Bleeding Green

The Izzo Recruiting Philosophy - Football Style

Nick Hill is in. Paul Jorgensen is out. You win some you lose some.

This isn't exactly news but I find it interesting that Coach D. seems to be adhering to the Coach Izzo recruiting philosophy. Control your state. Work the border states hard and if a kid here or there from Texas, Florida or other southern states is interested, go for it. And like Izzo, Coach D is trying to build a fence around the Midwest and the state of Michigan.

Boisture Personal Observations and Thoughts

It was a pleasant surprise to many MSU fans that Saline QB Joe Boisture committed to MSU last week after initially giving a verbal to Boston College this March.

Goran Suton and the NBA Draft

Well, the NBA Draft is upon us and it appears that only one MSU player, Goran Suton, has a chance to be drafted.  The Detroit Free Press has reported that he has recently worked out for 11 NBA teams.

Leadership, Collaboration, and Contribution

Back in late April and early May I was really happy to see the level of smart, insightful participation in discussing MSU’s marketing challenges.  It’s linked here if you’d like to check it out:    http://noise.typepad.com/bleeding_green/2009/04/the-marketing-problem-what-do-we-do-.html

 

A few themes from that blog caught my eye and kicked up the questions below:

 

1. Today we have MSU athletics leadership that is changing the Spartans’ football, hoops, and campus marketing efforts, and of which we will be proud.   Coaches Dantonio and Izzo, along with President Lou Anna Simon’s and Athletics Director Mark Hollis’s wise coordination at the top, have already solved some areas of historical neglect.  But, we know there is a long way to go to live up to the potential that most of us recognize quickly when we look back at our years on campus, what MSU has meant to us, and what it has to contribute today. 
2. Where there is terrible neglect is in the alumni network.  I’d have to say it’s painfully weak given the scope of MSU and what we find on campus and amongst members of the Spartans family.  I always wonder why there is such a lack of visibility and sense of collaboration among alumni association members and chapters.  I simply don’t ever get emails, despite paying membership dues reliably, about a national or even local coordinated effort to grow our influence in Michigan and across the nation.  In fact, in the few alumni meetings I attended a several years back here in the Bay Area it was a lot like herding cats.  And, I was struck with a lack of sense of community and mutual interest among attendees on a personal level.  It’s a problem -- without a sense of community as the alumni association’s foundation, or dynamic and visionary local leadership, we cannot go far vis-à-vis the competitive environment we face.  Maybe, just maybe, we can start with focusing on what we can contribute, rather than what we can get.  Just a thought.
3. Frankly, my experience is that my Grand Rapids high school had both far better leadership (most of whom were Spartans too as educators) and better followers as well. So, I wonder:

          a.  Why does this go unaddressed?  

          b.  Why are the energy and the leadership so diluted? 

          c.  Why do bars and tailgaters, with the requisite focus on alcohol, generate a hundred times more energy than the idea of getting these same groups to show up, collaborate in a friendly but intellect-driven context, and run the Spartans program right over the Weasel-rines’ foam-at-the-mouth attitude?  

 

Yes, our top-down Athletics Department leadership is strong at last.  Now, how do we catch up on the bottom-up flow of contribution, vision, local leadership, and commitment to excellence that are the core of Dantonio’s, Izzo’s, Hollis’s and Simon’s recent breakthroughs (and not principally just tippin’ ‘em at the tailgate) that our alumni associations across the U.S. and around the world have not yet attained?

William Gholston (reportedly) Commits to MSU

Scout.com is reporting that William Gholston committed to MSU early this morning. In fact they have him as a commit on the Scout.com website.

Justin Abdelkader

The Detroit Red Wings have just defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 for the second straight night.  And for the second straight night, former Spartan hockey player, Justin Abdelkader scored a key goal in the game.

Sonny Vaccaro and Next Month's NBA Draft

Sonny Vaccaro.  You either love him or hate him depending on where you stand in the world of basketball.  There is no secret that Mr. Vaccaro has been fighting the NCAA for longer than most of you have been living.  His power deals with coaches, players and agents over the years have long been documented.  His latest activity has been to try and influence young players to skip college entirely and go to Europe to play until they are eligible for the NBA draft.  This is in direct confrontation to the NCAA (and NBA) rule that requires high school grads to complete one year of college before they can enter the draft.

The "marketing problem" -- what do we do?

In a long high-tech career I've had lots of involvement  with marketing types.  I've learned that nearly everyone with real-life experience and preparation...or even without it...has strong opinions about smart marketing.  Based on what I've seen in the business world, I believe smart and intensive marketing is the key place where UM has whipped our tails for the past 40+ years, and it then trickles into recruiting and in-season successes and failures. 

We can also see how ESPN, for example, has become a non-paid (or let's assume we can trust that it's non-paid for now) marketing channel for the SEC and Big 12 in football, and the ACC and Big East in hoops.  Their current ESPN "College Football" program has currently come close to promoting that there is no life beyond the SEC, and maybe the Big 12.  And, the Florida cheer-leading for months now is completely over the top.

Getting back to the state of Michigan, UM to me represents a far less appealing place and attitude than MSU.  But, it has, nonetheless, given MSU a consistent marketing whipping since the discipline began to get increasingly sophisticated in the late '60s.  I could speculate on the reasons out of my own experience and past life in Michigan.  But, I'm more curious why Spartan-nation participants here and in other forums seem to ignore the problem.  It's particularly baffling to me with tens of thousands of business degrees delivered by MSU to the state's residents, and with the humongous body of knowledge that represents. So, I'm curious what keeps the issue in passive mode.  

Will Mark Hollis, who is making improvements, get this thing turned around?  If you have a strong marketing background or just strong opinions about how this issue seems to continue, can you jump in here?  Let's get this puppy solved at least in the Great Lakes region where we can recruit well.  What do you think? 

Nichol or Cousins?

Well, Spartan football fans, we've got about four months to debate the quarterback situation for next Fall.  After one, tremendous Spring football game where both quarterbacks passed for 357 yards each, we now have the opportunity to discuss how to divide the playing time between the two.

Uniforms

Now that we are entering the dead zone of Spartan sports activities (sorry, baseball, softball and golf fans) let's talk about something a little less controversial--team uniforms.

What's up with football recruiting?

ESPN pointed out last fall that commitments were coming earlier and earlier in football, with increasing early (January) enrollments for signees.  Maybe we Spartans got spoiled with those early recruiting commitments and the queue toward MSU in

Michigan

and

Ohio

.  And, we’ve had Coach Izzo’s early successes in hoops too with and juniors choosing to be Spartans. 

 

However, this year I don’t see the early football commitments that I remember MSU, OSU, UM and eventually PSU, experienced last year. This year Rivals shows lots of names considering MSU…more than last year I’m pretty sure…but typically with just gobs of other schools.  Nationally, it seems H.S. Class of 2010 recruits are commonly entertaining 15-20 teams.  Personally, I’d feel like I was herding cats.

 

For us I guess it’s good news that only a very small number in our rich recruiting neighborhood have glanced at MSU and then gone elsewhere.  But,

Warren

’s Austin White surprised me with a commitment to

Iowa

.  Yes, it’s a sufficient program, and I’m generally Hawkeye-neutral or even supportive as Big Ten rivals go.  But, I’m not sure what the draw would be compared to MSU, or other offers he had for that matter.  He looks like a great kid, but

Iowa

is not going to have another Shonn Greene to carry them again anytime soon.  Devin Gardner was in UM’s pipeline for a long time, so no surprise there.  Anyway, here are the 2010 commitments according to Rivals:

 

MSU – 1

Illinois

- 2

Indiana

– 0

Iowa

- 2

Mich.

– 8 (still loads up early via the their greased marketing machine)

Minnesota

- 4

Northwestern - 0

Ohio

State

– 4 (an early-load team for many years now; lots of

Ohio

kids now waiting for offers)

Penn

State

- 2 (typically slower than OSU, but plenty effective by signing day)

Purdue - 0

Wisconsin

– 1

 

Elsewhere, just a few of the big ESPN marketing-machine names look like they may be winding down by July this year:

 

Alabama

– 8

Florida

– 10

FSU - 3

Georgia

- 3

LSU – 7

Oklahoma

– 7

Texas

– 21 (the huge exception; virtually a finished class already)

USC – 3 (a very slow start for USC)

 

Generally, it just seems like commits are slower in general compared to last year at this time for MSU, and probably regionally or even nationally.  I curious when you think things should start to heat up this year on those levels?   And, specifically, when should we see MSU commitments start to roll in? 

Big Ten in 2010

Well, it's been a week since MSU's outstanding season ended in Detroit.  I think we can now turn and look forward to what the Big Ten might look like next season.  The following are my predictions for next year based on who will be available for each team right now.  You are invited to disagree and voice your opinions, but no matter what, the Big Ten looks loaded for next year.

Looking forward...

What a kick it is to see that MSU could be at the top of next year’s hoops rankings. (A Sports Illustrated columnist and Dick Vitale have us in the top five.) And, I see lots of reason for excitement:

2009-2010 Seniors: Raymar Morgan will be back and, of course, skill will not be his challenge. This year he improved his on-court persona and the attitude he projects. His tendency to look and act whiny last year definitely backed off in the past few months. He also seems to be getting a handle now on how to passionately attack what he can influence on the court, and how to blow off the rest. Hope so. The other seniors-to-be are still an early work in progress, of course.

Juniors: Lucas, Summers, and Allen should make up a heck of a core class as juniors. Yes, Chris Allen has struggled with inconsistency, but he has streaks of 3’s that keep me believing he’s still working through the kind of malaise Suton had as a sophomore. When he’s clicking he can do a lot of damage in a hurry. From the perspective of the competition, this trio is going to be a nightmare to contain in ‘09-‘10. Herzog? He knows he’s got to get all over the weights or get banged out the door in the Big Ten.

Sophomores: I like Roe, Luscious, and Green enormously. They were solid contributors this year on a team with such deep talent. If they improve as much as their immediate predecessors did this year as sophomores then, “Wow!”  Austin Thornton is a personal favorite for having gone to high school in Cedar Springs, where I attended middle school.  He’s killer at the free-throw line and has a nice stoke when open, but needs to learn to deal with the speed of the game on both offense and defense.

Freshman: I’m also looking forward to our seeing our two new centers and what inside strength they’ll represent by the Big Ten season. Dion Sims has intrigued me for a long time for both football and basketball. I get the impression this is one fantastic athlete who will leave his mark in a big way at MSU. He may be the kind of intimidating presence our last grid-iron-and-hoops guy Matt Trannon was…cool guy to plug into a line-up to be sure.

Finally, something tells me we may have gotten the better deal with Jamil Wilson headed to Oregon, which sounds like he picked a school where there would be little internal competition (or program stability) and an opportunity to star for a couple of years, and he can then jump to the NBA. Why Oregon, if for basketball and not the scenery? His decision suggests he was not what we need at MSU in the big picture…been there, endured that with flashes in the pan who then depart quickly.

Anyway, there’s just a whole lot to look forward to in our “just wait till next year” moment. What’s it kick up in your minds?

Another Step for the Program

One night does not a season make, especially when there was so much about this 2008-09 season that was positive.

So let's get the "bad" out of the way first. Michigan State played its D- or F game yesterday. North Carolina played its A- or B+ game (although it was their A game in the first half). We all knew that if the Tar Hells played near flawlessly, the Spartans probably couldn't have won.

Ouch!

Well, that's not what Spartan Nation was hoping for. North Carolina was awesome. MSU didn't take care of the ball. And the March to Motown ended one game short.

As disappointing as the game was, I can't help but be proud of the tournament run.

Your thoughts?