Coffee Talk: The MSU basketball recruiting outlook
Posted by kj on Thursday, August 14th, 2008
As regular readers have no doubt deduced, I don’t know much about recruiting (sing this to the tune of “Don’t Know Much About History” by Herman’s Hermits). Prior to the creation of this blog, I paid almost no attention to it. I don’t subscribe to Rivals or Scout. And I find the whole notion of following 16- and 17-year olds’ every AAU performance, public statement, and Facebook profile update fairly creepy. (As opposed to having one’s emotional well-being riding on the athletic performances of 18- and 19-year old college students, which is a perfectly sane activity, right?).
I now, however, feel some obligation to know a little about what’s going on in terms of the Michigan State basketball recruiting scene. Plus what else is there to talk about for seven months of offseason?
So I thought we’d do a little group project and see if, between the lot of us, we can piece together what the MSU’s recruiting strategy is (or should be) going forward. Let’s review the situation:
- Looking at the projected roster, Izzo had up to four scholarship slots for 2009. Two of those slots are taken by the verbal commitments of big men Garrick Sherman and Derrick Nix.
- If all four 2009 slots were used, there’d be two slots for 2010. (I’m assuming Isaiah Dahlman is not going to do a mid-career redshirt.) One of those slots is filled by the verbal commitment of guard Keith Appling.
- So, at the moment, there’s two slots remaining that could be used for either 2009 or 2010 and one additional slot for 2010.
- Per Joe Rexrode, the two guys on the radar for 2009 are 6-7 forward Jamil Wilson of Racine, Wis., and 6-6 forward Roger Franklin of Duncanville, Texas.
- And the top guys on the radar for 2010 are 6-3 guard Trey Zeigler of Mount Pleasant, 6-9 center Alex Gauna of Eaton Rapids, 6-8 forward Jon Horford of Grand Ledge and 6-7 shooting guard Russell Byrd of Fort Wayne, Ind.
Regarding the two 2009 candidates:
- Wilson has “narrowed” his list to seven schools: Duke, Kentucky, Marquette, Michigan State, Oregon, Purdue and Texas (alphabetical order; no Badgers, who appear to have used up all their scholarships). He doesn’t plan to announce his choice until next March, to honor the anniversary of mother’s death.
- Sam Webb provides the low down on Franklin in today’s Detroit News. Franklin is currently ranked the #49 propsect in the nation by Scout.com; his list of schools is Indiana, Arizona, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Michigan State (with MSU making a late push). He appears to be a thoroughly Tom Izzo-sort of player:
“The first thing that sticks out about Roger Franklin is his consistency,” [Scout.com analyst Evan] Daniels said. “Night in and night out you know he is going to hit the glass, knock down mid-range jumpers, and play defense. He’s the ultimate glue guy. He’s expanded his game to the point where he can play on the wing full-time. He brings a lot of attributes to the table, but his biggest goal every time out is to get the victory. Every college program needs a tough, hard-nosed guy like him that will do whatever it takes to win.”
Coffee Talk Question(s): So, Spartans Weblog faithful, what happens to the three scholarship slots available over the next two years? Would Izzo take both Wilson and Franklin–who both seem to be “tweeners” at the 3/4 spots? Who should the priorities be for 2010? What should be/is Izzo’s overall strategy?
I’m confident at least a few of you can offer more educated guesses than I can to these questions.
Back to the here and now (or at least the here and five months from now): Northwestern Wins (which is not, in fact, a Northwestern blog) gives us his predicted order of finish in the Big Ten. He likes MSU to beat out Purdue for the conference championship and is (relatively) high on Michigan and Northwestern.
Regarding our presumed rivals for the Big Ten crown, the Boilermakers are currenly touring down under; Boiled Sports reports that E’Twaun Moore is putting up big numbers.
Having seen no recent news about the Candadian tour that MSU was planning to take over Labor Day at one point, I’m assuming that’s now dead. Maybe the Roe/Lucious injuries made Izzo think this wasn’t the year to use up their touring privileges?
Filed in coffee talk7 responses so far
7 Responses to “Coffee Talk: The MSU basketball recruiting outlook”
Kalvin Rewertson 14 Aug 2008 at 6:22 pm 1Great topic! I have been following recruiting for both basketball and football for a few years, the last year and a half I have really started paying lots of attention though. I think that if Franklin commits to MSU in October(in the article you quoted above Franklin says that when he will decide) then Izzo will back off of wilson a tad, but would gladly still take him if he decides MSU is where he wants to be come next March. My guess is they will only get one of the two though, franklin would be my first choice but I would love to have both.
In the circumstance that MSU gets only one of the two then that leaves two spots for 2009 (as you said, assuming Dahlman doesnt redshirt, and with the talent Izzo could pick up if he doesnt, I hardly think Izzo will try to convince him to do so). Trey will still be priority #1, he is an amazing player, the Appling commit could make Trey decide to go out of state, but I believe he will end up a Spartan.
