5* Canadian PG Jamal Murray may visit Michigan soon
Per Paul Biancardi at ESPN, the 5* PG may visit Michigan soon. He has not stated definitively whether he'll be in the 2015 or 2016 class, but many think he's leaning toward 2015. If he stays in the 2016 class, he'd be eligible to forego college and enter immediately due to his age and status as a foreign player.
Kentucky and Oregon appear to be the main contenders for his services, but Michigan has been in contact with him for a long time. Many scouts feel he his a top-10 player nationally and a future NBA lottery pick.
This would be fantastic. I have to say, if I were a point guard, just watching Trey Burke and Darius Morris film would get me to play for Beilein.
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Canadia is making a strong case for being #2 in the world at bball.
On second thought, as long as we continue to dominate in the only sport that really matters you can stay #1 in basketball!
Canada must define "dominate" differently, eh?
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/multimedia/canada-s-stanley-cup-drought-reache…
The CFL all-star team won't be winnin' any of dem theoretical football Gold Medals in the Olympics, eh?
Funny, I thought it referenced curling.
There would be no Stanley Cup drought. They still dominate in terms of number of players in the NHL.
(I think they were breaking the collective balls of canada)
Canada (only an idiot wouldn't acknowledge its historic hegemony on NHL players, that's definitely not my point) isn't currently that outsized in its NHL contributions, especially compared to the old days.
50.3% of NHL'ers are Canadian, while about 37% of all organized hockey players are Canadian. The Europeans more or less hold serve relative to player population and it's the US that's not getting players into the league.
You seem to be comparing one country, Canada to roughly a continent, Europe. Point taken...I guess.
No, I'm saying that the various Europen countries tend to put about the same percentage of players into the NHL as they have overall players, while the US does less and Canada does more (but less than they have historically).
It doesn't have anything to do with overall population, it's the delta between participants and NHL players.
Yeah one country with a population of about half of the Midwestern States.
Would saying "While Canada does still significantly punch above its weight class getting players into the NHL, it does less than it has in the past" be a more understandable statement?
Taking Europe and the US out of it for simplicity: Canada has 37% of the world's player population and 50.3% of the NHL player population, which is a narrower gap than it used to be.
So because a Canadian based team hasn't won the cup means what exactly? Canadian players/coaches/management are winning cups; and Canada has won 3 of the last 4 Olympic gold medals.
Yes Canada dominates hockey, just not Canadian based NHL teams.
curling?
How does he compare to Winston?
Winston is an old-fashioned floor general.
... more than just a shooter?
I suppose we can't know the answer to that until announcers have told us that he's not just a shooter roughly 100,000 times.
He's a lot better IMO. He's a great shooter, good distributor, plus he's got a lot of size - 6'5" IIRC. Scoring PG type.
From what I've read JM is a one and done type of PG. At least that is what he is billing himself as. Whether or not the projection is acurate is another matter entirely since no one mentioned him as an NBA caliber PG last year around this time. Winston on the other hand is supposed to be a 4 year player (think Derek Walton). Both are great options but I'd rather have 4 years of Winston than 1 or 2 years of Murray. Winston is also an in-state kid so that clinches it for me.
We already have the Maize and Blue Canadian flags. I've never seen anything remotely as patriotic at kentucky or oregon.
And he should look at what happened to fellow Canadian Nik Stauskas- Lottery Pick and a Hot Sauce named after him
Let's hope Beilein is his guy.
They have people named Murray in Canada?
When has that ever worked out for us?
I think we got some no-star mexican kid from there a few years back. Made a couple free throws for us, but nothing meaningful...
...be particularly great to get him as a 2015 recruit so Michigan could use it's currently unused scholarship on him. It looks very plausible that he'd be gone by 2016, leaving Michigan in no more of a crunch in 2016 than they already are.
But in that case you'd have to wonder about the appeal for him to come to a loaded and deep team. There is certainly the precedent of backups on Kentucky getting drafted and Murray would benefit from practicing against NBA-caliber players, but the fit still seems awkward for 2015.
That said, Kentucky wouldn't be much better for him and you can envision a scenario where LeVert plays a lot of his minutes at the 3. Still - there's only one ball and we already have Derrick, Spike, and Caris.
Maybe this Beilein fellow knows what he's doing after all.
I know more good players is always better, and a top 10 player would be great, but what does he add to the 2015-2016 team? With Walton at PG, Levert at SG and Spike backing them up in what is a pretty complex offense, how much would Murray add? Just seems like a great player at the wrong position for this team.
You never know how things will play out, but competition is good. So is depth.
understand how talented and big Murray is, think about Deangelo Russell for a comparison.
Michigan is looking pretty deep, but some of that is our conjecture/expectation of significant growth from people who were just OK basketball players on a not very good basketball team last year. Murray projects as anywhere from the 2nd to 5th best player on the team - good enough to bump LeVert back to the 3 and Dawkins to the bench or kick whoever our 6th man is to the end of the bench.
Walton and LeVert are very good players and Irvin is probably right there with them next year giving us a strong Big 3. Spike is a very good offensive player and Dawkins too, but they have been defensive liabilities. Beyond that nobody is a sure thing to even get consistent minutes.
Bird in hand worth two in the bush.
Keep pursuing Winston IMO, he's more likely to come.
what you think it means. Winston is still in the bush, as is Murray. If Winston was listed as a 2016 commit and we were actively pursing Murray then I think the saying would come into play.
Most likely this kid is a one-and-done anyway, so it is unliekly that he would impact Winston's recruitment.
Winston is expected to take more time.
Before I would have said no chance, but Beilein did land Battle so you never know.
Top 10 in Canada? Is that good? Is that like being world famous in Poland?
We have some ground to make up on the presumed favorite, Kentucky, but anything can happen if we get him on campus. I like how hard he goes to the rack.
Before we worry too much about how he fits or how it affects the 2016 class.
i d rather have Winston than Murray