Michigan really has to step there game up now even more. they need to step right on it and get javontae hawkins,gary harris, Ray lee or even a big PRONTO!!!! this the perfect time with hawkins and harris because of the costello and valentine signings. their no need to go state if yer in the 2012 because you would probably be a 3rd string guard.
LETS GO BIELIEN NO MORE SECOND FIDDLE!!!!!

LOL his parents loved Beilein..

Sigh, it seems *EVERYONE* “really likes” Beilein, but they like being part of elite programs much much more.

I’ve been checking back periodically through the day waiting for this announcement.

That being said, Beilein needs to seal the deal with Javonte Hawkins. If he really is high on Michigan than he needs to commit soon since MSU can’t offer him anymore. Otherwise he’s just waiting for something better to come along.

we better start on 2013 before msu get all them 2

I have to say this is the most frustrated I have ever been with Beilein and the program in general. As pathetic as Amaker’s teams were, the guy could at least get guys to choose UM over State. I see absolutely no signs that will happen now or in the near future. MSU is DONE recruiting for the next 2 years and we are still looking for a SECOND commitment for 2011, not to mention a FIRST for 2012. This just isn’t going to cut it.

Once football season is over and the questions there are dealt with I fully expect Dave Brandon to take a serious look at if Beilein can and will ever be successful here in Ann Arbor.

Sad, sad day for M hoops fans.

The good news is that there will be no more competition from State in 2011 and 2012 class. There are always late bloomers like Reynolds and Pointer to surface and hopefully Beilein can now get them with much ease.

I think that Beilein will start winning many of such recruiting battles as soon as the program starts to win again.

I think it’s worth noting that MSU, beyond recruiting, is on fire right now. Back to back Final Fours are tough to contend with. They went to just one Final Four in all 6 years Tommy was here and four years they didn’t make the second weekend. They also weren’t nearly as successful in Big Ten play with a couple of mediocre years.

I really hope our (UM)targets are paying attention to the commitments that our “little brother” are getting, and would want to make it very competitive against them!!! I think we need to use our only commit Carlton Brundidge like a Dwyane Wade style recruiter… I think in the end we will be pleased with whoever commits to the Maize and Blue

Way too many Michigan fans need to get on Prozac. Every time any kid chooses another school, someone has to post about it being a HUGE loss or that Beilein isn’t getting it done or that Beilein should be fired. Get a grip. The kid liked MSU, he wanted an offer from them and accepted when he got it. You can’t MAKE a kid come to your school. We offered, and he chose someone else. Next. Move on. If every kid we offer accepts, we aren’t aiming high enough. There are plenty of power forwards available and we have plenty of time to recruit them now.

Costello probably won’t play a meaningful minute of college basketball until more than three years from now and this is a sad day? Get off the ledge.

Nice call, Brick. JB is a fine coach, trying to turn around a program that happens to have a NATIONAL powerhouse next door. Relax and give him a chance. This is his first year with all of his recruits correct? I think we’ll be pleasantly surprised! Hang in there big blue!

What Brick said. Let’s show the composure we expect of Coach Beilein.

Izzo has a top 5 win % in the NCAA tourney.

We may have been bounced earlier than expected a few times, but ya gotta be in it to get bounced.

That being said, I really do think Beilein is gonna be ok. You guys have new facilities on the way and there’s still plenty of talent in the region (especially Indiana)

Re: Big Ten play – personally I don’t care about the league much. If you win in March that’s what matters. Its a nice banner to hang, but FF banners are so much sweeter.

I didn’t mean that as a knock on Izzo at all. Just that MSU’s program didn’t have the same recruiting mojo going for it at that time in my opinion.

Agreed, Brick — seriously, folks, calm down.

Like Dylan said, MSU is an elite program right now — probably top ten in the country. Back-to-back Final 4s. Big Ten dominance. You can’t blame kids for picking them over UM right now — if we landed any player who had also been offered by MSU, that would have to be considered a major coup at this point. Actually *expecting* that to happen and working yourself up about it when it doesn’t is just delusional.

We’re still getting very good players, though, and we will start to win again. Then we will start getting more elite-level recruits. It will just take some time.

