Kelvin Grady?

reported that he's asked Kelvin about the possibility of playing some b-ball again. Kelvin has repeatedly said he's committed to football and that his basketball career is over. That's unfortunate, because I really liked what he gave our b-ball team.

CJ Lee and Merritt provided leadership, which is desperately needed with this team. Not saying Manny & DeShawn aren't leaders, but I just don't think they have that "it" factor when it comes to leadership. CJ Lee was great defensively and provided a "Glue" that really helped last year. Grady was a great change of pace player - which is something we're dearly missing. We need them this year.

He wasn't lighting the world on fire in previous years, so I don't see us having a better record with him on the roster. Who would we have beaten with him? Who did we beat because of him? I like the kid, but I think people look at the #15 ranking preseason like that's an indication of how good we are right now or how good we were last year. We're not. We were still the last team in the dance last year. We still squeaked into the second round of the tournament. What that says is that we have talent, but we're flawed. We can't just show up and blow teams away. And we definitely can't sneak up on anyone this year. These kids are learning what it's like to play for Michigan and have people gunning for the name on the front of the jersey. Once we get comfortable with our new players knowing the system, we will be a vastly different team. That just might not come until mid-January or February.

I seem to remember Grady being benched because he couldn't or wouldn't play the defense that JB wanted. I was at the PSU game last year and saw a team in disarray. I even commented on the VB page that it looked like JB was losing the team. I said that because of the non-verbal communication going on, capped by watching a player (Manny?) walk in front of JB during a timeout while he was talking to the team. Anyone wishing to have Grady back is desperate. He certainly isn't the missing piece of this team at the moment. I think that Manny isn't a leader (he's a scoring machine) and forget about Simms. This team lacks the player that says, "It's us against them" Right now it's Manny against them with 4 guys watching. It's not always the best player that leads the team. I think that Novak has the potential to be that guy, but with Manny being the star and him only being a sophomore he doesn't have the opportunity yet. Somebody had better step up asap or the NIT is going to be a wish too. When will somebody have enough losing and get pissed off and start privately calling guys out? That's when this team will find its leader.

will have on the recruits, both the ones who've verbaled and the ones we're still going after. At this point, why would Trey Zeigler sign with Michigan instead of MSU or the other schools who have offered him? The team does not appear to be playing particularly hard, which is alarming as hell.

I'll keep my thoughts to the original intent of the post - Kelvin Grady - rather than pulling my hair out by our underachieving bball team in general. There's no doubt that Grady was a flawed basketball player in some ways, especially with the system that JB likes to run. Grady was not great defensively and limited because of his size. So I'm not going to say that he's the missing piece and that they desperately need him. CJ and Merritt had their pros/cons as well. But what I saw whenever Grady came on the court was a spark offensively. He pushed the ball hard, he could hit open jump shots when needed, and he was a decent passer - especially in transition. As the season went on I saw why his PT was reduced because of his defense, but I thought he was the perfect spark off the bench for about 12-15 minutes per game. I never understood why Merritt got so many minutes late in the season compared to Grady. So do they miss Grady? Absolutely. He would have been a spark for them. But he wouldn't solve their problems. The real issue is that we lost all three point guards from last year and replaced them with very inexperienced young guys that aren't perfect fits in that role. Leadership is a nebulous quality that gets thrown around and maybe that's part of it too. But when Sims is playing like it is 2007 and none of the sophomores have improved like we expected - that's a problem.

What we're missing is a serviceable Center. Just like last year, anytime we play a team with 2 tall guys.. we'll probably lose. And if we play a team like Marquette that doesn't have 2 tall guys, and our guys can't make their threes... we'll probably lose. Let's hope for an 11-7 Big 10 mark and a decent showing in the Big 10 tourney... has #11 seed written all over it

If only for the fact that Grady could probably run the offense better than Morris (who seems lost in my opinion) as a third year player in this system. He wouldn't solve all of our problems like leadership or defensive issues, but I bet we would be scoring more and could have won 2 more games.

His game was not well-suited to Beilein's system, and perhaps not to high-level D-1 basketball. I noticed two things about his game last year. First, as one poster as noted, he did not defend well. Second, he did not seem at all comfortable or confident in the motion offense. When I watched him away from the ball in half-court sets, he would often just stop moving on the weak side, apparently unsure of whether he was supposed to cut or screen or of where to go to do either of those things. When even one player is idle in the motion offense, the whole thing breaks down. The team did not score efficiently in the half court when Grady was in. I have not seen the last couple of meaningful games, against BC and Utah, but what I saw earlier in the season indicates that one of the main problems is making the motion offense work. You can see that Morris is unsure of where to go and what to do at times, and it hurts. They're not getting their preferred shots and they're not getting them in rhythm. There are open looks, but they don't come in the flow of the offense and the open players aren't always prepared for them. I think that's a big reason why the shooting is so bad. In general, as players move to higer levels in basketball, success depends on the ability to play defense (except for guys who are pure offensive freaks) and the ability to be effective in a complex offense. That latter quality is especially important for Beilein's teams. From what I saw of Grady, he struggled with both of these things. He wasn't a good fit for a Beilein team, and I think he might have had trouble anywhere in the upper reaches of D-1. Grady's biggest strength was making plays in transition. He was fast and could finish very well. I just don't see how this year's team really needs that above other things. I hope Grady succeeds in football and has a great career. I wish every good thing for him. But I don't think Michigan needs him in Crisler.