So Dylan, does Regan still consider us his favorite? This run ‘Nova is making sure doesn’t help anything. You had said before that he wanted to make a decision before AAU ball, is that still true? I sure hope so because if we lose him, we lose our only decent big man target fot this class.

Great stuff, Dylan.

Any video out there on Smotrycz? I can’t find any so far, but I’m intrigued.

Also, what about Solomon from LA? He’s a ’10, right? Is he still in the mix?

In my mind the ideal would be landing Regan, one of Ziegler/Prather, and one of Hardaway/Oliver…and if Oliver comes on the Kalamazoo Promise all the better. I would love to get McCallum but I’m just not seeing it.

Thanks, as always, Dylan. I guess I’m unclear about what you mean by ‘take three once everything works out’. Is there a quick simple clearification? From way over here things look promising, my opinions are based on what you say so you know where I stand as far as who I like to see come in.

ToBlav: Essentially I expect that there will be at least one departure from the team over the next year — leaving three scholarships.

Any ideas on the glaring lack of Detroit prospects on this list? I know that State got Appling, but I would think there has to be talent out there to get. This year’s team was a 10 win team at the very best without the two Detroit guys. If this list holds up, that will be three straight years without a PSL prospect. I think that’s a bad move. Too much talent there not to find a single PSL player.

I thought Isiah Sykes from Detroit was in the fold also, but maybe im off. If we get a PF I would love to get a an athletic PF, or a glass eater..can we get a couple easy baskets plz? McCallum is the truth, if he lands at Oklahoma the sooners will be in good hands, I dont see us getting him which is terrible but its not our position of need so to speak. Another kid out the D playing in the Elite 8 for another school coming soon. I’ll stick to the wishlist of any combination of Prather, Ziegler, Morgan, or Hardaway and I will be extremely happy. Im not sold on Regan, and just feel we need to get more athletic on the wing unless Lubick’s name magically replaced Regan’s.

Here is Lou Dawkins’ final 2010 Michigan rankings…

2010

1. Trey Ziegler Mt. Pleseant 6’5 G
2. Ray McCallum, JR Detroit Country Day 6’1 PG
3. Keith Appling Detroit Pershing 6’2 G MICHIGAN STATE
4. Maurice Jones Saginaw Arthur Hill 5’7 PG
5. Isaiah Sykes Detroit Finney 6’5 Wing
6. Devin Oliver Kalamazoo Central 6’5 SG
7. Alex Gauna Eaton Rapids 6’8 PF
8. John Horford Grand Ledge 6’9 PF
9. Devin Long Detroit Crockett 6’8 PF
10. Michael Talley, JR Melvindale B&T 5’8 PG

http://botbscouting.blogspot.com/2009/03/end-of-season-player-rankings-michigan.html

Love the site and all the info, Dylan. Of the 2010 list, shouldn’t Coach Beilein take a shot at Long or Horford as a plan B in case Regan chooses another school. I can live with another year without the PSL as long as we get the replacement for Peedi from somewhere.

Cal to UK.

http://www.memphis.rivals.com

The contract is rumored to be worth about $40 million over six years, an NCAA-record $6.67 million per anum.

That’s a lot of money.

Jay, don’t see Lubick reappearing even though Georgetown tanked it this year. Also don’t think Lubick was looked at as a wing player, but a 4 who could play some 3.

Dylan,

If you HAD to give a best guess on a three man 2010 class today who do you think we land?

I really think we will land Regan but after that I have no idea. I don’t really have my hopes up on Zeigler and Prather so I think Morgan, Hardaway or Dragicevich are more likely to round out the class.

Of course no one knows since last year everyone had Vogrich leaning elsewhere up unil his commit, Lubick was supposed to be a lock and McLimans came out of nowhere.

I’m just wondering what your gut is telling you for discussion purposes.

