It was mostly tongue in cheek as an explanation for MSU’s incredible consistency over the past 20+ years. Though its not just Miles Bridges- Cassius Winston(top 30- 4 year player), Draymond Green (top 25 4 year player), Gary Harris (top 15- 2 years), Adrian Payne (top 10 player- 4 years) all were star players that seemed to linger in East Lansing. It’s great when it is your players- they are “program guys”, but when it happens to other teams it is always- “they are cheating”. The reality is in the middle, but MSU does benefit from it more than Michigan has.
1 Like
I mean, Draymond Green was not a top 25 player let alone a top 75 player. He’s much more a story of player development and even after 4 years a POTY season he was kind of a gamble.
Harris, Bridges… Those are guys who came back for another year that probably didn’t have to.
Payne, Winston just weren’t really NBA prospects or desired by the NBA all that much IMO.
I just think you could flip it around and say that Burke, Hardaway, Robinson, McGary, Franz, Moe, LeVert all came back for extra years when they tested the waters…
I will give you Draymond- I misread it as top 25, but he was the 25th best PF- that was a bit of a recruiting miss.
Michigan players ranked in the top 30 to come back for longer than expected would be Zak Irvin and Glenn Robinson. Mitch came back, but hardly benefited Michigan- though that is more bad luck than anything. The rest of the guys were not top recruiting ranking guys(above 40 that I can tell). Great players who stuck around, but the expectations with top 25 players is that they will go pro after a year (maybe two in cases) and MSU had a few stick around. I think that’s a credit to MSU and I hope Caleb Houstan or Moussa stick around this year, but I won’t hold my breath.
Winston and Payne are smart recruiting in the way that Hunter was- guys who are dynamite college players who won’t ever make it in the modern NBA really. But they were top 30 players who stuck around a bit.
1 Like
I just think it is pretty easy to paint whatever narrative you want with this take though. Franz wasn’t a top-30 guy because he was international but he probably had a real chance to be a late first-round pick. He certainly had more NBA stock at that time than someone like Cassius after their freshman years.
Similarly, I think it was pretty clear that Zak Irvin wasn’t a pro so I wouldn’t include him in this discussion.
1 Like
That was exactly my point- narrative is mostly just a perspective of team bias. Ultimately this comes back to consistency is hard, but sometimes the right players stick around. Wisconsin (and Illinois and Purdue) has the right combination of experienced returners with players who are showing their NBA potential at the same time.
Eli Brooks was critical to last years Michigan team, but is objectively not an NBA player. it doesn’t mean in college he isn’t incredibly valuable. These things can be hard to predict which is why its fun to debate and poke fun about players returning sometimes.
The #narrative has become weaker because MSU has barely had any NBA talent since Bridges/Jackson and thus less opportunities for people to come back.
1 Like
Very positive rumor out of O3 about UM future next year
Care to expand?
4 Likes
Yeah, just because Winston was ranked the way he was, doesn’t mean it makes sense for him to leave after 1 or 2 years becauase, welp, I was ranked in the top 30 that is what I am supposed to do.
Xavier Tillman going to get that bag soon though. Fans make too much about the first contract that’s pretty much peanuts. It’s that 2nd contract and JJJ/Bridges are both going to get 150 mil or so soon. I find it interesting only because MSU doesn’t have a load of guys in the NBA but Green has made a ton of green, Harris made enough money for his lifetime the same can be said for JJJ/Bridges soon. So not much quantity but the quality is real good.
TikTok coming back and playing 20mpg??
2 Likes
5th year Brandon Johns let’s goooo
4 Likes
Brooks injured for tonight’s game
O3 doesn’t know sh*^
Positive rumor out of O3 about UM future
Let’s hear them out.
7 Likes
Which is…? it’ll save the time of me logging into my account I haven’t used
1 Like
My post ain’t gonna get taken down by Dylan right?
Lmaoo, nah. Basically said Hunter is looking more and more likely to come back for another year.
4 Likes
No hoaxing please, even if it’s just a grain-of-salt rumor! 
That’s the one thing I want to hear more than anything else. I’ll hang on to a msg board rumor for now; that’s fine.
2 Likes
I take any rumors on players returning with a massive pile of salt at this point. We know for sure Dickinson, Diabate and Houstan will at least test the waters and go through the process so it’s not likely that we would hear any legitimate information regarding leanings until they have the information they need to make a decision
7 Likes
I’ll take 2 of 3 back and I don’t care which 2
12 Likes
The wording of the article was confusing but it sounds like the idea is:
Dickinson could maybe be enticed by a big NIL deal
Diabate gone?
Houstan probably staying?
Didn’t really give evidence for any of it except that people are working on the Hunter NIL thing and that Michigan was looking for help at the 5 potentially.
3 Likes