The Wolverine

November 2011

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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������ basketball recruiting evident than in the 2012 class, when he prioritized St.�� John (Ind.) Lake Central wing Glenn Robinson III (6���6, Rivals.com���s No.�� 34 pros��� pect nationally) and Southborough (Mass.) St.�� Mark���s Nick Stauskas (6-6, Rivals.com���s No.�� 79 player in the country) and landed their com��� mitments well before they budded into two of the better players in the country. ���To be able to identify talent like that, that���s really important,��� contin��� ued Rivals.com analyst Jerry Meyer. ���A player appreciates being so heav��� ily recruited before he blows up. You see that in a lot of cases when an early offer has that effect. Beilein targets a player on what he sees he can be��� come, and that player becomes that. A whole lot of people want them now, but when you have that vision ������ Then you���re able to land kids like Robinson that blossom into elite-level talents. ���Obviously, we try to rank them the best we can, but there are some guys you give a number you think they ought to have, but you have a feel��� ing you could maybe even rank him a little higher,��� Meyer added. ���With Glenn, he���s one of those guys for me. We have him ranked pretty high, and we might have him higher than any��� one. But with the bloodlines, the athleti��� cism, the skill package really coming together ��� he���s really knocking down shots now.��� Robinson will probably make money playing basketball once he leaves U-M, Meyer said. First, though, he���ll likely blossom under Beilein and his staff at Michigan the way point guard Darius Morris, now in the NBA, relatively unheralded wing and current U-M sophomore Tim Hard��� away Jr. and so many others have. The buzz on the Michigan campus has reached fever pitch, and it���s not just around football anymore. ���I think it means we���re where we want to be, where we should be ��� in the conversation for Big Ten champi��� onships and playing at the end of the year for a national championship,��� assistant coach LaVall Jordan said. ���We can���t focus on that, but when you���re at Michigan I think you should be in that conversation, no question. Our focus should be doing what we have to do each day, and all that will take care of itself. ���It���s an exciting time to be here. It���s Michigan. I think Coach [Brady] Hoke expressed that in his press conference when he got here, and we feel the same way. I think we���ve got the right guys. Now it���s all about being diligent.��� Class Of 2013 Haul Is Another Big Step Diligent doesn���t just apply to coach��� ing the talent that���s on campus, but also recruiting the commitments to National Signing Day. The staff has done an outstanding job with both Robinson and Stauskas, whose official visits (Robinson for Michigan foot��� ball���s game with Notre Dame, Staus��� kas for San Diego State weekend) couldn���t have gone better. Both are expected to sign their letters of intent Nov.��9. The class of 2013, meanwhile, is one of the Big Ten���s better early hauls and will demand similar attention. For��� ward Mark Donnal (6-9, Rivals.com���s No. 136 player nationally) out of Mon��� clavia (Ohio) Wayne and Fort Wayne Canterbury shooting guard Austin Hatch (6-5, Rivals.com three-star pros��� pect) were the first to pledge this sum��� mer. Harper Woods (Mich.) Chandler Academy point guard Derrick Walton (6-1, No. 87) followed at summer���s end and was joined by talented wing Zak Irvin (6-7, No. 54) out of Fishers (Ind.) Hamilton Southeastern. The Wolverines have assembled enough talent in the last three classes to be considered potential Big Ten con��� tenders for the foreseeable future, but they���ll continue to watch others while recruiting the pledges until they sign. Among those they���re eyeing is De��� troit Community High small forward Byron Zeigler (6-6, 185, Rivals.com���s No. 57 junior nationally). ���Indiana is still on me, Iowa, Iowa State, Providence and Michigan State,��� Zeigler reported Oct. 24. ���Michigan has shown a little interest, but they haven���t offered yet.��� A pecking order is starting to emerge, he added. ���Indiana has always shown a lot of interest, so they���ll always be up there,��� he said. ���Providence has been showing me a lot of interest, and I���m starting to like them, and Iowa and Iowa State. There���s Michigan State and Michigan if I want to stay home.��� Zeigler visited Michigan State Oct.�� 15 for the football weekend against Michigan, and was slated to be Fishers (Ind.) Hamilton Southeastern wing Zak Irvin, Rivals.com���s No. 54 player in the nation, is part of U-M���s stellar early haul in the class of 2013. photo courtesy rivals.com in for U-M���s football weekend against Purdue Oct.��29. Michigan is also watching Glad��� stone (N.J.) Gill St. Bernard���s School point guard Jaren Sina (6-1, No.�� 86) following Sina���s decommitment from Alabama, to whom he���d pledged in January. ���I committed really early,��� Sina said. ���I was just a little nervous about the decision I made. I just want to make sure it was the right one, number one, and number two, I felt like I didn���t have anything to compare it to. I guess that kind of worried me.��� Sina held offers from Cincinnati, Rutgers, Seton Hall and St.�� John���s, among others, and was receiving in��� terest from programs like Duke and Syracuse before his pledge. ���Jaren has opened it up, and it was a hard decision,��� Sina���s father and coach Mergin Sina said. ���He wants to go through the process again. He had built a strong relationship with the coaches and school, but he wants to be 100 percent sure. Right now, he just isn���t 100 percent sure.��� Alabama will still be one of the schools on his list, but others like Miami, Florida State and West Vir��� ginia have joined Michigan in at least watching him. ���Throughout the entire time I was committed, I didn���t talk to any school and nobody really contacted me,��� Sina said. ���I think a lot of people knew of the strong relationship I had with the Alabama coaches. ���I���m still going to consider Ala��� bama, but I���m just going to reopen November 2011��� ������ the wolverine��� 95

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