A series exploring the commitments (and subsequent decommitments) of Michigan’s lost members of the class of 2009. This one has by far the most literary-sounding title.

The Commitment
Pearlie Graves’s recruitment stayed under the radar until he committed to Michigan. He was offered in the summer, but most fans thought that he was to be forgotten about when Dequinta Jones went blue. However, the Wolverine coaches stayed on Graves, and even when he came on an official visit to Ann Arbor, most Michigan fans thought “what a waste for a guy that isnt coming here.” In late November, he pulled the trigger for Michigan, and fans were no longer down on him, as he had become a 4-star to at least one site.

The Decommitment
For much of the recruiting process following Graves’s commitment, most Michigan fans thought that he was more likely to stick with Michigan than fellow DT DeQuinta Jones. He made little mention of taking other visits (though he had apparently gone on some without alerting the recruiting sites or even Michigan’s coaches). Still, he seemed likely to stick until the very end, when Big 12 teams and even a couple from the SEC came calling. Graves said he would make his final decision on Signing Day, and by that time Michigan’s chances looked rather grim. Indeed, when he faxed in National Letter of Intent, it went to Lubbock, Texas rather than Ann Arbor.

The Impact
This one hurt. Though Michigan landed Big Will Campbell in the class of ’09, they needed more than one defensive tackle, and whiffing on two guys (both of whom considered themselves “committed” to Michigan up until the last minute) on Signing Day was a major blow. Michian now finds itself in need of multiple defensive tackles for the second year in a row, and the class of 2010 is not nearly as strong at the position was was last year’s crop.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

Good news friends, Michigan defeats CMU in a much closer game than the score suggests. Michigan was down early, but starting in the 6th inning, the Wolverines started to claw back. They finally broke through in the late innings to steal the game from Chippewas, showing just how complete of a team they really are. They even threw up a big 5 run inning to close out the game.

Michigan was lead by their leadoff-hitting second baseman who went 3 for 4 with a run and an RBI. They set the plate for the second hole left fielder to collect an RBI. Speaking of the left fielder, they also scored a pair of runs. One of those came off the bat of our monster 3-hole hitting outfielder who blasted a home run to left center.

Starting pitching went well for the Wolverines. The starter lasted 7 innings giving up only 2 runs (1 earned). Great start by the righty. The starter only gave up 3 hits, walked 2, and struck out 7. Great quality start, I can’t get enough of it.

Box Score											R	H	E
Michigan	0	0	0		0	0	2		5		7	9	2
CMU	1	0	0		0	0	0		1		2	3	2

Congrats to the Michigan softball team for retaining their winning poise over a vastly inferior CMU team.

Posted under Other Sports

After a round of alpha testing, the Varsity Blue Forum is ready to go live. There are categories for the main topics we cover here on Varsity Blue, including Football, Basketball, Baseball, and recruiting. You can also hit up the general discussion and off-topic areas to talk about other things.

Check it out, start a thread or two, participate in a couple others, and hopefully this thing can get rockin’ and rollin’.

Also: don’t forget to listen to the WTKA remote at Spring Practice today, from 3-6 on 1050AM in Ann Arbor, or WTKA.com anywhere else.

Posted under Blog News

As an alternative to the in depth preview of Illinois, I participated in a little bit of Q&A with Illinois’s baseball blogger Tom Nelshoppen, formerly with Baseball Zealot.  The new site is Illinois Baseball Report, and it does some great justice to the college baseball program in Champaign.   Tom works in the IT department for UI and is an avid baseball fan.  The guy covers baseball as I could only dream from this distance.

To see my half of the Q&A, visit the IBR.  I’m growing less positive, but I swear I’m trying to leave some hope.  As I said, this will be the alternative to the in depth preview as it covers a lot of what I do already.  I’ll still have a short post up for the weekend on Friday morning for final notes, media, and probable pitchers.  On to the questions:

Question 1:

I see last year’s closer Ben Reeser has made the jump to starter most impressively this season, but despite his shiny 2.01 ERA and 12:37 walk-to-strikeout ration, he’s only accumulated 3 wins in 6 starts. Is it the bullpen or the lack of offense that is keeping his win total down?

Arggh! You just made me flash back to last Saturday’s loss against Indiana when Reeser was just one strike away from a 1-0 shutout. So in that case, yes, it was a case of lack of offense. I’m sure that was a tough one for Ben.

Reeser’s pitched great all year and has just been the recipient of some tough luck no-decisions. Fortunately, many have been wins for the Illini.

Question 2:

Speaking of pitching, I can’t help but notice these ERA and opponent batting average numbers for Illinois starters. I’ve heard all sorts of positives from the LSU series, but just how good is this starting pitching staff?

