 |
 |
 |
|
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Tommy Amaker will win at Michigan, and it has nothing to do with his ability to X-and-O. Maybe he's a clipboard genius, maybe not. As if it matters. College basketball is all about the accumulation of talent, and when it comes to recruiting, Amaker gets it.
For the University of Michigan, the prime recruiting ground is the state of Michigan. That concept eluded Amaker's predecessor, Brian Ellerbe. While Ellerbe was scouring the country for recruits, Michigan State's Tom Izzo seldom left his backyard, scooping up the best players from Flint and Detroit.
 | |
| In-state products like Lester Abram will have to lead a Michigan renaissance.(Getty Images) |
"People in Detroit take their basketball very seriously," Detroit-based recruiting analyst Vincent Baldwin said. "There's a lot of pride in their basketball, but Ellerbe didn't stay in the state, and a lot of people took it personally. For five years, Michigan lost its fan base."
Amaker knew the problem, but was surprised by its magnitude. For his first game at Crisler, in November 2001, the building wasn't a sellout. Wasn't close.
"Any time you're taking over a program, there are landmines you have to navigate, fences you have to mend," Amaker said. "We knew that coming in. At the same time, I'm not sure anyone knew the depths of some of those things."
In some corners, sophomore point guard Daniel Horton has been hailed as Michigan's most important recruit since Chris Webber or Cazzie Russell. Absolutely not. Horton might be the best NBA prospect on roster, but he's from Cedar Hill, Texas, which makes him a piece -- a fabulous piece, but only a piece -- in Michigan's reformation.
Down the road, when people look back at Amaker's early years, they will recognize Lester Abram, Dion Harris and perhaps Joe Crawford as the foundation. Abram and Harris came to Michigan when coming to Michigan, for local kids, wasn't cool. It's cooler now, and Crawford, a high school senior from Detroit, is considering doing the same.
First was Abram, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard from Pontiac. He wasn't Michigan's best high school player from the class of 2002 -- that was center Paul Davis, who signed with Michigan State -- but he was close, and just as important, Abram was as good off the court as he was on it.
After Ellerbe's teams were embarrassed by off-court issues, Amaker needed character as much as he needed talent. Abram offered both. Amaker had to have him.
"He's just straight down I-94," Amaker says of Abram. "You can count on it. He quietly goes about his business in a workmanlike manner. How many people in this world -- whether they play sports or not -- can you just mark it down, count on it?"
Abram averaged 10.6 points last season as a freshman, a number that could be exceeded this season by Harris, a 6-4 freshman from Detroit. Harris averaged 11 points in the Wolverines' two exhibition games, then had 15 points and six assists in the regular-season opener Friday against Oakland, an 84-58 victory that showed off Michigan's depth and defense.
To get Harris, Amaker didn't exactly have to fend off Izzo -- who focused on another Detroit guard, Brandon Cotton, as well as Shannon Brown of Maywood, Ill. Even under those circumstances, Ellerbe wouldn't have landed Harris. He might not even have tried.
"If Coach Amaker wasn't here, I probably wouldn't have come here," Harris said. "The difference between him (and the previous staff) is Coach Amaker has a goal. He has a plan, to build something, and you can see he wants to do it with local players as much as he can."
For Ellerbe, the beginning of the end in Ann Arbor came four years ago when he essentially turned down Detroit stars Arthur Johnson and Rickey Paulding to pursue Andre Brown of Chicago and Bernard Robinson of Washington D.C. Brown chose DePaul, and while Robinson has been a good player for Michigan, he has not been a star. Johnson and Paulding have become All-America candidates at Missouri, which entered the season as a national title contender.
Michigan entered the season to mostly quiet Crisler Arena. It had passion, but it was almost 2,000 tickets short of being a sellout Friday for the season opener. And while every television camera within 300 miles was in Ann Arbor for the Michigan-Ohio State football game Saturday, none made it to Crisler to catch Amaker's postgame comments.
That'll change, because Michigan's recruiting priorities have changed. Amaker hasn't derailed Izzo's in-state recruiting, but he doesn't have to. There's enough to go around.
"Whether it's Detroit, Flint -- anywhere inside the borders -- we definitely believe there's enough talent here to build your program on," Amaker said. "Being a state institution, we want to identify those kids first and foremost."
After getting Abram from the class of 2002 and Harris from '03, Amaker has signed 6-6 wing Ronald Coleman of Detroit suburb Romulus, who is ranked among the country's top 75 players in the class of '04. Amaker also has a line on the 6-3 Crawford from '04 and 6-5 Detroit guard Chris Douglas-Roberts from '05.
Crawford has committed to Michigan but didn't sign last week, raising fears among Michigan fans he will choose Kentucky because of the Wolverines' Horton-Abram-Harris backcourt situation.
If Crawford does end up at Michigan, Baldwin expects Douglas-Roberts to go elsewhere for a better shot at early playing time. Even if this happens -- Crawford to Michigan, Douglas-Roberts to Michigan State -- Michigan fans should celebrate.
For Michigan, having too much in-state talent would be a good thing. Besides, there's always the class of 2006. Two of the country's top 10 sophomores are 6-3 Ramar Smith and 6-6 Tracy Smith.
Both are from Detroit. Both are considering Michigan.