On the court, in the past five years, UM has had 4 tourney appearances, including a berth in the championship game and another Elite 8 trip, and two B1G titles, including one outright. This past year, of course, was a disappointment. Now, essentially everything that went wrong could - massive NBA attrition, a surprise transfer at the weakest/most inexperienced position on the court, injuries to the best players, etc. But it was still a lousy season after the past couple of years.
As for recruiting, they say that it’s not about the ones you miss, it’s the ones you get. And that is somewhat of an open question for the last several guys. Chatman was disappointing this past year, but I still think he’ll be a very good player, and Wilson was injured. Dawkins looks like he was a steal and Rahkman should at least be a contributor. Robinson and Wagner (and Davis) are hard to judge because of their circumstances. Teske looks promising.
But there’s no doubt that, at least as of now, the on-court success hasn’t translated into the jump in recruiting many of us hoped for. And particularly disappointing is that guys we’ve seemed in great shape for haven’t come, like Booker and Kennard, and the trend could continue with guys like Thornton and Battle. Perhaps we’ll see UM go back to taking guys a little down in the recruiting rankings – guys who turned out pretty good, mind you.
I think, however, taking a step back should give comfort. It’s hard with how much info we have on recruiting these days, but it’s too easy to find some 3-minute tape of a guy from the 9th or 10th grade and made some huge judgment. People who are worried about what “MSU fans are saying,” or feel let down because of their time investment into recruiting and then things not going their way, should consider reevaluating their strategy. You might not care if JB acts within certain rules that other coaches don’t follow, or might prefer a slicker coach, but JB is here for the next several years, and the next guy won’t be a Calipari-type. And the results have been pretty good when you look big picture.
In the meantime, people are coming up with some wild thoughts, like Davis was a panic offer or they should’ve taken Edwards instead. Remember that Edwards at this point in his career was averaging four or five points a game. JB and co clearly preferred Davis, and liked him enough to offer him at an early stage – this wasn’t a late-game spring signing.
Let’s see how the roster shakes out. Let’s see how Davis seems after a summer on the AAU circuit. Let’s see how the team does next season. Maybe it will all go terribly, or maybe last season will be revealed to be an anomaly. In any event, try to have some fun along the way.