**also think having our 3 future starters pegged with Simpson, Poole and Matthews in the backcourt positions may not help us land perimeter oriented guys, but that’s just my opinion.
None of those three have even stepped foot on the Crisler floor in a UM uniform yet, so I wouldn’t peg them as the starters and only Simpson will be a returning player. Don’t see how that would scare away any 2017 recruit of any stature.
Not exactly a good comparison when GR3 was 6’6" 220 (mgoblue.com) and Jamal Cain is 6’7" 175 (247). I think we can all see the potential issues with a guy like that defending the four in the Big Ten.
I don’t think Glenn weighed nearly that much as a freshman. But great, then maybe Mathews does it instead, or maybe after MAAR graduates, one of them slides to the two instead. There is a ton of playing time and scoring opportunities at the wing positions in this offense, hopefully Cain realizes that.
Matthews is 6’5" 190. That’s the size of a shooting guard, not even a Beilein 3/4. The comment you were responding to was posing the question that Cain might be worried about guarding the 4. To me that would be a legitimate concern for him as we’ve seen how much that can drain a guy 30+ pounds heavier than that in Irvin. He may want to wait and see if one of our targets at the 4 jumps on board before he commits. In my opinion having skinny 6’5" guys guarding the opponent’s 4 is a disaster waiting to happen. That’s why I really hope Duncan can get stronger.
Good stuff.
I’m noticeably higher on Simpson and Poole than most in this board I think, so maybe that’s where I’m coming from. Would absolutely love to get Cain, but I’m growing skeptical on whether he should be the priority with Matthews in the fold over more natural 4s on our board.
I guess I cant say for sure, but: save for a few, I think most people on the board would agree that getting an instant-impact 4 is THE priority. Jackson would be the most insane coup, since probably Mitch.
More shooting ability still needs to be added to the 2017 class. I also really like X and Poole (and Matthews), but X and Matthews aren’t especially great shooters. But I think both the staff and this forum believe that a quality 4 is first priority
I wouldn’t say 6-5 is the size of a typical college shooting guard. That’s the NBA prototype, sure, but even in the NBA many of them aren’t that tall. James Blackmon (6-2, maybe 6-3) is a more typical college shooting guard. MAAR is about the same.
I’m not real sure guarding fours was Irvin’s problem, as much as his back injury. We’ve had Novak guarding fours, we’ve had Glenn guarding fours, and we’ve won at a pretty high clip in both situations. Would it be ideal to have a Jaren Jackson, Isaiah Livers or Kyle Young to do that? Absolutely. Could we still have a really good team, and really good offense, playing an undersized four? Certainly. I can’t recall too many games where some team really abused Glenn in the post, for example. In fact, I remember the Florida game where they tried that with Erik Murphy a few times, he didn’t make any shots, and that was the end of it.
Size as in weight. Height is rarely as important as fans would like to think. Wingspan is MUCH more important. 190 is around a college shooting guard’s size. Most would probably like them to be even heavier than that. Playing 4 at 190 would be, as I’ve said a couple times, a disaster.
I think 6-5 or 6-6 around 220, 225 pounds is probably what you would want out of the new wave of small ball fours in the Big Ten. That’s about where someone like Jae’Sean Tate measures out.
Wherever he plays, I think it will be a priority for Matthews to add some weight.
Back on topic with Cain… I think the fair assessment is that he has shown the offensive game of what Michigan would want at the four – three point threat, good cutter and finisher, attack close outs – but probably isn’t strong enough to guard it right now.
He can improve his ball skills and look more like a traditional wing or add weight. Still time left in his development.
I agree completely. I think he has the perfect skillset for a 4 in our offense. That’s why I really want to see how much muscle he can add. Even if he can get up to Irvin level that might be worth it given what he can do going baseline (from his tape at least).
I would say Chane Behanan is an undersized 4 he was pretty much the difference in the national title game. Nobody could really guard him.
He was 6’7" 253 lbs that season (Those are combine numbers so they’re legit). If that’s undersized than good God probably 90% of the 4’s in the country are undersized.
Not to mention, you have to look at the situation as a whole, not one position.
First of all, Louisville was a deep, experienced team - Russ Smith, Peyton Siva, Luke Hancock (and if you want to point to “the difference” in the game, I’d say it was his big three point shooting in the first half which brought them right back into the game).
Second, Glenn Robinson was a huge part of our success. Maybe, in one game, if we had someone with more size to guard Bohanen, we could have won. But I’d also suggest we don’t even get there without Glenn Robinson.
Of course, if we could land a 6-10, great outside shooter at the four who can also play great post defense, that’s the best of all worlds. That’s probably we why are putting such a priority on Kyle Young (and I’m sure we would with Jackson, too, if getting him was more realistic). But if the alternative is Glenn Robinson, that’s hardly a bad alternative.
So, AlbrechtShotFake, yes, if we could land the perfect four, I’m all in favor of it. If not, you’re going to have a pretty hard time convincing me that the Glenn Robinson years were anything other than very successful.
Imagine Cain will be adding some more offers after the next few weeks.
Probably hurts a bit missing out on the Peach Jam in terms of exposure though.
Good weekend for Cain at Peach Invitational.
Box scores from Jamal Cain’s games this weekend
http://basketball.exposureevents.com/73985/e/documents/gamestatistics?ids=2024251&output=pdf&r=6
http://basketball.exposureevents.com/73985/e/documents/gamestatistics?ids=2024259&output=pdf&r=6
http://basketball.exposureevents.com/73985/e/documents/gamestatistics?ids=2024264&output=pdf&r=6
http://basketball.exposureevents.com/73985/e/documents/gamestatistics?ids=2022371&output=pdf&r=6
http://basketball.exposureevents.com/73985/e/documents/gamestatistics?ids=2022377&output=pdf&r=6
Closed really strong, looks like the 26.7 PPG that @MattD tweeted was just from the last three games. Averaged 19.8 points per game though, very solid weekend.