More specifically, which three starters do we see and who is the weakest link, if one exists?

No doubt we have good pitching but it’s the depth in Illinois’ rotation that has really helped them. Pitchers like Will Strack, Bryan Roberts and Lee Zerrusen have really stepped in when we needed them. Strack surprised some with his shutout against Michigan State two weekends ago. And every time I look at Roberts’ ERA and do a double take because he’s only allowed three runs in past three starts over 21 innings.

This weekend, my guess is that you will see Phil Haig (who had a rough last couple starts but I think he’s coming around), Reeser, and Roberts.

If the Orange and Blue can avoid the big inning by Michigan, they’ll do okay.

Question 3:

Looking over the offense, the Illini have some impressive batting averages (team: .313, starters: .327) and some decent but not great extra base hit totals – 7th in slugging percentage in the Big10. It appears Brandon Wickoff is still an absolute monster (.402 BA, 25 R, .529 slugging, only 4 K in 102 ABs). Is he still batting third and is there a way to pitch around him? Are the batters behind him that much of a threat?

Wikoff is indeed a catalyst on our team. Last night against Bradley, he continued his torrid pace by hitting for the cycle (first Illini to do so since 1990) raising his average to .421. It goes without saying that Wik is an essential part of our offense.

That said, our offensive threat continues all the way down the lineup. If Michigan pitchers want to pitch around Wikoff, be my guest. Cleanup hitter Dom Altobelli is an obvious threat at the plate (.333, 26 rbis) and #5 guy Aaron Johnson simply loves to hit with runners on base (.366, 4 hr, 28 rbi).

Question 4:

On defense, third basemen Altobelli’s fielding percentage at third base. Is he having trouble with run of the mill ground balls, throwing the ball across the diamond, slow rolling bunts, or a little bit of everything? Or, is he just the recipient of some bad luck? I can’t see his bat leaving the lineup, so do you think Michigan will test him at the hot corner?

It’s true, defense has been an issue for Altobelli, especially during the early part of the year. But rumor has it, he’s been working on it. Those who watched the Indiana series last weekend saw the difference. He made the plays he should have and maybe some others wouldn’t have.

I’m expecting the improvement to continue.

Question 5:

Speaking of defense, Illinois appears to be collecting quite a few double plays this season. They rank 9th in the nation in double plays per game by the last NCAA statistics release (3/29/09). Michigan has been all about crippling double plays at times this season (see: Arizona currently leading the nation in double plays per game). Are we going to see a lot of sinking fastballs and splitters this weekend? If so, who from?

Wow, I hadn’t seen that. Since our pitchers don’t strike out a whole lot of batters (Reeser excepted), placement of the pitch is so important. Fortunately, they do it well, keeping the ball down.

Our keystone combination of Brandon Wikoff and Josh Parr are above par (sorry, I couldn’t resist) so I give them a lot of credit for those numbers.

By the way, I just noticed that Indiana surpassed Illinois in DP numbers this week.

Question 6:

Speaking of Michigan crippling itself, Illinois doesn’t appear to be dominating in the strikeout column. I don’t even have a question for you. I just wanted to point out that I think the Illini Ks-per-9-innings is going up this weekend. Call it a hunch.

Hehe, that may be. Your point is well taken about Illinois’ strikeout rate. Reeser has 37 Ks in 40+ innings but no other starter approaches that (though Roberts’ is decent at 25 Ks in 30 2/3). Phil Haig doesn’t strike out a ton of batters but his walk rate is good.

Question 7:

How is starting second baseman Josh Parr doing? I noticed he left a game this last weekend against Indiana. Nothing serious I hope? Would Bonadonna take over second base if he is out? And speaking of Bonadonna, what happened with him? I see he’s still stealing bases like a mad man, but the average has plummeted from last year.

Thanks for asking. The word is that Parr will be back for this coming weekend’s series against Michigan. He made an appearance last night against Bradley as a pinch hitter. I’m glad to hear it since Parr has been an invaluable part of this team from the very start (4 for 4 in his college debut).

As for Joe Bonadonna, Coach Hartleb had confidence in him in the early part of the season when his batting average was quite low. It was a good call because I think it’s starting to pay off. Bonadonna had a key role in a couple games that really paid off for the team. He’s starting to turn it around offensively.

Besides that, Bonadonna brings so much more to the game. You already alluded to the baserunning aspect. His defense in centerfield is superb as we found out last weekend against Indiana. Finally, Joe is starting to develop as a leader within the clubhouse and the dugout. I’m keeping an eye on him.

