MSU gets commitment from 5-star Swanigan
You mean Beilein's strategy of getting 5 star big men to commit to MSU? Yeah I hate that too.
Edit cuz of his edit: We'll be fine.
Good get for them, but I honestly don't give a crap. I am thinking Levert comes back, and a healthy Walton makes for a very, very good Michigan team. The higher Moo-u is, the greater the fall. This will only make me laugh all the harder when they fail to meet their expectations.
Moving on.
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Not sure why people seem to ignore this.
If we had Caris Levert and Derrick Walton, we would have swept them again.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:24 PM ^
Let's be honest here, we lost to NJIT and EMU with Lavert & Walton. This was just a down year, it happens with a roster loaded with young guys. We will be fine, but we would not have swept them. We had 0 Bigs ready to bang with them on the boards.
April 11th, 2015 at 12:17 AM ^
We were forced to play Dakich 1/3 of the first game thanks to a phantom call on MAAR (that just so happened to have occurred when they were down 8 and we had the rebound. Not to mention a slew of foul calls on our team that fouls the least and barely any on theirs that had one of the highest foul rates.
Caris Levert was a big Xfactor in the matchup between these teams and they never really had someone to guard him.
I still say we sweep if we had both.
Our team was flawed this year and it showed. We surprised them at home, MAAR had a huge day. At home it was ugly.
Hopefully next year is different.
I agree we were flawed. But literally the only thing that could not happen this year happened with those two guys getting hurt. I think a healthy Levert and Walton made a world of difference and negate some key things they could capitalize on. I don't care what happened earlier, the team was already improving and lost two guys right at the worst possible time.
When Beilien has a healthy roster and his system running since 2011, he wins 2/3 of the time versus them.
Beilein never planned on playing MAAR, Spike, etc so much. Hell Dakich was not supposed to even see the court this year and was supposed to redshirt.
We would have beat them for sure at the Breslin because we almost beat them anyways. As for the home game, I don't know how Levert and Walton would have done.
Good for MSU, but Izzo's history is littered with high-ranked big men who just kinda worked through 4 years of college without ever becoming dominant. I'm sure Swanigan will be a good recruit, though. I do wonder if his pledge will stick, though, once other teams start losing guys to the NBA and the recruiting picks up.
I agree. I wouldn't be shocked to see him sign elsewhere.
There is enough evidence to suggest that you won't be developed properly and are likely to not even make the NBA as a MSU big man.
How is Izzo able to hid that embarassing (relative to talent) stat on only 5 guys leaving early in 20 years - especially considering this guy is supposedly an early entry candidate.
Leaving early is a sign of development?
April 10th, 2015 at 10:05 PM ^
Yeah, you are right.
Staying 4 years as a 4-5 star player because you aren't even on the NBA radar is a sign of development.
My bad!
April 10th, 2015 at 10:48 PM ^
we tout our academics and getting a Michigan degree... the importance of staying till you graduate.
bizarre
April 10th, 2015 at 11:31 PM ^
I don't think guys are staying there for the degree, its because they aren't on the NBA radar.
The last time the NBA hyped one of their guys (Gary Harris), he was gone after 2 years.
I don't see them hyping their academics too much. Guys are staying there because they have no choice. I mean it works college wise, but I assume the goal of the higher ranked guys is to make the NBA.
April 11th, 2015 at 10:55 AM ^
April 11th, 2015 at 12:22 AM ^
Blah, blah, blah....7 Final Fours.
You were saying?
of the whole "7 Final Fours" thing, thats great and all, but unless you win it all, does it matter a whole bunch if you make the Final Four and get mopped? I mean I guess, but its like, celebrating you made it far, but still lost...
April 11th, 2015 at 12:06 AM ^
because early entry candidates look at early entry candidate relevant stats. Caleb Swanigan doesn't care about Colby Wollenham or whoever that walk on Izzo played was. If you get one early entry candidate and 500 low five stars or low four stars and you only send one player to the NBA, you're 1 for 1 as far as early entry candidates are concerned
He's had two consensus top 20 front court players the entire time he's been at MSU. Both dominated the college game. One didn't hack it in the NBA and the other became an NBA All Star. So that's a 50 percent rate.
I'm not sure how that stacks up with others. But Self for example didn't do anything with Simien, Giddens, and Padgett, which puts him at about a 30 percent rate of sending top 20 front court players to successful NBA careers.
