Updated 2013 ESPN 100 Bball - Irvin Now a 5*, Walton Up to #30
Just more confirmation that Coach Beilein has the program headed toward a national championship sometime in the near future. Irvin now a 5 star/#22 and Walton upgraded to #30.
http://espn.go.com/colleges/basketball/recruiting/school/_/id/130/class/2013
Sure, the 2012 and 2013 classes have been awesome and have and will probably take us to great heights but we just lost Burke and THJ and will almost definitely lose GRIII and McGary next year. That's 4 of 5 starters from the tourney run. If Irvin is good enough, he may be gone after next year.
If we can't continue to recruit at a high level in the next 2 classes, we may see a significant drop off for a few years somewhere between 2014 and 2016
One of the things that makes the ratings of this class to date relevant to how well recruiting has gone and how we should be able to do in the Big Ten in particular is that the Big Ten only claims 14 of those ESPN 100 players. Those 14 players are split among only 7 of the 12 teams, and the only team in the conference that has more on the list than we do is Indiana. It's just something else that says to me that we firmly intend to be in the conversation, as they say. Like others, I am completely amazed - in a most excellent way - by the talent we're getting and Beilein's ability to develop said talent.
Just to add some more context, 247's composite ranking has Irvin at 29, Walton at 47 and Donnal at 88. Supposedly it was updated today, but I have no idea if the update actually includes the new ESPN rankings. It shouldn't matter too much.
Past Beilein recruits: GRIII finished 17, McGary 28, Stauskas 82, Brundidge 87, Trey 93. Aaaand that's as far back as 247 goes because they hate backdating. But between Scout, Rivals and ESPN, Smotrycz averaged 80. D-Mo was 77 to Rivals, 100 to ESPN and the 20th best PG to Scout. Vogrich was 100 to Scout, 131 to Rivals and the 40th best SG to ESPN.
Obviously the trajectory is pretty good. Also helps to see that Beilein does have some misses (Vogrich and Brundidge) but everyone else contributed as a freshman and at least showed flashes of things to come.
Interestingly, ESPN seems to do a pretty good job, with Brundidge being their only true miss (other services all missed too). ESPN had vogrich the lowest and Burke the highest. That being said, every roster needs players like vogrich, so he was only a miss in the sense that expectations were much higher for him, but his role was still important.
Beilein has recruited during his tenure thus far. Assuming JB continues to be able to develop point guards the way he has, even if Walton has a bit of a rough freshman year (which I dont' expect), we should be able to expect a great sophomore year.
Morris and Burke each had one.
It's kind of funny to see people worrying about whether Beilein can keep the recruiting going. It's a valid concern, but a fun concern to have.
One thing people seem to have forgotten is that in the fall of 2014 Stauskas, Albrecht, LeVert and Horford will all be juniors or seniors. Unless one or more blow up next year that should hopefully be a pretty solid group of upperclassmen with a good amount of experience returning. Not saying that guarantees a deep tourney run and elite status, but you mix in some solid younger guys and that has the makings of a pretty solid team.
Everyone is (rightfully) talking about how Beilein is a great recruiter, but I think a lot of credit is also due to Bacari Alexander. He seems to connect very well with players/recruits
As does LaVall Jordan - the "Beyonce'" of the basketball coaches.
(I don't love that metaphor, but I guess it is apt)
Walton is basically a 5-star then, as well. Nice.
http://insider.espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/basketball/mens/st…
This article has Derrick Walton as #1 on their sleeper list.
I'm a little confused by this list though because they define sleeper as "players outside our top 25 who could outperform their final recruiting ranking at the next level."
I don't see why they don't just rank the players higher, who they beleive to be sleepers. Regardless, nice to see a michigan recruit on the list.
Anyone care to post the others?
That's what a sleeper is - someone who is not considered as good now, but could surprise (i.e., be better than we thought) down the road.
I mean they say someone outside of the top 25 who performs above their rankings...but Derrick walton has the same "rating" as the 23rd ranked player in the class of 89 so I'm not sure if they even distinguish a difference between them. It just seems kind of silly to call him a "sleeper". To me, nobody is really a sleeper in the top 50 and I feel like sleepers are players like LeVert or Spike. I suppose it's semantics but I feel like if he was a "sleeper" like they suggest, then they should just rank him higher.
I think that blurb summarizes what I see in Walton's game from his videos. His dribbling and passing seems very "Burke-ensian". Maybe not the same scorer Burke was, but also he may not need to be.
My non-UofM friends were relieved when Burke declared, but I think Walton will be the next in a long line of great PGs. Think about what Beilein has given us at the PG spot:
-David Merritt and CJ Lee: both played well above what anyone thought they were capable of.
-I think Manny Harris played a little point as well as "2" and he was very solid, especially at the top of the 1-3-1 on defense.
-Darius Morris - a good recruit who flourished with the pick and roll and cashes an NBA paycheck after declaring early.
-Burke - another "good" recruit who far surpassed expectations winning every award under the sun and soon will be making NBA bank.
The PG spot is, in my opinion the position Beilein has "coached up" the most. It's also absolutely critical for post season play to have solid guards (as we saw this year). We will always have a fighters chance as long as Beilein is coach and pulling in these talented PGs.
looked at all the other top B1G teams' recruiting classes out of curiosity....Izzo has two 3* players coming in? I get going all in for Jabari Parker but that's woeful for a program of their caliber. And it's not like you can't recruit other players while recruiting Parker.
It would be nice if outstanding football recruiting reaped immediate benefits as is the case in basketball. Burke's value was obvious, but without the difference McGary made to the lineup, we would not be as optimistic as we are, especially considering how most of us probably felt after losing to PSU and the MSU blowout. The sweet 16 seemed like this team's ceiling. After winning a Sugar Bowl, those warm and tingly feelings were being stroked by yet another outstanding class put together by Coach Hoke pooping gold. Alabama quickly dashed those hopes. Perhaps, though, getting ND at home will spur the boys on to an undefeated non-conference and inject some confidence into a team who was in every game but one last year and is better at QB. If Ohio can take advantage of an easier non-conference to work out their kinks and run the table, there is no reason that Michigan cannot do the same. There's no doubt watching last years team that they have caught up to both Ohio and ND talent wise and could soon pass them with superior coaching.