Watching Michigan destroy Illinois yesterday and currently leading Wisconsin today reminded me of Beilein's incredible ability to find hidden gems. Because of guys leaving early to the NBA and injuries this year, he's starting three guys (Albrecht, Dawkins and Abdur-Rakhman) identified and signed in the spring period who were not recruited by another Power 5 conference team and barely at the D1 level at all. To a lesser extent, he did the same thing with Burke, Hardaway and Stauskas. Those guys had better offers but were not considered star recruits or potential NBA players. LeVert is another example of a 2-star guy who will most likely declare this year and be drafted in the middle of the first round. I can't think of another coach who has had so much success turning 2 and 3-star guys into first round draft picks. Most guys who declare early were top 50 guys coming out of high school.
Beilein
- Thread starter Catdude
- Start date
Beilein did this at West Virginia too. Who was the guy he made famous, Pittsnoble? I've been very impressed how he resurrected their season amidst all the injuries. They played at a very high level against us (like they just did in walloping Rutgers and Illinois and being tied with Wisconsin with 5:00 to go which made some people's comments on this board about that thrilling win not being good enough to be ranked in their top ten of great NU games (yeah, I've seen teams rally from 6 down with less than 15 seconds lots of time--not) . That wasn't like beating North Florida at the buzzer (oh wait a minute, aren't they in the NCAA tournament?)
That would be the same North Florida that beat Purdue, if memory serves. Maybe they weren't all that bad a team after all......
This post was edited on 3/13 6:27 PM by mikewebb68
Flashback
Regardless of how the season turned out for any of these teams, the comeback and close of the game against North Florida was pretty exciting. Flashback: That was the game in which BMac didn't score in the second half until after we down 7 with under 4 minutes left and then came alive with 8 consecutive points on clutch shots. Then, it was Tre time....with scores on NU's final two possessions, including a driving layup to tie it and then the game winner from the left elbow of the free throw line he loves that spot!) with 2 seconds to go.
'Cats win 69-67.
Go 'Cats!
If memory serves, DocCat explained to everyone back in December that Purdue was a really bad team. (Funny looking back as Purdue finished 4th in the B1G and is playing in the BTT semi-final.)
Regardless of how the season turned out for any of these teams, the comeback and close of the game against North Florida was pretty exciting. Flashback: That was the game in which BMac didn't score in the second half until after we down 7 with under 4 minutes left and then came alive with 8 consecutive points on clutch shots. Then, it was Tre time....with scores on NU's final two possessions, including a driving layup to tie it and then the game winner from the left elbow of the free throw line he loves that spot!) with 2 seconds to go.
'Cats win 69-67.
Go 'Cats!
