Leg Day and Free Movies for Ansah

You know how you feel when you're not doing something you're supposed to be doing, and then you finally do it? Feels good, right? Well that was me today. I don't skip leg day, but I definitely have been avoiding squats for quite a while. I've always been intimidated by squats. Guys wear the weight belt, so you think there's a risk of throwing your back out. I've always had the impression that squats have a high degree of technical difficulty, so I avoided them or used the machine.

Several months ago I bought a weight bench with sturdier supports for the bar, in part to make it easier to load weights on by myself and in part so I could do squats. But, I'm a chicken sometimes. The bench wasn't positioned right to do squats, I'd need to take the weight down, move it, adjust the bar rests, etc. Finally I decided to face my fears (really more of a concern than a fear, but nobody says "face my concerns") and do these squats. It was awesome, and I'm not going back.

First of all, doing squats on the machine (the only way I'd ever done them) uses maybe half the muscles that you would use with the bar. When I was in HS I could do sets of 10 with 350 lbs to around 500 lbs. The strongest guy in our school set the squat max record (with the bar) at 450 lbs. He weighed 275 lbs, was an all-state offensive lineman and would've been all-state defensive lineman too, but they could only vote for him once. You get the picture, this guy was a beast. That should give you an idea of the difference between the machine and the bar. Bar = WAY harder. Anyway, I'm searching for some explosiveness for basketball and the upcoming soccer tournament, and squats are on the menu. I'll have to figure out how to do box jumps with my limited resources...

The Lions signed all their draft picks, so that's out of the way. Ziggy Ansah got a sweet deal just from carrying out a dare at the NFL Draft by wearing 3-D glasses. IMAX is seeing dollar signs. Word is the Lions are taking a look at Josh Cribbs to fill the role of kick returner. Yes. Please. Cribbs has some health concerns, but he's a game-changer on both punts and kick offs. And he could come in as a spread-the-field WR too. How about some highlights?

MLB's umpires are screwing up big time. First, the league had to issue an apology for Angel Hernandez's crew blowing a HR non-call, first on the field and then on replay. Hernandez has a pretty long history of being a jerk (seriously? Throwing out Mongo McMichael while singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game?"). He's got a quick trigger, and he's handling this situation pretty poorly. He also calls one of the worst strike zones in baseball, so it's a wonder he even has a job. This blown call cost Oakland the game.

The other incident took place in the Angels-Astros game. It didn't cost anybody the game (Angels won 6-5), but it was another example of guys whose job it is to know the rules not knowing the rules. What happened was this - the Astros brought a guy out to pitch, he started throwing warm ups & the manager ran out and sent him back to the 'pen so another guy could pitch. The problem is that when a guy comes out of the bullpen, he has to pitch to at least one batter unless he's injured, and this guy wasn't injured. Whoops. Back to basics.

Wings fight for their playoff lives tonight. I don't think they can win a Stanley Cup this year, but I'm not ready for them to be done for the playoffs and these younger guys are fun. 

Dismal Mocks

Chad Ford put out his 2nd mock of the NBA draft, and it's a little bleaker for the Pistons. His first mock had the Pistons getting Victor Oladipo, the second has them getting Shabazz (and you know how I feel about Shabazz).

Ford is more optimistic about this than most Pistons fans are. I'm holding out hope that The Pistons get a top 3 pick or a team drafting ahead of them reaches for a guy like Shabazz, Alex Len or Zeller.

The Pistons are still looking for their next coach, interviewing assistants like BJ Bickerstaff (ugh) and Darrell Walker (meh). I feel like they're just treading water until they can interview Brian Shaw (hmmm) and Mo Cheeks (UGH). Stan Van Gundy has basically said he'll coach a contender or a team in a warm climate, so that rules him out. The Pistons apparently have no interest in Sloan, so the only unemployed marquee coach left would be Jackson. To get him, Gores would have to fire Dumars because Phil wants a GM job if he's going to coach. Dumars has probably made enough bad moves that he deserves to be fired (although I like the last few he's made), but he certainly doesn't deserve to get back-doored like that.

