Gary Parrish of CBS with High Praise of Beilein as Developer

Submitted by alum96 on

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Caught this article on my twitter stream by Gary Parrish of CBS Sports.  It essentially says what those of us who follow MBB closely already know - the development of late has been off the chart, esp the 2012 class and Burke.  But it is good to see more and more of the basketball media catch onto it.  Also has a fascinating stat - UM has the only 2 players drafted selected in the top 10 of the past 2 drafts who were not top 75 recruits and/or 3 year players.  Lots of talk about Caris in the article too, as well as how shooting is taught.   Would have liked to see some Jordan love here too though as the wings/guards development has been under his eye as well.

Snippets:

No, Beilein doesn't have a national title like each of those coaches do, and he hasn't put as many players in the NBA, either. But what he's done is arguably more impressive, because what he's done is help turn borderline top-80 high school prospects into top-10 picks in consecutive NBA Drafts, and he just might do it again next year, which is pretty bananas.

Of the 20 players selected in the top 10 of the past two NBA Drafts, 18 were former top 75 prospects and/or players who spent at least three seasons in college. The only exceptions? Burke and Stauskas -- both of whom enrolled at Michigan as unheralded recruits, earned Big Ten Player of the Year honors as sophomores, turned pro and were selected in the top 10 of the subsequent NBA Draft.

Beilein: What he looks for, rather, are versatile players who haven't yet peaked, and that's why recruiting rankings rarely matter to Michigan, because what Beilein cares about isn't always what analysts value.

"We try to project whether a player is on the rise or if he's already where he's gonna be," Beilein said. "A lot of the [analysts'] early projections on players, I think, are made because the players' bodies are ahead of everybody else's bodies. And if you saw Nik or Caris, back when they were 16 years old, their bodies weren't ahead of anybody else's bodies."

 

LINK.

Leaders And Best

July 3rd, 2014 at 11:05 PM ^

Stauskas was not highly touted when Michigan started recruiting him. I still remember many people judged him just based off his early recruiting profile picture. He didn't jump into the top 100 rankings until his senior year--one year after he already committed to Michigan.

Similar story with GR III. GRIII was a 3 star recruit when he committed to Michigan and then proceeded to blow up his senior year. Both Stauskas and GR III were in the #100-125 range when they committed to Michigan.

jaggs

July 3rd, 2014 at 11:11 PM ^

actually finished ranked number 71 on Rivals and 86 on Scout. I'd count him as a pretty highly regarded recruit considering he was from Canada and maybe not playing top competition.  http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/rankings/rank-2509/0

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=4&cfg=bb&pid=88&yr=2012

 

Doesn't fit the narrative phrasing it 'Beilein puts top recruits McGary, Robinson, and Stauskas to NBA' sounds just as good to me.

Leaders And Best

July 3rd, 2014 at 11:33 PM ^

I think that is the more important data point here. Beilein has demonstrated an ability to identify talent well before the rankings, especially the kids that come to his Elite Camp.

Stauskas was a 3-star ranked in the 100s when he committed to Michigan. He was even lower than that when he got his offer.

http://www.umhoops.com/2011/03/26/nik-stauskas-commits-to-michigan/

GRIII was a 3 star ranked lower than Stauskas when he committed to Michigan with only one other BCS offer (Colorado). ESPN didn't even bother to rank him at the time.

http://www.umhoops.com/2010/09/14/more-on-glenn-robinson-iii/

Part of the error in looking at his final ranking is that prospects often times get a significant bump when they get offered or commit to major programs. Also, Stauskas played some significant competition his final two years in high school when he transferred to St. Mark's Prep. The NEPSAC is one of the most competitive basketball prep school conferences in the country.

gwkrlghl

July 3rd, 2014 at 11:41 PM ^

Everyone seems to forget where a lot of guys were when they committed. Smotz is a great example too. He was entirely off-the-radar when he committed (unranked to Rivals, 2* to Scout) and he ended at #59 to Rivals.

The players we get follow the pattern that Beilein mentioned above: get players that haven't peaked and/or are on the rise. Caris is on the rise now from his recruiting rankings and I believe both Chatman and DJ WIlson have also been gradually creeping up the rankings since they committed. Beilein certainly knows what he's doing

umumum

July 4th, 2014 at 12:30 AM ^

his last two years in the US--at St. Mark's--essentially a basketball factory.  The rankings you referenece were where he was at in the end--not even close to where he was at when we recruited him.

BlueCube

July 3rd, 2014 at 10:53 PM ^

As much as I like getting the attention of all the 5 star players now, I hope we keep looking for those hidden gems. It wa interesting to read how simple it is sometimes like with LaVert.  I'm sure Beilein will keep looking for those guys and it's only going to make us better.

