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game columns
Expectations Unlocked
3/16/2012 – Michigan 60, OHIO(!!!) 65 – 24-10, 13-5 Big Ten, end of season
I'm about to paint with the kind of broad brush that had a couple people call me kinda racist after I asserted that Illinois DT Corey Liuget and I probably didn't have a lot of common life experiences, but here goes anyway.
A guy on the internet asserted that there seemed to be a big gap between serious Michigan hockey fans and the rest of the Michigan fanbase in their reactions to Michigan's frustrating loss to OHIO(!!!) on Friday, and man do I see that. I did the usual kick-the-cat, drink-the-whiskey thing in the immediate aftermath, but then it was just… fine. It sucks for the guys, especially Zack and Stu, but they don't put up banners for getting to the Sweet 16. They do for winning the league, and Michigan did that.
The disappointment from the tournament is real, and I feel what Dylan evidently did after taking that punch in person…
In the present, the retrospection and drooling about the future can wait. This one hurts and there's no sugarcoating it.
…it's just not viscerally there for me. The guys leaving brought Michigan from a program that hadn't been to the tournament since my dad was wearing his preposterous multicolor neon ski jacket to one that had been there three of four years, from a program that hadn't won the league since Joe Paterno was only kind of old to a sleeping giant with the alarm blaring in its ear. Their story is not Brandon Graham's. Their story isn't even Mike Martin's or Ryan Van Bergen's. It's better.
So, yeah, it's a downer. But if you've been trained in the fu of an April gut punch as well as Michigan hockey fans have, it ranks below… almost everything. Certainly the Nickelback goals and the Air Force horror and the black, burnt grass of an OT loss in the championship game. The hockey team is rarely facing a wall of doom in the bracket that promises to end things well short of the ultimate goal.
The loss doesn't erase the previous 34 games, or the previous hundred and change that saw Douglass set a record for the most games played in a career and Novak near it. The story of the outgoing guys is one of construction and triumph in the face of doubt. DJ Cooper going ham doesn't change that. Novak and Douglass have the luxury of exceeding all expectations, still and always.
As for the game itself, Michigan was never a team that could go into an opening-round game with the outright expectation of victory. Kenpom had 'em by five and then the Bobcats and Michigan combined to do this:
The statistical outliers are what truly decide any game. DJ Cooper, a 31% three point shooter, hitting three-of-six NBA range triples. Or TJ Hall, a 27% three point shooter, knocking down a critical second half three, his only shot of the game. Add in Michigan, the ninth best two point shooting team in the country, missing nearly a dozen layups and Ohio, a 68% free throw shooting team, hitting 15-of-17 freebies.
Don't forget Ivo Baltic canning two or three fadeaway 15-footers with Novak's hand in his face. Yeesh. There is your ten-point swing.
There are teams featuring very long forwards and centers who can rely on their arms to dissuade opponents from that ability, teams that get second chances on a ton of missed shots, teams that are just so much of one thing or the other that an OHIO(!!!) can't hang with them unless the probabilities swing two or three standard deviations against them. Michigan was never that team.
They were the best mid-major in the country, per Mark Titus, and when the other team was chuckin' it real good there was always the chance this happened. It did, and if we're executing Real Talk neither Michigan getting hammered by OSU in the Big Ten tourney nor the early NCAA exit was unpredictable given the nature of the season. Evan Smotrycz was the second-most-credible post player on the team for the entire Big Ten season. Tim Hardaway Jr. took more threes than anyone else on the team by a good margin and hit 28% of them. I mean, come on.
I tried to warn us. We didn't listen!
None of that changes the narratives of the seniors or the trajectory of the program. Michigan just graduated two universally-beloved program builders and going-pro-in-something-other-than-sports icons who will get a banner sometime next fall. They welcome three top recruits and get a couple of guys off redshirts; collectively they should transform the program from scrappy overachieving underdogs to a full-on Big Ten power program.
After the cat was kicked and the whiskey consumed, it's hard to find something to brood on. If Beilein wasn't about to give his team an extreme talent makeover, we could complain about an artificially low ceiling. If Michigan hadn't broken its Big Ten title drought we could complain about our beloved program builders leaving without anything to mark their passage.
Neither of these things are true, so it seems the thing to do is salute the departed and look to the very near future. Godspeed, men taken from Valpo and Harvard. The last word goes to Novak:
"…coming in, personally, I was the fat kid from Indiana.
"And (we were) able to make three NCAA Tournaments, win the Big Ten in a year when it was the best conference in the country and win a lot of games. You have to keep things in perspective."
The downer bit. I did find it very frustrating that Michigan never switched to a zone for extended periods of time. Michigan's initial forays into zone did give up open looks from three, but given Michigan's crap defense all night it seemed like it couldn't be worse than the man to man. Whereas most of Michigan's shortcomings seemed to be necessary adaptations to their limitations, the man-to-man insistence was one of those things that makes you wonder long-term.
Only slightly, though. Beilein has dumped his 1-3-1 already and adopted a bunch of ball screen sets. He's not exactly a stick in the mud. It was just a little surprising to see Michigan get cut up like that without a response.
It is possible that the coaches thought they were fine if they would just rotate better. Novak got caught in the paint time and again when he was one pass from the ballhandler and seemed to be a major reason OHIO(!!!) found itself with open looks from three.
Other downer. Michigan was down three late for about three straight possessions and the offensive devolved into… actually, this may be my memory playing tricks on me. The late-clock offense did feature Burke twice pulling up from three when a big switched onto him, but it also got Novak a corner three and Smotrycz yet another layup Michigan somehow did not convert:
Burke finished the year shooting 35% from three and those were pretty easy to get. That might be the play given that you're down three.
Final numbers. A shooting profile of Michigan's returning contributors:
- Burke: 75% from the line, 49% from 2, 35% from three.
- Hardaway: 72%, 54%, 28%
- Smotrycz: 78%, 53%, 44%
- Morgan: 51%, 62%, N/A
Novak was the most efficient guy on the team, hitting 86/56/41 and having the lowest turnover rate but he and Douglass were also in the "limited roles" category on Kenpom. Michigan isn't replacing guys who did the heavy lifting on offense. To maintain their offensive efficiency they'll only have to get few extra shots generated by Burke, Stauskas, Hardaway, et al.
Returns. Speaking of "returning contributors," Burke and Hardaway said they'd be back in the aftermath:
"No, I'm coming back next year," the [Hardaway] said after Michigan's 65-60 NCAA Tournament second-round loss to Ohio on Friday. "I'm coming back."
Burke, who earned the co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year award this season and finished the year as the team's leading scorer, was right in step with his teammate.
"I'm definitely coming back," he said. "I'm just going to learn from this loss and get ready for next season."
Those are emotional postgame sentiments that may or may not hold up over time. Still, Hardaway is not much of a threat to leave after struggling with his shot most of the season and Burke probably has to be an All-American sort to get a lock first-round grade at his height. It doesn't seem likely either will change his mind, especially with the lockout backlog clearing up.
IT'S NOT MAGIC IT'S CHANCE. Arglebargle argle:
Late-game magic escapes when it matters most
Glarb glarb glarb.
Are we really talking about this? Yeah, Smotrycz turned the ball over when Michigan put him in a crappy situation with seven seconds left. He'd also put up 15 points on seven shots before that. We really need Daily article and message board threads defending the kid because e-loons are on his jock? Sometimes I hate people. Sometimes is almost all the time.
Butthurt. One thing this has really driven home is how amazingly butthurt OSU fans are about Brady Hoke calling them Ohio. It drives them nuts. Their reaction to this whole upset was as if it was some kind of vindication.
And yet they use "TSUN" constantly without recognizing the irony. Even operating under the assumption that many OSU fans are only technically human, that's surprisingly dumb.
Suddenly next year
Stauskas, Robinson III, McGary
As this season wraps up, eyes turn towards next year. Michigan loses Stu Douglass and Zack Novak; they bring in freshmen Mitch McGary, Nick Stauskas, and Glenn Robinson III. They also get bigs Max Bielfeldt and Jon Horford off of redshirts.
Though Novak was regarded as more integral to the team his absence is going to be easier to cope with. His minutes at the 3 and 4 will be fiercely contested by four or five players. Douglass's role as the go-to perimeter defender and secondary ballhandler… um. Michigan's best bets are Stauskas's nasty crossover immediately translating to the college level or a leap forward from Carlton Brundidge. Both are possible. Neither seems especially likely. If Michigan ends up with an unexpected scholarship dollars to donuts they scour for a backup at the one, whether it's the Italian kid with the 'fro or a grad-year transfer. If it's a grad-year guy, Beilein might sidle up to Max "My Name Is On Several Buildings At Illinois" Bielfeldt and delicately broach the idea he could pay tuition next year.
If that doesn't happen, one man's minute breakdown next year:
- Point guard: Burke 35, Brundidge 5.
- Shooting guard: Stauskas 25, Vogrich 15
- Small forward: Hardaway 30, GRIII 10
- Power forward: Smotrycz 20, GRIII 15, Bielfeldt 5
- Center: McGary 15, Morgan 15, Horford 10
Center is up in the air. McGary could come in and establish himself as a 30 minute guy, in which case I'd bet that sucks up most of Horford's minutes. Christian and McLimans probably won't see the light of day.
That's an 8-9 man rotation with spot minutes from a couple other guys—Michigan's bench minutes should reach the middle of the pack.
Michigan is suddenly huge. If Michigan actually sees the playing-time breakdown above, Michigan's average minute will go to a guy just under 6'6". (Assumptions: Stauskas and GRIII are listed at 6'6", McGary 6'10".) That's a five and a half-inch(!) difference from this year's roster, and that could be a conservative estimate. McGary and Smotrycz may see more time than estimated but probably not less; rosters do things like list Douglass at 6'3" and Burke at 6'1". With that conversion rate, guesses at 6'10" for McGary and 6'6" for GRIII may be an inch or so short.
That will take Michigan's effective height from –1.1 inches, good for a mid-major-ish 250th, to +4.4, which should be top ten nationally. That is whiplash-inducing. It's also pretty good company. Three of the four one seeds (all but MSU) are in the top 12 along with a two (Duke), a couple of threes (Baylor, FSU) and a four (Indiana). And… uh… Illinois.
Even if it's not a guarantee, height is strongly correlated with both offensive and defensive efficiency. This year's Michigan was about the third-best team you could put together with two guys over 6'5". That ceiling—one so harshly experienced by fellow first round upset victim Missouri—is about to lift.
