Blue By Ninety - E73: Dickinson & Jones stick with Michigan

Episode Date: July 8, 2021

Hunter Dickinson and Devante Jones will be playing for Michigan Basketball this coming season and the boys are hyped. Michigan Football lands two commitments the last few days and the boys react. Crack a cold one and enjoy the show.

This is the University of Michigan. Touchdown, Michigan! That's the beat of Michigan ball! And they've got one extra pass. And it goes for the win! The three-pointer by Jordan Poole! Down the sideline! People jump!

Touchdown, Wolverines! All right, welcome back to Blue by 90. I am Justin, joined by Jack and Kalen, as always. It is Wednesday, July 7th, and we've got good Michigan news. Good Michigan news, guys. Lots of it. I mean, I feel like usually it's like, all right, what depressing thing do we have to come on and talk about here?

So, I mean, first of all, I don't even know what I was going to say there, to be honest. Mario? Mario? Are we talking about football first or basketball first? What do you guys want to talk about? Football or basketball first? Let's do the best for last. I mean, good for last. Let talking about football first or basketball first? Football. What do you guys want to talk about? Football or basketball first? Let's save the best for last.

I mean, good to go football. Let's do football first. What did you say? I'd say go football. We'll save the basketball for last because, I mean, that's huge news. It is huge news. So, all right. We'll talk football first. So, we've gotten a couple commits in the last couple days.

I mean, all right. all right so oh here's what i was gonna say it's just like the with the dead period going up until that july 1st was it june 1st or july 1st june 1st june 1st i think the recruiting period dead period was up until june 1st so all these guys have been able to take these uh official visits and things like that throughout june it's made this first part of july and all through june absolute mayhem on the recruiting trail and very exciting yeah and so it's been it's been kind of nuts um i actually was talking to a couple uh of football coaches over the weekend. Big shot. I know, big shot.

Drink. Drink from being right about something. But they were like, they were dead just because they had had to go all over the place hosting, you know, 10 guys every day almost. It was crazy. And so I think, but from a fan's perspective it's been pretty fun because oh yeah normally you wouldn't have these many this many guys committing in this you know short period so it's been kind of kind of cool yeah especially i mean during the off season too like there's no news right now other than recruit recruiting or guys choosing to come back or transfers coming in or anything

like that so i mean for it all to be packed in right now i love it keeps the excitement kind of moving moving towards football season like not that i'm getting excited for football season i'm i'm staying on my cool road of calmness don't get your hopes up yeah don't get your hopes up but um you know at least it's something it keeps it keeps you kind of with with all the news is going on keeps you in touch so i like that it does it is kind of fun to see like you know i felt like last year was such a down kind of football year in general that now it feels like the momentum is picking back up to like we can get on the golf course and tailgate a little bit and i'm like really i'm looking forward to that so much i'm just i'm looking forward to like just the normalcy of a football season.

Even, you know, I mean, it would be really cool if we were looking forward to like competing for a big 10 championship, but you know, I mean, I'm just excited for like all the things that come with football season just cause it's, I mean, I don't know. I've seen big cat tweet about it a few times too. like all the things that come with football season just because it's i i mean i i don't know i've seen big cat tweet about it a few times too and like some people have just put out other people out there just put out like videos of 2019 college football in the atmosphere at a stadium things like that and i'm just like it gives me chills to watch one of those one of those videos where it's like the full crowd the roar of a stadium as somebody's going into the end zone,

all that stuff. I'm just so ready for that, even if it's not – even if Michigan isn't at its height or where we want it to be. Yeah, there will still be exciting moments like that for sure. All right, great response. Thank you. You're welcome. I bring the heat here.

Kalen's laptop died. Awesome. Let me try from my phone, he says. Anyway, two recruits, right? Are we waiting for Kalen? Did we say fuck Kalen? All right, we'll just keep going. Sorry, Kalen, fuck you.

Don't cut it out. I'm not keep going. Sorry, Kyle. Keep this in you. Don't cut it out. I'm not going to. Oh, shit. All right, perfect. So, all right, so Mario Eugenio, I believe a three-star edge rusher, right, the end? I don't know. I thought he was a four-star, and then Myles Pollard was a three-star.

