WTKA Roundtable 6/2/2022: Somebody Believes in Me
Things discussed:
- Craig has a Nadal take.
- Baseball: bats came alive in the tournament.
- Joe Stewart: Makes Sparties so mad. Team came together when MSU threw at his head and they (and he) responded.
- We do NOT trust the pitching. Good news: it's a hitter's regional. Louisville and Oregon are bat teams. So is everyone in the Big Ten save Iowa.
- Rutgers got hosed. Kevin Warren would have said something if it was Ohio State.
- Willie Weiss: Bakich's theory on his pitching turnaround is he overloaded his credits.
- "MICHIGAN CHEATERS!"? Dude, he faced 2 batters. Also: it's baseball. Yankee fans are still mad about Kenny Rogers, but nobody else clutches their pearls over this. He's just bad at hiding it; give him a few years in the Astros farm system and he'll be better at hiding it.
- Anyone else think the balls were hopping off the bats in Omaha? A couple of those homers were fly ball swings.
- Michigan hoops: Need a 4, unless TW can improve his defense, or Jett is there. He'll be more active than Houstan; dirty secret is neither guy staying in the draft was
- Craig's hot take: Caleb Houstan is Kam Chatman.
- NIL and bigs: These guys are valuable in college like they're not in the NBA, and their personalities can shine here too. Helps less with the 5-star one-and-done types, because (see: Diabate, Houstan) they have to cash in now, and their freshman years are not as valuable as what they'll become.
- Changes how we think Michigan should replace recruiting.
- Softball: Why are their best players leaving? Is it competitiveness, or (Seth says) they have a big class coming in that they recruited pre-pandemic, and just 12 scholarships.
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream.
There was no Segment Two. You can watch the video here:
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Even if he's just making a base calculation and not thinking about making Tom Izzo eat his own liver, this is a smart move for him. And then you get the bonus of making Tom Izzo eat his own liver.
I'm still in the clouds after reading about our football defensive recruits. Basketball has such a quick turnaround it makes my head spin. Glad Hunter D will be back!
With Moussa-- since he's a French citizen, could an NBA team draft him and then work out a deal to have him play overseas for a couple seasons without impacting their contract countdown clock / draft rights, a la the ol' Spurs Draft n Stash?
Fire Bake-itch!
"give him a few years in the Astros farm system and he'll be better at hiding it."
LOL! I'd upvote this if I could.
Naw man, not the Astros. They got caught and they got about the minimum punishment they deserved and the maximum punishment given out.
Now the Yankees, Diamondbacks, Indians, Rangers, Cubs, Blue Jays, Nationals and Brewers got away with it. There's where he should go.
Good point by Sam that of the three NBA risks, we got the most important one back. Also a good observation by Brian that the issue with five stars is that they have as much risk of coming back and eroding their own hype while guys like Ivey, Davis, Murray, Franz, Stauskas can build hype as sophomores.
But some of the other takes....
- The guy Houstan is hoping to be is Cam Johnson more than Duncan. People are him and think he can be at least passable on D and not JAS. Duncan got played off the court in the playoffs because NBA teams target him. I agree he hasn't shown either the defense or shot making to think he can be that....but here we are.
- You talk about Houstan like he's so terrible at shooting, I am surprised any of you are upset he's leaving. It is true he had no variety or consistency to his game. But Duncan didn't shoot on the move much at Michigan, he learned it in the GLeague. Poole was terrible after he got drafted and had to learn how to play in the GL too. Same with Iggy (who's still figuring it out). Caleb probably will too and teams probably think they can teach him because his raw tools (48% at home) are great.
- I agree that big, moderately athletic centers are the moneyball inefficiency in the college game. I think small guards are too. Not sure about Iggy since he's foreign (no NIL) and probably didn't have much else to develop.
- You guys sound like the people that drafted Kwame Brown with how you talk about Moussa. I think he's going to find a home, but despite how athletic he is....it isn't clear how good he actually is at basketball. He's too small to play center without putting on 30 pounds and he can't shoot or dribble to play PF. I think teams aren't sure what to do with him and he's probably a late second flyer.
- The risk of only recruiting guys 40-100 is that they need time and may suck as freshmen (Frankie, Kobe). The benefit is that you aren't pressured to give them PT and they will probably stick around a while. Michigan needed instant impact, which they did provide. I would agree that you should be very picky about who you go after in the top 20. I also would lean away from recruiting foreign players who can't get NIL.
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