Michigan's suddenly deep at places that aren't point guard. Assuming one of Robinson or Hardaway can handle some minutes at the two, they'll have two reasonable bench options for every spot on the floor except point guard. When Hardaway is broken, Michigan can put him on the bench. When he's hot they can ride him. They can effectively threaten playing time in a way that they could not last year.
Someone's going to lose out at center. The above minute breakdown at the 5 may be realistic over the course of the season, but when it comes down to crunch time they'll probably go with two guys unless severe foul trouble intervenes. That guess seems like the weakest above.
Can anyone spot Burke? Everyone on the roster has a reasonable backup or two except Burke, whose only support is a seldom-used guy who came in as a shooting guard who can't really shoot. It was a very bad sign for Brundidge when Eso Akunne was drafted to take over point guard opportunities early this year.
I know there's a lot of time for the guy to develop but I'm not seeing it. Maybe there's a system in which a 6-foot guy who could get to the basket in high school but doesn't seem to have the handle to do it in college could be effective, but it's not this one. Add in a scary asthma incident that kept him out of a few practices and prevented him from traveling to Michigan State and his prospects of serious playing time get slimmer still.
Should we play a ton more zone? Length is commonly associated with being good at playing zone. Michigan will have lots of it next year.
Also, a quick survey of the backcourt options reveals nothing even resembling a shut-down on-ball defender unless we want to hand that job to Burke. Since Burke is going to be heavily relied on to run the offense, I'd rather not do that. Other options are Stauskas, Vogrich, and Hardaway. None of them figure to be even above-average, let alone shut-down. While Michigan figures to have a lot more shotblocking next year to cover up for that deficiency, consistently allowing penetration is a recipe for open shots and bad defense.
So… zone, whether it's a 2-3 or a resurgence of the 1-3-1, seems like something Michigan might look at. The argument against it is that you should focus on your existing system and get better at it; the football team has amply demonstrated that changing your D every year is not a recipie for great success.
Can Bielfeldt play? The plan at the beginning of the year was to redshirt and Michigan stuck with that even when Horford went down. This would be ominous except Bielfeldt had some tendinitis issues that sounded relatively severe. Also, big men develop slowly and unpredictably and getting a fifth year out of them is often a much better idea than flinging spare minutes at them when they're an overwhelmed freshman.
Bielfeldt is a wide guy with a good jumper who Beilein says is a "tremendous" rebounder and good in short spaces. This is him:
"Long and bouncy, Max is not,'' Mathews said. "But in the right program, he could be ultra productive. Because good big men are hard to come by.
"He's a throwback. He's gonna bang. He's gonna be physical. He's gonna draw contact. He's gonna set a hard pick. He's gonna pop and hit an open jumper. He's gonna be able to guard their 4, their big who is posting up back to the basket. He can get in there and guard that guy. Sometimes, 6-10, long and bouncy doesn't guard those big, husky bodies inside.
"But Max can do that.''
I'm not exactly sure where he fits. He's probably not big enough to play as a 5 in college and if he doesn't have a three-pointer it's going to be tough for him to contribute enough on offense to supplant Smotrycz or Robinson.
Hardaway: the usual? Please bounce back please bounce back please bounce back.
Is Nick Stauskas finally the ludicrous 45% three point shooter Beilein has been craving forever? Would it be nice, yes? I speak like Russian contemplating this. Da.
UMHoops recap. M&GB says things. More Key Plays from UMHoops. Baumgardner:
Almost 10 minutes after their final games in a Michigan basketball uniform, Zack Novak and Stu Douglass emerged from the Wolverine locker room one last time — and neither one of them quite knew what to do.
Douglass, eyes puffy and red from the tears that welled inside them moments earlier, and Novak, wearing an emblematic bruise on his cheek and bump across the bridge of his nose, walked a lonely hallway inside the bowels of Bridgestone Arena to meet with the media one final time.
"I don't know," Douglass said in a somber tone. "I just didn't think this would happen today."
With that, Novak and Douglass were gone.
It was the end of an era of low expectations for the Wolverines. And that's the kind of ending so many Michigan fans have been anxiously waiting for, isn't it?
Five years after John Beilein arrived to begin another tedious rebuilding effort in Ann Arbor, it's safe to say, as departing senior Zack Novak did following Friday's loss, "The foundation is set in place."
From the new-and-improved basketball facilities on campus to the stable coaching situation to a more-energized fan base, that's hard to argue now, even in a cramped postgame locker room choked with disappointment.
The Old Men Of Yost
3/09/2012 – Michigan 2, Notre Dame 1 (OT) – 22-11-4
3/10/2012 – Michigan 3, Notre Dame 1 – 23-11-4, advance to CCHA semifinals
This weekend Michigan will make its 24th straight trip to Joe Louis Arena for the CCHA semifinals. The program hasn't recruited a kid who was alive the last time Michigan was absent for going on a decade now. The last 21 of those years, Michigan has followed up the Joe with an appearance in the NCAA tourney. Since they responded to their ugly November with a 16-3-2 tear to end the year they'll make it 22 in two weeks. The only people who remember a time when these streaks were not active are the old men in Yost not quite old enough to forget.
That is incredible consistency. Just look across the lake and find future Big Ten foes Wisconsin and Minnesota if you want to chalk it up to recruiting. Both those teams select who they want, like Michigan, and have rosters littered with NHL draft picks, like Michigan. They're both working on a tourney streak of zero. Michigan State is also in that situation. (Since Rick Comley left the roster stacked with AARP members instead of future NHLers, that's a different argument.) Those are three of college hockey's glamour programs and they have one bid between them the last three years.
A lot of the vibe around Michigan's program in recent years has focused on how the team has only turned two of those 21 bids into national championships, but that's a conversation for the flat blank day the day after your soul shrivels up when a puck goes in the wrong net and hides inside its lonely crevasse for 52 more weeks of winter. In the immediate aftermath of Michigan punching out Jeff Jackson's eighth-place, college-hockey-NIT-bound Irish and Ferris State blowing it against Bowling Green it's time to give thanks for consistency.
Notre Dame was supposed to finish first in the league this year unless Miami did; they took their great talent and legendary coach and shiny new arena and finished one game above .500. Ferris State actually won the league this year; they took on the worst team in the conference and lost. Neither will be at the Joe. Michigan will, because Michigan always is.
It would be one thing if that was because they always had some ludicrous talents on the team. In recent years this hasn't really been the case. They don't have a lights-out scorer. Their top guys in PPG tied for 94th this year. They've made a transition from firewagon hockey to a more defensive style; they coped with the total implosion of their power play. The big star last year was either a defenseman who never hits anyone or a lightning-fast Swede better known for his defense than his offense. Their big star this year is their goalie.
Michigan has transitioned into a new, monstrously tight-checking era of college hockey without missing a beat. They've all but locked down a one seed after that terrible awful vertiginous November showed us a picture hardly anyone remembers: April without Michigan hockey.
I've got a few Illinois fans on my twitter feed and their mournfulness yesterday as Selection Sunday played on without the Illini was striking as I pondered Michigan's 24 and 22-year streaks. We've been there ourselves, as Michigan's 2008 season spiraled into the dirt and Bo's bowl streak went up in flames. As the basketball program embarks on a baby streak of their own and football gets back up to speed, let's take a moment and give thanks for the unchanging excellence in Yost.
Things happen. Your goalie flames out or some guy leaves school and you're left with a guy from the club team and a mop Jon Falk said you could borrow you call "Lee Moppie" because all hockey nicknames consist of putting "—ie" at the end of someone's name. Moppie sees way too much time and gets stuck in his own end because it's a mop and you lose a bunch of games. Even Bo's bowl streak was a flimsy thing when Harbaugh went down.
It is at this point that your program lays down for a breather, and you find out that the only thing worse than the horrible deflating feeling in April is one in March or February or November. But not for us, not yet.
It was really too bad this one wasn't on TV. It was the game of the year, no question, and up there as far as Yost all-timers go. Obviously not at the level of tourney games; other than that it's competing with Ryan Miller-era games against MSU and that BC game when Jack Johnson shot the goalie's helmet off.
Hunwick on his last game at Yost:
The flag. It's above. It's fabulous. They'll have to figure out exactly when to deploy it since their current idea conflicts with the "who cares" bit during player introductions, but it is awesome. They'll figure it out. Aaron Ward paid for most of it, which is also awesome. Also, Taylor Lewan pled for the Arizona state flag—which the student section deployed when Moffatt got a penalty just to show it off—to make an appearance at Michigan Stadium this fall.
I want more flags. All of the flags!
That's more like it, Notre Dame goalie situation. CenterIce has a diary breaking down the Michigan goals and came away from the weekend with an impression similar to mine:
Watching the highlights I was very surprised by how the scoring played out for us. I could not see anything televised because of my location, but it was very strange to see an entire series of lucky bounces and soft goals.
Michigan had a bunch of legit scoring chances they rang off the posts (three of them in the first OT Friday); everything else was soft.
Even though Summerhays wasn't exactly awful—he did give up just over 2 GAA—most of the goals he gave up were soft-ish, none worse than the harmless dink Phil Di Giuseppe managed to slide through his five hole:
If you let something in through the five hole at that angle from that tight, you have earned the "it's all your fault" in the aftermath.
Meanwhile, Hunwick was just about flawless. He had no hope on ND's Saturday goal, on which Jon Merrill didn't realize he had a two-on-one situation down low and went after a puckhandler emerging from the half-boards, leaving the back door wide open. The Friday goal came after a long period of Notre Dame pressure featuring several grade A stops from Hunwick; finally he could not react fast enough when ND found an open guy in the slot on a pass that came from behind the net.
Meanwhile, the all-Gongshow goalie gave up ten in a three game series against BGSU. Well done, hockey gods.
Notre Dame. Good? Bad? ND is such a confusing team. I think I was right to be very much against playing them in the second round, as they dominated large stretches of the first game and could have/should have put it away. Hunwick was ridiculous, and Michigan was much better in the OT. Michigan was much better on Saturday; even so my impression from watching ND play four times this year is that they should be easily in the tourney.
The goalie thing is a big, big problem. You could tell the body language on Saturday night was "here we go again." If they just had an average goalie I'm guessing they're well above the bubble.
Top line re-emerges. They had a little bit of a quiet spot there. That's over after Brown got the winner Friday and Wohlberg's top-quality snipes Saturday. They were dominant for stretches on the cycle, as well.
