Did you mean Isiah or little Isaiah?
Thatâs a bit of a tough one, because any player who would theoretically stay 5 years these days would almost certainly do so because they are NOT an NBA talent (or theyâre marginal). Now, if Poole had stayed 3 years instead of 2, he may have still turned about to be very good.
I will say that he was drafted into a great situation and has probably learned things from Steph that he wouldnât have otherwise.
Also, if heâd stayed another year, he probably wouldâve been a top-10 pick and had a lot more pressure on him to produce as a rookie.
In the end, Iâm 99.9999% sure heâs happy with the choice he made. And so are the Warriors.
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Yeah, and Gaines was a veryâŚchallengingâŚ.case
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Pistons Isiah. Must have autocorrected from all the Livers posts.
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You are right. I confused Ingersol with Groninger. Ingersol was this nut job who was going around campus naked in December, I think. A Curry wannabe (even though Curry was not invented at the time). He never saw a shot he did not like. He would jack up threes from midcourt.
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Indeed. He had some DWIâs and I believe he was cut from the team due to his alcohol usage.
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I believe the inciting factor was a fist-fight in the middle of Washtenaw. But yeah, bad news.
Crawford got screwed by the NCAA, but for the Michigan program, him staying eligible probably doesnât change things too much. Ellerbe just was not the answer.
The big Sliding Doors moment has to be the rollover accident. Without that we might be playing on Steve Fisher Court at Crisler Arena.
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âŚand Tom Izzo might have ended up at a directional school. Such a fateful incident.
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wait, what? how was that an outcome?
full disclosure i know nothing about that incident other than what i read about it in my âCENTURY OF CHAMPIONSâ detroit news+free press collab coffee table book on the 20th century in michigan sports, which i received for christmas when i was 10
Mateen Cleaves was in the car, and Michiganâs recruit to lose, IIRC.
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Indeed, And in this accident he was in the back seat squeezed between Tractor Traylor (who broke his arm) and Luis Bullock. Mateen was out for a few games his freshman year due to back problems from the accident. In the driver seat we had Maurice Taylor, while Willie Mitchel (I think) was riding shotgun.
IIRC Cleaves was up in the air, but Charlie Bell was definitely considered a Michigan lean, only to back off because of the NCAA investigation.
The rollover was the trigger. Word was that the FBI had the program in the crosshairs for years, as they were on to Ed Martin for a long time.
Itâs possible. But Martin laundered his money to a lot of basketball players that came out of Detroit, not just the ones that went here. For some reason the NCAA was willing to look the other way on the guys that went to Syracuse and whatnot. If the accident doesnât happen, itâs not certain what the NCAA would have done even if/when the FBI finally nailed Martin.
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Sure⌠If you get a chance, check the documentary âThe Schemeâ (if you have not seen it already). FBI taps phone conversations and they even throw money to set traps for those (programs or individuals) they think are on the take. Granted Martin would âinvestâ on Detroit basketball youths (and those were the times that most of the 5 star players were coming out of Detroit) and their friends (eg Bullock). Martin was well into the radar screens of the FBI with the illegal gambling rings he was setting up. Everybody knew what he was up to (except perhaps Fisher). It would have been a matter of time to pinch him, rollover or not.
And let us not forget that a lot of DIV 1 coaches were envious of Fisher who hooked the fab five, and the second fab five a few years later (Conlan, Baston, Taylor, Mitchell and Ward). When he brought in Bullock, Traylor and White the next year, it could have been the straw that would break the camelâs back. I could hear even before Fisherâs last recruiting class the screams of the pundits to investigate Michigan for recruiting violations.
I mean, the school also gave Martin access to players, free hotel rooms and free tickets.
I know it wonât be popular here, but the issue was larger than Martin paying lots of kids and only ours got caught. Fisher played dumb, but his signature was on several of the approvals.
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WaitâŚyou mean that an FBI investigation that catches people on wire taps actually can have consequences? /s
The whole situation was scummy all around but back when it blew up I remember being frustrated that Martin was funneling money to Detroit youth players who ended up at a lot of schools and it wasnât like Michigan was using him to buy players really. Michigan basically was really friendly with him knowing that he had already bought the players himself. But we werenât the only onesâŚjust the ones that had their program nuked for it. What I also used to be upset about was Bullock - which really tipped the scales. If you squinted hard enough youâd see all these inner city Detroit kids benefiting from Martinâs scam. Then along comes Bullock, a kid from a pretty well-off family from Maryland, and heâs taking money from Martin once heâs at Michigan. Hard to argue against institutional control penalties at that point.
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Fact: FBI was on to Martin since the early 80âs and they were looking for ways to nail him and have the illegal gambling charges stick. The Michigan violations was a by-product of their entire operation. The rollover gave them the excuse to get the NCAA to investigate Michigan, which was a Christmas present to Izzo and other coaches who were trying to tap the state of Michigan for 5* talents. It was a disaster waiting to happen, and Fisher should have realized it and should have removed Martin from the perks he was getting. But getting the top talent in Michigan was too sweet to ignore it.
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Right, Martin was essentially running a book for organized crime and was committing crimes that the FBI was interested in outside of Michigan basketball. Iâm just saying, Fisher isnât an angel, and the scandal wasnât something that âhappenedâ to the program, itâs something Fisher and his staff participated in.
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