MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

WTKA Roundtable 6/5/2025: Cryin Out for Kobe Assists

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Once again Michigan won the Charity Bowl, so we'll be getting together with the Fullcastians on JUNE 28, 6PM at the Ann Arbor District Library, then going to Venue for drinks at 8:30. Signup is here so we can plan a good numbers count, or just remember pizzawestern.com.

Things Discussed:

• House: We're in prime recruiting season but schools are starting to tell kids the distribution money isn't coming to recruit against Michigan.
• What's the holdup? In a vacuum liars will come up with B.S. to sell. We're sure Ohio State is pushing for some kind of system where they can go back to exploiting a black market and controlling the enforcement mechanism so that Michigan won't/can't participate in it.
• Best guess at what's holding it up: they're trying to make a clearinghouse that won't the agreement immediately sued out of existence, which is tricky because any regulation of what people can make without Congressional dispensation tends to lose in court.
• Playoff expansion: Why, who, will it? Petitti is a dumb TV suit and put out a dumb TV suit idea so he can make this end-of-year playoff to get into the Playoff. No this is not the Showcase (which is a +1 format to finish the season with the best games that weren't played and determine a conference champion by strength of season). Sankey is predictably honestly dishonest in that he'll keep saying and doing whatever gets more for his schools, and that means he's going to run absolute circles around Petitti the spineless moron.
• Why are things this way? Powers in control are approaching it from how much more TV inventory can they generate, don't think about where the value is coming out of except they're very protective of their own money. Schools imagining themselves #16 and dealing with opt-outs. Who really pays: fans. Fans who buy another expensive last-minute ticket, and travel.
• For years nobody in power has put any thought into what really makes college football valuable, so they're willing to cannibalize the Every Game Matters. Already happened with 12 teams, where Ohio State finished the season with a worse strength of record than Oregon and shouldn't have had a path to redemption.
• With 16 teams you're going to get a 3- or 4-loss champion who gets hot or beneficial matchups in a year with a team that went 14-1. Also guarantee Sankey will know how to get an 8-4 Ole Miss team that played three Sun Belts and an FCS with one ranked win in the SEC ranked above a 10-2 Iowa that beat nobody because they were in the "Not playing Michigan-Ohio State-USC-Oregon" tier when Petitti was making his schedules for inventory.
• Our dream: If Congress were to demand your conference can't have more than 12 members or you can't pay anybody.
• In the break: McKenna
• Yaxeltalk: Watching his film last year there was a lot more Buzz Williams ball where they would Iso then rebound. Hopefully he gets better looks with better creators on the court with him.
• Don't forget defense: Yaxel's length makes him switchable, and you have some major rim protection that won't have to get tired.
• Need to develop 36%+ shooting so opponents don't just collapse, because Yax isn't an off-the-dribble shooter at all. Can Gayle? Can Cason? Freshmen? Nimari is who he is.
• Kobe Assist team: have guys like Gayle, Cason drawing multiple defenders and there will be a lot of opportunities to "pass" the ball to the basket.
• Turnovers again? There are some Danny Wolf howlers from Cadeau but hoping they can coach him to better options.

WTKA Roundtable 5/29/2025: The Yaxel Hour

Things Discussed:

• On early: Talkin Detroit Tigers.
• How this went down: Yax started with college as a fallback, Michigan visit shifted things.
• NBA side of it stayed—if anything the measurements at the Combine improved his NBA stock.
• But Michigan convinced him. Laid out the red carpet. Coaches went to the Combine to support him.
• Did we out-recruit the NBA? Yes, because the NBA wasn't recruiting him, and we are very good at recruiting.
• Good sign for the future: Dusty May knows how to convince a fringe NBA guy to come back to college. Going to have an advantage when they're the competition because we're always going to want these players more than the NBA for the same money.
• What does this do? Cross between Danny Wolf and Johni Broome. Danny measured 6'10.5, but Yaxel is 6'9", much better about turnovers, much better free throw shooter, better face-up guy, close to that level of defender.
• Team: Cadeau and Yaxel are your creators, need Cason to be a breakdown threat, need Gayle and Nimari to be your finishers, and then center is Johnson's defensive presence.
• Big Ten next year: Purdue is still #1, they are going to have a 7'3" guy from Belgium so they don't die whenever TKR gets in foul trouble. Michigan is in that tier with them.
• Proven shooting on this roster? Uh, Tschetter? Need three or four of Cason/Gayle/McKenney/Burnett/Grady to be that.
• Minutes? Cadeau most of them at the point with Cason taking some. McKenny backup up Gayle and Nimari at the SG spots, Tschetter backing up Lendeborg, Johnson/Mara at center.
• Upside: Team is all about creation: Cadeau, Lendeborg are creators, Gayle and Cason are secondary creators, McKenney has that upside.
• Rotation: 8+2 like Dusty likes. Think they'll work in the freshmen some but Goodman probably redshirts unless there's an injury, Grady gets maybe 10% of minutes as a spacer depending on how the others are shooting, Trey develops into a major part of the rotation by season's end but needs time to adjust.
• Defensively this team will be a nightmare to play against.

