Actually, most seem to think he is waiting for Duke and Kentucky to get involved.
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I think you are getting way too worked up about an anonymous blog post. I guarantee you Brian Bowen is not reading this blog and even if he was he would not care what someone thought about his top 12 list
Good response! Way to really hammer down on my points! I donāt think he cares either, but I also think that criticizing a kid for enjoying a once in a lifetime process is a really bad look, and I have a problem with it. If I have a problem with something someone does Iām not afraid to tell them. Thus my post was made. Brian Bowen is probably not coming here. That doesnāt mean any discussion of him on an Internet forum has to be immediately halted by you or this Chez guy saying āOMG guyz ur waisting youāre time hes totally not coming hear tht top 12 was total BS!!!1!1!ā He has every right to be deliberate and make sure heās making the right choice. Iāve said it 3 times but it apparently bears repeating: Saying someone is 100% going to a school before heās taken any of his official visits is dumb. You can chastise him for wanting to make the right choice, taking his time, and releasing his top schools slowly, and I can tell you I think youāre being ridiculous. Itās how discussion works.
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āIām interested in them,ā Bowen said. āCoach Beilein has been there for awhile and theyāve put a lot of guys in the league. They are not out of the hunt. As of right now, Iām still talking to them.ā
This summer, Michigan lost Bacari Alexander from its staff, who was one of the primary recruiters on Bowen. Saddi Washington has filled that role, but, increasingly, Beilein is taking it upon himself to pursue Bowen.
āCoach Beilein has really made it a priority to talk to me a lot more,ā Bowen said.
The staff has been trying to get Bowen to visit for a football game for weeks now. The staff is starting to become a bit frustrated that Bowen seemingly has not taken his recruitment very seriously, at least as it relates to Michigan. A lot of comments in there are red flags for me:
On MSU - ābut Iām not 100 percent to a school until I commit there.ā Sounds as if he already knows where heās going a bit
On M - āAs of right now, Iām still talking to themā. Sounds as if he already knows UM wonāt be in it for long, hence the right now language.
I wouldnāt get my hopes up too high with this one. Everything Bowen said in this interview is consistent with my information.
A) Heās in no rush to make a decision
B) MSU is recruiting him the hardest
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Donāt disagree. Seems like all signs point toward MSU unless a blue blood comes in with an offer.
But if we get him in for a visit, never know if momentum shifts or he ends up delaying decision. Maybe he really bonds with Donlon or Washington in person. Or some of the other players.
Not saying that canāt happen, but heās already visited, and more than once. I honestly hope heās just blunt with the staff and tells them exactly where we stand within the next few weeks.
I can tell you the staff was very frustrated with Bowen when he released a top 12, which is sort of a joke .
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Has he visited since the new assistant hires?
I have no hopes we get him and yes, if he is essentially not considering us at all I hope he is blunt with us, but if thereās even a small chance it canāt hurt.
Yes, he visited in June after Saddi and Donlon were on board. Even more telling, is that JB is now picking up his recruitment, which may convey that JB thinks that he is needed more perhaps because the assistants werenāt connecting as well as desired. Based on my information, it has nothing to do with the assistants, heās simply not coming to Michigan.
Iāll be very candid, although I donāt think it will happen, I really hope UK offers. If not, itās going to be very difficult to deal with a class that has a high probability of ending up with Jaren Jackson, Brian Bowen, and Nojel Easternā¦especially if Izzo is able to convince Bridges and Langford to stay. That would be his most talented team in years.
Even if we get both Bamba and Cain and hit on all our other 16 & 17 recruits, thatād be a tough group to deal with.
Yeah I havenāt had any hope for this recruitment in a long time so that less than excited interview about us doesnāt surprise me. Iām holding out any hope of a 5 star for Bamba, which is kinda funny given heās the random guy who just popped up one day and the ones weāve already missed on weāve been recruiting for awhile.
Yeah, I think heās waiting for a Kentucky offer that may or may not come, and if it doesnāt he picks MSU with little hesitation.
As I recall, heās related to Jason Richardson. It would be an upset for one of Trey Burkeās relatives to pick MSU over us.
Give me Cain or Bamba in 2017, and Johns, Carmody and Ryan in 2018, and I think we have a roster that can be very competitive. (I know, MattD, youāre not a big Johns fan. I like what I see so far).
I donāt think heās ever said heās not a fan of Johns or doesnāt like him, just that he thinks heās been overrated by the sites. I believe heās always maintained he was a 80-120 type prospect, not top 40 like several sites had him at one point.
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Exactly. I think Johns is a nice prospect, but the thought of him being a top 15-20 type (as he was a year ago) is ridiculous. It was ridiculous then, and would be even moreso now. If I were ranking Johns heād probably be 80ish
Really a shame they didnāt make Eastern a priority since he really seemed to be interested in UM, unlike Bowen. Seems they jumped on Brooks very shortly after offering Eastern.
Being candid about it, Iām sick to death about the way that situation was handled. Again, my evaluation of Brooks is far from informed, but based on limited film, he appears to be the type of player you can get late in the signing period. To think he cost us Eastern just hurts my feelings every time I think about it.
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After the Battle/Langford debacle do you attribute instances like taking the Brooks commitment to Beilein taking whoever wants to commit over waiting out out more talented players?
I have not seen much in the way of footage like everyone else. If Michigan was the only one to offer and take him I would be very concerned. However the fact that he had other offers from pretty solid programs such as Nova gives me a little comfort. However I agree it feels like we sold ourselves short a bit by taking the commit so early and cutting ourselves off from some more talented prospect. Here is hoping Brooks works out and surprises us all but I feel like taking him was a little trigger happy.
IF anything, the Battle/Langford situation should have led JB to take as many talented players as he could get regardless of scholarships and positional fit (to a certain extent obviously). If we would have continued to recruit Langford, maybe he commits to us instead of MSU. And maaaybe we keep Battle but maybe not. But Langford on our roster going forward would look really really good.
I donāt quite understand taking Brooks AND laying off Eastern. I would have gladly taken both as they can fit in different places IMO. I donāt think Brooks is a bad player, but if I knew it would mean weād stop recruiting Eastern, I would have said we could wait. Especially because we had a kid like Cohill in the 18 class that liked us.
Thatās exactly what I mean. We should have learned our lessons in that if we take Brooks we still take Eastern if we can at least recruit him. Cohill talented as well but I donāt think we could effectively take Cohill from a roster redundancy point since I donāt think with Simpson on board definitely not room for 3 PGās, none of which can spend a majority of minutes at other spots at once when we do have other needs on the roster.
Eastern has the ability to play other spots but I believe wants to be recruited as a PG. But if taking Brooks means we effectively end recruiting at that spot then I donāt know if Brooks is worth it. For what it appears we will ask of Brooks I donāt think itās a role that couldnāt of been added later in the recruiting process if we whiff on more talented players in the meantime.