As far as the comment that we aren’t getting any PSL players, I don’t think there has been a worthy player over the three years that did not get an offer. What is the “bad move”? If you don’t go after some good kids you can call it a bad move, but if you recruit them and they sign elsewhere there’s nothing you can do.

if beilein cant land regan, zeigler or any of these highly touted kids, especially after this year and showing the country what he can do then he will undoubtedly go down as being the worst recruiter in the history of college basketball in my mind………after this season and especially after beating clemson kids should be lining up to play for beilein, it shouldnt even be hard to get great players here now, but its probably going to be

trey zeigler and ray mccallum if you read this……..please come to michigan

and……..

prather
regan
smotrycz

anyone of you guys can come to

dont yell at me for dogging this class coming in either…..we need the kids above real bad

Regan would be a solid get for us. but we definitely need to get some athletic players. etc (Zeigler, Prather)

I always felt that the only reason that Beilein allows cameras into the locker room pre-game is for recruiting reasons. It’s added exposure and it gets young kids pumped up and mentally picturing themselves in that position. I noticed that Izzo had cameras in his locker room before one of the tourney games. Has Izzo always done this, or is he just making sure he stays one step ahead of us in recruiting? Izzo was noticably a better motivator in his appearance.

Dave, I think that you’re jumping the gun a bit on your evaluation on Beilein, especially considering he’s coming off a good recruiting class. However, I too am really worried that we could miss on all our big prospects and have to settle on all three stars again. Eventually we are going to have to get another Mr. Basketball.

Just an opinion but folks have generally speculated U-M will have three
scholarships for the class of 2010 with U-M taking 2 perimeter oriented players and one big. But if look at Michigan’s needs if three scholarships are available I believe U-M’s priorities should be One Big — preferably Will Regan, one forward of either Evan Smotrycz Alex Dragicevich or Allen Payne and one big guard from the list of Zeigler, Prather and Moses Morgan.

*****
Here is a write-up on Evan Smotrycz from a coach familiar with the Massachusetts Prep/ high school/ AAU scene.

Evan is a kid from Mass. who left public school to go to New Hampton. Very similar to Nate (Lubick) and has really gotten better over the past year. I saw him a year ago at this time play for his public school team and was unimpressed. He was out of shape and did not battle inside. This year he is rebounding much better and playing harder.

Strengths: Very skilled, Above average shooter and passer. Solid rebounder. Imprved over the last year, alot. Smart kid, good BB IQ

Weakness: Average athlete, not a great finisher.

Really would be a great fit for Michigan’s system and program. Again Michigan style woulkd play to his strengths and mask his deficiencies. A great kid who would help the program.

I am waiting for someone to post they have a friend that has a father on the Janitorial staff at Memphis that said Memphis is going after Beilein.

Tony Bennett to UVA
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4028642

He stole Klay Thompson first =\

Thanks for all the info Dylan.

Although I am big supporter of getting guys out of the PSL, I just don’t see the talent there for 2010, and for that matter the talent overall in the entire state for the 2010 class. Outside of Ziegler, McCallum, and Appling I think it’s kind of a weak class. That said, I think Manny and Sims need to head down and start recruiting. They need to get down and tell those guys that Beilein’s got the program in the right direction and not to be scared off by the system. I guess that’s Beilein’s call on who he wants, but if I were him I would have those guys talking all the time to all the PSL recruits. That pipeline has to be established.

I think 2011 is going to be the class that we will really see if Belein has what it takes to recruit. As of right now, to my eye, the in state class looks loaded with the likes of Brundidge, Kerney, Amir Williams, Percy Gibson, PLP, Henton, McCune. There needs to be an emphasis on retaining a few of these guys, IMO.

I think we get Regan and lose out on Prather and Ziegler. I’ll let the 2010 be a class similar to this years, with players with potential that fit the system, as long as he pulls in some of the in state studs in 2011. I think the team showing this year wasnt a fluke, making it back to the tournament, and making a little run next year will definitely help that.

