Final Rivals 150 2014- Zak Irvin gets Fifth Star
Zak Irvin moves up to 24th Overall and receives his 5th star...
Also, Derrick Walton moves up to 37th Overall
Donnal fell to 111th overall but remains a 4 Star prospect...
Another great example of Coach B identifying truly elite talent at very early stages of recruitment....
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/rankings/rank-2752
Rivals half-asses their basketball rankings IMO.
Who does it the best? ESPN?
Zak Irvin is #24 overall to ESPN as well.
ESPN actually likes our basektball recruits a tad bit more than rivals.
Irvin 24 (same as rivals)
Walton 35 (rivals has him at 37)
Donnal 86 (rivals has him at 111)
Just to compare:
247sports:
Irvin - #39
Walton - #74
Donnal - #151
FWIW, I want to say I've read the guys at UMHoops stating that ESPN does the best job in basketball recruiting.
...is where did the other services have him? Considering he was a three-star on Rivals, they probably had him in the 100+ range...
ESPN is pretty bad for football, but I find their basketball rankings to be the best of all the major sites.
Thanks for giving us a logical explanation to accompany your enlightening statement of fact
April 15th, 2013 at 11:58 PM ^
If you come up with anything remotely resembling a "locigal" explanation on how to come up with infallible recruiting rankings, start your own service and make some money off of it.
You're welcome.
really pumped about next year's team even though trey's gone
I love the direction the basketball and football programs are going in. Beilein and Hoke are doing an unbelievable job.
I'm sure we will be able to come up with a better guess at our depth chart on April 29th, which is the day after the final day to enter the NBA draft.
There's no possible way for any of us to know right now.
There was some talk about Morgan posssibly graduating and then playing a grad year somewhere else, so if that happens, I don't think anyone would redshirt. If he does stay then its possible to have a solid 9-10 man rotation every game with donnal redshirting.
So we can love Beilein again?We never should have not liked the guy. We had one of the youngest teams in the country and won 31 games.
MOAR TALENT
What was the final class rating. Were we top 5? Obviously Kentucky was #1. Just curious where we stood.
Looks like 14th in the team rankings.
I think that article is dated for 11/29/12 so we may be different now.
Irvin: 34 --> 24
Walton: 47--> 37
Donnal: 107-->111
Those are the changes in rankings from the time of that article. Many other teams have picked up recruits since then as well, though.
It's not surprising given the praise he was getting at the end of the year...I think Michigan's backcourt can be as good as this year's in 2014 - assuming Irvin is a SG and that he and Walton return for their soph. seasons. Neither Walton nor Irvin will likely be as good as Burke, of course, but I think Irvin + Walton could be as good as Burke + Hardaway.
The difference between SG and SF has been microscopic under Beilein. The general direction of the game reduces it to three positions - point, wing and big (in addition to combo guards and combo forwards).
If Tim leaves, Irvin starts...
Also, I don't think Donnal will be on the bench for all that long...
Out of all of the team's bigs, he is probably the only one who has a legitimate long range jump-shot...
I think if /when Mitch comes back, Donnal redshirts
Will be more closely tied to who declares for the draft this season. If Robinson declares, I might say outright that we'll see a heavy rotation of Donnal at the 4. We really don't have anyone else that can stretch the defense at that position in Beilein's system unless Bielfeldt makes a drastic improvement. Donnal's outside-in/face-up game I think suits him well for rotating time at the 4.
That said, if McGary and Robinson are back, I agree it's hard to see him getting much time next season. Which may not be an all around bad thing as he and Austin Hatch were great friends when they committed and it might be nice for them to be part of the same b-ball class.
McGary, Horford, Morgan and Biefeldt all being present and healthy is probably the only way Donnal doesn't see a little PT. Basketball redshirts are rare.
Morgan redshirted in '09-'10 because he was injured.
Max was also injured for a good portion of his freshman year. The only reason Caris was going to redshirt was because he weighed 165 lb when he hit campus.
Unless you are likely to never see the court you probably are not going to redshirt
I would assume that it would have been a bigger surprise if Indiana's Mr. Basketball didn't get a 5th star. I can tell you that my Purdue and Indiana friends aren't terribly happy that both programs let him get out of state.
