Episodes

  • Michigan HockeyCast 7.15: Let's Get Ready To Rumble

    Michigan HockeyCast 7.15: Let's Get Ready To Rumble
    Feb 11 2025

    1 Hour and 24 Minutes

    With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

    This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

    Segment 1: BAD...but Lucky!
    • Opener
    • Power Play Goals
    • Korpi Wins It
    • Is That Enough?
    Segment 2: Friday But More State Goals
    • Korpi Hangs On For 30
    • The Dam Breaks
    • Old Friends and the League
    • Gopher Redux

    MUSIC

    • NHL on ESPN Theme
    • "Get Ready For This" -- 2 Unlimited
    • Ice Hockey (NES) theme
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    1 hr and 25 mins
  • MGoPodcast 16.22: Grouchy Dave's Reservoir Dogs

    MGoPodcast 16.22: Grouchy Dave's Reservoir Dogs
    Feb 9 2025
    GoFundMes to support victims of the fires in LA who are part of the MGoBlog community: General Fund.Reader's mother-in-law Anne Cohen.Reader Chef Robert.Reader Josh Bishop-Moser.Reader Mike on behalf of Mika Yoshitake & daughter Sora.Readers Liberty and Mark. 1 hour and 28 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. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Dusty May Talk Starts at 1:00 Welcome to the Plodcast. This game had the awkward undertones of Mike Woodson getting "fired" and Indiana wanting to hire Dusty May. What's a better job, Indiana or Michigan? Indiana is home for Dusty but there's also a lot of pressure there. If Michigan needed the money to match, they could get it. He did turn down the Louisville job so maybe the biggest thing that would bring Dusty May back to Indiana is that his mom still lives in Bloomington. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Men's Basketball vs Indiana Starts at 22:30 Once again it is the story of the season where Michigan gets a big lead and then suddenly looks like they forgot how to play basketball. Kenpom said Michigan would win by four so maybe we're overexaggerating. They've gone from a top 10 team to a top 25 team, so a 5-6 seed in the tournament. The turnover margin between the most turnovers and the fewest in the Big Ten is only four turnovers. Three point shooting was extremely frustrating. Gayle is driving to the basketball when he should be shooting a 3. Screwing up the foul on Goldin really hurt Michigan. Nimari Burnett's shooting percentages have simply fallen back down to earth. 3. Hot Takes and Men's Basketball vs Oregon Starts at 41:22 Takes hotter than the Indiana fanbase when Dusty May spikes a three hundred million dollar offer in their faces and says "I'm a Michigan man forever, babyyyy". Another game where Michigan had a double digit lead that they almost blew! Roddy Gayle got to the line a lot but also traveled enough that John Beilein would've ripped his esophagus out. Will Tschetter had a nice game and led the team in scoring. The bench players aren't quite ready and that's okay. Is Supreme Cook the best version of Brian? 4. Michigan Hockey vs Michigan State Starts at 1:13:28 Michigan picks up a split against the #2 team in Pairwise, getting one win was the best possible scenario. Both games were about the same but Michigan State actually scored in the second game. Michigan is a team of just guys. Nobody really pops besides Hage. The WWE aspect of these games in the 3rd period against Michigan State has become a bit much. Michigan has a 70% projected chance of making the field, which feels great right now. Is the most boring Michigan hockey team in memory? This isn't a bad team, they're just not the team last year that booted Michigan State out of the tournament. Pre-season expectation was to hopefully make the tournament and that hasn't changed. MUSIC: "Aston Martin Music"—Rick Ross"Waiting For The Bells"—Joel Alme"Vines"—Cameron Winter“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra
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    1 hr and 29 mins
  • WTKA Roundtable 2/6/2025: Pick Your Tradeoff

    WTKA Roundtable 2/6/2025: Pick Your Tradeoff
    Feb 6 2025

    Things Discussed:

    Signing Day: Got the most talent on offense since…1998? Down the list:

    • OL: Two of the highest-ranked OTs in the history of the program, Gach was a Priority 1 for the program, Strayhorn is a center.
    • RB: Jasper Parker the sites just missed; poorer man's Adrian Peterson. M thinks DJ is healthy.
    • WR: Marsh was a big pull vs heavy hitters, Year 1 player. Browder needs development but Junior Hemingway upside. Washington is tall and can move well.
    • TE: Owens is a Bredeson, really hurts that they missed on Olesh.
    • DL: We love the heavy-handed build-a-bears that Esposito recruits. Remember his WMU guys? Moten and Patterson are going to be those guys too. Lou is convinced Benny Patterson is the guy. Kanka is a Godin. Marshall was a Priority and a big win. Can't expect them to get the scouting coup of the century with Graham and Grant every year but they can scout and now they can win the guys they scouted.

