My guy Ondre plate!! Put bigboy on a diet #EARLIEE lol instagr.am/p/L1H0g1LaI3/
— Blake Countess (@BlakeCo18) June 13, 2012
Ondre Pipkins has entered the building. Although if he keeps getting meals like that, you can expect him to exit the building through the back door for a quick walk down the street to Mr. Spots.
That wasn't the only food related tweet yesterday as Mike Rothstein caught Brady and Urban enjoying some freshly cooked ribs together before the Sound Mind Sound Body camp. If you don't think this quickly spurred a caption contest on twitter, then let me introduce you to the internet: it's this thing people use to make stupid jokes and follow recruiting wayyyyy to closely.
Brady Hoke welcomes Urban Meyer to Michigan recruiting ground, says competition will forge forward
“I’ve known Urban a long time,” Hoke said during the Sound Mind, Sound Body football camp at Southfield High School. “We’ve got a good relationship. “But we’re going to compete in recruiting, no doubt. And on that last Saturday in November, no doubt about it.”
It wasn't all fun and games and ribs, as the two coaches were at Southfield High School for a charity camp. If you were expecting a Sharks vs. Jets-esque street fight to break out you either A) watch too much theater or B) don't understand how interconnected the modern college football coaching world is. These guys know each other pretty well. Thankfully, that won't get in the way of the rivalry.
Michigan basketball's 2013 recruiting class keeps rising, now rated No. 2 nationally by ESPN.com
"The Wolverines are not an upper-echelon, battle-with-the-blue-bloods-type of Big Ten power," the site explained when referencing Michigan's class. "But what John Beilein does -- maybe as well as anyone -- is identify players for his specific program. "That means he lands character guys who play multiple positions and have high basketball IQs."
/whistles the theme to The Jeffersons
Hailing to the Victors: Fluffing Michigan's 2013 Recruiting Class
How can we explain Michigan's dominance? Well, for Ohio State it's obvious: Tresselgate stigma. For everyone else it's equally obvious: they're not Michigan. Illinois is breaking in an entirely new coaching staff, Indiana is Indiana, Iowa has new coordinators, Minnesota is rebuilding, Nebraska has a creepy inflatable mascot who drives a panel van, Pat Fitzgerald enjoys ass and Penn State has "things" going on.
I'd have been content with the "they're not Michigan" reasoning, but then adding a bunch of qualifiers that don't include "Brady Hoke and his staff may be some of the best recruiters in the country (proof? you want proof?)
No sugar-coating: Brady Hoke talks rivalries, including 4 straight losses to MSU
"We play an in-state rivalry game against Michigan State, and they have beat our ass for the last four years," Hoke told the players, most of whom hail from the state. "There's no other way to put that. It's been an ass-kicking. Just being honest with you. Pardon me about my language, but it's true."
The truth: it hurts.
My favorite method for running a reverse to a wide (or slot) receiver - Chris Brown of Smart Football outlines his favorite method for running the reverse. Worth the read for strategy junkies.
Where that puts the Thunder in the typical NBA championship narrative is unclear. We expect most teams to follow a prescribed path: a few years of playoff berths and modest success, followed by a run of conference finals or NBA finals, capped off by the ultimate breakthrough to a championship. The Thunder have experienced that journey at lightspeed, moving from the high lottery to a first-round exit to a conference finals appearance to this season’s greater success in only three seasons’ time. Frankly, it’s been a little startling, enough so to disrupt the typical string of platitudes that attend the championship favorite. The Thunder haven’t been here before, or even seen enough failures to be particularly battle-tested. Instead, they’re just really good at an age when most players are concerned about signing their first contract extensions. And so their current run has the potential to become a referendum on the place of youth in the NBA. If they beat the Heat, the expectations for (and perhaps belief in) every young core in the league becomes that much greater. Suddenly, the Thunder would become a new model for instant success.