I fell asleep before the announcement. Without futher delay…

WR Daryl Stonum (6’2″+, 180, 4.40) from Sugarland, TX Dulles (alma mater of incoming freshmen Brandon Herron and Troy Woolfolk) has committed to the Michigan Wolverines. Scout ranks him as the #15 Wide Receiver in the country, but his ranking is likely to improve over time. He picked the Maize and Blue over USC and Florida.

This commitment is Michigan’s fourth from Texas over the last two recruiting classes, and the Wolverines are perhaps opening a pipeline in the Lonestar State. This is especially true if RB Sam McGuffie (he of Youtube fame) commits to Michigan as well.

Bill Martin has mentioned playing games in regions with large alumni bases or to help recruiting, so maybe we’ll see a home and home with a Texas team at some point in the future.

Posted under Recruiting

This is usually Tim’s territory, but he’s currently up North, so he left me to monitor the commitments over this weekend. He sent me an e-mail letting me know that Daryl Stonum was going to announce this Sunday as well as be on the look out for a commit from Sam McGuffie. So I did my homework on those two guys so I won’t sound completely like a fish out of water.

So I get home from work around 10pm and check Scout for any Stonum news. I see an article that says “Michigan Gets Commit #9!” So I’m getting ready to throw the stuff up about Stonum or McGuffie when I click the link and see John Wienke’s kind of smiling picture staring back at me.

So… Michigan gets its clip-board holder for the Ryan Mallet era. Luckily John Wienke (6’5″ 205lbs) looks to be a decent back-up prospect. He was selected as an Elite 11 Quarterback and put up some decent numbers (3221 yards. 56% completion rate, and 34 TDs to only 7 INTs) his junior year at Tuscola HS.

I’ll update the recruiting chart and keep my eye on Stonum’s announcement that should on around 11:15pm EDT.

Posted under Recruiting

Featuring 17 home games, and a non-conference slate of BC, Minnesota, BU, Wisconsin, and Providence.

Check it out on mgoblue

Posted under Hockey

Fuck you, Brian Cook.

Posted under Analysis

The Free Press is reporting that Martin has offered Beilein the job and he should respond in about 24 hours. Brian has noted certain rumblings on the internets that would seem to support the claim.

No official words yet, but hopefully we’ll see something soon.

Posted under Basketball

In case you have been in a cave the previous day (I was kind of in a green beer induced cave) Amaker has been fired. While the response from some Michigan bloggers can only be described as euphoria, some people feel differently.

Tom Izzo spits some righteously indignant fire in Bill Martin’s general direction.

I feel bad for our profession that guys with 20 wins are getting fired in programs that I don’t think they stressed basketball there.

It is true that Amaker had 20 wins going into the Big Ten Tourny, but look at the schedule. I think a good IM team at Michigan could have beaten Wofford. Numbers mean nothing without context, and Izzo’s point isn’t salient when you put it in the context of playing a schedule that would make Kansas State’s AD blush.

An interesting article from the recruiting angle. Some highlights are Legion with:

“I’m surprised, shocked and disappointed,” said Legion, a third-team Parade All-American who this past season averaged 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists as Wilson, Va.-based Oak Hill finished 40-1. “Coach Amaker is the coach I wanted to play for.

“He and I were real close. And he was real close with my mom (Annette Williams), too. He was a father-figure to me. It hurts that they fired him.”

And the President of the Detroit Public School League Coaches Association had some an opinion on the firing:

“It’s terrible,” said Washington, who plans to write a letter expressing his disappointment. “They didn’t give him enough time. You need more time to rebuild a program than they gave him.”

So… watch out for a strongly worded letter Bill…

Michael Rosenberg chimes in with his article actually supporting the decision and giving some (predictable) thought on the future.

Finally there is a great interview with Bill Martin by Jim Carty and Nathan Fenno (via Maize ‘n Brew). Definitely worth the read. You can really tell Bill Martin really didn’t want to fire Tommy Amaker, but really had no choice, which was kind of surprising for me. I figured that Amaker had enough support from the administration, especially Mary Sue Coleman, to get through the offseason, especially with the recruits he has (or had?) coming in.

While unequivocally mediocre as a coach, Amaker was the right guy for the Michigan job six years ago. He restored the credibility of the program, but now Michigan needs someone to restore the luster, the excitement, the pride of the basketball program that was around in the Fab Five days, but with the added challenge of a lower salary cap. I hope Bill Martin can find the right fit and make Michigan basketball relevant again.

Posted under Basketball

Currently being voted upon by student season ticket holders. Here’s a copy of the e-mail sent to students:

“M-Mail
University of Michigan Athletics

Football student season ticket holders for the 2006 season may vote to decide the winning design of the 2007 Michigan football season T-shirt. The maize shirts with the theme “The Team, The Team, The Team” can be viewed and voted on at [link redacted] until Wednesday March 14 at 5:00pm.

You can be part of the largest crowd to watch a college football game by ordering a student football season ticket for the 2007 season. The student season ticket sale begins next week. An e-mail will be sent by Monday, March 19 to all U-M students with ordering information.

Go Blue!

Marty Bodnar
Associate Athletic Director, Ticketing & Marketing”

And the options are:
#1

#2

#3

#4

Also, I am an idiot and don’t know how to prevent these images from breaking the tables. I’ll make Paul fix it later.

[Paul – fixed it]

Posted under Misc.

See a couple posts down for the original.

“My goal in football, in the Big Ten, is to ideally play a complete round robin – 10 conference games and two non-conference (games). I’ve been fighting for that for four to five years. I’m not going to get it. But I think I’ll get nine games, soon.”

As commenters and Brian have noted, maybe our boy Billy isn’t so good at the math.

Posted under Blog News

Present (W Basketball), potential (M Basketball), and future (Football). From the Detroit News.

Martin keeps and open mind.

Interesting tidbit for those who think Lloyd will hand-pick his successor (Debord):

Q . Would you like coach Carr involved in the process to find a successor?

A . I would say that I would seek Lloyd’s input, but I don’t think I would want a coach directly involved in the process. I think you need to be able to step back, take a long look at the program and decide what’s in the best long-term interest of Michigan football. There’s no question that that’s an absolute critical objective.

And more interesting-ness on playing App. State:

Q . A lot of fans have criticized the school’s decision to play Appalachian State in football next season. What’s your take on that and your philosophy about football scheduling?

A . We thought we had a Division I opponent up until the final moment. Now, we didn’t get it, but we had to get a game in place.

If you look at Appalachian State, they’re the two-time, I-AA champion. Ask yourself: Do you think they could beat half the teams in the MAC?

I anticipate that we will have one of the top five toughest schedules this year. Look at our home schedule. Everyone wants you to play the top teams every week, unless you’re a coach or athletic director. So you have to look at it from both sides.

Posted under Coaching

12:00 Cold Pizza ends, and there was much rejoicing. Brent Musburger is announcing, and there is moderately less rejoicing.
12:01 Per Steve Lavin, guard play is one of the key aspects of the Big Ten tournament. We’re fucked.
12:04 Le Tip. Courtney wins it, and an early foul is committed by Minnesota. Not a terrible start. Turnover by Abram. My surprise level is 0.
12:05 Holy shit. The ball gets stuck between the rim and the backboard and Jerret Smith can’t jump high enough to knock it loose. Petway fouled, can’t hit the shot. Jesus, this is just comedy hour. According to Musburger, Brent’s “main girlfriend” gave him the winged helmet cut. He missed both FTs.
12:06 Huge Petway block. Abram hits the shot and gets the foul. Scoring opens 1:46 into the game.
12:08 Neither team can hit anything. I guess I should be used to it for Michigan this late in the year.
12:09 Pick and roll with Smith and Petway, that inexplicably ends with Petway shooting (and missing) a 12-footer. Then, TURNOVERPALOOZA!
12:10 Udoh enters the game. Good, Minnesota needed to be shut down on offense a little more. TV Timeout 3-0 Mich 15:46 1st Half.
12:13 AWESOME GARRETT RIVAS JOKE, MUSBURGER!!!! Apparently the ball sucked, which was causing the scoring to be off. I think the announcers and refs just aren’t used to shitty basketball teams. Courtney Sims scores.
12:14 Minnesota draws a foul on Courtney, giving them an opportunity to finally score. They hit both.
12:15 Courtney is doubled every time he gets the ball, but has yet to turn it over. Dion charges, ball to Minn. They get an easy dunk.
12:17 Pretty weak foul called on Courtney, denying the entry pass.
12:18 A Minnesota player humps Smith as he sprawls out for the ball. You can hear boos from the crowd, which one can only assume are coming from State fans. Udoh inexplicably shoots with his feet on the 3-point line.
12:20 Blocking foul on Petway, which is two quick ones. Minnesota is building a good amount of momentum here.
12:21 Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Jevohn Shepherd, offensive liability.
12:22 Jesus, they’re really letting the kids play out there. Deshawn took a pretty good hit on the shot, no call. 9-7 Minnesota 10:47 2nd Half
12:25 Back to the game. Minnesota’s band is full of even bigger nerds than ours. threeball for Minnesota. Abram gets blocked in embarrassing fashion when he was triple-covered. Obligatory Musburger-Oden dicksuck.
12:27 Repeat dicksuck. Steve Lavin Joins dicksuck.
12:28 Jerret Smith tries to dribble with his right hand, with nearly disastrous results.
12:30 Nobody is moving on offense, which is a bad sign in an offense named “motion.” Deshawn gets foul on a shot, immediately resulting in a commercial. 12-11 Minnesota 7:39 1st Half
12:32 Georgetown is apparently really good, which makes me less angry about getting spanked by them earlier in the year. Deshawn hits one of the two FTs.
12:33 Tollackson takes approximately 4 changes of pivot foot before shooting, and the rebound is tied up.
12:34 Smith takes someone off the dribble(!) but promptly misses the wide open jumper.
12:35 My god this offense looks awful.
12:36 MacKenzie pokes Smith in the balls, and is entirely perplexed as to why this is a foul.
12:37 Tommy apparently shows emotion only by shoving his players as they head towards the scorer’s table. Harris easy deuce on the break. 16-12 Michigan 4:37 1st Half
12:39 Tollackson provides some evidence that Udoh really needs to hit the weight room. D. Sims looks to have been fouled, resulting in a turnover, and Minnesota scores an easy breakaway basket on the other end.
12:41 He is fouled again, and this time it gets called. 16-16 3:25 1st Half
12:43 Deshawn goes 1-2 again. Lavin and Musbirger are talking about getting wasted together last night. What. The. Fuck.
12:45 Udoh draws the offensive foul on Tollackson, his 2nd. MORE FOOTBALL JOKES LOL!!!
12:47 Abram travels. PLEASE sit him for the rest of his life, Tommy. Nice box out on the three, Jerret.
12:48 Offensive foul on Mr. Consistency. Seriously, Tommy, if you value your job, you will sit Abram.
12:49 Smith is guarding a post player, but Udoh managees to hop over and get the block for him. Dion hits a 3.
12:50 Zany play at the end that Musborger accurately describes as “volleyball” and the half ends with Michigan leading 20-16. This is on pace to be a 40-32 game. AWESOME!

Class time.

Posted under Basketball