MBB: 2014 PF Donte Grantham to Clemson
Another miss for the 2014 basketball recruiting class, but having Kameron Chatman in the fold makes it sting a lot less. One wonders if the coaching staff will get in touch with Treyvon Bluiett again.
October 4th, 2013 at 9:30 AM ^
October 4th, 2013 at 9:36 AM ^
Thank you for clarifying. The whole post is incomprehensible due to that extra "y".
October 4th, 2013 at 9:59 AM ^
Np, I'm here to help
October 4th, 2013 at 10:23 AM ^
You Bluiett, OP.
October 4th, 2013 at 9:33 AM ^
October 4th, 2013 at 10:19 AM ^
And that's not too shabby.
October 4th, 2013 at 2:50 PM ^
Not a smart mom. That Clemson program is set to be a basement-dweller in the new ACC.
October 4th, 2013 at 9:36 AM ^
Goodluck Okonoboh choosing UNLV over OSU last night will help the sting too, I'm sure.
October 4th, 2013 at 9:37 AM ^
Goodluck looks like a beast. Would've been a terror to face in the paint. Quite an adept defender (shot-blocker especially).
October 4th, 2013 at 10:45 AM ^
Someone's first name is Goodluck!?!?
October 4th, 2013 at 11:00 AM ^
is named Goodluck Jonathan.
October 4th, 2013 at 9:38 AM ^
Well, now we know... right?
Step 1: Come on down, DJ Wilson.
Step 2: Wait to see if either Blackmon or Booker pick us. We will know by Nov 1st. If not, offer Bess. Bess commits.
Would love to end up with Wilson and Blackmon.
October 4th, 2013 at 9:47 AM ^
so he may be off the table by that point.
October 4th, 2013 at 9:57 AM ^
If he really wants M and Beilein lets him know the situation... he can wait four weeks.
October 4th, 2013 at 10:05 AM ^
October 4th, 2013 at 10:32 AM ^
I also like Blackmon a lot because of his ball handling skills. Seems like he could step into the role that THJ served on the 2012-2013 squad right away.
October 4th, 2013 at 3:51 PM ^
I'd much rather get Bolden in the late period than Bess now. Chatman can play the 2 so more size could still be a priority.
October 4th, 2013 at 9:48 AM ^
Apparently, Devin Booker and Drake Harris are good friends. Hopefully Drake is in his ear about rooming up in Ann Arbor or something. A client of mine has a grandson that hangs out with both of them (obviously when Devin is in town, not every day or anything). So here's hoping Drake is doing some recruting for the basketball team as well as the football team.
Cool story, bros?
October 4th, 2013 at 9:54 AM ^
October 4th, 2013 at 9:58 AM ^
Great perspective.
October 4th, 2013 at 10:29 AM ^
Yes, ask Spike how this works.
October 4th, 2013 at 9:57 AM ^
UMHoops had an announcement primer for Grantham that indicated a close-to-even split among the "Craystal Ball" contributors, I believe, but it also mentioned something else - Clemson had essentially been recruiting Grantham longer than anyone. Indeed, it mentioned that Clemson could have taken Grantham as a 2013 prospect had Donte not gone the prep school route, so there is that as well.
October 4th, 2013 at 10:09 AM ^
OP's tone seems to indicate we've struck out left and right on basketball recruits. We got Chatman, who many consider to be one of the best targets we were recruiting. Booker and Blackmon are still on the table, too. Characterizing it as "another miss" is kinda BS, imo.
October 4th, 2013 at 10:14 AM ^
Either a weak troll attempt, someone who doesn't like Beilein or he is just simply uninformed.
October 4th, 2013 at 10:50 AM ^
Huge Beilein fan and huge bball fan. One of the few on this board who prefers basketball to football. See below re: the "informed" comment.
October 4th, 2013 at 3:13 PM ^
I am in shock at how much more popular the football program is given where each are at.
I'll restate what I said in another thread - the basketball program is selling recent success (championship night run, B1G title, NPOY) and an extremely attractive style of play. The football program, at the moment, seems busier selling platitudes and slogans. I know better recruiting might change that but it's hard to be patient when a lot of big talk has emanated about football.
October 4th, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^
Umm...in 2014 we actually have struck out on almost all of the recent prospects who held UM offers (Hatch and Doyle were very early commits). I'm a huge fan of Beilein, FYI.
Misses from players with offers (which have been very few in 2014 given Beilein's offer style)
Donte Grantham
Keita Bates Diop
Jae'Sean Tate
Kevon Looney (still undecided but we've been eliminated)
Vince Edwards (we cooled on him a bit, it seems)
Trevon Bluiett (doubt UM reconsiders now that he's decommitted, but we still missed when he committed to UCLA)
Hits from players with offers
Kameron Chatman
October 4th, 2013 at 11:23 AM ^
Not counting him because he was an early commit makes no sense. Hatch was originally a 2013 guy so we can exclude him in discussing 2014.
Here's another way to think about it:
Early offers/high interest:
Doyle - commit
Chatman - commit
Looney - miss
Diop - miss
Tate - miss
Bluiett - miss
Booker - ?
Edwards - partiall miss?
Late interest:
Blackmon - ?
Wilson - ?
Devin Robinson? - miss
Grantham - miss
By my count, we're 2 out of 6 so far on early offers/high interest. That strikes me as very good considering how high these guys were rated and that none of them were from Michigan. Remember, Doyle reportedly had OSU, Purdue, Notre Dame, and Miami offers. You can't get every high-rated guy you go after, and it's very hard to come in late on high-rated guys who've had people recruiting them for ages. The final grade will depend on getting one of Booker/Blackmon (or I guess Bluiett or Bolden maybe), but so far they've done very well after two pretty exceptional years. I'd say they have a good recruiting strategy.
