Interesting Poll from Orangebloods - Updated

Submitted by umhero on

Yesterday the Texas Rivals site, Orangebloods, posted an interesting poll.

They asked Texas fans if they would rather change the results of last Sunday's tournament game allowing them to play Duke this week in the sweet sixteen or have their pick of any single uncommited football prospect for the class of 2012?  

The results were two to one in favor of the recruit.  I realize Texas is more of a football school than a basketball school, but so is Michigan and I think the results would be different from our fans.  Which would you choose, a win over Duke or your favorite 2012 recruit?

Update - Here are the totals.  We do see things differently than Texas.

  win recruit
FeelinBlue   1
ken725   1
_Wolverine_   1
Mgoscottie 1  
MGoPHILLY 1  
Zone Left   1
jmblue 1  
Mich1993 1  
Drill 1  
AnthonyThomas 1  
aawolve   1
StephenRKass 1  
UncleLeo 1  
._. 1  
bluebyyou 1  
gametime20   1
GoPackGo 1  
WolvinLA2   1
TIMMMAAY   1
NateVolk 1  
DoctorBlue17 1  
JimLahey   1
BlueDragon 1  
BiaBiakabutuka21 1  
All Aboard   1
Blazefire 1  
M-Dog 1  
  17 10

I'm in the camp with those who think a win would mean a lot to the school and we may get my favorite recruit anyway.  As a follow up question, if you were to pick a player but you had to pick now, who would it be?

My pick is Zeke Pike.  The favorite for number one player this year (2012) is WR Dorial Green-Beckham.

jmblue

March 24th, 2011 at 10:21 PM ^

you can always beat duke later

Theoretically, yes.  But we've never beaten them in the NCAA Tournament.  The few times we've even beaten them in the regular season (like in 1997 and 2008) were huge, huge moments.  To take them down in the tourney would have been even bigger.

Now, try to remember whom our highest-rated recruit was in the last five years.  Justin Turner, maybe?  Was signing that kid really that big of a deal, as it turned out?

Mgoscottie

March 24th, 2011 at 7:19 PM ^

But only if it had been the exact same game with a game-winning 3 pointer at the end. 

My rationale is I can spend the next week laughing at the ESPN crew....

justingoblue

March 24th, 2011 at 7:20 PM ^

To bring some microeconomics into it, it's a gamble. We have a shot at the recruit whether we take the basketball game or not, but if we take the recruit, there's definitely not a chance we win the Duke game.

Which one maximizes utility?

Zone Left

March 24th, 2011 at 7:31 PM ^

For me, Michigan wasn't going to win a basketball title (or make the Final Four) either way. Maybe Clowney (my pick) is the next Lawrence Taylor from day one and gives Michigan a chance at something special in football over the next couple of seasons. The unknown is so much more exciting.

WindyCityBlue

March 24th, 2011 at 11:36 PM ^

While utility is merely a subjective measure of "happiness", I think beating Duke would most likely increase the net utility across all Michigan fans.  There is a law of dimishing returns as you move up the recruting ranks.  What is the difference between the no 1 and 15 pick?  Very little.  Therefore, your marginal rate of return would not be that much bigger than our highest ranked recruit.

Beat Duke, we talk about it for years.  Get Clowney, fingers crossed on what happens next.

Yinka Double Dare

March 24th, 2011 at 7:21 PM ^

You have to remember that Texas fans are just as aware as the rest of us that their team is coached by Rick Barnes, and that therefore there is no way in hell they were going to win the title, and probably not even beat Duke.

Blazefire

March 24th, 2011 at 10:00 PM ^

"So... either we can get started on bringing our program back from our mediocre-to-bad 2010 season, or, we can win one more bball game only to get our ass reamed by Duke. Duhh..."

Conversely, for M, one football recruit in next year's class isn't going to come close to fixing everything, but if we beat Duke, I think we had a good chance to make the four. 

Mich1993

March 24th, 2011 at 7:22 PM ^

No brainer.  I'll take the Duke win. 

Football is more important than basketball, but you can't pass up a win over a #1 seed and Duke to boot in the tournament for possible wins later.

 

 

Drill

March 24th, 2011 at 7:24 PM ^

How else can you guarantee that you will get the player with the best name remaining?

 

But seriously, probably the Duke game.

AnthonyThomas

March 24th, 2011 at 7:25 PM ^

A Duke win does exponentially more for the basketball program than any single recruit does for the football program. Easily, the Duke win would be my choice.

