MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

Michigan HockeyCast 6.20: Mich... iucci

1 hour and 5 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Owning the Gophers

• Opener
• Not CLOSE Enough
• Turning the Game
• Adding Another and Finishing the Game

Segment 2: Scores, Pairwise, Conference Tournaments, and MSU Preview

• Old Friends and Around the League
• Pairwise Talk with Alex
• Conference Tournament Talk
• All for Munn and Munn for All

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "How Far We've Come" -- Matchbox Twenty
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.23: Candidates for Long-Term Improvement

1 hour and 41 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. Looking Back on the Juwan Howard Era

Starts at 1:00

It’s coachin’ search time, baby. Time for Warde Manuel to finally make a decision (unless it’s Beilein). One last look back at the Juwan Howard era. He came in with a good Beilein roster and brought in Franz Wagner. It felt like a seamless transition but then after that he just didn’t have a wing on his roster. Juwan was finding guys who were already shaped for the NBA and not having them prove anything. He also couldn’t play the portal well, it feels like he was too used to managing NBA rosters. It’s not a zero tolerance policy if you keep having incidents happen. 

2. The Basketball Coaching Search

Starts at 27:30
Greg McDermott (Creighton), Randy Bennett (Saint Mary’s), Nate Oats (Alabama), and Tony Bennett (NTTB, Virginia) are off the table. John Beilein has been brought up but it feels like a pipe dream. He’s older and not familiar with the NIL era. Shaka Smart probably won’t be interested because football is king at Michigan. Is Michigan a better gig than Marquette? Richard Pitino Jr - needs a better resume than what he did at Minnesota. Brian’s guy is Niko Medved out of Colorado State who has improved the Rams tremendously. He can find weird guys from weird places under the radar and he coaches them up. Also, everyone seems to like him. Darian DeVries (Drake) is a candidate who coached under Medved. His teams seem to be really well coached but are short (they can avoid turnovers and can’t offensive rebound at all but can maniacally clean up their own glass). Dusty May at Florida Atlantic reached the Final Four last year and had a Kenpom top 20 team. This is his 6th year as a college coach but only the second where his team has been good. Amir Abdur-Rahim at South Florida built Kennesaw State from a one win team to a tournament team. Mark Pope of BYU has had top 20 Kenpom teams in three of the five years he’s been at BYU. 

3. Hockey at Minnesota - BTT Semifinals

Starts at 1:02:25

Michigan beats Minnesota for the third straight year in the Big Ten Tournament at Mariucci. This will lock up an NCAA Tournament bid and now they play Michigan State in East Lansing for their third straight Big Ten Tournament title. This was probably Michigan’s most complete game of the season. The second period was extremely dominant but felt like they should’ve scored more. Michigan is 1-3 against MSU so far this year after winning their first game 7-1. They’ll likely be a 3 seed. Do you or do you not want to draw Denver?

4. Latest Football Bits

Starts at 1:27:33
Hey, did you hear Michigan sniped Tony Alford from Ohio State? What if he hates Ryan Day more than Michigan?? Who knows. This is a good sign that people want to work for Sherrone Moore. Wink Martindale is learning a lot about the defense from Rod Moore, so maybe the Mike Sainristil effect won’t be as big as we thought. Newly hired defensive line coach Greg Scruggs got an OWI, which was not his first. He’s been suspended indefinitely. Spring football starts today!

MUSIC:

• "Fancy" — Drake
• “If You Don't Want My Love" — Jalen Ngonda
• “Gettin' to the Point”—  Panda Bear and Sonic Boom
• “Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 3/14/2024: Josh Wallace But Fast

Things Discussed:

• Tony Alford: What does it say about Ohio State? Ryan Day's program might have a culture problem. If he loses to Michigan [they get to play one or two more times but] he's out, right?
• Seth checks OSU's schedule; somehow they got just @Oregon and vs PSU out of the Big Ten powers, so yeah, he could get to Michigan unscathed.
• You'd think Alford wouldn't be worried about job prospects if Day is fired; he pulled the ripcord early, which means there's something making being the RB coach under Ryan Day/Chip Kelly intolerable. Brian: Could be the offense doesn't let the RBs do their thing.
• Tony Alford: What does it say about Sherrone Moore? Guys wanna come work for him. Sam: They lost Adegoke because it got leaked so they kept this one quiet. Brian: That speaks to Moore's organization that they got the background checks and everything done.
• Seth: Taking a coach 2 practices into spring is bigger than getting their signs because by this point they have a plan, and they've already started talking about what they're doing for The Game.
• Sherrone: Good early signs. Had a competent assistants process, has a plan with recruiting, prevented Martindale from using up a staff spot. Making big baller moves, like how Harbaugh came in with satellite camps, etc.
• Losing Hart: Plenty. He was a *great* RB coach, a great judge of talent, and a great Michigan player.
• Seth: This exposes OSU culture issues. The Mattison comp: Matty got a title bump and $600k raise, but money can't buy the kind of Jerry Hanlon love he gave up to go to OSU, so there had to be something else. It turned out that something else was Don Brown was a Buddy Ryan, and as much as we love Brown it was a sign that Michigan needed a culture change.
• Quinten Johnson: not a small deal. Good NIL (more valuable to college than pros), great for Michigan, not a replacement for Sabb but does allow them to maybe start Q-Jo and try Moore at nickel, which can ameliorate the loss of Mike Sainristil, who was the QB of the defense at nickel.
• Wink Defense: Need to stop overplaying the differences between him and Minter, because Giants defense had more plays than any other NFL team inside their own 40, also once you have Jyaire Hill ready to go you can play a lot more man.
• Break: Sam mentions more guys who wanted to come work for Sherrone.
• Wink: You guys are doing stuff I wasn't even doing with the Giants. Brian: That's the Mikey Factor.
• Pernell McPhee for support staff: Pahokee guy that Rich Rod wanted, Ravens guy under Mike Macdonald who can step into LB job in the future.
• Lionel Stokes: Defensive analyst who worked with Morgan at Louisiana, been a DC and DB coach at Jackson State, gonna have big shoes to fill from Mallory.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.19: Go Back To Your Shamrocks

1 hour and 26 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Close Game #1

• Opener
• Dominance
• Wooooof
• Thank You, Major

Segment 2: Close Game #2

• Even Steven
• Winning the Game and Holding On To It
• Old Friends and Around the League
• Do We Only Play Two Teams?

[Player after THE JUMP]

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Not Dead Yet" -- Lord Huron
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.22: And Here Y'Are, And It's a Beautiful Day

1 hour and 59 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. The State of College Football

Starts at 1:00

We are uh. We are out of content (still managed to record a two hour podcast). With regards to Ben Franklin's sex life. Craig Ross turns 3,008, wish him a happy birthday (still hasn’t seen a worse Michigan men’s basketball team). The Big Ten and SEC got together for a working group and the thing they were working on was screwing the rest of college football. They already want a 14 team playoff with auto bids. What would be different about college football right now if Dave Brandon was in charge? Nothing. College football is great for reasons that the people who only care about money could never understand. Adding Maryland and Rutgers was the beginning of the end, Brian is going to dance on Jim Delaney’s grave. What can you even do about it besides complain about it on podcasts.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Big Ten Hockey Tournament vs Notre Dame

Starts at 23:41

They didn’t make it easy but Michigan hockey sweeps Notre Dame in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. Nobody played better than Notre Dame’s goalie, despite giving up nine goals. Notre Dame is 10-1 in games where they only score three goals, they can’t score but the goalie keeps them in games. Was it an icing? No. Another week, another discussion of the terrible major calls. The Ohio State vs Wisconsin game determines whether Michigan plays in East Lansing or Minneapolis (Michigan will play in Minneapolis). Michigan is at their ceiling in terms of RPI (#10), but the gap between them and 14 is very small. According to Alex, Michigan is a 99%+ chance to make the NCAA tournament, so they’ve basically punched their ticket. Who stays and who goes after the season? Make Brian an NHL GM, he plays Football Manager and won the championship in the Turkish league.

3. Warde Manuel and Juwan

Starts at 1:03:22

Takes hotter than Warde Manuel's seat if he retains Juwan Howard. Warde Manuel has become controversial amongst Michigan fans, and by controversial we mean everyone wants to fire him except Santa Ono. What is Warde doing if he wants to keep Juwan around? Seth has been told that Warde Manuel has repaired Michigan’s relationships with the NCAA and Big Ten, Brian has curled himself into a ball and crawled under Walter White’s floor and is laughing maniacally. R.I.P. paper tickets. If he doesn’t get rid of Juwan Howard, what is actually going on? There are a lot of Fargo references in this podcast. Warde is the head of the college football committee in charge of the worst college football playoff we’ve ever seen.

4. Gimmicky Top Five - Non-Michigan Fandoms

Starts at 01:29:22

Five non-Michigan things we are fans of. Oh no, how many of us are just fair weather Detroit fans? The National Parks are good and you should go but not when I go because they’re overcrowded now! Brian does not hate National Parks, why would you think that? Who is the bigger dork, Seth or Brian? Shout out to Lindsay Ellis, the Brian Cook of film theory and why The Hobbit Trilogy is bad. Brian turns down a $1300/month murder basement.

