MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

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.

The latest discussion dives into Michigan's impressive recruiting efforts, showcasing a talent influx not seen since 1998. They analyze standout prospects like elite offensive linemen and running backs, emphasizing their game-changing potential. On the basketball front, they tackle the team's turnover challenges, dissecting defensive strategies that impact performance. Optimism brews as the team aims for a top tournament seed, despite mental errors plaguing gameplay. The camaraderie and in-depth insights make for an engaging listen!

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 9 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 Rutgers Starts at 1:00 Brian returns after a week (or two) of trying not to die ala ice and norovirus. The Rutgers game was a weird game of two offensive-oriented teams not scoring much. Rutgers has 15 more shots than Michigan and still loses due to poor shooting. Michigan did a great job defending Ace Bailey. Rubin Jones made a two! Rutgers likely won't make the tournament but this was still a solid road win. Tre Donaldson is averaging 1.7 fouls per game, can't just pull him with two fouls. Things feel bad but Michigan has a tournament bid pretty much locked up if they stay the course.  2. Men's Basketball vs Penn State and Purdue Starts at 21:34 Penn State is the most Clingon team in college basketball. Tre Donaldson was the hero with 21 points, also the Vlad Goldin "empty tubes" game. Only nine turnovers was a great improvement against a team that forces a bunch of turnovers. Speaking of poop, the Purdue game! This was not a game from the start. Michigan can't handle Purdue's pace and then the second half is just coasting home for both teams. Every Michigan coach has to get their head caved in by Painter once. It was discombobulating to see Michigan so discombobulated. The final stretch of this schedule is a gauntlet, they're all quad 1 games (besides maybe Rutgers). If Michigan finishes .500 they'll be fine.  3. Football Stuff Starts at 41:23 Ross Dellenger got a leak of a portion of Michigan's NCAA response. Michigan is taking the route that the allegations are unsupported and should be level 2 allegations. In the past they've laid down and taken it for allegations. All the released texts about Connor Stalions within the program almost sound like they're annoyed with him. The portal has been pretty quiet recently, this might be it for the incoming wide receivers. All signs point towards Ty Haywood coming to Michigan. The NIL values you see are probably made up.  4. Michigan Hockey vs Penn State Starts at 56:09 Michigan is down to 14th in Pairwise and on the bubble. The remaining games are the hardest part of the schedule so they need to go at least 3-3 to try and get into the tournament. This is such a frustrating team to watch. In some years, the Michigan defense can do spectacular things while making mistakes, this year they just make mistakes. They're running out of time to figure stuff out.  MUSIC: "Alaska"—Maggie Rogers "Help Me"—Joni Mitchell "Don't Dream It's Over"—Crowded House “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: Mostly we discussed the Dellinger Leak and Michigan's response to the NCAA re: Signgate. I'll have a UV later today on it. Michigan has a very—extremely—strong case that they did very little wrong. Most of the in-person scouting was for teams not on their schedule, all of the evidence for a coverup is flimsy: Sherrone deleted texts: Only off his phone, because he knew they had imaging, those were provided to the NCAA, and they were completely innocuous. Mike Hart was told that Stalions was "extra" which: yeah. That's it! That's all the evidence! Most of the report is just a glimpse into how sign operations worked—Stalions was sharing signs with Rutgers and Nebraska, who just used wristbands when they played Michigan. It also showed just how marginal sign-decoding was: Sherrone was told to change his signs before Ohio State and said he'll "think about it," Partridge yelled at Stalions about trying to use a team manager, etc. It has a name! Signal organization stupid thing, or S.O.S.T. NCAA's position is basically "We know we broke our bylaws and this isn't remotely just, but we need to humiliate you because look how mad all the Bielemas are." Michigan has requested a prehearing because the NCAA has at least one in-house source that refused to be identified, which we've just now learned is apparently against NCAA bylaws. No idea if the COI has to grant that prehearing The process is meant to be collaborative; it completely breaks down when the two sides have entirely different realities and goals. That's a big problem for Michigan because the NCAA's purpose here isn't to be reasonable or just. The fear here is NCAA's main motivation is relevance; they can't do anything about paying players, which has been their raison d'être, so this is the one field where they can demonstrate any kind of power. Legal challenge? Seems they'll go that route if things proceed as they seem to be. Guessing that's what the NCAA wants so they can placate the Bielemas by saying "it was the courts, not us." Seth: don't underestimate the difficulty of winning this case in court. Like the Tony Petitti thing, when it's not about constitutionality or the law, courts often default to whatever the agreement between parties is, and Michigan's agreed to be under NCAA judgment whether it's fair or not. With Tennessee: 1) It was their attorney general flexing power on behalf of the only thing his state cares about, which isn't who Dana Nessel is or how Michigan politics work, and 2) that was about paying players, which got into a constitutionality issue of denying the free trade of services. Guess how it plays out: NCAA goes overboard, Michigan takes them to court, court takes a long time, and when it's settled nobody cares because it's been too long and we all have more important things going on. Story Time: Just like 1928! Non-S.O.S.T. thing: Jim Knowles off to PSU for a lot of money! What does it mean? It means anyone who can is getting away from Ohio State fans.

