OT: Was Giannis ever recruited by UM? Check out his Twitter photo
Check the pinned photo of his profile. At least his dad seems to be a fan.
I don’t believe he was ever recruited by Michigan as he was diamond in the rough discovered by NBA teams abroad but this is a great example of the international influence that Michigan has
he was diamond in the rough
He was the number 15 overall pick.
I think he means, not everyone was looking at him as he played in a semi pro league in Greece. I know I never heard of him when he was drafted, and by being a diamond in the rough, he wasn't projected to be an All Star, let alone a two time MVP.
If he played pro in Greece he wasn't eligible for the NCAA, so "no" UM didn't recruit him.
Moe and Franz Wagner played pro ball in Germany yet they were eligible for the NCAA. It depends if Giannis was paid to play pro ball in Greece.
I mean you can feel free to do any research on the topic of how he was discovered and his pre-draft process before commenting
I don't think you know what "diamond in the rough" means. He was all potential and athleticism, but he hadn't come close to filling out. The thought at the time was that even the 15th pick was a bit of a gamble. Hindsight and all that, but if you redid that draft today, Giannis would be the top pick.
From what I can research Giannis signed his first pro deal as soon as he turned 18 in December of 2012 so I suspect there was no college recruitment made his way. I have no idea how the Greek school system works or when he would have graduated 'high school' but it is fun to picture him being a freshman on the 2013-14 team - a starting 5 of Walton, Stauskas, GR3, LeVert and Giannis makes me drool just thinking about it.
Would have been a freshman in 2012-'13 I think. He'd be a late birthday (December) in the fresh five's class.
That picture is full of 90's swag. Lets hope the turtle neck does not come back into style.
I've got some bad news for you...
Split M? Glad we dodged that bullet!
more likely is that some old Michigan merch was shipped to Nigeria and sold or given away there
He and most of his siblings were born in Greece, not Nigeria. Yes his parents immigrated to Greece from Nigeria 3 years before he was born, but a little presumptuous that it was free, or bought for pennies on the dollar, merchandise that his dad got while in Nigeria.
I was gonna say the same thing. Somewhere there are alot of 2013 UM National Championship t-shirts.
Beilein kicked the tires on his younger brother Kostas
https://umhoops.com/2016/04/18/recruiting-notebook-open-scholarship-april-evaluation/
Wow that is a deep cut right there!
Nice pull
More than likely dad just found that jacket randomly on sale at a department store in Athens and bought it. I'd chalk this up to Michigan's brand as opposed to specific fandom.
I lived in Europe a long time and noticed the poor would have leftover clothing... saw Michigan stuff all the time and when I'd speak to someone wearing it they'd have no idea it was a college team and only knew it was something in english.
I'd often see super bowl shirts of the defeated team shown as champs.
How do we get international players into the university (academically) while we apparently have trouble admitting the transfer portal players?
It's not that transfer portal players don't have the grades to get into UM. The NCAA requires a certain number of credits to be achieved at each different year. Unfortunately, UM won't accept a LOT of other school's credits, so players don't meet the minimum credit requirements. That whole "playin school" thing is a downer.
They pay out of state tuition.
Thanks, I'll be here all night.
If they're coming out of high school, the Europeans at least are most likely coming from better schools.
Transfer portal is a whole different issue. It's about translating college credits to Michigan credits, because our transfer office has an insane policy that goes back at least 30 years of only counting credits if you can find an exact match of a Michigan class, and biases against schools not on Michigan's academic level. If you're two semesters from graduation at Alabama and want to transfer to Michigan, you are likely to find yourself more like three or five semesters from graduation, and at that point it's not worth it. It's not actually the admission to the school that's the problem, it's that academic seniors would get admitted as academic sophomores.
Usually if a player is transferring after just one year we can get them through because the pre-requisite courses translate better than the higher ed courses where it's harder to find an exact match, and it's less of a big deal if they have to start from close to scratch. We also have no problem with grad transfers because that's up to the grad schools themselves, not the transfer admissions office.
I know about this because I went through hell trying to get my time in France to transfer over. I left my study abroad program to take courses in French at La Sorbonne, which is basically the Harvard of the Francophone university system. Michigan wouldn't take my course work as French or History or even as a flat-credits elective. Ironically I got more credits (1) for my bullshit "I'm going to travel for 3 weeks around Scotland and write a paper" elective than I got for History of Early French Cinema, which was one of the most challenging and enlightening courses I ever took in my collegiate career.
My god imagine what Beilein could have done with the Greek Freak on the Trey Burke teams.
Giannis was actually about >.< to committing to play college ball at Michigan until he browsed MGoBlog and read Maizen's hottakes about Beilein and opted to not be adjacent to such negativity.
A very underwhelming draft prior to GA at 15. Not quite the Brady 6 but Giannis’ 14 didn’t do a hell of a lot. Oladipo at 2 was an OK player. Pistons did ok @8 with KCP, Trey @9 and CJ McCollum @10. Nothing great 1-14, a lot of busts.
https://www.insider.com/2013-nba-draft-players-taken-before-giannis-now-2020-12
I have to admit I never heard of this Giannis guy before last week. (I only watch the NBA when the Pistons are doing well.) But he's got a pretty cool story hawking CDs in Greece to a year in the Greece professional league. Getting drafted 15th and then growing 2" to 6'11", being a 2x league MVP and winning a championship for the small market Bucks*. I don't know if he was truly an underdog, but it is nice to see the unanointed ascend.
*I thought the Bucks lost their big star two or three years ago after they made a run, but I can't remember who that guy was and none of the names stick out from the roster. Maybe it was Giannis and he didn't leave.