MGoPodcast 13.19: Good RNG, Bad RNG

1 hour and 6 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, HomeSure Lending, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, SignalWire (use the code MUPPETS), Prentice 4M, where we recorded this, Team Fan Club, and introducing The View from the Cheap Seats podcast by the Sklars, who will now be joining us for the Hot Takes segments. Please go subscribe and like their podcast,and leave your hot takes about this game in the reviews.

1. Ohio State

starts at 1:00

Series split between Ohio State and Purdue probably helps tournament résumé overall. Michigan schemed a lot of nice, open looks but just couldn't get the ball to drop. Overall trajectory of the team is still optimistic considering the improvement of the defense. If Dickinson isn't having a good game against any legitimate competition then the odds of winning drops considerably (zero assists, 0-for-2 on 3s in this game). Michigan's ball screen offense, including passes, is better this year with Devante' Jones than it was last year with Smith, he just needs to improve 3-point shooting.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

 

2. Purdue

starts at 17:43

Michigan scorches the top team in the conference because they hit their shots - particularly 12-21 on 3s. Hunter Dickinson being used as a decoy to get open looks has been successful in the playbook. Jaden Ivey was coming off ball screens all day in the first Purdue game, Michigan traps him in almost every screen this game. Seeing Michigan make that adjustment was a good overall sign for the coaching staff. Hunter Dickinson played really well despite being a bit injured. Big games this season are going to come down to RNG (random number generator). 

3. Football

starts at 32:45

Michigan hires Jesse Minter as defensive coordinator - good continuity candidate after Macdonald. Has coached college for a while so he should know what he's getting into in terms of college recruiting. Jay Harbaugh moves to safeties coach and will probably be good at that, too. Offense will probably go back to Harbaugh being the CEO with run and pass game assistants. Defense will need more good ideas to generate pressure because you won't have Aidan Hutchinson to generate pressure for you. 

4. Hockey Series vs MSU

starts at 44:36

Ok fine, Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It" might not be the most sexually explicit song ever, but Michigan has retained the most phallic trophy in college hockey - The Iron D. Michigan State is really bad at hockey and has been for quite some time. Their defensive philosophy is to have six goalies where everyone just tries to block a shot. Just completely non-competitive hockey games despite Michigan being without four players in the Olympics. Have there ever been four goals (two by each team) on one penalty kill before? Michigan needs to stop getting unnecessary majors. It will be a close finish between Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio State for first place in the Big Ten.

MUSIC:

• "Beat the Devils Tattoo"-- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
• "Western Saloon - Cartoon"-- Waldeck, Mud
• "Forgot About Dre (Clean)"-- Dr. Dre, Eminem
• “Across 110th Street”