Thursday Morning Brews: Sticky fingers

Happy Thursday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. I don’t know about you guys, but this week is dragging on for me. There have been a couple days where wild horses couldn’t have pulled me out of bed in the morning. Thankfully, the weekend is just around the corner and we have a five-pack of Brews to help ease your way to Friday.

As usual, there is a song referenced in this morning’s article. There are at least two clues. They may be words, phrases, or photos, and may reference lyrics, the artist, or the album. If you think you know this morning’s song, fire away down in the comments.

Let’s get to it:

Three Wolverines taken in MLB Draft. The MLB Draft snaked its way into its third day yesterday, and three Wolverines came off the board. First, William Tribucher, a junior left-handed pitcher who appeared in 22 games for the Wolverines this past season holding opposing batters to a .190 average, was selected in Round 14 by the Colorado Rockies. In Round 31, Jayce Vancena (RHP) was taken by the Detroit Tigers and Jonathan Engelmann (OF) was taken by the Cleveland Indians.

Men’s track & field competing at nationals. Five Wolverines are representing the University at the men’s track & field championships in Eugene, Ore. Taylor McLaughlin (400m hurdles), Ben Flanagan (10,000m), Andrew Liskowitz (shot put), Grant Cartwright (shot put), and Brandon Piwinski (high jump) will be competing, with the championships ending tomorrow. McLaughlin and Flanagan won Big Ten championships in their respective events.

Michigan and Ohio State split Big Ten Tournament titles. This is just an interesting stat from the athletics seasons that were in the 2017-18 academic year. Across Big Ten varsity sports, there were 28 conference tournaments. Michigan won seven, Ohio State won seven, everyone else in the conference won the remaining 14.

You may recall that a little while back Jim Harbaugh and Condoleezza Rice made some comments about paying players. Well, at least one player has figured out how to get paid this season. Kyler Murray, the presumptive starting QB for Oklahoma, was selected No. 9 overall by the Oakland A’s in the MLB Draft and he’s in line for a pay day—to the tune of nearly $5 million. Under NCAA rules, professional athletes can maintain college eligibility in sports other than the sport they’re a professional in—so Murray can be under contract with the A’s baseball while playing football for Oklahoma. Boomer Sooner.

Jim Harbaugh has made quite a splash on the recruiting trail since coming back to Michigan. There were sleepovers, but more importantly there were satellite camps galore—even to the extent that some SEC coaches got nervous about Harbaugh poaching talent in their back yards. Now Harbaugh is shifting his attention closer to home, so says Aaron McMann over at MLive. After pulling in zero recruits from Ohio in 2018, Harbaugh is making states like Ohio and Pennsylvania priorities in the 2019 cycle. For the full story, check out the story linked above.