“I really don’t know what I’m thinking about for next year. Right now, I’m not where I need to be to play Division I basketball,” Albrecht said in his first interview since announcing the end of his season. “If I keep getting better and feeling better, who knows? I’d have to have a sitdown and reevaluate with the doctors, Coach (John) Beilein.
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While Albrecht said he isn’t sure what the future holds, he made clear what his preference would be if he decides to keep playing. Asked if he’d want his career to continue at Michigan, he said, “Oh, yeah, absolutely,” and asked if he has any interest in transferring, he said, “No, not at all.”
I wonder where spike will transfer. He could be a huge stop gap for some program or he could come in and give someone huge back court depth and push them into the next level. I could see him being a dukeie, they could use his back court depth. I couldn’t stand to see him in the big ten, I felt like biefeldt went to Hoosiers out of spite. Or gonzaga would be a good fit. Possibly the best fit. I’d love to have him back but I’m sure rahkman would not be happy. Plus we’d need a ton of guys to leave. Spike would have allowed Walton to play the two at times which would have been nice.
Who knows, we are already one over the scholarship limit I could see a few transfers most likely Kam Chatman and maybe Doyle or D.J…Anything can happen
How many outbound transfers has Beilein had?
Seems like very few…maybe partly because he rarely has a full squad of 13 scholarship players and maybe partly because he recruits high character guys that are hard working?
I see what you are saying but there are some people that I would be shocked if they were satisfied. Mainly Kam Chatman. He went from a highly touted recruit to a constant DNP. Also with the addition of two recruits that are bigs I would not be shocked to see someone like Ricky Doyle transfer. I could easily see room open up for Spike.
I am a huge Spike fan and would love to see him as part of the program well after his graduation to a capacity, but I am not sure what his role would be next year. He obviously wont start at the point over Walton. I dont see much overlap in time between Simpson and Walton (much overlap in skill set) meaning that Simpson will likely play the back-up point. MAAR has shown he is adequate at running a few minutes at point in a pinch as well. All of that to say, barring an injury, I dont think we need spike outside of his intangibles (which i am not trying to minimize). I would rather have that scholarship for another potential wing player…
Also, I would note that I would much rather have another year of Spike and let the playing time fall where it will than bring in a mediocre wing recruit that will fester on the bench for 3+ years. For 2017, I think wing players (positions 2-4) are more of a need than another 1
I am excited about Watson and think that he has a good chance to be a quality player for us. I also see our depth at 2-4 being: Irvin, Dawkins, Robinson, MAAR and Watson. I am not 100% sold that Watson will be a huge contributer in year 1 but think he is a great candidate for the typical Camp Sanderson/Year 2 breakout. Regardless, thats 5 guys for 3 positions so I see where you are coming from, but think developing some depth at the wing positions is beneficial. Recruiting another wing will be our contingency for if there is an injury or Watson isnt ready in year 1 while still building depth for the future. 5 guys spread between 3 positions sounds good, but 4 guys spread between 3 doesnt give me a warm and fuzzy
I just don’t see it. I don’t think either has the skill set to play the 4 in JB’s offense, absent some marked improvement over the offseason. Neither player is a threat to do much when they get the ball on the perimeter. I just think our spacing would really suffer.
On the other hand, this year’s big man recruiting only makes sense if you consider Wilson and Wagner as 4s.
I think Wagner does/will. If you notice, he has tried to handle the ball and driven to the rim a few times this year. He also has an okay jumpshot. I think he has enough talent/perimeter skills and it’ll come down to confidence and comfortableness for him to exhibit it.
I’d agree on Wilson but I don’t think he’ll be a starter here ever unless he gains enough weight and toughness to lock down the center spot. So he’s fine as a backup 4 and can play more against certain matchups.
It definitely becomes a tough choice, but my preference is then to take the wing. I feel like wing players are the life blood to our system. There are definitely arguments for having Spike and I think they are 100% valid, I just would prefer to move on if given the two options.
Sometimes moving on isnt easy. Even looking at losing Bielfeldt for this year was tough especially in context of the losses we had at the beginning of the season, but I think we are in a better position this year with Donnal and moving forward because we let him go.
Much as I love Spike, and think we might well have a couple more wins this year with him, I appreciate this point of view. If I try to think of it from Spike’s POV, knowing the wealth of players we have at guard next year, I can see why he might want to go somewhere and get major minutes.