Wednesday, April 14, 2021

The Basketball Roster, Part 1

Sports is a diversion and I am in the mood for a little of that.  I just got done searching for a picture of the Brooklyn Center police chief that was probably on Daily Mail.  If so, it is bound to be there again today and also every day for the next week.  The picture was one from a day or two ago where he looked sleep-deprived and really worried.


 

I solved the glow plug situation on the big Mercedes with another and better mobile mechanic.  It is nice to have options.  More to the point personally, it is great to be healthy and nice to have money in the bank, a booming stock market, and a government handing out more.

Back to the task at hand.  Everyone is scrambling with the free year.  It is more on top of more in terms of the ubiquitous portal and the self-expression involved in every 18, 20, or 23 year-old getting what they want.  Don't attend any no cellphones allowed parties or "meetings" because there are going to be rumors and scandals up the ying-yang; you may want to record them.

There will be expansion and profiteering too, as that defunct, sarcastic and funny, anti-communist Michigan sports blog would have described it.  Opportunities will come to life or be shot down.  Most likely, the rich will get richer.

Aside from late-night jitters against UCLA, Michigan played with such aplomb during the one tournament that counts that they will get attention if he calls.  In the much, much bigger picture Juwan is a hot coach and a ticket to the NBA is what they all want.  Michigan football, by comparison, is in danger of flat-out losing it, but in basketball, Ann Arbor is on the map.  Howard, if successful, is attempting to carve out a niche in NBA/college coaching that has never really been done before.  That may be a stretch and or wishful thinking, but compared to Spokane or Lawrence...

(Sorry, Patrick Ewing and Georgetown looked awful.  Look at John Beilein and his coaching search...  Can you see him at a small college just enjoying coaching?  I can't.  Being in Ann Arbor and on BTN is apparently just fine.  BTW, he wanted the NBA too.)

A look back says that Mike Smith and Chaundee Brown were lucky transfer hits.  A lot of the names Michigan didn't get looked ordinary.  

Currently, Juwan Howard's family outweighs roster sense but last year there was room.  Once the toothpaste--scholarship--is out of the tube it is hard to put back in.  Again, a wrath of recruiting no-shows caused it and both the planning and the solutions looked awful.  Adrien Nunez is number two.  I have never seen an upperclass player so incapable of playing in a real game ever.  He did not do it the whole season.

OK, this isn't about counting.  It is about having choices.

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