Speaking of the Pistons' coaching situation, I took a look at all the teams either currently in the market for a coach or rumored to be. The Clippers and the Hawks haven't fired their coaches yet, but the writing is on the wall. With the Nets, those jobs are the most attractive for a prospective coach. The next tier would be the Bucks, 76ers and Pistons in some order. The bottom tier consists of the Suns job and the Bobcats. All told, Detroit is either the 4th, 5th or 6th most desirable job, unless the Clips & Hawks don't fire their guys and then Detroit is 2nd - 4th.

The Wings lost the EVER important game 5 in OT, tipping the series 3-2 in favor of Anaheim. I don't have a lot to say about this game, since it was a late game & I completely missed it. The series isn't over yet, Abdelkader coming back helps, but I'm emotionally checking out of this one (unless they bring me back in!).

There was some pretty funny Lions news (well, ex-Lions news). Titus Young managed to get himself arrested twice in one day. Maybe not the NFL record he was going for, but it managed to remind me of a line from The Three Musketeers (1993 Disney version, great flick), so it was worth it.

Wings Youngsters Get It Done

I held off on talking about the Wings wetting the bed this past weekend because I was hoping to have something good to talk about today. Well, that worked out.

The Red Wings got one back last night, winning in OT on this goal:

The headline on NHL.com was, of course, FRONT BRUNNER (despite the fact that his name is pronounced BROO-ner). I like the passing on this play, first to get the puck out of the zone, as well as the second pass to Nyquist. That pass to Nyquist from Andersson had a high degree of difficulty too, leading him while he was sandwiched between 2 defenders. If he was able to control it better, Nyquist might have gotten his 2nd OT game winner in this Stanley Cup playoffs. As it was, he was still able to keep it alive for Brunner to clean up. 

The goal of the game was easily Datsyuk's tying goal. The Wings went most of the game trailing 1-0, not tying it up until the beginning of the 3rd period. About halfway through, the Ducks scored to make it 2-1 (Howard was victimized by his defense on both goals, the first on a BAD giveaway right by the goal, the second when his own defender tripped him up). About three minutes after the Ducks took the lead, this happened:

There's so much to like about this - the deke to get by Sbisa, the laser shot going short-side, Hiller reacting WAY too late (the puck was in & out before his shoulder even STARTED going up), and of course the water bottle. Who doesn't love a shot that hits the water bottle? Classic.

One thing several people brought up was the line that scored the game winner was essentially Detroit's rookie line. Nyquist is 23, has played less than 50 NHL games & is considered a rookie. Andersson is 24 and he's a rookie. Brunner is 27, and while he's not considered a rookie (played pro hockey in Sweden), this is his first NHL season. Lashoff is 22 and a rookie, and the most seasoned guy on the ice was Kindl in his 3rd year in the league at the age of 26. Often in the past, the biggest critique of the Wings was their age. Well, this is a young and talented team.

Missing Justin Abdelkader is going to hurt the Wings this series. His absence in game 3 due to a game misconduct contributed to the shutout loss. The Wings clearly overcame it in game 4 and will have to do the same in game 5 if they're going to win the series. He comes back for game 6, which hopefully is when the Wings will be wrapping it up. Abdelkader has had problems taking dumb & costly penalties in the past. I thought those days might have been behind him (he took no penalties & actually drew a couple in the first 2 games), but in the 2nd period of game 3 he took a game misconduct when he left his feet to deck Toni Lydman. Anaheim scored the first goal of the game on that powerplay, and never looked back. Lydman is still out, by the way. 

