now, two of your university’s hockey players, Corey Tropp and Andrew Conboy, were involved in a disgraceful incident Friday night in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Both of them participated in actions that were immoral; the actions by Mr. Tropp can be described by no less severe terms than absolutely inhuman. I can only imagine your embarrassment, the embarrassment felt by the parents of these two student-athletes must be unbearable.
Following the game, Men’s Ice Hockey Head Coach Rick Comley stated that he would discipline each player following their actions. While the effort of Mr. Comley is certainly a start, there is no possible way that it is enough. The Central Collegiate Hockey Association will undoubtedly suspend Mr. Conboy, and Coach Comley may choose to discipline him further. This is acceptable punishment. Mr. Tropp, on the other hand, should likely be tried in a court of law for assault with a deadly weapon. If you are a man of integrity, Mr. Hollis (and none of your previous actions would imply otherwise), Mr. Tropp should be kindly informed that his services with a hockey stick (be they scoring goals or attempting to murder an opposing player as he lay prone on the ground) are no longer welcome in East Lansing, and if he would like to continue as a student at Michigan State University, he may do so without the benefit of a grant-in-aid from the athletic department.
Do you really want to send the message to prospective athletes that Michigan State is a school that not only condones, but champions thuggery and criminal acts? No school, much less an esteemed academic institution like Michigan State, should ever accept behavior like this from any of its students, and student-athletes are more accountable than any others. For the athletic department to not only allow such acts, much less pay a student to commit them, is unconscionable. I know this is a difficult decision for you to make, Mr. Hollis, but there is a right choice and a wrong one. Please, for the sake of a student at a neighboring university who had to be taken to the hospital in a neck brace on a backboard, make the right one.
Sincerely,
Timothy Sullivan
sullivti@umich.edu
The link to Hollis’s e-mail address is there for a reason. Let him know how you feel.
Posted under Hockey
You know this is how you want to spend your Saturday night…
Posted under Basketball, Hockey
Comments Off on Basketball LiveBlog with WLA
Max Pacioretty, Michigan Hockey forward, has decided to forgo his remaining three years of eligibility and sign with the Montreal Canadiens. Pacioretty’s departure means that Chris Summers will likely move to forward.
Robin Benzing, a signee in the 2008 class for John Beilein’s basketball squad, has been denied initial eligibility by the NCAA. This means that Michigan will likely refocus its recruiting efforts for future seasons, though there will be little effect on this year’s team. Even if Benzing was eventually allowed to play, he was expected to have to sit out the 2008-09 season.
Posted under Basketball, Hockey
Comments Off on People Who won’t be Suiting up in Maize and Blue
The cherry on top of a shit sundae, but good for Kevin nonetheless.
Posted under Hockey
Comments Off on Porter wins Hobey Baker Award
With a sucky game against Notre Dame last night, the Michigan hockey team’s season has come to an end. It appears as though their scoring explosion in the NCAA tournament may have been a true trend, rather than an aberration based on a 7-goal game.
If Notre Dame and Michigan State win NCAA championships in back-to-back years, my mental health will take a huge hit.
Posted under Hockey