For the last spot, I expect it to be Byrd if Allen does not have a great shooting year because Izzo would want that shooting touch in Byrd’s freshmen year. If Allen has the kind of season we all expect then Byrd would not be such a necessity. I think Alex Guana then becomes priority #2 because Izzo can never have enough big men.
So, I predict the priorities in 2010, if we only get one more in 2009, will be: #1 Zeigler, #2 Guana, #3 Byrd, #4 Horford.
If we get both of Wilson and Franklin then I expect priorities to change very little in 2010, with the priorities being: #1 Zeigler, #2 Guana, #3 Horford, #4 Byrd. The switching of Horford and Byrd is due to already having two swingmen in the 2009 class, therefore big men will be more valuable. Having said that, Zeigler stays #1 because he looks like he will be a very special player and Izzo has seen that since the kid was in 7th grade.
Sorry it was such a long post but noone wants to talk basketball recruiting right now, everybody is focused on football (I am too, but my number one love is MSU basketball baby!) so I had a lot of stuff to get out. Hope that provides a little different insight into your great coffee talk!
TMadison25on 15 Aug 2008 at 9:48 am 2Kalvin… I agree 100% on your post. I was excited to explain my recruiting priorities, but you hit the nail on the head. If Wilson were to pick MSU, would he share that news with Izzo before his scheduled decision date (March ‘09)? If so, it will be interesting to see how that factors in with Franklin. Thing is, to be confident that we could get one of these two guys is a situation many schools would love to be in. I am happy with any situation involving Franklin and/or Wilson. That said, I do not think it is wise to pass on Franklin in October if he wants to go to MSU. If Franklin verbals with MSU in the Fall, I doubt Wilson will, too. He claims to be very big on playing time. I am not as familiar with the later classes, but am always happy to hear a Detroit recruit that has always been big on MSU with his caliber of play coming to East Lansing.
Kalvin Rewertson 15 Aug 2008 at 1:37 pm 3I doubt that Wilson would let Izzo know if he is going to commit before March simply because he really wants to honor his mothers by committing on the anniversary of her death. I remember the first article LSJ ran about Wilson, around the end of last basketball season, he had already decided that was the day he would commit and I dont expect him to let the cat out of the bag to anyone besides immediate family helping him with the decision prior to that day.
I did not know he was big on playing time, but if thats the case I agree with you in the thinking that if Franklin commits to MSU in October that Wilson would want to go somewhere else. It would be tough enough for him to see the floor as a freshmen even if Franklin does go elsewhere. There is simply too much depth at the wing positions in 2009. Assuming there are no defections (transfers, early draft entries) then Morgon, Allen, and Summers will be the main wings, with Dalhman possibly seeing time along with Roe, if he doesnt add a whole lot more size izzo would be able to go with a “big man” lineup with Roe at the 3.
huberton 17 Aug 2008 at 1:17 pm 4KJ,
My admiration for your b-ball knowledge knows no bounds, but Herman’s Hermits?? Come on! The only decent version of “wonderful World” is Sam Cook’s. The hermits’ version is basically a watered down rip off.
Otherwise, I share your skepticism about recruiting — too much hype, too much misinformation. To be sure, the numbers are important. When MSU has had only two players coming in (eg Joseph and Walton) it has usually been because they have lost out on players at the last minute (eg the guy who went to Syracuse). so it’s good to see the numbers are up. Clearly, as well, Izzo’s recruiting is on an upswing (I suspect his current assistants are largely to credit). Beyond that, let’s wait to see how many of these 16 year old kids pan out once they actually show up on campus.
DP99on 18 Aug 2008 at 3:51 pm 5It could be Izzo would want to load up on 3/4 tweeners to run and because there haven’t been very good 4/5’s coming his way for several years now. For a while he seemed to have loaded up on 4/5 guys, few of which panned out. Naimick and Suton and Davis have done well, but on the other side there have been some near-comically bad guys: Gray, Rowley, Ibok, Herzog, a very undersized Trannon, etc.
kjon 18 Aug 2008 at 11:44 pm 6My concern looking ahead is the lack of pure, athletic wing guys on the horizon after Summers/Allen. Players who can finish in transition (Bell, Peterson, Richardson, Torbert, Brown, Ager) have been plentiful on the best Izzo teams. The perimeter players committed or high on the priority list seem to be swing guards (Appling/Zeigler) or outside shooters (Byrd). Maybe those guys can fit into the Izzo system, but I’d like to see Izzo get an athletic wing in the next couple classes. (But, of course, I don’t know enough to say who that is).
P.S. My bad on the bad oldies reference, Hubert, although I must say I’m an unabashed Herman’s Hermits fan, cover songs be darned. Mrs. Brown, you have a lovely daughter . . .
Spartans Weblog » Complete details released for 2008-09 basketball scheduleon 15 Sep 2008 at 5:10 pm 7[...] Franklin has committed to Oklahoma State. He had yet to take his visit to MSU. All eyes are on Jamil Wilson now (for potentially the next six [...]