1 Hour and 23 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: Watchalong Collapse   Opener Scored Goals! Blown Lead #1 PK, Outshot, Goalie-ing Segment 2: Saturday Collapse   Gramme's Got Free Stuff Another 2 Goal Blown Lead, but the Extra Point! Old Friends and the League PSU Again   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Somebody's Watching Me" -- Rockwell Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Watch Party: Basketball and Hockey tomorrow night.    Things Discussed: Lions: You can't hurt me. Oh they lost—we lost the DPOY and everyone else on the starting defense. They're taking our coordinators—when's the last time a Lions coordinator left for a head coaching job? Wink to Lions? Sounds like he's a tertiary candidate, most of the positions looking at him have been filled. Why aren't OSU's coaches candidates for better jobs? Brian Hartline only. Sam: Pro position coaches don't make more than college anymore (except Jim paid his guys to come with him); you go pro to get away from recruiting. Coordinators don't recruit as much anymore. Sherrone does a lot of the recruiting himself. If no Wink: the "internal" candidate is Doug Mallory. Les Miles's old coordinator, has recruited the SEC. Called the coverages vs OSU 2021-2023, called the coverages in the national championship. Waiting as DB coach for Ravens but might be the rare guy (older, played for Bo) who would retire here. Sam adds they'd be able to elevate someone to a "co-." Danger of losing Wink is he might pluck some of his guys. Good news is he's probably not going anywhere right now. Staff is pretty intact. Would like to establish some long-term guys. Wanted Elston to stay forever. Want OL recruits to be recruited 2 years by the guy who will coach them 4 years and still be here when they come back to visit in 4 years. Pantsless Championship: They want to call a 14-2 season the best ever? They're the worst champions ever. They went 1-1 against Oregon who had a better season. They lost their most important game, at home to Michigan. The commemorative ball has all the game scores on it. Sam's buying it. Playoff system: Can you imagine designing a system where Michigan and Ohio State are both happy at the end of the year? Hoops: Teams are learning to take away the roll. Minnesota game was a bit of a fluke—Goldin went 4/13 at the rim when he's been the best finisher in the B10 for the last month—but Northwestern went all in on it. Need to find ways to punish that, either with Wolf following Goldin into the lane or shooting an open three. Goldin: quietly Michigan's best player lately, despite 4/13. His threes open up the offense vs teams like Northwestern and their paint-bound truck driver. Purdue: Will be a different challenge because TKR can switch. Need defense to show up.

1 Hour and 18 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 Night Points!   Opener That Goal Fighting Back TJ Hughes Talk Segment 2: Saturday Night at Munn   Down in a Big Hole Non-Gameplay Discussion Old Friends and the League Badger Rematch MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "On Melancholy Hill" -- The Gorillaz Ice Hockey (NES) theme

