Great point, I agree.
2 words, Quentin Goodin. That will end up being the player with most upside and best production at the PG spot that we probably couldāve landed.
Xavier seems to have eaten our lunch on a few targets; Goodin is just one of them how about Sumner and Bluiett?
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Sumner was a crushing non take.
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Watson and Davis I agree were gambles but to guard against players leaving for whatever reason. I think the Brooks pick up became an apparent need when looking at 2017 season. Without Brooks we go back into the same situation as last year counting on non scholarship players needing to play and especially at the point position. The question will be was there a better option. Iām hoping it works out.
They let Goodin go because they were all in on Cash at the time. I mean their sole pitch to Cash, was you are our guy. They played a game of chicken with Cash and Izzo and got cold feet and bailed. It seems like a crazy approach considering their history of losing out on long recruitments.
Assemble talent. Period. If Cash going to take 2 years to pick a school, recruit others and take whomever is willing to sign up first. With such a deep PG class, why take such a dramatically different approach from the Walton class of PGs. Is it because we seemingly got the worst lf the 3 that they offered?
I think Iāve said it before, but the real story on Cassius Winston is that he was set to pick Michiganā¦if only JB wouldāve been willing to wait one week. I understood why JB wouldnāt wait in light of the Battle situation though, tough to fault him for that. That said, I donāt think Winston wouldāve helped this year all that much, but certainly an upgrade from X.
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Maybe, but last I checked, he was REALLY struggling. That goes against your instant impact argument. I always liked Aiken - not surprised heās playing well. Heās small but he can shoot.
REALLY Struggling? I donāt see that, heās only scoring 3 per game but 2assts per game with a 21% assist rate on 46% from the field while playing behind a potential All American in Ed Sumner isnāt what I would label as struggling. Iād sure as hell take him over X Simpson, and Iām sure you would as well. Xavier Simpson and his 28% shooting is what I call REALLY struggling.
On Aiken, definitely agree here. Heās much better than I anticipated. Didnāt think heād be much in college. Iām not big on shooting alone, but he has good spatial awareness as well.
Letās not underestimate Xavierās commitment though. It is not like he was a low not touted 3 star. He was a 4 star rated 48 on ESPN and 66 on 247 who won ohio Mr. Basketball and offers from power conference schools. The kid was by all means supposed to be a solid player. He had the makings of a nice signing.
Thatās been my point for a while, rankings are meaningless. Have to evaluate live play and film.
I am not afraid to say it, I liked the X signing when it a happened. Mr Basketball in his home state and looked to be a player that could make an impact at both ends of the court at some point in his freshman year. He has fallen short of my expectations to date.
So the bigger question was he the ultimately taken because we could not land other PGās in the class? Or did coach feel he was the best of the lot? If the answer is that coach thought he was the best of the lot its a real problem.
I hadnāt looked at Goodinās numbers for awhile, I think heās improved his shooting.
Two things - one, Iād imagine that if we knew ahead of time how things would play out, we would have taken Goodin over Simpson. As I recall, we cooled on Goodin thinking Winston was ours. Not sure we could have jumped back into it. Not unlike Towns - as I recall we cooled on him after Battle committed.
But look, no doubt they made some huge mistakes. A freshman class of Goodin, Towns, Teske and Cook would look real nice.
To me, way too early to write off Simpson. Heās not playing much, he doesnāt seem like he has the green light, and heās tentative out there - not unlike what we saw from Darius as a freshman.
But he was very good at the NBAPA camp. That carries some credibility with you, doesnāt it?
Who, X Simpson?
Yeah, I thought I read reports of him playing well there.
Couldāve been, but I thought he played well in EYBL and I liked the pick up at the time. I thought his floater and midrange jumper would translate. Once I was able to view him in practice this fall I knew he was a developmental project and thatās when I tried to warn the board.
Why did he need another week then? Iām skeptical. Maybe Cassius wanted Michigan and dad didnāt. In fact, he was given the chance to commit before we offered X. In that way, itās exactly like the Battle situation. We were well aware of X and had scouted him, done our due diligence. While the commitment happened quickly, we didnāt take him out of the blue. Had cassius popped for us, Izzo was going to offer X and would have gotten him.
I donāt blame JB for handling the situation the way he did one bit. It just so happened he ended up with the short end of the stick.
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Just asking but why does it seem like Coach loses on so many coin flips? Especially those that are high level athletes?