So that concludes this part of the Q&A, remember to check in with IBR for my answers to Tom’s questions.  Thanks so much to Tom for making this happen.

Now, on to more pressing matters, like brushing my teeth… I just opened the CMU box score and threw up a bit in my mouth.  [formerlyanonymous shutters then walks away slowly. /scene]

Posted under Baseball

Since I haven’t had the chance yet, I’ll take this opportunity to promote the MGoBlog/VB tailgate before the spring game that Brian mentioned yesterday. The details are: 9AM near the bus stop outside Crisler Saturday morning. For more info, check out the planning thread on MGoBoard.

The 2010 Recruiting Board can be found here. There’s still plenty more info to get out this week, so Friday’s Spring Game Edition of the Recruiting Update may include some non-weekend-related items as well.

As has been widely speculated, Michigan leads for LA QB Munchie LeGaux. With Blake Sims committing to Alabama, LeGaux might be the best option for a 2nd QB in the class at this time. LeGaux photo by Matthew Hinton (not that Matt Hinton?) of the Times-Picayune.

The author of this article seems to think that TX RB Lache Seastrunk has narrowed his list of choices to just 4 schools: Texas, Oklahoma, Auburn, and LSU. I’m skeptical for several reasons: 1) That’s the first I’ve heard of that, and 2) That article was so poorly written as to reduce its credibility to near-zero levels. Take it with a grain of salt.

OH RB Erick Howard has stated in no uncertain terms that he would like to play for Ohio State. This would appear to mean bad things for Michigan’s chances. Of course, he doesn’t boast an impressive offer list yet (despite being Ohio’s Mr. Football last year), and in the past, Michigan has made a living off Ohio players that didn’t end up with Buckeye offers. If he is deemed to be worthy of a Michigan offer, that tradition may continue.

To piggyback off the previous note, Michigan may be trying to develop something of a pipeline throughout the various high shcools of Canton, Ohio (even traditional Michigan feeder school Massillon Washington is in a Canton suburb). Jerald Robinson (Canton South) is already committed for the class of 2009, Jewone Snow (McKinley) is the son of former Michigan great Garland Rivers, and Howard is a prospect. This area is a strong one for Ohio high school football, and if we’ve seen one definite trend in this staff’s recruiting, it’s trying to develop pipelines (Pahokee, Apopka, Cass Tech, Liberty). And recruiting little guys. If we’ve seen two definite trends in this staff’s…

Fluff on FL WRs DeJoshua Johnson and Fred Pickett. Johnson will likely play QB for Pahokee this year, but may play WR alongside Pickett.

Buried in an article on Jay Cutler is the following (not particularly enlightening) information on FL OL Brent Benedict:

As Bolles School offensive tackle Brent Benedict, one of the nation’s top prospects, spent his spring break last week making unofficial visits to six out-of-state schools, Florida coach Urban Meyer sent him a bunch of text messages. On Friday, while competing as a shot-putter at the Florida Relays, Benedict planned to attend a Gators practice and have dinner with Meyer. Memo to Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin: Such contact is legal as long as Benedict remains on UF’s campus. …

As of now, it doesn’t sound like he’s strongly considering Michigan, particularly because his big visit swing didn’t include any schools in the North, much less a trip to Ann Arbor.

A few notes on MN OL Seantrel Henderson. He has his trips in mind (remember, he said Michigan was likely to be his only lock for an official visit at this time). A local Minneapolis columnist said Seantrel’s ready to start taking visits, obviously ignoring the fact that he’s already been to Michigan and Michigan State.

NC OL Robert Crisp has committed to NC State, and he’s been removed from the board.

AL DE Martaze Jackson has been nominated to participate in the Army All-American game. This is a phase of the process of which I had been previously unaware:

Of the 400 nominees, 90 will ultimately be selected and invited to this year’s 10th anniversary game. 

OH LB Jordan Hicks has been selected to play in the ESPNU/Under Armour All American Game. He reports a Michigan offer, and will whittle his list of possibilities down to 10 by his spring break, which one must assume is coming right up.

MI LB Austin Gray, who was considered to be a possible Michigan lean if he ever got an offer, took an unofficial visit to Iowa last weekend and committed. I’ll leave him on the board for now, because if Michigan ever decides to offer, they might be able to hop back into the race for him.

The Wolverines have tendered an offer for MD LB Troy Gloster (info in header). Gloster hails for Good Counsel Academy, home of 2009 prospect Jelani Jenkins, as well as 2010 Stanford decommit CB Louis Young.

LA S Ronnie Vinson doesn’t have one school atop his list, but has 6 favorites that stand out among his other offers. USC, UCLA, Alabama, Michigan, LSU, and Ole Miss are the schools he’s focusing on most at this point (info in header).

PA CB Cullen Christian, who has long held the Wolverines as his favorite, is now putting a number to that assumption: He says there’s an 85% chance he ends up playing for Rich Rodriguez (info in header).

Posted under Football

Since midweek games now mean absolutely nothing toward the Michigan campaign to reach the NCAA tournament, they will start getting less coverage. This week we face off with Central Michigan Chippewas (the first of two Indian Native American tribes visiting Ann Arbor this week), who, like most other midweek games we’ve played this season, are not supposed to be that good.

Weather for the game appears to be a mass improvement over the start of the week:

Generally sunny despite a few afternoon clouds. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 52F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.

West winds means straight in from right. Don’t look for too many high high fly balls to right to carry over the Blue Brick Monster.

For Central Michigan

My guess for starter is last week’s midweek guy, freshman lefty Rick Dodridge, who just came off his career best start.

The win over Wayne State was good enough to win MAC Western Division Pitcher of the Week. The CMU sports information directors haven’t released the probable pitchers for the week, so I’m going to guess this guy.

Things to note about CMU:

• Their batters walk… a lot. They currently rank 16th in the nation.
• Their pitchers strike out plenty of batters. They rank 60th with 8Ks/9IP.
• They rank top 100 also in: Runs Scored (not runs per game however), Stolen Bases, Sac Bunts, and Double Plays (not DPs per game however).
• Nate Theunissen is their power hitter with 28 RBI, 5 HR, 2 3B, and 5 2B (.621 slugging).
• Billy Anderson and Rhett Goodmiller get on base a lot (both over .450 OB%). Anderson is the stolen base threat (14-14 on the year).

For Michigan

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sinnery or Wood start this game. Sinnery did see some action this weekend, so he may miss his start in favor of Wood. As of yet, the SID hasn’t announced the probables, so your guess is as good as mine.

Other Notes

It’s a Wednesday game, which can only mean one thing: MICHIGAN BASEBALL BINGO NIGHT! As per MGoBlue.com:

Wednesday, April 8, vs. Central Michigan, 6:05 p.m.
• Michigan Baseball Bingo — All fans in attendance will receive a Michigan baseball bingo card. The first five BINGO winners will receive a great Michigan prize!

And here’s Tim’s description of how Bingo works.

They distribute standard Bingo cards to anyone who wants them. Apparently, Paul and I aren’t eligible, because I certainly would have wanted one last game we went to. Then, at the end of each inning, they draw as many different numbers as Michigan batters get up during the inning (i.e. if we go 3up 3down, they only draw three numbers). Said numbers are announced over the loudspeaker. I’ve never seen somebody win, but I assume you stand up and shout “Bingo” and generally act like a lunatic to let them know you won. At this time, a prize is presumably distributed to you.

Posted under Baseball

A series exploring the commitments (and subsequent decommitments) of Michigan’s lost members of the class of 2009. SPOILER ALERT: This one has a happy ending.

The Commitment
Michigan fans undoubtedly remember the least about William Campbell’s commitment, if only because it took place long, long before any othermembers of the class of 2009 committed to Rich Rodriguez. In fact, he didn’t even commit to Rodriguez at first: he committed to Lloyd Carr in the summer of 2007, after attending Michigan’s summer camp. For some context, that would be like Michigan receiving a verbal commitment for the Class of 2011 sometime this summer. When Rodriguez took the helm in Ann Arbor, Campbell didn’t wait long to reaffirm his commitment to the Wolverines.

The Decommitment
The entire time he was committed to Michigan, Campbell said he would like to take visits to other schools. He insisted he was firmly committed to Michigan, with no chance of anyone prying him away, but that he’d like to travel around the country and see Miami, Baton Rouge, and Los Angeles (Pete Carroll didn’t agree: he refused to host Campbell on an official visit, because he thought it would be impossible to pry Big Will away from Michigan).  When several schools told Campbell that they wouldn’t pay for his trip to their campuses, he decommitted from Michigan, in order to prove that he would at least welcome their recruiting pitches. His decommitment hit Michigan fans particularly hard, because it came within days of Then-5* QB commitment Kevin Newsome’s decommitment.

The Impact
The William Campbell story here takes several twists and turns. Michigan fans shudder every time he takes a visit, internet creeps by the name of “Dandy Don” say it’s 60-40 he’ll end up at LSU, and there is growing uncertainty that he’s as “basically still committed to UM” as he was when he originally decommitted. All this tension builds up to Army All-American week, and upon his arrival, Campbell states that he will no longer consider Michigan. After letting out a stream of expletives, most Michigan fans hope he’s just joking around. In the end, he re-commits to the Wolverines at the Army Game, enrolls early, and lives happily ever after the end. If anything, Campbell’s decommitment gave the Wolverines a better shot at landing a (much-needed) second defensive tackle in the class, though they were unable to close with any.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

OK, I don’t feel guilty doing it today, since there is plenty of good content already published and upcoming, and I don’t have an Unverified Voracity-like Substance to throw random interesting things into.

