Draymond Green, a top 100 recruit in the 2008 class, will announce his college decision Thursday. Green, a 6’7″ power forward from Saginaw, Michigan, has narrowed his possible destinations to Michigan State, Michigan and Indiana.
Green originally committed to Kentucky, but after Tubby Smith left, Green re-opened his recruitment.
In today’s Detroit News, Green’s coach Lou Dawkins talked about the upcoming announcement:
“These are the schools who have been after him the hardest,” Dawkins said. “By (tonight) he’ll decide. If not, then he might make it when he wakes up Thursday.”
Dawkins also added that Green may take an unofficial visit to Michigan later today. I’m no expert, but from my experience, the school with the last visit generally lands the recruit.
If I had to make a prediction, I’d say IU is running a distant third for Green’s services. While they would gladly take Green, they are aiming for bigger fish to fill out the 2008 class.
Updated: Green picks Michigan State
2011-2012 All-Big Ten Preview: Draymond Green
With the college basketball season inching closer, we’ll be taking a long look at the conference at large as well as Indiana’s roster over the next few weeks. Today, we continue our look at our preseason All-Big Ten team with Michigan State’s Draymond Green.
After two straight trips to the Final Four, it was presumed that the leadership of Draymond Green, along with former Big Ten Player of the Year Kalin Lucas, could help guide Tom Izzo’s club into a battle with Ohio State for a conference championship and another deep run in March.
Instead, the Spartans were the country’s most disappointing team in the regular season and fell to UCLA 76-74 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Green went out on a high note individually in that narrow loss as he notched just the seventh triple-double in tournament history (his second triple-double of the season) with 23 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, but could only lament his disappointment that his days playing alongside Lucas were over afterward.
Looking at his advanced stats profile over at KenPom, Green’s shooting percentage from inside the 3-point line dipped by 10 percent last season, which is a significant decline. That was a product of settling more for the mid-range jump shot and doing less work in the paint.
But with those added shots from the perimeter, Green knocked down close to 37 percent of his 3-pointers (37-of-101) after only attempting a total of 17 during his first two seasons. This added dimension helped morph Green from a player defenders could sag off to one that now demands attention all over the floor.
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