OT-ish Mizzou's Michael Porter Jr to Return For SEC Tourney
Mizzou's star freshman and projected top 5 overall draft choice Michael Porter Jr will return from an injury that could have been season ending.
The reason this is important for Michigan, Mizzou could potentially play Auburn and Tennessee in the SEC Tourney, and since both are slotted just above Michigan on the BracketMatrix 3 line, another good team in the SEC could help solidify Michigan's spot with a win over Auburn and Tennessee.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/22679863/missour…
Kid is an incredible basketball player with good instincts. He knows just showing off his health and helping his team win will do wonders for his draft stock.
UCLA and Texas can both help Michigan a decent amount. Both are on the bubble, and in the RPI Top 50. A couple marquee wins can help Michigan by default.
Root Against: Notre Dame, Tulsa, Mississippi State, Old Dominion and Stanford. All of them are narrowly ahead of Penn State on the RPI rankings, and if two or more of them fall below Penn State, it would give Michigan another Quadrant 1 victory.
Cincinnatti, Auburn, and Tennessee are really the only teams that can potentially fall below Michigan with a loss. Michigan State still may end up below, but they're done and in the clubhouse.
It's at the top - Mercury Hayes did it. A good breakdown of Champ Week.
Just read it, he/she does a really good job! I highly recommend it!
Though I do agree with you. MPJ went from being a top 3 pick to a top 7-8 pick. Other players have just played their way ahead of him, and due to scouts not being able to see how healthy he is, he has naturally slipped in the pecking order. Even 4 quality games would be enough to vault him back in the discussion for the top pick. I don't see a ton of downsides, since most teams already assumed they were picking damaged goods with a ton of upside. Unless he suffers a SEVERE setback that is.
I am perhaps a bit more risk averse. If it were my kid, I'd cautiously say, lets be happy with the lower end lottery. Granted his family/coaching situation is quite a bit more intertwined. The other thing is that he's almost certain to come out rusty, aside from a catastrophic injury (even if fairly unlikely), he could also fall a few more slots than he otherwise would've if GMs become concerned that his potential has been lowered. I feel like he'd have to have a Carmelo-like tourney run to end up the #1 pick. Anyway, I think we can all agree on hoping the best for him (and oh, if he just so happens to knock a couple of potential 3 seeds down a peg in the process, all that much better).
How does a talent like that end up at Missouri?
They hired his dad as an assistant coach.
Cuonzo Martin is a great recruiter and, more importantly, MPJ was born and raised in Columbia, MO. His aunt is the head coach of the women's team and he has two sisters that play for the Mizzou women's team. Just like a Pioneer or Huron kid going to Michigan...but with immediate family ties on top of that.