(02-06-2023 06:48 AM)emu steve Wrote:  

(02-05-2023 07:27 PM)Jerry Weaver Wrote:  

(02-05-2023 12:23 PM)emu steve Wrote:  

(02-05-2023 07:47 AM)Luckeyone Wrote:  Interesting article although it’s outdated (2019) but supports what Steve has said about lack of talent in Michigan.

https://watchstadium.com/ranking-every-s...6-24-2019/

FWIW, 8 (!) of the top 13 states in the first table touch the Atlantic. The top 3 states, e.g., CA, TX and FL, are very large states. No surprises there.

MI does not vary well vs. Ohio or IN.

Wished I could identify the problem. Ohio and Indiana have similar demographic challenges, we all are becoming old and high schools are shrinking, yet Michigan does not acquit itself well with respect to developing HS prospects.

Izzo constantly beat U-M in recruiting Michigan. He owned Flint and got all the hot prospects from Detroit, Saginaw and Grand Rapids as well. He was the King of recruiting in Michigan and built a fabulous program.

Then came 2017-18. Freaking Clarkston, hardly a legacy program, won the MHSAA championship. Izzo, of course, nailed down their two best players, Foster Loyer and Thomas Kithier. The problem here is that neither of them had the talent to compete at the P6 basketball level and Izzo's career has been on a downward spiral since.

I have no good answers about MI h.s. hoops other than players leaving for other states and possibly the decline in numbers in school systems like Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, etc. as MI de-industrialized and lost tens of thousands of factory jobs. I think there was an out migration to the South happening, too.

A little tangent, but maybe MI can offer spring ball for FB and try to raise the level of play there?

This was a number of decades ago (handful) when I was in h.s. They wanted FB players to do sports during the off seasons. Spring would have been baseball or T&F. Winter was basketball or weights.

MI h.s. FB isn't bad but could be better as ETough knows that the South decides to used the whole academic year instead of using spring semester for other sports. Does baseball work for a 280 lbs. DT?

ETough moved from the Flint area to Texas where HS football is just bats--t crazy, but your point is well taken.

Michigan is hardly the hotbed of football recruits it once was, but it still churns out Aidan Hutchison, Mazi Smith, Donovan Edwards etc... MHSAA basketball, by contrast, is a recruiting desert.