Sentimental Education

If I can make it there/You know, I'm gonna make it just about anywhere

Youth is an inherent facet of the college game. It is rare to find a team with a starting lineup stocked with upperclassmen; when such teams are to be found, they are typically either a mid-major or not very good. 

It doesn't seem all that long ago that Michigan was busy dominating all comers in Manhattan and declaring themselves kings of Brooklyn for a night. In between passive-aggressive glances and cigarette drags, area hipsters spoke in hushed tones of Spike Albrecht and his underappreciated work "Four Minutes, Goodbye Appalachia." Those were simpler, rawer times, before all this corporatized, uptight Big Ten stuff. 

In a sense, that is what a nonconference schedule is: a formless sea of conflicting interpretations built on an untenable framework of nothing, by and against nobody you've ever heard of, not unlike an indie album. The Big Ten, on the other hand, is an ordered symphony, at times crashing, at times serene, but thematically consistent and often linear in form if not in plot. If not linear, then its general direction is typically clear: forward, like natural selection adapted to the hardwood. 

That's not to say that the former can't be nice; the non-conference schedule surely was just that. Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Michigan's cavalry of steely-eyed freshmen led Michigan to an unbeaten mark and, more importantly, the promise of something beyond what many of us --myself included-- had ever had the fortune of witnessing on the hardwood. 

Michigan has taken trips to Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio State and Indiana thus far (Northwestern too, I guess--#B1GCats!), all problematic places to play, and has come away with decidedly mixed results in a season that has otherwise been historic in every way. I don't mean to dismiss everything else to date, but wins against some of those teams aren't worth writing home about vis-a-vis any sort of Big Picture, which may not even exist in the world of college basketball in terms of results. In the span of 40 minutes in March, the Big Picture can become just another mundane piece in the colossal jigsaw puzzle that is your average college basketball season. 

Although I have realized over the past year or two that the losses don't really hit me like they used to, there was still a lingering bitterness Sunday. Perhaps it was the lofty No. 1 ranking, perhaps it was the opportunity to grab Michigan's biggest regular season win in some time, perhaps it was the chance to do so against a superb Indiana team, in that hall of mirrors in Bloomington no less, where every corner reveals a distorted and bizarre view of the very self you thought you knew before entering. 

It should be noted that the season promises to be a great one, and that the end is not near. Michigan will win many more games, and I think it is safe to assume that at least a few of those games will take place in some probably sparsely attended venues in March. 

Other than Michigan's occasional tendency to devolve into an NBA-style heroball game (which, to be honest, I'm not necessarily against despite its inefficiency), perhaps it was the mortality of two of Michigan's youth-belying freshmen, Glenn Robinson III and Nik Stauskas. Oddly, Mitch "CRUNK" McGary, he of the frenetic game and spontaneous shrug-inducing bursts of "Did I do that?" strength, has been the most consistent of the three insofar as his particular game is concerned. 

Again, this shouldn't be construed as me sounding the alarm, pushing the panic button, or whatever such phrase you may prefer. Rather, it's part of an overall narrative that is obvious but was somewhat buried by Michigan's pristine start. 

Like the divine right kings of old, it's hard to conceptualize your fallibility when you're strolling down Atlantic Avenue with a crown on your head and asphalt covered in rose petals in your wake. 

It's even harder to imagine when placed in the context of Michigan basketball as a whole. The moment has finally come, the resurgence, the return, and how could it be but linear and unstinting? Unfortunately, that is not and will not be the order of things, for college basketball, like football, subsists on chaos, pointed statistical variances and home crowds seemingly unleashed from the bowels of Hell. 

Robinson III, he of the No. 1 ORtg in the Big Ten, looked like just another athlete on Saturday. Of course, it's not exactly hard to understand why. Indiana is very good, Assembly Hall is a place so fearsome that you can momentarily forget your own name amid the din and, most importantly, GRIII is just a freshman. The high-flying 360 dunks would seem to defy the laws of space and time, but one cannot outjump youth. 