• After running a 10.44 100m dash last week, incoming freshman QB Denard Robinson ran a 10.28 over the weekend. At this pace, he should be teleporting to the finish line in 0 seconds by the time he gets to ann Arbor in the summer. So, as established, Mr. Robinson is fast. I would expect the coaches to have a package of plays designed for him to run this fall.
• After announcing his plans to transfer from the University of Miami, QB Robert Marve had Michigan on his list of five schools to which he would consider transferring. This was confusing to Michigan fans, because the Wolverines have little use for a pocket passer with 2 years of eligibility remaining. Rest easy, as he’s removed Michigan from his list of options, and replaced it with Arizona State. He cited “crowded QB situation” following the commitment of Devin Gardner, rather than the obvious “they probably couldn’t use my skill set.” Being afraid to beat out a true freshman (who is, by his own admission, a bit of a project) is something of a concern, especially for a guy who’s been the starter at his old school. Best of luck to Marve in the future. 
• After Brian’s discussion of GERG’s potential 3-4/4-3 hybrid mega-confusing defense, noted X-and-Os expert GSimmons85 has given it his shot to educate the Michigan fandom on defensive fronts, alignments, and what it all might mean for the Wolverines’ D next year. 
• Michigan Sports Center keeps you update with Alumni Flag Game rosters.
• In the St. Paul Pioneer Press, you can find a truly touching story about former Michigan baseball player Mike Watters, his son’s struggle with cancer, and his meeting of a parentless young cancer patient named Victor (via MVictors).
• Maize N Brew Dave gives his take on what the death of the Ann Arbor News might mean for the Michigan blogosphere, and how the role of the blog is likely to change fairly radically in the very near future. His take seems a little more dire than I might expect, and I think blogs will continue having the same ability to come up with content that we do now, but perhaps with even more access, which is definitely a good thing. Be honest, how often do most Michigan blogs link the AA News as the basis for an entire post? Not very frequently, in my memory. Maybe a Jim Carty column or two from back in the day, but that’s about it.

Posted under Analysis, Baseball, Coaching, Football, Spring Coverage

With the Upon Further Review series, I attempted to dissect the performance of individuals and lineups throughout Michigan’s basketball season. Though I didn’t start until halfway through the year (and didn’t UFR the last couple games), the aggregation of all the data may help us learn a bit more about the Michigan basketball team this season. Once football spring practice is over, I may go back to all the games I didn’t UFR, and get the plus/minus data for every game, which could certainly teach us something about the effectiveness of different combinations. For now, however, I’ll just add up the shooting data for each player over the course of the games UFRed.

Games included: Iowa III, Purdue II, Iowa II, Minnesota I, Northwestern II, Michigan State, UConn, Purdue I, Minnesota II, Wisconsin II, Ohio State II, Northwestern I, Ohio State I, Penn State I, Illinois II, Iowa I, Indiana, Illinois I, Oakland, Wisconsin I, NC Central

Individual Players

Stu Douglass
Quality	0	1	2	3	F
Lane	2	0/1	1/4	5/7	0/4
Midrange		0/3	3/4	1/2
3-pt		3/16	19/51	16/31	0/1

The overwhelming majority of Stu’s shots came from the outside (which is not surprising at all). What is somewhat surprising is how infrequently he jacked up bad looks. Expect his chart to look pretty different next year, as the departure of every point guard currently on the roster will force Stu to play a little more point.

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Zack Gibson
Quality	0	1	2	3	F
Lane	1	0/7	7/9	12/13	1/5
Midrange	2	2/4	2/4	3/5
3-pt	1	0/1	3/11	6/12

The casual Michigan Basketball fan can’t hate Zack Gibson enough (and there are a few legitimate reasons to not like his game), but he is actually a pretty darned good player at times. He can be a defensive liability, which obviously isn’t indicated on this chart, and he’s never going to dominate anyone offensively, but he is the quintessential role player.

