Literally a national championship ceiling nearly every year. The caliber of athlete they are bringing in compared to years past is much better. Combine that with elite coaching, formation movement, competitiveness and you have all the tools.
If we miss the tourney this year, and particularly next year, Iād assume a very impatient one if you get my drift
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Last I checked, none of Kentucky, UNC, Duke, or Kansas are in the Big Ten. From my perspective, we should aim to compete for Big Ten championships, with NCAA tournament performance that corresponds to being a serious Big Ten contender. I donāt really care how we compare to Kentucky, UNC, Duke or Kansas ā though I wouldnāt mind beating Duke once in a while, like any good Michigan fan.
(I also wouldnāt mind another crack at UNC, who I donāt think weāve played since C-Webb days, but Iām not expecting to out-recruit them.)
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We may not have any of those top tier blue bloods in our conference, but weāve got incredible depth in our conference. 9 schools have made multiple Final Four trips from the B1G. Six of them have made 4+. Itās why I value a conference title quite a bit. Even if Indiana and MSU are down one year, youāve probably still got OSU, Wisconsin and Purdue to deal with. And now Maryland. Great for the program.
I think any basketball fan can appreciate all that Beilein has done.
I think many see what JB could do given heās a great coach - just needs better talent.
Sweet 16 is the line for a good season vs. underwhelming season. If you can get that far, youāre 2 wins from the Final Four. If Izzo/Sparty can do it, I donāt see why we canāt.
This program can compete with the blue bloods (or beat them) when it comes to many things:
Facilities
Coaching
Community
College atmosphere
Alumi network
Iām not going to jump on the ābagmenā train but something is clearly off. I guess maybe some kids donāt want to play for JB or they canāt handle weather that is a bit cooler than Lexington or Chapel Hill (less ice in AA!). Maybe there is something Iām not seeing but ultimately I do believe that we can compete.
The challenge that I think weāre seeing (even with Harbaugh) when it comes to us vs them/buckeyes/sparty/bball blue bloods/etc comes down to the way kids perceive the cool factor. Like it or not, many kids think itās cool to play for Cal or to have a stupid leaf that looks like pot on your head. The Fab 5 put us in the cool realm and sanctions pulled us right back down. TB3 and Nik were trending us in the right direction but we fell off.
If we figure out the cool trendy thing like Harbaugh did, we can pull almost any kid out or anywhere. Once they get here and see what we have to offer, they will know they made the right decision.
Jordan Brand should do wonders for us one would think.
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Blows my mind that this is a deciding factor for kids when so many top ranked kids play for coaches who couldnāt coach you through getting a slurpee correctly.
As much as I like Beilein, I fear he might not be the right coach to sell the Jordan Brand the way it could be sold to kids. Iād be surprised if Beilein has ever owned a pair of Jordans, so him explaining how special the Jordan Brand is to a recruit might come off as fake. I also donāt know if JB will realize how much the brand can be used as a tool.
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Are we going to football talk here? Unfortunately Iām not a big blue fan in football. In fact Iām deep DEEP in enemy territory on this one. You guys would crucify me if I wore my college football colors. Letās just say your suffering under hoke and Rodriguez was gold for me. I was sick when you guys added harbaugh. Obviously it was a perfect,match made in heaven. Imo Saban, harbaugh and,Meyer,And fisher are on another level here. I believe you four plus richt at the U are going to win every title for the next decade. Great great timing for you guys and Harbaugh. Seriously Ohio st, michigan and bama, fla at take every title over next ten ueRs
Also richt at the U is my other sleeper. I think he can rally the talent in south Florida and harness his recruiting with the area he is in and get them involved. Acc is real weak to besides Clemson and fla st so Miami could cruise to playoff , just need to win one big game a year in conference.
