The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/315684
FROM OUR READERS • John Beilein was in Lansing tonight, speaking to an alumni group. Actually, it was a reception for legislators. Notable comments: 1. Rating services are often way off. 2. When he came to Ann Arbor, he envisioned recruiting a bunch of four-year guys who would be coming into their own as sophomores and juniors. 3. He talked about the metrics that are available now to micro-analyze every player's tendencies and related this to Nik Stauskas' struggles once he became the focal point of other teams' defenses. Ultimately, the coaches simply challenged Nik to just be assertive and make plays. Which is what he did, of course. 4. He mentioned, as an example of how far they've come, that, after winning the league by three games and playing in the Elite Eight, someone came up to him tonight to say "Solid season, coach." 5. Talked about the incredible support they get on the road at neutral site games. Nothing earth shaking, always a pleasure to be around such a class act. sane1 • Personal preferences aside, Michigan should be the choice for most of these [basketball recruits choosing between Michigan and Michigan State], especially any guards. Based on individual trajectory and team trajectory, we're a decent step ahead of MSU these days. Michigan has won two of the last three Big Ten titles, gone to the Final Four (title game) more recently, and basically is as likely to succeed in the NCAA Tournament as MSU is these days. And even better — we're a team on the rise over the course of the last five to six years. Meanwhile, MSU seems to have fallen off a bit the last few years. (And in truth had an eight-year drought that was salvaged by a 2005 Final Four appearance, but I digress). For individuals, Michigan is doing a better job of putting guys in the NBA — that's just a fact. Beyond that, our guys win individual awards too (National Player of the Year, back-to-back Big Ten Player of the Year). And in terms of development, our guys seem to develop a lot better than MSU's. Nobody expected Nik Stauskas, Trey Burke and Caris LeVert to make some of the leaps they made. Oh, and we now have comparable, if not better, facilities and atmosphere. I can see why some guys might still choose MSU, but the logical choice based on facts is in Ann Arbor. andrewwhfine • In my mind, Alex Malzone reminds me a ton of Brian Griese. The guy is in- credibly accurate on all types of throws. He is not going to drive you crazy like