Well, one big difference is Iggy’s ability to put the ball on the floor and score off the dribble. Blanchard did not do much of that.
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I don’t remember Blanchard’s game well enough to comment. I’d love to see some advanced stats like Dylan uses to compare Iggy and Blanchard (maybe against Sims and Livers too). I do know that Blanchard’s usage his last two years were higher than Iggy.
He didn’t have the ability to put the ball on the floor and score. He was a solid three point shooter when he got an open look, and he was an excellent offensive rebounder who scored a lot that way. He was probably at his best during his freshman year as a second or even third option when Crawford was playing and Gaines was running the point.
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Blanchard also was a bad and indifferent defender, as well as a guy whose assist/turnover ratio was bad for a wing. Individual turnovers weren’t a recorded stat in his first season–in the last three, he had 121 assists in total versus 184 turnovers. That’s a slightly worse ratio then freshman Iggy, who was roundly criticized for his lack of passing.
LaVell had very good scoring and rebounding stats at Michigan, and of course those matter. I applaud his good citizenship in the context of the Ellerbe line of recruits who did not roll that way, and I realize he played for bad teams. However, I have talked to those within the program who coached LaVall in his last two seasons, and the repeated mantra was that he was a very nice kid who was unwilling to work on things he wasn’t good at, and preferred instead to spend individual practice time working only on on the thing he already did best, namely, shoot.
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I remember watching Blanchard play high school ball, but my memories from the Ellerbe and Amaker years are hazy. That’s probably for the best.
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The other thing we’ll never know is how much the context of those teams played into his career. Blanchard is the player I most wish would have played during Beilein’s tenure because I think he would have been an ideal forward under his system. Blanchard played on really bad teams for most of his career and we’ll never know what happens in an alternate universe.
I was surprised that Blanchard didn’t have a longer international career, though it seemed successful with its short tenure.
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Gavin Groninger is another. Came in to school with a rep as a long-range shooter with good size for a 2-guard. Showed well as a freshman alongside Crawford and Gaines. Then…
Lester Abram, too. Wonder how his career would have turned out with a better skills development coach and a more structured offensive system.
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There are so many guys from the Amaker years that I would have loved to see under Beilein- Daniel Horton, Chris Hunter, Dion Harris in addition to Abram would have all fit really well into a Beilein system. I would have loved to see Horton develop under Beilein, he had a better Freshman year than any Beilein PG not named Trey Burke but didn’t improve too much over his four years. Sadly, a common theme of the Amaker era.
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Groninger was awful. IIRC, he shot less than 20% on threes. Abram was a very nice player who was plagued by injury.
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Lester was a great player until his injury
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32% for his career. 37.5% (on over 4 attempts per game) as a Freshman.
(Sorry, off topic for the thread)
Well, the issue would be JB really values passing and dribbling, and Blanchard wasn’t great at either. I’m not sure he would have been much better under JB. A guy like Lou Bullock, on the other hand, might be a different story.
He had that one really good game against Georgia Tech as a freshman in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, and then struggled.
But he was a classic example of a shooter in an offense where he couldn’t get any open looks. Probably would have been like Stu if JB were coaching.
Interesting. Personally I can picture Blanchard fitting in perfectly as a 4 under coach b pretty much playing the exact role livers is now or a combo of livers last year and gr iii.
I don’t remember Blanchard being a bad defender either whoever mentioned that. I remember it being the opposite actually but I could be way off I was pretty young.
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I don’t remember Blanchard being a bad defender but I remember us being a bad defensive team when he was there.
Let me bring this thread back to the “2020Transfer Market.” 
This comment by EOG24 points to the fact that while Chaundee Brown may have played on a poor defensive team at Wake, that doesn’t mean that he is necessarily a bad defender. With the right coaching and mindset he actually may prove to be quite good.
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Wow Canadian kid too, really wish we had. scholarship available
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Man he’d be such a better fit than Nojel…crazy that he’s transferring. I hope Izzo doesn’t get involved
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Nembhard is really good
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