    Basketball:

    • Every guy is good with a tradeoff, and that tradeoff is turnovers, e.g. look at the defense that Roddy Gayle (and Pippen) played on Ace Bailey.
    • Rutgers: We got a break by missing Harper, who just shredded Illinois.
    • Oregon game: the mental errors are baked in at this point, like they're not going to score at the rim as well as you want them to.
    • Also baked in is the fact that they switch everything and play drop coverage, so your Shelstad types who make 50%+ of other twos after attacking a Goldin or Wolf are going to score.
    • Sugarplum vision of a top-3 seed and winning the B10 is probably gone. All but one of their remaining games (all but Rutgers at home) are Kenpom A (top-50) tier, IE Q1 opportunities.
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    49 mins
  • MGoPodcast 16.21: The Tubes Are Empty

    MGoPodcast 16.21: The Tubes Are Empty
    Feb 3 2025
    GoFundMes to support victims of the fires in LA who are part of the MGoBlog community: General Fund.Reader's mother-in-law Anne Cohen.Reader Chef Robert.Reader Josh Bishop-Moser.Reader Mike on behalf of Mika Yoshitake & daughter Sora.Readers Liberty and Mark. 1 hour and 9 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. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Men's Basketball vs Rutgers Starts at 1:00 Brian returns after a week (or two) of trying not to die ala ice and norovirus. The Rutgers game was a weird game of two offensive-oriented teams not scoring much. Rutgers has 15 more shots than Michigan and still loses due to poor shooting. Michigan did a great job defending Ace Bailey. Rubin Jones made a two! Rutgers likely won't make the tournament but this was still a solid road win. Tre Donaldson is averaging 1.7 fouls per game, can't just pull him with two fouls. Things feel bad but Michigan has a tournament bid pretty much locked up if they stay the course. 2. Men's Basketball vs Penn State and Purdue Starts at 21:34 Penn State is the most Clingon team in college basketball. Tre Donaldson was the hero with 21 points, also the Vlad Goldin "empty tubes" game. Only nine turnovers was a great improvement against a team that forces a bunch of turnovers. Speaking of poop, the Purdue game! This was not a game from the start. Michigan can't handle Purdue's pace and then the second half is just coasting home for both teams. Every Michigan coach has to get their head caved in by Painter once. It was discombobulating to see Michigan so discombobulated. The final stretch of this schedule is a gauntlet, they're all quad 1 games (besides maybe Rutgers). If Michigan finishes .500 they'll be fine. 3. Football Stuff Starts at 41:23 Ross Dellenger got a leak of a portion of Michigan's NCAA response. Michigan is taking the route that the allegations are unsupported and should be level 2 allegations. In the past they've laid down and taken it for allegations. All the released texts about Connor Stalions within the program almost sound like they're annoyed with him. The portal has been pretty quiet recently, this might be it for the incoming wide receivers. All signs point towards Ty Haywood coming to Michigan. The NIL values you see are probably made up. 4. Michigan Hockey vs Penn State Starts at 56:09 Michigan is down to 14th in Pairwise and on the bubble. The remaining games are the hardest part of the schedule so they need to go at least 3-3 to try and get into the tournament. This is such a frustrating team to watch. In some years, the Michigan defense can do spectacular things while making mistakes, this year they just make mistakes. They're running out of time to figure stuff out. MUSIC: "Alaska"—Maggie Rogers"Help Me"—Joni Mitchell"Don't Dream It's Over"—Crowded House“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • WTKA Roundtable 1/30/2025: The S.O.S.T.

    WTKA Roundtable 1/30/2025: The S.O.S.T.
    Jan 30 2025

    Things Discussed: Mostly we discussed the Dellinger Leak and Michigan's response to the NCAA re: Signgate. I'll have a UV later today on it.

    • Michigan has a very—extremely—strong case that they did very little wrong. Most of the in-person scouting was for teams not on their schedule, all of the evidence for a coverup is flimsy:
      • Sherrone deleted texts: Only off his phone, because he knew they had imaging, those were provided to the NCAA, and they were completely innocuous.
      • Mike Hart was told that Stalions was "extra" which: yeah.
      • That's it! That's all the evidence!
    • Most of the report is just a glimpse into how sign operations worked—Stalions was sharing signs with Rutgers and Nebraska, who just used wristbands when they played Michigan. It also showed just how marginal sign-decoding was: Sherrone was told to change his signs before Ohio State and said he'll "think about it," Partridge yelled at Stalions about trying to use a team manager, etc.
    • It has a name! Signal organization stupid thing, or S.O.S.T.
    • NCAA's position is basically "We know we broke our bylaws and this isn't remotely just, but we need to humiliate you because look how mad all the Bielemas are."
    • Michigan has requested a prehearing because the NCAA has at least one in-house source that refused to be identified, which we've just now learned is apparently against NCAA bylaws. No idea if the COI has to grant that prehearing
    • The process is meant to be collaborative; it completely breaks down when the two sides have entirely different realities and goals. That's a big problem for Michigan because the NCAA's purpose here isn't to be reasonable or just.
    • The fear here is NCAA's main motivation is relevance; they can't do anything about paying players, which has been their raison d'être, so this is the one field where they can demonstrate any kind of power.
    • Legal challenge? Seems they'll go that route if things proceed as they seem to be. Guessing that's what the NCAA wants so they can placate the Bielemas by saying "it was the courts, not us."
    • Seth: don't underestimate the difficulty of winning this case in court. Like the Tony Petitti thing, when it's not about constitutionality or the law, courts often default to whatever the agreement between parties is, and Michigan's agreed to be under NCAA judgment whether it's fair or not. With Tennessee: 1) It was their attorney general flexing power on behalf of the only thing his state cares about, which isn't who Dana Nessel is or how Michigan politics work, and 2) that was about paying players, which got into a constitutionality issue of denying the free trade of services.
    • Guess how it plays out: NCAA goes overboard, Michigan takes them to court, court takes a long time, and when it's settled nobody cares because it's been too long and we all have more important things going on.
    • Story Time: Just like 1928!