October 4th, 2013 at 11:34 AM ^
I don't disagree that UM has not signed as many kids as they offer, but the phrasing implies that there is something wrong with missing out on these high-level recruits. I know that you are a pretty passionate basketball fan so I'm not assuming any malice, but calling them "misses" implies the team did something wrong, as opposed to a kid simply signing somewhere else.
October 4th, 2013 at 11:45 AM ^
But that's what they are, right? Misses. They offered and the offer was not accepted. If anything, a miss is a bit tougher on UM than other programs since, due to Beilein's recruiting style, so few players are offered. They put a lot of energy into the handful of kids they've offered, and when they miss it hurts more. Crean will offer any kid and his mother a scholarship, but Beilein does things differently.
I think the staff is obviously doing a fantastic job recruiting, but recruiting almost exclusively top 150 guys can be a total crapshoot. Just look at all the decommits out of Indiana.
October 4th, 2013 at 3:52 PM ^
Crean has a lot more misses than Beilein because he offers more players and has the same number of scholarships.
You're always going to have more misses than offers. You can't just offer the ones who are going to say yes. That you're defending this is inane.
October 4th, 2013 at 4:17 PM ^
and never made it campus. Not sure he counts as a swing and a miss. Looney would be a miss like Wiggins would have been a miss last year...sure UM would have loved to him but there was never a real connection made. Looney talked UM up a little but that talk was just that, talk.
October 4th, 2013 at 11:03 AM ^
he's not down on the team or coaches. It HAS been a little slow, but the Kamchat get was wonderful, IMO, and certainly cancels any bad feeling about the Grantham loss. If M gets Blackmon I will be over the moon.
October 4th, 2013 at 10:13 AM ^
It seems like he would have been a nice addition. I defer to the coaches, of course, but my hope is that this somehow leads to Bolden joining the fold. I like that guy's highlights a lot (yes, they're only highlights).
October 4th, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^
Good luck to him unless he plays us. If we can get either Booker or Blackmon we'll be more than fine. I think we should only take one more and bank a scholly for what appears to be a loaded 2015 class especially since we are coming close to the limit and that class should also view Michigan a little differently than this one since I think we have the talent and, more importantly, the coaching to make another deep run this year. Take a very solid history of good to great recent success on the floor coupled with proven talent developers that get players to the league and add in the college atmosphere, facilities, and support the team gets and it sets up for a very nice recruiting year next year. If what has happened so far this year happens again next year then I will worry a bit more.
October 4th, 2013 at 10:32 AM ^
October 4th, 2013 at 10:43 AM ^
Fair point and I do believe that Beilein and his staff can identify and develop talent so if we take two more and one of them is a role player type we would be fine. I guess my larger point is we will be fine with this class espacially since we got a Top 30 player in Chatman. If we can add either Booker or Blackmon everything else will be gravy but even without one of them this class is solid.
October 4th, 2013 at 10:32 AM ^
Also, the 2015 class will be more influenced by our NC run. It caught a lot of people by surprise, and a lot of the 2014 guys were already deep into looking at other programs.
October 4th, 2013 at 10:40 AM ^
...Presumably the class of 2015 will see Michigan put four players in the first round of the draft in two years (Burke & Hardaway this year, McGary & Robinson next year).
October 4th, 2013 at 10:25 AM ^
He's a solid player, but I wasn't going to to be overly excited if he committed, so I'm not too bummed he went elsewhere.
October 4th, 2013 at 10:42 AM ^
But I don't know why people are still holding out hope for Booker. Everyone is different, but this seems like a textbook example of "waiting for something better to come around". Dude has been to Michigan how many times? And we think this visit will change things? I say no. See: Laquon Treadwell, Jordan Diamond, Parrker Westphal, Lawrence Marshall (for MSU), etc.
I think it's much more likely at this point that we get Blackmon. If Booker wanted to go to Michigan, seems like he would've made a move by now
October 4th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
Football recruiting : Basketball recruiting
Apples : Oranges
October 4th, 2013 at 12:15 PM ^
It's more like
Apples : Lamp
October 4th, 2013 at 12:50 PM ^
Agreed. I was tryign to keep it simple on a Friday. Didn't want people saying: Lamp???? What does a lamp have to do with apples and recruiting??? They would have worried about it all night when they should be focused on drinking. They probably would have woken up tomorrow thinking about it. That would have detracted from their tailgating. That would have led to a bunch of questions about lamps and apples and recruiting. They probably would have forgotten to go into the stadium for the game. That would have looked bad on TV. Everyone would have been texting and googling recruiting:apples:lamp and it would have crashed the free WIFI day at the stadium. There would have been a revolt if that happens. People would have left. Michigan would have lost it's first game at home to....wait...Michigan would have pulled out a close win at home against Minnesota which would have caused internet rage that the team didn't cover the spread and we would have had 37 snowflake posts about what's wrong with Devin and the O-line for another week.
I'm really just doing my public service by keeping it simple.
October 4th, 2013 at 12:51 PM ^
October 4th, 2013 at 1:51 PM ^
October 4th, 2013 at 2:39 PM ^
I think I see what you did there, it's kind of dim in here.
October 4th, 2013 at 3:43 PM ^
October 4th, 2013 at 11:05 AM ^
Booker made it clear from the outset he was going to make a very careful decision, explore everything, etc. And he was being pulled in lots of directions. He may just sit down with his spreadsheet after this weekend and see where it points.
October 4th, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^
DJ Wilson recruit page for the uninitiated:
http://www.umhoops.com/recruits/dj-wilson/
A lot of video posted there. I'm just a guy, but he seems fairly explosive/aggressive at the rim. Has range out to the 3-point line. Has to hit the training table and weights. Others are critical of lateral quickness/defense. I can see the upside there