With DeKeyser out of these playoffs, the other defenders (especially Lashoff) have to step up. Lashoff contributed to the game winner by checking Winnik off the puck (which started the break), but he's also the guy that accidentally tripped Howard which led to Anaheim's second goal. In the first period, Brendan Smith mishandled the puck and the Ducks pounced. With rookies you have to take the good with the bad & hope you come out ahead, and in this one they came out ahead.

The Tigers were off and the Pistons haven't hired or drafted anyone yet, so the only other Detroit team in the news was the Lions. Supposedly the Lions tried to trade back in the draft with Buffalo, but Buffalo wasn't having it so Detroit settled on Ansah. Buffalo had the 8th pick (before trading back themselves), and players available then were WR Tavon Austin, CB Dee Milliner, OG Chance Warmack and OT DJ Fluker. Fluker is a RT, which is a need but you can't feel good about trading back for one when you need an edge rusher BADLY. I'm thinking Mayhew was looking at either Milliner or Warmack, and HOPING he wasn't looking at Austin.

The Lions' 2nd rounder, CB Darius Slay, just had surgery for a torn meniscus. It sounds like it isn't serious (he should be playing in 10 days), but don't they always say that? Slay was considered a reach by most (with 2 higher-rated CB's available as well as a decent OT), and given the Lions' injury issues with their higher picks, I was surprised to see them take Slay. Speaking of injury issues with higher picks, Broyles is HOPING to be ready to play by week 1, which means he won't be 100% for the first couple games at least. Great.

The Lions still have a hole at OLB. They may try Ashlee Palmer there (yes, that's a guy), or they could go with one of the free agent vets still available. Jeffri Chadiha wrote an article covering some of the still-unsigned vets, and Daryl Smith looks like the best OLB available. He got around 100 tackles and 3 sacks from 2009-2011, but missed most of last year due to a groin injury.

As far as my own stuff, I did pretty good on my long run this past Saturday, averaging an 8:30 pace for 5 miles. The Saturday before I decided to skip my long run to save my legs for basketball. It paid off. I probably scored 10-15 points off of cuts (that's cumulative, not in one game), I was able to put the ball on the floor & get my own shot, and I played solid D and got a couple blocks. It was the best I've played since I used to hoop over at MSU's IM West back in 2002. I can't run quite like I did back then, but I'm doing everything else. I've dropped 14 lbs since January 1st, that's gotta help. 

I'd like to get a little more explosiveness back, since the SOS-NOAR Soccer Tournament is coming up next month, and I'd like to dunk some day. Leg Day, here I come.

Some Story Lines for the Tigers

I was all set to write about the Tigers' great weekend (and maybe mention the Wings' terrible weekend), and then that got derailed. Sports writers (and bloggers) are always looking for angles, and a guy on Grantland wrote on one of the worst angles I've ever heard of - rooting against a team because they're good. He advocates rooting against the Tigers because they look like they'll dominate their division. Yeah, the Miami Heat's regular season dominance was so boring, people stopped following the NBA. Oh wait, they didn't. I get rooting against good teams because you don't like how they were assembled (the Heat, the Yankees), or you think that team's star is a jerk (the Lakers), or maybe you don't like the owner (the Cowboys), but the idea that a winning team is bad for story lines?

You want story lines? How about Cabrera's follow up campaign to the first Triple Crown in over 40 years? Or the possibility that he could break an 83 year-old RBI record? What about Verlander's weekly potential to go for another no-hitter? Here are a few things from Buster Olney's blog:

Miguel Cabrera: on pace to drive in 201 runs. He had six more RBIs Saturday night against the Astros, and now has 36 in 29 games. Because this is a statistic based on the performance of teammates, many things could prevent Cabrera from beating Hack Wilson's all-time record of 191 RBIs: slumps by the hitters in front of him, injuries or opposing pitchers choosing to work around Cabrera. There is bound to be some regression in how Cabrera is hitting with runners in scoring position, because he's hitting at an absurd pace: 23 hits in 42 at-bats, for a .548 average. He has a 1.472 OPS in those situations.

