basketball team update

Before I look more at football, I wanted to place a bookmark for the basketball team.  

This is one of the most-read of the many posts here and it needs follow-up.

Now Juwan has but a few months left to get the house in order.  Football will be a big distraction and maybe even a selling point.

Everyone is expendable and that is something even someone as old and wise as John Beilein should remember.  Put another way, it can turn on a dime.

If you look back, he was not so composed and in charge at times, despite the record and NCAA runs.  Perhaps or probably he knew:  Jordan Poole would not change and Iggy had lofty and immediate ambitions.  Charles Matthews was not after a graduate degree.  He and Michigan were turned down by a lot of recruits.

Right now we know Howard got lucky--and maybe good--with Franz Wagner.  To get a young but potential international star from a equally-popular legacy family is a coup.

Michigan basketball looks pretty OK in terms of bigs and guards for next year.  For Cole Bajema and the youngest Wagner, the future is in the wings.

Howard is reportedly trying to recruit a bunch of 4- and 5-stars, as well as his son, the latter of which is not a good look.  I believe they have a scholarship left for next year and there has not been any news or success on the transfer front.  Beilien struck out with a lot of top recruits.  They are going to need bodies; Teske and Simpson will be very hard to replace.

Boy how things change.  My personal guess is it is not going to be so easy.  Beilein and Michigan basketball were in a constant struggle of  'Do I recruit the one and dones or not.'  Beilien could not solve it, or at least he could not do it and live with it comfortably.  When the writing was on the wall that 40-60% of the team would bolt, so did he.

Harbaugh has found a way, helped by a huge recruiting budget and very long football career tentacles.  They will win a lot, but win or lose, he has built a clean Top 10 program.  Michigan is not for everyone.  Duke and Coach Krzyzewski found a way at Duke in basketball.  Can Howard?  I think the odds are against him for at least a couple of years.  For one thing, Michigan is not going to be the place for almost all 5-star basketball prospects because they will not get in.

The above post and link--one of my most-read--was something I felt comfortable writing at the time.  Most of us did not know about Iggy and Poole.  Those of us who saw just didn't think they were good enough---think Jordan Morgan and Derrick Walton, they just had farther to go.  Still, John Beilien's success at Michigan is unheard-of.  It was top notch in the last few years, but there were also cracks, most of all, Coach himself was not happy.

There were also teams with walk-ons.  There were a lot of lost recruits.  Many or some did not make it; there were transfers and open roster spots.

Juwan Howard has been smiling, something he did not do a lot as a Michigan player.  He has reason to be happy.  Basketball-wise, he inherited an exceptional duo in Simpson and Teske, plus a few other promising players.  Z or X--the name is Zavier but I believe the initial is still X--will be especially key because there is no way Howard can match Beilien in terms of coaching, strategy, and game management.

Remember John Beilein.  Michigan fans do not like walk-ons and open scholarships.  Three-stars and coaches sons aren't going to make it either, even if their last names are James and Wade.