The first half was completely dominated by Southfield, leading by around 17 at halftime. Clarkston’s star player, Matt Kamieniecki (sp?), former Michigan target and Ball State commit, came out strong, but quickly picked up two fouls, leaving him to stare hopelessly from the bench for the remainder of the half. The two die-hard Clarkston fans right in front of us repeatedly mentioned that Clarkston’s head coach (Dan Fife, who apparently played at Michigan and is the father of Duggan), has never played a player with two fouls in the first half and they continuously voiced their displeasure with his decision, especially in such a big game.

Despite Southfield’s dominant half, or maybe because of, Brundidge was extremely quiet, going 1-6 from the field, making only a three pointer at the buzzer while rimming a couple mid-rangers out and missing one layup among the trees. He also had three rebounds, one assist, and a steal off a deflected pass. He showed great patience and didn’t force anything, which impressed me. He had a nice drive that turned into a pull-up when it was clear that he would not make it to the hoop. He couldn’t put anything in, but he showed that he didn’t care about his own stats more than the team’s success. It should be noted right away that Southfield actually does not run an offense. It consists of one guy bringing the ball up and trying to get past his man. If that fails, he will attempt to find an open man, but Brundidge’s man was consistently trying to deny him the ball and Brundidge did not handle the ball much. The four guys that were off the ball seemed to be told to stand like statues, because no one moved at all, and the coach didn’t seem to be displeased with it. I literally did not see one screen set by Southfield the whole game that was not called an illegal screen.

The second half was apparently what everyone else came to see. Clarkston came out and started to make some shots and continued to chip away at Southfield’s lead. Southfield looked content to hold the ball at times and try to waste clock time. Eventually, Clarkston started to pressure the ball to try to get back into the game. By the end of the third quarter, I believe Clarkston was within single digits and was starting to gain some momentum. This is about the time that Brundidge started to show what he was made of. He brought the ball up court much more often in the second half and only recorded one turnover the whole game, according to my count, in which he actually made a very nice pass in the air while going up for a layup that the big man just wasn’t expecting and couldn’t handle. It would have been a nice assist if the guy wasn’t Zack Gibson. Throughout the second half, Brundidge started to show his killer slashing abilities, routinely splitting double teams to get to the hole while also showing a very nice stroke. The most impressive play of the game from Brundidge was on a 1-on-2 fast break in which he sped past a couple defenders in the open court around halfcourt, looked around to see if anyone was open, saw that he was alone, found three point line, stepped out and to his left, and splashed the three. He also made a very nice up-and-under and-one layup, finishing for a three point play. He posted a final stat line of 22 points on 6-11 shooting (3-4 3pt., 7-7 FT), seven rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one turnover. Clarkston continued to push in the second half, and ended up getting within 5 midway through the fourth quarter, but just could not stop Brundidge. “CB” made at least three shots that were daggers to Clarkston’s chances of a comeback and repeatedly broke presses with no help from his teammates to keep the game out of reach. In the last few minutes of the game, one of his single-handed press breaks really stood out in my mind. He got the inbounds pass close to the corner, looked to see if he had any help, quickly noticed that all of his teammates were past halfcourt, and simply split four Clarkston players before making it past halfcourt and pulling it out to run the clock a little more. He also made all seven of his free throws, getting nothing but net the majority of the time. Southfield ended up winning the game by three points, but that score is a little deceptive, as Kamieniecki made two threes within the final 15 seconds or so to make the score look a little closer.

The one part of Brundidge’s game that was lacking somewhat was defense. He didn’t play bad defense per se, he simply didn’t show a whole lot of effort on that side of the floor. Southfield almost exclusively played the 2-3 zone, and Brundidge was consistently matched up on Kamieniecki in the post for some reason. I can say with confidence, however, that Southfield would not have weathered the storm without Brundidge on the court for the whole second half. Southfield had some good talent, but as I mentioned before, there was simply no offensive system whatsoever. It should be noted that Brundidge was wincing a fair amount in the second half, appearing to hold his back. He also took a much-disputed charge in the first half from Kamieniecki.

If I had to compare Brundidge to someone on the current Michigan team, I would say Laval Lucas-Perry, but version 2.0. Brundidge appears to be a bit chunky and could stand to tone his body a bit, but showed great quickness despite this thickness. I also question the 6’2 that he was listed at in the roster guide. I think 6’0 flat would be fairly accurate, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was only 5’11. In comparison to LLP, Brundidge seems to have good handles, can get to the rack, and is a solid shooter. He probably is a little better at the first two of these attributes than LLP already, and he will certainly be able to improve his release speed a little bit.

Overall, I was very impressed with Brundidge’s game and am happy to know that he is already in the fold. On a side note, Clarkston’s token African American was almost the exact mold of Ekpe Udoh, who used to be my favorite Michigan player. He had extremely long arms, almost all the way down to his knees and also looked quite similar to him, but was a bit shorter, listed at 6’6 and is probably not a high-major prospect by any means.

This is total ignorant speculation on my part, but perhaps in order for there to be any buzz, we need to create it. And if somehow it comes to fruition, don’t forget a little bird told you.

You are right Amaker did leave with 5 quality players coming in, but he would have never won with them. He was a lousy coach, all he could do was recruit somewhat. He got good players, not NBA talent players like Izzo or Bobby Knight.

I would take a great strategic coach over a recruiter any day. Do you think Bo Ryan is a poor coach? He takes average players and consistently turns out being one of the top three teams in the Big Ten, year in year out.