April 11th, 2015 at 10:23 PM ^
April 11th, 2015 at 10:40 PM ^
Izzo's McD All Americans (11 in 20 years): Harris (NBA), Dawson (TBD), Appling (/), Brown (NBA), Cotton (Transfer), Davis (/), Torbert (/), Randolph (NBA), Richardson (NBA), Taylor (/), Cleaves (/). So excluding Dawson who the word is out on and Cotton who didn't end up playing for Izzo, Izzo has sent 4 of his 9 All Americans on to NBA careers.
Compare that to Self for example.
Self McD All Americans (17 in 12 years): Alexander (TBD), Oubre (TBD), Wiggins (NBA), Selden (TBD), Ellis (TBD), Selby (/), Henry (/), Aldrich (NBA), Arthur (NBA), Collins (/), Wright (/), Chalmers (NBA), Downs (/), Padgett (/), Giddens (/), Miles (/), Simien (/). So excluding Alexander, Oubre, Selden, and Ellis who the word is out on, Self has sent 4 of his 13 All Americans on to NBA careers.
I think generally people read too much into the ranking systems. A five star is not necessarily a bonafide NBA player. The only guys who are really locks for the NBA are unanimous top 10 guys, an the only guys really expected to have a realistic shot at the NBA are unanimous top 20 guys. And obviously there are some guys from the 20+ range who make it, and some guys from the 1-10 range who don't.
April 12th, 2015 at 11:33 PM ^
And they provide an objective way to look at the matter. A unanimous All-American should probably end up in the NBA. I don't think anybody would dispute that.
"If you're the best in one of the 50 states, you're very talented[,]" is no more or less of a standard than what I've provided. (Also, Deshawun Thrower won the Michigan Mr. Basketball last year. He was a low three star recruit that ended up at Stony Brook and never had a snowball's chance in hell at making an NBA roster.)
I'm not trying to convince you that Izzo has developed players with reasonable success. Just trying to look at the matter with some objectivity.
If you're talking about expectations then those are the only two front court guys who Izzo has landed that were expected to develop into good NBA players.
I'm not saying he hasn't had big man talent out of high school (he obviously has). Just that the talent he generally lands isn't NBA-caliber, and so it's not really "underachieving" when those guys don't become good NBA players. Paul Davis is a pretty clear example of underachieving as far as the NBA is concerned. Matt Costello on the other hand...that kid will have overachieved if he does so much as smell an NBA roster.
I think Big Ten coaches are for the most part top notch when it comes to evaluating and developing talent. Beilein, Ryan, and Izzo have all been elite. Guys like Matta and Painter maybe not so much, but on the whole the B1G is pretty dang good.
April 12th, 2015 at 11:37 PM ^
I think the more logical explanation is that the guys who do well get away after a year, and the guys who don't do well stay.
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Not sure I agree with this. He is Izzo's highest ranked recruit since Shannon Brown in 2003. What high ranked big men are you referring to? I can't think of any. They have guys like Suton, Naymick, Nix patrolling the 5. Nobody thought those guys would be NBA players.
and?
April 10th, 2015 at 10:04 PM ^
April 10th, 2015 at 10:11 PM ^
His nickname "The Big Slow"
April 10th, 2015 at 10:22 PM ^
I have to ask, though I'm sure it has been before around these parts: why Denis Fithian? Are you actually Denis Fithian? I ask myself this everytime I see a post of yours, so I'm finally asking.
(fail post. too lazy to fix it)
April 10th, 2015 at 10:35 PM ^
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April 10th, 2015 at 10:40 PM ^
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April 10th, 2015 at 11:07 PM ^
Did Louisville have one when they beat us? Connecticut the year before? Duke didn't have any in 2012... UConn again in 2011? Your statement is totally false.
Teams with lots of one and dones often get beat by teams of junior and senior players. See UK-UW this year.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:26 PM ^
And Wisconsin should have beat Duke this year if it wasn't for Coach K crying at half time. The 2nd half of that game was a disgrace.
exceptions, but not many. Moving forward, there will be more teams with the 1 and dones. The blue blood programs live by those...its a new age in College basketball. I think there will be select teams that have good seasons with veterans, like MSU this year, they made it far due to a couple of reasons, coaching and cohesiveness. Same thing goes for Wisconsin IMO. I'm saying the scope of College Basketball is changing, you will see Beilein start getting involved with these 1 and done types too, Calipari, as annoying as he is, has sort of decided to run his whole program like this, get the best for a year, make a run, then do it again next season, hell, even Coach K is doing it...
April 11th, 2015 at 10:10 AM ^
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April 10th, 2015 at 10:57 PM ^