OK, let’s frame it a different way. If our staff believed Barrett was a realistic option, they would not have moved on to Nunez without first determining what Barrett was going to do.
No halfway competent coaching staff would do that. And since we’ve made the national championship game twice in the past five years, I’d say the time for challenging the compentency of this staff has long come and gone.
Nunez has little if anything to do with it. It’s kind of obvious that the Iggy & Barrett offers were for the “wolf” spot. Once they had Iggy (arguably a 5*) they really didn’t need Barrett. Bird in the hand.
Dude, come on.
We regularly recruit wings who can and do play multiple positions. Barrett was the #1 recruit in the country, and at 6-6 could play anything from the 1-3 at a very high level.
There is no chance the coaches said, “Well, we got our stud wing player, now we don’t need Barrett, but we should still recruit Nunez.”
What is far more likely is that after we got Iggy, we wanted to make sure Barrett’s interest was indeed strong, because if he was a long shot, we still wanted to be able to land Nunez as a fallback option because we liked him enough to offer. And I think that’s exactly how it played out. We didn’t stop recruiting a five star wing player because we preferred a three star instead.
This is the Joe Girard thread, no?
How much you talkin?
“I talk to Coach Beilein at least a few times a week,” the younger Girard said. “Obviously, my dad played for him and I’ve had a really good relationship with him my whole life.
“He calls me, lets me know how he’s feeling and everything. He’s a really open guy and does everything by the book. He’s done a really good job communicating with me and making me feel wanted at Michigan.
“He tells me I’m the best shooter in the country and that I can come in and play right away with their style of basketball.”
I know people have been lukewarm on Girard, almost from the beginning. And obviously the buzz between the two parties has certainly calmed. But if the comparisons were even somewhat accurate, I’m sure we’d take a Gerry McNamara or Matt Farrell in a heartbeat on our team, no?
Just curious, did we actually cool off on him? Or did he cool off on us? Or is he still a realistic possibility but because the offer wasn’t immediately accepted he’s just not a frequent topic of discussion these days?
Sounds like Beilein is still in contact on a regular basis, though it does certainly seem like we’ve back-burnered him, even after Carton.
Girard said in the article linked by Dylan that there is a scholarship available to which ever guard commits first.
Just my opinion - a guy who can shoot like Girard will always be welcome on the roster, and I wouldn’t be surprised if JB felt the same, especially considering his family connection. Think of a guy like Phil Forte III on OKSt a couple years ago.
From what I’ve heard is that essentially everyone but Beilein would rather Michigan go all in for the handful of big non offer players (Anthony, Bajema, Beverly, Quinones, etc). Not saying Beilein prefers Girard over all those guys, but most the staff besides him have Girard last in the pecking order now basically. Every D1 coach I’ve talked to during the live periods also think Michigan would be wise to back off him. They wonder if he’s even good enough to make a big impact at a mid major level D1. Beilein is still interested in Girard, but he’s backed off some compared to when the offer came in.
I’m sure you’re more in the know than I am, and some people have been down on Girard from the start – not to mention it’s often exciting to look at the new, shiny thing. Although Girard does have offers from Duke, Cuse, Oklahoma, etc. Really can’t have too many shooters and a guy like that can be a real weapon. We saw last year how a lack of shooting can really bog down the offense. In the end, I’ll still trust Beilein over pretty much everyone else.
One complication is the small size of the class. If UM was going to sign 4 people in October, I think a shooter like Girard, who’s also the QB of his football team with low-major scholarship offers, and the family connections, would really be a no-brainer for JB. If it’s only going to be Wilson and one other player signing, that could be a different story.
Bajema’s size and handle/playmaking ability make him a much more intriguing prospect for me.
This, I agree with 100%. He looks like a poor man’s Mike Dunleavy out there. I’ll take that any day.
I’ve heard Duke has already backed way off of Girard. That’s why Syracuse is trending up because they didn’t really want him after watching him more.
That’s where the class size comes into play – if it’s only one of Bajema or Girard.
Well, like I said, you’re more in the know than I am, though I’m not sure how good the sources are w/r/t Duke’s interest. In any event, the list of players that received a Duke offer at one time and had Coach K in their kitchen is pretty short, and having offers from Cuse, Oklahoma, Notre Dame seems at odds with:
Brey has worked with Girard at the U-18 USA tryouts and has a pretty good track record with shooters. Kruger seems to know generally what he’s doing. Girard was Gatorade player of the year in NY as a junior. I can see preferring other guys, particularly if it’s a small class, and not everyone JB wants succeeds, but I’m far from convinced that Girard is a fringe mid-major prospect.
Here is some video and an article of Girard getting blocked while getting to the basket while playing in an all star series in NY against other regions of the state.