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With 247, Rivals and ESPN all finalizing their 2018 basketball rankings, the 247 Composite has the final team and player rankings for this cycle.
Michigan ended up with one of their best classes ever, coming in at eighth in the country and second in the Big Ten, right behind Maryland.
This ties Beilein with his 2012 squad for his highest class ranking since he’s been at Michigan. That class should be very familiar to Michigan fans. It included four future NBA draft picks in Glenn Robinson, Mitch McGary, Nick Stauskas and Caris Levert, along with cult hero Spike Albrecht.
Michigan didn’t start the day that high, though. Thanks to some funky rankings regarding Ignas Brazeikis, the Wolverines were in the 13th slot. Rivals and ESPN don’t include players who play outside the United States in their overall player rankings. They gave him cursory five and four-star ratings, respectively. But Iggy was stuck in the mid-70’s on the composite, even though he would be slotted higher on all three services if they included him in their overall rankings.
Thankfully, 247 recognized this error and had it corrected. Brazeikis jumped all the way up to 36th overall in the composite, and brought Michigan’s team ranking up five spots with him.
Now, with a rating of .9863, he becomes the fifth highest player that John Beilein has recruited to Michigan. Iggy falls only behind Glenn Robinson, Mitch McGary, Kam Chatman and Zak Irvin for that distinction.
Perhaps even more satisfying is the fact that Michigan State was bumped to 14th overall. Even though the Spartans have the same number of players and a higher overall player rating, since the composite gives more weight to the higher ranked player, Michigan finishes above them. Michigan State’s highest ranked player is Marcus Bingham at 61st overall, well behind Brazeikis at 36.
This news should be cause for excitement among the Michigan fanbase. Nobody in the country has been better at developing talent than John Beilein over the past decade, and now that he has some truly elite talent coming in, the Big Ten and rest of the nation should be on the lookout.