As I had previously mentioned, I made it out to watch 2012 Michigan recruit Yogi Ferrel. For the second time this season, I came away impressed. His Park Tudor squad was no where near as talented as the opposing players from George Washington High School, but he was the man. Washington just could not stop him from driving. Yogi got in the lane whenever he wanted, and continuously drew contact and went to the line (finished 11 of 12 from the line). His jump shot is still a work in progress, but the kid is so quick and creative with the dribble, if he can develop a consistant outside jumper, he WILL be a blue chip recruit. He finished with 23 points as Park Tudor came away with a 50-44 win. They play my alma mater, Cardinal Ritter, this Friday in second round action of sectional play. I have copied a nice write up from the Indianapolis Star on the game last night.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100303/SPORTS0203/3030332/1057/SPORTS02/Composed-Ferrell-guides-Park-Tudor-s-win

Beilein has been on this kid for a while, he has mentioned michigan in the past. Wonder how soon he gets a michigan offer? Perfect timing for him to come in as DMo is a senior.

Yeah I have heard him mention Michigan in just about every interview where someone asked him about college. I might be wrong, but I don’t think coaches can officially offer until a players junior year. Either way, Yogi is definitely a high major recruit and we are right in the thick of things.

Well i’m no recruiting guru, but i don’t understand the Crider offer, even if it is for next year. There seem to be a lot of wings about that size.
Is the idea to make the offer early, to beat out other schools?

I’ll look forward to more informed explanations below…

I’m a New Jersey guy, and may be biased, but do have some thoughts on Rutgers. A) I wish it were a stronger school academically (academics are reportedly a bigger issue than most fans realize). But B) I don’t think fans who criticize Rutgers’ relatively weak sports following tend to realize how much that might be augmented, down the road, by membership in the B10.

In that sense, gaining the East Coast audience may not be a big deal immediately but could be huge down the road. And Michigan, with lots of fans on the East Coast may see some residual benefit. In the same way membership lifts Rutgers academically. . .

It might not be the worst thing, in the short run, to have another guaranteed W on the docket, in hoops, football, etc.

Purdue could be scary good next year… I just wonder if the loss of Kramer will have the same effect as our loss of Merritt and Lee.

JimC: It means they really like him and they think they can get him.

Assuming Hummel comes back, wouldn’t be surprised to see Purdue in the preseason top 3.

Crider seems decent, hopefully Michigan can snag this guy. The scholarship situation looks ideal for Michigan right now, as Anthony Wright’s departure gives Michigan some options for the next 2-3 years.

The big question right now is for the class of 2010; if Trey Zeigler goes elsewhere, do we offer Isiah Sykes? And Do we offer Horford/Piatkowski?

My biggest hope is that Michigan somehow gets Mike Gilchrist the #1 prospect of 2011, who named Michigan in his top 6…

I don’t think the loss of Kramer will hurt Purdue near as much as losing Lee hurt us. They have a kid named Terone Johnson from North Central, same school that produced Eric Gordon, AJ Ratliff, and Jason Gardner, that is the best scoring guard in the state of Indiana. I honestly believe he will come in and start from day one and more than make up for the loss of Kramer. Purdue’s starting 5
1- Kelsey Barlow
2- Terone Johnson
3- E’twan(sp?) Moore
4- Robbie Hummel
5- JaJuan Johnson

Purdue should be the #1 preseason team in the country, IMHO.

If Buford and Turner come back, which seriously might happen, OSU is DEFIITELY a top 2 or 3 team. They would be scary good if those guys come back.

so if Crider commits, that leaves us two scholarships over the 2010 and 2011 classes. I really feel like we need two bigs in those classes combined, but that would mean Ziegler is out. Which ofcourse is a terrible thing in my mind.

To me it sounds like there are two options that are playing out. 1. the coaches know or think it is highly likely, that Ziegler is not coming. So they like Crider more than Sykes and we do need another wing in one of these classes. That still leaves the final two scholarships for bigs or the longshot at Gilchrist.

2. Coaches dont think two bigs are necessary over the next two classes. This probably means they really believe in Morgan, McLimans and Metrics. So they offer Crider knowing Manny is definitely gone by then, but they still think Ziegler is in the fold. They hold out on offering Horford, to try and better gauge Williams/Plumlee as they would prefer one of those two.