I wonder if footballs success will help or hurt us. Because there no doubt in my mind you guys will finish in the playoff discussion every year with harbaugh. I think it should help. Can just sell a winning,fun, sport crazy fan base who will support the team. I think this with the Jordan switch and Michigan football getting hype we will look like the cool fun party school and atmosphere that kids will gravitate too
In my eyes, a winning football program can only help with recruiting. Get kids on campus for big games against msu or OSU and let the atmosphere sell itself.
And just the opposite is true. A winning basketball program can only help recruiting in football.
As mpbear said, it will help. Thereās no real debate around that. The question is how much will it help. That depends on the level of success and how JB utilizes that success.
How many 60 year old men have own Jordanās?
To go off what others are saying, I think expectations need to be high and also realistic. If you look at EVERY program in the country, they have ups and downs. Michiganās downs were forced upon because of their major NCAA violations. Expectations are tough especially when your two best players miss a lot of the year and your best player misses the most of the year. Most teams canāt afford that, the blue bloods included. Is that Beileinās fault? Maybe, maybe not.
Itās hard to prepare to lose 5 guys to the NBA in 3 years after none of them (exception is McGary) came in with āpro hype.ā Should have he gotten more depth? Itās hard to recruit for the fall when in the previous fall you had no idea there would be any attrition. Do you hope that you fill spots in during the spring after the guys have declared? Thatās really tough for coaches. I will admit Beilein has done a good job with finding guys in the spring but that canāt be the case all the time.
Michigan is still a brand name among elite level recruits. Being a Jordan Brand team will only help. Iām not exactly how it all works as far as getting Retro Jordanās but I have to assume theyāll be available to the guys especially early in the contract.
The expectation for the program is pretty simple: It should be a B1G contender annually. Thatās how it is for all the other varsity sports; no reason MBB should be different at this point, with the Martin scandal so far in the rearview mirror now.
In terms of this year, if we had two more wins, we would be second in the conference and the bubble wouldnt be an issue. I think Caris and Spike would have been enough to get us those 2 games. And I think we would probably still lose to sparty (maybe/probably Indiana), but I dont think we would get laughed off our own court. Iām not saying that the injuries are an all-encompassing excuse to hide behind, we have still underachieved in areas (passion, consistent shooting, defense) that the depleted roster should still excel/not suck at. But, in terms of what this program should be āaiming for,ā we were on track before injuries struck (and Duncan went ice cold - that just stings so much).
The problem with the Caris/Spike scenario is that in the losses Michigan has had they havenāt been particularly close. If Spike was healthy you probably donāt see MAAR playing as much and making the impact he has made this year.
As for expectations itās hard to quantify that with how recruiting hasnāt been on the upswing, Maryland coming into the conference as well.
With them, I think we win @OSU and one of @Maryland,@Purdue,@Iowa. And while youāre right about our losses being big, I think theyād, at the very least, be less big, which would help with our eye-test. And if (I know āifā doesnt make for a strong argument) I am right about getting those 2 wins, then our team would be right where expectations should have been, for this yearā¦
The last 3 recruiting classes, Zakās inconsistency (I dont know how much to credit the surgery recovery), and Duncanās massive dip in productivity all make me nervous about reaching āMichiganā expectations next year. But, we will be playing with essentially the same rotation players next year, so I think it is reasonable to expect that (with more experience, practice, and workouts) we will be a better team next year. And I really like Xavier Simpson and Jordan Poole, for the next two years.
Michigan @ Maryland wasnāt close? Are you that dense?
You recruit harder. You land better players. You fill those voids. Because if you donāt, you get embarrassed by Michigan State.
Injuries or not. We donāt give free passes for trying your best. You have to succeed and overcome obstacles. Crean made it work after losing Blackmon to injury and heās lost quite a few guys to transfer/NBA. Izzo always figures it out. Wisconsin lost a lot more than we did, along with their coach, and theyāre clearly better than us. Texas loses Cameron Ridley (Senior averaging a double-double) and did they figure it out? Yes - since losing him theyāve jumped into the Top 25 and have several Top10 wins.
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