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Manny Harris
Quality	0	1	2	3	F
Lane	10	7/41	17/33	27/29	9/37
Midrange	3	0/20	11/25	2/5	5/15
3-pt	1	7/43	18/42	5/8

The striking thing about Manny’s chart, especially in relation to everyone else on the team, is his shot selection. He shots a whole hell of a lot of bad looks. The reasons for this are multiple, and some are Manny’s fault, whereas others aren’t. Things that are his fault? Obviously, he needs to improve his recognition of what he’s getting himself into as he drives the lane, and not go for it, or dish after driving. Even when he gets up in the air, he can get enough hangtime to hopefully pass out. He also shoots a lot of poor 3-pointers, though he seemed to develop a touch for making them towards the end of the year (sadly, not encapsulated in this chart). Things that aren’t his fault include having to carry the load on offense, getting stuck with the vast majority of the team’s last-second chucks to beat the shot clock, not being able to draw a foul call to save his life (those are in the chart as “1” attempts, even though many of them were definitely deserving of a call). With a hopefully improved roster next year, some of the external factors will go away completely or be reduced, and Manny could really improve his offensive efficiency.

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CJ Lee
Quality	0	1	2	3	F
Lane	2	1/1	1/3	5/6	0/1
Midrange		0/1	1/2		0/2
3-pt		0/2	3/20	3/12

He was never meant to be an offensive player, and his (in)ability to consistently shoot bears out why.

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Laval Lucas-Perry
Quality	0	1	2	3	F
Lane	3	0/8	2/3	5/8	1/18
Midrange		0/3	2/7	3/7	0/1
3-pt	2	3/9	17/40	11/29

After a blazing start to the season, he hit something of a wall (as did the other two freshmen), shooting more and more poorly over the course of the season, with a few excellent games mixed in. Next year, he’ll probably have to play more of a slashing PG-type role, which he actually did very well at times this year, to the point where I was begging for it in certain games toward the end of the year.

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Zack Novak
Quality	0	1	2	3	F
Lane	5		3/3	3/3	1/6
Midrange		0/1	1/3	1/2	0/2
3-pt	4	8/21	15/41	10/25	0/2

I will repeat again that all three freshmen had their hot games and slumps. Novak is probably the most prone to this, because he was playing a position in which he was a physical underdog in every game, and was getting the hell beaten out of him on a regular basis. Next year, hopefully Cronin, Morgan, and McLimans will be able to give the team a little more size on a consistent basis, and Zack will be able to move to a more natural position.

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Jevohn Shepherd
Quality	0	1	2	3	F
Lane	4	2/2	1/3	1/1	2/9
Midrange		0/1	1/2
3-pt			1/7	1/2

I don’t think I went an entire UFR of a game Shepherd played in one time this year without making the following statement: “Quintessential Jevohn Shepherd. He shows off his great athleticism and stunning lack of basketball ability all at once.”

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DeShawn Sims
Quality	0	1	2	3	F
Lane	8	7/22	26/49	41/44	8/24
Midrange		4/17	26/57	9/11	1/3
3-pt	1	3/7	8/35	4/9

Among shots that fans can reasonably expect him to make (that is, those graded “2” or “3”), he shoots ridiculously well. He also did a much better job than the team’s other star, Manny, of choosing his shots wisely. He would take big post defenders out toward the perimeter, or post up smaller mismatches. Sims has one more year to get even better, and with more big men on next year’s team, hopefully be entirely dominant next year.

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David Merritt
Quality	0	1	2	3	F
Lane			1/1	1/2
Midrange		0/2	0/1	1/1
3-pt	1		4/10	1/5

At one point late in the season, he was actually leading the team in 3-point percentage. Like Lee, this sort of analysis isn’t going to make him look like a great player, because he does so little on offense.

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Kelvin Grady
Quality	0	1	2	3	F
Lane	2		4/7	0/2	0/2
Midrange			1/2	0/1
3-pt		1/6	10/32	4/16

This graph surprises me, because Kelvin was one of the few players on this team that I was absolutely convinced would make the shot any time I saw him shoot an open 3. His loss will be lamented, because it hurts Michigan in terms of PG depth (currently: none).

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Anthony Wright
Quality	0	1	2	3	F
Lane					1
Midrange
3-pt		1/2	1/5	2/4

Man, I’m so over talking shit about Anthony Wright. His awesome performance in the Oklahoma game is not charted here, but he actually wasn’t as much of a “see the ball, shoot the ball” player as I’ve criticized him for (at least not in the second half of the season, when his minutes dropped off, which is what I’ve charted here).

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Eric Puls
Quality	0	1	2	3	F
Lane
Midrange			1/1	0/1
3-pt			2/3

One hundred million dollars of awesome. Puls made his first like 5 three-pointers, which also happened to be his first 5 field goal attempts. If he can get Barwisized in the off-season (seriously: have him work out with the football team), he could contribute down the road, because dude can certainly shoot.

