Derek Dennis as taken by Phil Niekerk

Via The Grand Rapid Press, Michigan is close to signing Forest Hills shortstop Derek Dennis.  Dennis visited this last week, talked with Coach Maloney, Lloyd Carr, John Beilien, and Red Berenson to discuss the benefits of college.  The GRP makes it sound like if he’s not taken in the top 3 rounds, he will forgo signing and come to Michigan.  This may bode well, as if a team suspects he may not sign, he may get drafted even lower, increasing his odds of coming to Ann Arbor.

Shortstop isn’t a huge need as Toth still has two years of eligibility left, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Dennis started working into games as a freshman in the same fashion as Kevin Cislo.  The guy is currently the #6 SS out of high school (#9 overall SS) according to Baseball America.

Second related GRP article

Also, I’m a sucker for great photography of amatuer sports, so go check out more pictures like the on above at Phil’s Pics.

Posted under Baseball, Recruiting

Not sure I’ve ever tried executing one of these, so let’s give it a try. Potential talking points:

• MCLA final v. Chapman may be the game of the year.
• Kelvin Grady on the football field (omg does he have a scholarship?)
• Dann O’Neill leaves the Michigan football team
• Basketball to play Kansas, Utah, UConn, BC this year
• Homecoming game v. Indiana scheduled for noon
• Anything else posted about (or not) this week

Let’s get it on.

Posted under Basketball, Football

Visits Michigan for the “premiere” of the feature today. Charles Woodson and Desmond Howard are planned guests on the set. This entire deal seems to be little more than an attempt by ESPN to get their show shouted out on school-specific sites from every state, but there’s definitely some potential for it to be cool. To see when CFB Live airs near you, check out the ESPNTV website.

In other stories over the weekend…

Softball, Golf bow out. The Michigan softball team, after a stellar season, lost to Florida and Georgia in the double-elimination format of the Women’s College World Series, ending their season. The team returns a strong core next year, as Shortstop Teddi Ewing is the only gaduating senior. Pitchers Nikki Nemitz and Jordan Taylor will return for the 2010 season, with hitters like Dorian Shaw and Angela Findlay providing the offense. The team will probably never have a repeat of the 2005 campaign, when they ripped of 31 straight victories, but next year’s squad should be a fun one to watch.

The Men’s golf team made a dream run into the match-play finals in the NCAA, before falling to Texas A&M in the semifinals. Michigan hadn’t made the NCAA Championships themselves in 12 years, so to make it into the match play rounds, and even win their quarterfinal against Southern Cal, was special for this team. Like their softball counterparts, this team is returning some important pieces as well. Super sophomore Lion Kim headlines a group of returners that should be very strong in 2010. Exiting seniors Bill Rankin and Nick Pumford were the team’s leaders, but other will hopefully be able to step up, and Kim will lead the team to (hopefully) another great year in ’10.

Kelvin Grady, Come on down? Mark Snyder reports in the Detroit Free Press that Kelvin Grady, ex-Michigan point guard, may become Kelvin Grady, Michigan scat/slotback. Grady had discussed playing two sports with the coaching staff of Lloyd Carr, but nothing ever came of the football option. Now, with his departure from the Michigan basketball team, that optino may be back on the table. If such a thing does end up coming to fruition, it shall be interesting to see whether he decides to stick it out on the basketball court for at least one more year, since he’ll still be enrolled in the school.

Barbecuin’. Grills. Meat. Likin’ it. The Big House Barbecue recruiting event seems to have gone off without a hitch. There were no commitments at the time, which is probably slightly disheartening for some Michigan fans. However, the recruiting for a couple Michigan prospects may have hit overdrive, and there could be a decision or two in the coming days. More on that in this afternoon’s recruiting post. Stay tuned for it.

Posted under Basketball, Football, Other Sports, Personnel, Recruiting, Spring Coverage

Compare to the previous edition of the recruiting class rankings. After no commits last week (I think one of the first ever since I’ve been doing the rankings), there’s been plenty of action this time around:

5-25-09 Notre Dame gains commitment from Alex Welch.
5-27-09 Michigan gains commitment from Jordan Paskorz.

Mild disclaimer: I’m not going to be super-diligent about checking all 3 rating services, except in the case of new commits or if the “OMG SCOUT 400” is released.