It’s amazing that the University of Michigan and their fans have fallen this far. Bowing down to MSU every chance they get. Michigan should land top players and win. Period. Either Beilein starts doing it or we find somebody who can.

As far as filling a class 2 years in advance I don’t recall Izzo ever doing that. As far as I can tell he offered very few kids a ship their junior year (as in 1 or 2 Plan A targets), instead preferring to wait until their senior year.

Someone with more recruiting info would have to correct me if I’m wrong.

As for why MSU picked up 5 commits in 12 days, that may be a new record. Who knows why all of a sudden kids are jumping. Maybe its a fear of missing the boat.

We need to get to work. This Costello signing really hurts us, I thought he would be a Wolverine. This was my major concern with Beilein, the recruiting. I’ve met him and he is a hell of a nice guy, but he’s got to be able to seal the deal on some of these guys. Recruiting has changed over the years, you have to get them early now. We can’t let MSU keep picking whoever they want from this state.

smh: Michigan State will not win a championship or go to a Final Four again under Izzo’s tenure? First off, judging from your spelling and grammar, it’s not extremely far-fetched to call you “ignorant.” The 2010-2010 MSU basketball squad is a consensus top 3 team with a VERY good chance to three-peat and make another FF. Learn a little respect. Second, as previously stated, you people should probably calm down. Beilein is a good man, coach, and representative for your university. What more do you want? Geesh.

Excuse me, make that 2010-2011***.

The over under on how many of these comments are from true Michigan basketball fans is 4.5…..Ill take the under. People are just flaming. It sucks yes, but time to move on.

Who’s that ’12 “Costello light” kid from the Traverse City area that Steve Bell was pushing, I think on this site? Paul something? Maybe his development arc will continue upward.

Michigan State has gone to the final four an average of every four years, including last year. A team that two years ago got to the tournament for the first time in more than a decade shouldn’t freak out over something like this.

Having the handcuffs on State will be to our benefit. Players like Costello (who went from relative anonymity to bigtime recruit overnight) are now officially off-limits to MSU. Lest we forget that one of the top players in the state is signed for the 2011 class, and we have several top-quality players that favor M on the radar.

Moving on: now that Costello is off the board, do any other 2012 bigs have offers? What effect does this have on M recruiting for bigs moving down the stretch?

Ouch this does hurt, even though Costello was leaning toward MSU it hurts to see it actually happening. We don’t need to get rid of Beilein, but the pressure is building on the program.

Beilein needs to land a big recruit(especially in state). If he does not get Amir Williams or Hawkins, that is not a good trend.

What big is michigan gonna try to land now

Wow, my prescription for this board is a Two Hearted Ale or if you prefer, a Founders Breakfast Stout.

We’ll be fine. Go Blue!

this is bad bad news seeing as how we don’t know which way amir is leaning. I was really hoping for matt and thought that Beilein could catch a steal by recruiting him early but I guess the glitz and glamour of the promise of a final 4 won him over! Coach B needs to step up his game, its not enough for recruits to just like you, he has to win this year in order to sell the program to these quality kids or we will continue to accept mac quality players with NIT dreams and thats unacceptable for Michigan!

Answering my own question above, it’s Sean Sheldon. (Found him as an ‘also on the radar’ mention in the ’12 Recruiting Hotboard section of this site.

Not sure about a Two Hearted Ale. I’d take a two-armed Pointer, a two-legged Hawkins, or even a 10-fingered Yogi right about now… Also, someone mentioned about Beilein getting on kids early. Beilein has been doing that, especially with the elite camp. This just hurts more because this is one of the kids that U-M was in on early.

Annarbor.com has an article about Darius Morris having confidence in his shot.

http://www.annarbor.com/sports/um-basketball/michigan-guard-darius-morris-has-the-confidence-in-his-shot-back/

Also, Manny Harris is expected to be in the Cleveland Cavaliers camp…

http://www.annarbor.com/sports/um-basketball/agent-expects-former-michigan-guard-manny-harris-to-be-in-cleveland-cavaliers-camp/

Also, Jalen Reynolds is off the board. He committed to Xavier today.

Jalen will fit well into there system

I would’ve liked Jalen Reynolds even more than Costello

“Michigan should land top players and win. Period.”

Breathing, rather than typing, is a good first step.

Also Jaylen Reynolds to Xavier

We are not getting Yogi,IMO. I know UM is trying hard to get him but I think he is going to end up with better offers and choose one of them. We need to turn the ship around before we get top level recruits. That being said, JB has always been good at finding intelligent players that by their junior year play above their rankings level. JB is a good coach and will get things rolling but I don’t think it will be until the 2011-2012 year.

As far as MSU, I obviously am not a fan but I do think they are a little overrated this year. I know they made the final four, but they also had the easiest road to get there…maybe ever. THat being said, they still were able to do it. Over the past decade I would say they are a top 10 program but not right now.

“Beilein is a good man, coach, and representative for your university. What more do you want? Geesh.”

I want a winning program.

Reynolds just committed to Xavier….AWESOME! /sarcasm

Damn– this one hurts !!! At least Beilein and his staff know the challenge thats in front of them. We just need four quality players from the next two classes, to me , that’s not too big of a challenge.

Especially when it looks like Stauskas and Hawkins are there for the taking ? We will get a quality PG from either Pangos, Yogi, Bledsoe or Poydras.

Is Austin Burgett good enough for U-M to offer ?

Go Blue !!!

I think this helps with us landing Amir Williams upfront. Here’s hoping Brundidge (his bud) is non-stop trying to recuit him to also go maize & blue!

Hopefully we can land Pointer and then we’ll have 2 AAU teammates in William’s ear.

OK. Now you guys are upset that someone we didn’t offer (Reynolds) went somewhere else?

I think that Williams is a lost cause. The last time that he commented, he talked about how Calipari knows how to use big men and get them to the NBA.

YOGI!!!!

We’re still on some good players with our remaining 4 scholarships but we better pick it up.

I’d like to see something like
(1) Brundidge
(2) Hawkins, Stauskas, Pointer
(1) Williams, Katenda, Pangos, Lee

I guess we may as well get used to msu and final fours. Izzo has absolutely no competition for in state recruits. While we fight for recruits with the MAC. I fear that we may soon be falling behind Mcallum at UD for in state kids.

Sorry, no one here is bowing down to Sparty. No one would need kneel to be the same height as Izzo any way. You had a good day, so go celebrate with your green friends.

I think the reason everybody is so concerned about the 2011 class is because without a strong 2011 class, its questionable whether Beilein will be able to survive long enough to get us back to the tournament again.

That being said, MSU has indeed been on fire lately. Not only have they been stealing recruits from us, they’ve been stealing them from OSU, Purdue, and they took Delvon Roe from UNC of all places. And recruiting is basically all Roy Williams is good for. Its frustrating, but it is what it is: 9 times out of 10 a kid is going to choose MSU over Michigan, and that 10th kid isn’t above dragging his feet in case he gets an MSU offer. All Beilein can really do at this point is make sure Michigan is the #2 option rather than kids just skipping us entirely and going out of state or to some mid-major. If that were to happen on too consistent a basis, then I’d say that Beilein’s reputation for weak recruiting would become a liability.

What exactly was Bacari Alexander tweeting about yesterday ?

RT @bacari34: The dominoes are falling in place! Gotta love it. Life is good. about 21 hours ago via TweetDeck

if Beilein continues to have us play second-fiddle to MSU, then he is not doing the job he was brought in to do. He was brought in to win championships.

Bluebufoon, either Bacari’s actually playing a hellacious game of dominoes, or they snookered Izzo into offering and getting commitments from so many talented players that there will be destructive dissension over playing time on his roster.

hahahaa

Bluebufoon, I’m pretty sure Bacari was talking about the dominoes on this year’s team falling into place. They are practicing this week, after all.

I’ve been warning ya’ll that Costello is all MSU for a long time. Once MSU offers, it’s pretty much over.

JB still has quality prospects to recruit. Michigan, IMO, need a PG and a slasher to complete the class.