I can’t wait til November. Go Blue!

“The “big four” for Trey were Michigan, Michigan State, CMU, and UCLA”

For the first several times I read this I thought CMU meant Carnegie Mellon University, which frankly is only a little more preposterous than Central Michigan. Seriously? He’s got interest from UM, MSU and UCLA and he’s considering CMU? Has he got a gal in Kalamazoo?

rlc– you realize Ziegler’s father is the head coach at Central Michigan ?

also, i don’t think western michigan, the one in kzoo, has much of a shot zeigler.

Some rumblings that MSU’s success in the tourney might help sway Trey to little sister. We will have to wait and see.

To be successful in the long term, Beilein must get players from Michigan. I agree with Steve – 2011 is the year. You know MSU is going to get their fair share from MI, but we need to get the top 1 or 2 player at least every other year. MI is a great state for top D1 talent. Keep them in the state.

Ziegler would be a nice “get”. However, I think it will be more important to get quality “system” guys with the 09 and 10 classes over the long haul. Those are the types of guys that push teams over the top to the final four. I agree that 11 will be a must need class. Anyone think there is any chance of Manny staying for a senior year. He just seems so down to earth. I could see him staying.

With Tony Bennett leaving Washington State to become the next coach at
Virginia– there are rumors Klay Thompson who I believe Michigan and Coach Beilein finished second for, may be looking to transfer. This kid was freshman of the year in the PAC-10. This kid is the WF Michigan needs.

We went after Klay hard but I don’t see any rumors of him leaving besides Michigan fans talking. Link?

Man I would love to get Klay… he is the real deal.

Dylan, I think maybe someone brought it up in the comments, but I don’t think(?) there’s been any significant mention of our 4 Academic All-Big Ten players. It didn’t surpise me to see Dave and CJ on there, but I was not expecting Manny and LLP. Very impressive.

“you realize Ziegler’s father is the head coach at Central Michigan?”

“also, i don’t think western michigan, the one in kzoo, has much of a shot zeigler.”

Busted – I’m an underinformed out-of-stater who’s barely been anywhere beyond the base of the first metacarpal. No, I didn’t know his father was head coach at Central, and I always assumed Western was in Benton Harbor or something. Next you’re going to tell me Northern isn’t in Sault Ste Marie…

2010 definitely need a big name well known player to sign, i will not be happy if that isnt the case

Calipari goes, he takes his coaching staff with him, he brings Demarcus Cousins, Xavier Henry, and John Wall with him, Roubert Sallie wants to transfer to UK to follow Cal.

Wow. Memphis just went from powerhouse to also-ran in no time flat. While Kentucky just went from NIT also-ran to potential preseason #1 just as quickly.

“I was so shocked, but it’s life,” Washington State guard Klay Thompson told the Spokane Spokesman-Review. “I’ll adjust. As far as my future, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ll see who they’re going to bring in.”

There’s the quote http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-spt_bennetthired_0331mar31,0,515282.story

Dave, will you be happy if we go to the Final Four next year without a big name player? Obviously talent helps but I’m going to evaluate Beilein based on the team’s results and not based on scouting services’ opinions of the potential of the players that he recruits.

rlc, don’t feel too bad. If I was unfamiliar with the fact that Trey’s dad is the CMU coach I would immediately suspect the Chippewas of offering money or something, that school is certainly the “odd one” on the list.

Get Trey or bust. We need to land this kid, plain and simple so just give him all the attention possible, make it over the top obvious that UM is the place for him. If MSU gets Trey I will puke.

I don’t blame people for thinking that without good recruiting there will always be a glass ceiling. After all, every national champion in the past 30 years except for Maryland in 2002 had at least one McDonalds All American. And almost every champion in the past 10 years has had at least 2 NBA first round picks.

UCONN gets commitment from one of Illinois best even though their
head coach has never seen him play nor has the player visited Storrs
Connecticut. Now thats good recruiting.

http://ilprepbullseye.com/page41.html

Almost too good…..Hmmmmm.

