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Evaluating the State of the Red Wings Rebuild

7/24/2018

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By: Alex Drain

We’re now officially in late July, meaning that the 2017-18 NHL season, the 2018 NHL Draft, and the majority of the free agency period have all passed. With it, a lot has changed in the rebuilding plans for the Detroit Red Wings. Each passing season brings more clarity and new developments to the rebuilding blueprint, one that I laid out
here last October. So what has changed and how does this impact the future? Let’s do a deep dive and investigate:

The 2017-18 Season: For a rebuilding team, the past season was pretty successful. If the goal is to lose a lot of games and get a high draft pick, that happened to perfection. The Red Wings finished with the fifth fewest points, which helped earn them the #6 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, their highest first round pick in a long time. But the season isn’t just about tanking, it’s also about crucial player development. And the Wings got quite a bit of that too. Dylan Larkin proved himself in a big way, breaking out and collecting a career high 63 points. In the process, his ceiling has become a #1 center, with the floor being an above-average #2. Having just turned 22 this summer, Larkin distinguished himself as a centerpiece of the rebuild, which is quite frankly, huge. Anthony Mantha had an up-and-down season, but his career high 24 goals shows he should be considered a top 6 winger in the future plans and that the 30 goal ceiling is still definitely in play. Finally, Tyler Bertuzzi busted onto the scene, playing with Henrik Zetterberg and looking like he belonged, and he now figures more into the middle 6 than as the grinder I previously thought he was going to be. The Red Wings also traded Petr Mrazek at the deadline for a couple picks and then fleeced the Vegas Golden Knights on the Tomas Tatar trade, somehow netting a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rounder for him.

The Draft: Late June’s NHL Draft was the biggest draft in a long time for the franchise, as they boasted a bunch of picks, but more importantly, 4 picks in the top 36 (6, 30, 33, 36). And if it was a franchise-defining draft, then the future looks very bright, as it’s hard to be anything other than absolutely floored by the picks the Red Wings made. Of course, only time will tell on how the players pan out, but Detroit left draft night ecstatic with their haul of early picks, ones that mostly fell into their lap. Montreal and Arizona went off the board with picks 3 and 5, which allowed arguably the second most talented player in the draft, winger Filip Zadina, to tumble to the Wings. An offensive dynamo, Zadina is a playmaker and a finisher, someone who can score from anywhere on the ice, and he’s the rare potential 40 goal scoring prospect. He gives the Red Wings a potential game breaking talent, and the best pure goal scorer the team has had since Marian Hossa. They also netted center Joe Veleno, a consensus top 15 pick, at pick 30, and then scooped up skilled winger Jonatan Berggren and defenseman Jared McIsaac with picks 33 and 36. The Red Wings were declared one of the winners of the draft by most all outlets and so the early opinions are quite exciting.

Free Agency: Something that often gets lost among the Ken Holland haters is that the Red Wings have clearly re-adjusted their mentality since they committed to the rebuild. This summer and the last have featured none of the overpriced and overtermed contracts that were the playoff streak’s undoing. This summer featured the signings of a few old faces, Mike Green and Thomas Vanek, as well as goalie Jonathan Bernier. These moves have the intention of filling gaps in the roster, but also to boost trade value. Green was re-signed to a two year deal because he provides stability at the blue line, but also because the Red Wings believe if he has another good season, he has trade value. They had hoped to deal him last season but a neck injury made him untradeable when the deadline rolled around, robbing Detroit of an extra first/second round pick. The same goes for Vanek, as the Wings like how he compliments the growth and development of the younger players on the offensive end. But of course, when you sign a wily veteran winger to a one year deal, you’re doing it because you think you can trade him. Lastly, Bernier was signed because with Petr Mrazek gone, the Wings are in the need of a backup goalie. But also, Jimmy Howard is in the last year of his deal and he too could be on the trading block. Indeed, it’s become abundantly clear that a key component of the Red Wings’ rebuilding strategy is to stockpile draft picks. Detroit had 11 last year, 10 this year, and they already have 10 picks for next year’s draft, even before more trades may be made. And quite frankly when your profession involves trusting your future on the backs of incredibly raw 18 year olds, having a lot of bullets and hoping a few hit the target doesn’t seem like a bad strategy.

So how do things look currently?

As it currently stands, the rebuilding project is a lot clearer when compared to last year. The Red Wings now think they have over half of their future top 9 forwards and a good chunk of their future defense corps. At forward, you can pencil in Dylan Larkin as one of the future stars of the team. Michael Rasmussen, 2017’s 1st rounder, is likely to join the team in the fall after a monstrous season in the WHL. He, along with Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi are almost certainly parts of the future top 9. Whether Zadina plays this year in Detroit or not, you can pencil him in on the future top line, which gives you 5. Detroit would like 2015 first rounder Evgeny Svechnikov to be a part of this, but a rough season in Grand Rapids makes it less clear. Veleno and Berggren should be a part of this, but they will need several seasons to simmer. So while there are still some moving parts, things are starting to come together ever so slightly in the forwards.

On defense, while the Red Wings didn’t get the opportunity to pick a blue chip defenseman (that was the plan before Zadina tumbled to 6), they have a deeper prospect pool than people think. Filip Hronek, who has had back-to-back huge seasons in the OHL and AHL, is the favorite to make the team this fall. Joe Hicketts is long overdue to leave Grand Rapids and hopefully the team can find a spot for him in Detroit this year. Outside of those two, 2016 first rounder Dennis Cholowski has a ceiling that is Jay Bouwmeester-like and if he pans out, you can pencil him in the future top 4. Libor Sulak and Vili Saarijarvi also have potential down in Grand Rapids and a pair of second rounders from the last two years, McIsaac and Gustav Lindstrom, will make the team when they are ready. The one thing this group is lacking is the elite blue chip talent and it seems like Detroit will set out to get that in next season’s draft. But as for now, they have a nice pool of talent that should produce at least 2-3 solid defenseman to build a defense around.

In net, the Red Wings like Keith Petruzzelli (2017 pick) and Filip Larsson (2016 pick), but both are still so young and raw and they realistically wouldn’t join the team until the 2020-21 season at the earliest. While they may be the netminders of the future (wouldn’t shock me if Detroit picked another goalie in 2019), expect Bernier and another veteran goalie signing to act as stopgaps until the younger players are available.

What’s the time frame on all of this?

The Red Wings chose not to tear it all down a la Buffalo and Arizona out of the fear it would derail a structured time frame and leave the team in a perpetual wilderness. That may yet be the right decision and so if we want to compare the Red Wings’ rebuild, perhaps we should compare it to the most successful rebuild in recent years, Toronto. The Leafs had the 2013-14 season begin their rebuild, a year they tried to contend in but ended up selling off pieces and ending the season with a bottom 10 record. They held the #8 pick in that draft and chose forward Will Nylander. In 2014-15 they embraced the tank and got a top 6 pick and selected forward Mitch Marner. In 2015-16 they tanked again and won the lottery, selecting Auston Matthews. With all the young talent on the team, they pushed for the playoffs in 2016-17 and slipped in as the 8 seed and played a competitive first round series. Then this past season they emerged as legitimate Stanley Cup contenders.

You can compare that time frame to the Red Wings, with 2016-17 being the season where Detroit tried to contend for the playoffs but then crashed and burned, similar to Toronto’s 2013-14. And like Toronto, they too took a forward (Rasmussen). This past season, a full on tank job, is comparable to Toronto’s 2014-15, and like the Leafs again, Detroit took a forward (Zadina). So under this comparison, 2018-19 would be Detroit's last full tank season. While I doubt that the Wings will be in a good position to win the lottery next summer, it does feel like this upcoming season is the last year of bottoming out. Ideally, Detroit tanks one more season and trades Nyquist, Howard, Vanek, and maybe Green to stockpile more picks and finishes with a record bad enough to fetch another top 6ish pick. Then they would use that pick to select the blue chip defenseman that evaded them this past season. Under this plan, 2019-20 would be the first season where the team would seriously try to get better but the playoffs would feel like a stretch and would hinge on player development. Realistically, 2020-21 would be the first season with a legitimate shot to return to the postseason, and the goal should be to return to contention by 2021-22. By this time, many of the young prospects would be old enough to be making noise in the NHL and most of the old and bad contracts will have come off the books. Indeed, Kronwall is down to his last year, Ericsson on his second to last, and Zetterberg is on his last legs as a player. By 2021-22, only Abdelkader and Nielsen would be left on the books.

So an ideal depth chart for that season is (with age in parentheses):

Zadina (22) - Larkin (25) - Mantha (27)
Rasmussen (23) - Veleno (22) - Bertuzzi (27)  
Svechnikov (25) - Athanasiou (27) - Berggren (21)
Abdelkader (35) - Nielsen (38) - Givani Smith (24)

2019 Draft Pick (21) - Cholowski (24)
Hronek (24) - Lindstrom (23)
DeKeyser (32) - Saarijarvi (24)

Petruzzelli (23) - Larsson (23)

How good is that team? I’m not sure, as it all depends on how the players pan out but there would be a lot of youth on the roster. The most important thing right now is that there is a coherent plan, a blueprint on how to make the team better and return to contention in a timely manner, with a bit of help from the 2018 draft. The future in Hockeytown looks a lot brighter now than it did at this point last season, and that should excite Red Wings fans everywhere.

Image: http://image.mlive.com/home/mlive-media/width600/img/redwings_impact/photo/dylan-larkin-11-17-17-011e7b538db81cee.jpg
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5 College Football Coaches Who Are Very Easy to Dislike

7/19/2018

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Nick Saban isn't on this list, but this definitely does not flatter him.
By: Nick Hornburg

    The start of the 2018 College Football Season is fast approaching (cue Andy Williams’ It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year), and it shall be as glorious as any other season: Legends will be written, Heroes shall be anointed, Texas might actually be back and Alabama will definitely not win the title again (maybe not that last part). However, as the season still has yet to start, the demented side of my brain is not yet properly distracted and has now fostered a mild obsession with the villains of College Football (Heroes can wait until September damn it!). We all have head coaches around the world of College Football who we don’t like (for various reasons, rational or otherwise), but here are five head coaches who, if one wanted, one would not have to work hard to find reasons to dislike.

    It should be noted, the criteria here is quite different from what most people deem sufficient to cause hatred. This does not extend to Coaches who were detested in the FBS and have moved down to the FCS (Bo Pelini), despicable assistants who were once head men (Greg Schiano), incompetent ex-coaches (Charlie Weis), disgraced ex-coaches (Art Briles), or Coaches who are hated on a personal level simply because they are (very) good at their jobs (Nick Saban, Mark Dantonio). Rather, these are the coaches whose haters are fueled not by on-field results, but instead by their personalities, baggage, or anything else that makes their existence a fact regrettable to many (note: I personally do not have issue with all of these coaches, some I even like, however, in those cases, I can understand why people would take issue)

N.B. all images from google images

5. Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech
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    Paul Johnson is a relic of a bygone era. The former hyper-successful Georgia Southern head man and Ken Niumatalolo’s predecessor at Navy brought the Triple Option (or ‘Flexbone’, as he prefers to say) to major college football when he arrived in Atlanta in 2008. For a mid-tier ACC program, results have been quite good, particularly in an 11-3 2014 season that ended with an Orange Bowl victory. Unfortunately, Johnson seems to have taken a decade’s worth of endless questions about the viability of his system, skepticism about his recruiting and simply never being taken all that seriously to heart. Johnson always casts the image of an arrogant, stubborn, nerd who resentfully guards his sacred option offense from the unsophisticated peasants in the press room and on the recruiting trail. This manifests itself in various forms, including sneering at any question about his recruiting rankings, defensive fronts consisting of 80% converted tight ends, and a general smugness hanging around every word after a victory. Modern college football is better for having the option in it, and I personally hope Johnson stays at Tech for at least a few more years, but if I had to describe him to a friend who wasn’t a football fan, I’d say he’s that one nerdy kid in high school (all of you either knew that kid or, like me, were that kid) who never forgave you for not knowing the difference between Red Eyes Black Dragon and Blue Eyes White Dragon.

4. Lane Kiffin, Florida Atlantic
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     Lane Kiffin has been considered one of the up and coming coaches of college football since about 2001. Kiffin parlayed six years of working for Pete Carroll into becoming the head coach of the Oakland Raiders, he lasted 20 games before running afoul of Al Davis (just like every other Raiders coach before him), and decided to drop back to the NCAA, becoming the head coach at Tennessee in 2009. Kiffin delivered almost immediately, openly accusing Urban Meyer of breaking recruiting rules at a booster breakfast, among other transgressions. After an indifferent 2009 season, Kiffin then proceeded to jump ship to become the head coach at USC, and Tennessee fans responded predictably. It took about three seasons before USC fans got sick of him, and was clipped five games into the 2013 season, in a conference room at LAX just after getting off a red eye flight following a loss to Arizona State (that says more about USC than it does about him, admittedly). Kiffin rallied the next season, becoming the offensive coordinator at Alabama, turned them into a scoring machine, ran his mouth again and again, so much so that in his final season in Tuscaloosa, the tension on the sidelines between him and Nick Saban became must-see viewing, ultimately culminating in Kiffin bizarrely getting fired days before the national title game (yes, Saban was THAT sick of him). Kiffin’s potential as a coach is undeniable, and his Conference USA title in the first year at FAU is proof of concept, but last year’s results, and his goofy but oddly charming twitter personality, obscure how quickly he and his gargantuan mouth tend to wear out their welcome.

3. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan
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    I love Jim Harbaugh and will defend him passionately, but if Paul Johnson was the prickly nerd in high school, Jim Harbaugh was the well-meaning but at times intolerable guy who walked in every morning and slapped you on the shoulder as hard as he could and screamed “WHAT’S HAPPENING MY DUDE?” directly in your ear, then proceeded to ruminate on how his morning had gone while you sat there feeling like you’d just been hit by a bus. Jim Harbaugh, and others like him, do not allow much room for a middle ground. Most Michigan fans (myself included) love him (don’t worry Kev, I said most), and almost everyone else wishes he was dead. Harbaugh, in many respects, is Dabo Swinney taken to his ideological extreme: he runs on a seemingly unlimited supply of infectious energy, makes his players want to run through a wall for him, but he has an extra layer of bizarre quirkiness and an, at times terrifying, intensity that sets him apart from his counterpart at Clemson. In his college days in Ann Arbor, he publicly guaranteed a victory in Columbus in 1986 (which he made good on). He then proceeded to the NFL where he spent more than a decade personifying the phrase ‘F*** IT, GO DEEP’ (ten seasons of double digit completions of 20+ yards, five seasons of more than 5 40+ yard completions, seven seasons with double digit interceptions). Before long, he ended up at Stanford, where this happened...I don’t think Pete Carroll ever forgave him. When turning Stanford into a juggernaut stopped being fun he became to head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, where he fought Jim Schwartz, went to three straight NFC Championship games, winning one, and proceeded to so profoundly annoy the 49ers owner, the incalculably rich but incalculably dumb Jed York, that he got fired after going 8-8 in 2014 despite being the best the 49ers had had in 20 years. Now, three years into his tenure in Ann Arbor, he has professed his love for Judge Judy, slept over at seventeen year-old Quinn Nordin’s house (hey, it worked, Nordin flipped to Michigan on signing day), jumped into a swimming pool wearing Khakis, given the Pope a winged helmet, made satellite camps a thing (Darth Saban and his SEC sycophants were less than pleased), disparaged skim milk (tough but fair), screamed at a giant talking peanut container, expressed bitter disappointment in officiating (justified), refused to release depth charts, and just in general acted like a maniac. For supporters, he’s exactly what you want leading your football team in principle: an intense, hyper-competitive madman who isn’t afraid to go out of his mind for his team. For everyone else, his antics are irritating, his intensity is out of control, and his sanity deserves to be questioned. For better or worse, Harbaugh is obnoxious, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.

2. Bobby Petrino, Louisville
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     Bobby Petrino: serial winner, offensive wizard, expert bridge-burner. SBNation’s Petrino Timeline is all that is necessary here. The world of College Football should’ve realized what was coming in 2001 when Bobby Petrino, then the Jacksonville Jaguars’ offensive coordinator, bolted to be the offensive coordinator at Auburn without ever telling Tom Coughlin. He then left Auburn to be the head man at Louisville, and immediately turned around and talked to boosters about the Auburn head coaching job, even though HE HAD JUST BEEN HIRED AT LOUISVILLE and Tommy Tuberville WAS STILL THE COACH. He later became head coach of the Atlanta Falcons (shortly after signing a 10-year extension at Louisville of course), and proceeded to resign 13 games later WITHOUT TELLING HIS PLAYERS IN PERSON. Petrino then landed in Arkansas, did pretty well for a few years, then proceeded to crash his motorcycle, which he swore had no passengers (but it did: a former Arkansas volleyball player and team assistant who he had an affair with at the time, to be specific), he was fired shortly thereafter. After a year out of coaching and a season at Western Kentucky, Petrino returned to Louisville, where he has most definitely not been involved in any scandals whatsoever. Petrino perfectly encapsulates the cynical world of college football: He wins a lot of games, thus there is always a school that thinks that it’s the one who won’t get bitten, then proceed to fall into a hell-hole for a few years (Louisville and Arkansas learned this the hard way), despite ample evidence stating that such a school does not exist. Job-hoppers are ever-present in college football, and there is nothing wrong with that and it is not a black mark on the character of anybody who does it. That said, Petrino provides textbook instructions on how NOT to jump from job to job: Dishonestly, inconsiderately, and leaving those behind to hate every fiber of your being. Also, because it bears mentioning again, please refer back to how his time at Arkansas came to an end.

1. Brian Kelly, Notre Dame

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     How fitting, the most easily hateable coach in college football happens to be the coach of the most easily hateable football program in college football. (*cracks knuckles*) If Mark Dantonio is the Jose Mourinho of college football, then Brian Kelly is Big Sam Allardyce: Walks into every room as if he’s the greatest thing to happen to the world, arrogantly struts around with a team that is often borderline unwatchable, yells and screams like a petulant child during games, tends to choke at the end of games, proceeds to flip the bird at anybody daring to question when said choking occurs, gets surprisingly decent results, such that nobody’s really happy but it’s not worth the risk to fire him, proceeds to spit in everyone’s face when he doesn’t get fired, and just in general seems to live to extinguish your happiness as a sports fan. Thankfully, Kelly’s Notre Dame teams tend to lose enough that I get my fair fill of joy from watching him lose (even in his best season, 2012, the way it ended brought a smile to my face). One of the biggest reasons I have for hating Notre Dame is the massive superiority complex possessed by their entire fanbase (yes, I’m aware that I root for Michigan), and the way that Notre Dame conducts itself concerning the expectations for its program and their confidence in their superiority (not dissimilar to the SEC’s immensely pretentious “It Just Means More” campaign), coupled with their seeming tolerance of Brian Kelly continuously underperforming, is positively nauseating. If Kelly had to adhere to the standards Notre Dame and its fans claim he does, he’d have been gone in 2016. Thinking objectively, I am aware that Notre Dame is a tough job, Brian Kelly is a decent coach, and isn’t even doing all that terribly considering the circumstances, but his insufferable manner, mixed with posturing by Notre Dame fans concerning standards for their program while he consistently falls short, making him look like a child who perpetually misbehaves but never gets punished, is why he is the most easily hateable coach in college football.
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Life Isn't Fair for Jim Harbaugh and Michigan

7/14/2018

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by Evan Oesterle

At around 3:30 pm eastern standard time on November 24th, Jim Harbaugh and his Michigan football team will have faced their judgement day. Can he finally beat the Buckeyes? Will they take a December trip to the capital of Indiana between annual spring break trips to foreign cities? Will the quarterback and offensive line problems that have plagued Michigan for the last two years finally be solved by coaching staff and personnel changes?

All of these questions will be answered in due time. For now, let’s take a step back.

I’ve been among the starkest critics of Jim Harbaugh over his first three years as head coach of the Wolverines. I found the end of the 2015 Michigan State game inexcusable; how can you justify having gunners in your punt formation when there isn’t even a return man back? The 2016 Iowa game made me sick. The offensive play calling and execution were atrocious for much of the game. Blame a Wilton Speight shoulder injury, a bad facemask call, or the haunted ‘night-game at Kinnick’ if you’d like; that one is on the coaching staff for me. Two weeks after that, Michigan lost a heartbreaking game to Ohio State that has defined Harbaugh since. The refereeing was atrocious (and I won’t even talk about the spot at the end - the Buckeyes had 0 live ball penalties, watch this and tell me they had 0 live ball penalties: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mhG1Pp6SJM) but I try to only consider factors within Michigan’s control. Wilton Speight may or may not have still been injured, and he had some horrific turnovers, but his 219 yards and 2 touchdowns were what built a 17-7 lead for Michigan. What do I look back to from that game? Michigan’s last three drives in the 4th quarter, all with a 17-14 lead.

5 plays, 16 yards in 2:02 ending in a punt

3 plays, -6 yards in 1:31 ending in a punt

3 plays, 6 yards in 1:25 ending in a punt
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Curtis Samuel went untouched to the end zone to win The Game 30-27 in 2OT for the Buckeyes just moments after the infamous spot on 4th and inches. Image via Yahoo Sports
If Michigan doesn’t abandon their quick passing game and no huddle/up-tempo offense for the final 15 minutes of regulation in Columbus, we would have a completely different narrative on our hands. (Also, if the Pistons had drafted Carmelo Anthony instead of Darko Milicic, they would have had a dynasty. But here we are.)

I have had a hard time evaluating the 2017-18 season. To be fair, Michigan lost 17 starters and was a young team with a tough schedule. But if we dig into that a little further, 10 of those lost starters were on defense. The defense finished top 10 across the board in nearly every stat, and was the 3rd best in the country on a total yardage basis. The offense… struggled to say the least. Quarterback injuries certainly put an asterisk on some of their struggles, but if Harbaugh had put in Brandon Peters against Michigan State would the outcome have been different? If Michigan’s offense didn’t sputter once again in the second half against the Buckeyes, is the ‘Harbaugh can’t win big games narrative’ erased? (For the record I think Michigan wins that game if JT Barrett doesn’t leave the game injured in the second half)
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In a game that perfectly summed up the season, Michigan blew a 19-3 lead (final score 26-19) to South Carolina in the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day. Image via SB Nation
The Wolverines are 5-7 in single digit games under Jim Harbaugh. Yet just one of those wins came against a ranked opponent. Harbaugh is 4-7 against ranked opponents. These two categories (including some overlap) include all 11 of Harbaugh’s losses at Michigan but just 8 of his 28 wins (so 20 of Michigan’s wins in the last 3 years have come in double digit blowouts against unranked teams).

Even with all of these things in mind, I want to take a moment to defend Harbaugh. He inherited a dumpster fire. Rich Rodriguez lost to Toledo and went 3-9 in year 1, and then improved in each of the next two seasons before being fired by Dave Brandon just when things started to look promising (hindsight is 20/20). Brady Hoke left Shane Morris in a game against Minnesota with a concussion and his win totals regressed each of his last three years after an 11-2 inaugural season. Harbaugh had to scrap together his first recruiting class in a month. If any other school in the country hired a new coach after not winning their conference in a decade (you can even forget the rest of the circumstances), 28 wins in 3 years would be acceptable. But not at Michigan. Our alumni, donors, fans, and students expect national title contention or bust every year. In a sense, this expectation is warranted. The million dollar facilities, largest stadium in the country, ‘tradition of excellence’, and Jim Harbaugh’s annual salary make these expectations seem rationale. Take a deep breath though, Michigan has half a national championship since 1948. They’ve been dominated by their two biggest rivals for the last decade and counting. MSU has won 8 of the last 11 meetings while the Buckeyes having taken 15 of the last 17. On Thanksgiving Day in 2001, “The Game’s” all time-record stood at 56-32-6 in favor of Michigan. Much of that ‘tradition of excellence’ for the ‘winningest team in college football history’ came pre-World War 2.
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Before eventually removing him from the game, Hoke left quarterback Shane Morris in the game with a concussion in a 2014 game against Minnesota. Image via CBS Sports
Jim Harbaugh didn’t lose the first 12 of those 15 losses to the Buckeyes since 2001 or the first 6 of the 8 losses to the Spartans since 2008. Jim Harbaugh didn’t sabotage Rich Rodriguez’s tenure at Michigan (Lloyd Carr did, read Three and Out by John U. Bacon if you don’t believe me). Jim Harbaugh hasn’t played any kids with concussions or had any major scandals under his tenure. Michigan has played in at least half of dozen games with CFP implications (depending on how loosley you want to define that metric) and has participated in at least one “College Gameday” game every year. If anything, Harbaugh has returned the school to national relevance. This alone makes him worth his $9 million per year annually salary.

Now back to the Xs and Os. It’s year 4 for Harbaugh. He finally has a roster full of his players. Michigan returns 17 starters this year and has a revamped coaching staff of proven minds in all three phases as well as strength and conditioning. Even new football nutrition director Abigail O’Connor has received raving reviews from the players and staff. Everything seems to be in place for an 11 or 12 win season and Harbaugh’s first conference championship game appearance.

Yet the task has never seemed more daunting. Michigan hasn’t won a road game against a ranked opponent since 2005; there are three likely top-25 road opponents (all rivalry games too) on the schedule this year in Notre Dame, OSU, and MSU. Add in home games against Penn State and Wisconsin to make it five total matchups with preseason top-25 teams. Don’t forget about up-and-coming Maryland, the Scott Frost led Nebraska Cornhuskers, and always tricky Indiana (overtime games two of the last three years) and you have what many believe is the toughest schedule in the country. Life just isn’t fair, right?
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Can transfer quarterback Shea Patterson lead Michigan to the promised land? Image via mgoblue.com
Hopefully, Ole Miss transfer Shea Patterson lives up to the hype. Hopefully, Ed Warinner turns the offensive line into a strength of the team, instead of its fatal weakness. Hopefully, the Wolverines avoid the special teams gaffes that plagued them last season. Hopefully, Harbaugh can guide the team to wins against MSU and OSU, finish higher than 3rd in the Big Ten East, and silence the critics.

If he doesn’t, just remember what the program he inherited looked like. I’m personally guilty of harsh, unfair criticism of Harbaugh in the worst moments of defeat and failure. I’ll never stop breaking down the in-game coaching mistakes he has made (and will continue to make). But do not, for a even a second, forget what this program looked like for the first 7 years after Lloyd Carr retired. And if you want to criticize Harbaugh (I certainly have, and will continue to do so), do it fairly. Make it about the in-game play calling and execution, or, at a minimum, paint a fair picture of what Dave Brandon, Lloyd Carr, Rich Rodriguez, and Brady Hoke left him to work with.

I’ll see you on September 1st in South Bend.

Opinions are all my own, feel free to leave comments below or on Twitter @E____money and @wcbnsports.
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Tell Me, Why Are You so Angry About Women’s Basketball?

7/8/2018

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By: Emily Herard

A’ja Wilson is dominating her rookie season in the WNBA for the Las Vegas Aces and she is using her platform to speak up for better pay and gender equality within the basketball world and society. After it was announced that LeBron James would sign with the LA Lakers for $154 million, Wilson took to Twitter to bring light to the pay disparity between NBA and WNBA players. She wasn’t attacking LeBron or any other NBA player but instead was speaking up for WNBA players who deserve to be paid more. But of course the Twitter trolls came out ready to attack with sexist comments. When some of the best basketball players in the world can’t speak up for themselves without being attacked online, it angers me and it should anger you too. 

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​First of all, people need to get their facts right. WNBA players aren’t asking to be paid the same as LeBron James or any other NBA star, so that shouldn’t be the conversation. I could write forever about why and how WNBA players should get paid more but that’s not the point of this blog. (If you do want to read more about the pay discrepancy, check out this Forbes article). I understand that because the demand for the WNBA is lower than that of the NBA, the WNBA brings in less revenue and therefore its players are paid less. But I believe this lack of demand is strongly linked to the sexism that is unfortunately all too common in sports. If you don’t believe sexism has anything to do with it, just look at Twitter comments about the WNBA.

It’s one thing to not like a sport or find it boring, but it’s another thing when you go out of your way to attack it. What, are you offended by females speaking their mind and advocating for themselves? Why does it make you so upset when Wilson says WNBA players should make more? Even if there wasn’t more money to pay them (there is), what’s wrong with someone speaking up when they know they deserve to make more money for how hard they work? Do powerful and strong women make you feel insecure? NBA players respect their female counterparts so why can’t you? Just yesterday, Damian Lillard, DeMar DeRozan, and Quinn Cook attended a thrilling game between the Aces and the Connecticut Sun. If you don’t watch the WNBA and don’t plan on watching, then just shut it and don’t try to bring down the top basketball players in the world.

But if you’re going to troll the WNBA be a little more creative with your insults, because most of the time it’s 50 replies of “get back in the kitchen.” I mean come on really? REALLY?? I hope you’re this sexist in the real world, because if you are no woman’s going to do anything for you, especially make you a sandwich. YOU better get in the kitchen.  

Do you think it’s a compliment when you say “yeah she’s pretty good, she would beat me one on one” – no sh!t, glad you gave your male stamp of approval. You just sound like a dumbass. Imagine if I said “yeah LeBron’s not bad, he’d probably beat me in a pick-up game.” That’s what you sound like when you say you could beat Sue Bird. And by the way, no one asked.

​So next time you’re about to respond negatively to a WNBA related tweet and try to tear down the league, why don’t you think twice. I’m asking that before you say something sexist why don’t you just give it chance. I’m sure if you watched a game or two you would enjoy it. If not, do something more productive with your time than attack someone’s passion and profession. 

Cover image from: Gordon, S. (2018, July 06). Kayla McBride, A'ja Wilson propel Aces to win over Sky. Retrieved from https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/basketball/aces-wnba/kayla-mcbride-aja-wilson-propel-aces-to-win-over-sky/

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2018 Wimbledon Women's Preview

7/1/2018

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By: Alex Drain

In preparation for this year's Wimbledon tournament, we started by previewing the men's draw here. Now we have to look at the women's side, which is also pretty open.

Women's Draw

As I did with the men’s preview, here’s a recap of the 2018 WTA season so far. It’s been a year of firsts on the tour, with Caroline Wozniacki finally getting her first Grand Slam at the Australian Open, followed by Simona Halep winning her first at the French Open. In between, an upset filled Indian Wells tournament saw Naomi Osaka win the prize and the Miami Open watched Sloane Stephens finally break out of her Winning the US Open Curse by taking home the hardware. In Paris, Stephens continued her success by reaching the finals, only to lose to Halep, though in the process rocketing to world #4. Petra Kvitova and Wozniacki won the two main grass tournaments leading up to Wimbledon.

Once again, here’s the link to the full draw so you can see for yourself as we break it down. Halep is the top seed and her quarter is decently tricky, with a pair of former champions looming. Kvitova and Sharapova are in the quarter, as well 2017 French Open Champion, Jelena Ostapenko. Hometown favorite Jo Konta is seeded #22, so whoever emerges from this quarter is going to certainly be battle tested and it will not be easy. I still think Halep is probably a favorite to reach the semis, but I could feasibly see any of these players moving on.


Next up is the Garbine Muguruza’s quarter, and the #3 seeded Spaniard is out to defend her crown. This quarter includes a pair of former rising stars who have recently fallen on hard times, Angelique Kerber and Eugenie Bouchard. It doesn’t seem it was all that long ago, and it wasn’t, that Kerber was the best player on the planet, winning both the Australian and US Opens in 2016. Then she failed to make a single quarterfinal at a slam in 2017. She’s rebounded to make the semis in Australia and the quarters at Roland Garros, upping her ranking to #11. Bouchard is still a corpse of her former 2014 self, which seems to stem from a bizarre concussion she suffered from slipping in the locker room at the 2015 US Open. She’s tumbled out of the top 100 and made it here as a qualifier, a long fall from the once #5 ranked player. Caroline Garcia is also in this quarter, but she’s struggle to find success in Slams, as is Naomi Osaka. It’s a lot of solid players that you can’t trust, which makes me believe Muguruza is a clear favorite to make it to the semis.

The bottom half of the draw is good if you like American players. Sloane Stephens’ quarter includes herself, Venus Williams, and Christina McHale, as well as Karolina Pliskova. It’s a pretty generous quarter if you ask me, since Venus has struggled significantly in 2018 and Julia Gorges still hasn’t made a quarter yet. Pliskova will be the biggest potential foe facing the Stephens, but she’s amazingly never made it past the 2nd round of Wimbledon in the 6 times she made the main draw. Indeed, it’s the one Slam that the Czech righty hasn’t had success at, making the quarters of every other major tournament.

The final quarter is anchored by Caroline Wozniacki, but it also includes Americans Madison Keys, Coco Vandeweghe, and Serena Williams, the latter of whom looks to return to her old form. Further complicating a brutal quarter is young Ukranian Elina Svitolina, wily Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, and grizzled veteran Aga Radwanska, who is probably past her prime but is still someone to look out for. Serena is the biggest wildcard here, as she has the highest ceiling but also a pretty low floor. She’s had a bumpy time since returning, but did look pretty solid at the French before pulling out with injury. If she can stay healthy, it wouldn’t shock me if she made a run in the tournament.

So wrapping up, like most women’s tennis tournaments in 2018, this is pretty wide open. There’s no dominant force at the moment and I could see up to 12 players feasibly winning the title. It should be one heck of a fun tournament.
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2018 Wimbledon Men's Preview

7/1/2018

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By: Alex Drain

We’re now into the swing of summer and that means it’s time for tennis’ most prestigious slam tournament: Wimbledon. Roger Federer is ready to defend his crown as the men’s champion and win a record 9th Wimbledon, while Rafael Nadal poses the biggest threat. There is plenty of intrigue all across the draw, so let’s dive right in:

Men’s Draw

Let’s first do a quick recap of the tennis season to date. Roger Federer won the Australian Open, as I predicted back in January. He then won the Rotterdam Open in February to become the oldest man to retake the ATP #1 ranking. Everything was cruising at that point until Indian Wells, when Federer lost to Juan Martin Del Potro in a tough third set tiebreak and then was stunningly upset in the first round of the Miami Open by a qualifier. As he did last year, Federer then took clay court season off, with Nadal steamrolling the competition, winning 2 of the 3 tourneys leading up to the French and then cakewalking to another win at Roland Garros. Nadal hasn’t played since, resting up for Wimbledon, while Federer returned to win the Stuttgart Open to retake the #1 ranking, before promptly dropping it in the Halle Open final to Borna Coric two weeks ago.

So here’s a link to the full men’s draw so you can follow along as I break it down. While Nadal is back at #1, Federer is the top seed in the draw and he really got a benefit of the draw, since Nadal’s half is much tougher. Starting with RF’s quarter, he should be able to make the semifinals pretty easily. Ken Anderson is the highest ranked player in his quarter and Federer is 4-0 against him all time, a rather small amount of H2H matchups for a pair of players in their 30s. He could have to play Coric in a rematch in the 4th round and there are some tricky retreads like Ivo Karlovic, Philipp Kohlschreiber, and Mikhail Youzhny, but there shouldn’t be too much trouble overall.

The other part of that half is anchored by #3 seed Marin Cilic, who Federer defeated for the title here last year. Grigor Dimitrov is the #6 seed in this quarter, joined by John Isner, Stan Wawrinka, and Milos Raonic, so expect to see a lot of tiebreaks and big serves. Outside of those big five though, there aren’t a whole lot of players to watch out for, so I’d expect it to be one of those 5 reaching the semis.

Now we jump down to Nadal’s half, starting with his quarter and it’s no easy one. The other big seed is #5 Juan Martin Del Potro, who has the ability to trap you in an endless big serve/tiebreak-athon. DelPo is 5-10 against Nadal in his career, which isn’t bad when you’re talking about the second best player of all time and 4 of those matches came on a surface that Nadal is unbeatable on (clay). I would still expect Nadal to win a matchup between the two but it probably wouldn’t be a pushover. Also in this quarter is Canadian young gun Denis Shapovalov, who beat Nadal at the Canadian Open last year. They’ve only played twice (1-1 record), but he’s an intriguing young player, just 19 years old. Diego Schwartzman is another tricky spot in this quarter. While the #14 seeded Argentinian has never beaten Nadal in a match, he was the only player to take a set from the King of Clay at the French Open, and also took a set from him Down Under in January. Andy Murray was also supposed to be in this quarter but he was forced to withdraw from injury.

Finally we have the other remaining quarter, with #4 seed Alexander “Sascha” Zverev as the top seeded player. Zverev, an incredibly talented 21 year old German, has long struggled in Grand Slams, only finally making a quarterfinal back in May at the French, losing promptly to Dominic Thiem. Thiem is the #7 seed in the tourney and he’s also in this quarter, though he struggles on any surface that isn’t clay, going 26-5 this year on it, and 10-5 off of it, frequently bowing out before his seed would suggest when on hard or grass courts. Most intriguing, Novak Djokovic is in this quarter, still trying to recover from nagging injuries. While the Nole will probably never regain his 2015 form, he’s still a fine tennis player and has started to get more consistency. He’s 12-3 in his last 15 matches after starting the year 6-6. I don’t think he’ll make a deep run, but it would be nice if he did and perhaps he’s got a few tricks left up his sleeve.

So, what does this all point to? I’m not really sure. Rafael Nadal has been the best player as of late, but we also just got done with clay season, so it’s sorta hard to say. Grass is certainly not Nadal’s best surface, with a 77.2% winning percentage on it compared to the ungodly 92.0% on clay. He’s won Wimbledon twice, but amazingly hasn’t even made the quarters of the tournament since 2011(!). He’s been prone to early upsets at the All England Club and with a tough quarter, I don’t want to say definitively he’s a lock to make the finals, even if he’s been playing well recently. His success on clay last year didn’t translate to success on grass, and we shouldn't be sure it will.

As for Federer, it’s hard to bet against someone who wins at an 87.3% clip on grass and who has won the tournament 8 times. He’s made the finals in 11 of the last 15 tournaments, including three of the last four. Even when he was ailing and not at his best in 2016, he still made the semis, and he took Prime Novak Djokovic to 5 thrilling sets in 2014. My point is: even if Federer has been inconsistent as of late, he’s still a pretty good bet to make at least the semis. If I had to bet, I’d probably take him for the obvious reasons, but this year’s tourney feels pretty wide open. Is this when a young player finally breaks through? I don’t know, but it’s worth watching.
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