The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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FROM OUR READERS From Our Web Site mailbag, we also get daily input on our Web site, TheWolverine. com. These comments can come from average fans, former players and even parents of present players. From time to time, we'll include a sampling from the Web site to supplement the letters section. our opponents play poorly or is [Trey] Burke so good he is carrying the team? This is a serious question. Is the Big Ten weak? Is it timely and fortunate play at the end of games? Minny, MSU, North- western, Purdue? Seems like U-M has won every close confer- ence game. How is this team fighting for a conference title with [Evan] Smotrycz and Tim Hardaway Jr. struggling? That leaves Burke (frosh), [Jordan] Morgan and [Zack] Novak and [Stu] Douglass as essen- tially the only guys playing well. Three players have played to their standard and one who has exceeded his expectation. It's not like Novak and Douglas have played out of their mind. How is this team 8-4? Is this the football team Senior Zack Novak and U-M remained in the thick of the Big Ten race in mid-February. where they were lucky against Notre Dame and Virginia Tech? Are the referees helping out? Home court? Weak schedule? They could have lost to Northwestern and MSU at home. … • How is this team 8-4 in Big Ten play? Did Editor's Note: We not only have interesting submissions in our Tom Izzo recruited him mainly to send Beilein a message. And now he is about to be the conference player of the year at MSU. Kyle Kuric is a beast for Louisville. The list seemingly goes on and on. wolverineluke better job of scheduling some early-season matchups. I have no problem with them scheduling their fair share of cupcakes. In fact, I think it is the smart thing to do, overall. How- ever, they've got to try to avoid some of the really bad conferences. There are three teams they beat with RPIs at • Michigan basketball has to do a subtly or worse than 300. Although it's impossible to predict where teams will finish before the season, I think we could do a better job by avoiding those conferences that consistently have 90 percent of their teams with RPIs of 250 or worse each year. More like selective cupcake scheduling, where we still are pretty much guaranteed to win, but not take such a hit to our strength of schedule (SOS). The amazing thing is, that even with those PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN some fortunate bounces. I am not saying we should be below .500, but the way the team has played it's incredible that we are 8-4 in Big Ten play. Is Burke the Frosh of the Year in the Big Ten? He has got to be at least second-team All-Big Ten. Reality Man team can't compete for a Big Ten title this year. The fact of the matter is, we are competing for a Big Ten title this year. We may not win it, but we're in the thick of the race. Maybe we're win- ning ugly, but we're winning, and that's what championship teams do. BursleyBlue75 look at offensive stats. But we've played very well defensively and that has kept us in almost every game. We've won most of the close ones with big shots late. That's the formula so far. sane1 demonstrated on our roster year after year, but also with the guys that we either just missed on, turned down, or could not get onto the roster for whatever reason. Kevin Pangos is tearing it up as a frosh. The German, Robin Benzing, was projected for a while as a • Defense. Timely shooting. It's hard to figure when you only • That's what's fooling a lot of folks. I still see posts saying this them with teams with RPIs in the low 200s and we're top 10, and our RPI is probably top 10 as well. I know I'm probably splitting hairs with this, but every little bit can help. griffey2424 say "Ohio" without the "State" in person, till the other day. A gentleman came into the pharmacy and I was watching the Michigan basketball game on TV. He asked if I was a Michigan fan, I said I was. He then asked what was my favorite game from this past football season. I said the Sugar Bowl, but then said the one that topped it all was beating that lousy team from Ohio. He asked which team … I said that Ohio team with the scarlet and gray. He got livid! I just laughed. It was great! mngmikes • I never realized how intense Ohio fans get when you just Brady Hoke has degraded Ohio University's fine name by ap- plying it to the Buckeyes. After all, imagine how we'd feel if the folks in Ohio called the Spartans "Michigan. • You've got it wrong. The only real insult is to the Bobcats. " • John Beilein's incredible ability to identify talent is not only jameshgale remember when Michigan was in on so many elite prospects, and that's what this class needs to be about, getting the big- time players. It will be interesting to see how we do in some of these high-profile recruiting battles. I have a feeling we'll need to be a little more patient as this • I'm really excited about the 2013 recruiting class. I can't first-round NBA draft pick, and would have been a Wolverine if legal immigration issues could have been worked around. Draymond Green, though I think he was a four-star, was not really all that coveted of a recruit, and it was even thought that class unfolds. If the staff can resist the temptation of taking on lower-rated recruits because they can get them to commit sooner, then this class has a chance to be noticeably better than even 2012. MichiganVictory MARCH 2012 THE WOLVERINE 11 three teams that drag down our SOS, we're still top 20. Take those three out, or even trade