Eric katenda interview:
http://www.cuttingdownnets.com/2010/08/10/eric-katenda-interview/

“if Beilein continues to have us play second-fiddle to MSU, then he is not doing the job he was brought in to do. He was brought in to win championships.”

You do realize that the last time our basketball team was a contender was 6 years before Izzo started his tour de force. You ask us to not play second fiddle, but fail to realize that we are second fiddle. The whole “we are Michigan” argument doesn’t apply here. Izzo has gone to the last two final fours. He has never had a kid graduate without going to the final four. Recruits see that and know that they will play on the biggest stage. Getting mad because we missed out on Costello shouldn’t lead to statements of grandiose expectations. You say that Beilein was brought in to win championships. I disagree. Beilein was brought in to keep our team out of the NCAA doghouse, and hopefully put together some tourney teams. You don’t go from cellar dweller to Final Fours overnight when possibly the most successful program of the last 15 years is right down the street.

We have all become so impatient. But if you thought that we would be NC contenders by year 4 of Beilein’s reign, then you were sadly mistaken.

DMo (didn’t see this posted):
http://www.annarbor.com/sports/um-basketball/michigan-guard-darius-morris-has-the-confidence-in-his-shot-back/

I think people need to calm down. I really wish Valentine and Costello would have committed to UofM because they are very good players but there is a chance that they won’t be the top 2 players in the state by there senior year. Hare (Saginaw) will probably end up Michigan’s top player in the state (Note: Will not end up at UofM). Hawkins athleticism very well could get him into the top 2 also if other parts of his game develop. So while it sucks it not like state received commitments from the guaranteed top 2 player in the state and top 25 recruits nationally.

Regarding losing Costello to MSU, it happens. It does hurt a bit more because Beilein was on him earlier and has had time to cultivate a relationship and he still struck out. However, it’s been known for weeks he was going to MSU, so no use getting too worked up over.

As to Beilein, I don’t think anyone was expecting a national championship by year 4. My expectations were a bit modest. A couple of post-seasons would’ve been nice. However, a losing record after four seasons would be an abject failure.

If Beilein wins less than 10 games this year, he should be summarily dismissed. We’d be in rebuilding mode anyway, and it’s not like we’d be losing an overwhelming number of 2011-2012 commits during a transition. 10-15 wins and I think they’ll still retain him. It’ll be paramount for him to get to the Tournament the following year, though.

a repeat of the draymond green case——another top recruit decides 5-10 freshman minutes per game at a top-notch program is more attractive than 25-30ish freshman minutes per game at a mediocre program

Hard to be positive here. The story with JB recruiting is always the same: so nice of a guy, really loved the visit, wow they are really nice, i am going somewhere else. Coming in second over and over again is not much better than coming in dead last. It may be that hiring an “older” coach was not a great idea in the end; it takes a ton of energy to recruit, and it is pretty clear that recruiting is more important in basketball than almost any other major sport.

I know its frustrating to see the top tier recruits(especially those on our wish list that have taken visits to Michigan) choose MSU, but the reality is that Belien has done a decent job recruiting when compared with the results on the court. My take on recruiting is that your recruiting ranking should be comparable to your record, that being said I think Coach B pulled in an excellent class last year considering we were 15-17. We pulled in 2 top 100 kids, a player in Colton Christian that is underrated in my opinion after watching film, with Horford being the only project. Our recruiting class was on par with the lower level top 25 recruiting classes. I know there is something to be said for improving the talent and winning the recruiting battles vs. Izzo, but the fact of the matter is that MSU has a winning tradition over the past 10+years and better facilities. I think Coach B has upgraded the talent overall,3 top 100 guys over the course of the past 2 years, and that will be and hopefully 5 after the 2011 class is signed. How many other coaches with a losing record in a 3 year span can say they’ve dont that?

Sidney Lowe? LOL!

JB just can’t recruit well enough for an elite level (or even an upper tier Big Ten) program. He’s putting in the effort but just can’t close the deal. Maybe he doesn’t have enough snake oil. But this has been clear for awhile now. Still no top 50 recruits during his tenure and one NCAA appearance only due to Amaker’s two top 50 recruits who are now gone. Year 3 of JB was a losing year despite this better talent. It’s looking like another losing year and probably only single digit wins unless JB can work wonders with MAC level talent. JB has this year and likely next to turn things around or we just have to move on. I’m still holding out hope that he can do it.

I disagree with Brick. UM has been 2nd choice far too many times under JB’s watch. If you comfortable with that always happening than that is your choice but you can’t tell me that it’s disconcerning that UM can’t land a highly recruited kid.

If all of those recruits want to go to elite schools, fine, don’t recruit them, recruit the ones that want playing time because with as bad as UM’s roster is, we can offer that far more than schools like MSU.

Yes we have heard this all before. Same old song – we love JB, the campus was beautiful and the academics are great but…we have heard this since JB first arrived. We have been on some very good recruits over the past couple of years where it came down to Michigan and the other the school. Draymond Green MSU, Klay Thompson Wash St., Gordon Hayward Butler, Robin Benzing Germany, Nate Lubick Georgetown, Russell Bryd MSU, Kyle Kuric Louisville, Trey Zeigler CMU, Casey Prather Florida. These are just the ones I can rack my brain that we were the finalists. An Assistants job is to get the recruit to believe in your school and name you a finalists and the HC must be able to close the deal. The old staff has done that and I’m hoping this new staff can too but what it comes down to is that JB is not a closer. He is not a pressure guy. He has no one in the NBA so he doesn’t talk about it. So where would you go if you were a recruit? He must change his style and learn to close the deals. He has 2 years to do this.

Not sure how Benzing made your list. He committed to Michigan but didn’t get a high enough score on his SAT.

Dylan, my memory says that Benzing didn’t clear ncaa because he played in a semi-pro league.

Plenty of people said that… but it isn’t true. Benzing didn’t do well enough on the English SAT and missed by a test score. He may have been suspended by the NCAA but that was never determined.

@Kenny The NCAA didn’t issue a ruling on his pro status. He came up short on his SAT before they had to.

Dylan – I propose that the next poster to call our team MAC level talent should be banned for a week. It is untrue and basically a flame or an insult.

Every program in the country has a LONG list of recruits they missed out on. If we aren’t missing out on kids, we aren’t aiming high enough.

Beilein’s problem is that he limits his recruiting to system guys and then doesn’t get the system guys he wants.

Every other good recruit in the state then doesn’t want Michigan because it is known as a “system and shooters” school. That is a rep that JB created when he said that some kids in the State wouldn’t fit.

Now none of them even consider UM. Guys who are not shooters don’t even bother.

what does a system guy even mean?……….you hear that all the time but every single team and coach has a system what makes beilein so much different that its so unappealing to players…….you have to shoot in order to score, i would think kids would love that not hate it, however after reading several quotes and hearing beilein talk he realizes that he needs to broaden his recruiting game and look for players of all abilities

…….in the end it comes down to winning, people i think blow this system concept out of proportion……once they start winning, if they do, then it will attract kids to come here however they have to start producing on a consistent level and its as simple as that

I agree. The “system” charge is as outdated as the idea floated that Beilein ran a “Princeton offense” when he was hired, that he wouldn’t recruit Detroit, that he he wouldn’t recruit Michigan, that he wouldn’t recruit top 50 players. Some people might still be stuck on the “system” thing, but it’s pretty clear that Michigan’s recruiting targets are not limited to spot-up shooters.

90 M Varsity -

glad you’re now on this website preaching about recruiting…

If every other good recruit in the state doesnt like UM and Beilein’s “system” then why is Brundidge coming to Ann Arbor?

What about Hawkins? We’re supposedly his #1.

Dray Green, Valentine, Costello – they all liked UM and Beilein but, uh, when the Spartan’s come calling with their recent success…well…it’s tough to turn that down.

And would you not agree that there are a number of players in the state of michigan that dont fit due to either needs of the team and/or the play of the recruit?

Can anyone objectively compare the quality of Beilein’s Michigan recruiting classes with his West Virginia recruiting? Is he getting better ranked players at Michigan?