Cabrera: on pace for 256 hits. That would be the most ever in a single season for a right-handed hitter.

Austin Jackson: on pace to score 167 runs. It's not like Jackson is off to a terrific start at the plate -- he's hitting a very solid .297, with a .357 on-base percentage. But that Cabrera guy hits two spots behind him, and that helps. A season of 167 runs would rank in the top 10 all time, and would be the most since 1936.

Going back to Verlander, he nearly turned in a no-no yesterday (got broken up in the 7th). He's got a lights out fastball and a rubberband curve, and they all look like the same pitch coming out of his hand:

The above is an overlay of 4 different pitches Verlander throws with the same motion. $ different locations, 4 different speeds, same motion. What the heck are you supposed to do with that? Anyway, he was on form yesterday, and he got some help in the field too:

My favorite reaction was from the Astros' color guy, "No way did that just happen." Unfortunately Verlander couldn't keep the no-hitter going, but the Tigers managed to scrape by, 9-0, and swept the series 37-8.

Forget it, I'm not talking about the Wings. We'll talk about them tomorrow.

Wings Win, Phil Jackson??? and Lions News

Well, there's big-ish news on the Pistons' coaching search, but that comes secondary to the Wings right now.

As I hope you know, the Wings are in the playoffs again, which means I'll probably be writing more frequently about them (and hopefully for a couple months). It was a narrow thing this year, and they almost didn't make it. It was close enough that Grantland published an article remembering some of the great moments (and some not-so-great) in the Wings' 21-straight playoff appearances, as a sort of preemptive eulogy. Fortunately the Wings won out, ending up in the 7th seed for the playoffs.

Anyway, they came out a little flat in their first game against the Ducks and dropped it 1-0. Babcock decided to swap out the brawler Jordin Tootoo for Todd Bertuzzi. I'm not sure exactly what effect that had on the outcome (Bertuzzi only played 7 minutes), but the Wings ended up winning in OT, taking a tied series to Detroit. Here was the NHL.com headline:

Typical NHL.com groan-worthy pun, but maybe not as bad as NY-QUIST LOVE (playing off of ?uestlove I guess), GETZ THE POINT, PALM PILOT, HUGE JACKMAN, or GRIN & BARRET... You get the point, it's like they have my dad working for them.

The Wings' youngsters contributed to a 4-1 lead, which they then gave up in the 3rd period. Basically 3 of Anaheim's goals were on the power play (I don't consider the power play REALLY over until the penalty kill unit leaves the ice), and on 2 of the goals one of the Ducks was checking a Red Wing into Howard, impeding his vision and movement. I thought Howard was excellent, really only one of the 4 goals he gave up was on the soft side, and he made some brilliant stops.



Damien Brunner, who's not technically a rookie but he's new to the NHL, had a goal and 2 assists. Nyquist had the game winner, and Abdelkader had the opening goal and probably deserved 2 more, taking 6 shots. Franzen had the other 2 goals, and Datsyuk contributed 2 assists, but the Wings' youth movement seems to be on a roll. It took a hit though, when promising young defenseman Danny DeKeyser broke his thumb & was ruled out for the rest of the playoffs.

It's a mixed back. The Wings won game 2 away from home ice, which is good and gives them the advantage going forward. But they gave up 3 goals in the final period & allowed Anaheim to tie, which is bad. They had good energy from their younger guys, especially Abdelkader, but they lost DeKeyser. I'm hoping Ian White or whoever comes in and helps hold down the fort. Next game is Saturday.

The big news on the Pistons' coaching search is that owner Tom Gores is bringing in Phil Jackson to "serve in an advisory capacity". He's basically a coaching consultant. My initial reaction was something like "YES! Wait, what?" Here's a little background - Phil Jackson, one of the 5 best coaches ever, has expressed interest in a GM job and possibly even returning to the bench (presumably along with some shot-calling power). A couple teams have contacted him to test his interest in a coaching or even GM position with their franchise. Gores has expressed displeasure with the results so far, since becoming owner of the Pistons. Gores has also shown that he's not really a Bill Davidson kind of owner (hands off the basketball decisions). It's not clear whether he'll go full-on James Dolan or only contribute in a Paul Allen-Jerry Buss sort of way.