Now that Glendening and Di Giuseppe are getting some goals it seems like Michigan has two solid scoring lines for the tournament with the potential for some bonus stuff from Moffatt, a Lynch, etc.
The main problem left. The power play is just horrendous. They could not even get the zone on Friday night, and while they fixed the problem somewhat Saturday they still ended up 0/7 on the weekend. There's an obvious lack of dipsy-doo on the team that is a problem. Michigan has never in my memory played two defensemen on the PP, and I remember many years where the solution to getting the zone on the powerplay was "give it to Hensick."
This year the guy most likely to get the zone on the rush is… Mac Bennett, probably, and he does it by beating a guy as he leaves the defensive zone. When an opponent is lining four up across the blue line like ND was he doesn't have the puckhandling to make guys back off.
I don't really have any answers here. I'll just be over here massaging my temples for the next two minutes.
Sparks. : ( Scratched again and with no points in forever it's hard to make the case he should not be. I just thought that line was so close to putting in a half-dozen goals once he returned to the lineup. Oh well.
Pairwise Situation
MFan in Ohio has been ably summing up the situation on the message board. Michigan actually dropped after Friday night's action thanks to a weird confluence of factors seemingly designed to play up the PWR's flaws: a bunch of not very good teams won or lost to fall above or below the .500 RPI mark that makes teams a TUC. They did this in just the right fashion for Cornell's TUC record to be momentarily very good, and Cornell took its comparison from Michigan based on that and the 3-4 games they've played against common opponents. Cornell is almost 300 points back in RPI.
Order was restored on Saturday, and with just one weekend left you can run scenarios out the wazoo. The worst-case chalk scenario (all higher seeds win except M going 0-2 at the Joe) still sees Michigan finish second; the worst-case-period scenario (UMD, BU, Miami, and Cornell win conference tourneys) sees Michigan finish in a three way tie for fifth. If Michigan beats BG in the semi they'll finish in a tie for third.
Upshot: Michigan has to both blow it as hard as possible and have every opponent within striking distance do as well as they can to lose the top seed.
As far as draw goes, I have no idea. One set of results sees Michigan drawing #4 seed Cornell in the first round; others have Cornell a strong two. The PWR is a jittery thing.
It does seem like Michigan has a solid shot at getting another Atlantic Hockey champ despite not being the #1 overall seed. For that to happen, the following must transpire:
- Two CCHA teams must be one seeds
- Two CCHA teams must be four seeds
- Michigan must be the highest-ranked CCHA team
In that case the committee has no choice but to match the CCHA teams up against the other folks and hand the not-very-good AH champ to Michigan. Your wicked hangover from that one year Michigan played Air Force suggests this may not be the absolute best thing in the world, but… well, yeah.
That is likely to happen if Miami beats Michigan Saturday. It's a consolation prize.
As far as the league goes: Miami, Michigan, and Ferris are solidly in. Ferris and their all-world goalie gave up a billion goals to BGSU and ended up not making the Joe; they're a solid two seed. Western Michigan and State are on the bubble. Both are in unless there is a bid stolen.
One will make it unless two bids are stolen this weekend; that team will be State unless WMU wins the CCHA. In that case State can be knocked out with a single stolen bid.
Just In Time For The Showcase Showdown
3/1/2012 – Michigan 72, Illinois 61 – 22-8, 12-5 Big Ten
UMHoops/Dustin Johnston
If you were in a really, really good mood in June and thought of Tim Hardaway Jr's sophomore season, you probably envisioned him tossing in three-pointers like he's casually skipping stones across Lake Michigan, rebounding like he's a bouncy Zack Novak, and maybe developing enough of a handle to attack the rim when people close him out hard.
Instead you got… not that. Instead you got every preview of every Michigan game having a section on Hardaway that is the verbal equivalent of:
You got not that until yesterday, when Hardaway flung in 25 points on 7 shots and secured an array of bouncy, mansome rebounds en route to holding Illinois to six offensive rebounds in 31 opportunities. Oh, and Michigan won a road game by double digits. This is what you envisioned last summer when you closed your eyes long enough for Denard Robison-related daydreaming to pass.
That didn't happen so much but Trey Burke showed up on a mission to discredit scouting services and picked up most of the slack there, so that was okay. Michigan muddled through to its best record in a long, long time. Hardaway lingered, though, a hovering sad inexplicable what-if and source of indigestion whenever he rose up for a three-pointer that had a 26% chance of going in.
We spent the season waiting, mostly winning but mostly frustrated. Every flash of effectiveness was dissected for repeatability; every clanged shot was a re-descent into depression. The last time this team played Illinois, Hardaway had an efficient game that fluttered hopes:
When Tim Hardaway Jr. got an open-ish look from three early, he passed it up. He faked, got past the closeout, and took an open look from the elbow. He missed. He got another midrange jumper a minute later, which he missed. A minute after that he got an open look from three, and the building kind of moaned.
It was a complex moan. It acknowledged the fact that this was a very good shot and that if you are Tim Hardaway Jr. and you're not going to take this shot you probably shouldn't be on the floor at all and while there may be some basketball teams who could afford to bench Tim Hardaway Jr., Michigan is emphatically not one of them. It also loathed everything about the preceding sentence because none of it meant Hardaway was at all likely to make it. It was a richly subtextual moan. Given enough time and processing power, Ken Pomeroy could calculate Hardaway's shooting percentage from it. He would find it is not high at all.
Hardaway made it anyway. The building thought maybe basketball would bring it flowers.
He then proceeded to… well, defy easy classification. Tim Hardaway Jr, this is a five game stretch in your sophomore year:
|@ Northwestern
|@ Illinois
There's some frustrating wobble in there what with the 0-fer from three against Purdue and the Ben Wallace free throw shooting against Northwestern. There is also the 25-points-on-7 shots outing last night, two other extremely efficient games, an obvious uptick in turnovers, Hardaway's second double-double of the year, and the same 42% shooting from deep that carried Michigan to a shock tourney bid last year.
This chart reminds me of the NCAA hockey tournament. IE: it terrifies. If Hardaway is off, Michigan is capable of losing to anyone in the tourney, literally. The Ben Wallace FT game saw them go to overtime with Northwestern, currently the last team in on many brackets. If he is on, daggers rain from the sky and Michigan can take down just about anyone.
Michigan has no choice but to deal with this. They have one and a half backups and the fourth-shortest bench in the country. If Hardaway isn't producing, there's nowhere to turn. We've got little to go on either way. As Hardaway bounces up from a pretty horrendous year he settles back into a funk for back to back games, then surges.
Riding him is being at sea in a storm. When he rises up for his first-three pointer in Columbus or Pittsburgh or Nashville against an autobid from a small conference, every Michigan fan from the eight-year-old who thinks Trey Burke is the greatest point guard in history to John Beilein himself will watch the flight of the ball, thinking please, please, please.
Burke + Hardaway == um. This will not be an original thought, but finally finally finally Michigan got good, efficient performances from Burke and Hardaway at the same time. No one else did much offensively but it did not matter because the top guys had an 80% eFG% and were 10 of 10 from the line even before Illinois started fouling tactically late.
That is going to be tough to beat; that is far from guaranteed. Who would have thought Anthony Wright would be the guy holding Michigan in against Blake Griffin a few years back?
Just Burke. Very, very smooth last night, pushing the ball when it needed to be pushed and ruthlessly punishing high-screen switches with easy step-up three-pointers. Long term that's his future—he won't get better than last night but will have more nights like that. Exception: as he learns the intricacies of the Beilein offense he'll increase his assist rate and maybe edge up his two-point shooting because fewer of his attempts will be heaves late in the shot clock.
Smotrycz. He managed to foul out in 14 minutes and has a lot of people down on his potential contributions next year. Two things:
- Big men develop slowly and unpredictably.
- Smotrycz is badly miscast as a center and will benefit more than anyone else on the roster from the additions of McGary, Horford, and Bielfeldt to the lineup… unless Bielfeldt turns into a Draymond Green-style four, in which case he's screwed. Chances of that next year are low.
Next year he should be able to take Novak's role in the offense and on defense, something he's better suited for. He may be a bad matchup in certain situations and get lifted, but—holy pants—next year Michigan will be able to do that by inserting GRIII, McGary, or Bielfeldt at the four. He will not have to take on Adreian Payne, Jared Sullinger or Meyers Leonard next year, and thank God for that.
Jalen Rose is one divisive guy. I was not a fan of his color commentary last night and tweeted something out about it. In the next ten minutes that tweet received an avalanche of support, criticism, and hur hur jokes about racism. Say what you want about Rose, but he moves the needle.
Of course, the thing I say about Rose is that he moves my needle in the wrong direction. The contrast between Rose and Bardo was obvious: Bardo was a pro; Rose sounded like he'd won a fan contest to call a game.
It wasn't all bad. Rose consistently made an excellent point about players trying too hard to take charges or block shots when they should just be annoying presences to contest shots, and he backed it up every time he should have. I bet he's a lot better when he's not covering a Michigan game.
Injuries. Smotrycz and Morgan were both dinged but it doesn't sound like anything serious:
"I hope they're all right," Beilein said. "Both of them had little stingers, (Morgan) in the shoulder and (Smotrycz) to his hip.
Losing either one would obviously be a disaster sans Horford.
Photos from UMHoops and AA.com. UMHoops recap. Baumgardner recap. Burke just set the Michigan freshman record for assists. Daily on Hardaway doing work:
"Having a winter break right now, Tim has used every bit of it," said Michigan coach John Beilein. "He's been in the gym like crazy. Just looking at his shot, we've been watching the video tape, seeing any different type of quirks that maybe he could work out. He's such a student of the game, so he's really worked at it."
I'm not sure what it is about playing Illinois, but it has for whatever reason brought out the very best in THJ this season. He was just about as efficient as you can possibly be, and his shot was crisp, clean, and confident. Bacari Alexander will now be given the task of using whatever psychological tropes he can muster to convince THJ that they are playing Illinois before every game from here on out. John Gasaway says:
It's hard to disagree. This Michigan team has, by varying combinations of Trey Burke, Beilein sorcery, TRUE GRIT, and Bacari Alexander motivational ploys, manufactured a 22-8 record with THJ struggling for long, bleak stretches of conference play. Imagine, oh imagine, what this team can accomplish with a THJ circa the end of last season added to the fold.
