Mailbag question: Basketball recruiting?

Mailbag question: Basketball recruiting?

Not sure if you guys take basketball recruiting questions or not so here it is just in case and if not just delete it.

Do you guys know anything about Michael Gilchrist and how his visit went at Michigan?

What does this say for the Michigan basketball program?

What does this do for the other kids Michigan is looking at right now?

Fred B.

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Thanks for the question and yes we will try to answer any question related to Michigan if we can.

Michael Gilchrist is by most or all accounts regarded as one of the best players in the 2011 recruiting class. He is a small forward and some talent evaluators rate him as an elite, that is, one of the very best high school players in the country, period. This evaluation includes the seniors who are one year ahead of Michael.

What does it mean to be able to get a player like this on the Michigan campus? This is HUGE, that is, it demonstrates that the criticism of Coach B. is, at this time, invalid. Coach B has now had several elites or near elites on campus. More importantly though, Coach B. has the quality of outstanding perception; he can visualize how players will fit in and succeed within his unique system. Those with basketball knowledge, who closely observed Coach Beilein at West Virginia, would give a different type of reaction, the opposite of criticism. Critics stated his "slow Princeton offense" would not work at Michigan; his zone defense would not work at Michigan; he could not recruit the state of Michigan and get top kids, and the high school coaches in the state of Michigan would not like how he uses kids in his offensive/defensive schemes which would fail to get players ready for the next level.

And continuing on, the other week UM received a verbal commitment from Carlton Brundidge, so this recruiting accomplishment refutes somewhat the underlying assumptions about in-state recruiting.

The basketball practice facility is being moved forward, so another strike on the Beilein cannot get it done crusade. Most of us remember when people said Michigan did not care about the basketball program, or treated it like a third world country. So, concluding this initial discussion we go back to the original premise, getting a kid like Michael Gilchrist on campus, no matter what happens later, clearly demonstrates how Coach Beilein has turned this program around from the Ellerbe and Amaker days.

Recruits have described Coach Beilein as being relentless. Yet he is honorable and a model for coaching integrity (actions within a set of rules and unofficial actions that all could agree as being ethical). Coach B identifies which recruits can fit in, is very selective in his total number of offers, and then will stay right on top of every recruiting situation.

As with all successful college hoops programs, Coach B has gathered some great assistant coaches that really recruit hard and make obvious to recruits that the Michigan program is (or maybe even has) turning around. All the coaches go out of the way to convince recruits that UM really wants them. The coaching staff has shown what they can do on the court (game management), in practice (great teaching) and clearly makes incoming recruits better overall basketball players.

So, the opinion that getting Gilchrist on campus is great has been expressed. Next let us examine some possible side-benefits. It is now established elites will visit, so expect others to follow in the future. Elites can handpick from numerous offers making the final sign on the dotted line written commitment a tough commodity to obtain. But in basketball, one or two elites can make a phenomenal difference, unlike football where some teams stack up elites by the dozens. The Michigan offer is not yet cherished throughout the country like a Duke or North Carolina offer is. Still, good players who are now considering Michigan for 2010 and 2011 know that the window is closing. Michigan’s 2010 recruiting class players Casey Prather and Trey Ziegler, and 2011 recruiting class Amir Williams can choose from numerous universities. But the UM window is closing and first come, first serve may apply to even players of this caliber.

The above window closing is also reinforced by Carlton Brundidge’s commitment. Again, the scholarships are now getting tighter. Recruits have to be thinking UM is a serious program now and wonder what other recruits may be waiting in the wings for a later UM offer. The result is: if a player is really serious about accepting a Michigan offer, the time schedule for decision making better be on a faster pace.

An opinion: a player like Brandon Kearney, who is a very good basketball player, might be left out, because of how many elite, or near elite, basketball players are currently looking at Michigan. He is very good and many readers would like to have him at Michigan. But the reality is that with the limited scholarships GBMW would take a commitment from Prather, Zeigler, and Williams before Kearney. Of course if a player like Gilchrist wants to commit the staff would immediately take his commitment.

Michigan has not had this luxury in quite a long time, where the program actually has high-level recruits seriously inquiring, wanting to visit UM, and talking so highly of the coaches and the recent quick turnaround that culminated in an unexpected trip to the NCAA Basketball tournament. Now throw in the icing where UM won a game a played pretty well against an Oklahoma team that had great physical advantages.

This is where it starts getting fun again to watch Michigan basketball. UM should be a better team, but they also play a tough schedule, one that some early predictors value as one of the toughest schedules in the country, perhaps even top ten.

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Written by ErocWolverine