UncleLeo

March 24th, 2011 at 7:32 PM ^

Easily the Duke win. Not only do I hate Duke, but it's a guaranteed win, spot in the Sweet 16 and an easier matchup to advance farther. On the other hand, the recuit, no matter who it is has no guarantee and it's basically a crap shoot if he performs, wins games, or even stays with the program. I'll take the sure win over Duke 10 times out of 10.

._.

March 24th, 2011 at 7:32 PM ^

I'm not sure how anyone could choose the recruit over beating Duke.

Sweet 16 with an extremely young team would help the program out so much.

Compared to getting a 5 star that we might have a chance with already, and for all we know that 5 star will be a bust.

So your options are high profile win and we're still reveling in the joys of March Madness or a possible contributer to 21 other starters.

gametime20

March 24th, 2011 at 7:37 PM ^

Without a doubt recruit... he'd be contributing for 3-4 years with a chance to earn us a Big Ten/ National Championship. A win against Duke advances us just 1 game in a tournament we would be extremely unlikely to win.

GoPackGo

March 24th, 2011 at 7:42 PM ^

I'd think that'd be a very winnable game for this team...for that matter, UCONN or SDSU would have been as well out West...then another shot at OSU? Duke win, without a doubt...a win like that can spark something special...can everyone imagine what that would've done for the team's confidence going forward in the tourney?

gametime20

March 24th, 2011 at 7:55 PM ^

I see what you're trying to say but I think they're already feeling confident after their 30 point win over Tennessee and hanging with Duke until the very end. On the other hand a big time recruit can make you into a National Champion ala Cam Newton, Tim Tebow etc

WolvinLA2

March 24th, 2011 at 7:46 PM ^

Yeah, the recruit.  If this recruit is the next BG, Lamarr, Denard, Woodson, Wheatley, someone like that, he will bring us many days of joy.  The Duke win would give us one day of joy, with the chance of more joy, but the likelihood of another letdown in 1-2 games.  But if we get one major guy, let's just use Clowney as the example, he will greatly improve the chance of joy for 13-14 Saturdays a year over the course of 3 or maybe 4 years.  Plus, that improvement might pave the way for more Clowneys to sign on.

Plus, let's be honest, football trumps basketball any day of the week.  Well, except for those days when there are basketball games.

GoPackGo

March 24th, 2011 at 10:10 PM ^

It's definitely more of an individual preference...I see how football is the bigger draw, but as a relatively recent student, if you wanted to, you were very close and involved with the team....you'd talk to them on and around campus, go to special practices/dinners with them, talk to them well before games etc... players and coaches would come to meetings and talk, and the athletic department did everything in their power to draw students...it was a very involving season and made one feel extremely close to the team...

NateVolk

March 24th, 2011 at 8:11 PM ^

Recruits sometimes underwhelm. When that happens, a 5-star is still usually a good player but not worth a huge post season hoops win.  I'd need a morph uniform switch of a proven stud freshman who we'll  be thrilled to get just 3 years with before he goes pro, to give up the huge basketball win.

WolvinLA2

March 24th, 2011 at 8:29 PM ^

Sometimes recruits underwhelm.  But if you got to pick any player, and you picked the #1 guy on Rivals, you'd be almost guaranteed to get an All-American.  Look at who the previous #1s are, and tell me if there are any on there you wouldn't want.  Maybe Pryor, but still maybe not.  All of those guys had much bigger impacts on their teams than one second round tournament win.  Even TP - OSU doesn't win the Rose Bowl two years ago without Pryor.  I'd trade almost any tourney win for a Rose Bowl win. 

DoctorBlue17

March 24th, 2011 at 8:19 PM ^

I believe a trip to the Sweet 16 for the first time since the 90s would have meant more to our basketball program (including a major benefit to recruiting) than one individual recruit would mean to our football program.

 

JimLahey

March 24th, 2011 at 8:19 PM ^

I would take Clowney, but that's it. Besides him, it's a win over Duke every time. He's simply the best high school player I've ever seen and I will be shocked if he doesn't end up a top 5 NFL pick.

jmblue

March 24th, 2011 at 8:59 PM ^

Even the best football player in the country is just one starter out of 22.  A win over Duke would have been a huge, statement moment.  I would have been more torn if it were a basketball recruit.  There, one guy can make or break your program.  Take Darius Morris off our team and we probably would have been worse than last year's 15-17 squad.