Basically what I'm saying is while I welcome the knowledge that Phil Jackson brings to the table, this puts Joe Dumars' job in a somewhat more precarious situation. If everything's on the level, Jackson comes in, helps the Pistons land a great coach, and leverages that into a more favorable GM position (like getting the Knicks GM job instead of the Raptors). If shady things are going on, Dumars is in trouble. Stay tuned.

Some REALLY good news for the Pistons is Andre Drummond may go to Houston to work out with Hakeem Olajuwon. When Monroe was talking about what he and Drummond need to work on, his #1 thing for Drummond was comfort with the ball in his hands. I agree with this 100% (working on his physical condition would be #2, and apparently that's happening). Drummond looked really uneasy with the ball in his hands, unless he was in step-dunk range. Olajuwon was probably more comfortable with the ball than any center in history. Bill Simmons talks about McHale's "Panda Express" menu of post moves... Maybe so, but Olajuwon's spin moves, Dream Shake, and that fade away play better with Drummond's athleticism. Check out Dream working with Dwight Howard in 2010:

Couple Lions tidbits and then I'm done for today - at the moment, rookie DE Ziggy Ansah is the odds-on favorite to win defensive ROY. That would be great, but he's certainly not a lock. Kevin Seifert made a list of post-draft issues each team in the NFC North still has to deal with. Here are the Lions':

Issue: The Lions didn't draft a receiver until the sixth round (Virginia Tech's Corey Fuller), but they almost…. 
Analysis: According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the Lions told Michigan's Denard Robinson that they planned to draft him with the No. 136 overall pick. Mayhew had spoken before the draft about Robinson's potential as a "slash" player from the backfield and/or slot receiver position. Robinson, however, was selected at No. 135 by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Eventually the Lions used the No. 166 overall pick to select Notre Dame's Theo Riddick, who is not as explosive as Robinson but is a good receiver out of the backfield in his own right. Ultimately, the Lions finished this draft thin at the traditional receiver position given the injury rehabilitations of Nate Burleson and Ryan Broyles. 

I'm less concerned about this issue than Seifert is, since Scheffler can split out as can Fauria, one of the undrafted FA's the Lions picked up.

Issue: The Detroit Lions didn't draft an offensive tackle after the departure of both 2012 starters. 
Analysis: Riley Reiff, the Lions' top draft choice in 2012, will start at left tackle. The Lions' right tackle could be Jason Fox or Corey Hilliard. That still leaves the Lions thin along the line, especially at right guard if rookie Larry Warford isn't ready to step in right away. Regardless, Lions general manager Martin Mayhew made clear the Lions need to add more depth. "We're really young there so we'll look at some veteran guys there I think over the next few weeks."

This I'm slightly more concerned about. There are several quality OT's still unsigned (Eric Winston, Jared Gaither and Max Starks to name 3), and the Lions also picked up a couple undrafted FA tackles that could vie for playing time (Austin Holtz of Ball State and LaAdrian Waddle of Texas Tech). Still, this strategy reminds me a lot of how they dealt with the defensive backfield problem last year, and we all remember how well that worked.

I owe my conversion as a U of M fan in part to Larry Betz

The father of 2 of my best friends passed away Monday evening. It's been a hard week for the family, who currently live out in Arizona (for the most part) but during my formative years lived 2 doors down from me. There are many things I'll remember about Larry Betz, but 3 of biggest would be his corny (but very enjoyable) sense of humor, his nicknaming me "the iceman" back when he drove us all to school back when our middle school canceled its busing (it was a particularly cold & snowy winter and often I'd be covered in snow by the time I got to their house, hence, "the iceman cometh"), and his roll in converting me as a Michigan fan. Since this is a blog about sports, I'll spend a little time on that last one.