I've seen reports that he's as tall as 6' 8'' , but not the athlete Robinson is. Not sure where he plays. More relevant to defense than offense, as there isn't a huge difference between those positions in most of JB's offensive sets.
His handle is good enough that he played some point guard in High School. I am personally guessing (hoping) he will be about 6'7" when he measures in at Michigan. He's tall and long, but he is not nearly as developed of an athlete as GRIII, so it would be very hard for him to play that undersized in the B1G in John Beilein's system. That said, he's wired to score and the best comparison is a slightly more consistent Tim Hardaway Jr. His High School coach raves about his ability on the defensive end, certainly aided by his length.
He looks like a 2/3 naturally. He doesn't seem quite as muscular or athletic or GR3 and even GR3 had some definite matchup and rebounding shortcomings.
But where the suggestion of Irvin playing out of position at the 4 gets serious is if GR3 leaves. In particular, what if Hardaway stays and GR3 leaves? Then you've got Hardaway, Stauskas and LeVert at the 2/3 but the 4 is real iffy. Donnal has the closest skillset to the ideal Beilein 4 but is he good enough to play major minutes, especially as a freshman? If he is OK, but if not then your choices are either an undersized Irvin playing out of position at the 4 or going with two bigs and McGary at the high post while Morgan/Horford/Bielfeldt try to set tons of screens and get boards. Would be a better rebounding team but you lose skill if those guys are getting more minutes. Tricky.
Or what if McGary and GR3 both left? I don't think you can go with 2 of Bielfeldt, Morgan and Horford on the floor simultaneously as there is just not enough offensive skill. So again it gets down to Donnal versus Irvin at the 4. Donnal fits the position better but Irvin is almost certainly the better player and more useful on offense. Actually, they might both have to play some at the 4. At that point, we are starting to get thin if those two are gone.
Really this is not so much about Irvin as it is about whether GR3 (+ McGary) comes back. And then it is also about either finding a true stretch 4 who can play Beilein's offense but also has the size/athleticism to defend and rebound better than some smaller guys have in the best. Or whether Beilein adapts again and goes big. Or whether we sacrifice on the defensive end/boards at the 4 to get the best players all on the floor. Hopefully GR3 comes back and makes this all moot.
That West Virginia honkey who doesn't coach defense should be fired.
Beilein is from New York.
Simply for the use of the word "honkey."
They are kind of nasal. :)
/s
You remind me of one of those Japanese soldiers they found in the jungles of Papua New Guinea 40 years after WWII ended.
His game to me is very Scottie Pippen-like. Long armed defender. Can defend PG-PF. Solid shooter but more of a "scorer." Very good athleticism. Very smart player.
I'd say he's a solid 6'6...I don't see 6'8 unless he's grown quite a bit since November (it's possible, he's in high school).
To me he's a SF all the way. Can he play PF when you want to go big? Sure. Can he play SG? Sure.
La'Quinton Ross (Ohio) with a better jumpshot for those that don't remember Pippen's game. That said, I think he's got a better "head" on his shoulders and will really thrive playing for Beilein.
He'll fall right in line with the Hardaway Jr., GRIII, etc. Talented. Smart/Knows The Game. Athletic. Instant impact.
And again Beilein finds gets that are getting BETTER. That's so huge. Especially in basketball where guys are bigger at an earlier age so they dominate early then top off and never get better after their junior year of high school. Beilein is finding guys that continuously get better. Irvin will be no different.
Getting to the line is an area where Zak definitely can improve. He shot right around 6 FT's per game this year (hitting around 75%). The strongest part of his offensive game is his ability to drive and hit the pull up jumper, but he can improve his ability to get all the way to the rim. His most impressive game of the year, IMO, was against Indianapolis Tech (who features 2014 5-star big man Trey Lyles). Despite having a rough shooting night, Zak absolutely dominated that game finishing with 30 points and 10 rebounds (Lyles had 25 and 16) in a narrow win for HSE, 64-59. He was 12 of 14 at the line in that game, though I'm pretty sure that was his season high in FT attempts.
Two each for Michigan and Indiana.
I know MSU has few slots this year, but my 2008 mind is still blown