@umhoops - can you remember why Michigan didn’t end up landing Nah’Shon Hyland? His performance at the Combine has me trying to remember. I recall his tape and being super excited even though I seem to recall a major leg injury (was it him that lost his brother and broke his leg in a house fire?). One of those guys who was a bit below the radar that Beilein started recruiting and seemed like another sneaky NBA talent that was being overlooked.
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grade issues
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Yeah there were issues with his academic credits/grades I believe after he missed some time from school after the family fire tragedy.
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There isn’t a way to quantify this really but I always felt like JB was slightly over hyped as a “developer of talent” (not saying he wasn’t good in this area) and under hyped as a scout. Maybe it’s just a case of recalling the good ones but a guy like Kevin Pangos comes to mind. Obviously Devin Booker became a 5 star recruit but Beilein was on him before he blew up. Would be interesting to compare guys we recruited hard under Beilein but missed on and how they compared in college to the guys we ended up with.
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Totally agree, for a while it seemed like every guy Beilein was on eventually blew up at some point in their career. Larry Nance comes to mind as well although we chose Bielfeldt over him haha. and I think combining excellent scouting with excellent schemes and overall coaching gives the illusion of development.
Not to say there was no development, but that can be up to the player as much as the coach. I think the scouting and Xs and Os were A+ tier and the keys to his success.
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I think in general “developing talent” is very overrated as an explanation for guys who pop outside the top 50 and end up in the NBA draft and “identifying talent” is very underrated. Teaching and making guys better is very hard even in sports where you see it a lot. Simply finding guys is hard enough let alone having to coach them way up too.
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Yeah, you don’t develop talent as a coach as much as you showcase it. Players develop talent.
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I think your point is true in hoops. I do think there is development in other sports … QB, tennis, maybe golf, which I don’t do, you know, “cerebral” sports. Ugh. But to get out of this (potentially? racist) corner, probably not crew or cross country which I think are basically all genetics.