Well Ben, Coach Beilein will not boot him. He has a stated goal of having a program in which players only leave through graduation. On the other hand he will tell every player which abilities and how much they need to improve to see siginficant floor time. If a player leave it will be becasue they don’t think they can meet those expectations.

Cameron Ayers named Class AA All-State in PA.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/206/2009/march/30/ap-pa-all-state-boys-basketball-list.html

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Prather shoot up the recruiting lists this summer, which would pretty much eliminate us from his list. Anyways, it seems like Beilein wants to recruit solid 4-star players who will stick around instead of having to pull in a different 5-star every year and then see them take off immediately (see: Ohio State)

IMO, the Beilein way will lead to more tournament victories every year. Unless a team like OSU grabs another Oden/Conley tandem, they aren’t going to improve because they won’t have a chance to adapt to the college game. With guys like Koufos and Mullens coming in for a year at a time, OSU is going to stay on the bubble and then flame out against an underdog every year (go Siena!)

someone who gets an academic Scholarship has to to preform to keep the scholarship.. they have to keep up a B average or something along those lines. Well atheletes in my opinion should be keep to the same standards as far as performance goes and Anthony wright has not performed well enough to deserve his education paid for. just my opinion, He is preventing us from getting someone on this team that can help

giddings……..i would consider manny and deshawn extremely big name players but when they are gone who do we have left……….d morris and vogrich and they certainly dont even come close in terms of talent and capabilities…….without manny and deshawn who were big name players……..this team would be about as bad as indiana…….so i will never be happy without big name players because those are the guys that will win big tens and national championships not unknown kids who can shoot 3s

Geez, Dave, I don’t think you’ll be happy no matter what Beilein does. To say(up farther in the post) that he’s a bad recruiter if kids don’t line up to play for Michigan now is really, really dumb. They won one tournament game, that’s not going to instantly get big name players here.

Also, what do you have against capitalization?

Mith, I guess when you’re writing in the stream of consciousness format, capitalization is considered a nuisance. Beilein is 1 for 1 with recruiting classes in my book. Let’s let him actually recruit the 2010 class before we start making judgements.

As long as we are going to be using anecdotal evidence:

Duke has big name players and they didn’t win their conference or get to the final four. Oklahoma has big name players and they didn’t win their conference or get to the final four. Wake Forest has big name players and didn’t win their conference or get the final four.

UCLA has big name players and did not win their conference or get to the final four. Southern Cal. has big name players and did not win their conference or get the final four. Arizona has big name players and did not win their conference or get to the final four.

Ohio State has big name players and did not win their conference or make the final four. Pittsburgh has big name players and did not win their conference or get to the final four. Georgetown has big name players and did not win their conference and did not make the final four.

Villanova DID make it to the final four and they have a bunch of non-five star guys on the team!

I have alot of faith in JB as a coach, but as a recruiter, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it is not his style to bring in top end talent. Why people think the ’08 class was a success, dumbfounds me. In comparison to who? Maybe Penn State and Northwestern but outside of those 2, I think every other Big Ten team had a better class. However, it does not bother me if JB can somehow prove to me that he can win CHAMPIONSHIPS with these so called “diamonds in the rough.” I’m happy we made the tournament and improved our record, blah, blah, blah, but will all of you guys be happy with a sweet 16 here or there. I won’t be happy until we reach multiple Final Fours in the same decade, i.e. Michigan State. Tom Izzo has showed everyone that it is possible to recruit local talent and not national, and still contend for National Championships. If I were JB, I would try follow Izzo’s lead and stop hoping these “diamonds in the rough” can get him wins.

@UMDC There is PLENTY of talent on Villanova. Let’s not pretend like they aren’t loaded.

