Michigan Thursday: The Madness Begins

With Michigan heading out West again means that the Wolverines will be playing late night in the Eastern Time Zone.   The Wolverines bracket has some similarity to last year; Montana again, a Texas team, and Florida State.

If Michigan beats Montana the Wolverines will have a tough match-up with the Gators or Nevada on Saturday.   The Wolverines will need to continue to defend at a high-level and shoot the 3 effectively.  We need Matthews to have tournament he did last year with Iggy and Poole playing well.  Don't forget that Michigan struggled with Montana early in the game last year.

• Coach Nau gave his first Press Conference at Michigan.  

• Also new coach Anthony Campanile is still looking for good pizza in Ann Arbor.

• Does Michigan have a secret weapon on the Defensive Line?  They might.  Defensive end Luiji Vilain came to Michigan in the 2016 class a couple spots short of a 5 star player.   After surgeries on both knees and missing two full seasons, Luiji is finally healthy this spring and looking forward to playing in his first season.   He is probably the #1 player to keep an eye on in Spring Practice.  

• Sounds like its a Michigan school decision if Chris Evans makes it back for his senior year, not a football decision.  There are plenty of videos of him working out on social media, hopefully he is working just as hard in the classroom. 

Wolverine Wednesday: Welcomes A 2021 Recruit

Recruiting never stops and Michigan now has a commit from a young man that hasn't even played his junior year of high school football yet.  That new commit is 6'6 280 pound offensive lineman Giovanni El-Hadi from Sterling Heights.

Its always good to get a jump on recruiting and Giovanni will be a good player to track as he continues to add weight, muscle, and learns his position on the offensive line.

• Former Ohio State QB Tate Martell has received a waiver to play at Miami right away. I guess the NCAA doesn't care about the "hardship" part of the waiver any longer and free agency is open for business. Tate's hardship was that OSU had a 5 star transfer QB. Expect Aubrey Solomon to get one as well.

• Michigan made the top 5 for 2020 WR Maliq Carr from Oak Park.  Other teams include: Texas AM, LSU, ND, and Purdue.  He is ranked as a 3 star WR but is 6'6 and 230 pounds.

• Former Michigan player and grad assistant Allen Gant has got a paying job as the DB coach for Slippery Rock.  Congrats to Allen! 

• Michigan also announced two chances for fans to view the Wolverines this Spring.  An open practice on April 6 at 2:15 p.m. and the spring game will be held April 13 at 5 p.m.

• Ohio State has their Pro Day today.  

Jimmy Speaks - First Press Conference of Spring Ball

Jimmy had his first press conference for the new season after 1 day of Spring Practice.  He seemed excited to get back to football and really seemed excited for his new team.   Mentioned how happy he is with the RB's and DL many times.

• Things we will see differently for Michigan Offense is Tempo - less huddling 
• Christian Turner is stepping up and looks great, Haskins is back at RB full time
• Zach Charbonnet came in needing minor knee surgery and will be out Spring Practice.  They knew he needed it and the staff wanted him to do it in Ann Arbor.  
• Really impressed by the early enrollees - knocking down the door for workouts in the morning
• Chris Evans could work his way back on the team 
• Excited to have Mike Danna coming in 
• Ben Mason will play RB, DL, TE and FB want him on the field as much as possible.   Would like Ben to be in 60-70 plays a game.  
• Mayfield and Stueber are competing at RT 
• Josh Ross, Gill, McGrone, and Anthony looking to replace Devin Bush 
• Hill, Nico Collins, DPJ, are not practicing right now with injuries.    One guy on the team has mono. 
• Kemp, Jeter, were called out as really playing well. 
• Shaun Nua has DL running very well. 
• Dylan McCaffrey is back to 100%.  Shea, Dylan, and Joe getting all equal reps.   That is the depth chart as well. 
• Josh Gattis will coordinate the offense and call the plays 
• Was surprised by Greg's departure, but doubled his salary and he won't be sending him a Christmas Card.   Still a good man and will be friends when they are retired from coaching.  

-As rumored, 5th year DL Reuben Jones announced his transfer yesterday.   QB Brandon Peters is also expected to transfer after spring ball.  Purdue is rumored to be his next school.  

Michigan Monday: Not A Party

They say the NBA is a miss or make league.  You can use that analogy for basketball as a whole.   To take statement a bit deeper, it is saying that players win games and if you shoot the ball well you will win the game.

To my eyes that wasn't the case for the rubber match between Sparty and the Wolverines last night.  This loss falls directly on the Michigan coaches.   MSU is going to beat you maybe 3 ways:

1. Death by Winston
2. Death by McQuaid shooting 3
3. Getting out rebounded in the low post

Michigan focused so much on 1 and 3 they left McQuaid wide open and Izzo knew it.   Coach B basically bet that McQuaid would not beat them shooting 3's and he was wrong.  I was yelling at the TV for Poole, Iggy, or Zavier not to pinch down to the post and leave McQuaid wide open.  They did it the entire game and it cost the Wolverines a Big Ten Championship.

If the Michigan defender had moved a few feet closer to him, that pass is never made and he doesn't hit all those 3's.   Why the Wolverines didn't adjust, doesn't make any sense.  I understand they needed help on the boards but sometimes you have to trade a 2 instead of a 3.   They made an average player look like superstar with pre-game jumpers during the game.

I also don't understand the watch and no movement on offense for large stretches during the game.   Many times, Michigan's best shooters are standing on the other side of the court as Michigan's offense is struggling to get an open shot.

Michigan's struggles against MSU late in the game continues and Coach B got out coached against MSU 3 times this year.

With that said, Michigan gets a better seed then MSU as the Wolverines head out West again.   So the NCAA basically said, the result from Sunday didn't matter in the seeding.   You could see on CBS how excited Michigan was, when they got their seed and nobody but Coach B stood up.   It was clearly not a party.

• Michigan Football also started Spring Practice on Sunday.  Josh Gattis seemed very excited on twitter to install his Speed in Space offense.