Spike Albrecht to Purdue

Let’s just hope that Derrick Walton stays healthy.

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…Yes, Let’s hope Walton stays healthy. let’s also hope Walton improves significantly at pick n roll. Let’s also hope that X is ready to at least be adequate to play point guard at this level in his Freshman year. Let’s also hope x stays healthy…

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I hope everyone stays healthy.

And that Spike gets healthy!

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This is not about Spike vs Mullins, it is about having Spike or anyone else useful using the 13th scholarship or wasting it for the second straight year. Roster management is 100% on JB. All programs have to deal with attrition.

And you know this how?

This was John Beilein last night. He doesn’t sound like a guy who wants to bank the scholarship.

For the first option, Beilein said he’s interested in finding a grad transfer that “fits the style and fits Michigan.” He noted that the grad transfer market currently amounts to free agency and that, in May, “as people finish classes, all the sudden, a lot of people change their minds.”

Be it via transfer or freshman, what’s clear is that, if an addition is made, it will be at the wing position.
“That’s a big position that we’d like to fill,” Beilein said. “A guy that can get buckets off the bench and guard people.”

“The positions we’re looking for in a grad transfer are definitely not at point guard,” Beilein said. “That wouldn’t make sense. That would be like having three quarterbacks.”

JB Quotes: With a roster 'still evolving,' John Beilein expects May to be 'very interesting' - mlive.com

Wanting to fill the scholarship does not equal filling it. Lets see if he can back up the talk and bring in someone useful. .

Sure, but can we agree the decision to bring Spike back isn’t Spike vs. nobody, it’s Spike vs. the opportunity of improving the roster in a way that Beilein feels can be more impactful than Spike?

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Most of us can.

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It is interesting that spike said I just want a shot to compete for minutes. I don’t care what my role is I just want to help the team win. Do u buy it? If that’s true sounds like spikel was down beilein not so much. Let’s just add a nice wing and end all debate. At the same time don’t add some random 16 and plug the spot for a better17. If it’s not a grad transfer I hope it’s s real nice frosh.

Any murmurs or gut feelings on who a couple of grad transfer targets could be?

There are plenty of programs who dont pull 13 through every year. I, personally, would rather use that scholarship purposefully on a '17 recruit than pulling a late '16 recruit, grad transfer not withstanding. Looking at other programs (e.g. NC St might be down to 7 used scholarships) I think one unused scholarship is not too big of a deal this year.

Sure, that is logical if all things were equal. I just don’t think everyone is agreement with what the roster needs are. We all have different evaluations of players and what we expect from them–and that is the reason there is a debate here.

You’re forgetting that it’s not ONLY Beilein’s decision to bring Spike back.

There’s someone else involved…named SPIKE…no doubt JB and Spike had discussions on the possible role. Now maybe you’re suggesting that JB should have WANTED to dump minutes and promises on Spike to get him to come back, but I don’t agree with that either. (enter future PG: Xavier Simpson)

I suspect there is a lot of truth in what you suggest. I get the feeling that Spike was not happy with the projections given to him by the coaching staff. Spike, like us, is evaluating himself against Walton and X and forming judgements and expectations of his role. I suspect Spike’s expectations were significantly out of line with JB’s evaluations/ projections. I place more value on Spike than most and therefore it leads me to believe that this is poor roster management based upon misevaluations. Anyway, I guess we will all have to just wait to see how it unfolds…

Okay, I’ll play along. Let’s hope everybody stays healthy. Boom!

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You’re right, I don’t. But I would assume a guy doesn’t want to ride the pine his final year. If the choice is deciding on a guaranteed spot on another team or waiting it out and maybe having a spot but not being guaranteed a significant role…

I hope everyone stays healthy. My point was that merely a guaranteed healthy Walton does not make the decision to “let Spike go” (so to speak) a rational decision in my opinion. For it to be a good “decision”, so to speak,other things need to also fall into place…

I agree, but at the moment, that opportunity to improve the roster this off season doesn’t look too promising. I hope I am wrong and JB finds someone late in the process that improves the roster. We shall see. Especially, now with Chatman gone, it becomes more of an imperative.