James Earl Jones didn’t bolt from the University of Michigan after two years to supply an iconic, sonorous voiceover for a heavy breather in a black mask and cape.
He didn’t walk away after a year, waving goodbye and tentatively wandering into a cornfield in pursuit of Shoeless Joe Jackson and friends.
If he had bolted early, the premed-turned-drama student might have elicited a shrug, if that. Aspiring actors don’t engender madness, in March or any other month.
College basketball players do, of course. That’s why hand-wringing and angst pervaded when Charles Matthews, Jordan Poole and Iggy Brazdeikis began their imperial march out the Crisler Center doors and toward pro careers.
Matthews, a redshirt junior swingman, Poole, a sophomore guard, and Brazdeikis, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year at forward, all declared for the NBA Draft. Under current rules, all of them can go through the process of checking out their potential draft status, even hire an agent, and still return to Michigan.
That appears unlikely in all three cases, for different reasons. The possible personnel losses will become a short-term blow for John Beilein’s program, taking it from top-five early projections in 2019-20 closer to the cusp of the top 25.
Fans don’t like that. Fans — deeply emotionally invested, and often financially invested, when it comes to ticket purchases and such — aren’t supposed to like it.
Doug Karsch, sports talk host on 97.1 The Ticket out of Detroit, has covered Michigan athletics for decades, including serving as the sideline reporter for U-M football. He knows better than most that they come and they go, Hobbs. They come and they go.
If they go wisely, he’s all for it, and dispassionately so.
Karsch noted: “If I’m a family friend and they ask me for my advice, my advice would be: ‘If your feedback is, you are almost guaranteed to go in the first round, fine. But if it’s anything but that, you should go back to Michigan.’”
He pointed out that over the past decade, no coach in the Big Ten has produced more first-round NBA Draft picks than Beilein. If a Wolverine harbors first-round potential, Beilein maximizes it.
From expected surefire first-rounders like Mitch McGary to stunners such as D.J. Wilson, Beilein has either kept them on track to pursue professional dreams or gotten them there, Karsch asserted.
“If the feedback you are getting is that you are not a first-rounder, go back to John Beilein,” Karsch said. “Go back to John Beilein, and he’ll turn you into a first-rounder.”
It’s not always that simple, of course.
That’s where el diablo’s advocate steps in, and Karsch answers back.
Matthews looked at this year as his last at Michigan from the get-go. He’s ready to pursue his pro dreams, was honored on Senior Day, and appears wholly invested in moving on.
“If you don’t care where you play, go,” Karsch offered. “Go. You are very well going to end up playing in Carbondale, Ill., in the G-League, or overseas in Bolivia, or wherever. If you don’t care where you’re playing, go.
“But if you have first-round potential, John Beilein is going to help you reach that first-round potential. Personally, I think it’s a no-brainer, but I don’t expect everybody to have the same thoughts as I do.”
Brazdeikis is the most confident Michigan freshman since Jalen Rose and Chris Webber were running around in baggy shorts. He was certain he’d start for Michigan this year, and he’s no doubt certain he’ll make it in the NBA.
“In the middle of the season, he said he wanted Duke, and he wanted Zion [Williamson],” Karsch said. “Then he went out and went scoreless against Wisconsin.
“I think the cockiness and the swagger has carried him, and he’s used it to his benefit. But that doesn’t get you a spot in the NBA.”
Beilein and Poole have been through the coach-player shaping process, always a tricky one. Poole might be ready to be directed by someone handing him a check, rather than pointed critiques.
“Then I’d tell Jordan Poole to go find another place to play where you can get 15 shots a game, if that’s what he wants, although I suspect that would come next year,” Karsch said. “I’d go find a place where your coach doesn’t get concerned if you’re not playing as well on the defensive end of the floor, if that’s what you want.
“But again, I go back to the track record. Who has produced the most first-round picks in the Big Ten in the last decade? John Beilein. He’s got a sense of what he’s doing. He turns players into players the league likes. What’s wrong with that?”
Nothing. And there’s nothing wrong with going to the NBA, or elsewhere, and getting paid. It’s just best to make the attempt in a fully informed manner.
And Crisler? Crisler will be just fine, either way. Rose, McGary, Trey Burke, Moe Wagner … none of them play there anymore.
Somehow, Beilein manages. When November rolls around, folks stream back in.
As Terrance Mann once said, “The people will come, Ray. The people will most definitely come.”
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