MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

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: Low Event and OT Opener Nothing Happens Alternating Goals Finally, a 3x3 loss Segment 2: Almost Collapse Dominating Hockey Five Minute Review Old Friends and Around the League Ice Lions Again!   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Plant the Flag" -- Abronia Ice Hockey (NES) theme

GoFundMes to support victims of the fires in LA who are part of the MGoBlog community: General Fund. Reader's mother-in-law Anne Cohen. Reader Chef Robert. Reader Josh Bishop-Moser. Reader Mike on behalf of Mika Yoshitake & daughter Sora. Readers Liberty and Mark. 1 hour and 21 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, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Men's Basketball vs Illinois Starts at 1:00 Michigan was asking for a game like this after the last couple months, you can't give up 19 offensive rebounds in a game and expect to win. Illinois got 9 more shots than Michigan and their young guys went off. Vlad Goldin was the only one who was getting an advantage. Danny Wolf is officially in a funk, this likely doesn't affect his draft stock. Michigan might be a popular pick to get upset in the first round of the tournament. They're fading down the stretch and not getting better in a lot of departments, especially rebounding.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Men's Basketball vs Michigan State Starts at 23:06 This was a "make your shots" game, Michigan State hit their shots. Also Michigan had an 11 shot deficit. Michigan now has a worse 3-point shooting percentage than Michigan State. Roddy Gayle has not hit a three-pointer since January, nobody is covering him anymore and that extra player is guarding the paint. Tre Donaldson might've had his worst game.  3. Hot Takes and Men's Basketball vs Rutgers & Nebraska Starts at 34:06 Takes hotter than yours truly after the 19th Illinois offensive rebound. These two games were polar opposites in what basketball is. Michigan had poor shooting and looked tired after the Michigan State game. The three-point shooting has come down tremendously. Seth thinks the worse three point shooting is mostly random except for Roddy Gayle, opposing defenses can always plan for Roddy not being able to shoot. For one half, Rutgers was the greatest basketball team in the world, then it came crashing back to Earth. Is it time for L.J. Cason to play more? Sometimes he looks great and sometimes he doesn't box out at all. Vlad Goldin is just not a passer in the paint. Who would you take for free throws to win the game, Roddy Gayle or Nimari Burnett? 4. Hockey vs Ohio State Starts at 1:10:08 Michigan steals four points from Ohio State and has their tournament percentage up to 85%. Michigan hosts Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament but Penn State is playing very hot at the end of this season. The "It gets worse" call is now legendary. Win this upcoming series and you're in, get swept and... you might still be in.  MUSIC: "You Don't Know The Shape I'm In"—MJ Lenderman "Loser"—Jerry Garcia "Whip Appeal"—Babyface “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: MBB's shooting woes: they're at 27% going back to the last Rutgers game, Roddy Gayle is 1/24 in the Big Ten. It's a cascade: missed threes are creating runouts and Michigan has a massive difference between their transition defense (324th in the country) and their half-court defense (18th). Sam: Roddy's making them in practice. Tre Donaldson was their guy to get "bad buckets" but we think that opponents are taking even those away by packing the paint. Seth: Rutgers is a get-right opportunity because they'll need to help down low and that should create looks. RU preview: Dylan Harper is back, needs to be doubled. Their centers are two freshmen and a JuCo who was ruled out for the season at one point. Michigan's defense in the half-court has been really good, but MSU was getting a ton of offensive rebounds. Craig thinks that was mostly Vlad, and that there was an improvement against Nebraska. Also issues with the guards not boxing out MSU athletes. Will be critical against Rutgers. Dusty May retained: IU people are like "he didn't do a good job negotiating." Brian: I wouldn't be surprised if May's the Michigan basketball coach ten years from now. He turned down Louisville too; Michigan is his vibe. Sam: Where's Dusty in the conference now? Seth: the money isn't the matter. What's interesting is they mentioned NIL and program support, and then we heard from TMI's interview with Warde Manuel that 25% of the House settlement's $20.5 M is going to men's and women's basketball (don't worry; football can make money in other ways). That's a lot for a school like Michigan. It tells you what Dusty's priority was: he wants quality of life, and a commitment to being a basketball school. Is Michigan tired? Craig says kids don't get tired. Seth says Officiating talk part 1: Paul Szelc is the only ref to ever T up both John Beilein and Dusty May. What was the technical for? Sam heard it's for waving him off, but Szelc was 65 feet away on the other end of the court and Dusty was making the sign for a goaltend (he was correct). Incredible that this happens when Izzo is hurling abuse at them all game. Seth: Paul Szelc has conclusively demonstrated he's not going to give Michigan a fair shake, and should not be assigned Michigan games anymore, end of story. Officiating talk part 2: The awful replay rule got more awful because they can't call an obvious foul they missed that caused the ball to go out of bounds, so now their only option on review is to make the call worse. How is this not fixed when everyone has hated this rule since 2018. At the very least give the officials an option to wave off the review because they missed a call. It's absurd that we spend this much dead time to make the game worse. Baseball: lost some close ones, by 2 runs to potential #1 Arkansas and their 14-to-1 walk ratio at TCU was "suspicious" to Craig. Hockey: 11th in the Pairwise, so close to the Bubble. They're 70% to make the Tourney, finish regular season at #10 Ohio State and should get a home series vs PSU if they get points off OSU this weekend. Future: next year unknown because they're being quiet and might make a big splash from the CHL. The big class arrives in 2026-27.