Jordan Paskorz (hopefully) gets the defense train rolling for Michigan. Michigan’s got lots of commitments from slightly lesser-ranked guys, limiting their upside for the rest of the class. I’d be shocked if they finish the year at the top of this list.

No change for the Buckeyes.

Penn State passes Notre Dame, as their commit list is far more impressive overall at this time.

Notre Dame picks up a pretty good tight end in Alex Welch.

Antoine Lewis gets 3-star ranking from Rivals.

Nothing new for the Illini.

Lippett still unrated. ESPN ranks him higher than most of Michigan’s commits, which like, wow, you’re dumb.

Gray and Morris each get 3-star ratings from Rivals.

Zagzebski and Mason still the only Badgers holding it down.

Indiana grabs JuCo Andre Kates to get on board.

Northwestern, Purdue – 0 commits.

Posted under Basketball, Coaching, Football, Recruiting

Yeah, I’m in Ohio (yes, this is unfortunate, and no, I don’t think they have such things as “driver education programs” here), so I might be a little behind on breaking news, what with internet uncertainty and such.

I encourage you to check out any of the plethora of other great Michigan blogs until I return on Sunday-ish. I’ll still be posting in the meantime, perhaps not so much with timeliness.

By the way, softball prevailed over Alabama 6-1 in the first round of the WCWS. They’ll take on the winner of Arizona and Florida at 9PM Eastern tomorrow on ESPN.

Posted under Football, Other Sports

Via MgoBlue:

University of Michigan head baseball coach Rich Maloney announced today (Thursday, May 28) the addition of RHP Ben Ballantine (Napa, Calif./Napa) to the team’s 2009 recruiting class. Ballantine becomes the seventh prep to commit to the program and the first hailing from outside the state of Michigan.

He’s a tall pitcher with the goal of becoming the next Chris Fetter. Solid pickup.

Related Post: Baseball Recruiting: Ben Ballantine

Posted under Baseball, Recruiting

A softball preview? I’ve seriously gone off the deep end.

The Alabama Crimson Tide obviously is (are?) a good softball team. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be in the Women’s College World Series, obviously. But what exactly should we know about the Tide before tonight’s game (7PM EDT on ESPN)? For starters, they finished the year second in both the SEC and the nation to the Florida Gators in terms of win percentage, and are the #4 overall seed in the tournament. Their head coach, in his 11th season (and 11th consecutive NCAA tournament berth), is Patrick Murphy.

Pitching
Alabama’s ace, who I assume the Wolverines are likely to see tonight, is sophomore Kelsi Dunne. She is tied for 16th in the nation (with the Wolverines’ Nikki Nemitz and 3 others) with 27 wins. However, Michigan might not see her for the entire game, as she’s one of 2 players in the top 30 nationally in wins with fewer than 200 innings pitched, clocking in at 194 2/3. The Tide’s other main pitcher is junior Charlotte Morgan (we’ll learn more about her momentarily, as well), who has thrown around 140 innings. Dunne is 20th in the nation in ERA, allowing 1.37 runs per 7 innings, and 27th in the country with 8.6 strikeouts per game. Morgan is not nationally ranked in any of these categories.

Hitting
Though she’s not the Tide’s best pitcher, Morgan is certainly their best hitter. Last year, she was an All-American on the basis of her prowess at the plate. This year, she’s 33rd in the nation with a .414 batting average, and is 22nd in the country with just barely under 1 RBI per game. She’s the Tide’s main hitting weapon, as they don’t have anyone else nationally ranked (top 30) in either category. Of course, for comparison’s sake, Michigan doesn’t even have a single player ranked by those metrics – the Wolverines get it done with pitching. On top of Morgan’s hitting ability, the Crimson Tide really hurt teams with lots of stolen bases. Senior outfielder Brittany Rogers, the team’s second-best hitter, is tied for third in the country with 0.84 steals per game, and her freshman teammate Jennifer Fenton is #30 with 0.52 stolen bases in each contest. Fenton is third on the team in batting average, so being on-base more frequently allows for more stealing opportunities: it seems like Murphy really likes to get his players moving whenever they’re on the basepaths (the Tide are 1st nationally in SBs with nearly 5 per game). Put all that offense together, and you have the 5th-most prolific scoring team in the USA.

Fielding
Going back to defense, the Tide are a good fielding team as well. Their fielding percentage is .975, good for 10th in the country. They’ve committed only 40 errors on the year, so getting cheap bases will probably not happen. If you’re looking for chinks in the armor, infielders Whitney Larsen and Kelli Eubanks are the only regular starters with fielding percentages below .950 – and they also happen to be the team’s weakest hitters. Another weak fielder is extraordinarily-named Jazlyn Lunceford, who is not a starter, but has seen time in 50 of ‘Bama’s 61 games.

So, what have we learned about the Tide? They’re very strong on offense. And defense. They are very strong on offense and defense. Whereas Michigan gets it done mostly through pitching and defense (3rd in the nation in ERA, 16th in fielding percentage), Alabama gets it going on both ends, generating offense through not only hitting, but also stealing bases, all while relying on very good fielding and pitching to keep the score low for the opponents. Based on those two aspects, I would be surprised if they were anywhere other than 2nd nationally in scoring margin, though the NCAA doesn’t keep stats on that. They’re certainly a formidable first test in the WCWS, and Michigan will absolutely need to be on their game to pull out a ‘W’ tonight.

Posted under Other Sports

You have the offseason to thank for these essentially content-free posts.

The Rimington Award, given to the nation’s top center, has released its watch list for the 2009 season. At this point, it’s basically little more than a list of returning starters at teams of note, bu David Molk is on it, so pay attention we will. Molk is one of only 5 sophomores on the list, and if the offensive line makes the huge leap that most Michigan fans are expecting (more on that next week), he could stand a chance to make it through a couple rounds of cuts. (HT: DocSat)

Rivals gives a little fluffery on incoming freshman running back Teric Jones. Jones’s track exploits (10.99 100m) are discussed, along with his efforts to bulk up with past-and-future teammate Thomas Gordon, using workout techniques that they learned from Mike Barwis. Jones will be a slot/RB at Michigan.

As was expected, outgoing WR Toney Clemons will transfer to Colorado, where he is a better fit for the offensive system. Clemons was put in a really tough spot last year, forced to play a slot role that he didn’t really fit in. Best of luck to him in the future, and may he find other white rappers with whom to make dorm room videos.
D.Cone Goin In For Life.

I encourage all who can to make it out to the Softball Super Regional tomorrow at Alumni Field. The game takes place at 8PM, and tickets are available at the Michigan Ticket Office. If you’re unable to make it out, you can watch on ESPN.

Posted under Football, Other Sports, Personnel

The BigTen released their All BigTen, POTY, and Sportsmanship awards today.  Michigan has a few showing up on the lists.

FIRST TEAM
1B – Mike Dufek, MICH
SP – Chris Fetter, MICH

SECOND TEAM
OF – Ryan LaMarre, MICH

THIRD TEAM
No one

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
No one

SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD HONOREES
Kenny Fellows, MICH

I’m don’t think there was anyone who was skipped over in this list.  Lorenz stood no chance against Penn State’s Steranka for All Freshman third basemen.  McLouth had no chance against Freshman of the Year Dickerson of Indiana.  Cislo wasn’t as good this year.  Fellows probably just missed being on the third team. Berset missed too much time and would have needed a strong full campaign to overtake the 3rd team catcher.  None of our pitchers deserve all conference representation.  It was a down year, here’s hoping next year will be better.

I’ll work on getting a end of season post out tomorrow. I’m furiously packing for a trip to New York next week.  I’m also contemplating taking a couple days to float the river north of San Antonio.  So it’s probably good Michigan didn’t make the tournament, I’d be out of posting capabilities for way too long.

Posted under Baseball

The Michigan lacrosse team was utterly dominant for the second year in a row during the 2009 season. They went undefeated en route to their second consecutive national championship. Margin of victory could tell one story about the way they manhandled opponents, but it only tells part of the story. The point in the game at which Michigan scored the goal that would eventually prove to be the game-winner can show just how much control they had over their opponents after all (and shows that they could have put up much higher numbers, if not for a hesitance to run up the score).

Only in 6 games this year did Michigan not outscore the other team’s final score – in the first half. Throw in the fact that most teams scored a garbage goal or two at the very end, and… wow. And just for good measure, Michigan’s leading scorer against the other team:

Even if Michigan was only allowed to count one player’s goals in each game, they would have gone 4-9-6 against one of the toughest schedules in the country. Considering that there are 35 members on a lacrosse team, and not just one, this was indeed a dominant team.

Posted under Other Sports