U of M Basketball Recruiting Discussion

[WM Wolverine]

That's certainly a factor when your competing against SEC type programs. College basketball recruiting is much dirtier than SEC football recruiting allegedly.

[SeattleLionsFan]

It's a lot smaller. So many fewer guys getting the loot. Also with the elite players it's a much higher hit rate so you get a better ROI.

[The Oracle]

Probably our next commit right here. A nice piece down the line...

http://www.umhoops.com/2014/07/29/michigan-interest-dream-come-true-duncan-robinson/

[Da Geezer]

there seems to be uncertainty as to whether Robinson would be able to play immediately. I always thought that transfers between divisions were immediately eligible. Anybody know for sure.

[WM Wolverine]

Information I get is he has to sit out a year, not sure if transferring from Div III (non scholarship) to Div I you have to sit out a year.

[Hannibal]

And we are targeting this guy because, uh...

why?

[WM Wolverine]

Is 6'8", can shoot, rebound, play basketball I hope.

[paul daugherity]

Mgoblog had a good write up on him. Guess he hit 45% of his 3s. That is impressive. Basketball is so different than football in terms of recruiting and what kids do after high school. There is a bigger prep school culture for guys who for whatever reason are not ready to go directly to D1. So the fact that he started at a D3 school is not an automatic kiss of death.

[Jeff Buchanan]

And we are targeting this guy because, uh...

why?

Beilein responds, "scoreboard."

I stole that line from mgoblog when the same question was asked rhetorically by the author of the article on him linked to above.

Beilien can recruit and develop the right guys and that's seems to be a no shit that we have little need to question.

[iam416]

Relevant to basketball recruiting if not M recruiting -- in response to a question about the biggest "impropriety" this guy has witnessed:

the biggest one that I ever personally witnessed was $400,000 to a former college basketball player who will remain nameless....

but his name rhymes with Mephon Starbury

In response to a question about current UNLV recruiting:

its just NOTHING like the "good old days" of UNLV basketball with Tarkanian---that was truly EPIC eekeekeekeek

and then there were the new "good old days" when Billy Bayno was the head coach, and he used to crash on my couch after drinking all night...

ahhh....good times indeed

And a general statement:

what would happen was this....

Agents would get "aligned" with certain schools(ie Falk--GT, Tellem-UCLA, etc etc etc etc) Aligned would mean they have "access" to the players either directly or through their runners--that way they can keep control of them(one of the reason agents LOVE having high school kids jump directly to the NBA with no stop in college)

Runner take money from the agents, and deliver it to the mentors/handlers/AAU coaches that are "steering kids"--or sometimes to the kids themselves.


My buddies at the time were all up and coming guys, and were "runners" for the agents---so it was fun to tag along and see what happend(guys would tip REALLY well when you dropped off $50K in cash in a duffel bag to their dorm rooms, etc)

a lot of the former "runners" are now big time agents---as they learned who to connect with, went off on their own--and formed their own businesses. In fact, most of the top guys came up this way.

I was best friends with the guy who "ran" for Falk at the time---and we would go on milk runs to see Mephon Starbury.....so I saw that one up close and personal. I only heard from him about former visits to see Benny Tanderson(but my buddy seemed to know the way pretty well)biggrin

Now its the shoe companies that run interference for the agents(Sonny Vaccarro=== Arn Tellem etc etc etc)--as they can get to the kids even earlier.

People think boosters do this stuff, but they don't have the reach or the access to get them on the playgrounds of Rucker Park. They handle business once the kid hits campus.

Unless you are down in the SEC--where in football they have institutionalized this stuff and have a far greater "outreach" program.

[Da Geezer]

good post.

I've always wondered why John Wooden is not subjected to more critical press. Walton and others have said that they were well paid.

[iam416]

I always wondered how Georgia Tech got all these good NYC kids. Then, when GT started to suck ass, I wondered, "what's up with GT, why aren't they better?"

Heh. That explains most of it.

[The Oracle]

Where was that from Talent?

[hack]

Seems like it would be that way, yeah. Fuck the south. WE should secede from IT.

[iam416]

Oracle:

OSU insider guy with gads of connections. I totally believe his story on Marbury and imagine he has a good handle on Anderson as well as UNLV. The more general his statements get the less personal knowledge he has, but the extrapolations seem reasonable, though I'm not sure about the shoe company part.