Despite Mitch McGary's slide, Michigan basketball's 2012 class rated higher than Michigan State's
The Michigan basketball program's top recruit for 2012 took a dip in the national rankings recently, but the class as a whole maintains a strong standing.
Despite five-star power forward Mitch McGary's fall out of the top five to No. 21 overall, Scout.com rated John Beilein's three-man as the seventh-best class in the country Tuesday in its updated 2012 class rankings.
Michigan's 2012 group is three spots higher than Michigan State's four-man class.
Mitch McGary.
Robinson, a wing from Lake Central (Ind.) High School, moved inside Scout.com's top 30 recently as the 28th-best prospect in America. He's classified as a four-star prospect, but now finds himself just two spots from five-star status.
"I'm a big fan of (Robinson's) game in general," Scout.com national basketball recruiting analyst Evan Daniels told AnnArbor.com last month. "He's got a big, strong athletic body, he rebounds, he shoots well off the catch, and I think he'll also be a really good defender. He's a guy who I think has the potential to play in the NBA one day.
"I didn't think I had him high enough in the summer, but he's a guy who keeps getting better, and I think he'll have a great career."
Stauskas also made a significant leap, moving to No. 84 overall in the country. The 6-foot-6 Canadian-born combo guard is labeled as a four-star recruit.
Along with McGary, the 6-foot-10, 260-pound power forward from Brewster (N.H.) Academy, Michigan holds three prospects inside Scout's top 100.
Michigan State's 2012 class is led by five-star shooting guard Gary Harris (No. 11 overall). The Spartans' next highest signee is 92nd-ranked Matt Costello, followed by 98th-ranked Kenny Kaminski. MSU's fourth signee, Denzel Valentine, is not ranked inside Scout's top 100.
Indiana holds the top recruiting class in the Big Ten for 2012, according to Scout. The Hoosiers five-man crop, featuring three players inside the top 40, is ranked as the third-best in America.
Nick Baumgardner covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-623-2514, by email at nickbaumgardner@annarbor.com and followed on Twitter @nickbaumgardner.
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Comments
redceder1
Thu, Feb 9, 2012 : 2:44 a.m.
Careful yellow. A school like E. Illiniois could step in and grab your boy Bline out from under you. Better lock him up to long term deal.
FRED
Wed, Feb 8, 2012 : 6:38 p.m.
How many #1 ranked recruiting class won the NCAA? Still got to play on the court. With so many one-and-done student athletes, recruiting class ranking is obsolete. You rather have mid ranked student athletes develop into high ranked players after 3-4 years of college - better indicator of coaching ability than just athleticism.
Johnny2x2x
Wed, Feb 8, 2012 : 3:29 p.m.
LOL, every other recruiting service ranks MSU higher than U of M, but you grab the single one, Scout, which for some reason has U of M higher. MSU has the 5th ranked class and U of M the 10th ranked class on ESPN which for basketball is the gold standard of basketball recruiting services. Mitch McGary is an almost 20 year old high school senior who is failing to perform well against 16 and 17 year old kids, that's why he dropped and he'll drop much further in the coming weeks. He's not a top 50 player. In the meantime Gary Harris is blowing up and is a top 10 recruit while Matt Costello is averaging 25.3 pts 19.2 rebs, and 5.6 blocks in one of the toughest conferences in the State this year.
Logan
Wed, Feb 8, 2012 : 4:52 p.m.
Johnny I assume you are joking, but I can't tell. You do realize that 3 out the 4 recruiting sites have UM ranked higher than MSU, right? You also realize that ESPN is consistently crowned the worst of the sites when it comes to recruiting, as they typically only have 1 or 2 people to cover the entire country, while the other 3 sites have 1 or 2 for each region of the country. The biggest joke is when you said Mitch McGary isn't a top 50 player. I really laughed out loud at that one. He isn't putting up the same numbers as he was in AAU because he plays for a high school team that has 7 D1 players that simply refuse to look to the post. He still is averaging 15 points and 15 rebounds. And your boy Costello would not even get off the bench if he played for Brewster.
arty
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 9:54 p.m.
McGary chose UM over Duke. Probably the biggest reason his rank fell.
Johnny2x2x
Wed, Feb 8, 2012 : 3:30 p.m.
No, the awful senior season and the fact that he's an almost 20 year old 5th year senior in high school has dropped him.
zeeba
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 8:15 p.m.
Eh. Recruiting rankings are as unreliable as preseason top 25 lists, and for the same reason. Few survive their encounters with reality. There's way too much attention paid to these things.
jeff blue
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 7:24 p.m.