Similarly, Nik Stauskas (NJAS), he of the Big Ten's No. 6 ORtg, is even more prone to bouts of freshmanitis, given his perimeter-oriented game. After all, the rims do get smaller on the road, and I won't wait for scientific inquiry to prove this fact. On Saturday, our favorite Mississaugan went just 3/10 from the field and 1/5 from beyond the arc. That will happen. 

Even Trey Burke, the heart and soul through which this team draws its every breath, is a mere true sophomore. For all his brilliance, we would do well to remember that he is still very much learning what he can and cannot do, what he should and shouldn't do. 

With trips to Michigan State and Wisconsin still on the docket --in addition to home dates against Ohio State, Michigan State and Indiana-- there is still room within the amorphous bubble that is college basketball to explore. College basketball is like writing; you don't always get it right, and it is often glaringly so when that is the case. 

On the bright side, it can be a self-correcting mechanism in this way. Unlike seasons gone by, it isn't as if Michigan failed at OSU and IU and didn't have the means to answer back, or, pre-Beilein, didn't know how to. In both games, Michigan rallied back and even had the chance to win despite stretches of frazzled play. Now, Michigan has the pieces to beat anyone, but the challengers are numerous and the divine right that seemed a mandate within the boundaries of the five boroughs has become far from unassailable, if it ever was that to begin with. 

Ohio State. Wisconsin. Michigan State. On a practical level, this upcoming stretch will help to determine Michigan's tournament seeding (Big Ten and Big Dance) and the level of assistance it might need to bring home another regular season conference title, preferably unshared. 

Thematically, there is much more at stake, for Michigan's freshmen and non-freshmen. The next three games will begin to reveal just how far-reaching this sentimental education can be, for the players and fans alike. 

Miscellaneous Minutiae, 6/19/2012

Initiate Week 3 of Operation Don't Talk About Playoffs/Realignment/General College Football Bureaucratic Tomfoolery. Let's see if I can succeed in not passive-agressively hinting that the SEC should secede and leave the rest of us alone falling into the trap that is "thinking that any meaningful discussion about these topics can be had."


This is where we talk about "The Michigan Difference" sans irony. Regardless of how you feel about the recent uptick in "ban college football" sentiment, one thing is obvious: head injuries and head trauma are serious things which demand serious attention. It is of course not entirely clear what the scope of head injuries may be, especially in light of the tragic suicides of football players (such as Dave Duerson, Junior Seau, and UPenn's Owen Thomas)...of course, correlation is not causation. However, I would argue that it is much better to express so called "undue" concern over something such as this as opposed to a paucity of it. Nonchalantly tsk-tsking at those who might want to worry about this sort of thing--even those who perhaps inaccurately want to ascribe a causal relationship between concussions and depression, suicide, etc.--does not make that person more of a man.

Saving you any further pontification, it's important to note that various entities are taking this issue seriously. Of course, Michigan seems to be one such entity that is leading the way in concussion research:

Michigan is the only Big Ten football team with a full-time staffer dedicated to head injuries. Kutcher, who was hired by the university's medical school in 2003 and began working as a part-time volunteer with the athletic department shortly after that, said he isn't aware of another FBS team that employs someone such as himself.

That has helped propel the Wolverines to the frontier of concussion research, protocol and prevention.

"Leaders and best" and whatnot. As gratifying as success on the football field is, it's things like this that make you truly proud of the U. One of the more topical points in the article touches on concussion prevention:

Michigan also is working to prevent concussions from happening in the first place. That starts with outfitting players with proper equipment, such as a well-fit helmet.

Quarterback Denard Robinson switched helmets before last season, for example. After meeting with equipment manager Jon Falk, Robinson, a dual-threat quarterback who has averaged 18.3 carries per game as a starter and is susceptible to withering collisions because of his speed, elected to swap his Riddell for a better-fitting -- and, in his case, safer -- Schutt.

