Unverified Voracity Waits For Franz

Franz time. Alba Berlin's season is over, and now FranzWatch begins.

Franz would obviously be a big deal, especially as he's started to become a real contributor to Alba:

As a reminder, this is a league where a 24-year-old Derrick Walton can't get on the court. Wagner is reportedly up to 6'9" and headed for the first round of the draft. He would be a gamechanger for Juwan Howard's first team.

[After THE JUMP: keeping various baseball persons]

Also in recruiting. 2020 GA C Walker Kessler's eliminated Georgia, his ancestral homestead, and seems about as interested in Michigan as he was previously:

That's from a Georgia-based scouting service that would have no particular reason to ask Kessler about Juwan Howard, might mean a little something.

Go, bill, go. A California bill that would restore the name and image rights of college athletes is zipping through a stunning number of committees:

Early this year, the Majority Whip of the California state Senate, Nancy Skinner, introduced the “Fair Pay to Play Act” (Senate Bill 206) which would prohibit California colleges from preventing their athletes from earning NIL money. Her bill, which quickly received bipartisan sponsorship, directly challenged the NCAA’s own NIL prohibition (more about the NCAA’s views about the bill soon). Remarkably, on May 22, the full Senate approved the bill by a lopsided margin of 31-4. On Tuesday the first committee in the California State Assembly to consider the bill, the Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media Committee, approved it unanimously, 5-0. It now goes to the Higher Education Committee for a vote on July 9, and if approved then, from there to the Appropriations Committee, which if it approves, sends the bill to the floor sometime in August, or before the California legislature closes its 2019 session in mid-September.

So this thing has to get through 5 different votes and is through 2 with a total score of 36-4. It's happening. Mark Emmert roused himself from his Scrooge McDuck vault to threaten the California state government with reprisals against NCAA schools in the state, but law-talking guys say that's gonna be a no:

As a private trade association, the National Collegiate Athletic Association is generally free to adopt any bylaws that it wants. But there are two important caveats to the general principle of non-interference with trade association rules. First, a trade association such as the NCAA may not enforce any bylaw that violates federal or state law. Second, a trade association must enact its bylaws in good faith, and in compliance with the "basic rudiments of due process." With these two caveats in mind, there is a strong argument that any attempt by the NCAA to ban California member colleges from competing in postseason events based on their compliance with state laws around names, images and likeness would violate both federal antitrust laws and state common-law rights.

The likely impact of California passing this bill would be the NCAA leaping into a lawsuit that they lose and then a cascade of identical bills across the country, followed by the Formation of the Michigan Name And Image Money Cannon Committee. LFG.

This is what we're up against. LSU doing LSU things:

LSU will not get meaningfully punished for this, so what's the point of banning payments only for guys who go to schools that bother to follow the rules?

Baseball retention. Eric Bakich on the inevitable rumors he's headed elsewhere:

Bakich made one thing clear after his players went through a lifting session at Creighton University on Saturday — he’s not going anywhere. “Where am I going? You got a job? Are you hiring me? Huh?” Bakich said, laughing, before boarding the team bus and turning serious regarding his future. “I love Michigan, and I love the Block M, and most importantly, I love the kids on that bus. I wanted to see this through. I didn’t want anyone else to coach them. I wanted to be here for this type of run. Having tasted this in 17 years, these guys have never tasted it. Once you taste it, you want it every year. Yeah, we do need some help, but I know that this is gonna get us over the hump. "An experience like this is going to move the needle and get us over the hump to where our program is here to stay and we’re here to build.”

There's always an element of "I have to say this to recruit" in any of these statements, so don't take that as gospel. It's certain that Bakich will be around next year since the baseball coaching carousel has already come to a halt, and he's already turned down Stanford.

Also in "let's keep this guy," former Michigan pitcher and now pitching coach Chris Fetter:

Fetter thought he was well-versed on the analytical side of the game – until he joined the Dodgers. With L.A., he learned how to evaluate numbers with the most advanced technology, and has made that a focal point of the Wolverines’ pitching development. At the time Fetter returned, U-M was in the final stages of readying the TrackMan, which measures things like spin rate and launch angle, after the legal red tape on how the information would be disseminated was unwrapped. “With their arsenals, we just tried to build each individual player and just kind of iron those things out,” Fetter said. “Just help them understand who they are to a greater level. “If I know what pitches I have that separate me from the average, then I should go out to the mound and be the most confident version of myself.” … “It’s a direct correlation to having Coach Fetter working with me day-by-day,” Henry said. “I cannot stress enough how much I’ve learned from that guy. I sound like a broken record right now, but seriously, I mean every bit of it.

Fetter says "“I would love to stay here for as long as they’ll have me," and, uh, yes, here is a Ricewood coupon. Stick around.

Michigan wins Directors Cup (Non-Stanford Edition)! Just name it the Stanford Cup and give it to us.

It is ours. Stanford does not exist. It was expunged after Ed Feng's crimes became public knowledge.

Hockey things happened. Been a while since there's been a UV, and in the interim various hockey things happened. First the NHL draft. Four guys were taken:

2020 F Austen Swankler did not get picked. Some York scouting:

Meanwhile Yet Another Junior Draft happened and you might be striking another name off Michigan's 2020 list. Andrei Bakanov went 38th in the CHL "import" draft. Sometimes these picks are swings in the dark but in this case it seems pretty ominous that Cedar Rapids, which signed him as a tender* last year, recently traded Bakanov to Des Moines for a single conditional draft pick.

Also in meh: distant future D commit Mats Lindgren signed with Kamloops. Connor Levis is one of four WHL first-rounders left unsigned.

*[Tender == you get to sign a guy who's a year younger than USHL draftees are. Generally reserved for high-end prospects since signing one costs you your top draft pick and you have to play the kid in 55% of your games.]

Etc.: Big year for college at the NHL draft. Nine first round picks and 71 overall. Iowa's really into falconry now you guys. Fold UConn football, which never should have existed in the first place.

Source: Mgoblog.com

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