Hoops recruiting: U-M no longer pursuing Jalen Coleman

Submitted by Raoul on

On today's recruiting roundup, Sam Webb said that in his opinion, Michigan is "pretty much done" with 2015 recruiting following Duncan Robinson's decision to transfer to U-M. He said that he didn't think Michigan would be mentioned in connection with Jalen Coleman or Eric Davis for much longer. This is looking like a good call, with this news from Kyle Bogenschutz:

Following commit of transfer Duncan Robinson, #Michigan no longer pursuing 2015 La Lumiere 4-star SG Jalen Coleman http://t.co/CwqznDJVbo

— Kyle Bogenschutz (@KyleBogie) August 12, 2014

Sam said that he thinks that for Michigan 2015 recruiting now boils down to possible big-time "difference makers," such as Caleb Swanigan or P. J. Dozier. Other than that, it's on to 2016.

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Jalen Coleman

Yeezus

August 12th, 2014 at 5:47 PM ^

Not really.  I'm shocked it never reached the light of day, but this kid was booted from his high school for being bad.  

http://www.maxpreps.com/blogs/maxwire-national-blog/sC85OIMs6U2J-tcXvZa…

From a trusted source of mine:

"My good friend is a Cathedral alum and coaches baseball/basketball at their current rival (Bishop Chatard). People that went to Cathedral treat it like college and stay very tuned into their athletic programs. And, this guy is especially plugged in since he coaches and teaches at a school down the street. In short, Coleman and his family aren’t the best of people. Either Cathedral waived the $10k / year tuition so he could go there or they were getting money to go there (both happen frequently for top athletes) and then he was kicked out for theft. And, his grades are so bad that he had to go to a prep school in northern Indiana and not to the public high school in his area (since the former will boost his GPA via bogus classes and the latter will not). The school where he goes to now is where all the foreign players go to try and get grades to qualify for American colleges. IU’s Hanner Perea went there and my good friend’s old college teammate is the coach. It’s no better, according to him, than the Huntington Prep, Oak Hill, Findlay Prep’s of the world."

Joined: 01/02/2014

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4godkingandwol…

August 12th, 2014 at 6:45 PM ^

... while I appreciate the insider info, the friend of a friend source that basically lays the blame on a high school kid seems obvious recruiting follower rationalization.  We should have known, and probably did know, most of the issues for some time, unless he recently transfered or had some major incident occur (See York, C.).  My guess is, we think we got the guy we want, and we're shutting down.  If we didn't fill that need, we may still be after Coleman, unless we were already cooling on him for the reasons suggested above.  

Joined: 08/06/2008

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Raoul

August 13th, 2014 at 8:35 AM ^

It's almost certain that that wasn't the reason why it played out like it did. According to what Sam Webb said this morning, Coleman's father called Michigan recently to set up an official visit, and he was told that Coleman's spot had been taken. As difficult as some find this to believe, there's nothing complicated here: Duncan Robinson took up the shooting guard spot that had been open for Coleman or Eric Davis to grab.

Joined: 09/29/2009

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Erik_in_Dayton

August 12th, 2014 at 5:40 PM ^

But they seem to see Robinson - who they'll apparently give the chance to play the two - as replacing what they'd get with Coleman.  Coleman is sometimes described as a combo guard, but he apparently doesn't have PG skills right now. 

Joined: 12/03/2008

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Raoul

August 12th, 2014 at 5:16 PM ^

As recently as yesterday, there was an MLive article with Eric Davis still mentioning Michigan as a school he's considering. He's already made an official visit to UNLV and has plans for officials to Texas and UCLA. A bit of an odd thing is that he has Kentucky in his final seven, even though he doesn't yet have an offer from them. But his "family said that could change in the near future."

Joined: 09/29/2009

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Rabbit21

August 12th, 2014 at 5:17 PM ^

Unless he's continuing to get the feeling that Coleman is trending away and that he'll at best be a highly regarded second choice.  I think last years SG follies may have made him extra cautious in this regard.

Joined: 11/12/2009

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ken725

August 12th, 2014 at 5:32 PM ^

I haven't read anything on Austin Davis.

Rivals mentioned Tyler Cook from St. Louis as someone who might get an offer. 

http://247sports.com/Player/Tyler-Cook-36403

He visited on 8/10 and is supposed to see his recruiting pick up. Right now he is only a 3 star to Rivals, but is supposed to rise in the next update.

