MattD:
Right now and going forward, Michigan is considered a top 15 program by the general basketball public. Based on the following criteria, ESPN had Michigan ranked 10th among programs moving forward:
Coaching
Current Talent
Recruiting
Program Power
Stability
Michigan’s program is not in the top tier with teams like Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, etc… but is comfortably in the tier below.
FYI - The discussion of our perception has essentially been moved to a different thread
For those that claimed I didn’t know what I was talking about in relation to DT and Duke…yeah, not so much huh. I’m telling you guys, Duke is involved in that recruitment, you may not hear about it as much as UK and/or UM, but Coach K is definitely involved.
For those that claimed I didn’t know what I was talking about in relation to DT and Duke…yeah, not so much huh. I’m telling you guys, Duke is involved in that recruitment, you may not hear about it as much as UK and/or UM, but Coach K is definitely involved.
Ramsey interest in UM a “9.5 out of 10”, Ramsey will make a visit centered around a basketball game per HS coach. Glad to hear we have viable backup plan to DT. Second best 2 way PG on our board in my opinion.
Would be thrilled if staff could land Ramsey. Obviously, Thornton is #1 on their board, but Ramsey is my number 2 choice there. Would be great for the program to have a Ramsey back up a senior Walton and then explode as a sophomore. Seems like Ramsey is a tough, winning type of player.
The staff obviously has a backup plan to DTJr. Winston feels like a MSU/UM battle. Goodin may be slated to Florida now but has an offer.
Duke officially offered Thornton today. It’s over.
For those that laughed, DT to Duke is picking up a LOT of steam. DT is supposed to visit Duke soon according to various outlets.
It has been about that since the offer came in. Of course Duke is a threat, especially with Battle heavily interested as well. From what little I read from the Duke side though. They also seem to be well aware that Michigan is in the hunt. Still a good bit of recruitment left for Derryck.
Well, 2016 will be interesting. With that class, we will have playing time available, so if we do happen to miss out on the key targets, we can likely rule out playing time concerns.
If MattD turns out to be right, and we simply can’t compete with the Dukes and UKs for elite recruits, then we’ll have to go back to the “old” strategy we used (finding underrated guys and offering them early) that worked so successfully with the likes of Morris, Hardaway, Burke, Robinson, Stauskas, Levert, and Irvin. (I would count McGary, Walton and Chatman as highly regarded guys when they committed).
I think, based on the past two years, the staff correctly decided to take a shot with all these elite kids, no matter how it turns out. If they hadn’t, they would be criticized for not doing so.
I’m sure they (staff) would have done the same thing (offered many scholarships) if they had as much interest coming from the '14 and '15 classes.
Well, we did offer a lot of scholarships. In 2014, in addition to the five kids we ended up signing, we offered KBD, Booker, Blueitt, Vince Edwards, Grantham, Blackmon, and I’m sure we would have offered Looney if we had gotten him to visit.
In 2015, they were more selective, but still ended up offering Kennard, Coleman, Davis, Brunson, Dozier, and again, I’m sure Ellenson and Swanigan would have received offers if they had visited.
I think many of these kids correctly perceived that significant early playing time was not available.
I must have misunderstood. I thought you were suggesting they changed their philosophy with the 2016 class.
I think they did, somewhat, in that they targeted really highly ranked kids for the first time, almost to the exclusion of any other kids. Towns and Teske are two exceptions. I think this is the first recruiting class where we will, hopefully, see the recruiting bump that came from going to the title game.
I saw a headline on Rivals some time ago that DT was planning another fall visit to UM. Any word on if that’s been confirmed, and if so when it will be?
See my post from 8 days ago - DT to release top 10 this week and visit UM for OV in 15. Was tentatively scheduled to visit last week for PSU but that never came to fruition
Thanks, I figured it was in the thread somewhere, but sometimes I don’t like retreading these threads. Will look forward to hearing how the visit goes.
Thornton is now visiting Kentucky in January rather than for Big Blue Madness.
I’m pretty sure that DT’s dad said something to the effect of “we want to make visits during the middle of the week to get a better feel for academics/campus life” - this would seem to fall in line with that statement. Starting to think that Duke will overtake UK in the pecking order…hopefully that doesn’t have any negative implications for UM