Imagine what could have been...

Submitted by BleedMaizeNBlue on

Just saw this picture on Sports Illustrated and began thinking....How different would Michigan basketball be if KG actually played for us?

Then I thought, this is way cooler than Leonardo DiCaprio wearing a Michigan hat.

Then I realized how much time I waste thinking about stupid things.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1005/kevin.garnett.rare.photos/content.1.html

aaamichfan

May 19th, 2010 at 4:13 PM ^

I don't think Kevin Garnett playing one year for Michigan would have really changed the course of history. It would have been a fun year though.

blueheron

May 19th, 2010 at 5:01 PM ^

I just looked up the '96 tourney.  UM was a 7-seed that year and lost to 10-seed Texas in the first round.  They might have been missing some players with injuries (like Traylor after the infamous rollover).  Anyway, I agree that one guy (even *that* guy) probably wouldn't have altered their season significantly.  What they really needed that year was a top-tier point guard.  I thought Travis Conlan was a solid player and good character, but he wasn't an all-star.

jmblue

May 19th, 2010 at 6:06 PM ^

Garnett probably would have been the best college player in the country if he'd gone that route.  I don't know how you could argue that he wouldn't have had a huge impact.  Our frontcourt would have been unbelievable.  Adding him would have probably turned that team into a favorite for the Final Four.

As for whether it would have changed our program in the long run, probably not.  The hiring of Brian Ellerbe was a program-killer. 

jmblue

May 19th, 2010 at 6:01 PM ^

If he had been academically qualified, he probably would have gone here.  Before him, no one had gone pro straight out of high school in about 20 years, so it's likely that he originally planned on attending college.  But he was unable to get a qualifying SAT score, and so he began thinking about the NBA instead of a Juco/prep school.

offskooring

May 20th, 2010 at 2:50 AM ^

on some bio tv show featuring Garnett, it said he did qualify, but had already hired an agent and declared for NBA...i tried to research this for proof and the only i could find was inconclusive, yet casts doubt on all other bios and explanations i have seen. All explanations indicate he went pro because he failed to get 17 on ACT after 4 times, but this chicago tribune article says he took it a fifth time.

article

jmblue

May 20th, 2010 at 3:42 PM ^

Yeah, I heard that he did end up qualifying at the very end of the school year, just days before the draft.  By that point it didn't matter - he'd made up his mind to go pro.  But if he'd qualified earlier, before the NBA hype started building up for him, I think he'd have gone here.