First - while it's perhaps true John Beilein went "by the book" a little too much, his overall approach to recruiting (find kids who are beating down the door to come to Michigan) has never looked better than it does today.
Having said that, our clear weakness coming into this year is our backcourt, and in particular the two guard position.
Both John Beilein and Juwan Howard are responsible for that situation.
Now, it might be true that in early 2018, no one thought Jordan Poole was a two and done candidate (although I personally did).
But here are a list of very recruitable combo/two guards that we did not land under JB from 2018 to 2020:
Noah Locke, Cormac Ryan, Jamal Bienemy, Duane Washington, Joe Girard, Rockett Watts (the only guy who may not belong on this list), Harlond Beverly, Ethan Morton (picked Purdue before JB left).
We went 0-8 in those recruitments, and any of those guys could help us tremendously. Either Bajema can really play and we just haven't seen it (which I actually do suspect is the case), or we recruited projects in back-to-back classes with him and Nunez, which is not particularly smart.
But Juwan really didn't fare any better. It's not true he put all his eggs in the Christopher basket. Before that, he tried to get all of Jaden Springer, Nimari Burnett, and Moses Moody. We went 0-4. Juwan was also unsuccessful in even getting a campus visit from Jabri Abdur-Rahim, who committed to Virginia when most thought JB would have landed him had JB stayed. So, the one position we really needed to nail to be a Final Four contender in 2021 - a really good two guard - neither coach got the job done. Or at least that's how it seems now. Of course, heading into the 2017/18 season it seemed like we had a gaping hole at the point guard position, and by April 2018 we were playing for a national championship. So, unexpected pleasant surprises can always happen.
As far as point guard . . .
I think Beilein recruited certain guys with the idea they would be combo guards, and not necessarily starters, but valuable third guards. I'd put Brooks and DDJ in that category, and also MAAR. I doubt JB looked at MAAR and said, "He's our starting two guard," it was probably more like, "He can help us." Why do I put DDJ in that category? Well, in 2018 we got a commitment from Zeb Jackson, and earlier that year we recruited DJ Carton hard. It seems clear we had those guys in mind as the point guard of the future.
Moving forward . . . we badly need wings and guards. There are literally four such talented players in the 2021 state of Michigan class - Bufkin, Akins, Pierre Brooks, and Roper. We need to come away with two of them, and I'd like to see us land Ty Rodgers in 2022, also.
Also, in the future, I'd like to see us recruit more guys like Ben Carlson (top 100 PF JB really liked) and fewer guys like Isaiah Todd.
I think (hope) this has been a learning experience for Juwan. Hopefully it pisses him off that he jumped on a plane to fly out to New York to watch Christopher, recruited him hard for months, then got deceived at the last minute. Again, it's fine to commit to another school, it's not fine to be an immature a$$hole about it.
Having said that, our clear weakness coming into this year is our backcourt, and in particular the two guard position.
Both John Beilein and Juwan Howard are responsible for that situation.
Now, it might be true that in early 2018, no one thought Jordan Poole was a two and done candidate (although I personally did).
But here are a list of very recruitable combo/two guards that we did not land under JB from 2018 to 2020:
Noah Locke, Cormac Ryan, Jamal Bienemy, Duane Washington, Joe Girard, Rockett Watts (the only guy who may not belong on this list), Harlond Beverly, Ethan Morton (picked Purdue before JB left).
We went 0-8 in those recruitments, and any of those guys could help us tremendously. Either Bajema can really play and we just haven't seen it (which I actually do suspect is the case), or we recruited projects in back-to-back classes with him and Nunez, which is not particularly smart.
But Juwan really didn't fare any better. It's not true he put all his eggs in the Christopher basket. Before that, he tried to get all of Jaden Springer, Nimari Burnett, and Moses Moody. We went 0-4. Juwan was also unsuccessful in even getting a campus visit from Jabri Abdur-Rahim, who committed to Virginia when most thought JB would have landed him had JB stayed. So, the one position we really needed to nail to be a Final Four contender in 2021 - a really good two guard - neither coach got the job done. Or at least that's how it seems now. Of course, heading into the 2017/18 season it seemed like we had a gaping hole at the point guard position, and by April 2018 we were playing for a national championship. So, unexpected pleasant surprises can always happen.
As far as point guard . . .
I think Beilein recruited certain guys with the idea they would be combo guards, and not necessarily starters, but valuable third guards. I'd put Brooks and DDJ in that category, and also MAAR. I doubt JB looked at MAAR and said, "He's our starting two guard," it was probably more like, "He can help us." Why do I put DDJ in that category? Well, in 2018 we got a commitment from Zeb Jackson, and earlier that year we recruited DJ Carton hard. It seems clear we had those guys in mind as the point guard of the future.
Moving forward . . . we badly need wings and guards. There are literally four such talented players in the 2021 state of Michigan class - Bufkin, Akins, Pierre Brooks, and Roper. We need to come away with two of them, and I'd like to see us land Ty Rodgers in 2022, also.
Also, in the future, I'd like to see us recruit more guys like Ben Carlson (top 100 PF JB really liked) and fewer guys like Isaiah Todd.
I think (hope) this has been a learning experience for Juwan. Hopefully it pisses him off that he jumped on a plane to fly out to New York to watch Christopher, recruited him hard for months, then got deceived at the last minute. Again, it's fine to commit to another school, it's not fine to be an immature a$$hole about it.
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