He is teammates with Jayson Tatum who is a consesus 5 star (#1 overall 247sports)

Joined: 10/26/2008

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Mr Miggle

August 12th, 2014 at 5:34 PM ^

Sam and Kyle work together at Scout, so I'd bet on one being the source for the other. I like Sam and he's probably right, but I've never gotten the feeling he's as plugged into the basketball program the way he is with football. 

Joined: 10/07/2010

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Raoul

August 12th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^

I get what you're saying, but I wasn't really talking about "confirmation" of what Sam said. Sam talked in general terms of Michigan eventually moving on from both Coleman and Eric Davis. Bogenschutz is reporting that Michigan has indeed now moved on with regard to the former. Two different—but related—things.

Joined: 09/29/2009

MGoPoints: 13957

Kramer

August 12th, 2014 at 5:48 PM ^

That's assuming no one redshirts, which seems unlikely in a class that big.  Hatch at a minimum will redshirt, I suspect MAAR will as well, and possibly whichever "big" doesn't make the rotation out of Doyle and Wilson.  If you have Donnal and Chatman starting, Irving can play the 4 in a pinch, and Bielfeldt/one of the freshman would be your back ups. 

I agree with your overall point, that's a large class, just hoping a couple of them can redshirt.

Joined: 11/03/2009

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alum96

August 12th, 2014 at 9:47 PM ^

I believe MAAR will be 24 as a senior as it is, so I dont see a RS for him.  If Caris gets hurt there is no natural 2 - basically you put a guy like Dawkins or Irvin down at 2.  I think MAAR plays and we play a 11 man rotation.  That doesnt mean MAAR plays a lot or plays every game.  But he was brought in to be an instant plug bench player IMO.

Joined: 04/28/2012

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alum96

August 12th, 2014 at 9:47 PM ^

I believe MAAR will be 24 as a senior as it is, so I dont see a RS for him.  If Caris gets hurt there is no natural 2 - basically you put a guy like Dawkins or Irvin down at 2.  I think MAAR plays and we play a 11 man rotation.  That doesnt mean MAAR plays a lot or plays every game.  But he was brought in to be an instant plug bench player IMO.

Joined: 04/28/2012

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bmdubs

August 12th, 2014 at 9:52 PM ^

I like your thinking.. But it's just a bit optimistic regarding our new players, even with the quotations highlighting how "big"-like they are. Doyle and Bielfeldt will definitely be getting playing time at the 5. Physical bodies are necessary - thus getting Teske a scholarship may be the most important thing of the next couple years. Beilein has no one to replace Morgan's D so we're kind of looking everywhere for solutions now. We will be lucky if Wilson or Chatman can play the 4 on the defensive end (thus the need for both Doyle and Bielfeldt). Don't count on it. Irvin (not Irving) is so far from being a 4 defensively we'd be worse off than last year on D (and the offense can't get much better) if he was ticketed for that spot, so not a good outlook there. Donnal is our only hope.. Hopefully our backcourt can carry the front court until next year when we have some depth - the lineup until then though is: Walton/Spike Caris/Irvin/Dawkins Irvin/Chatman/Wilson(backups can slide to the 4 when we go small) Donnal/bielfeldt Bielfeldt/Doyle With Walton and Caris averaging 35 a game at a minimum

Joined: 09/05/2010

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Raoul

August 12th, 2014 at 11:17 PM ^

I've never been an advocate for banking scholarships, because the oft-worried-about scholly shortfalls never seem to occur. But the roster imbalance you highlight does seem to point out a reason why it might make sense to now move on to 2016, with the exception of any 2015 "difference makers" (in Sam Webb's terms)—although those players seem like long shots to land at Michigan.

Joined: 09/29/2009

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93Grad

August 12th, 2014 at 5:42 PM ^

the staff took itself out of the race for both Eron Harris and Coleman, both who seem far superior to Robinson.  The 2016 class better include some studs or we could easily fall back to a middle of the road B1G team and a second round tourney exit every year. 

Joined: 07/26/2011

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93Grad

August 12th, 2014 at 6:06 PM ^

don't get me wrong, I love what JB and his staff have done.  They have been fabulous, but recruitng is the lifeblood of any successfull program, which is why they need to sustain it year after year.  We should be fine this year and next, but if we bomb out in 2016 that would be pretty worrisome IMO. 

Joined: 07/26/2011

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93Grad

August 12th, 2014 at 6:18 PM ^

there is also no gaurantee we land any of our top targets. My point was simply that it would be very harmful to strike out on all of our top targets two years in a row, particularly coming after a 2014 class in which we took a couple plan C wing players in MAAR and Dawkins.

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