People need to remember that Beilein has only coached major conf teams for 7 years now. He did get Da’Sean Butler and Alex Ruoff at WVa, and Morris and Vogrich here. He is definitely getting better at recruiting even if he doesn’t offer money and jobs to ppl who can get kids to come to his school. As if thats any better than paying the players themselves rather than yet ANOTHER layer of shady individuals trying to profit off amateur athletes.

As for Izzo, there are maybe 3 or 4 coaches in all of College basketball who can do what he’s done. And with Calipari going to UK their going rate has just increased.

The 2010 class could be ok with Regan and we will probably end up with another 3 star kid, but I think Beilien will have a very good 2011 class, Brundige, Kearney, Williams and Gibson all sound like possibilties.
AS far as Beilien as a recruiter remember Joe Alexander was a 3 star kid when he came out to.

haha, that’s the beauty of anecdotal evidence, Dylan. There is no definition of what constitutes “a big name” player or quality recruiting class. It’s all subjectivity and inconsistency masquerading as “evidence.”

It’s what makes the internet great!

I’m in agreement with the majority of people.

I think that one could pick an all-star team just from mid-major schools and win an national championship.

What that suggests to me is that there is enough talent out there that flies under the radar for a team to draw from and build a competitive team at the highest levels. That team then mixes in a couple 4 star (or maybe even a 5 star once a decade) guys and BOOM that team does good!

Dave, that is true that Manny and Deshawn are big name players, but let’s not overstate the difference between them and Morris/Vogrich. Based on Scout.com rankings, Manny was the #12 SG in his class and Deshawn the #9 SF. Darius is the #15 PG for 2009 and Matt is the #19 SG. And again, these guys came to Michigan despite a disastrous 10-22 season and a 10-year tournament drought.

Ben, did you watch the Oklahoma game? Without Anthony, that game likely would have been a blowout. He doesn’t get much playing time but when he does get in there, he certainly gives it his all. How about that rebound and putback over the Griffins in the 2nd half? I know people love to criticize him when he is cold and can’t hit the three-ball, but he’s shown potential. One could argue that we wouldn’t have beaten UCLA without Ant’s backdoor passes (most notably the one to Deshawn, of course).

Plus, the kid has represented this team with so much class off the court. Remember the story about him giving BTT tickets to the young fan, and then meeting him after the game? I think with athletic scholarships you have to consider how the player represents Michigan both on and off the court.

How good is this Oliver kid from Kzoo? I see rivals doesn’t have a ‘star count’ for him, but it says he’s good in every catergory…have recruiters just not anaylyzed him yet?

JDS, if next to a players name it says NR, then that means he has not been scouted yet and there is no ranking available at the time. Typically players who are scouted later, will end up being a 3 star or lower. Every once in a while a player is from an area that gets no publicity and doesn’t get noticed until late in the recruiting process and jumps up to the 4 or 5 star level, but that is very rare. If they are good enough to recieve an early evaluation, the player normally recieves a higher ranking, 4 star or 5 star. Don’t get to caught up in the whole ranking process though, remember that Marquise Gray from Michigan State was once a 5 star player.

Thanks for the clarification. The whole star thing is just funny though, b/c even though Novak had really positive comments on his recruiting pages, he was either NR or had zero stars. Seems like Oliver is in the same boat, hopefully as another diamond in the rough as JB can snag him…esp w/o using a scholarhship

Everyone that is ripping on Beilein’s 2008 recruiting class, consider this: Beilein had basically one full year to recruit that class. Usually by an athlete’s junior season, they have good ties with a couple schools and are down to a fairly short list. Obviously, Beilein’s first priority had to be in getting Grady, Manny, and Legion to stay (although we all know how that last one worked out). In the end, he basically had less than a full year to form ties with players and get them to commit. Considering he got three three-star players that fit his system well, I would say he did a pretty good job. This 2009 class is also very respectable considering the mild success we had last season. Give him some time and I’m sure he will get some quality players that also fit his system.