My dad went to MSU and was (and is) a State fan through and through. So naturally I was a State fan. When I was about 9 or so, I started going over to the Betz's to watch the M&M game (Michigan v. Michigan State, for the unschooled). It was a little rough, mainly because it was 1989 and MSU was still running Duffy Daugherty's offense from 1960, and Michigan had guys like Desmond Howard, Elvis Grbac and Chris Calloway. It became a yearly tradition for me to go over to the Betz's for the M&M game, and by 1991 I was rooting for the maize & blue.

The conversion is pretty easy to understand, looking back. The rooting experience was a lot more enjoyable (hanging with friends vs. my dad getting yelling at the TV), even in losses (in 1990 Michigan DID lose, thanks to one of the more blatant no-calls I've ever seen on a pass interference in the end zone). Also, even in 1991 I had no intention of attending Michigan State. Nothing against the education they provide (always thought they were underrated in that sense), but I didn't want to go to school in the same town where I grew up. When I finally decided I wanted to study art, MSU was ruled out for good (they have many quality programs, art NOT being one of them). Anyway, I came home from the 1991 M&M game (State got handled, 45-28, but I had made my decision before kickoff) and announced to my dad that I was officially a Michigan fan.

How did Mr. Betz contribute to my conversion? Well, for starters, he went to U of M & raised a couple of my best friends to be Michigan fans. He also expressed a somewhat understated fandom, very different from most of the MSU fans I knew (who were more like THIS GUY). He also made sure the boys' U of M rooting didn't get out of hand when I was still an MSU fan. Later on after my Wolverine fan-ness was more established, he took the boys & I to my first hockey experience at The Joe. It was the CCHA Tournament Finals, and I want to say it was the 1994 version (when Turco had the shutout). We went to Nikki's and had one of the best pizza's ever, took the people mover to the Joe, and watched a great game unfold.

It's strange that a guy who wasn't really an athlete or even a die-hard sports fan would have such an impact, but he did. It was fun reminiscing, and that CCHA Tourney game remains one of my favorite stadium experiences so far.

NFL Draft Wrap Up

Consensus on the Lions' draft is they did good, not great. They got a guy who's a bit of a boom-or-bust project at DE, then they went for CB with one of the fastest 40-times but has some health concerns. They followed up in the 3rd round by grabbing OG Larry Warford, who I actually liked better than OT Menelik Watson (the guy Kiper wanted them to take in the 2nd). They finished off the draft by taking another tall DE, a punter (a PUNTER??), a WR, RB, TE, and an ILB. Interestingly, they signed an undrafted free agent that I think is a threat to make the team, maybe even crack the rotation if Reiff or Hilliard prove ineffective - OT LaAdrian Waddle. He's a BIG guy (6'6", 332 lbs) and you know he can pass block, playing at Texas Tech. My guess is he makes the team (WAY too thin at OT right now), and eventually gets a starting spot in a year or 2.

The hope is that the Lions drafted 3 players who will give an immediate impact. Maybe less immediate with Ansah, he may not be ready to take the majority of the snaps at the beginning of the year. My guess is they bring Ansah on slowly, and by about halfway through the year he's taking a majority of the snaps at one of the DE spots. Darius Slay (great name) SHOULD push for the #2 CB spot if healthy enough to play. It's definitely a concern to me that the Lions spent ANOTHER high draft pick on a guy with injury concerns, the hope is obviously that it won't come back to bite them (like it did the last 12 times). 

ESPN's Jeffri Chadiha thinks Ansah is a good fit next to Suh & Fairley, and Kevin Seifert noted at the end of this blog post that the Lions clearly focused on their weak pass defense over filling gaps in their offensive line. Here's Mel Kiper's grades & analysis on the Lions' draft: