McDonald's All-American Game

And I'm not sure he fully ever left the NBA draft conversation, which I think is part of this prediction here.

Harwell, I mean, he was a McDonald's All-American coming out of high school.

He was a consensus five-star recruit in the 2025 class.

He was, again, I think like... as the lowest I think he was in that class was maybe like 12th in the recruiting rankings.

last year as a freshman and chris senac the big man also found himself picked in the late first round and harwell obviously battling through injuries did not have the kind of season that gets you nba attention he averaged three and a half points per game on incredibly inefficient shooting we know that we've talked extensively about what was a not good freshman year for isaiah harwell at houston but what we've also talked about is the fact that he was hurt.

He got hurt his senior year at Wasatch Academy.

He returned in time to try to play in the McDonald's All-American game and re-injured himself in that event and then kind of missed the whole summer.

He was at Houston.

National player of the year, right? Right, and lots of pieces around that.

Some McDonald's All-Americans.

There's a lot of talent there and a lot of depth, as we've talked about all offseason.

Right.

Yeah, I mean, such long arms.

Robin Friedlich's never had this much size since she's been in East Lansing because you have that, and you also have a McDonald's All-American coming in from Howell, Michigan, and Lily Williams, who's been dealing with some injuries throughout this offseason, had some issues and surgeries done with her eyes, randomly enough, but...

Getting on the up and up, getting back into practice, but you get her in the mix.

Whenever Issa Alexander gets healthy, you throw her back in the mix.

He can do so many things on both ends of the floor.

Jackson Richardson, who was a McDonald's All-American, hasn't been healthy, but did play 10 minutes against Auburn.

And has, along with Torres Bowie, incredible athleticism.

And Fulk Luehr, who I'm not even sure counts in the freshman class.

Hardy's coming back, the running back.

They got shot in the offseason for Missouri.

Preseason All-American candidate.

Of course, Roberts has done really well rushing for 867 yards and eight touchdowns in his absence.

But, yeah, it was cool to see her.

I think she's got a lot of growing to do, a lot of proving herself to do, obviously, and Brandon's the kind of coach that really wants... you know, his players to be able to prove themselves, even though she was a five star, you know, McDonald's all American, different, all that different kind of stuff.

She still has to be able to prove it to get out there on the court.

And I think she will eventually get there.

He said it today.

He's like, I wanted Quinn Costello, your freshman McDonald's All-American, walking back to the locker room, and saying, man, it is hard to win at this level against the elite teams.

And he even wanted a reminder for Trey McKinney and Roddy Gale and L.A. Cadeau.

Everything came so easily for this team last year.

Also, you'll see him on Fox as well, Fox Sports.

Andres Djokovic had a great point over the summer where he was a former McDonald's All-American who had transferred three schools in three years, Stanford, Cal, and Illinois, and said, you know, this is the first summer I've actually spent with the same coaching staff.

And you can see him while he had the concussion they're concerned about uh in friday night's exhibition loss against baylor um you can see already in his play how much different it is um his base looks stronger um he just his game is elevated because he's actually stayed in one place and actually not trying to figure out where to go or what to do or you know new personnel but he's kind of the same guy um Is that is the monkey now off the big tens back? Is it will be easier now? Do you think to maybe have another champion for the big 10 now that Michigan finally has taken the top off and into that quarter century drought?

I don't know if it's making it easier to win it, but it makes it more about the basketball too much.