I don’t think the argument from the state at this point is really based on what is the best policy (IE what is the tradeoff of living life vs safety), it’s more “We don’t care enough about Michigan athletics to be granular with our policy and we can argue it’s not important enough to warrant our time to be more granular.”
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Still seems to me that one of the main reasons shooters make shots is that they shoot every day. Nobody has told me that they aren’t allowed to slip into the otherwise unused gyms one at a time at the local HS and middle-school gyms. There’s a way to fool myself into some hope…
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This is a good question but I am not qualified to answer it. I think it possible the risk could be higher a week from now and they will still play. It is also possible the risk could be lower than prior to when the AD shut it down and they will choose to not play. Who knows?
My guess is that shooting and game-flow-team connection will suffer for a week. On the flip side it is probably good for their bodies to take two weeks off. It is possible it will help us in the end. Fingers crossed.
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Depends on whether they have to play 11 games in 24 days, or 30 days, or some smaller amount in some other period of time, IMO…
Am assuming Juwan is going to have a plan for load management. Could see a little bit more time for Zeb, Davis, Chaundee, Johns, Williams.
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My primary concern is INJURY. This team has banked enough wins and will get its footing after a week or two. The main danger is that their adrenaline will be sky high and they will have the ability to push their bodies to the max while not being in max shape.
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I admit I would be so much less zen about this if we were a bubble team. Because we have championship potential I feel comfortable if this break results in a few losses (we otherwise would have avoided) and we slide down the seeding chart a bit.
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I’m less zen about it because an outright conference title and a #1 seed is no small thing, especially in a year in which the bluebloods are down. It’s a year to take a real shot at it. If a bubble team, I’d shrug it off as weird-year results.
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I am zero percent zen about this
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Yeah I think the 1 seed especially takes on new meaning this year because it means you avoid Gonzaga and Baylor, the two far and away best teams in the country. Normally there are more than 2 great teams, but this year if you can avoid the best two teams until the final four at the earliest, the table will be set to make a tournament run.
First focus is on winning the Big Ten and hanging a banner though, and playing two of the top 5 teams in their first two games back is not ideal. But alas, what can ya do?
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Effusively thank Warde Manuel and the athletic department for their tireless work on behalf of Michigan athletics and politely suggest that next time they follow basic CDC guidelines for international travel?
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I think it’s simply risk management from the school’s perspective. The state recommended a course and set a specific time frame (I know they said up to 14 days, but they still said 14 days). If the school were to allow teams to get back at it prior to the 14 day mark, then they’d fear liability if any kind of outbreak could be shown to have been sparked prior to that 14 day mark. The state painted the school into a corner, whether they intended to or not. That’s how I’d think of it as an administrator, anyway.
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I’m still mind blown that all of this started because a student-athlete traveled to a country with a known COVID variant outbreak and then didn’t quarantine for a period of time after returning. I’m even more mind blown that someone in the AD signed off on this (I can’t imagine an athlete just doing this completely on their own without any AD oversight).
I know I’m just kicking our dead equine friend at this point but it all just seems so stupid and avoidable.
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I am and I am not mindblown, but it sure does take me to my most cynical place about the university.
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It’s frustrating, for sure, but I’d want to get all of the details.
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yet, no one came forward to take responsibility for this.maybe Warde should give himself a 50% pay cut for the year.
Dylan mentioned this a while ago, with I think Wisconsin(?), where it could be beneficial to play the top tier teams in an attempt to claw back up the standings. The main idea being the best way to climb the standings is to beat the teams directly ahead of you. Obviously with Michigan, we’re coming off a long pause, but these two games could be beneficial in separating ourselves from the field, granted we win those games.
Yes and losing those two games brings Michigan directly back to the pack (which isn’t unrealistic and may be more probable than not)
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I recommend the Michigan Daily. Some good and particularly thorough reporting, including that the department failed to follow CDC guidelines for UK travel, which, unfortunately, makes it cut/dry for me personally. It would be much easier to extend the benefit of the doubt if the department had followed the basic guidelines issues from the main authority on how to keep student athletes safe.
It worries me that there’s not more concern about this. One way to repeat mistakes is to avoid accountability.
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Frees up some of the money we’re going to need to make Juwan the highest-paid coach in the conference. Which, IMO, we should start worrying about right now. Take your pick of Michigan ADs of recent history; they haven’t been particularly proactive about coaching extensions and coaching changes.