Q: What teams have lost 5 or more early entrants to the NBA Draft in the past two seasons?
The possibilities that instantly jumped out to me were Kentucky, UCLA and Michigan, but i could only come up with 4 for Kentucky (Nerlens Noel, Archie Goodwin, Julius Randle & James Young) and UCLA (Shabazz Muhammad, Kyle Anderson, Jordan Adams, Zach LaVine). Crazy to think how talented our 2013 team was when thinking about this btw…
FWIW, I think Beilein deserves blame for not being prepared for the attrition he has faced. He knew that a handful of his players had NBA potential, yet didn’t replace what he lost the past two seasons. He wasn’t prepared to face the world of early departures. I don’t give Beilein a pass for how much the team underperformed early on this season, but I can live with it considering how successful the past few years have been.
That being said, Beilein has this team at 6-3 in conference right now. Michigan just took #6 Wisconsin to OT without LeVert and dominated Nebraska while missing LeVert and Walton. After the terrible OOC play and then the LeVert injury, finishing .500 in conference was looking like a pipedream. Now, it is well within grasp.
Beilein deserves criticism for being ill-prepared for OOC play, but deserves praise for how this team is coming along.