WTKA Roundtable 5/22/2025: No More Hamburgers

Things Discussed:

• Tigers: They go dormant for years but then they pop, and you gotta get a World Series when they do. Sign Skubal!
• Craig's long story about golf in Alabama.
• House Settlement: NCAA is going to relinquish enforcement to a commission/CEO run by the commissioners.
• Will it work? Without legislation they'll just get sued again.
• What some schools are going for is to have rules that nobody enforces except against programs they don't like. This was ideal for OSU/Bama/Georgia/LSU who could get a competitive advantage on programs that self-police, and occasionally could be used as a weapon against rivals.
• Who's the CEO? They said someone not in sports—so Condi Rice? Who's going to take this job who's not in athletics?
• Can they create a player's union? Why would the players unionize when they are getting everything they want. MLB unionized because their players were employees; NCAA doesn't control player movement because they want to avoid their athletes being employees.
• NCAA is getting out but it falls to conference commissioners, who are not at all equipped to handle this. They're serving needs of ADs who are complaining about different things. Ohio State wants there to be rules they don't have to follow and Michigan does. Michigan wants to be able to spend whatever they can raise. Purdue wants to have some player control so their cornerbacks don't get poached. Michigan State isn't thinking "oh I need to make sure Michigan and Ohio State don't boot me" and not even thinking about what's best for Michigan State; they're thinking how can we screw Michigan. You're expecting this mix to come up with solutions?
• Clearinghouse won't work because they'll get a flood of lawsuits. Player already have the money; they won't let you close the spigot.
• Answer is legislation that gives the NCAA some kind of anti-trust protection.
• Will it get prioritized at the federal level? Probably not this Congress, but the next one or the next one. State laws are only trying to make their own teams better.
• Sam: Can they make a special class? They had it in student athletes but that got blown up by the states, which is how we got here.
• The players have no incentive to change things because they're winning. NCAA is deathly afraid of the players becoming employees, which is why they can't regulate player movement even with NIL deals.
• The NCAA can't create a student-athlete class. The federal government can. The schools have real interest in getting legislation that cuts off the players' spigot, and that means the fans have leverage now that we've not had at any point in this conversation. What I want them to do (not saying it'll happen) is use that leverage to get things we want.
• What do we want? Guaranteed access to football broadcasts. Our old conferences back. A cap on student fees (this doesn't matter to us but it's a big deal to smaller schools). Schools can't balloon ticket prices by participating in the secondary ticket market.
• What do we want as Michigan fans? Our interests are aligned with PSU/Notre Dame/USC who want the buy-in price to be high but also some kind of cap so that the value of the education makes us the best option.
• Prediction: House settlement/clearinghouse will be a patch, it won't work, and they'll let it play out until they can get legislation.
• Could they get legislation now? Maybe but it won't do anything for the fans—it would be the schools buying up whatever votes are for sale and passing something they write, and odds are it won't be Constitutional enough to survive the players bringing it to court.

WTKA Roundtable 5/15/2025: The Best of the Not Yet In It

Things Discussed:

• Michigan vs Georgia recruitments revisited: things have definitely changed. We had to move heaven and Earth to get Will Johnson and that was a legacy. Sam shares a story that Harbaugh promised he was gonna be here and that got Will to pump the breaks on a USC-Ohio State decision. Remembering DJ Turner's recruitment.
• Yaxel? Is doing well at the combine. Think Michigan visit changed his mindset from "Michigan has to match" to "NBA has to match," but there's a very good chance that happens. Difference between early 2nd round and late 1st round isn't just money but end of the 1st round is where you find the best organizations, whereas early 2nd round could mean going to Phoenix. If a team promises they'll draft him in the late 1st he's gotta take it.
• If Yaxel comes: Big Ten PoY? In the conversation. Wolf-/Tonje-level impact.
• Forest view: plan on this happening every year, because one player can put you over the top and one way to get that one player is to get the best player in the country who's not in the NBA Draft.
• Speaking of best player in the country who's not in his draft…there's a LOT of positivity inside Michigan about Gavin McKenna.
• What does Gavin McKenna mean, non-hockey fans? He's the consensus #1 player in the Draft and in that tier with Connor McDavid, Eric Lindros, Mario Lemieux and Alexander Ovechkin where the franchise that gets him is instantly the team with that guy (Only tier higher than that is Crosby, Gretzky). Why is McKenna going to college? These guys used to play Canadian juniors, but that's a long season in a small town for money that Michigan could match, and for a player who's already guaranteed to be a top-5 pick there's no reason to slog through that when the Big Ten these days has higher competition.
• The example here is John Tavares, who was the CHL rookie of the year in 2005-06 and player of the year in 2006-07, and was the obvious #1 pick in the 2008 Draft then had to go back to the CHL for another year to no purpose. College gives that guy a step up in competition, a year in Ann Arbor instead of Oshawa, and the connections and future you get from association with a university.
• For us, that would make Michigan a focus of the hockey world for a year, and the rest of McKenna's career they'd be like "guy from Michigan."
• Meta discussion on last week's episode and politics based on the (overwhelmingly positive) responses we got from last week: We aren't planning to talk about partisan and identity politics that much going forward—there are certain instances when it's topical and we can't ignore it (e.g. Ono's departure), but mostly we choose to talk about ideas and values, and when they're not politicized nobody notices the politics.
• Penn State > Ohio State this year? We don't believe in Drew Allar. Ohio State's culture is clearly working for them.

WTKA Roundtable 5/8/2025: Real Americans Don't Like Cancer

Note: Do you hate it when politics are discussed in places you go for sports? Then skip this episode entirely or skip to 36:19.

Things Discussed after 36:19

• Leak to Thamel says NCAA told Michigan they'll suspend Sherrone for CMU and Nebraska.
• Sam: Leak is overblown—it's part of the back and forth with Michigan, not something that's been accepted.
• Would we take it? Brian thinks it's harsh but if this ends it, fine—you kowtow to the power and move on.
• Thamel aside, let's go over what Sherrone did. Facts we are relatively certain of: Sherrone deleted all of his texts off his phone around the time the Stalions thing came out, knowing he still has a copy of them. He then went and retrieved the texts for the investigators, and there was nothing incriminating on them.
• Seth: The question I have is whether he deleted those texts because he regularly cleans his phone, or was that unusual behavior? If it happens regularly this is just trying to make an innocuous thing sound as bad as they can. If it was unusual, then yeah, considering he's the coach now (he wasn't then), and considering how important we value transparency from people in positions of power, a two-week suspension (week->not an Urban Meyer suspension where you just sit out the game) is appropriate.
• Craig: Is it? If he did nothing wrong, why should he deserve a punishment? It's not a crime to not cover up what's not a crime.

[Hit the JUMP for the rest of the discussion, the player, and video and stuff] 

Things Discussed before 36:19:

Santa Ono's departure and academic freedom (from start of the show):

• Turns out he was just another suit. Taking $3 million and taking his name of something he signed 2 weeks ago and go do what Ron DeSantis tells him tells you all you need to know. People are going to try to pretend this was taking a stand against the regents or because The Hammer is coming down or that this is about Warde's stance on NIL—whatever stupid narrative they want to believe in. People try to make everything fit the story they want to tell. You'd have to be a quisling to work at the University of Florida.
• Some empathy because becoming the face of something like that is a life-defining choice, and the nature of the job is you're going to have unreasonable people mad at you because, e.g., they think divesting Michigan from Intel will stop Netanyahu from killing Gazans to placate the far-right members of his coalition that are keeping him out of jail.
• Part of being the president of Michigan is you are going to have to take a stand for liberalism (as defined). Justice, knowledge, freedom of study: these liberal ideals are the foundational principles of our school, and our school is the best public university in the country. When those ideals are challenged, as they are now by an illiberal authoritarian administration in Washington, you have to tell them "No."
• And no, this isn't about their DEI policies either. The DEI Office was already was already the midst of being rearranged. And to be clear (Brian said, and I generally agree) we're in favor of that, because the expense of the university's bureaucracy (1 administrator to 5 students—don't quote us on that) is too much, and that money is better off being spent on housing, on improving the Go Blue Guarantee, and on more and better instructors. The most direct parts of the policy (e.g. student housing assistance) were also better off shifted, along with their funding, to parts of the administration that were already doing the same things, and the layers of forms and oversight were probably not the best way of accomplishing the admirable and necessary goal of taking responsibility for an equity of experience for students of certain minorities.
• Need to be clear: When the White House says "DEI" they aren't talking about Michigan's DEI office nor which books are in the library; they're talking about things like whether I can give a lecture to Dooley's class every semester on the history of integration in college athletics, or whether Women's Studies can be a subject matter.

Next president, next on NIL (17 minutes)

• Next president: what do we want? Brian thinks it'll be another administrator off an expensive search. Seth thinks there are going to be big names calling the school because it's a prestigious job. We need someone who has values, someone who is going to stand up for the university, and (let's not forget) someone who is going to value athletics as an essential engine of the school's value.
• Brian's not concerned about that so much because the donors won't sit around long if we drop to 126th/134 teams in passing. It's not the donors worrying about that; it's the parts of the school that usually get lots of donations making that a concern.
• NIL: House settlement is going to include some sort of auditing process that is going to curtail the amount you can directly spend via NIL on players. Don't know how enforceable that is going to be. Congress is going to step in eventually to provide them an antitrust exemption or they're just going to keep getting sued. They might have done it by classifying the players as labor but that's unlikely if it happens now given the party in power who'd be crafting legislation right now is extremely anti-labor.
• We should say what we want in a president for Athletics: stand up for Michigan when the NCAA goes after them.
• Brian: Probably won't be facing any significant decisions since the big sports all have relatively new coaches (Why do you always say that?)
• What they need is someone who will have a spine. The Michigan community will support you.
• Seth: I'm not just looking for someone who'll rebel; I'm looking for someone who's going to win. Losing funding—which the government gave to the University not as a handout but because the People of the United States want, e.g., a cure for cancer and Michigan can put together the tools and best people to do that. Losing that funding would be devastating. It's not like they just stop doing the research—they already built the labs and financed it, so they'd be under water and lose capability to get it back.
• Brian: It's going to happen anyways. This is an administration of idiots making decisions based on wanting to hurt the people they don't like, and the University of Michigan is a bright blue beacon of every kind of value and kind of person they want to eradicate.
• Seth: So we don't just need a fighter; we need a uniter—someone who is going to get all the other institution's administrators (sorry, the faculty isn't the same thing), so when war comes they can win, or at least make it hurt. The towns that resisted the Danes got slaughtered and the towns that paid a danegeld just got more Danes; Alfred beat them by forming England.
• In the break: MGoBlog's readership, based on Google Analytics on how people voted for national offices, was about 55-45 Democrats to Republicans when I took over advertising in 2012. It's now close to 75-25, without shifting any other metrics about our readership, meaning we're still talking to (a lot more of) the same kind of (educated, hyper-curious) person, but that kind of person, if they ever were a Republican, is leaving the party now.

WTKA Roundtable 5/1/2025: It's Pronounced "Right Guard"

Things Discussed:

• Bryce Spring Review: Underwood actually made some JJ throws.
• Players who stood out on film review: Deyvid Palepale, more impressed with Jalen Hoffman, Avery Gach (pronounced "Gatch") had lots of +2s and –2s, Jordan Young is always around the ball, made the 4th & 1 stuff.
• OL thoughts by position:
  • RT & RG: Sprague and Efobi were moving people—impressive when they do it Benny, not so much Bobby Kanka. Efobi is the high ceiling/high floor option, could be Hattar or Link. Gach was getting shoved backwards by Chibi Anwunah, who might be good. Think the battle in fall is Efobi the ceiling, Hattar the floor, Link the wild card.
  • LT: ew. When Sam said Michigan should go in the portal for a tackle in spring that wasn't a hopeful statement, and that's how it worked out. Link is a D+, Babalola needs a redshirt, Brady Norton isn't going to happen, period. Ty Haywood, Blake Frazier might compete. Frazier was supposed to a 2-year build and it's been one year, so not expecting that yet. The way Gentry played out last year might have cost them their best option.
  • C: Crippen has the job. Guarnera looked good but had some –2s in there. Strayhorn looked big and athletic but completely lost—at one point he stops mid-pull.
• WR: McCulley looked good on his one catch, a lot of opportunities to turn around and make a play when they didn't, think Goodwin is a fine 4th or 5th receiver. Semaj has been open, needs QBs to hit him. Haven't seen these guys with good quarterbacking yet so who knows: Bell, Moore, Morgan, Marsh—they could all be good and we wouldn't know yet.
• QB: We want to get Underwood running more—that 3rd read should be running not throwing a contested ball.
• RPOs: We're gonna see a lot more of them this year under Chip Lindsey, which means we'll see more man coverage, which then gets back to the receivers and who can win 1-on-1.
• CB: The flipside is JoJo Edmond was the guy in coverage on a lot of those passes, looks hard to beat, gave up the edge on the big Haynes run. Sug Hill? Sam says without saying that they want to keep him motivated to do things that aren't just his talent.
• DT and LB are STACKED. Will be very deep and strong this year and are set next year with Palepale and maybe Anwunah.
• Yaxel: Don't get your hopes up; pretty much every mock draft has him 35-38 and those are guaranteed contract positions so we think there's going to be an NBA team willing to put them on their roster next year.
• Hockey: Fascinating offseason as Michigan is trying to poach a goalie and most of their new top-six, including the #1 overall pick next year, from Canadian Juniors. Won't know until their playoff ends.

WTKA Roundtable 4/24/2025: Take Your Kid to Work Day

Special guest: Everybody wave hi to Mira.

Things Discussed:

• Spring game: Craig watched the line, wasn't that impressed.
• Bryce was throwing flat; overthrowing McCulley is a sin. There's a guy across the aisle who's already mad. Seth thinks when the threw that small window past a dropping DE was good; Brian thought he didn't see the drop.
• Jadyn Davis: Didn't look that polished but much improved.
• Mikey Keene? Brian thinks he's not a P4 quarterback.
• Receivers? If you go in the portal you can get a bunch of CJ Charlestons at this point. McCulley had the one contested ball and did the George Costanza.
• Keeps the expectations for Bryce in context, because Trevor Lawrence had NFL wideouts to throw at as a freshman. Want guys to step up: Marsh, Browder: turn around and context that. Seth: comp is what Nebraska got out of Raiola last year. Need the running game to be the engine of the offense. Get to functional.
• Hey Sam, how many targets is Jalen Hoffman getting?
• Are they going to do zone reads for Bryce?
• OL: Sprague up, Link down—if they're not naming him the starter now maybe he needs to move inside. Sam thinks Frazier can get healthy and get back his agility. Seth thinks they're gonna survive until Babalola is ready, ETA midseason.
• Break: Sam talks about his colon (I left this out of the podcast version).
• Defense: Tackles go six deep with big dudes. With them it's more about who they're going against.
• Linebacker: We are RICH. Seth thinks we have two guys who are better than the top six guys in the Draft, AND Rolder made it through spring without getting hurt. Barham has many uses, Sam thinks he's going to be an All-American. Sullivan can do Barham things.
• Big Nickel Mason Curtis: think this is a thing.
• Seth thinks Efobi looked like he was moving them.
• Dom Nichols: not surprised that a guy who played a lot as a true freshman is getting talk as DE#3.
• Who's got bend? Sam says Barham is #1. Seth wants to see it from Edokpayi.

MGoPodcast 16.30: Which One Of You Has The Juice?

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    

WTKA Roundtable 4/17/2025: Shoulda Thrown It to Nico

Things Discussed:

• Honoring the life of Mike DeBord. Long list of great players and coaches he created. Really kind man. Whoever you were, whatever you were doing, he wanted to make you better at it, and he leaves quite a legacy here.
• Bryce: What are you looking for? Want to see how he does against all the weird Minter stuff.
• I want to see him trapped against the right sideline, because that's how young Denard and JJ showed when they could do.
• Jadyn Davis: Sam says the confidence has been restored; the lack of confidence last year was a two-way street and they're a lot more committed to him. Seth says it was always a long-term project, but now we know he wasn't viable last year. If they weren't seriously investing him, showing confidence in him, he'd be in the portal. Chip and Sinagoga have invested in him. Perfect guy to have behind Bryce Underwood.
• Good thing for the program long-term that Keene got hurt in spring because they were able to get those two guys reps and put their eggs in the Bryce basket.
• OL: They miscalculated how bad they were going to be last year, can't do that again. Talked about going to the portal to get help at left tackle if they're talking about Brady Norton. Blake Frazier was hurt and that set back his physical development, Babalola has a lot to learn. OL is VERY hard to learn; you have to be able to ID what they're doing in a fraction of a second at this level or you're dead.
• "We're passing more this year." If you're going to do that you need to keep Bryce upright.
• Getting a receiver in the portal is impossible: in recruiting they're getting more traction because Bryce is there and there's time to see it. But they don't have anything to show, e.g. the guy from UConn, that they're going to have a passing game where they can be productive. Productive guys are NFL guys: big, fast, can catch, knows routes. Really hard to learn a new offense in fall.
• Defensively: Believe in the front seven enough that I would rather see the offense doing well against them. Not concerned about the DTs, DEs, LBs. Think they had everything break their way this offseason: kept both senior stars, Rolder is healthy, Sullivan is emerging, one of the freshmen (Owusu-Boateng) is showing out. Get Bowles back in fall.
• Want to see Mason Curtis at the big nickel position—haven't seen it since Michael Barrett in 2021 but it's a big deal in the NFL and addresses a thing that opponents have been hitting us with.
• TJ Metcalf is the leader at regular nickel. Brandyn Hillman has really come forward.
• Cornerback depth is a bit of a concern. Earls has a lot to learn, Sam: I wonder about Jyaire Hill—it's a matter of football maturation. Caleb Anderson might be dinged up. JoJo Edmond has the ability but he moved late from offense so he's got a long way to go. Might want to get depth in the portal. 

WTKA Roundtable 4/10/2025: Un Cadeau Un Cadeau What? Let's Go. Oh.

I made the cover thinking we were going to talk about spring ball and safety rotation. We just talked hoops.

Things Discussed:

• Craig stopped being a Cleveland fan when they traded Rocky Colavito and says nobody will get that reference, Seth goes: "I like hamburger!" Aside: If you ever see a copy of Baseball Anecdotes by Daniel Okrent and Steve Wulf, I highly recommend you pick it up.
• Dusty May is able to multitask, unlike Tom Izzo. Realities of building a roster in 2024-25.
• Cadeau vs Donaldson: Michigan lost its top two shot creators in their two bigs so they needed creation.
• Concern is you need to put shooting around that PnR game, and Gayle/Cason a bit questionable as knockdown spacers.
• We're in a weird transitional period where House hasn't been approved yet and people are trying to get all their deals done—"Mad dash to hand people cash"—before this clearinghouse is checking NIL deals to make sure they're "fair market value."
• Dusty May listened to Dusty May saying "we need to get tougher."
• Morez Johnson: 100% chance Craig Ross is going to call him a "brute." Love the Pippi Longstocking pigtails.
• Dusty's mindset: I'm going after the best players in the country.
• Aday Mara: could be an awesome pickup. 7'3" finisher who had norovirus and lost some conditioning in the middle of last year, but when UCLA made their run he was playing up to 31 minutes. Would be a great one-two punch with Johnson, in that you've got the big motor guy and the extremely tall/long rim protector, who both serve the same role in the offense so you're keeping your offense the same, but need to be defended differently. Bigs have a slower progression.
• We can beat 2nd round money. Chances of getting NBA fours back: 5% for Wolf since he's projected to the 1st round. 20% for Yax.
• Izzo is not allowed to retire until he's had ten years of Paternoing. Better yet: MSU basketball should be U.Chicago football: ride your legendary coach into total irrelevance. Honestly though: developing players is a very good strategy, so long as they can do it. Izzo's mix of tryhad bigs, athletic guards, and lots of defense and rebounding has a ceiling.
• Trey McKenney scouting report: super strong dribbler, creates his own shot and makes it, can score in the mid-range. Question whether he's got that explosiveness—can he jump, can he move his feet well enough to be a great defender? Won't be a guy who guards quickness but he can help you with the Lu'Cye Patterson bullies, which you're going to see more of in the Big Ten than the super-quick guards. Like Trey in an offense with Cadeau because if you switch on the PnR you're creating bad matchups.
• Projecting development: it doesn't just "happen." It's about what these guys put in their workouts and hours of exercises and shot development that we never see. Hard for us to project what that is.