Michigan Monday: Rings and Things

Michigan decided to honor the 2021 Big Ten Champions this weekend and give each player and coach their championship rings.   During that same weekend, they also had a huge recruiting weekend planned.  Coincidence?  I think not.   What a great idea and that idea is already paying off, as 4-star TE from Chicago TE Deakon Tonielli picked the Wolverines last night.

Deakon is 6'6 215 pounds and a 247 4-star TE.  His offer list included Illinois, Purdue, Cincinnati, and Bowling Green.  The kid is a good athlete and also plays basketball and runs track.   Welcome Deak! 

This breaks the long non-commitment streak and there is a good chance it starts a run of good news for the Wolverines as they now have back-to-back big recruiting weekends to follow up on. 

Basketball Roster Update:

Michigan added Duke's 2021 captain and 6'6 wing Joey Baker late on Friday as a graduate transfer.   Joey averaged 4.5 points and just over 11 minutes a game for Duke last season.  Baker was recruited to Duke as a top 40 player and will have 1 year to play in Ann Arbor.  He hit 30-74 triples last season at 40%.   Michigan needed shooting and let's hope Joey is the answer. 

Michigan also made the final 4 for 2022 Lebanese forward Youssef Khayat. His final list is Michigan, Wake, DePaul, and Xavier. Youseef would fill Michigan's last available scholarship for next year that was left open by the 2 early NBA draft entries. According to insiders, Michigan has a good chance to land this talented international prospect.

According to Eurohoops:

"Let’s start with his athletic profile: Khayat is a 6’8 forward with a +2 wingspan. He possesses good fluidity and coordination which allow him to move well around the court and get to his spots. He’s not extremely vertical but he’s quick and explosive to get up. As a matter of fact, it’s not rare to see him dunk with authority when finishing. Offensively, Youssef can’t be considered a shot creator at this point. Instead, he scores the majority of his points by running hard in the open court and cutting with great intensity and timing. He displays constant motion off the ball and good reads when taking advantage of defensive mistakes. He also showcased an improved and refined finishing package in the paint, flashing a promising floater. Moreover, Khayat has tremendous defensive upside thanks to his motor, willingness to sit in a stance, lateral movements and instincts. He projects as someone who could potentially guard both forwards positions at the high major D-1 level and switch onto guards out on the perimeter. He’s not afraid of diving for loose balls and regularly makes winning plays."

US Open

NBC and the USGA had a huge black eye this weekend on the US Open coverage.  There were way too many networks used and way too many commercials.   NBC used Peacock, USA Networks and NBC to cover the rounds at different times.  Do you know which network they didn't use?  Their own Golf Channel.  

It was a terrible look and both organizations (NBC and the USGA) took a beating on social media.  NBC has the British in a few weeks and hopefully they have learned their lesson.   Congrats to Matt Fitzpatrick on the win, but the legendary Country Club course was the winner of the week.