A Lion Eye is depressed; A Lion Eye is always depressed. A Lion Eye reminds me of me two years ago.
Hardaway is interviewed at Grantland:
Your dad was an NBA All-Star. Did you grow up playing against him? At what age could you beat him?
Yeah, when I was a kid we played a seven-game series every Saturday. I used to go to open gym to play with my friends and teammates, and I'd get there 30 to 45 minutes early so I could play one-on-one against my dad. When I reached ninth grade, I was finally able to beat him. He'd win the seven-game series, mostly, but I knew if I got two or three wins I could tell everybody that I'd beat my dad one-on-one. That's when I knew he was done.
But even when I started beating him regularly, he wasn't mad at all. He'd still teach me things I could get better at. To this day, I go up to him and ask him for advice about what I need to work on, and he always does a great job helping me out. That's not to say there wasn't a lot of trash talking when we played one-on-one.
What kind of trash talk, specifically?
I can't say. I can't say!
Asked whether this is his last year at Michigan, he says "I'm not sure" and "I can tell you I don't plan on leaving." I'm guessing he's around for at least another year since he's probably not a first-rounder after this business.
The NYT has an interesting article up on the variations between basketballs making life difficult on road teams. Bo Ryan is specified as a guy who uses a weird ball that causes problems for visitors; this made me think of a recent Daily article on Michigan's odd choice of ball:
"I just have a long association with The Rock," he said. "I used it way back to LeMoyne and also at the Division-I level. I've used The Rock, I think, all the time. They have a good product."
Though many teams choose to stick with their school's sponsor for their choice of ball, Michigan passed over Adidas in favor of The Rock — a brand from Anaconda Sports.
"It feels very much like the Wilson, which we use in the NCAA Tournament," Beilein said. "That's why I like it."
In fact, the NYT article seems like an rehash of the Daily article what with its frequent referencing of Wisconsin's unusual deployment of Sterling basketballs and focus on the home/road effects. Zinger not contained by NYT for obvious reasons incoming:
But if Michigan fans are worried about the Wolverines' play without The Rock in the postseason, there is good news. On Dec. 10, Michigan put up a season-high 90 points in a victory over Oakland at the Palace at Auburn Hills.
The ball? Wilson. The same brand used for March Madness.
Hardaway Hardaway Hardaway Hardaway.
Or is that "Hawafty"?
Paywall ho!
A Gentle Suggestion For The Benefit Of The Revolution
2/21/2012 – Michigan 67, Northwestern 55 (OT) – 21-7, 11-4 Big Ten
LEFT: A fateful moment in which our brave comrade fouled the opponent's forearm in the eyes of corrupt capitalist lackeys. RIGHT: The imperialists were forced into illegal measures in their failed attempts to deal with Comrade Morgan.
Dustin Johnston/UMHoops; AnnArbor.com
Let the reign of Beilein be long and glorious. He is our sun and star and moons. He has brought basketball back to Ann Arbor long after we had ceded our land to the imperialists of East Lansing and set about hoping we would not be Northwestern forever. The bubble is banished and all loyal Wolverines are required to have Mao-style paintings of not one but two Dear Leaders. This is right and just.
But we have to talk about something, Oh Great Back Cut of Heaven. That thing is what to do when Michigan's glorious but thin frontcourt, sabotaged by foreigners who broke Comrade Horford's foot—we have executed the traitors or at least given people who probably know the traitors harsh looks—is brought low by the machinations of imperialist pig-dogs with whistles.
Oh Thousand Shining Arcs From Behind The Line, your response in the Northwestern game was to bench Comrades Morgan and Smotrycz in favor of Comrades McLimans and Christian. They are a good loyalists who contribute all they can to the cause. Unfortunately for the Glorious Revolution, that is zero shot attempts and zero rebounds in fourteen minutes. "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need" suggests that Comrades McLimans and Christian are most needed in the towel-waving collectives of Ukraine, where they can fan our team to greatness.
When they are placed on the court, starvation ensues. Michigan led 11-3 when McLimans entered the game; Northwestern led 31-24 by halftime, when Comrades Morgan and Smotrycz returned to the floor. In that span of time, Northwestern had six offensive rebounds in eight opportunities*. In the other 31 minutes they had five in 24. Northwestern scored more points in the fourteen minutes without Morgan and Smotrycz (28) than they did in the other thirty-one(27).
Upon their return Morgan and Smotrycz promptly led a glorious charge into a lead foreordained by your divinity, Great Leveler. Unfortunately, rebel conspiracy sabotaged the bridge between Tim Hardaway Jr. and free throw makes, forcing the revolution into overtime. The people rose up and slew their purple oppressors with a thousand swords, as you decreed would always be the case.
Some of our less faithful comrades may have momentarily lost confidence, however. While the will of the people can never be defeated, it should be pointed out that basketball teams can and putting in comrades who are not very good at basketball could lead to a (temporary, meaningless) setback in Michigan's five-year plan.
When comrades Morgan and Smotrycz returned it took 12 minutes for one of them to pick up a third foul. If they were allowed to continue playing in the first half it is true they would be in danger of fouling out early. But what would the consequences be in that situation? In the worst vaguely plausible scenario, both Morgan and Smotrycz foul out five or six minutes into the second half, forcing the Striped Orange Sun to… play McLimans and Christian for 14 minutes. The wisdom of the Shining Beacon of Halftime Adjustments is unquestioned, but in this one situation it seems like it is not infinite.
Earlier in the year, a similar substitution pattern saw Comrade Burke confined to the bench for a long stretch against Iowa. Burke left with Michigan down four and returned with them down twelve. Nefarious play by oppressors made Michigan play poorly throughout, so this did not make an impact on the outcome, but it didn't help matters much.
I submit that with Burke averaging 1.8 fouls per 40 minutes at the time of his transgression and six additional calls available to a two-headed center playing a team without any size, it would benefit Michigan greatly to roll the dice on players in foul trouble instead of willingly accepting the worst-case scenario of doing so. Oh sun and moon and stars.
*[It was actually 7 of 9 but one was a OREB credited to Northwestern's team after McLimans blocked a shot out of bounds. I don't think that shows up on the box score I'm using.]
Photos from AnnArbor.com and UMHoops. This one demonstrates Burke's powers of telekinesis:
Dustin Johnston
Highlights from BTN and mgovideo:
Bullets that get dust on them
Defense! Zounds. UMHoops says Michigan had Morgan and/or Smotrycz for 40 possessions. On those possessions Northwestern scored 27 points, or 0.68 points per possession. That's outstanding. Northwestern has the country's 15th-best offense and the league's fourth-best; when Michigan wasn't going to the deep bench because of the aforementioned rigidity they annihilated the Wildcats.
The primary way they did this was by switching everything. IIRC there was a single breakdown for an open layup in the first half, then nothing the rest of the game. Everything else was contested. John Shurna was 2 of 5 from three and 4 of 11 from two with a couple of those twos ridiculous circus things; after the game Bill Carmody kind of called out his leading scorer for passivity:
"It just seemed the whole game that he was reluctant to do anything," Carmody said. "He had some pretty good looks and he passed them up to go to the next thing. It was a game he had to take over."
Northwestern never tried to punish Michigan for switching players as small as Trey Burke onto Shurna. That's either blind luck or great scouting.
Threes? Michigan hit 37% on 38 threes for 1.1 points per attempt. Are we happy with that? I have no idea. On the one hand, a lot of those were wide open when opponents sagged off Burke or left a corner three open in the 1-3-1. On the other hand, 38 threes. I'm guessing we would have had a much different opinion than confusion if Burke and Hardaway didn't put down back-to-back triples after Michigan found itself down four late. Those makes opened the door for the rat-tat-tat at the beginning of overtime. Before that the numbers were ugly.
1.1 points is not great. It sounds good as a shooting percentage but you have to take into account that way more twos than threes end up getting erased in favor of free throws. On the other hand, being willing to launch from deep really cut down on Michigan's turnovers (six to an uncharacteristic 14 for Northwestern) and would have led to some additional possessions via Morgan offensive rebounds if the refs hadn't gone from suck to blow in the second half. In the end, it worked. Worked authoritatively when Morgan/Smotrycz were in.
1-3-1 response. When Michigan's 1-3-1 was getting shredded early in the disappointing Harris/Sims post-tourney year it seemed like opponents were attacking it diagonally and getting to the basket. Michigan was hesitant to put the ball on the floor at all and ended up shooting over it on a large majority of possessions. When they did dump it in low, Morgan had a couple opportunities but didn't go up strong, as they say, and we got the obligatory missed bunny or two*. I wonder if Northwestern just runs the 1-3-1 a lot better than Michigan ever has in the Beilein era.
*[This should be less of a problem with McGary. When people are asking Morgan to go up strong they believe he can dunk a ball from a standing start under the basket, which I don't think he can. This should be no problem for McGary as long as he can catch cleanly—always an issue with big men.]
Hardaway. Yerg. Back to the salt mines: 2 of 9 from three, 4 of 10 from the line. Two of three from two… against a team that has no shot blocking. I don't think those distributions are going to get fixed this year; we can only hope the shots go down when Michigan really needs them to.
Rodger Sherman is not dead:
How. in the HELL. do we lose two games to the same ranked team in overtime? HOW? Why does this happen? THIS IS JUST THE WORST.
Northwestern has now played about 8000 close games this season and lost all of them. Here are my questions, and I am furious about each and every one.
You get the ball witha bout 50 seconds and a full shot clock. Instead of opting to go two-for-one and take the last shot, which ANYBODY WITH ANY SORT OF BASKETBALL SENSE IN THE WORLD would have done, Northwestern held for 35 seconds and had a possession end with a JerShon Cobb three, a shot which is about as efficient as repeatedly stabbing yourself in the face. YOU DON'T WANT TO PLAY ANOTHER FIVE MINUTES AGAINST A RANKED TEAM WITH ALL THE MOMENTUM. YOU WANT TO END THE GAME IN REGULATION. YOU HAVE A BETTER CHANCE OF BEATING A BETTER TEAM IN THREE POSSESSIONS (TWO OF WHICH ARE YOURS) THAN FIVE MORE MINUTES. This is inexplicable.
We will root for Northwestern from here on out. We have hurt them more than they deserve. AnnArbor.com on Vogrich:
"He's been a big part of this little surge we're having right now," Michigan coach John Beilein said of Vogrich. "You've seen all year long that we've struggled with our bench play.