In a perfect world, I think I would prefer the combo of Ziegler and Horford this year, then adding Williams or Plumlee next. I trust the coaches and they obviously know a lot more about the situations then I do, but I feel way more comfortable with our chances of replacing Sims production if we had another option to go Morgan, McLimans, Smotrycz. Not to mention I would be scared to wait until next year on Williams and Plumlee. If one commits this year, then fine, but if not, I would make sure Horford is in or Piotrowski if that guy can play.

The final thing about this is that it lessens the chances of Gilchrist. I know we were probably a crazy long shot, but I would still want to roll the dice on him especially if Ziegler ends up committing.

If Crider is not committing anytime soon, I wish they would have waited until April to offer him, just to see what ends up happenning with Ziegler.

Dylan, Rivals says we have an offer out on a 2011 wing from Florida by the name of Rod Days.

What’s with almost every recruit we target also being offered by Providence?

Days plays on the same team as Fab Melo…good offers. haven’t heard him mentioned with michigan at all

tweeter, also remember that LLP could open a spot a year early if he didnt come back for a senior year. its a possibility

About that tournament expansion article. If they were to go to a 96 team tournament, they would probably have to play all the first round games the weekend before the tournament. That way, there’s enough time to do all the 32 new first round games plus time to re-seed the field afterwards. And they’d have to reseed it because if they didn’t, your #1 seeds would be playing 16/17 seeds like major conference bubble teams instead of teams with losing records who won their conference tournament or SWAC/MEAC champs like they do now. If you were a #1 seed this year, wouldn’t you be mad that instead of playing like, Centenary in the first round you’d be playing a team like Cinci or Arizona State?

I am a bit puzzled as well by this offer. Why extend an offer to an unranked wing prospect when you should be trying to land higher ranked big men?

If they land Crider and Zeigler, that leaves only one scholarship open for 2011. If they also offer Horford, they have no scholarships left for 2011.

Does this mean Beilein has a low estimate of Horford and has no intention of pursuing him further?

Does he really really like Crider and believes he’s severely underestimated by the recruiting gurus?

Does he think Crider has enough size at 6’6″ to make a difference in the paint?

Does he really think Crider is better than the 4-5 or more ranked 2011 bigs Michigan is in the running for?

Or does he doubt his ability to land Zeigler or other highly ranked prospects?

Unless Crider is far better than his non-ranking, this is not a good sign for Michigan’s overall recruiting.

I hope Beilein is right about Crider but I’m not highly confident given his less than stellar unranked recruits so far.

Who are these less than stellar unranked recruits you are referring to? McLimans and Novak? No one has seen McLimans play and he has four years left to improve. Novak is pretty good.

Naive question: does Beilein ever talk publicly about the recruiting prospects? It would be fascinating to know what his views are, even if he offered them in a guarded manner.

Talking about unsigned recruits is an NCAA violation.

I wouldn’t over think it at this point. Crider is a 2011, he’s not going to decide tomorrow.

2010 will play out by April and you never know what the situation will be by the time the 2011 class signs.

I would be happy if Crider commits. Anyone who Bo Ryan thinks is good enough to offer a scholarship can definitely play in the B10.

google the kid and read about him…………..it says he can do pretty much everything on the court (take you off the dribble, catch and shoot, good passer, can play inside and out)and hes real athletic, he just doesnt always play with enough aggression or assertiveness, similar to deshawn in that regard………definitely an interesting prospect

@ZRL. Thanks for making reminding me the Bo wants this guy. Wisconsin seems to always have guys that just know how to play basketball. Bo knows.
Even with this though my hope is still in Trey and then Williams or Plumlee

good point by zrl about bo ryan offering crider as well

I dont doubt Crider’s ability or the coaches ability to evaluate prospects. Its just that personally I really want to see them get two bigs in the next two classes and I am still holding out hope on Ziegler.

Dylan is right though. There is a ton of time left and we wont know what the situation is really like until april. They already have more offers out there for 2011 then they can take, so obviously offering Crider shouldnt be upsetting.

Thanks, Dylan; makes sense that coaches can’t talk about prospects. Would make it more of a meat market than it already is.

I have no doubt Beilein can evaluate talent; it’s pulling players in that’s the issue. . . many elements outside the coach’s control.

Oh and saw this over on Mgoblog. Apparently Ziegler tweeted something about watch espnu at 6 tonight. Dont know what it means, but I guess there is a recruiting show on and Ziegler will be featured/say something about his recruitment?

Looks like it’s some sort of feature on ESPNU’s recruiting program. Don’t think it’s any sort of announcement about his recruitment or anything.

Someone will have to tell me though.. I don’t have ESPN U :-)

I wonder if the Crider “offer” is real offer. JB tends to be pretty tight about offering until he hss seen the kid enough. If JB did offer it means JB thinks he is really good. It doesn’t mean anything about any other prospects and our chances with them. I think we need a 6-6/6-7 wing so I don’t mind it. The junior rankings are very fluid so he might jump up.

As for Horford, he might not have an offer yet for many reasons. One could be they haven’t evaluated him enough (ie they haven’t seen him play enough vs teams with bigger players).

I have actually been hearing some things about Blake McLimans recently. I had heard that he was progressing well. During the post-game BTN repeated what I had heard (the coaching staff liked how he was developing and that he might be able to make a splash at the 5 next year).

Dylan, I’m recording it, just in case. It might be nice to upload a video of a recruit committing to Michigan. LOL.

I found this post on CMU’s rivals site.

http://centralmichigan.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=2640&tid=131992508&mid=131992508&sid=1203&style=2

I wonder if that was the order Trey listed them?

I agree with Tweeter. We still need Zeigler and some bigs. Beilein needs to put on an all out blitz to get Trey.

I would definitely take some more time to evaluate Horford. I would hate to offer Horford than not have enough space for Plumlee, Williams or Gilchrist. We don’t need anymore projects.

We need highly skilled impact players.

Crider has a legit offer, he visited recently. Kid seems similar to Aaron Fuller at Iowa who beilein looked at. Could be a solid b10 player.

Here’s hoping. . . we can give MSU a good scare, at least, on Sat. night. They’ll have played on Thursday and we’ll be well-rested. Coach B tends to game-plan well, esp. given some time. They’re not a great-shooting team; maybe we’ll be on.

I saw it there was really no news all they said was that his dad was focusing on his team and trey was focusing on his team so they really have not tried to make a decision until the season ends. He actually never mentioned cmu

So, OSU will have not played for like a week and a half if we make it to the second roun. we always talk about how we have a hard time playing on a short turnaround. maybe we’ll be hitting our stride and osu will be shaking off the rust?

i’ve tried to be more negative about our chances lately because i thought it would be better luck…but in the end i can’t shake my over-the-top optimism, it always gets the best of me.

Since Coach Beilein is traveling east to watch Evan, it’ll be interesting to find out if he makes a stop to check on Mat Piotrowski. It would have to be an open gym situation, like when he checked out Evan last year, since Piotrowski’s team appears to be done for the season.

I’m glad Plumlee got to see the game yesterday in person and not the Illinois or Penn St. games. A 2011 class of Plumlee , Gilchrist, and Brundidge would be sweet.

Great point on the rest Mattski. UM’s on spring break too, so the players don’t have the stress of exams or have to worry about getting up for 8 a.m. classes. Will be great to beat Sparty on the second go around.

Good luck to the UM women’s team tomorrow in the Big Ten Tourney. A win gets them to a rematch with MSU.

This Duke-Maryland game= Why I love college basketball.

duke-maryland game is awesome right now.

I was thinking about this scenario earlier as well. We might have to play McLimans at the five next year in order to be sure that we have four decent shooters out there. As much as I like to think that DMo might improve this offseason, I just think he is too far away from having a good shot to improve that much in one offseason. So that means if Morgan or a Horford end up at the five, teams will have two players they can sag off of.

This offense seems to be much more effective when teams have to come out and pressure it, rather than when they sit back. So we really need a five that can shoot with Dmo at the point.

How about those Terps. Definitely a fun game to watch.

I do think that McLimans is an option at the five. He has the length to block shots even if he isn’t a great rebounder. And… he can shoot.

isnt Jordan Williams for Maryland, what we hope Jordan Morgan is?

Kind of random, but I just realized that we are:

- 0-10 when we score fewer than 60 points
- 2-5 when we score 60-66 points
- 12-0 when we score more than 66 points

So yeah, the magic number for Sunday is 66 points. And if we don’t score 60, we’re doomed.

@tweeter. I was thinking the exact same thing watching the game tonight. Garbage buckets, rebounds, a post move or a dunk once in a while, that’s exactly what I’m hoping for.

