@CoryR??? What happened???
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If Jarrett Allen is the model heâs shooting for, a half season of growth and production in a good but not great conference, no expectations of team success, and becoming a one-and-done lottery pick, then it makes sense. He clearly loves Shaka, too. If academics were indeed a factor, Texas sure fits the bill better than Kentucky. I havenât looked at their roster, but I suspect that PT wonât be an issue, neither.
Iâm gonna have to dream of something else besides Simmonsâ lobs to Bamba now.
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Iâm hoping this means that DJ and Moe are returning.
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Sounds like Texas had three things we couldnât compete with in order of importance â close relationship with Shaka, admission into B school for freshmen, and warm winters. Allen did better for himself than a lot of higher rated guys who go to Kentucky, so I can see that point. Best of luck to him.
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This is CoryRâs friend. I have been posting on Coryâs profile that I expect Mo Bamba to go to Michigan. I canât believe he never noticed! Boy oh boy as you can imagine he sure is going to be upset at me when he finds out what I was doing. I bet this is the last you hear of me!
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This is all about his relationship with Shaka. End of story.
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Loose lips really do sink ships. Your friend blew this opportunity for us, CoryR. Shame on him.
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Pure speculation, but what if this is an indicator of news regarding Moe and DJ. Bamba waited this long to see how rosters would shake out. Why wouldnât he wait until the 24th to make his decision unless he knew something about roster spots.
*removes tin foil hat
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Looks like he signed an LOI (I assume last night) right before the deadline which was yesterday. Just judging by the fact that UT put out a press release, etc.
Donât think it has anything to do with DJ or Moe one way or another, been a lot of Texas talk for a while and the Shaka relationship appears to have been the key.
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Really? They have been the prohibitive favorite for a long time.
Most liked post of all time here?
FWIW, even in the postmortem of Bambaâs recruitment Michiganâs involvement remains a mystery shrouded in the unshakable ignorance of writers who follow other programs more closely.
MICHIGAN
Impact level: 2
What Bambaâs choice means: If we are being honest, not even the Wolverines most blindly faithful supporters gave Michigan much of a chance of landing Bamba. Sure he would have been a great piece, but the reality is that his strengths and Michiganâs style of play under John Beilein didnât appear to fit very well together. It would have been easy to find a way to use Bamba and he surely could have been a fine player in Ann Arbor. But, the fact is that the decisions of D.J. Wilson and Moritz Wagner with regards to the NBA Draft are significantly more impactful to the Wolverinesâ future than Bambaâs decision.
- What does the low probability of Bamba coming to Ann Arbor have to do with the impact felt by missing out on him?
- So missing out on Bamba is no big deal because losing DJ or Mo would be more impactful?
- Did someone misplace their tapes of the 2014 NCAA Tournament? Iâd say McGary fit in Beileinâs system just fine.
- Those NBA decisions havenât been made yet. Should DJ or Mo or both(!) go pro, wouldnât the impact level of missing out on Bamba change to 11?
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Seriously. Bamba would fit in ANY system, both offensive and defensive. And NBA bigs, these days, need to learn the high PNR, and the pick-and-pop is a huge bonusâŚwhich Michigan just demonstrated masterfully, over the last 2 months of the season.
And even though Mo or DJ leaving is easy to look at as a âloss,â and missing out on Bamba looks like âmissing out on a gain,â I firmly believe Bamba would have been just as helpful for the 17/18 season as either Mo or DJ. So the impact on missing out on him is, imo, equal to losing one of DJ/Mo; itâs just we expect the chance of DJ/Mo returning to be higher than we expected the chance of Bamba choosing Michigan.
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This is a pretty tepid review for a guy that Bamba cites as an example of player development under Shaka Smart.
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With some one-and-dones, it really looks like the coaching plan is to not screw them up too much.
Had Beilein start recruiting Bamba earlier, he shouldâve bagged him instead of Shaka Smart. I am still bothered by the fact the it was Bambaâs camp who approached the school first.
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But why did they approach UM? Did he really want to come here or did he just want a visit or something that looked good on his resume, like his interest in Harvard? He talked a lot about academics, and then chose Texas. Texas is a fine school, but it is no Harvard or UM. Besides, I doubt if he is there beyond one year.
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Texas is very similar to Michigan academically. In terms of tiers theyâre definitely in the same group as UM, Virginia, UCLA, Berkeley, etc.
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There are a lot of different ways to rate universities academically. The 2017 rankings listed by U.S.News and World Report for the schools you listed are: #20 Berkeley, T#24 Virginia, UCLA, #27 Michigan and #56 Texas. Harvard is #2.
Note: Some of the schools rated above UM do not have Division 1 basketball or would not be a program up to Bambaâs level.
US Newsâ ranking of undergrad business schools, Bambaâs stated interest, has Michigan at 4 and Texas at 6.
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