TrueBlue2003

April 19th, 2018 at 12:32 AM ^

given the recruiting, but when you take pretty much all one-and-done's there's a bit of a tradeoff you have to make and it changes expectation a little bit because, yeah, they're really talented players but you don't really get a chance to coach them up.  So the expectations are little tricky to determine for a team like that.

I'm sure UK fans don't complain too much because it's still a lot better than they had under the previous two coaches and better than all other teams in the last ten years except Nova, Duke and UNC.

nb

April 19th, 2018 at 3:12 AM ^

If you take highest rated 12 schollies they probably don’t have the highest rated team on the floor. If we had a star rating for rotation players based on current year ability, that would be more relevant.

One and dones aren’t necessarily finished products just high ceiling guys that can grow in the NBA. Look at jaylen Brown. He is awesome on the Celtics but was not close to Top 10 PoY his draft year.

Maize4Life

April 18th, 2018 at 8:41 AM ^

for certain..Michigan will struggle early as the new team blends together...people will freak and panic cuss and swear but come Feb and March NOBODY will want to see us

Champeen

April 18th, 2018 at 9:44 AM ^

I don't think that happens this year.  You basically have to replace 2 guys with guys that were not too far off starter minutes (Poole/Teske).

I think Michigan comes out swinging for the first time in a while right out of the gate.

Bambi

April 18th, 2018 at 12:56 PM ^

Dakich didn't play in 2016-2017, and Donnal wasn't a tough guy to replace. We're replacing 3 major players including 2 of our 3 biggest offensive focal points and our 3 best shooters. This team will struggle early, people will freak out, and then they'll be better and everyone will talk about how they won't freak out the next time, even though they will.

TrueBlue2003

April 19th, 2018 at 12:44 AM ^

off the get go than this past season. 

But the year before we had a lot of returning experience and actually did come out swinging.  Dominated the preseason NIT, were getting talked up as having Final Four potential, and then it was a midseason swoon that had people panicking (me included because it was so unusual to see us get worse).

M-GO-Beek

April 18th, 2018 at 8:55 AM ^

I'm curious how much of the bump these services offer is due to Belien's clear ability to find diamonds in the rough.  Obviously these rankings are created by people and people can be easily influenced by current events. It seems reasonable to me that similar to a when Harbaugh offers a little known recruit, all the recruiting services give them another look and the recruit often gets a hefty bump.  At this point, if Belien seems something in an under the radar recruit, then they probably deserve a second look too.

maize-blue

April 18th, 2018 at 9:27 AM ^

They will miss having a stretch 5. I don't see them getting to the finals next year. Maybe the year after next. Maybe.

njvictor

April 18th, 2018 at 12:01 PM ^

Especially considering almost all recruting services consider Brazdeikis a 5* talent but still rank him as a 4* or don't rank him since he's an international player. If he was ranked as he should be, I think we'd be ranked higher than #15

Ty Butterfield

April 18th, 2018 at 1:09 PM ^

So sounds like Iggy isn’t factored in to the ESPN rankings. As far as MSU, it is hard to say. This past season was weird in that MSU won the regular season Big Ten title but still seemed overrated. They struggled in a bunch of games and got lucky to pull out wins. They were advertised as an unstoppable buzzsaw. They got owned by Michigan twice and I saw nothing in those games that made me think they could win the whole thing. I was really surprised to see so many analysts pick them to win it all. Both Michigan and MSU have to replace a lot going into this season. I could see MSU having fewer wins overall in the regular season but advancing further in the tournament. I think Michigan will probably gel late in the season but could end up with a tough draw in the tournament and not getting out of the first weekend.