I’d be happy if Morgan became like Graham Brown.

Gilchrist top two schools are supposedly Kentucky and Villanova. matter a fact a recent article talks about how Gilchrist loves Nova.
So I don’t think U-M is an option at this time though it was nice he did visit.

I’d love to get Ray and Trey for this class and add Plumlee with Brundidge. Would there be 1 spot left open in the ’11 class? if that were to happen.

It’s great we are chasing the top kids but at the end of the day I think Gilchrist is Nova, Plumlee is Duke, Zeller is UNC, and Zeigler is not Michigan. I do think we have a chance with Amir Williams. It will be interesting to see how the next two classes pan out.

Yeah, Gilchrist probably is a pipe dream. Zeigler and Plumlee, I’m not throwing up the white flag yet since both have been on campus in recent weeks… I wish Williams’ last live exposure to UM this season hadn’t been the Illinois game. Fortunately, he lives close enough to easily keep with UM and is friends with Brundidge.

Not sure why McCallum’s name keeps coming up. He’s not considering Michigan at this point.

Giddings – VERY interesting stat, that it breaks down that simply. So we shouldn’t worry about any kind of defense and just run down and try to get as many shots off as possible! :P

On the NCAA expanding the tournament to 96 teams – DON’T DO IT!!!!!! It’s working very well with 64/65, please don’t mess with it, unless we get up to like, 450+ teams in Division 1…heck I’d even say 500+. This is a good percentage of teams that make it into a *meaningful* post-season right now (I think there are 347 D-I teams, so 65/347 = about 18.7%). I find that to be a good balance of still getting a lot of teams in, but getting a berth is still fairly difficult to do and means something.

The comparisons they’re making to college football, that they allow a much higher percentage of teams into the post-season, are crap. In the bowl games, only 2 teams REALLY have a chance to win a national championship. EVERY team in the tournament has a chance to win a national championship! Realistically, not all 65 do, but they control their own destiny and *could* play themselves into the final to win it all. Once a team wins a bowl game outside of the BCS championship, it’s just “Well, we ended the season on a high note, good job everybody, OK let’s go home.” STOP COMPARING THE TWO!! If they really want to have the same percentage, of teams that can play for the national championship, as football, then the tournament should have 6 teams. And NO ONE wants that [most people don't want only 2 teams in football either but that's another rant :)].

Somebody ban this guy please.

GrandChamp, don’t ban qingyang. Like he said, “YOU MUST NOT MISS IT!!!”

I’m still kindof thinking its possible McCollum is goin to the Pac-10 and that Zeigler’s going with him.

Dylan, forgot to mention that Rivals has Johnny O’Bryant 2011 big man from Mississippi listing us with an offer. It is a long list and probably a longshot to get him out of the south but he also has Harvard on his list so school might be important.

So I wrote Rivals yesterday and asked why the heckity heck they had us down as offering Horford. Today Horford’s Rivals profile reflects the single offer from Providence. I am the Rivals Police. I crack Rival skull.

Hahahahaha

Regarding Rutgers joining the Big 10, I’m a NJ guy too and I think Rutgers is a solid school. I hope my daughter goes there 1 day. This is confirmed by US News & World Report who ranks Rutgers as a top 26 public school. http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-top-public.

That’s better then Iowa and Michigan St though i’m not sure that’s saying much ;)

I think adding Rutgers would be an enormous move for the Big 10. It opens the whole NY media market to REAL college sports. Do you know how many big 10 alumni live in NY, NJ, Delaware, & CT? I don’t either but it’s a lot. I can only imagine how huge it would be when Ohio st, Michigan, or Penn St came to NJ to play football. They might have to move the game to Giants stadium. As well, Big 10 basketball is no slouch. Though it may not have the clout the Big east currently has, the sheer #’s of alumni would sellout a lot more Rutgers games then they currently do. I can’t imagine having Michigan come to NJ every season in bball and every other season in football. The northeast may actually buy into college sports.

Believe you me, Rutgers is a legit expansion candidate for many reasons. The most notable is the rabidness of the alumni from the Big 10′s programs. This will translate into real dollars for both Rutgers and the Big 10. It’s the dollars that count.

[...] introduced Crider last week and the 6-foot-6 junior is one of the first wing players that Michigan has offered in the class of [...]