1 Hour and 41 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: Scores, Standings, Pairwise   Opener Old Friends and the League Last Look at Ohio State Segment 2: Professional Wolverines   NHL Regulars Fringe NHLers Minor Leaguers   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Memories" -- Thutmose Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Things Discussed: We believe MSU is likely planting diseases in Brian's kid's school. Michigan State preview: They can't shoot; they're 354th (I was wrong on the pod) out of 364 teams in 3P%. But caveat: Jase Richardson can shoot and has been playing more, Frankie Fiddler career-wise can shoot, Fears is at 35% and Kohler is at 34%. It's Hollomon and Carr and Akins who give them that profile, but when only one is on the court they're fine. They are physical. Purdue is physical too but MSU is that and DIRTY. MSU vs Purdue: great coaching job. Strategy was switching, throwing guard after guard on Braden Smith, getting the Purdue backcourt trapped down low and running on rebounds. Also got Breslin calls on Trey Kaufman-Renn. Szymon Zapala is the dirtiest player to come through the Big Ten since Brad Davison and whinier than his coach. MSU's process involves getting called (Zapala has 6 fouls/40) but they roll four-deep a the five when you include Kohler. Key: Do not turn the ball over against MSU. They're excellent in transition, in the half-court vs zone they have to take pullup 2s and go for rebounds. Tschetter's rapid elbow: he knew the head was there. By the way: change the wedgie rule. Wedgie should be defense's ball OOB. Sam gonna die on the hill that Bill Laimbeer was a "physical" player. He was dirty. Seth's quick study on teams that get more home calls (based on the idea that it's normal to get about 1 free throw per missed shot at the rim vs top-100 competition, and teams get about 10% more fouls at home): Purdue gets the worst whistle in the league, Michigan is 2nd, MSU gets the best whistle and at home it's off the charts. Does Dusty need to work the refs better? I think he just needs to get to know them better. Michigan strategy vs State: Wolf needs to take advantage of Kohler, Goldin needs to give it back to Zapala. Illinois? They shoot a lot of threes and go for rebounds. Craig's Baseball update: They're very good! 4-0 with an extra innings win vs #2 Virginia and wins vs Rice, Villanova and Stetson in the Puerto Rico Challenge. Jonathan Kim and Mitch Voight are hammering the ball, getting great pitching from Gavin DeVooght, David Lally and Kurt Barr, who've given up zero ER in 17-1/3 innings. Next is TCU, KSU, and Arkansas in Arlington.

Dive into the thrilling world of college hockey with insights on Michigan's overtime dominance and the challenges of northern sports scheduling. Highlighting Michigan's intense match against Minnesota, the discussion reflects on missed opportunities and player performances. Humor meets sports as they tackle everything from dentist visits to baseball strategies, while also examining the impact of a recent goalie change at Boston University. Get ready for a lively breakdown of college hockey dynamics and NHL excitement!

