By Dylan Burkhardt | Uncategorized | Posted on September 29, 2009 at 10:07 am
One quick update on Casey Prather, who appears to have come to a decision. The Tennessee native will announce his decision on Wednesday. Word leaked on Monday that Prather had narrowed his list to two schools: Florida and Michigan.
At this point the prevailing internet rumor is that Florida is the likely destination for Prather’s services. Prather has kept his recruitment close to the vest throughout and most of the communication with the media has been through his coaches. This trend doesn’t appear to have changed as the latest rumors are not direct from Casey himself.
Sam Webb thinks Michigan still fits Prather’s criteria but he also says he has no read on what Prather’s decision will be (MP3). He thinks that if he chooses Florida, it will be a deviation from the criteria that Prather’s camp has set. Webb also thinks that the fact that Prather’s father didn’t make the visit to Ann Arbor and did make it to Gainesville is a boost to Florida’s chances.
Prather’s AAU coach, Charles Clark, has been a unique source of information throughout Prather’s recruitment by keeping followers up to date with his twitter account. Clark let off a series of tweets last night about Prather’s recruitment:
Didn’t know it was going to be made public so soon but if you havent heard its between Florida and Michigan for Casey Prather.
Feel bad for him considering his gotta tell some wonderful coaches “Thanks, but No Thanks”.
What if he goes to Michigan and potentially him and Austin Hollins are going head to head againist each other in two years..WOW!
Gotta give alot of credit to Beilein and Mahoney. I think they’ve done a fantastic job recruiting this guy. They covered alot of ground.
Casey seems to be pretty excited about his college choice…Wonder what hes thinking, NORTH or SOUTH? Gators or Wolverines?
John Beilein will make an appearance at the Maize Rage Mass Meeting tonight at 7 PM in the Kuenzel Room of the Michigan Union. John Beilein and Free Cottage Inn, what could be better?
Trey Zeigler has an official visit scheduled to UCLA ($). UCLA and Michigan State were in Mt. Pleasant to check out Zeigler in an open gym over the weekend as well.
By Dylan Burkhardt | 2009-2010 Season | Posted on September 28, 2009 at 10:39 am
In an effort to preview the other ten teams in the Big Ten, I’m going to be conducting a series of interviews with other Big Ten hoops bloggers. We are going to kick it off with everyone’s favorite, Wisconsin and Bo Ryan’s swing offense. Hoops Marinara is one of the best Wisconsin hoops blogs around and Phil agreed to jump in and break down the Badgers.
Fans around the Big Ten are probably celebrating the fact that Joe Krabbenhoft has graduated, any other key departures?
Wisconsin lost two solid four-year “glue guys” in Krabbenhoft and Marcus Landry that contributed to much of Bo Ryan’s recent success in Madison. Krabby and Old Man Landry will be missed most of all for their versatility, defense and unselfishness. Krabbenhoft may have been detested around the league, but he was tough. Landry was an undersized warrior who had turned into a good outside shooter. On the flip side, it can be argued that neither Landry nor Krabbenhoft really seemed to live up to expectations as they got older. Former walk-on Kevin Gullikson also graduated, taking with him some frontcourt depth, a lot of hustle and the anchor leg of any pitcher race.
Who’s expected to fill the gaps? What’s your predicted starting lineup?
Everyone is expecting an all-upperclassmen starting five from Bo Ryan. The senior backcourt will be Trevon Hughes at point and Jason Bohannon as the shooter. Both Keaton Nankivil (6’8″) and Jon Leuer (6’10″) spent time in the starting lineup last season as sophomores, but neither is a true center. Fellow junior Tim Jarmusz (6’7) will man the small forward spot to start the year. Wisconsin must get more out of their reserves than they did last season, when the bench minutes ranked in the bottom fifth of all Division I.
By Dylan Burkhardt | Uncategorized | Posted on September 27, 2009 at 4:30 pm
There is plenty of preseason coverage on deck, including a preview of the Old Spice Classic, articles about this year’s team, as well interviews with several college hoops bloggers. But I also want to give you guys a chance to get involved as well. If you have a question about Michigan basketball, the Big Ten, or even college hoops in general please send it in.
If there is enough interest, hopefully a periodical mailbag feature can become a more permanent feature of the site. Send in your questions!
