Musket, I’m right there with you. Being 26 and watching my high school and college years start to become more and more distant, I find it awkward and challenging to understand my role as a fan. To me, part of being a fanatic was always idolizing one player or another. I was and am still the biggest Chris Webber fan I know. (Good to see Darius wearing #4) Now that I’m older than every player I’m a fan of, I just feel weird about it. At the same time, it reminds me that age is just a number, and people like Darius are worth looking up to even when they may not have the experiences you do yet. Character is developed at a young age and I’ll root for character no matter how old I get.

I don’t want to compare Michigan to Duke, because frankly I hate Duke, but I do respect them for their coach’s integrity and ability to recruit quality young men who will represent this University well. We can build that type of program, and we’re lucky to have such a great network of coaches, players, alumni, and even just diehard fans like me who never took a class in Ann Arbor. Go Blue!

That said Darius has done nothing but impress me since day one. He has all the answers, and has the charisma and intelligence to be the face of the program. I haven’t been this excited for a basketball prospect since Daniel Horton. Even though I have to look at it from a different perspective now, as in, it is great to see character individuals as well as phenomenally gifted athletes stepping into the program.

I asked my question because of the high quality of Dylan’s blog and the message posters here. It serves the fans well and I could imagine it being fun for the recruits to be part of a positive community (as compared to the negativity at most blogs). It is a testament to Dylan that his professionalism rubs off on the community and hopefully the recruits enjoy it to.

Good interview.