MUSIC:

• "Gen X Cops" — Vampire Weekend
• “Midwest" — Vacations
• “Forget Everything”—  BEL
• “Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 3/7/2024: That's What the Money's For

Things Discussed:

• NCAA no longer regulating NIL: Brave New World? Ha. Maybe for Michigan. Sam has us make our case, which is the same we've been making forever. Craig worries about a Texas A&M situation, Seth & Brian push back hard.
• How should Michigan do it? Supplement what they're doing now but don't lose *THEIR* guys because of money. Bryce Underwood is the classic example.
• Schools can't afford to keep paying what they're paying out right now. Michigan included.
• Warde Manuel: Absolutely wrong guy to show leadership. One thing he's doing is he's the leader of the CFP committee that's coming up with a 14-team disaster that's just the B10 and SEC forcing autobids for $$$.
• Brian: Anyone who's an administrator at a college is expendable; teachers are not.
• Sam: Time to get the collectives in on Bryce Underwood.
• Sam: Trust me, Sabb didn't leave Michigan for money; he woulda had a Benz here too.
• Seth: I'm bored by Sabb talk; we lost our 3rd safety to starting at Alabama. That doesn't mean there's a problem it means we had the best three safeties in America and football has two starting safeties.
• Juwan Howard: Probably not getting fired until Warde Manuel is (everyone: so fire Warde!)
• Who you hiring? Brian: McDermott (Creighton)->Shaka->TJ Otzelberger (ISU)->Mark Pope. Craig: Will Wade (all: !!???!!!)->Otzelberger (good defense!)->Anthony Grant (Dayton, fun offense)->Lamont Paris (SCar)->Mark Byington (JMU). Seth: Nate Oats->Fred Hoiberg->Darian DeVries.
• Sam: Talk to me about Nate, but Bama has been supporting him well, and then you have Brandon Miller/Darius Miles in proximity to a murder. The other thing—put a hand on a player on the court—seems like nothing.
• Seth/Brian: Details of the murder are important; the Missouri thing doesn't move the needle.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.18: Go-Fer Fish

1 hour and 20 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Friday Flop

• Opener
• Sloppy Even Period
• Penalty Period
• Pointless Period

Segment 2: Saturday Roller Coaster

• The First Two Periods
• The Rest of the Game
• Old Friends and Around the League
• Oh No, You Again?

[Player after THE JUMP]

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Gopher Mambo - Remastered 2009" -- Billy May, Gozzo, Yma Sumac, The Rico Mamba Orchestra
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.21: It Was Sainristil All Along

1 hour and 47 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. Updated State of the Basketball Program and NFL Draft Stuff

Starts at 1:00

We’re not going to talk about basketball, but this is mostly a basketball segment. Discussing Sanderson’s departure from the program from Sanderson’s perspective. It’s unbelievable that Juwan didn’t get fired for this. Basketball standings are the Big Ten West’s revenge. There’s no reason to believe that Michigan will be good next year, teams that mainly use the portal have not been that great and Michigan probably won’t even fill the roster. This is year five, that’s on Juwan. If Juwan is retained, add it to the list of Warde Manual bag fumbles. Apparently Warde is good with speaking to people and managing non-revenue sports. Has he even had to make a hire in major sport? Sherrone Moore and Naurato were a given. Warde likes to just sit around and wait for whatever happens to happen. Even Graig Ross says this is one of the worst teams since he was in school. If Juwan gets fired it won’t be until the end of the season.

Do you enjoy watching the Combine? Dave does, Brian does not. The NFL draft will be fun to watch this year because there will be a lot of Michigan players getting drafted and every time they do there will be a lot of highlights of Ohio State getting dunked on. Mike Sainristil knew Washington’s plays because Mike Sainristil is football smart. It was Mikey all along!! According to scouts, all of Michigan’s offensive linemen are two years ahead of everyone else in terms of maturity. Cornelius Johnson tested out amazingly. He didn’t get a ton of targets but he bailed out JJ a lot, and that skill set will translate to the NFL. Blake Corum changed his skill set from speed back to inside guy based on what the team needed.

2. 2024 Defensive Line and 2024 Linebackers

Starts at 31:56

The defense only lost Keon Sabb to the portal, they look just as loaded this year as last year but without the ability to roll out nine defensive linemen. This should be Derrick Moore’s blowup year. Josiah Stewart came on in a big way after struggling a bit the first half of the season. Is it time for TJ Guy to get some serious snaps? Will he become “TJ Dude”?? Brian’s head almost explodes trying to talk about the defensive tackles. Mason Graham will be the best defensive tackle in the country and should be a 99 in NCAA 25. And then the other guy is KENNETH GRANT. Trey Pierce looked fine as a true freshman but not much you can tell about him yet. It should be the best defensive line in the country, just need 3rd string depth. Linebackers lose Barrett and Colson and is a little more up inI the air. Hausmann was a good rotational piece, Rolder looked like a player as a true freshman but was rough against Ohio State. Jaishawn Barham comes in from Maryland and is a good run stuffer. These three are the makings of a good linebacker corps. 