"And we need that. He's done a good job."
During Michigan's current four-game winning streak, Vogrich has gone 9-for-13 from 3-point range, providing a spark off the bench that hasn't been there for most of the season.
Known as a 3-point specialist, Vogrich entered the Nebraska game on Feb. 8 shooting just 21.2 percent from behind the arc. But thanks to his recent hot streak, he's jumped up to a more respectable 33.3 percent on the year.
UMHoops recap.
Plinko Preview
2/17/2012 – Michigan 4, Northern Michigan 1 – 19-10-4, 13-8-4 Gongshow
2/18/2012 – Michigan 3, Northern Michigan 2 (OT) – 20-10-4, 14-8-4 Gongshow
Too many of these flags without a banner
Inevitably, Michigan's come down a bit from its dominating post-Merrill streak. After a month of games rarely competitive enough to require the opposition goalie to be pulled, Michigan's won two of the last four in overtime. A third they lost; the fourth was a one-goal game with five minutes to go before a power play goal gave Michigan room to breathe.
While they remain one of the hottest teams in the country—probably still the hottest team—it's just that… man, they are mortal. Very much so. Saturday confirmed that. Watching Mac Bennett cough up an unbelievable turnover gets that point halfway home; cowering after Jon Freakin' Merrill got ostentatiously walked for a goal drives it the rest of the way. And don't get me started on the third pairing.
It is easy to construct ways in which Michigan gets beaten in the tourney. Maybe it's better to know that going in, to not be regarding the NCAA tournament as anything other than sport's most terrifying random number generator, but dammit I've been watching Michigan play hockey for 13 years and every year my soul has ended up sobbing on the floor of a Steak 'n' Shake bathroom. I don't like reminders of the ways in which these things happen.
I'm getting plenty of those of late. Both overtime winners were plinko specials. A puck slides under a Michigan State defenseman despite that guy dropping to one knee and Michigan's fourth line sweeps one in from point blank range. Northern throws a puck up the boards that just happens to hit Glendening in the tape and he flings it cross-ice to Treais, who does what Treais does and fires a laser-guided missile into the net.
It's great to get wins like that, sure. You are either unfamiliar with college hockey or a great dirty liar if it doesn't make you nervous, though. In April this team is going to be going up against team after team like they have in the second half of the season. They'll never meet last year's North Dakota. There is no last year's North Dakota. This means however they lose, if they lose, will be brutal.
Michigan's looking good for a one seed but we've seen puck after puck that cares nothing for expectation and craves only chaos, and it's getting to be that time of year. Prepare the antacid and whiskey: playoff hockey is around the corner.
It's impossible to think things like the above and look at Michigan's RPI chart within minutes of each other without saying a little prayer of thanks that this…
…was not the season*. But now we're over it and have been talking about what Michigan needs to be a one seed for two months. Michigan has been as close to a dominant team as you can be for a long time now, and instead of being grateful to extend the tourney streak I'm steeling myself for the usual combination of anticipation and dread that accompanies single elimination hockey.
This is probably why I advised everyone to savor the final few games of basketball season. That team can be happy with being there. Hockey can't even if the above stretch threatened the tourney streak. Hockey has become a ghost-ridden thing over the past dozen years. Once recovery is in the rear view the tournament looms ahead, silent, red-haired, and wild-eyed. Loki is coming, and he has been kind recently. Be afraid.
*[How bizarre is that Ferris State sweep in retrospect? Ferris is going to win the league bar a sweep by Western and is in pretty good shape for a one-seed itself. Michigan destroyed them in the midst of their horrendous stretch.]
The latter does a great job of emphasizing how frequently Pateryn was annihilating various Wildcats.
HT: Michigan Hockey Net.
Michigan moved up to second on the weekend but still loses comparisons with two teams, BC and UMD. Thanks to Michigan's GLI win over the Eagles, passing BC is a simple matter of finishing ahead of them in RPI. Any other scenario that sees Michigan take the comparison also has M ahead in RPI, so that's easy enough.
UMD is a tougher, more annoying matter. They're getting significantly beat in RPI but win both COP (thanks to M's split against Western) and TUC. They're about a game in front there despite the RPI gap. Michigan will need them to limp down the stretch.
UMD is the only comparison it looks like Michigan can lose based on RPI right now thanks to BU's loss to BC in the Beanpot. That evened Michigan's COP with BU and there's nothing the Bulldogs can do about that except make it worse until the playoffs.
Playing BG is good and bad. They should be easy to beat but they provide no upside. A sweep barely budges Michigan's RPI; a split will see them drop.
Upshot for the people who don't care about the details: Michigan should finish at most one spot below their RPI ranking, which is currently second but could drop to fifth or sixth if they don't play well. If they take care of BGSU this weekend they will probably get a one seed as long as they reach and go 1-1 at the Joe. You hate Duluth and want them to die.
BONUS: Remember how I said Northern was on the bubble despite being ninth last week? At 16th they'd be out of the tournament if it started today. Do not look at bracketology columns. They are more pointless than college hockey polls.
Bullets That Could Go Anywhere
Revisiting Luke Glendening. After Glendening had a bad weekend in which he seemed at least partially responsible for three separate Notre Dame goals, I pointed out that he'd been dragging in +/- terms and scoring and that he'd have been exiled to the fourth line if he wasn't the captain.
This had the same effect as painting 1,181 across your hairless chest might. Since then he's had points in 5 of 6 games and has a 1-6-7 line as the second line has scored every night. Yeah, he's benefiting from AJ Treais's insane run of top shelf snipes, but he's getting Treais the puck in situations where he can unleash his shot. See: OT winner last night.
I got AJ Treais all wrong. I called him a less dynamic TJ Hensick, but this is not right. Right now he's a less dynamic Mike Cammalleri. Cammalleri is the magic midget with the most lethal shot in MGoMemory, and Treais is a threat to water bottles all over the Gongshow at the moment.
Wait… what? A quick glimpse at Michigan's stats shows Lee Moffie at the top of the scoring charts with 6-23-29. That is a lot of points. He, too, has been on a mighty run the last three weekends, scoring three goals and assisting on six others. I say Michigan shortens its bench considerably in the playoffs and rides their top two pairings extensively.
Speaking of… Michigan tried to mitigate the issues with their third pairing by breaking Merrill and Moffie apart so that there was always at least one guy Red trusts on the ice at all times. This did not go so well. Chiasson had a couple of brutal turnovers, Merrill made some plays in his defensive zone that clearly indicated he had no faith in the freshman, and pairing Moffie with Serville was asking to die along the boards. Michigan eventually went back to their earlier plan and now seem stuck with it.
This seems like a situation where Michigan should go full Krug with their top four guys, no?
This can backfire. I remember a certain game against Maine back in the day—Comrie's last game, so 2000—during which Michigan rode five defenseman until the fifth got injured. They had only four and Bob Gassoff*—and by the end of that game Mike Komisarek could barely move. After Comrie got a half-breakaway and converted five-hole, Maine got Michigan stuck in their own zone and wore them down in the third period. The goals that followed felt inevitable.
So you have to get some shifts for the third pairing guys in, but offensive zone faceoffs only against guh opponents only, please.
*[Bob Gassoff is now a Navy Seal and could probably rip my head off with two fingers. So it is with some trepidation that I reveal that as a student I once cried out "WHY EVEN GIVE HIM A STICK?" when Red iced Gassoff at some point that year. He was a guy with no discernible skill except fighting people, which is discouraged. If you think this year's defense is frighteningly thin you have no idea. Just no idea at all.]
Third line. Still bupkis. They'll get something against BG, right? I mean, they have to one of these days.
CenterIce breaks down Michigan's goals. The Deblois semi-break:
I predicted that Jon Merrill would have a bounce back series after last weekends MSU fiasco. The thing that has always separated Merrill from others is his hockey I.Q. You either have it or you don't, things like this can't not be taught.
This play starts out as a regular clear for the Wildcats, nothing special just a puck sent out of the zone.
Head up the whole way Merrill gets the puck from Moffie and finds Deblois cutting through the middle.
The Northerners are all kinds of confused, obviously since the blueliner has closed his legs like he's in shot blocking position.
As you can see they are caught way out of position.
The only play left for NMU is to go for the hook, bring him down and try your luck on the PK. Deblois does a great job of keeping the puck and staying on his feet to finish the play off.
Whole thing highly recommended.
AnnArbor.com game recap. Pateryn:
"The way he's been putting the puck in the net, I kinda was a little premature on my celebration," Pateryn said. "My gloves weren't off, but hands went up. ... Thankfully, he put it in."
Press conference recaps from Friday and Saturday from Michigan Hockey Net. I was surprised that Berenson was so down on the Friday performance; I felt like they were mostly dominant 5x5 and got screwed on penalties. They got caught in their own zone three or four times and gave up scary chances but I don't think that's a matter of toughness; it's just that the third pairing is scary.
Matt Slovin on Hunwick's Hobey hopes. Tiny Jesus reference included. Daily recap.


text:
Live Blog: NCAA Basketball Tournament
Analysis of Thursday afternoon's NCAA tournament games, including Ohio State vs. Dayton, Wisconsin vs. American, Colorado vs. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati vs. Harvard, Syracuse vs. Western Michigan and Oregon vs. BYU.
If you're reading this, then you already know: Today is the best sports day of the year.
It's the first day of the NCAA tournament's round of 64, which means 16 games will be broadcast, starting at 12:15 p.m. and ending sometime after midnight. We're assuming you haven't taken today off, so we're here to help you watch while you're stuck at work. On the afternoon schedule today:
12:15 p.m.: No. 6 Ohio State vs. No. 11 Dayton
12:40 p.m.: No. 2 Wisconsin vs. No. 15 American
1:40 p.m.: No. 8 Colorado vs. No. 9 Pittsburgh
2:10 p.m.: No. 5 Cincinnati vs. No. 12 Harvard
Will the Buckeyes win their battle for Ohio? Is American this year's No. 15 seed to win? Is this finally the year Pittsburgh makes an NCAA tournament run? Will those Harvard kids finally overcome all the odds stacked against them in life? How many iced coffees will the Journal's staff consume over the next four hours?
Dayton 51, Ohio St. 50 (4:52 left)
So this is where our attention will be early on. Buckeyes (as always) having all kinds of trouble scoring.
The other concurrent games aren't exactly barnburners. Colorado–which doesn't have its star, Spencer Dinwiddie–is down 21-5 to Pittsburgh. Wisconsin, which was down to 15 seed American early, is now bombing them, 51-25.
Dayton 53, Ohio St. 52 (3:00 left)
Just kicking myself right now for not picking this upset. OSU can't score. Of course they're going down.
Dayton 55, Ohio St. 52 (2:35 left)
Intentional foul call against Aaron Craft, OSU's ace defender, on a fast break. Huge call. Dayton hits the two free throws and has possession.
Ohio St. 55, Dayton 55, 2 min left
Craft atones! Gets a 3-point play on the other end to tie it up.
Pittsburgh 30, Colorado 9, 6:40 left first half
Dayton 55, Ohio St. 55, 1:06 left
Dayton misses two FTs–OSU ball!
Ohio St. 57, Dayton 55, 51.2 seconds left
OSU pogo stick Sam Thompson scores in the lane. Timeout. Buckeyes making the big plays. Flyers gagging.
Ohio St. 57, Dayton 55, 26.3 seconds left
OSU's Shannon Scott with a brutal foul on a 3-pointer. Three free throws for Dayton's DyShawn Pierre.
Ohio St. 57, Dayton 55, 26.3 seconds left
OSU's Shannon Scott with a brutal foul on a 3-pointer. Three free throws for Dayton's DyShawn Pierre.
Dayton 58, Ohio St. 57, 26.3 seconds left
Hits them all!
Dayton 58, Ohio St. 57, 20.9 seconds left
Timeout, Buckeyes. Surely will hold for the last shot.
I have Dayton in my bracket. Wondering how many billion dollar dreams will go up in flames with the Buckeyes?
Ohio St. 59, Dayton 58, 15.5 seconds left
Craft reverse layup! Tough shot in the lane. Timeout, Flyers.
Or did Aaron Craft just burst my billion dollar dreams?
Final: Dayton 60, Ohio St. 59
The Flyers knock out the Buckeyes–and they do it by beating OSU's star defensive player.
Pierre hits the winning shot, a runner, over Craft with four seconds left. Craft misses a drive on the other end at the buzzer
Have to say: This is a fitting end to Craft's career. He's a good player, but he has been waaaaaaaaaaay overrated by us folks in the media because of his "grit." Perhaps now people will finally take him for what he is.
Right on cue, Barkley is talking postgame about how amazing Craft is.
Wisconsin 72, American 33, 2:33 left
American led this game, 19-13. Think about that for a moment.
But you know, as far as office pools go, Dayton-over-OSU doesn't matter. People pay so much attention to getting these one-off upsets right, but this one measly point isn't going to win your pool.
Final: Wisconsin 75, American 35
There was quite a bit of Wisconsin's-going-down talk around the office 10 minutes into this game. Let's just say it quieted down.
Harvard 22, Cincinnati 15, 6:32 left
Nice to finally see Harvard students succeed in life!
Darren: It might not win a pool, but it's fun to brag. But my downfall is usually picking these Cinderellas teams to win more than one game and usually that is what busts a bracket.
Pitt 46, Colorado 18 (halftime)
Colorado: 10 turnovers, 5 made shots in the first half.
Harvard 24, Cincinnati 21 (4:00 left first half)
Ball just went out of bounds to Tommy Amaker, the Harvard coach. He hung onto it for a second, then flipped it to a ref.
Always weirdly interesting seeing former greats with the ball in their hands. Makes you ponder whether they can still play. Isiah Thomas hardly ever messed around on the court while he was coaching the Knicks. Jim Harbaugh threw a really impressive deep out pattern during the playoffs this year.
Syracuse 7, Western Michigan 4 (15:56 left first half)
'Cuse is in the house! Oh my God, oh my God…
I'll take Darren's comment as a cue to remind readers that some coaches do still play — or at least want to get on the court.
Syracuse 15, Western Michigan 4 (12:15 left first half)
Cuse is in the House! Every year before the tournament starts, I watch a couple of my favorite tournament clips. The Al McGuire dance and One Shining Moment (2003 version).
Oregon 8, BYU 4 (17:00 left first half)
Michigan 0, Penn St. 0 (1st period, Big Ten hockey tournament)
Just wanted to throw that out there. Inaugural Big Ten puck tournament is underway in St. Paul.
Harvard 36, Cincinnati 29, Halftime
Harvard's opening win probability was 44%, according to kenpom.com, and it's now up to 72.2%. That's a difference of 28.2%, says the Harvard graduate near me.
Pittsburgh 69, Colorado 41 (4:40 left)
Just end this. The Buffs won't mind.
Harvard 48, Cincinnati 43, 2nd half, 11:49 left
Harvard still up five, still above 70% to win, still the unlikeliest underdog in NCAA tournament history.
Harvard 51, Cincinnati 46 (7:25 left)
Crimson still in command. Is it an upset if everyone expects it?
Harvard 51, Cincinnati 46, 2nd half, 7:25 left
Cincy turns up the pressure, and Harvard coach Tommy Amaker calls a nice timeout, a strategic decision that will surely get overlooked if the Crimson pull this one out. With the clock under eight minutes, Amaker had a media timeout coming anyway, so now he gets two quick stops for the price of one.
Oregon 37, BYU 24 (3:58 left 1st half)
Nothing to see here. Consensus was that BYU didn't belong in the tournament, and they're playing like it.
Harvard 54, Cincninnati 53 (3:02 left)
Harvard 54, Cincinnati 53, 2nd half, 2:34 left
Harvard down to a one-point lead and is cracking under the Cincy pressure. Apparently the Bearcats seemed to notice the entire world picking against them.
Harvard 56, Cincinnati 53, 2nd half, 1:47 left
Siyani Chambers, currently the shortest man in Spokane, nails a jumper to stretch the Harvard lead and force Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin to call a timeout. Harvard is less than two minutes away from its second NCAA tournament win ever.
Harvard 61, Cincinnati 57, Final
Harvard wins! Crimson do something right for once in their lives. For the second straight year, Amaker's team is moving onto the round of 32, this time with Tom Izzo likely looming.
To everyone who lost $1 billion because of Harvard: Now you know what the Winklevoss brothers feel like.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Hello, excuse me in advance if this is a daft question that has been answered elsewhere.
But I would like to know if it's possible to start the calendar at another starting point than the current month/date.
I have events spanning a few weeks, all within one month. My users do not need to be able to see all the other months of the year.
So my question is this:
Can I make it so only e.g. June is displayed in a month view?


text:
How Long will it take Willie Taggart to Win at USF?
Earlier this morning on SportstalkFlorida Mornings, Eric Lopez talked to SportstalkFlorida College Football Insider Corey Long about many College Football topics including the rebuilding project Willie Taggart has at USF.
Why you should listen :Corey Long gives his thoughts on the SI story on Oklahoma State and alleged infranctions that went on at Oklahoma State. Corey Long also gave his thoughts on this weekend showdown between Alabama and Texas A&M. Long also discussed the tough job USF Head Coach Willie Taggart has in rebuilding USF Football program back up.
Corey Long on SportstalkFlorida Mornings with Eric Lopez: Sept 11,2013
SportstalkFlorida Mornings airs weekdays 6-9am on 1080am the team in Orlando and 1040am in Tampa.
1080 Studio Line : 407-482-3776 toll-free : 877-380-1080Talk with us during the show:
Chat with us online :
SportstalkFlorida - @SportsTalkFla
Eric Lopez - @EricLopezELO


text:
With Halloween only a week away, It's time for some spooky reviews!
Set name: Monsters 4
Set #: 3837
Theme: LEGO Games
Players: 2-4
Play time: 15-25 mins.
Year: 2009
Pieces: 141
Price: EUR 12.99
Let's start with the box. It has the same length and width of other EUR 10+ sets, but it is thicker/higher. It was initially sealed in a clear plastic foil.
The back features all the pieces included in the set, some play features, and the description of the game in four different languages:
It opens up simply by lifting up the top part of the box, just like any other board game, which is why it was sealed in plastic. A look inside reveals two bags (a small and a large one) and two booklets (building instructions and game instructions). No stickers. Yay.
Here are all the parts that come in this set. Nothing special except for the white 1x1 round plates with a hole through the stud, the relatively new brick-high clip pieces, and of course the new die piece. The red part of the die is normal Lego plastic, the rest is rubber.
The assembled set. Not much to show here.
These are the left over pieces: A robot claw, one of the new round plates, some 1x1 tiles, and... a wrench? What the heck is that doing there? A look into the game manual tells us that they included it as a tool for removing the tiles on the die. Good move, I think.
And here are the real stars of this set: the minifig heads! The troll and skeleton ones are the same as those found in the Castle sets, but the others new and exclusive to this set!
Every head has a different slight misprint though. Pro: It adds variety to the heads. Con: Some heads look a bit messed up. The only ones that are pretty much flawless are the troll heads. Here are some best and worst print comparisons. Note that the Jack-O-Lantern heads have the pumpkin pattern all around the head!
UPDATE: One person told me that he got completely identical heads in his set, so I guess I just got unlucky.
As the printing inside the box shows, you can put the game inside the box without having to take it apart.
Hi-res pics can be found in this Brickshelf folder.
Final Thoughts:
Design: Well, it's very simple, but considering that this is a board game, that's probably intended. And as a board game, it does its job pretty well. Also, I think that the spider looks rather cute and is cleverly designed. One little gripe is that the troll heads' color doesn't match their "bodies" and the color on the die. It would have been great if they would have simply printed the troll faces on normal green heads but oh well. 6/10
Parts: As I mentioned above, nothing special aside from the die and the round plates with holes. The plates could come in handy, but the die will probably not have much use aside from a die. This set comes with some neat plates and tiles for landscaping though. But the inclusion of the three exclusive minifig heads (each of which is represented four times!) are a big factor in the purchase of this set! It would have been nice if we would have gotten sand blue vampire heads (such as the one shown on the box art) instead of the old troll heads, but perhaps that would have been too much to ask. 7/10
Playability: This is where this "set" shines, I guess. I have only played the game once so far, but it's pretty fun. It's a mix between Tic Tac Toe and Connect 4, but with some additions. The die tells you what you can do in your turn. If you roll grey or dark grey, you can put or move one of your pieces to a tomb of that color. If you roll half-grey-half-dark-grey, you can put your piece anywhere. If you roll white, you can use a skeleton. The skeletons work as "Joker" pieces, meaning they're stand-ins for any color. If you roll black, you can put the spider in a section of the graveyard (a square of 4 same-colored tombs) and it will clear that section of all pieces. In order to mix things up once in a while, you can change the tiles on the die or make up new rules for them. A very interesting concept IMO. 10/10
Price: I think the price is pretty fair, at least in Euros. Normal sets which cost EUR 10 usually don't have more than 100 pieces, and this set has 141 for EUR 13. And considering the new molds and prints in this set, it seems like a steal. 9/10
Overall: 8/10. Although it looks very simple and doesn't have a lot of special parts, it's a fun game and a neat parts pack for a fair price.
Happy Halloween, everyone!
Edited by WhiteFang, 24 November 2009 - 12:58 AM.


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Book your room at Hôtel Montigny
Get an overview of this hotelHotel in Dijon
Located in the heart of Dijon, this hotel is within a 10-minute walk of Darcy Square, Church of Notre Dame, and Dijon Cathedral. Palace of the Dukes and Museum of Fine Arts are also within 15 minutes.
Hotel Features
Along with a TV in a common area, this hotel has a front-desk safe and free WiFi in public areas. A manager's reception is free.
Room Amenities
All 37 rooms provide free WiFi, room service, and flat-screen TVs. Other amenities available to guests include hair dryers, showers, and phones. Private bathrooms are not ensuite.Would you like to give us feedback? Share it! Opens in a new window
Hôtel Montigny8 rue Montigny Dijon Cote-d'Or 21000
Renovations & Closures
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
A complimentary manager's reception is offered each day. Public areas are equipped with complimentary high-speed wireless Internet access. This Dijon hotel also offers a safe deposit box at the front desk, a television in a common area, and an elevator (lift).
- Breakfast available (surcharge)
- Free reception
- Elevator/lift
- Free WiFi
- Front desk (limited hours)
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Number of floors - 4
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Television in common areas
- Total number of rooms - 37
- Year Built 1983
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Room Amenities
- Air conditioning
- Cribs/infant beds (surcharge)
- Daily housekeeping
- Flat-panel TV
- Free WiFi
- Hair dryer
- Iron/ironing board (on request)
- Phone
- Private bathroom
- Private bathroom (not in room)
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Room service
- Shower only
Where to Eat
A complimentary manager's reception is offered each day.
Room service is available.
To make requests for specific accessibility needs, complete the "Special or Accessibility Requests" section of "Trip Preferences" when you book your hotel.
- Accessible bathroom
- In-room accessibility
- Roll-in shower
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 4 PM
Check-in time ends at 10 PM
Special check-in instructions:
Check-out time is 11 AM
Payment types
- Pets allowed for an extra charge of EUR 7 per pet, per night
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
- Resort fee: EUR 0.80 per person, per night
Optional extras
- Fee for buffet breakfast: EUR 9.20 per person (approximately)
- Self parking fee: EUR 7 per day
- Pet fee: EUR 7 per pet, per night
- Crib (infant bed) fee: EUR 6 per night
- Rollaway bed fee: EUR 5 per night
Hotel Name
- Hôtel Montigny
- Hôtel Montigny Dijon
- Montigny Dijon
- Montigny Hotel Dijon
National Rating
This hotel has received its official star rating from the French Tourism Development Agency, ATOUT France.


text:
The music box playlist player using the default skin works perfectly for any user logged in regardless of role. However, when a guest visits a page with "music box", only a list of track titles are displayed (not the player). I've searched for guest permissions or any other setting to allow the music box player to be visible/functional to guest visitors.
There is an example of this at http://bd.summit.net/blog/short-biggie/
Thank you for assistance.


text:
Waddell, AZUSA
Hometown: Franklin, PA
March 2, 2010
Hi, I'm open to all suggestions from movie buffs, or for comedy shows, screenings, drive-in theaters, MIM, or whatever else you come up with.
A great group of movie fans.
Meetup members, Log in
By clicking "Sign up" or "Sign up using Facebook", you confirm that you accept our Terms of Service & Privacy Policy


text:
Discussion in 'Star Trek Movies XI+' started by RAMA, Apr 26, 2013.
How much has it made worldwide?
$257.927 million with the latest estimates. That'll be revised a little when the actuals come out.
Is that higher or lower than 2009?
Overall that's lower, but the film is only two weeks into its release.. I would suspect it's box office take is higher than Trek 2009's was at the same point in its release cycle.
so 21 to come though China was not on that list.
Here are the release dates from Paramount's site. 28th May is the Chinese release date.
Anyone know why they didn't they release Trek on the same date worldwide?
Worldwide the total is much higher than at the same point of ST09's run.
No movie does that.
Tomorrow is my last go round for STID, unless someone else bugs me to go see it. There will be 4 of us total. OK Paramount, you've had plenty from me.
Today was my 4th time seeing it, went with my folks. Theater was very close to being sold out. I do know that F&F 6 was sold out.
After the same number of days in release Star Trek '09 had made $155.5 million domestic and $70 million international (from 57 markets) for a total of $225.5 million worldwide.
I think you're right.
But is it the kind of attention you want garnered...
Perhaps not in tickets but ...
1. they'll get a bunch of free publicity from newspaper articles pointing out "50 years of Star Trek marked with a new film yadda yadda..."
2. they can profit from other companies using this anniversary to flog their products, and advertise ST at the same time as well, "Coca Cola celebrates 50 years of Star Trek" and such...
3. also it's easier to sell the back-catalogue if you have a new shiny thing in the display that everyone is talking about, both syndication rights and box sets are more likely to fly out of the shops.
And I'm sure corporate minds will find other ways of profiting from it as well...
2016 is pretty much a lock for the next one.
The franchise is split at the moment, between CBS and Paramount, but a success of a new movie is a success for the whole franchise. Trek 09 saw boxsets for all the other series sell like hotcakes. I was hoping this movie would do the same. I already have all Trek shows and movies on DVD, but I double dipped on a few of them, on Blu ray, when ID came out, my interest in the franchise rejuvenated. And of course, the DVD retailers have tons of Star Trek stock in, at the moment.
2016 is as long as we should have to wait anyway.
Then you should have remember that when posting another of your pro-nuTrek comments in the TOS forum:
Agendas are easy to spot, guy.
Separate names with a comma.


text:
Workshop: A quick and simple private tunnel with OpenVPN
Firewalls sometimes prohibit everything but everyday surfing, leaving users with no hope of running IRC or streaming servers through the firewall, unless they use a virtual private networking tool like OpenVPN.
A typical firewall configuration denies everything that isn't strictly needed for daily work. Even relatively harmless tools such as a webcam or a personal IRC server won't operate through a firewall. Apart from begging the sysop to change the ruleset, the only workaround may be to dig a private tunnel through the firewall with OpenVPN. This article describes how to tunnel through a firewall with a VPN connection. I'll assume you already have OpenVPN installed on your Linux system or that you know where to find it. OpenVPN is a very common application that is included with many popular Linux distributions. See your vendor documentation for more on setting up OpenVPN.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Visit Our Shop
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Read full article as PDF:OpenVPN.pdf (174.73 kB)
Mirantis Joins Hands with SUSE To Offer RHEL Support; Red Hat Not Happy
Competitors get in the game with RHEL without Red Hat
Linux on Windows 10 Poses a Security Risk
Security researchers have already notified Microsoft; some fixes are available
Mirantis to Refactor OpenStack Fuel for Kubernetes
The company is collaborating with Google and Intel to use Kubernetes as an engine for Fuel
Canonical Joins Document Foundation Advisory Board
The upcoming release of LibreOffice will be available as a snap package
SUSE Joins the Microsoft Test Drive Program
Customers can take a free test drive of SLES for HPC on the Azure Cloud
SiFive Launches a Line of Open Source Chips
San Francisco-based chip company announces their first fully open source chip platform.
Fedora 24 Released
The whole distro gets rebuilt on glibc 2.3
Canonical Announces Cross-Distro Support for Snaps
Ubuntu Vendor tries to solve app packaging and distribution problem across distributions.
ownCloud Forked
Founder of ownCloud launches the Nextcloud project.
HP Enterprise Unveils a Futuristic Computer
Will The Machine change the way future programmers think about memory?


text:
- Report: #995338
Report - Rebuttal - Arbitrate
Complaint Review: dish network
dish networkPO Box 9040 Littleton, Colorado United States of America
dish network dish network flat out lied to me to get me to sign up Littleton, Colorado
*Consumer Suggestion: Dish Network Meanest Company
*UPDATE Employee: Install
Ripoff Report
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If your business is
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Click here now..
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Fix it the right way.
Corporate Advocacy Program™
i called dish to sign up for dish network and the sales rep. signed me up for 3 HD TVs with DVRs.
when the installation took place i noticed i only had 1 HD TV and ! regular TV and no DVRs. big difference from what i bought. so i called the next day and after being on the phone for 2 hours being transferred from dept to dept a second repair order was put in place. so i went home that night and nothing was changed. i still had 1 HD TV and 1 regular TV and my bed room TV still didnt work. so i called dish again and after being on the phone for another hour to hour and a half i was being told that
for me to get the 3 HD TVs and DVRs i would have to pay an additional 400 plus dollars. if that was the case i would have never even signed up for dish. so i went ahead and canceled the account which was within a week of me signing up. and now dish wants me to pay them $470.18 for a early cancellation fee when it was there fault that i wasted a whole week messing around with them and they lied and wasted my time.
i tried to contact dish many times since then and tried to plead my case but no1 there is willing to help. they also blamed me for not sending the receivers back in time but that was because they sent me 1 box and i couldnt fit all three receivers in one box and had to call them again to get another box, which is why it took me longer than usual to send the items back.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 01/11/2013 03:56 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/dish-network/Littleton-Colorado-80160-9040/dish-network-dish-network-flat-out-lied-to-me-to-get-me-to-sign-up-Littleton-Colorado-995338. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report.
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#1 Consumer Suggestion
Dish Network Meanest Company
AUTHOR: littlewalty - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Friday, January 18, 2013POSTED: Friday, January 18, 2013
Are you an owner, employee or ex-employee with either negative or positive information about the company or individual, or can you provide "insider information" on this company?
#2 UPDATE Employee
AUTHOR: BeckiB@Dish - (USA)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, January 15, 2013POSTED: Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Becki Barned
DISH Internet Response Team
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text:
Did you know that eating watermelon seeds can be dangerous? The scent of your bowel movements will attract coyotes, who tend to eat people in their sleep as a result.
Extra Fun Fact: Some coyotes can pick door locks!
Did you know the weather is controlled by your mood? Most of the scientific community believes otherwise, but most scientists work for the government!
Extra Fun Fact: Did you know that cabbages almost stopped America from being colonized?
"Getting drunk and going on amazon.com is the prologue to getting an unexpected gift in the mail one week later." - Ash Louis
Again, I just want to be clear...I'm not a lawyer. I think I may have picked the wrong template for a writer's website. And yet, here we are; mea writer and you a Nordic mother of seven, most likely looking to purchase large quantities of fish and wool online, but accidentally stumbling upon the website of writer Ash Louis. I can't help you purchase mass quantities of seafood or knitting materials, and for that I apologize, however, you can stay and watch comedy videos I made when I was having trouble sleeping, read my Lady Deadpool spec scripts, or check out the random literature humor in the blog Excerpts from Books that don't Exist. I have also been published in Time Out New York (and on the Comedy Central @midnight Tumblr for my hashtag warring) and have appeared in commercials forMicrosoft Hover!, Natural Light Beer (as the Natty Light Wizard) and LifeProof Phone Cases (as the gnarly guy in the headband). You can also see me (briefly) in the new film Twenty Million People.
So in conclusion: Comedy writer, actor, comedian, part-time children's cartoon rapper, love-song singer. Not a lawyer.


text:
- Report: #869747
Report - Rebuttal - Arbitrate
Complaint Review: First House Financial
First House FinancialInternet United States of America
First House Financial Another charge to my card but won't answer questions, Internet
*UPDATE Employee: Thanks!
*Consumer Suggestion: It's time to report these guys to the authorities
*Author of original report: Still no satisfaction
Ripoff Report
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Ripoff Report
A business' first
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on the Internet.
If your business is
willing to make a
commitment to
customer satisfaction
Click here now..
Does your business have a bad reputation?
Fix it the right way.
Corporate Advocacy Program™
So on April 12, 2012 I paid the $10.00 membership fee. Then on April 17th - - five days later - - - I get hit for another $10.00!! For what?? The e-mail guy says to go to their web site and view the 5 steps. I had done that before I even talked to the second person. I asked if there's no down payment who is going to pay what's necessary to bring the loan current. I was told it will be added onto the end of the loan. I asked what guarantee I had that the lender would allow me to start making the payments.
I was told I could rent the property, or lease with the option to purchase but as is their "mo" I got no answer. Finally I asked about a property. The loan on this property is $227,500.00. Of course I don't know how many months the owner is behind. This loan was taken out in April of 2006 so the chances of the principal being paid down is very slim. Next they say the high property value is $218,000.00 and the low value is $199,000.00. Personally I think the $199,000.00 is closer but I don't know.
So we will split the difference and figure the value is $207,500.00. Already there's a $20,000.00 difference between loan and property value. By their own numbers the monthly payment is between $550.00 and $650.00 per $100,000.00 depending on the interest rate. Again I don't know what the interest rate is so at the low end the monthly payment is at least $1,100. If the owner is behind 6 months that's an additional $6,600 added to the loan. So now I'm supposed to start making - at the minimum - a payment of $1,100.00 on a loan of about $234,100.00 on a property worth maybe $207,500.00.
So I asked "I've kept the loan out of foreclosure, I've protected the homeowners credit whats the benefit to me???" At the current inflation rate how many years will it take me to get enough equity to be able to refinance?? Again no one answers any of these questions and the e-mail said to watch and listen to the 5 steps. Bottom line as I see it is, if your an property owner in trouble this company will do anything they can to help you. And I guess they think people want to get into a house so bad they will do anything to get one - - - especially not answer any questions from a prospective buyer, but continue to collect $10.00 every 5 days.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 04/17/2012 07:11 AM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/First-House-Financial/internet/First-House-Financial-Another-charge-to-my-card-but-wont-answer-questions-Internet-869747. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report.
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#1 UPDATE Employee
AUTHOR: Diagnox - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Wednesday, July 11, 2012POSTED: Wednesday, July 11, 2012
You can actually get the default amount discounted. We find that our lenders are more interested in receiving monthly payments rather than foreclosing. Thank you!
Are you an owner, employee or ex-employee with either negative or positive information about the company or individual, or can you provide "insider information" on this company?
#2 Consumer Suggestion
It's time to report these guys to the authorities
AUTHOR: killthescammers - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Thursday, June 07, 2012POSTED: Thursday, June 07, 2012
These guys have been scamming too long. It's time to report them to the FBI, FTC, ic3, state of california attorney general, attorney general, real estate commissioner.
If you estimate the number of people scammed into paying $10 for garbage, they probably make over $500,000 per year.
These guys do not have a real estate license, so they are not allowed to sell mortgage information or advise on the subject. It is illegal in all states, and subject to heavy fines.
Grossly misrepresenting products sold is something the FTC can handle.
It's time to get the federal authorities onto these scammers.
Join me in this crusade against First House Financial. Help report them to the FBI, FTC, attorneys general, and real estate commissioner.
Are you an owner, employee or ex-employee with either negative or positive information about the company or individual, or can you provide "insider information" on this company?
#3 Author of original report
Still no satisfaction
AUTHOR: Dale Nickel - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, April 17, 2012POSTED: Tuesday, April 17, 2012
I cancelled my "membership". because I just can't see this program working for anyone wanting to get into a property. As they are so quick to point out if you rent you can walk away at any time. That makes a lot of sense. I'm going to pay some dead beats mortgage payment then decide to walk away???
All I can say is if someone wants to get into a house so bad they will do anything to get it, then these are the people to deal with. They will gladly take your money and not tell you anything.
Are you an owner, employee or ex-employee with either negative or positive information about the company or individual, or can you provide "insider information" on this company?
Advertisers above have met our
strict standards for business conduct.


text:
Category:People from Muscle Shoals, Alabama
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The people listed below were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with the city of Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
This category has only the following subcategory.
- ► Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section members (6 P)
Pages in category "People from Muscle Shoals, Alabama"
The following 18 pages are in this category, out of 18 total. This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more).


text:
"Great price for a quality item." (E1623)
"I ordered 8 of these backpacks for my team, in three different colors, with embroidery on only 6 of them. The quality of these backpacks, combined with the reasonable cost and surprisingly fast delivery, makes them a great value. Everything about the order was done perfectly, and I will certainly order more of them in the future." (E494)
"Very good jersey for the money." (E10729)
Epic Sports
Womens 2-Color ESSORTEX Shorts Closeout [E2286]


text:
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Because of the reckless actions of George Zimmerman, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin died, fatally shot by Mr. Zimmerman on Feb. 26, 2012. The teenager was doing nothing illegal when Mr. Zimmerman decided to track him - in the process ignoring a police dispatcher's instructions "we don't need you to do that" - and the teen was unarmed.
Had Mr. Zimmerman not crossed the line from neighborhood watch volunteer to armed vigilante, had he followed the dispatcher's instructions and allowed police in Sanford to handle the matter, Trayvon Martin would almost certainly still be alive. Given those facts, it is terribly unfair that Mr. Zimmerman should walk from a Florida courtroom acquitted of any criminal wrongdoing by the six-person jury.
But criminal trials do not always produce "fair" outcomes. Results often have more to do with the skill of the lawyers, the strength of witnesses and the niceties of the law than they do with probity. In the end the prosecution was unable to make a convincing criminal case out of Mr. Zimmerman's actions and their tragic results.
It took six weeks, and intense public pressure in the form of nationwide demonstrations and critical editorial commentary, before the special prosecutor named to the case, Angela B. Corey, announced the filing of the charge of second-degree murder against Mr. Zimmerman for fatally shooting Mr. Martin in the chest.
If the initial decision by police and a prosecutor not to charge Mr. Zimmerman with anything was derelict, the murder charge was arguably an overreach. It required the prosecution to prove Mr. Zimmerman acted with evil intent, hatred or spite. The evidence at trial did not indicate that, instead presenting the defendant as a misguided, self-styled avenger who, convinced the hoodie-wearing teen must have done something, was intent on not letting him "get away."
As the trial neared its end, the judge allowed jurors to also consider a lesser charge of manslaughter - unlawful killing without malicious aforethought - but in the opinion of the jury the prosecution fell short proving even that.
In the end the state could not meet its high burden of proving criminal intent beyond a reasonable doubt. The accounts of who began the fight after Mr. Zimmerman and Mr. Martin confronted one another, of who had the upper hand in the confrontation and who shouted what, were muddled and contradictory.
A key prosecution witness, medical examiner Dr. Shiping Bao, came across as unsure of his facts and ill prepared. The defense's forensic expert, Dr. Vincent Di Maio, appeared cool, and was confident and concise in his conclusion that the defendant was under attack. On such things do trials often turn.
The jury gave Mr. Zimmerman the benefit of the doubt that he feared for his life when and fired in self-defense.
Interestingly, Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law, which allows people who fear harm not to retreat, was not a factor in the trial. Yet it remains a terrible law, one that encourages vigilantism. Traditional self-defense law, requiring individuals to retreat from a confrontation if at all possible before turning to deadly force, is the far better standard.
It is difficult to say what role race played in these events, yet it is hard to imagine that an armed, young black man, pursuing and fatally shooting an unarmed light-skinned Hispanic adult after a struggle, would walk free.
Federal authorities could pursue a civil-rights criminal prosecution, but proving this was a racially motivated hate crime would be difficult and we would urge prosecutors to proceed cautiously, if at all. The family of Mr. Martin could find some justice in pursuing a civil wrongful death claim.
In the wake of a young man's death came cries of injustice from across the country. The people got the trial they demanded, a trial that was appropriate. No one can demand an outcome.
Construction on new Grasso Technical High School to begin next year
Firefighters again called out to vacant Salem bird farm, adjacent property
Residents pack public meeting with Federal Railroad Administration
Edi Gathegi as a mobster with a digital mission on 'StartUp'
Trump references Norwich murder case during immigration policy speech
Headed home, Friendship School students and parents handle first-day jitters with ease
Malloy announces new online Narcan map, distribution of overdose kits
Hospitality center to add New London property to tax-exempt list
Estate of man killed while riding motorized wheelchair files notice to sue Stonington
State police: Tractor-trailer struck 6 vehicles in East Lyme I-95 crash