A history on how Michigan Basketball used to recruit
Per Hoopscoop. Rankings began in 1983. For the purpose of this post I'm not including any signees outside the top 100. This should give a good overall view of basketball recruiting before the Amaker/Ellerbe years. I included Ellerbe's 1999 class to show that Michigan still had some cache' despite looming sanctions and atrocious facilities. Would be interested if anyone could find anything before 1983. I'm sure guys like Tarpley, McCormick, Hubbard, etc were all highly acclaimed coming out of high school.
1983: Antoine Joubert (#25 overall), Quincy Turner (#64 overall), Garde Thompson (#81 overall)
1984: Gary Grant (#11 overall)
1985: Glen Rice (#6 overall), Loy Vaught (#20 overall)
1986: Terry Mills (#2 overall), Rumeal Robinson (#5 overall)
1987: Sean Huggins (#12 overall), Kirk Taylor (#37 overall), Chris Seter (#52 overall)
1988: No Top 100 players
1989: Sam Mitchell (#42 overall), Tony Tolbert (#44 overall), Michael Talley (#64 overall)
1990: No Top 100 players
1991:Chris Webber (#1 overall), Juwan Howard (#3 overall), Jalen Rose (#6 overall), Jimmy King (#9 overall), Ray Jackson (#84 overall)
1992: No Top 100 players
1993: Bobby Crawford (#19 overall), Oliver St Jean, Makhtar Ndaiye
1994: Jerod Ward (#1 overall), Maceo Baston (#16 overall), Maurice Taylor (#18 overall), Willie Mitchell (#19 overall)
1995: Robert Traylor (#4 overall), Louis Bullock (#11 overall), Albert White (#16 overall)
Sidenote re: 1995. Kevin Garnett was the #1 ranked player and there were substantial rumors he would have come to Michigan if his coach and not "misplaced" his qualifying SAT score.
1996: No Top 100 players
1997: Brandon Smith (#63 overall)
1998: No Top 100 players
1999: Lavell Blanchard (#6 overall), Kevin Gaines (#11 overall), Jamal Crawford (#46 overall), Leland Anderson (#83 overall)
McDonald's All Americans (Began in '79): Blanchard, Bullock, Grant, Higgins, Horton, Howard, Joubert, King, McCormick, Mills, Rellford, Robinson, Rose, Traylor, Turner, Ward, Webber.
in terms of "legal" recruiting classes, it looks like Michigan's best classes have been 85, 86, 99, and 2012.
Is there any evidence anyone other than Webber took cash from the Fab 5? Even removing Webber that's still the best class.
..."$100 handshakes," but it was nothing like Webber. Post-Fab 5 guys hurt the program as much or more than the Fab 5.
Yeah I thought it was mostly guys like Traylor and Bullock (and Webber of course).
Also said, "if I'm not getting laid, I'm not coming" in regards to recruiting visits being like bachelor parties.
#phrasing
4 players took money from martin and 3 of them had preexisting relationships with him in high school.
Ed Martin gave gifts to high school players, not because he wanted them to go to Michigan but because he liked getting close to great athletes and he hoped they would return the favor when they became big time pros. I'm not defending the pracice, just that it is not clear that it had ANY effect on any of the Fab 5 coming to Michigan. That may not be true of the later guys though.
True. Ed Martin was not a Michigan booster. Ed Martin was an Ed Martin booster.
doesn't matter. Every single game from 92-98 has been vacated so it really isn't in dispute. However, I guess if you want to look at the class that ensured our complete basketball irrelevance from 1999-2009 as our best class that is your thing.
Then look no further than the present.
you think this is basketball irrelevance, than you have not lived through basketball irrelevance.
am looking forward to next year. 2 quality seniors, lots of experience returning, Wagner and Robinson ready for break out years and a good class coming in. Should be a good team next year.
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It was said last year, but that was with the assumption that Caris and Spike would be the leaders. Instead, all of the role players had to step up. Provided everyone stays healthy, I see no reason that next years team doesn't finish at least in the top 5 of the B1G.
...I don't think he started, did he?
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March 31st, 2016 at 11:18 PM ^
Started quite a bit when walton was injured.
"Yeah, we are okay, and it's OKAY!!"
Expect more from this program. Seeing them go from Final 4, Elite 8, to what they are now, is sad. Michigan is a major Big Ten program that has some good history. I have no clue why baksetball is constantly patted on the back and excused for average to below average play, but football has one bad season and the coach is "forced to retire," basically leading to a decade of crappy performance.
much wrong with this post I would not know where to start.
Someone alert the Brentano's security guards to Uncle Leo. SWARM, SWARM, SWARM!