GoFundMes to support victims of the fires in LA: https://gofund.me/79ecde48h https://www.gofundme.com/f/ysggb https://gofund.me/79ecde48 https://www.gofundme.com/f/liberty-mark-need-our-help?attribution_id=sl:bdeebeeb-00cf-4385-9fae-567d43bae218&utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link  1 hour and 29 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. Football Portal Starts at 1:00 Find out which MGoPodcaster almost ran over Craig. Michigan picks up UMass wide receiver Anthony Simpson from the portal, hopefully he can be Drew Dileo. They also get Louisiana cornerback Caleb Anderson, he played injured last year so his PFF grades weren't terrific. He's a great tackler. OT Ty Haywood has de-committed from Alabama and was set to visit Michigan over the weekend. Apparently he wanted early play time. Cade McNamara has committed to ETSU. Ohio State and Notre Dame is not a meteor game, the choice here is obvious!  2. Men's Basketball vs Minnesota Starts at 17:47 Lack of toughness was not the issue! Minnesota hit 50% from mid-range which was the difference between OT and a Michigan win, they usually don't make these shots. The Gophers also changed their lineup quite significantly. Nimari Burnett was held in check (and was in foul trouble), Roddy Gayle was having an off game as well. Giving up 71 points in regulation to Minnesota is concerning. Need Will Tschetter to be able to put up 6-8 points per game.  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Michigan State Starts at 37:22 Considering Michigan State is currently #1 in the country, getting some points over the weekend is nice. Michigan is giving up a lot of goals in the five-hole. They were was able to hang with #1 MSU but there is a skill gap, Michigan doesn't have a dynamic skater and is playing a lot of freshmen. There were three penalties in Yost on Friday and 21(!) in Munn on Saturday. TJ Hughes has 10 points in six games, How should Michigan approach player development moving forward? Need to win three of the next four.  4. Men's Basketball vs Northwestern Starts at 1:05:35 Attending this game in person was torture because you can't even see what they're reviewing. Can't have your foot too close to the jingle jangles. Goldin is 9 of 16 on threes! He needs to wear a cup or something. Is this Michigan's first game this season where they had fewer turnovers than the opposition? The offense needs to diversify because opposing defenses are collapsing on the center and Wolf has been having issues. Is Tre Donaldson or Roddy Gayle the answer? Gotta respect Chris Collins for having a competitive team every year. Purdue is smaller than we're used to seeing but playing them at Mackey is a tall order.  MUSIC: "Trouble"—Father John Misty "Never Ending Math Equation"—Sun Kil Moon "One Of These Days"—Michigander “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Things Discussed: Hoops: We are still fascinated by Mick Cronin, even as he turns a top-25 road win into just another bottom-of-the-B1G team. Wolf back next year? Musselman clearly trying to talk NBA into existence, but NBA is listening. Big Ten MBB looks like a Michigan-Michigan State race with Purdue and Illinois on the 2nd tier, though Illinois can beat anybody—they're weird because they rely on the three. Brian: MSU is a better shooting team than they look: Akins is at least, and they hit free throws. Craig: MSU is really good, unbeatable when Izzo can browbeat the refs into letting them be handsy. Counter: they don't take many threes, with three primary players on the court non-shooters: using Jaxon Kohler as a shooter, using Jeremy Fears as a shooter, Xavier Booker as a shooter. Booker is a frustrating guy, more evidence that Izzo doesn't develop guys. It's also weird that Frankie Fidler hasn't been that good, and Calipari turned Johnnell Davis into a bench player. Shoutout to Dusty May, and what he's done with Nimari Burnett. Seth: he's not the 5-star Texas Tech thought they were getting; he's the guy Alabama thought they were getting. It's about anticipation; the game is coming to him so slowly. Brian: He's Bobby Hull! We eat crow for saying the two big lineup won't work—in our defense… https://twitter.com/EvanMiya/status/1879650374128447983 During break: Effort to bring Brandon Graham to Michigan; now he's going to keep playing. The guys do math. Speaking of Eat Crow: Wink Martindale NFL interest? Sam says they'll have to pay him; Seth says someone will because he's too good of an idea for an NFL team: NYG are 28th in DVOA and blitzy/1-high again with out him, meanwhile he's beating OSU with QQH. He's the guy who invented the most popular defense in the league, regardless if people want to claim Mac and Minter's defenses are "Fangio-style." But they're going to have to commit to him: he's not taking a pay cut. Michigan would have to put an extension in front of him as well.

The hosts dive into the challenges of hockey broadcasts, comparing glitchy Michigan coverage to polished Notre Dame streams. They explore the NHL's midseason dynamics, including playoff predictions and trade deadline insights, while analyzing the intricacies of coaching tactics and player performances. A recent game against Notre Dame showcases critical turning points and defensive struggles, highlighting the need for improvement. Frustrations over inconsistent scheduling are also discussed, alongside rivalries and key player matchups in the college hockey landscape.