Brown calls UM staff last night, says he’s going to commit to UM but will make the announcement in his own special way in the next few days.
UM staff accepts and slaps high fives around the PDC.
UM staff calls Williams and informs him Brown has committed and they have no more room.
UM staff and Williams amicably part ways.
UM staff continues to dole out high fives and hugs as they leave the PDC for a good night sleep.
Brown eats some bad chinese, has a horrible dream about UM and the food in the dorms and decides that it’s a bad sign and decides to call UM in the am and back out on his commitment.
UM staff are blind-sided and very upset. Upon hearing the news Bacari runs to his laptop and deletes Brown from his Twitter and deletes his tweet about BT recruiting.
Webb gets wind of this and word of the anonymous tweet starts to make rounds and the frenzy begins.
If we end up losing Brown to UK I hope it won't have a further chilling effect on recruiting top prospects.
If anything, hopefully the staff will put their heads together to figure out how they can close better on these guys. We’re no Kentucky, fine, but at least we gotta set a medium-term goal of achieving recruiting parity with Izzo and Matta for goodness sakes.
I actually kind of hope for the opposite. I just don’t think we can compete with the Dukes and UKs on the recruiting trail. I don’t think it is in our best interests to focus so much time and effort on the ultra elite recruits that are being chased by everyone. If they decide during their senior year, as most do, then we will be left scrambling to cobble together a class.
It might be in our best interest to focus more on the recruits in the 30-70 range. I feel like we at least have a puncher’s chance against teams like IU, Illinois, Texas, NCSU, Florida, Ohio State, UConn, etc.
I know right now we are all “living and dying” with the recruitment of a 17 year old HS kid. There have literally been hundreds of comments on this thread in the last few days, and perhaps 50 or more since this morning. I get a little upset with myself for obsessing so much about a decision being made by a 17 year old. After having lived a long, full, and pretty darn successful life, it seems a bit silly to be so emotionally involved in all this. There are incredibly important, oftentimes tragic, sometimes wonderful things happening in the world and I’m actually allowing this recruitment to effect my emotional health. Wow! Having said this, imagine being the coaching staff at one of the final four schools in this recruitment for whom this really IS important. Part of their job depends on their ability to attract talented basketball players to their university, for what, a year or two, or maybe four or five. Not only must a player be talented he must also “fit” their system or, yes, in Michigan’s case “culture”. For these coaches it may not truly be life and death, but as far as their job is concerned it could be. So, while we profess to care, to agonize, to obsess over the decisions of these young kids, we can’t even imagine what the coaches go through. I remember vividly about thirty years ago recruiting my tail off for a kid to come to the DIII school at which I was an assistant coach. Even at that level it was painful when we lost him to the “Kentucky” of DIII in our state. My job wasn’t dependent upon getting him, but it was an extremely tough blow to me personally if not professionally. A couple of years later, I saw the kid in his hometown, he said to me, “Coach, I should have come to your school, the attraction of _______ was just too much to turn down.” If we miss on Jaylen Brown our staff will be criticized. Believe me they care as much, I really think more, than any of us. Before you criticize, please think for a moment.
It would be exceptionally dumb to turn down recruit B until the LOI is in from recruit A. It’s certainly a plausible sequence of events but, man, that would be stupid.
It would be exceptionally dumb to turn down recruit B until the LOI is in from recruit A. It's certainly a plausible sequence of events but, man, that would be stupid.
Yeah, I think Williams had some reasons other than Brown to cancel his visit. Everyone is acting like he was committing to us, we just needed a scholarship–we never had any evidence we were his front runner.
I know right now we are all "living and dying" with the recruitment of a 17 year old HS kid. There have literally been hundreds of comments on this thread in the last few days, and perhaps 50 or more since this morning. I get a little upset with myself for obsessing so much about a decision being made by a 17 year old. After having lived a long, full, and pretty darn successful life, it seems a bit silly to be so emotionally involved in all this. There are incredibly important, oftentimes tragic, sometimes wonderful things happening in the world and I'm actually allowing this recruitment to effect my emotional health. Wow! Having said this, imagine being the coaching staff at one of the final four schools in this recruitment for whom this really IS important. Part of their job depends on their ability to attract talented basketball players to their university, for what, a year or two, or maybe four or five. Not only must a player be talented he must also "fit" their system or, yes, in Michigan's case "culture". For these coaches it may not truly be life and death, but as far as their job is concerned it could be. So, while we profess to care, to agonize, to obsess over the decisions of these young kids, we can't even imagine what the coaches go through. I remember vividly about thirty years ago recruiting my tail off for a kid to come to the DIII school at which I was an assistant coach. Even at that level it was painful when we lost him to the "Kentucky" of DIII in our state. My job wasn't dependent upon getting him, but it was an extremely tough blow to me personally if not professionally. A couple of years later, I saw the kid in his hometown, he said to me, "Coach, I should have come to your school, the attraction of _______ was just too much to turn down." If we miss on Jaylen Brown our staff will be criticized. Believe me they care as much, I really think more, than any of us. Before you criticize, please think for a moment.
Why would anyone suggest the coaching staff doesn’t care as much as us? I know there will be people who will go nuts if we don’t get him. My take is:there’s no shame in not getting a top recruit. It’s not Beilein’s “fault”–he tried. The larger issues of why one might pick Kentucky and not us have gotten the attention of several hundred posts and will get hundreds more, so I won’t discuss it.
But what’s problematic here is a tweet from Alexander talking about the great recruits coming, the sudden change of plans from Williams, Hatch going on medical (though I know that went into motion a while back), and the buzz turning our way on Wednesday. Those things will make it hurt. Those are circumstances. They exist. Being upset in light of them doesn’t mean not renewing your Beilein Loyalty Pledge. Wanting to get better recruits doesn’t mean hating Michigan or being a “fan” not a fan. I know after this, the board will divide into factions–it isn’t a good use of time.
Harry and Voltron, I agree. I am quite sure there is more to this story than we know, or may ever know. I’ll reserve comment on whether I would have hoped we’d get Williams if Jaylen decided against us, but I will say this, if Jaylen doesn’t decide for the “good guys”, and I actually mean that literally, we will have another scholarship available for 2016. I know, some will say we won’t get anyone of Williams caliber, but I just disagree with that. IF we don’t get Brown, I would love it if Max could come back, and then we’d still have that scholarship available in 2016. AND, I think Max could still help us enormously next year. Of course, I really want Brown!
Harry and Voltron, I agree. I am quite sure there is more to this story than we know, or may ever know. I'll reserve comment on whether I would have hoped we'd get Williams if Jaylen decided against us, but I will say this, if Jaylen doesn't decide for the "good guys", and I actually mean that literally, we will have another scholarship available for 2016. I know, some will say we won't get anyone of Williams caliber, but I just disagree with that. IF we don't get Brown, I would love it if Max could come back, and then we'd still have that scholarship available in 2016. AND, I think Max could still help us enormously next year. Of course, I really want Brown!
Problem with this line if thinking is that ‘we can wait until next year’ will be in its third year. Only so long you can postpone talent infusion before it catches up to you. 16 is make or break if no Brown
Harry and Voltron, I agree. I am quite sure there is more to this story than we know, or may ever know. I'll reserve comment on whether I would have hoped we'd get Williams if Jaylen decided against us, but I will say this, if Jaylen doesn't decide for the "good guys", and I actually mean that literally, we will have another scholarship available for 2016. I know, some will say we won't get anyone of Williams caliber, but I just disagree with that. IF we don't get Brown, I would love it if Max could come back, and then we'd still have that scholarship available in 2016. AND, I think Max could still help us enormously next year. Of course, I really want Brown!
Problem with this line if thinking is that ‘we can wait until next year’ will be in its third year. Only so long you can postpone talent infusion before it catches up to you. 16 is make or break if no Brown
Agreed that 2016 is a huge recruiting class for us. I think that Caris’s return gave us a bit of a reprieve on our misses for the 2015 class.
Frankly if we don’t get someone AT LEAST of Williams’ caliber in 2016, the team will be in trouble. We will need a TOP-FLIGHT PG too. (I would be fine with a me-first Dennis Smith type if he was bouncy enough, but that is just me.)
If Brown doesn’t come, I would love to see them GO HARD at Murray. Why not? He could play the 3 ahead of Aubrey. Not ideal but what is ideal when you are a Michigan fan? Even if they don’t get him, they can use the opportunity to trash Calipari so he goes to Oregon or Syracuse instead.
Don’t know how hard the staff is on Jefferson or Daniels, but they need to start making those guys feel very important in my view. It’s looking more and more likely we strike out on Battle, Murray, and Langford. Absolutely imperative we land a quality wing in that class.
Agreed that 2016 is a huge recruiting class for us. I think that Caris's return gave us a bit of a reprieve on our misses for the 2015 class.
As someone who had been on the “2016 or Bust” Express for a long time, I’m now on the train that says 2017 is actually the do or die year UNLESS Irvin and/or Walton goes pro after next year, as a result of Dawkins and MAAR proving potentially much more valuable than expected. If we get unexpected attrition, then yeah, still 2016.
Harry and Voltron, I agree. I am quite sure there is more to this story than we know, or may ever know. I'll reserve comment on whether I would have hoped we'd get Williams if Jaylen decided against us, but I will say this, if Jaylen doesn't decide for the "good guys", and I actually mean that literally, we will have another scholarship available for 2016. I know, some will say we won't get anyone of Williams caliber, but I just disagree with that. IF we don't get Brown, I would love it if Max could come back, and then we'd still have that scholarship available in 2016. AND, I think Max could still help us enormously next year. Of course, I really want Brown!
Problem with this line if thinking is that ‘we can wait until next year’ will be in its third year. Only so long you can postpone talent infusion before it catches up to you. 16 is make or break if no Brown
Nah…2016 would be important regardless. Doubt Brown would stick around that long anyhow. To me, his importance is as much about perception as anything else. Other recruits need to see that a guy his caliber is willing to come here. That even though we may not have all of the glitz and glamour, the fancy basketball dormitory, we still have excellent facilities, superior coaching and a high level of integrity, among other things.