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Posted under Analysis, Baseball, Basketball, Misc.

I think it’s safe to say after this weekend, getting a top 3 seed in the BigTen Tournament is virtually out of the question. Michigan dropped two of three at home against Penn State, a team who will probably end up just over .500 in conference. Michigan continued its same struggles with relief pitching. The offense continued to leave a bunch of runners on base, 28 in 3 games. The defense let 9 unearned runs score. The catchers gave 2 free bases away due to catcher’s interference. It was just a rough weekend all around.

Game 1

Box Score															R	H	E
PSU	0	0	0		0	3	1		0	0	0		2		6	10	2
Michigan	2	0	1		0	1	0		0	0	0		0		4	7	1

W – Ignas (3-0) L – Matt Miller (0-1) Sv – None

Chris Fetter got the shaft in this game. He pitched 8 innings, on 7 hits, 2 earned runs, 2 walks, and 11 strikeouts; he didn’t get the win, much less a decision. In his longest start (pitch count 136(!)) in well over a year, he posted 4 different 3 up-3 down innings highlighted by a three strikeout inning in the fourth.

He did get into trouble in the 5th inning, but had the game still in hand. He gave up two runs on a couple hits, but with two outs, Timmy Kalczynski let a ball get by him to allow the unearned run to score from third. In the 6th, again with two outs, John Lorenz made a throwing error to allow a second unearned run to score. That’d be all the runs scored against Fetter, but it was enough to tie the game.

The Michigan offense started the game fairly well. After loading the bases to lead off the first, Mike Dufek grounded out to the second basemen allowing a run to score. The second baseman flipped to second to force LaMarre out, but the short stop’s throw to first went wild, allowing Fellows to score as well. Michigan had the early 2-0 advantage.

The bottom of the order went quietly in the 2nd, but the top of the lineup went back to work in the third. After Cislo lead off with a single, he would steal second base and set up a Ryan LaMarre RBI double.

Cislo also lead off the 5th by working a 7 pitch walk. Fellows followed with a hit by the pitch. With Cislo in scoring position once again, Ryan LaMarre singled to center to drive the run in.

The score would stay tied at 4 until the top of the 10th inning. Deese singled off Miller to start the inning and would steal second. We intentionally walked Steranka to set up a potential inning ending double play. That didn’t happen. A pair of singles later saw the Nittany Lions go up 6-4, a lead they wouldn’t relinquish

Notable Stars

• Chris Fetter – 8 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 11 K
• Kevin Cislo – 3/3 3R, BB, SB, 2B, SACB
• Ryan LaMarre – 2/3 2 RBI, 2 BB, 2B

Notable Goats

• John Lorenz – Error lead to a run
• Nick Urban – Called out on batter’s interference
• Jake McLouth – 0/3 2 K, 3 LOB

Other Notes

• Notes

Game 2

Box Score													R	H	E
PSU	0	0	0		0	0	0		5	0	0		5	9	0
Michigan	0	0	0		0	0	2		5	2	x		9	13	3

W – Eric Katzman (5-2) L – Kelley (4-4) Sv – Dufek (3)

So at least the score worked out in our favor this time. Yet again, we saw a great pitching performance nearly squandered, this time by Eric Katzman. Katzman has hit a hot streak again, and I’m hoping it continues this way for the next few weeks. In this game he went 7.1 innings, allowing 7 hits and 5 runs (2 earned), on 3 walks and 5 strikeouts. Katzman, like Fetter in game one, also threw well over his usual number of pitches, finishing with an even 120 on the day. He, again like Fetter, also had 4 different 3 up/3 down innings. If he could pitch like this every week, he’d be up for BigTen pitcher of the year with Fetter.

The one blemish on the night came in the 7th inning when Penn State scored 5 runs. Katzman allowed a double and single to open the inning, but got two quick outs via fly ball and strikeout. Things were looking good until the next batter singled up the middle to give up two runs (only earned runs of the inning). On the play, LaMarre committed a throwing error. The error lead to a run on the very next play, a single. The next batter would ground the ball to John Lorenz; unfortunately, that didn’t end the inning either. Two runners would score on the wild throw by Lorenz, plating 3 unearned runs in the frame. Michigan was down 5-2. Ball sack.

The good news is Michigan didn’t give up. In the bottom half of the 7th, Kalczynski, who would both lead off and end the inning, started things off with a solo home run. A pitching change for Penn State turned out poorly as the next batter, Toth, would be hit by the pitch followed by a Cislo walk. Fellows then sacrificed the runners over, leaving LaMarre (who also homered the inning before) with an easy two RBIs by way of the single. Dufek then cleared the bases with a home run of his own. That’s a five run inning of Michigan’s own.