3. Hot Takes and 2024 Secondary

Starts at 54:48

Takes hotter than JJ McCarthy's draft stock. Will Johnson will be the highest graded player in NCAA 25 (unless you use The Seth Roster, then it will be Mason Graham). He’ll basically be Charles Woodson. The safeties look stacked and apparently Michigan is looking to get Quinten Johnson back. Makari Paige started in 2020, Rod Moore started in 2021, they’ll be fine. Once again, the biggest question mark is the second cornerback. Also for as amazing as Mike Sainristil was, we might still be underrating him because he was the glue. Whoever you insert at the second corner spot is going to be the least experienced corner on the field and they’ll be replacing the most experienced corner in Josh Wallace. Will they go to the post spring roster and pick up another corner again? They’ll still be one of the best defenses in America. Martindale will be a drop off because Minter was running coverages Marvin Harrison had never seen before but it shouldn’t be a major drop off. Seth is Brian’s Mike Hart. It’s an Alex Drain-ass coaching staff (Alex if you’re reading this, Brian’s words. Not mine).

4. Hockey at Minnesota

Starts at 1:29:36

Michigan splits with Minnesota but there's chaos on the college hockey bubble. Michigan moves up from 14th to 13 in Pairwise and Pairwise Predictor has them at 69% in. In game 2, Michigan goes up 3-0 in the first period and ends up winning in OT. Michigan's goalie looked great in the first two periods of this game but gave up 5 goals in the 3rd. When things start to go wrong, everything spirals out of control. Is this team on par for what we expected them to be this year? Kind of. 

MUSIC:

• "Higher" cover — Randy and Jason Sklar
• “It Was Agatha All Along" — Kristen-Anderson Lopez
• “Rich Baby Daddy”—  Drake, Sexyy Red, SZA
• “Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 2/29/2024: The In-Between Times

We lost a friend yesterday. Craig did a lot for us. They have a GoFundMe set up to help support his wife and son.

Things Discussed:

• Michigan at the Combine: People who watch the games love the Michigan guys; stats people don't.
• JJ looks like a first rounder. If (Will Johnson: "when") Sainristil runs under 4.5 he's going to move up too. Lions love having this program down the road because they draft on personality, and they know they can trust the guys who come out of this program are their kinds of guys. Also they can get in all these extra meetings.
• Everybody's moved up: Wilson blew up at the senior bowl, Keegan's moving up, Zinter's leg is in better shape, Sainristil, McCarthy, Corum…
• JJ vs other QBs: Williams seemed to wilt when his team did; you know JJ isn't built that way. Seth: Bust factor for QBs has as much to do with which franchise drafts you and how they bring you along.
• Portal closed: Sabb was a loss but Michigan is virtually intact from the departure of Jim Harbaugh; well done Sherrone and staff.
• QB competition update, Sam says Orji is the leader—he has to have the passing accuracy—but there's not going to be a lock until the portal closes. Denegal most improved. Seth: Leak/Tebow set up. Plan is redshirt Jadyn Davis (he and coaches both have this plan), Davis Warren was hurt but seems out of the conversation?
• WR: They need to get size in the portal. Don't sleep on Tyler Morris.
• Who's your best lineup? It's Edwards and Mullings and Loveland on the field.
• Hockey: Pythagorean W/L shows they're a good team, but they've struggled to finish weekends. Swept ND put them in 14th, which is minimum to get in the Tournament. Need a good weekend in Minnesota to get in as an at-large; if they win Friday and get more points than Minnesota on Saturday they move past them in B10 standings and get Penn State in the BTT. Bad weekend and they need to get to the championship round of the BTT.
• Reasons? Transition to Naurato damaged recruiting, injuries, lost their goalie to MSU hiring the goalie's dude.
• Officiating has been a big part of the story. Lost Hallum for the year and McGroarty for a long time on non-called penalties. Uncanny calls were the only thing keeping ND in Saturday's game. It is appalling how this team has been officiated, and it's a big reason they're in the place they are.
• Football defensive staff? Michigan is taking their time with background checks. After Stalions, Shemy, Shoop, Weiss…
  
  
  (RIP) Speaking of RIP,
• Craig Roh: Was a big reason we had anything to cheer about in the years between the titles. See GoFundMe above.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.17: Shaleighleh Brooms

1 hour and 19 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Friday Shutout

• Opener
• Gift from Bischel
• Special Teams Goals
• Jake's Shutout

Segment 2: Saturday Drama

• A More Defensive Affair
• Marshall Warren and the Defense
• Old Friends and Around the League
• A Trip to Gopherland

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Another Irish Drinking Song" -- Da Vinci's Notebook
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme