Just don’t understand how some of you think JB can do no wrong. He is not perfect and quite simply getting beat in recruiting lately. Talk all you want about development but recruiting talent helps too. What about Horford? No one said a word about the staff unable to keep him around to help. Is it ALL on Horford. The staff couldn’t recruit it’s own guy to stick around. That was a fail. Simply put. Our last few recruits ate not up to big 10 champ standards. Improvement needs to happen. We ate in on a lot of 2016. But that is a world of difference than actually landing them. Because we failed to land our big targets the last 2 years with exception to Chatman.
Its pure delusion to think success will be sustained without a few more top 100 kids though (specifically a PG and a dynamic,athletic wing)
I agree. Our roster is, and will continue to be, littered with top 100 kids. The notion that supporting/trusting the coaches if they proactively choose Robinson over Coleman (as this would be) lacks objectivity is…strange. Because I don’t see anyone saying that.
I think everyone needs to take a step back on this Duncan Robinson thing.
Michigan isn’t really trending positively on the Jalen Coleman front and there aren’t a lot of other great options in '15. They’ve kicked the tires around on Ali, Williams, etc. but none of those options seem particularly likely at this point.
Robinson probably isn’t the next star of Michigan’s offense, but I think we’ve pretty well established that Beilein can make use out of a lengthy shooter. What do you lose by adding him?
There’s still an additional scholarship in 2015 (and that’s without LeVert to the NBA, etc) and Robinson will have a year to learn the system and gain muscle.
There’s little doubt that Michigan needs to add some star power to its future roster, but it also seems like the 2016 class is where that starpower is going to need to come from. In the near term, for next season I think it’s more likely that they need one of MAAR, Dawkins and Robinson to develop into a legitimate starter/rotation player. Is that possible? I guess we’ll see.
If Michigan were to land Robinson and three players that it has offered in the class of 2016 (even lump in some of the next tier that hasn’t been offered yet)… I feel like the direction of the program is pretty well set.
Its pure delusion to think success will be sustained without a few more top 100 kids though (specifically a PG and a dynamic,athletic wing)I agree. Our roster is, and will continue to be, littered with top 100 kids. The notion that supporting/trusting the coaches if they proactively choose Robinson over Coleman (as this would be) lacks objectivity is…strange. Because I don’t see anyone saying that.
I think people are just worried because all of the eggs are in 2016’s basket.
Ben you never cease to make me laugh. Until a season happens where we stop seeing success I’m not going to worry about recruiting. You are the ultimate star gazer.
Just relax. We won a big ten title with Stu, Zak, and Jordan Morgan in the starting lineup. We will never have a lineup with that little raw talent again. There are exactly zero programs (including ucla, Arizona, duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, etc.) who compete for championships literally every year but if Michigan can do it 3 out of every 5 years that will be awesome.
Wait to panic until there is evidence justifying your panic.
Ben you’re right about JB, he’s not perfect and I don’t think anyone is. I don’t see his team as a failure, the body of work is a win in my opinion. He is doing better than any coach at Michigan in the past 25 years…is he getting beat at recruiting sure…on floor not so much!
As I see it
UM need an heir apparent to Walton w/ MAAR backing up
UM need an heir apparent to Irvin w/ Robinson backing up
Chatman and Wilson on the wings w/ Dawkins and 2 of Leaf/Moyer/Towns backing up
Donnal or Doyle as the post w/ the other backing up and Teske/2016 big
Still leaves an extra scholarship to add probably at the guard spot. Not bad.
Recruiting goes in two year cycles… As long as you don’t have two down years in a row you will be fine as a program
Just don't understand how some of you think JB can do no wrong.
Define “wrong”. We simply don’t know how these situations will pan out. How are you so sure they won’t? I bet you thought Novak could never win the B1G.
But the point is, what more could he have reasonably done to earn the benefit of the doubt until he actually fails? We are very, very lucky to have him as head coach. What he has accomplished within the confines of running the program with integrity and class is well beyond anyone’s reasonable expectations. That’s why people are suggesting you calm down…not that he’s infallible, it’s that he’s earned his way above this type of criticism right now.
What about Horford? No one said a word about the staff unable to keep him around to help. Is it ALL on Horford. The staff couldn't recruit it's own guy to stick around. That was a fail. Simply put.
It was abundantly clear that Horford had much different criteria in mind for his senior season. Beilein may not be perfect, but personally, I’ll go with his idea of what works for program culture and team chemistry above yours.
Our last few recruits ate not up to big 10 champ standards. Improvement needs to happen. We ate in on a lot of 2016. But that is a world of difference than actually landing them. Because we failed to land our big targets the last 2 years with exception to Chatman.
If you want to be concerned or nervous, go right ahead. But to actually think Beilein is “wrong” or “failing” right now is, frankly, absurd. It smacks of someone that wouldn’t be satisfied unless we won every recruiting battle and every game. It doesn’t work like that. It has never worked like that, even when the program didn’t disadvantage itself relative to others.
I guess if people want to freak out about 2016 right now that is their right. I think we have a very good roster for this coming year (2014) and will highly likely have one for next year (2015) even if we don’t get a single 2015 recruit. That’s two more fun, exciting years of winning basketball to enjoy. Based on the staff’s history of recruiting success, our development of NBA players, guys who are high on us now, and the likely continued on-court success. it’s highly likely we’ll get some top players in '15 or '16.
And it’s also likely that some of the under-the-radar recruits will turn into valuable players. Sure, not everyone can be Caris, but Stu, Zack and JMo, Spike and Horford too, have all been good B1G players or solid roll players. There is a great distance between “everything we touch turns to gold” and healthy, realistic optimism based on past performance. But, like I said, if people want to freak out now, that is up to them, but it doesn’t seem like fun, and it doesn’t seem necessary either.
I guess the ultimate query for me is, why DONT talented wings with UM offers for 15 seem to be interested in us? They certainly can’t be scared of MAAR, Dawkins, and potentially Robinson can they? It’s not like we haven’t offered top 100 players, but for some reason their general consensus of us is not encouraging. Why? It looks as if we are going to be rejected by most if not all of our preferred offers, and that is mystifying after our recent success and development rate.
JB can’t close!!!
I’ll bet anyone even money we make the tournament next year.
Sure, our post defense will be quite young. Last time I checked, though, there were not a lot of true post threats in college basketball. In the Big Ten, Payne is gone, Vonleh is gone, and other than Kaminski at Wisconsin (who did plenty of damage last year), I’m struggling to think of a team with a post player I would worry about - certainly not that gawky, Woodbury from Iowa, for example. Kaminski will be tough, and playing at Arizona will be tough, though Tarc is certainly nothing special on offense.
I feel like this team may be longer all the way around - Irvin may end up being longer than Nik on defense, same with Chatman/GR3, same with Doyle/Donnal compared to J-Mo. By the end of the year, I think we’ll be quite good. I see Walton as the key to the season. If he can really raise his level of play the way that Morris and Burke did from their freshman to sophomore years, this team can be quite good.
I’d predict top 3-5 in the Big Ten at worst, and a seed somewhere around the 4-8 range. The only team in the Big Ten that looks clearly better to me is Wisconsin, who will probably be ranked top 5 nationally to start the year. I’d say the battle for 2-5 will be us, OSU, MSU, and perhaps Indiana.
I love how everyone wants us to follow the Kentucky model. Last time we did that, we had a totally dysfunctional team (The Taylor class followed by the Traylor class). Not to mention we landed on serious probation.
Nobodu wants us to follow the Kentucky model. NOBODY. So stop using this strawman to support your point. I like many people have no problem trusting the staff’s judgment on recruiting. But you are burying your head in the sand if you think the staff did not prioritize other wing players more.
LA I love your optimism. But since you offered I will take you up on the tourney bet for this upcoming year. I will not dispute any of your assertions or projections, but believe THIS team is full of too many “unknown what ifs” to be an even money proposition for the tourney. Our best player is coming off an injury ( Max as well ) and the potential to be unable to stop anybody is certainly a major concern. This is gonna be a development year for a lot of “youngsters” in areas where experience ( even one year ) is invaluable. I see numerous red flags. I hope I am absolutely wrong and I see you at our first round game in Dayton? to pay up! What are the ( steaks) stakes?
LOL they are not going to miss the tourney. This is the third year in a row where Michigan has a shot at big ten player of the year. Caris Levert, Kaminsky and Dekker will be the best guys in the league next year. Not to mention there are no teams in the conference besides Wisconsin that will be a powerhouse. MSU lost a lot, OSU lost a lot. And aside from Wisconsin there are no dominant bigs to worry about in the league.
Michigan won’t even be a bubble team. Some of you make me laugh with how pessimistic and paranoid you are about everything
I can’t wait to revisit this thread during the season. Should make for interesting conversation
LOL they are not going to miss the tourney. This is the third year in a row where Michigan has a shot at big ten player of the year. Caris Levert, Kaminsky and Dekker will be the best guys in the league next year. Not to mention there are no teams in the conference besides Wisconsin that will be a powerhouse. MSU lost a lot, OSU lost a lot. And aside from Wisconsin there are no dominant bigs to worry about in the league.Michigan won’t even be a bubble team. Some of you make me laugh with how pessimistic and paranoid you are about everything
Lot of unknowns to me. Glad these threads are archived. I’m presuming that any injuries do not nullify the bet? The past two years have instilled a lot of confidence in this vastly inexperienced and unproven team. They will struggle mightily in the non-conference against legitimate foes. Payne was NOT a dominant interior big guy last year, he morphed into a catch and shoot 3 ball man almost all last year.
If Duncan Robinson comes to UM… he will go to Italy? Does he play? One thing is for sure, the practices should be of a higher quality this year.
Every team has a lot of unknowns. MSU lost their best 3 players. OSU lost their senior PG and best scorer. Iowa lost their best player. Indiana lost Vonleh and Sheehy.
After Wisconsin, the big ten is going to be wide open and I’ll take my chances with the best player on the court every night. Caris is going to explode this year