MSU AND UM BASKETBALL PROGRAMS ARE FROM TOTALLY DIFFERENT PLACES

We recently found out that the University of Michigan Men's Basketball team has only one player from the State of Michigan. The Michigan State Men's team, by comparison, has 44% of its roster from the Great Lakes State. (UM has five times as many Indiana natives as home-state players.)

So we expanded our view to the coaching staffs of both teams. Turns out to be a similar picture. All four MSU coaches went to high school in Michigan, and three of the four also attended college in-state. The Spartans also have the only coach who attended school where they are now coaching.

The Michigan Staff includes one assistant with a pure-bred Detroit background, and one with split credentials. The other two Wolverines coaches (including John Beilein) appear to be working their first job in the Mitten.

MSU Coaches

• Izzo - Iron Mountain High School and Northern Michigan University
• Fife - Clarkston High School and Indiana University
• Stephens - Ferndale High School and and Michigan State University
• Garland - Ypsilanti High school and Northern Michigan University

UM Coaches

• Beilein - High School in Lockport (N.Y.) and Wheeling College (W.Va)
• Meyer - High School and College in Indiana
• Alexander - High School and College in Detroit
• Jordan - Albion High School and Butler (IN)

So the comparison is two-out-of-four locally-grown coaches for UM and four-out-of-four for MSU. We combine the player and coach totals below.

Michigan State Men's Basketball Team  - 11 out of 20 = 55%

Michigan Men's Basketball Team - 3 out of 19 = 16%

The Spartan Men's Basketball team is more than three times as local to the State of Michigan as their counterparts at UM. And, as it turns out, the picture is the same with Women's Basketball. More on that tomorrow.

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