Myles Pollard, I think. I've seen three and four. I've seen three and four i think it was like two four seven he's a four star or something and he's three star and rivals or something like that you know what i'm gonna try not to do because we've seen so much negativity about it you know gives a shit yeah who gives a shit like who fucking cares about the stars i'm just gonna i'm just gonna do my best to try and not relate to that but just for the sake of this episode i think it was vice versa either they're both four stars somewhere one's a three star one's a four star but i know will johnson was pretty hyped about getting uh miles pollard he was working pretty hard to get him and mario i'm gonna go off of

your pronunciation for his last name eugenio said he was bringing some dogs with him so miles was supposed to be one of those guys and then I think there's another guy uh I want to say a lineman D lineman that he was working on too but my guy my guy Dion Walker yes yes boy did you see he was watching your videos dude watching my YouTube videos talking about him so that was pretty funny sorry about that you're good man you're good uh yeah so he commented because somebody said like oh you know i i don't actually think deon walker's going to michigan deon walker responded to him was like what makes you think that yeah so this is me you can hit me up on twitter and instagram and be you know shows you

who i am yeah um and then all of a sudden he uh i saw crystal ball come in for dion walker to michigan so he's a three-star d lineman or an interior d lineman too but he's 6 6 3 40 so you know what i just i'm sorry even if a guy's not highly rated there you should be able to do something with somebody six, six, three 40, right? Big body, dude. That's what I'm saying,

man. I want to see Mozzie. We haven't seen enough about Mozzie Smith. I want to see that big body in there. I know he's lost some weight since he's come in, but I want to see, I want to see him on the line, man.

I look excited for him and Chris Hinton when they first there, cause they were in the same recruiting class. Oh, Jack's excited. Watch out. Oh, I heard it for players. Don't know. That's okay. I'm excited for players. I don't give

a shit about anything else, okay? That's all I'm excited for. I stated that on podcasts before, so don't say that I'm excited for the season. I'm excited for players to see what they can do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can sense it. As we get closer, we're going to get deep into July. I'm not going to lie.

I got a little bit of excitement there. A little bit of excitement. We're going to be mid-August. He's going to be talking about, maybe we can beat Ohio State. Maybe we can. I think we're going to go 10-2. I think we're going to go 10-2. Oh, shit.

All right. So I did have a question for you guys, though. Okay. So there have been those people out there that are like like you know michigan's three star you now like all the all they're getting is three stars it's no longer four stars and five stars it's now three stars and four stars which is true to an extent like they have been i wouldn't say they've been getting the the same types of recruits they may have gotten early on in harbaugh's tenure, which is to be expected. Right. You know, so I think that's kind of normal. But also I'll say this,

they're top 10 right now. They're, they're 10th ranked in 2022. So people were shitting on this class a little bit ago. Now, you know, all of a sudden they're top 10 and they're doing okay but either way my question to you guys is like could is there something to the fact that like when you don't get these five star guys maybe you're getting some lower rated guys that fit your mold better than rather than just getting the top athletes out there yeah i'm sure if we got the top athletes out there? Yeah, I'm sure if we got the top athletes out there, it'd be great. But is there something to, like, going the D'Antonio route, where you get guys that are bought in completely or maybe fit your team a little bit better than some other guys would?

Kale, since you dropped out, you go. I talked too much when you were off. Oh, okay. I think, you know, this comes back to the the coaching argument. Like, it's cool to get like three or four star guys only if you can coach them up and come up with Penn State and compete with Ohio State with lesser talent, then I'd be like, even like moderately competitive with Ohio state says that like, we absolutely need to have like a top two class to even compete. Well, I mean, the other part of it too, is that, and I don't know, we've gone down this road time and time again, I think. And a lot of people have talked about it, but like,

Ohio state's recruiting class is insane. It's insane. I mean, I think it's better than anyone that Alabama's put together or Clemson. I mean, they are getting five star after five star and the four stars that they get are like teetering on five star. And the thing that I was talking to the guy I do it with YouTube, do a YouTube show with, he's like, there are 35 five-stars out there in every class. And right now, Ohio State has five of the top 10 guys in the country.

That's stupid. That's out recruiting Clemson. That's out recruiting Alabama. That's out recruiting anybody. And so, I don't know. I mean, people can shit on Jim Harbaugh. They can shit on Michigan for not being able to compete because but I don't know what you want to do there. Like, they're just I don't know how you beat that. But that's that's so what was your question again? So your question, because I had something. My question is, like, is there something to maybe putting some pieces together that are lower rated on the star level that maybe fit your team or your mold better rather than just pulling in the top recruit and top athlete you got?

Yes. I'll say yes. I think there is. So the only reason we're having this conversation is because Michigan is getting solid recruits. They're always top, what, 2-3 in the Big Ten Conference. I saw, I think it was Darren Bennett. I don't know if you guys follow him on Twitter. But he said something.

He's like, Michigan's always got the top, you know, top 2-3 class in the Big Ten recruiting every year. But they haven't finished higher than third in the Big Ten East. Right? Like, what the problem is, I mean, it's clearly the only reason we're having this conversation is because harbaugh hasn't won i'm not gonna say that he's had some good years last year was like a shit show but the reason we're having this conversation is because michigan's not winning you know if they in the thing with like ohio state alabama clemson right they've got five star coaching and five star talent and that's just like hard to beat and if you've got if you don't have five star coaching you know you're you're not going to be able to compete i mean if you unless you have five star talent right like it's i think ultimately it comes down to coaching like

you see what matt campbell's done at iowa state right and we were we were hoping that he was going to come to michigan um you know you see all these there's done in Iowa state. Right. And we were, we were hoping that he was going to come to Michigan. You know, you see all these, there's always a small school every year that's kind of like a group of five. It's in the running, like, Hey, should they be invited to the playoffs? Should they yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, whatever they're playing, you know, not as high caliber opponents, but they're showing enough on the field to even be in the conversation.

Like there's, there is something to say about say about you know being able to get high rated recruits but there's a lot more to say about what good coaching and a good culture can bring i also think it's interesting to note too that i i think it was a defensive lineman five star from like georgia i think it was they asked him you know based on the schools that you visited like what can you tell us about where you're planning on going blah blah and he was like i can tell you one thing that i visited ohio state and it was by far the best visit i've ever had and i just hear stuff like that from so many people and so many players and i'm just like what the hell are they doing that nobody else is doing apparently well and then i'm also wondering like okay that we michigan has gotten guys that have gone on

ohio state visits right they've got guys on campus right now on the team that have that visited ohio state why aren't we asking them hey what did ohio state do and then we just copy that shit and do it try to do it better exactly like i don't know i i think there's there's that i i also think too like i don't know i see the guys that have panned out for michigan football in the past there have been some five stars in high four stars that have panned out for sure but i feel like the guys that have panned out are three stars hassan haskins has panned out pretty well and he's a three star i i mean i feel like you can you know uh freaking why can't i run ronnie bell ronnie bell i believe was a two star i i mean so the guys that like and and i'd take i'd take 11 ronnie bells on on the offense to be honest because he's a guy that has fight is a leader like he seems to care a lot about like everything so you know i don't know i just take it ronnie i'd take a two-star ronnie bell over a five-star tarik black

is all i'm saying and so i know that's easy to say in hindsight yeah if i if i was if both those guys were in high school right now i'd be like oh my god we got two star ronnie bell we suck you know rather than if i got if we got five star tariq black i'd be like holy shit this is incredible you know but i don't know it just seems to me like looking back on it that these lower level guys are the ones that actually end up panning out more often than the high level guys. I think even like Chase Winovich was a three star. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I feel like you could go down the list, like even a Jordan Glasgow, who I'm not going to say is like he wasn't all Big Ten or anything like that. But like he played way above what he should have been you know and so i i i don't know there's something to say there dantonio did it for a goddamn decade you know and i think matt campbell's doing it right now he's doing essentially the same exact thing uh you know he hasn't won the big 12 yet but he's about to you know come back with a huge class they're about to have probably a really big year too so i don't know it's all very interesting i i just there's a lot to talk about there i think the recruiting thing is totally blown over a lot by a lot of people and people put

invest way too much into it but at the same time people i mean I mean, we're watching Ohio State kill it. And guess what? I'm betting that they're probably going to be pretty dang good with those five stars that they're getting, too. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like we said before, five-star coaching, five-star talent. They're fucking undefeated basically every year. I mean, they're always going be be contenders unless something drastic changes

somewhere somehow i mean i don't see i don't see how anything will change with you know ohio state going downhill anytime soon as long as ryan day sticks around i mean he's still brian hartline fuck brian hart fucking brian hartline killing us as a player and a coach. But, I mean, Nick Saban, right? Like, he's getting kind of old. Maybe he's going to retire soon.

You know, maybe Alabama will kind of fall off after that. We need. Dabo. Dabo said he was going to quit once players started getting paid. Yeah, fuck Dabo, too. Maybe he's gone. But, dude, Ohio State. I was hoping. They're going to be a powerhouse forever now.

I was hoping I could like Dabo because he's the only person that's really beaten Ohio State over the past five years. But fuck Dabo, too. He's such a – God. He's a little squirrel. I wish you would, too. Stick to your words, dude. The other thing to realize, too, is that Ohio State is not just crushing Michigan in recruiting.

They're crushing totally everybody. Right. I was looking at the 24-7 overall recruiting recruiting rankings and i think alabama was like 15 like i don't know why but ruckers is like pretty pretty high up there too it'll they'll slow down they'll plateau but yeah i agree i think like clemson was somewhere in the 20s yeah it's really early i'll say that like that's that's what i was gonna say when when we mentioned but michigan being so high yeah it's really early i'll say that like that's that's what i was gonna say when when we mentioned but michigan being so high up it's like okay we're landing all these recruits that's why you know we're high up but like a lot of the four-star five-star guys they typically

they typically hold out a little bit later right you know see what they can get out of everybody and that's when the clemsons and bamas and i mean ohio state's already at the top they're gonna stay there but you know where these other schools will go back up to where they should be right yeah I have go ahead Kalen no I wasn't gonna say anything all right uh I was just I have one more thing to ask you guys on football before we move on to basketball but all right I was thinking about this today because this these are just the thoughts that pop into my head on a you know early july wednesday okay there's so much pressure on michigan to beat ohio state right and you feel like even though you know we haven't beat them in forever and there's so much pressure on on michigan to beat

ohio state you would think that with the levels that Michigan and Michigan State are on, obviously Michigan is supposed to be on a much higher tier than Michigan State right now. You would think that the pressure would be on Michigan State to win that game a lot. But it feels like the pressure is still on Michigan. So Michigan, with their two rivals, one seven tiers above them and one what should be seven tiers below them, the pressure is still on Michigan to win. Isn't that kind of a crazy phenomenon? It is, dude, and that's the whole culture thing, right?

And especially when, like, I mean mean like we talked about before right you and that's another thing that i think plays into why why why we kind of say you know it seems like the three stars are doing better it's because we don't expect them to do as well right like michigan state's like you don't you don't expect you know you expect michigan to win that game right you don't expect michigan state to win that game so when do, it seems like they're a lot better than they are. Does that kind of make sense as far as, like, what they're recruiting to? Definitely. So I think that's why, like, now, obviously we lost, you know,

Michigan lost to Michigan State last year. Like, you know, it's like, fuck, we're not supposed to lose that game. Now the pressure is really on. It's like, all right, we're kind of at a level playing field. Going to Mel Tucker year two, you know, you just got beat by fucking Rocky Lombardi. And, you know, anything can kind of happen a level playing field going to Mel Tucker year two you know you just got beat by fucking Rocky Lombardi and you know anything can kind of happen right like there's there's no gimme in that game what but why why can't that be the same for Michigan in the Ohio State game where it's like there's no gimme you know we could come out and win this game every year but instead it's

not that way it's like it's it's just not i don't know coaching and culture is the only thing i can think of isn't that kind of funny that like in the nfl they say like any given sunday any team can beat any other team we get this big high profile nfl coach and he turns college football into that yeah yeah i mean and and was definitely a guy in the nfl who took teams that weren't supposed to be good to super bowls and nfc champion championships like year after year after year and he takes guys like andrew luck and colin kaepernick who, high-profile people, all of a sudden makes them into something. That was his whole thing before he gets to Michigan. Now it's like you do the least with the most.

And so, I don't know. I was just thinking about that phenomenon that somehow there's pressure on Michigan to win all these games, but the pressure's not on other teams to beat Michigan, you know? That's kind of weird. That's amazing. I'm so glad you realized that. New shirt coming soon.

Pressure's on us. It's what it feels like. It feels like our back is always the one back to get up against the wall, and everyone else has, like, the, you know, they're on the upper, they got upper, what do you call it they're like on the upper hand yeah like they're out there though they're on the upside of the hill you know we're downhill looking up oh yeah and we're like the we're like the guy that is the sons and four guy you know yeah he's getting the shit out of somebody like upwards that's pretty impressive

i feel like we're we're the guy that's up upwards but we're still getting the shit beat out of us sometimes well it's just michigan i think michigan is such a passionate fan base obviously we know that because we're part of it and like when good times you know good times are really good bad times are really bad like there's no it's, it's not like, oh, like, football sucks right now. Like, they're not doing too hot. Like, whatever. It's like, fuck, my whole life is ruined. Like, it's not that deep, but we make it that deep.

Like, it's awful. Whereas I think, like, Michigan State fans, for example, or, you know, fill in the blank, Northwestern fans or whatever. Like, if their team's not that good that year, they're just going to like wait it out for a couple months and then basketball season rolls around or whatever, you know, where Michigan fans, it's like, Oh my God, the world is ending for sure. Yeah.

And that's what makes the rivalry with Ohio state so good. Right. Because they are exactly the same way. So like if there's one person who you just want to drink their tears, you know, and they've just been, that thirst has been quenched for them. I will say, the Michigan State rivalry, too, for me with my friends, and I know you guys have friends, too, that are Michigan State fans. It's like, I mean, people, I joke about it, but it's not joking one bit. That the game, the day of the Michigan-Michigan State game is by far the most important day of the year for me. 100%. I'll say that.

You can call me obsessed. You can call me whatever. That's the point of rivalries is to be obsessed with your rival. That's the point. 100% the biggest day of the year for me. I know there are people that are in Toledo or around here that Ohio State game is 100% the biggest day of the year for them too. And it maybe has been lesser.

You're like dreading that day, you know, nowadays. But still, I think that's the fun of it. And so, all right, I'll transition here. Talking about passionate fan bases. I don't know if you guys saw Hunter Dickinson with, what's his name? Jeff Goodman, who he's like jeff goodman was like yeah so i'm gonna have to put you guys a little bit higher uh on my list because last year you i i put you guys at 37th and your fan base like shit on me and hunter dickinson's like

yeah michigan twitter is active that's for sure I thought that was a super funny line from him. I love it. So, I mean, the players know, the media knows that Michigan's fan base is definitely passionate. And so, with that, though, I mean, just absolutely gigantic news for Michigan basketball. Hunter Dickinson, the big guy is back and one last ride he says so we'll we'll get to enjoy him for one more year so two years out of Hunter Dickinson and what that means is this roster is stacked loaded they are loaded so in a year that everyone was like wow michigan is losing franz wagner isaiah livers you know austin davis uh mike smith shandy brown uh you know we thought it was going to be eli brooks

but now he comes back all of a sudden it's like holy shit this roster that was a month ago depleted now is like unbelievable yeah and and you add Devante Jones into that mix who Devante Jones was pretty damn close to going to the NBA like he's not even I think he's a next level Mike Smith he's a level up from Mike Smith where like he's a legit NBA prospect that we're getting and so I mean you put a guy that can score at the point guard position and then pair him up with hunter dickinson down low and they're running the pick and roll and then hunter shoot hit some threes now which apparently he's gonna be trying to do watch out i mean yeah that's with i mean we've seen eli brooks to get better and better every year

with him returning you've got a bona fide shooting guard you've got davante jones the bona fide point guard that can score you've got um brandon johns who's improved year after year if he can be more um more of a force in the post and he can still shoot a little bit too hunter dickinson obviously coming back if he actually does shoot the three and he's a threat from there, I mean, that's just – if he can do that, even if he does one or the other, if he can do that or if he has, like, a reliable right hand where he can score with his right around the basket, plus Moussa Diabate, Caleb Houston, fucking, you know, whoever else you want to name. I mean, I'm excited for basketball season. I'm getting my hopes up for basketball season. Don't worry about that. that basketball season has my heart so um i'm fucking pumped man i am so pumped i mean the rotation is insane right it's something like nine deep that you can just fuck you can just you know put them in put them in it's insane like i i think

yeah i want to see i'm really curious to see how juan kind of like handles trying to get hunter some more like outside shots and how he developed in that like way honestly i wouldn't expect him to even try to get him outside shots i just think that if hunter randomly finds himself open at the three-point line and has the ability to shoot it that's just uh it's just more space that the defenders have to cover opens up more more lanes and shit for other players yeah i mean i think the big thing for hunter is if he early in the year hits a few of those threes that changes how everybody has to defend him but not only him changes how they have to defend in michigan think about that so it changes how they have to defend Michigan.

Think about that. So you've got Devontae Jones who can hit threes. You have Eli Brooks who can hit threes. You have Caleb Houston who can hit threes. You have Randy Johns who can hit corner threes. And you have Hunter Dickinson who can hit threes. How do you defend that? I don't know.

Suddenly, yeah, it feels like beeline. It does feel like beeline it does right like be like honestly um even like even honestly like junior year tesky if if hunter dickinson can shoot it like junior year tesky where he goes game over 30 you know nothing crazy you hit three out of ten and then all of a sudden they got to guard you on the perimeter and try to guard you on the post there aren't many you know guys that can guard a seven foot two guy in both those places you know how many who's gonna play against him in in the big ten i don't know and he's looking lean too you guys see that good. He's a little cut up. Plonk. Plonk me.

He looks like he leaned up a little bit. I don't know. What does that do for him in the post and his game? I'm not sure. I guess we'll find out. That is true. Does he need some more meat on him or is he stronger?

Pause. some more meat on him or or is he stronger oh god oh i i i don't know we'll we'll see how he plays at that level though it'll be interesting apparently he may not have to go against kofi cockburn anymore he's in the transfer portal which is wild i that's still so crazy. Illinois, second place, Illinois fell apart. Dude. Shambles. The program's in shambles. You hate to see it. It's going to happen to a better person.

Ever since Juice Williams left in football back in 2008 or whatever, the whole university has been in shambles. What a name drop. Oh my god. Well, god well what else we got well i mean i kind of want to like let me ask you guys who all right let's take hunter out of the picture who else are you most excited for in michigan basketball are you you know are you excited for a returner or maybe one of the

the newcomers whether it's a freshman or or a transfer um i think i don't know man honestly there's a lot of guys i'm excited for i'd say i definitely have a top three but i think davante jones i'm most excited for kind of see what he can do like we've already seen all the hype on Caleb Houston like I think he I think he'll kind of be like a Franz type maybe a little bit of a better shooter Musa I'm excited to see what he can do because he's a fucking big physical dude um but I think Devontae Jones I'm most upset for because we saw how big of an impact you know Mike Smith had in the offense last year I'm excited to see what Devontae Jones can do. Yeah, I think one guy who really excites me is Eli Brooks.

I want to see him kind of like almost like be a star in a way, right? Like I want to see him really take command of a game. Because there's a couple times where I was just like, dude, that guy can't miss. So I just want to see him have like another one of those years where now he's kind of like the guy yeah i agree there there needs to be and maybe maybe there are some times too when davante jones sits that eli takes over the point or something you know he had to do that a couple times when mike smith was in foul, and he did all right. But I'd love to see him shoot 45% from three or something like that

and then, I mean, really light it up. Because he was like mid to high 30s last year, I believe. And, you know, if he can raise that by a few percentage points and then it's just like you're making half your shots, yikes. You know, I just i i don't know the the other question i had for you guys then was um you know what are fair expectations realistic you know not let's put some bias aside here you know is it are they going back to back big 10 champions is it a final four Is it reel it back a little bit?

We haven't really seen all these guys quite yet, so maybe we should hold back on the expectations. What do you guys think? I mean, obviously we know how much it depends on, like, you know, what the other schools look like that you're competing against, right? Like, I would say Michigan State will come back and have a better year than they had last year uh illinois they're done like right they've got to be done like i don't i don't know

if they can you know anybody like there even be something to worry about um ohio state who are they bringing back i don't really know um iowa lost their i think two best players like best shooter and then obviously luca garza player player of the year, whatever he was. Ohio State didn't – they lost Dwayne Washington too. But who was the big guy? EJ Liddell came back. Oh, he came back. So, I mean, he's a great player.

So, I'd expect them to be in the running for a Big Ten regular season title and, you know, hopefully Big Ten tournament title. That's my expectation my what i would love is to see another elite eight or an elite eight whatever they got to last i don't know what they got to i'd love to see an elite eight run and then you know if i want to push it a little bit i would love to see final four obviously in a national title but um i think elite eight is you know sweet 16 elite eight is very very realistic and i think so think, so I think running for Big Ten regular season title is realistic, too, with what they brought back and what they brought in and what we've seen from Coach Howard.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's, like, out of place or whatever, but I would say, like, if anything less than a Sweet 16, I would be extremely disappointed. Yeah, definitely. But anything more than that, I would be extremely disappointed. Yeah, definitely. But I, but anything more than that, I would be very pleased. So like, Oh yeah. So I'm kind of like, yeah, cool. And that's what I love about basketball too. Right. It's like we talk about how much easier it is to be a basketball fan as a

football fan. Cause Michigan could do one of three things and I would be happy. Right. Like they could win the big 10 regular season title. They could win the big 10 tournament or they could go, you know, a lead in final four, three, 16, whatever. Where with Michigan football, it's like, you have to like, you've got to do this. You got to do prerequisites before you can get to the next thing.

Where Michigan basketball, you can do one of three. You don't have to do all three. That's why I think it's so much easier being a michigan basketball fan that's why michigan basketball twitter is so much more fun and positive than michigan football twitter right like there's all these things it's just easier it's easier to be you know a basketball fan when your school has more opportunities to do things you don't have to be perfect right um so yeah i i think any of those three are all realistic yeah i i agree with you guys i think you know it's hard to predict the i think people are like wow national championship or like final four is the is the you know floor for this team

like they have to make it to the final four, but the tournament is so like anything can happen. It's so unpredictable that I, I don't think you can, you, I agree with you, Kalen. I think you got to get out of that first weekend. Otherwise,

if you, if you don't get out of the first weekend, it feels like you failed there. Um, but I mean, I have to imagine, you know, they're probably going to be a top four seat in the tournament.

Right. So like, you're going to be favored in those first two games at the very least uh and so then you know then you could get into maybe like a four or five matchup um or you know you know something like that and so three six matchup or something like that and then it's like whatever happens happens but um you know i still think that i mean you gotta i think expectations are probably top two in the big 10 as well you know are they gonna go undefeated for as long as they did this year maybe not you know who knows but i think it's tough it's really tough to say as well because we have i mean there's a lot of hype around davante jones

and caleb houston but we have no idea how they're gonna play you know i, there's a lot of hype around Devontae Jones and Caleb Houston, but we have no idea how they're going to play. You know, I think there's a huge jump from Coastal Carolina to the Big Ten. There's also a huge jump for Caleb Houston from high school to the Big Ten. And I know, I will say, I've watched him in the FIBA. Does he play for Lithuania? Canada. Close, though. That is a country, I believe.

Holy shit. Oh, my God. All right. Does he play for Lithuania? That's incredible. You pulled that one out of a hat. Bro, once again, I feel like we've done this for the past three podcast episodes. I don't know why you guys listen to this because this is just outrageous.

At least we can – if we're not spewing facts, we're entertaining, I hope. I hope. I hope so. But either way, we do appreciate you listening. So we'll keep you guys updated as these commitments still keep coming in. You know, hopefully, you know, as we get closer to football season, we'll get to know maybe a little bit more about the quarterback situation, what JJ looks like, you know, some position battles. I mean, Jackson.

This is why I put my earmuffs on he's shaking his head because he doesn't want to get his hopes up but if there's one thing i'm going to get my hopes up on it's going to be jj mccarthy i'll say that so i mean let's say right let's say right now does anybody really think he's got a realistic shot of being a starter day one no the starters uh uh alan bowman i mean could be the starters danville i think i think alan bowman's got better shot than jj mccarthy right now i don't know did you see those jump passes i mean it's cool it's cool right like it's cool it's cool and it's cool but like you know cool that's it it's cool he's doing it for a video like i don't want to like people are

like oh my god whatever but he's doing it for a video he's he's not actually going to do that in the game right you know right no i know right i'm with you i think the video is cool but like people are like it's funny people are seeing that they're like oh my god he reminds me those videos remind me of sam mcguffey like exactly thank you like that's whatever i think jg mccarthy is much much more talented we'll have a higher upside than sam mcguffey but believe me i i was there i remember sam mcguffey getting real high mcguffey lips dude got rocked every time he got tackled yeah so i don't know we'll see we'll see but I'm sure our hopes are 1% more hopeful every day until September 4th.

We'll see. You'll be 100% by then. Honestly, if we start talking position battles and stuff, I will be. I'm not excited about it. We got eight, nine more weeks.

We're still so far away and I can already feel myself like some one of you guys is gonna like get me fucking excited and i'm not not happy about it pause sorry we'll be fine we'll be fine we'll just we'll just the next eight episodes that we have we'll just talk strictly tailgating like what the plan perfect that's awesome so i can look forward to that perfect uh all right sounds good well uh thank you guys for listening uh you can follow us at blue by 90 on twitter instagram and facebook and at blue by 90 podcast on youtube uh we will see you all

next week go blue go blue go blue