U of M Basketball Recruiting Discussion

[Kstat]

Would love to get excited about this, but this kid is a one and done, so unless we have designs on winning big the whole damn thing like we did with McGary, does this kid even matter in the long run?

[jaadam4]

Would love to get excited about this, but this kid is a one and done, so unless we have designs on winning big the whole damn thing like we did with McGary, does this kid even matter in the long run?

I'd still take him!

[*JD*]

Would love to get excited about this, but this kid is a one and done, so unless we have designs on winning big the whole damn thing like we did with McGary, does this kid even matter in the long run?

Why would you think that Michigan doesn't have designs on winning the whole damn thing? They've already got a good class coming in and will have presumably a good sophomore PG in Xavier Simpson if/when Bamba arrives. A strong PG, some wings that can shoot and a monster on the inside is (on paper) a recipe to win a title.

[*JD*]

Looking at the umhoops message board and picked up this note from a poster that seems to be an "insider" of sorts. Take it for what it's worth. This post came yesterday, after Jamal Cain committed to Marquette.

MattD15h
Interesting facts about Jamal Cain recruitment that may provide context for UM recruiting approach in general

Dream School - Memphis, once Damon Stoudemire left for Pacific the contact fell off. If not for that, no doubt he would've ended up there.

Early going - Michigan literally wasn't even in Jamal's top 4 (contrary to what LAW thought), it was ALL Xavier early on. Once it became apparent they were taking 3-4 wings in late July that was over. The Cain family was a bit agitated that Kyle Young was invited to take the academic tour so quickly and subsequently offered while Jamal had visited numerous times but yet no invitation

Michigan School Visit (late March) - this is what got UM seriously in the running; JB was really impressive to both Jamal and his family with that visit. Until this point, UM honestly wasn't even in the top group. This visit now placed UM firmly in the mix and the visit/academic tour was set up

Unofficial Visit/Academic Tour - JB knocked it out of the park, Jamal's mom was 100% Michigan hands down, and so was the rest of his family. UM was in the top 2 with Xavier

Post Offer/Spring/Summer - this is where things started to fall apart (as it does with most UM recruitments); MHoops1 is exactly right in terms of why UM doesn't do well with drawn out recruitments. Bottom line is that the staff just didn't maintain constant contact/communication with Jamal and that was a huge turnoff. There were points where he would tell me that "I text JB and he doesn't even respond" and that "I feel like I don't even know the coaching staff". Bottom line is that 'the love' just isn't something UM does very well and it hurts them in recruiting. This was prior to Matthews coming aboard, so that had no impact. If this were a single recruit, then you just chalk it up to the staff not really wanting Jamal, but this is what 90-95% of UM targets have to say about the UM approach - they just never feel as if they are prioritized in relation to other schools. The thing that irks most kids about the UM approach is that UM is so slow to offer, but yet want a very quick commit or contact falls off tremendously. Its a contradiction and that irritates a lot of recruits.

Marquette - kept constant contact, called/texted either Jamal or his family nearly every day, and 'the love' is ultimately what won over. We'd all like to think its an objective/basketball only decision, but that's just not true for 90% of recruits, they want to feel prioritized constantly to the extent they're comfortable.

Detroit Issues - I can tell you factually that JB is not liked very much by the prominent AAU club in Michigan (you can infer the club), and hence that is always going to be an uphill battle for UM to get players from that organization unless there are family ties or UM is the dream school. From that standpoint recruiting will be a struggle until JB retires.

Bottom line - Jamal's entire family was 100% Michigan, Jamal was down to Marquette and Michigan but he never felt a connection with the UM staff because Marquette showed him much more love and that stood out to him. Add that in with the Detroit issues and you have what you have today.

Mo Bamba - I can't speak on Mo Bamba's thoughts on UM, but I can tell you the staff thinks we have a legitimate chance with him.

And then this poster followed up with this:

MHoops113h
Thoughts on Cain.

Rightly or wrongly (and only time will tell on this), the staff never seemed 100% sold on Jamal. It took a long time before they scheduled visits and offered, and while certainly would have taken his commitment for a substantial period of time, once Matthews came, and then, for sure, once Livers committed, he seemed to be a low priority. And once Bamba decided to visit, his offer became non-committable.

