Unverified Voracity Bought A Suit

A veritable flood. Congrats to Nik Stauskas, Mitch McGary, and Glenn Robinson III as they embark on their NBA careers. I'm not even going to linger on the fact that if the Pistons didn't get jumped in the draft order their shooting-desperate butts would have been sitting at #8, where Stauskas went to the Kings. I'm not going to just stand over here banging my head against the wall and moaning "whyyyyy."

I will take off my ratty, old Pistons hat and put my Michigan one on so I can be happy:

Coach Beilein, the only person left in the green room, waiting for Jordan Morgan to be picked #TheMichiganDifferencepic.twitter.com/c9sBbq6FNf

— William Locke (@william_locke24) June 27, 2014

Morgan signed a free agent contract with the Timberwolves.

Meanwhile Caris LeVert is projected as a lottery pick next year. #welcometothefactory

It's not impossible. A pretty stunning counterpoint to Michigan's claims that their issues with selling tickets are everyone's issues:

Hats off to #PennState fans. School sold out allotment of Over 21,000 student season tix all bought in just SIX minutes!

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) June 27, 2014

Penn State's fan culture has remained that enthused through all of that. There's something to learn there. Or we could just keep hiring people from the Knicks with no clue about college sports or Michigan.

Keeping the band together. Michigan's three basketball assistants have signed contract extensions. Finally, someone spends money on something that they definitely should.

The other draft. The NHL Draft starts tonight; recruit Dylan Larkin is likely to go off the board in the first round, so there are a number of "here's this guy" articles. USA Today:

Larkin might be the safest pick because he's a gifted skater who could be a team's No. 2 center for 10 years.

"He is probably the most fluid skater in the draft," said Dan Marr, director of NHL Central Scouting. "He has a powerful stride, and he is also an intelligent player."

Red Line Report has him going 16th to… sigh… Columbus.

The Washington Post also had an interesting piece about how college players are underrated relative to their draft positions:

Of the players drafted from 2006 to 2009, 14.7 percent of players from Major Junior have hit that benchmark [of 40 NHL games]; players from collegiate programs, on the other hand, have hit that mark 17.1 percent of the time. And those players from Major Junior are picked close to a round earlier on average than those playing in college (97th pick vs. 121th pick).

This is not a huge surprise. College players play in a tougher environment against older players, in which points translate more readily to higher levels:

Despite this, college prospects are actually getting drafted less often even as the percentage of players in the NHL from the NCAA ranks hits all time highs—30 percent as of last year. Meanwhile:

A study of players selected in the NHL draft from 2000 to 2006 shows that an incredible 70 percent of U.S. college players taken in the first round went on to play at least 300 NHL games (100 or more games for goalies drafted in the first round) compared to 57 percent of all other players selected in the first round through the same time period.

There is a Moneyball opportunity here for any GM who isn't a neanderthal.

That's going well, then. Stewart Mandel's final take on the O'Bannon case: there was something there to argue, but instead the NCAA trotted out a bunch of empty overpaid suits. ESPN's Tom Farrey was willing to declare "Game Over" at halftime. Grantland's Charles Pierce titles his story simply "How It Ends."

Etc.: Michigan plans almost $350 million in construction. Here's a charming story about bird shit at Michigan. Why our brains cannot accept randomness.