By Dylan Burkhardt | Recruits | Posted on September 25, 2009 at 3:48 pm
According to Go Blue Wolverine, 2011 super recruit Michael Gilchrist is on campus ($, but the picture tells all). Gilchrist is the consensus #1 player in class of 2011 and possibly in the whole country. For more information, here’s Seth Davis’ profile of Gilchrist from this summer that details his life, early recruitment, relationship with William Wesley, and just about everything else. Obviously the competition is steep for landing the consensus top player in the country but getting him on campus is a statement none-the-less. From the SI article, here’s Michael’s school situation (July):
As for Michael’s recruitment, many people in basketball circles are assuming that his relationship with Wesley will ultimately lead Michael to sign with Kentucky, whose coach, John Calipari, is perhaps Wesley’s closest friend among major college coaches. When Michael was 13, he told a newspaper reporter that he wanted to attend Memphis, where Calipari was then the coach. This week, Michael said that Kentucky and Villanova were his top choices. (Michael used to play youth basketball with Wildcats coach Jay Wright‘s sons, and Cindy is close with Wright.) Cindy, however, cautions against anyone playing connect-the-dots between Wesley, her son and Calipari.
By Dylan Burkhardt | Links | Posted on September 25, 2009 at 11:09 am
DeShawn Sims, Zack Gibson, Josh Bartelstein, Zack Novak, Coach John Mahoney, and Eric Puls (MGoBlue.com)
John Beilein’s track workouts are underway, Michigan had their fourth workout yesterday and have three left to go. The guards are pictured here as well. Yet another sign that the season is almost here, the countdown to Michigan Madness is down to 21 days.
What’s the latest on Casey Prather? The Item reported that Billy Donovan was scheduled for an in-home visit yesterday. They also mention that Clemson headman Oliver Purnell has not made his in-home and doesn’t appear to have one scheduled. A decision is imminent and while the original plan was to decide after an October 3rd Vanderbilt visit, his AAU coach has hinted on Twitter that a Vandy visit might be unnecessary. His AAU coach, Charles Clark, also mentioned that the Florida visit wasn’t enough to name a clear leader. It’s a waiting game now — Michigan and Florida appear to be in a great position but I would hesitate to count out Vanderbilt, the local option. The bottom line with Prather’s recruitment is there are a lot of people not named Casey Prather who are offering their opinions, I don’t think we’ll know how he really feels until he makes his decision.
Speaking of Billy Donovan, he was flying coach out of Detroit earlier this week, goes along with a tip I got that he stopped by Calihan Hall to check in on Ray McCallum Jr. McCallum is not going to end up in Ann Arbor, if he doesn’t play for his dad I think Kansas and Oklahoma are in very good position.
Jeremiah Davis has trimmed his list to “about six“. Davis visited Ann Arbor earlier this month and also has Michigan State and University of Detroit visits scheduled.
Spencer Turner was in Ann Arbor last weekend but at this point it’s going to be hard to find room for him. Turner has visits scheduled to Miami (OH) and Notre Dame and is receiving interest from Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Virginia Tech and Wisconsin.
John Beilein’s coaching clinic is scheduled for October 31st. GVSU head coach Ric Wesley and Penn State Erie Behrend College head coach Dave Niland. John Beilein’s lecture will be titled “Passing Drills to Reduce Turnovers”, can’t say I’m surprised about that one. The full schedule and registration details are listed here.
If your itching for some high school hoops action. Bank Hoops is hosting a camp this Sunday at The Cage in Swartz Creek from 10am-5pm. Games will be starting at 12:30pm and Dwaun Anderson, Percy Gibson, Brandan Kearney, Ray Lee, Patrick Lucas-Perry, Trey Zeigler among others are expected to participate.
If you missed the football press conference earlier this week, Kelvin Grady told a bit of his story from the time he left the basketball team to his time working the third shift in a Grand Rapids factory before joining the football team. Chengelis recaps the whole story here.
Percy Gibson, Coach Calipari, and Brandan Kearney (Photo courtesy of 
Fans around the Big Ten are probably celebrating the fact that Joe Krabbenhoft has graduated, any other key departures?
DeShawn Sims, Zack Gibson, Josh Bartelstein, Zack Novak, Coach John Mahoney, and Eric Puls (