 It is a little bit terrifying that we know so relatively little about concussions (and even the brain itself) in the year 2012, a year which carries vague notions of progress even while we are still in the dark with respect to so many pressing matters. It speaks to the ridiculous complexity of the thing we call a brain, the internal software that drives all of our actions and, throughout the average football game, finds itself rattling against the hard walls of the skull dozens of times. In any case, good on the U for helping to take the lead in this, because this is not an issue that will (or should) go away as long as "student-athletes" are not getting paid.

RIP Bob Chappuis. You already know about this by now, but Michigan great Bob Chappuis, of the 1947 "Mad Magicians," passed away last week. Chappuis's career was obviously before my time, but his exploits were truly something at which to marvel.

Odds are, you, like me, are not even close to being old enough to truly understand who Bob Chappuis was; sadly, most of us can only attempt to cobble together some sort of understanding in a second-hand nature, like attempting to explain a sunset to a blind man.

Acquired understanding is awkward and not nearly as satisfying as having been there, but it is something nonetheless. It is primarily for this reason that I think a site like MVictors is an unbelievable treasure as a source of historical recollection, one whose value cannot be understated. MVictors, like any other source of historical scholarship, attempts--and very obviously succeeds--to provide a colorful, well-defined, and edifying lifeline to the past, a past which the average fan may not have the ability with which to connect.

People will often discredit Michigan's accomplishments as a football program because "who cares about anything that happened before this point which I arbitrarily determined is the point at which things starter to matter or count." This people are not only extremely misguided, they are depriving themselves of a vast and tremendous history. Will this era of college football be rendered "meaningless" by the generations of the distant future? Assuming that college football will still be played well into the twilight of this century, I would hope that the answer is no. If that is in fact the case, then there is no reason to discredit or scoff at the college football world before 1950 (or whatever arbitrary date it is that people often to use). 

Bob Chappuis and many other Michigan football players of that era were not only multi-sport stars, they went and fought "over there," only to come back and keep playing football at a very high level. Think about how ridiculous and amazing and compelling that is. Think about how different things once were. The Michigan community has lost a by all accounts great football player and an even better man...RIP. 

Feldman on MSU's OL, Denard. Two points of interest from Feldman's recent mailbag. First, Feldman puts Denard at #5 on his Heisman list for 2012 (tied with Landry Jones), which, okay whatever. It's the Heisman. The more important point comes via his answer to a question regarding the Boise State-MSU game and their respective QB situations: 

The decided advantage goes to Michigan State. The reason: The Spartans return the much better defense. BSU has two starters returning on D. MSU has eight. The Spartans also are set up better to rely on their ground game with Le'Veon Bell and arguably the Big Ten's top O-line.

I mention this if for no other reason than to say man oh man how quickly perception changes sometimes. Remember how after last year's MSU-ND game we are all banking on the fact that the MSU offensive line was not very good? Well, not only did they push Michigan's front 7 around last year (despite the Spartans not really being a great rushing team most of the year), they seemed to get better as the year went on. I got to thinking about Feldman's "best in the Big Ten" assessment and it definitely holds water. 

 Michigan will have a solid if still undersized line; I feel pretty comfortable about the tackles but the guys on the interior present some question marks. Ohio State has to replace Adams, Brewster, and Shugarts, while also attempting to transition to Urban Meyer's power spread offense. Otherwise, Wisconsin seems like the primary competition for best OL in the conference. As always, I'm sure they will continue the tradition of gargantuan offensive linemen, even on the heels of the departures of standouts like Kevin Zeitler, Josh Oglesby, and Peter Konz. 

It's anybody's guess how good the Spartan OL will actually be, but, as a general note, it's pretty crazy how perception has shifted from "that OL is a complete and utter sieve" circa September 2011 to "hey, that OL might be the best in the conference" circa right about now. If anything, this is an example of how continuity and a certain lineup merely accumulating starts as a group can lead to marked improvement...not exactly earth-shattering news, I know. 