You can say that Michigan didn't show Jamal "the love," and that may be true, but the other side of the coin is that Jamal had plenty of opportunity to commit to both Michigan and Xavier and chose to wait, hoping for more and better offers. I said this a few months ago--you can wait as long as you want if you're a top 25 kid, but when you're outside the top 50, you run the risk that waiting waits you out of places you want to go. It happened to Seth Towns last year, and it may have happened to Jamal this year.

Beilein does not call kids as much as many other coaches do. Some kids are good with that--both Livers and Brooks chose Michigan over earlier offers from their "dream schools" and mentioned their comfort level with Beilein and his recruiting approach--but many are not. I wish he would call more. However, I'm not sure that a manic, constantly calling Beilein would come off as genuine, and if not, I'm not at all sure he would do any better. In the end, you are what you are. The negative is that the kids who don't warm to him right away go elsewhere. The positive is that those who do come and in almost all cases, turn into a cohesive group without off court issues.

One thing I will say--Detroit AAU coaches (and high school coaches) ripped JB before he even got here, poor mouthed him throughout Manny's tenure, and have steered kids elsewhere without Beilein having done anything other than failing to prioritize THEM. It's one thing to say we need to show players "the love" more--it's quite another to get hit because guys who, in many cases, vastly overrate their own kids and themselves, are playing the "lack of respect" card. I want to get great players and compete for National Championships, but I'm really tired of the Detroit AAU scene and the way we've been treated by the power brokers there.

I wish Jamal all the luck in the world. I hope he finds what he's looking for at Marquette.

[Detroit Dan]

Thanks, as usual, JD. I'm all for love (daily text messages), but it's got to be sincere.

[hack]

Interesting. Thanks for posting.

[*JD*]

I read yesterday that Mo Bamba's last two OV's are at Texas (I didn't recall that Texas was in the mix) and Harvard.

[*JD*]

From umhoops.com:

Mohamed Bamba hasn’t officially trimmed his list, but the five-star center is reportedly focused on seven schools. According to a report by ZagsBlog, Bamba’s top seven includes Duke, Kentucky, UConn, Michigan, Syracuse, Texas and Harvard.

Bamba visited Michigan for the Wolverines’ football season opener and hosted the Wolverines for an in-home visit on September 14th according to Zagoria. He’ll host all the schools on his list, with Texas and Harvard visiting most recently on Thursday.

To this point, Michigan is the only school that has brought Bamba in for an official visit. The five-star big man was also invited to USA Basketball’s October mini camp.

[hack]

Again, great to be mentioned on the list. You've got to think that if he's that interested in academics, I guess depending on a specific area of study Michigan, Harvard and Duke stand out. I wonder how much that impacts his likelihood of being a one-and-done or staying another year or even two.

[The Oracle]

Jordan Poole is playing on espn 2 at 4 (7 for you tools) if you wanna take a look. He's been pretty lights out so far this year, see how he does on the big stage.

Edit: and it leads right into the dpj commitment.

[*JD*]

How'd he do?

[The Oracle]

Looked really good. 16 points on 9 shots i think. Mostly DEEP 3s (3-6 think). Looked like the 2nd best player in the floor (junior Romeo Langford is ridiculous). There was talent all over the floor. La Lumiere has 5-6 high D1 guys like Brian Bowen, Jaren Jackson, Poole, Tyger Campbell etc.

[*JD*]

Some encouraging talk regarding Mo Bamba:

http://www.umhoops.com/2016/12/20/recruiting-notebook-latest-mo-bamba-jordan-poole-shooting-well/

[*JD*]

Livers looking good:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LnnlsxFQoE"]Isaiah Livers (Kalamzoo Central/2017 Michigan Commit) - Tipoff Classic Highlights - YouTube[/ame]

[*JD*]

Also, Coach Beilein offered 2018 PG David DeJulius this past weekend, after seeing him go for 46 points in a game. He looks a lot like a body-double of Derrick Walton to me.