LaMarre wasn’t done. The next inning, after a lead off single by Toth, he would blast his second home run of the day. Michigan then had the 9-5 lead they wouldn’t give up.

Notable Stars

• Eric Katzman – 7.1 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W
• Ryan LaMarre – 4/5 5 RBI, 3 R, 2 HR, 2B
• Alan Oaks – 3/3 R, RBI, HR, 2 2B
• Mike Dufek – 1.2 IP, 2 H, 2 K, 0 R; 1/5 2 RBI, R, HR

Notable Goats

• Ryan LaMarre – Throwing error for a run, also didn’t end the inning leading to the following:
• John Lorenz – Throwing error for 2 runs
• Tim Kalcyznski – catcher’s interference for a free base
• Coley Crank – 0/4 K as DH

Other Notes

• notes

Game 3

Box Score													R	H	E
PSU	1	0	1		2	5	3		0	4	0		16	20	2
Michigan	2	0	0		2	0	0		0	0	1		5	8	3

W – Cianciolo (2-0) L -Travis Smith (4-3) Sv – None

I made it back home to catch the last few innings of this game. I almost wish I hadn’t. Michigan threw 6 pitchers in this game. Only two, Vangheluwe and ALAN OAKS, had what I would consider to be success (not that they didn’t give up any runs, but that they didn’t give up more runs than innings pitched). The emphasis on Alan Oaks isn’t really that emphatic, he has two appearances in 2007. Those two appearances were opposite ends of the spectrum. The first was a third of an inning against EMU where he hit a couple batters and walked one to give up a run on no hits. His second came against Vandy in the regional where he pitched a scoreless/hitless 1.2 innings with a walk and a strikeout (against that year’s manbearfreak of college baseball Pedro Alvarez).

The only other good came off the bats of LaMarre, Dufek, and Crank who each homered, and Alan Oaks who went 2/5 with a double.

The rest of the game was just bad. Crank (one run) and Kalcyznski each had an error at catcher. Toth had one for good measure too (2 runs). Crank also had a passed ball for an unearned run. Kalczynski also gave up a free base to a catcher’s interference call. Twice in as many games? Timmy Kal, back of the plate, man.

Notable Stars

• Alan Oaks – 2/5 2B; 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, K, HBP

Notable Goats

• Toth, Crank, Kalczynski – reasons listed in that last paragraph of the recap
• Mike Wilson – .2 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, BB (there were more runs, but not his fault)
• Matt Gerbe – 0.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 BF
• Kevin Cislo – 0/4 3 LOB

Other Notes

• Notes

Wrap Up

We’re tied (4-way) for fifth, and only 1 game behind the first place team. That is lucky as hell after the way we’ve played the last two weekends. My expectations for the team are falling pretty fast. With the massive amount of inconsistency, added with the sloppy play all weekend on defense, I’m not sure we get higher than a 4 seed in the BTT now. But as Eric Sorenson states, it can be done:

Hmmm, with the rest of the Big 10 playing some wicked-good baseball, maybe this signifies a paradigm shift at the top. Minnesota, fresh off a series win over No. 24 Ohio State, and Illinois, who lost two of three vs. Indiana, now take the reins of the top of the conference standings. There IS a way back for the Maize and Blue though. The Wolverines host both the Illini and the Gophers starting next week with UI.

The good news is the power part of the offense seems to be clicking right now. The bad news is the manufacturing of runs is still way low. We did see a slight increase in sacrifice bunts over the last two weeks, and they did lead to some runs. That said though, Michigan still stranded 28 runners in the series. We’ve got to start getting those runs in. We hit into 4 double plays this weekend, 3 in the Game 1 loss. We struck out 27 times as well, including 12 times in the Game 1 loss and 10 in the Game 3 loss.

Tim Kalcyznski was quoted in the Daily as thus:

“This could be a turning point,” Kalczynski said. “It could go one of two ways. It could go uphill really fast or downhill really fast. It’s just a matter of how mentally tough we are and how we respond.”

Next weekend is our chance to redeem ourselves and perhaps jump ahead in the standings. Michigan hosts the top team in the BigTen standings in Illinois. The Illini sit atop alone (two teams are tied for second at 3-2) with a 4-2 record. The Illini swept Michigan State in week 1 of Big10 play, but dropped 2 games this weekend at Indiana. The Illini feature some great pitching, so it may be tough pickings for runs again this weekend.

As for the midweek, the Akron game has already been canceled due to the snow storm (ha! It’s 75 degrees where I’m at today, and that’s after a cold front). The Wednesday game versus Central Michigan is still set for 6:05pm.

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