GoFundMes to support victims of the fires in LA who are part of the MGoBlog community: General Fund. Reader's mother-in-law Anne Cohen. Reader Chef Robert. Reader Josh Bishop-Moser. Reader Mike on behalf of Mika Yoshitake & daughter Sora. Readers Liberty and Mark. 1 hour and 42 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, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Men's Basketball at Ohio State Starts at 1:00 Bienvenue! Recorded remotely this week because Seth’s 19 year old ski boots exploded. Michigan wins a defense-optional shootout, they rebounded half their misses which ended up being the difference (Ohio State just couldn’t out-rebound Goldin and Wolf). There’s a big difference between Goldin being the role guy and Tschetter being the role guy, so why did Goldin only get 24 minutes? Officiating in this game and how it relates to the Bo Ryan era. Don’t elbow someone in the head but also don’t put your head into someone’s elbow. Roddy Gayle returns to Columbus and silences the boos out of timeouts. Stop missing dunks. Neither team got a double digit lead, the game was tense the whole time.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Men's Basketball vs Purdue Starts at 24:50 Michigan avenges a terrible loss to become co-favorites to win the Big Ten. Braden Smith plays an insane 12 minutes to open the game for Purdue, making the first half extra frustrating. His mid-range shots weren’t even bad shots, necessarily. Rubin Jones and Roddy Gayle combined for 20 points and played excellent, annoying defense. They came through in a way that was required to win this game. Michigan shoots below their season 3-point average but only had 11 turnovers. They also got to the line a lot (off of some calls that weren’t great). Caleb Furst should’ve fouled out in the first six minutes! The physicality of the Big Ten is more than Dusty May realized. Purdue had zero bench points.  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Minnesota Starts at 49:12 Takes hotter than Michigan basketball in a three point game. Michigan gets slightly more than a split against Minnesota which decently increases their NCAA tournament chances. A split with Ohio State and a first round win in the Big Ten Tournament should do it. Minnesota was out-shooting Michigan 12-2 to start the game on Saturday, not great! Welcome back, Michael Hage. Tyler Duke played a nice game when everyone else was gassed. Bye week upcoming so we won’t know much about tournament chances for a while.  4. Tournament Outlooks Starts at 1:16:40 Men’s basketball is now projected to win the Big Ten but Wisconsin is looming with the easier schedule. Purdue and Michigan State both finish with a gauntlet. Of Michigan’s last six games, four or five of them will be against tournament teams. Finishing 3-3 could maybe be enough to win a share of the Big Ten and get a banner. It’s been a while since it’s come down to Michigan and Michigan State down the stretch. Torvik has Michigan jumping between 3 and 4 seeds, which takes win margin into account. Hockey is projected to play Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. They’re now 80% to make the NCAA tournament but everyone ahead of them in the Pairwise rankings is pretty much a lock. The worst tournament in sports is suddenly in Michigan’s favor! There’s a regional in Toledo but Michigan probably doesn’t go there. Shout out to Hockey Bear.  MUSIC: "Real Life"—The Marias "MUTT"—Leon Thomas "THE BADDEST"—Joey Valence and Brae “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

Things Discussed: Ohio State hires Matt Patricia: Brian: He'll have a Wile E. Coyote year with Caleb Downs but he's not a good coach. He does have a weird beard though. Seth if the idea is to capture what Michigan got in Wink Martindale they forgot the part where he invented the defense that Michigan runs. Craig: Nothing in his resume shows he's a good coach. Purdue game: Michigan had to try at least four defenses against Braden Smith to wear that guy out, finally got Danny Wolf to work. Seth: the zone was the most effective because it was forcing him into even worse stepbacks. But Braden Smith, gotdang is that a good basketball player. Gives them a floor for every shot of 0.9 points per possession. Physicality: Caleb Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn brought it, Vlad got chewed out but then he gave it back. Michigan: Massive effort, especially early from Tre Donaldson who led the first comeback by getting ball-dominant. Officiating? Craig takes the side of Szelc. Seth says it was bad; they let them play way too physically early on and then switched it up, which is how you get both of Purdue's forwards fouling out late after getting away with a ton early. Players hate inconsistency the most. Recognition for Roddy Gayle and Rubin Jones. Roddy filled the box score, can play the role of a secondary creator much better than the role of a fourth offensive option/spacer. You want him starting possessions not ending them. Shooting from either? Roddy's shot is broken—that high arc makes it travel further which means he's effectively shooting at a smaller target. That needs an offseason. Jones's shot looks fine; he's just got to keep taking them and playing as hard as he did. Dusty "inspiring" Vlad leads to two hard takes over TKR where he used his size advantage. Need that from Goldin. Dusty May's future: Brian thinks the pressure cooker in Bloomington with similar resources as Michigan makes Michigan the better job, but we all agree Michigan has to make an Indiana-level investment to keep him. At the outtro: congrats to Kim Barnes-Arico: the winningest basketball coach in the history of the University of Michigan.

1 Hour and 24 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: BAD...but Lucky!   Opener Power Play Goals Korpi Wins It Is That Enough? Segment 2: Friday But More State Goals   Korpi Hangs On For 30 The Dam Breaks Old Friends and the League Gopher Redux MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Get Ready For This" -- 2 Unlimited Ice Hockey (NES) theme

The hosts dive into the turbulent world of college basketball coaching, discussing the fate of Indiana's coach amid performance woes. They dissect Michigan's unpredictable season, balancing humor with analysis of turnovers and player efficiency. Local businesses get a spotlight, underscoring community ties, while a lively debate about Michigan and Indiana's basketball rivalry takes center stage. Plus, listeners hear about efforts to support talent retention in football through a new NIL initiative.