    Non-S.O.S.T. thing:

    • Jim Knowles off to PSU for a lot of money! What does it mean? It means anyone who can is getting away from Ohio State fans.
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    51 mins
  • Michigan HockeyCast 7.14: Spiderman Meme

    Michigan HockeyCast 7.14: Spiderman Meme
    Jan 29 2025

    1 Hour and 23 Minutes

    With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

    This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

    Segment 1: Watchalong Collapse
    • Opener
    • Scored Goals!
    • Blown Lead #1
    • PK, Outshot, Goalie-ing
    Segment 2: Saturday Collapse
    • Gramme's Got Free Stuff
    • Another 2 Goal Blown Lead, but the Extra Point!
    • Old Friends and the League
    • PSU Again

    MUSIC

    • NHL on ESPN Theme
    • "Somebody's Watching Me" -- Rockwell
    • Ice Hockey (NES) theme
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    1 hr and 23 mins
  • WTKA Roundtable 1/23/2025: The Pantsless Chaxpions

    WTKA Roundtable 1/23/2025: The Pantsless Chaxpions
    Jan 23 2025

    Watch Party: Basketball and Hockey tomorrow night.

    Things Discussed:

    • Lions: You can't hurt me. Oh they lost—we lost the DPOY and everyone else on the starting defense. They're taking our coordinators—when's the last time a Lions coordinator left for a head coaching job?
    • Wink to Lions? Sounds like he's a tertiary candidate, most of the positions looking at him have been filled.
    • Why aren't OSU's coaches candidates for better jobs? Brian Hartline only.
    • Sam: Pro position coaches don't make more than college anymore (except Jim paid his guys to come with him); you go pro to get away from recruiting. Coordinators don't recruit as much anymore. Sherrone does a lot of the recruiting himself.
    • If no Wink: the "internal" candidate is Doug Mallory. Les Miles's old coordinator, has recruited the SEC. Called the coverages vs OSU 2021-2023, called the coverages in the national championship. Waiting as DB coach for Ravens but might be the rare guy (older, played for Bo) who would retire here. Sam adds they'd be able to elevate someone to a "co-." Danger of losing Wink is he might pluck some of his guys. Good news is he's probably not going anywhere right now.
    • Staff is pretty intact. Would like to establish some long-term guys. Wanted Elston to stay forever. Want OL recruits to be recruited 2 years by the guy who will coach them 4 years and still be here when they come back to visit in 4 years.
    • Pantsless Championship: They want to call a 14-2 season the best ever? They're the worst champions ever. They went 1-1 against Oregon who had a better season. They lost their most important game, at home to Michigan.
    • The commemorative ball has all the game scores on it. Sam's buying it.
    • Playoff system: Can you imagine designing a system where Michigan and Ohio State are both happy at the end of the year?
    • Hoops: Teams are learning to take away the roll. Minnesota game was a bit of a fluke—Goldin went 4/13 at the rim when he's been the best finisher in the B10 for the last month—but Northwestern went all in on it. Need to find ways to punish that, either with Wolf following Goldin into the lane or shooting an open three.
    • Goldin: quietly Michigan's best player lately, despite 4/13. His threes open up the offense vs teams like Northwestern and their paint-bound truck driver.
    • Purdue: Will be a different challenge because TKR can switch. Need defense to show up.
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    52 mins
  • Michigan HockeyCast 7.13: Deja Vu

    Michigan HockeyCast 7.13: Deja Vu
    Jan 22 2025

    1 Hour and 18 Minutes

    With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

    This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

    Segment 1: Friday Night Points!
    • Opener
    • That Goal
    • Fighting Back
    • TJ Hughes Talk
    Segment 2: Saturday Night at Munn
    • Down in a Big Hole
    • Non-Gameplay Discussion
    • Old Friends and the League
    • Badger Rematch

    MUSIC

    • NHL on ESPN Theme
    • "On Melancholy Hill" -- The Gorillaz
    • Ice Hockey (NES) theme
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    1 hr and 19 mins