For me, Cain is similar to Hardaway and GR3, so I’m happy to have a guy who is athletic and a solid shooter. Of course, now that Bamba is a possibility, I have to imagine they see what he’s going to do before accepting a commitment from Cain.
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I think Poole will be a better shooter, but they play different positions so it really doesn’t matter. I would have been happy with a Cain commitment at any time, still would be.
Perhaps you cant say, but: have you heard anything along the lines of “the staff wants to see what they have in Ibi, before going all-in on Cain?” While I dont want to count out Ibi before he has played a collegiate game, at least right now, Cain looks like the far superior player and prospect. Just wondering if that thought process may have something to do with slow-playing Cain.
Everything will play out within the next month or so
I think Cain is universally viewed as a far superior prospect in relation to Watson by everyone on this board, rankings services, and college coaches. Basically everyone in the world other than John Miller lol
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In 17-18 it would appear to come down to Poole/Watson/Cain all battling for the same slot in the rotation — 15-20mins off the bench behind MAAR & Matthews at the 2/3 slots.
Beilein doesn’t go to a deep rotation so 5 starters plus a backup Center, Livers (or DJ Wilson) as a backup at the “4” spot, one of Poole/Watson/Cain as a backup small wing, Brooks as a backup PG. That makes a 9-deep rotation for a coach who leans more 7 or 8 deep?
I agree with you, but to be fair to Watson, the same was said about both LeVert & MAAR in relation to pending recruiting targets at this point of their freshman years? Not saying Watson will become that level of diamond in the rough, but as much as you point out the benefits of Sophomore year Cain vs Freshman year Ryan/Carmody/etc there should be some flexibility to the correlation of Sophomore year Watson to Freshman year Cain?
Can’t say that personally, go back and look at my thoughts about MAAR and Levert. I thought both, in particular MAAR, were extremely underrated. I do agree with you though there is some room for contrary opinion.
Yea maar jumped out at me from the start. I think some of it was because he added a skill set we lacked. Ibis last mixtape was good. Is that not Indicative of the player he really is?
His senior year video is what sold me. I liked his game during his last eybl season(although he shot poorly) and the transformation he made from that summer to his senior year was pretty impressive.
Ye I thought that video showed a lot more then previous. I was very impressed
Bottom line is that motor is a key attribute that most people on this board fail to account for. When you have a guy that plays the game fast, most likely he is going to succeed if he has any type of skills or athleticism.
Generally speaking guys that play the game at a very slow pace have the biggest transition in college. That is a concern I have with Ibi Watson, his motor isn’t very impressive on top of his skills being average. Its the reason why I don’t like the idea of taking guys like Austin Davis and DJ Wilson…it takes years before guys like that are ready to play meaningful minutes
Well Watson had better be ready, because we are super thin on the wing currently so he has to play.
Regardless of how this plays out, there will be some unhappy guys. Why? Beilein only plays 8-9 guys. That means that four or five of these guys probably won’t be happy.
We all want instant impact guys yet it will take some of these guys 2-3 years to potentially make an impact. It’s one of the biggest challenges coaches have right now. If guys aren’t happy with playing time, then they transfer. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t mind the Davis pickup (I never said I liked the pickup. You can make a “mistake” with a big but it’s a lot harder when you make one with a guard), he won’t be a factor for at least a couple of years, and that’s ok with the other guys that are there.
Cain drastically changes the complexion of the team with his athleticism. If you can get him and Bamba, with the addition of Matthews, the team is VERY different than it has been. Would be fun for us but maybe not the 11th-13th guy.
The thought of Matthews, Cain, and Bamba banging out on defenders rather than the soft layups that constantly get blocked is intoxicating for me personally. Would love to see that happen.
To be fair, most of Beilein’s teams only had 8-9 people worthy of playing.
Here’s how the rotations have played out with a cutoff of 12% of available minutes (>10% is what kenpom uses to define a non-rotation player but I’ll bump it up to 12%).
2008: 10
2009: 11
2010: 9
2011: 8
2012: 7
2013: 9
2014: 9
2015: 10 when healthy
2016: 10
Looking at the years with less than 10 it’s clear that Michigan didn’t have anyone else on the roster who was worthy of being in the rotation. I think if he has players who prove themselves to be good enough to play then they will get minutes.
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Completely understand and thanks for the stats. What I should’ve said Beilein and almost all other coaches don’t go more than 10 deep. Making for at least three unhappy campers.
Agree that 10 is generally the cutoff. I still think some of the young guys will have minutes normally given to one bench player split in half between a couple guys, at least early in the season. Then once Beilein figures out what lineups work best we’ll trim the rotation.
247 Post Summer Rankings Update - Jamal Cain now #82/4 star in the country. Looks like my 60-80 assessment from 1 year ago was spot on.
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You’ve had me convinced that he’s a take for a while now, but it is nice to see some consensus. Along with the talent, it would be great to get Cain and Livers, two of the best (if not the two best) 2017 prospects in our own state.
So after all the flack I took from some people about Cain (John Miller lol) in terms of being the only one to think he was that good, he would hypothetically be the highest ranked player of any of our current commits with Livers dropping to 144. Go figure.
Had to get that one in JM lol. I know you don’t mind