I’m Sure Anthony Wright is a Wonderful person off the court and I’m sure he is a great teammate, but having 2 good games the whole year just doesn’t cut it and there is a reason why he doesn’t see the court very much, he just isn’t that good. I’m sorry but I don’t like his game and we could use another scholarship for someone that will help us. But I hope I’m wrong and he improves his game over the summer

people can say what they want……..without better talent michigan will maybe compete for a big ten title every once in a while and will definitely never compete for a national championship thats for sure……..yeah its true that wake, ucla, duke and all these other schools have big name players and didnt win their conference, but at the end to the day those are the teams that have the real chance at winning national titles……….keep in mind that michigan used to get the best players in the country to go their…..i cant help it that looking at the teams that win national titles and looking at our team that we will never be competing for titles……..but most of you guys for some reason are all smiles for some reason……….look at the best teams in the country and look at the players that they recruit………that means i win this debate every time…..you cant argue with me about this…..because the teams that are truly the best in the country have the best most highly rated players

as for other things i have previously said……..kids (lubick, bryd) didnt come to michigan because they thought it was a risky move because they havent been to the tournament in a long time and things of that nature……..now these kids cant use that as an excuse

It sounds like Smotrycz may have received an offer. I’m wondering what this means for this recruiting class and Regan in particular. I wonder if we would take both. I kind of figured that Regan was going to commit and Smotrycz would be a backup plan. Maybe this is a bird in the hand type situation unless JB sees Smotrycz as a WF and Regan as more of a post player.

were going to end up losing out on the better recruits again….

Look. Beilein will be able to get Michigan into the tourney more times than not. It’s just if you are a stickler for banners I think we may be dissapointed. He finishes in the middle of the pac in the Big East and Big Ten so far in his career. He has made a sweet sixteen and an elite eight with like no highly ranked players. He was like a half away from a final four at WVU.

I still think Tret goes to CMU.

Dave, you might be right about Lubick, but look where he is now, a Geaorgetown commit that perhaps at the time seemed safe. But look now GT turned out to be a bottom tier team in the Big East even with a top 5 recruit in Greg Monroe.

JDS

“Seems like Oliver is in the same boat, hopefully as another diamond in the rough as JB can snag him…esp w/o using a scholarhship”. Devin Oliver is a huge diamond in the rough – hopefully JB sees it in him. I believe he is Manny’s replacement.

He is a late bloomer physically (Dylan is correct about him needing to add muscle) – he has grown about 5-6″ in the last 18 months and is probably not done growing at 6’5″. He is a true Beilein type player plus he can put it on the floor like Manny only with much better handles. He was a PG his freshman year before he started growing so he is an excellent passer and plays very unselfishly – a little too unselfish IMO, he needs to look to score more (although he had plenty of others on his team this year to defer to – Doug Anderson, etal).

He led his team Kazoo Central (Class A state runnersup to Pershing)in scoring and rebounding this year and had several games with 5+ assists, multiple steals, and blocked shots. He had a very quiet 21/9/4 blocks in the state championship game (quiet given Applings 49). Look for him next year to really take over his team’s leadership – he has tremendous upside potential.

He is playing AAU this summer (he did last year also) and interest in him is going to go sky high – JB needs to be on top of him right now. His AAU team played in Vegas last summer and Johnny Dawkins (yes the Dukey) from Stanford has been chasing him for months – Devin is also a straight A student. Because of all the exposure from the state tournament, in the last week he received first time calls from several more schools – including Big 10 scholls. He is a must get for the 2010 class.

there is obviously going to be great, highly rated kids going to schools that dont do that well, but im just saying that to win national championships you are going to need way better talent than what michigan has, because its just not possible to win national championships by basing a system around shooting 3s……..you need more versatility and the higher rated kids obviously will have the most to offer in terms of everything you need to win……..beilein needs to consistently pull in kids like deshawn and manny every year and i dont think that being able to do that right now and being able to do that every year is that much to ask and expect