The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/510942
2015 BASKETBALL RECRUITING ISSUE nal Four appearances, has become the blueprint for what some analysts believe Michigan will become — senior-laden teams with a blend of superstars and role players. Beilein said that was the plan all along. "I think we came in the door with a Wisconsin type of approach in some respects," he said. "We were going to have experienced teams every year, and if we could get through this first three or four years, that would just keep rolling over. I thought we did it perfectly, actually, except those guys got to be really good, really fast. They were really hard workers, and our coaches did a great job with them. They were just high achievers — higher than anybody thought. "But that does not mean we are never going to recruit a five-star player. Wisconsin recruits five-star players, as well. Sam Dekker was a five-star guy … Wisconsin has re- cruited some high level guys, too." Michigan will continue to, as well, with shooting guard and five-star junior pledge Tyus Battle (6-6, Rivals. com's No. 14 junior nationally) the obvious example. Beilein can't comment on Battle since he's not yet signed, but he stayed the course in what became an extremely competitive recruitment, landing Battle over offers from Duke, Kentucky, Louisville and several other college basketball blue bloods. Recruitments like Battle's are the toughest to navigate, for obvious rea- sons. The more heavy hitters there are involved and the longer it goes, the lower the odds for any team on the list. "That's a dynamic we continue to talk about and try to read the smoke signals, so to speak, of what's hap- pening, and try to know when you should cut bait or stay with it," Beilein said of recruiting five-stars in general. "We go round and round. Those are the tough decisions, and we won't always be right. But you have to go with your gut, and sometimes your gut is wrong. "In some situations we've set soft deadlines, and sometimes we have not. Sometimes we knew the scholar- ship was going to be available for the length of it. It varies from individual to individual, position to position." They'll also continue to rely on their own talent assessing skills to find those that other coaches might have missed. That's been a Beilein staple over the years — NBA stand- outs Klay Thompson (Golden State) and Gordon Hayward (Utah), for ex- ample, were two with few high major offers that Beilein wanted badly — and there are more out there than most realize, he said. "You look at Nik Stauskas and [Wisconsin big man] Frank Kamin- sky, and they were guys that were not seen to be lottery picks or first rounders out of high school," he said. "Now Kaminsky will be a first rounder." Some of them, like Dawkins and Abdur-Rahkman, don't emerge until later in the process. That's one of the reasons that in an era in which kids