I'll say it again, I wouldn't trade Beilein for any coach in America. We are so lucky to have him.

Qmatic

July 3rd, 2014 at 11:45 PM ^

Trey Burke was a 3 star when he committed. Hardaway Jr was a 3 star and not even ranked on ESPN when he came to Michigan. Both Stauskas and GRIII were 3 stars when they committed. Levert also was a 3 star.

McGary, Walton Jr, and Irvin were all 4 or in McGary's case a 5 star when they committed. It shows that Beilein is able to to find the gems and recruit top talent as well, and I don't expect that to change.

I expect our high 4 star (highest according to rivals) Chatman, and 3 star Doyle and top 100  Wilson to be high level players with us.

JayMo4

July 4th, 2014 at 10:20 AM ^

I think we're going to look back on Doyle as an absolute steal.  He went from a 6'7" chubby guy with a couple good post moves when we landed him to a 6'10" guy in good shape now. When we picked up his commitment, I liked his potential long term.  Now I feel like he should be able to make a difference right away.

alum96

July 3rd, 2014 at 11:52 PM ^

To put into perspective Nik's final ranking, Denzel Valentine was essentially an identical ranking. I don't know where each started around their late sophomore year but they finished within about 10 spots of each other in most rankings.

Denzel after 2 years is a talented, often lost player on the court, who takes a lot of chances, does dumb things, doesnt protect the ball well, and only late in his sophomore year started developing a good outside J.  He has all the physical tools in the world - and should be a guy the NBA is salivating over with his size, ability to rebound, and "court vision". 

Meanwhile Nik went from "not just a shooter" as a freshman to a NBA lottery pick.  That is not ALL on the staff - Nik sounds like a tireless worker....but you get the gist. 

Caris is in the same class and of course a nobody recruit, and I'd take Caris over Valentine all day every day - I don't see Valentine in any mock draft top 15 for 2015 while Caris is anywhere from 8-20 in most.

Of course in 2 years when Denzel is a 4 year player, "the face of the program", dominating 18 year olds he faces from Purdue as a senior, and is an early 2nd round draft pick we'll hear how awesome Izzo is at "developing talent", and he'll probably move up from #3 in the ESPN coaching rankings to #1.

alum96

July 4th, 2014 at 11:40 AM ^

I am not "picking" on him - he is a solid NCAA player which is what a lot of guys in the 80-100 range turn out to be.  He will be the 1st or 2nd best player on their team this year.  I am just pointing out how he compared to a very similar ranked player AND a player ranked nowhere near him.  And how the national media will fawn over the job Izzo did with him in 24 months.  Guy has a ton of potential but looks like he has barely changed from the player who showed up as a freshman sep 2012.

DrewGOBLUE

July 4th, 2014 at 8:31 PM ^

It is pretty ridiculous how often Izzo gets praise for developing NBA talent. Since these recruiting services started up about 10 years ago, MSU has had classes consisting of something around five prospects with five star ratings, 20 four star players, and 10 three stars.


Out of all these guys, there were three 1st round draft picks. That includes Payne and Harris with the other being Shannon Brown. Two have been chosen in the later half: Goran Suton in 2009 and Draymond Green more recently. Suton was cut by the Jazz during the preseason though, so he never actually played in the NBA.


All the first rounders were highly ranked/five star recruits; Brown was right up there with LeBron even. That pretty much just leaves Draymond that made a big leap.

Perkis-Size Me

July 4th, 2014 at 12:23 AM ^

Recruit rankings mean nothing to Beilein. Caris LeVert was a complete unknown to anyone 2 years ago. Now he's a projected lottery pick for 2015.



Beilein may not have a national title under his belt, but he's the best damn talent evaluator in America. There I said it.

alum96

July 4th, 2014 at 11:42 AM ^

 As I've written elsewhere Beilein is to wings/guards what Dantonio is to defense.  These stories have so many parallel quotes about not focusing on recruiting rankings, finding guys for a system, finding gems, etc.  They are on very similar paths and if memory serves both started in the same year, both now have similar # of big 10 titles, both have won big in their "extra games" (NCAA tourney in bball vs BCS game in football) and both right now when they get someone as a recruit no matter what the rank the fanbase expects that players to be very darn good down the road. 

champswest

July 4th, 2014 at 11:42 AM ^

(1) spotting talent that isn't obvious to others and (2) finding players that haven't yet peaked. The second point is most critical, I believe, because Beilein knows he can coach them up and the player will surpass other higher ranked players. As the article pointed out, some younger players dominate because they are more physically developed at a younger age.

As others have noted, let's also give credit to the players for doing the work and having the desire to improve. Burke, Stauskas and LeVert are examples of gym rats who were determined to be the best they could be. There have been others who had (have) potential, but haven't yet reached it (perhaps because they didn't have the burning desire to push themselves).