Hi All, I don't want to sound too arrogant, but this in total non-sense. Michigan basteketball should start being compared with: DUKE, NC, KENTUCKY, KANSAS, UCONN, and other big time winners. We talk about MSU only because we are close to them. We haven't made a final 4 or won a big ten championship in so long, it is rediculous. In Basketball, so many teams have marched on past us: OSU, Wisconsin, MSU, Purdue, and dare I say the biting Illini. Even Indiana could be poised to pass Michigan in basketball. We were so outcoached on Sunday, it was sickening. At least in football, we talk a lot about OSU and not an MSU rivalry. In football we should be at the level of USC, Oregon, Texas, OSU. I won't even mention the SEC -- as they seem be on another planet in college football. It is like "Back to the Future", it is time to get our self respect back and to think about great college programs; NOT MSU. JEFF
mike_g
Wed, Feb 8, 2012 : 6:17 a.m.
You are in complete denial. Here are the elite programs of the past decade: <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/magazine/specials/2000s/12/08/cbb.highlights.lowlights/index.html" rel='nofollow'>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/magazine/specials/2000s/12/08/cbb.highlights.lowlights/index.html</a> <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4783700" rel='nofollow'>http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4783700</a> Since these rankings came out, MSU has been to another Final Four and is poised to make another deep run in the tourney. MSU is also considered one of the top college basketball programs of all time....by all the experts. um isn't in the realm of any of any programs you listed...especially MSU.
Skolly51
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 10:32 p.m.
Jeff Blue...."In any case, this University needs to think much bigger; competing with MSU is not the objective (their objective, not ours)!!!!!" I've been sick the flu all week and needed a good laugh. UofM isn't even a second thought with State BB.
msubball2010
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 9:24 p.m.
Wow Jeff. Wow. Please explain to me why you think UofM basketball should be compared to Duke, NC, etc.? Please tell me the last time your team has even made a sweet 16 let alone win the Big 10, make a Final 4, etc. You need to take the blue shades off if you don't think MSU is an elite basketball program. I'm not saying we are on the same level as UNC / Duke, but 6 Final Fours in 13 years? Your program has never come close to that kind of success.
zeeba
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 9:05 p.m.
You guys should only be so lucky to be compared with MSU - which for many years now has been drawing comparisons to Duke, NC, Kentucky, Kansas. UConn, etc. - and they to Sparty.
rushvillerocket
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 8:19 p.m.
Forever27... Get your story straight...Bill Martin inherited the 'situation' in hoops. He hired Amaker, who kept it all clean and had no issues. He then hired Beilein...Martin should then get "credit" for hiring Beilein. While we are at it...let's also give Martin and his associates credit for many of the new upgraded facilities around the athletic campus. People seem to firget the positives here...as usual.
jeff blue
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 7:39 p.m.
Yes, Beilein is a good and honest coach, but I do not see him taking us to Final Fours. Izzo made the adjustments from the first game and we were way outcoached in game 2. Didn't you see that as well? We were exposed by a better coach. I don't blame Amaker or Ellerbee for UM Basketball. We sowed these negative seeds with Bill Freider and Steve Fisher. These guys were great recruiters, but there were way too many dirty things going on. In any case, this University needs to think much bigger; competing with MSU is not the objective (their objective, not ours)!!!!!
Forever27
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 7:29 p.m.
do you even watch the basketball team? Beilein is one of the best coaches in the country and has been building this program up from the ashes it was when he got here. If you have problem with Michigan basketball being down, blame that on Bill Martin and Tommy Amaker/Brian Ellerbe. that is when it all went south. Beilein is rebuilding this program, and doing it the right way, with the right kids. Anyone who has followed this team knows this.
Scott
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 6:06 p.m.
Remind me again. Which school is obsessed with comparing themself to the other?
Detroitrocks
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 7:10 p.m.
Both.
rnich231
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 6:05 p.m.
Just one of the many problems with UM is they worry way too much about recruiting rankings and not enough about "wins and losses"! MSU blows out UM every year in football and typically has a lower ranked recruiting class.
Ted Bundy
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 8:21 p.m.
Just one of the many problems with MSU is that they worry way too much about their inferiority complex with UM and not enough about worrying about "their own team"! MSU has beaten UM the past four years, but other than that streak, they have been second fiddle to UM for a century.
Forever27
Tue, Feb 7, 2012 : 7:27 p.m.
"MSU blows out UM every year in football" holy cow do you have a short-term memory!