Jerry, you ratted me out!
Between 1998 and 2008 or so, if you wanted to go see a home game against MSU, this is what you did:
1) Decide the morning of the game that you'd like to go,
2) Call a few friends to ask them if they wanted to join you (only to have all of them tell you no and a few ask you why you would want to waste your time),
3) Wander over to Crisler a half hour before tipoff,
4) Park your car 20 yards away from the concourse,
5) Buy cheap tickets on site,
6) Take your seat in a sea of green and white,
7) Watch Michigan lose by 30.
Now THAT was basketball irrelevance.
WTF? Did we or did we not just lose to them by 20 at home?
Yes, and that was seen as a shock. Under Ellerbe and the lowest points of the Amaker era, things were so bad that getting blown out by MSU was pretty much expected.
Does it include the last 3 - 4 years? Or just last week? Making the tourney, B1G champs, and a couple of good runs is not irrelevant.
You're blaming the Fab 5 for our decade long irrelevance? lol
entirely, there is plenty of blame to go around. I am crediting Beilein with our resurgence though. lol, ha, lmao
Brief, 2 year long resurgence you mean.
believe the resurgence has ended.
It's not trending well. I guess next year will tell a lot.
for the whole decade becasue he refused to cooperate early on and tell what happened. After that it is on the administration for hiring Ellerbe and the later recruits taking money.
Why must people keep bringing up the name 'Ellerbe'? Egads, he was the worst bball coach in Michigan history! He was worse for basketball than Rich Rod or Hoke were for football...
That and waiting to build a practice facility until 2011. We probably had the worst basketball facilities in the B1G until they renovated Crisler and built the PDC.
I'm ok with that. Does a team that has never been to the NCAA tournament even count?
I don't understand why anyone would point to the Fab Five era as something to aspire to.
It's embarrassing that one of the most notorious scandals in NCAA history occurred at Michigan. If you think that statement is overblown, just google "worst scandals NCAA history".
Michigan is better than that.
And I don't understand why anyone who preaches about being the leaders and best would accept anything less on the basketball court. Michigan is better than that.
Because we know that you can't be the best at college basketball recruiting without making major sacrifices to your integrity, getting caught a second time would be a real bad look, and we're okay with the recent record (last two seasons notwithstanding, and it doesn't take much to think that that 'brief downturn' isn't the exception). I could go on.
March 31st, 2016 at 10:02 PM ^
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March 31st, 2016 at 11:06 PM ^
Villanova is having a great run this year.
However, Villanova's level of success under Wright is very similar to UM's under Beilein - except Wright has been at his post longer.
Until this year "nova was getting a reputation for choking in the tournament - since 2010, they lost in the first or second round 5 straight times. (missed tournament once).
Wright:
NCAA tournament 11/15 years
2 Final Fours (still active in 1)
1 Elite Eight
2 Sweet 16
6 Lost first or second round
Beilein:
NCAA tournament 6/9 years
1 Championship Game
1 Elite Eight
4 Lost first or second round
March 31st, 2016 at 11:31 PM ^
I have a very reliable source that Wright is not totally clean wrt: Scottie Reynolds recruitment.
EDIT: HOW THE FUCK DO YOU THINK VILLANOVA IS MORE RELEVANT?
Perry Watson "delivered" Rose and Webber. Ed Martin was a "benevolent soul" who used to "help" Watson. Until then, Michigan never had a class approaching the "Fab Five." You can basically erase the Fab Five and post-Fab Five years when assessing recruiting.
Also, "handlers" have become much more of a factor in recruiting now. If a kid has a handler who wants six figures for a seat at the table, Michigan is not going to "ante in."
Especially with instate rival Tom Izzo embracing the "dark side" to a point where he can outbid UK for a recruit, the only way Michigan is going to recruit top 25 players on a consistent basis is to cheat. That isn't going to happen.
Be happy that Beilein can get the results he does with a clean program and celebrate the occasional top 25 recruit who turns down good money to go to Michigan.
very few schools in history have ever had a class approaching the fab five.
Not sure if serious.
I used to have an article where Rumeal Robinson (who is a documented scumbag) said something to the effect of back when he played you used to have to take care of players like that. He was responding to being asked if he thought Steve Fisher was aware of players being. He was implying that Fisher was too dumb to know stuff like that but Freider knew how to make sure his players were compensated. By all accounts, this basketball team was dirty long before most want to admit. If your bag man goes to prison, your program gets caught. If he stays out of jail, you'll be fine.
Google Univ of Michigan baseball probation. You'll see the baseball team received major sanctions for extra benefits in that same era.