In other news: heroball is still stupid. I always feel ridiculously hypocritical when railing against the aesthetics-destroying monstrosity that is heroball, mostly because I grew up watching and celebrating the exploits of one Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Still, it is important to remember that even MJ passed the ball in key moments. It's okay, guys...LBJ passing the ball to an open Udonis Haslem for a 15-footer will not bring on the Apocalypse: 

Eight-year-old me: WOOO MJ YEAH SPACE JAM IS MY FAVORITE MOVIE EVERRRR WHAT NO WHY ARE YOU PASSING WHY WHY WH--AHHH STEVE KERR YOU ARE MY FAVORITE PLAYER OF ALL TIME I'M GOING TO GO PLAY WITH SOME POGS AND WATCH NICKELODEON NOW.

Anyway, the WSJ is the latest to take on the beast that is heroball, in light of the recent uptick in late game heroball situations:

A star who doesn't take charge in the final seconds can come under fire. During the      Eastern Conference finals, as Miami's LeBron James drove toward the basket with time expiring in a knotted Game 4 against Boston, he didn't shoot—passing the ball instead to teammate Udonis Haslem, who missed. After the Heat lost the game in overtime, James drew fire from fans and analysts because he hadn't taken the shot himself. Very few people seemed to care that James had three Boston defenders collapsing on him.

If my memory serves me correctly, you could argue that it was actually four defenders collapsing on LeBron, which makes all the pro-heroball squawking seem even more insane. In any case, as these late game win-it-or-lose-it situations seems to be on the rise, it will be interesting to see how players, coaches, fans, and the media evolve--or devolve--with respect to the viability or heroball. 


The most eye-popping stat in the article is the fact that LeBron has supposedly only taken a mere 18% of Miami's "clutch" shots this season; as a general point, it's amazing how perception and reality can often resemble a train run off its tracks. 


Northwestern basketball lands 2012 7-footer. Northwestern basketball recently acquired the commitment of Sudanese big man Chier Ajou. Lake The Posts writes: 

Ajou is a native of Sudan and is also the cousin of Bulls forward Luol Deng. Northwestern basketball fans have been smarting after a pair of basketball recruiting snags, namely the lack of admission of 2012 recruit and sharpshooter Mislav Brzoja and the parting of ways with 2013 recruit Milos Kostic. Ajou has had quite a tragic backstory according to the Chicago Tribune which reference the fact he lost and two brothers in the war in Sudan and his father past away as well (however those details are less clear) before moving to the US in 2008.

As expressed in the comments, there seems to be some concern as to whether or not Ajou will even qualify academically. In light of Northwestern's denial of Croatian guard Mislav Brzoja on academic grounds, this seems a bit odd (especially for a school like Northwestern). Brzoja supposedly had a 4.0 at Trader's Point Christian Academy in Indiana, but his cumulative GPA was already essentially torpedoed by less than stellar academic performance in his native Croatia. I don't much care for speculation regarding the grades of football or basketball recruits, particularly since so much misinformation often exists when it comes to this sort of thing. 


At the same time, Ajou's journey will be one to follow as an example of how a school that generally places academics above athletics goes about handling academically borderline prospects. As a general aside, I've noticed many Wildcat fans expressing the sentiment of late--on 

Northwestern blogs, message boards, etc.--that typically goes something along the lines of "see, even we sometimes admit borderline cases in spite of what our reputation would otherwise indicate." 

Schools like Northwestern are still a cut above almost everyone in the FBS when it comes to academic standards in athletics,* but it's interesting to see that this sort of thing even happens at NU. As someone who will be attending grad school at Northwestern this fall, it will be interesting to monitor the differences between Michigan and Northwestern when it comes to perception vs. reality vis-a-vis the stringency of academic standards in athletics.

*Yes, Michigan fans...I hate to break it to you, but we are not in Northwestern's league in this respect.

More? It's OSU week over at Maize n Brew. More good stuff about Mark Donnal on the heels of his performance at the NBPA camp (via UMHoops)...for some reason, I have a feeling that he's going to eventually replace JMo as the non-star Wolverine who I somewhat irrationally enjoy watching play the game.