There's a Top 60 range kid that Michigan State landed in the 2024 class and he played the last 10 seconds or so at MSG and then the last 1 or 2 minutes vs their game against Minnesota Tuesday night.
I dont know what the right answer is or isn't, but that seems to be more of a issue for that MSU kid (not that anyone cares about MSU, different recruiting levels), but my initial post last week after Penn State and burning the Dortch RS was based on 3 things.
A) There’s nothing to lose by saving him when there's an extra 8 to 12 minutes a game he can help.
B) we struggle with paint and perimeter length on defense.
C) Most games are close (within 5 to 6 points).
My argument was that in 8 to 12 minutes, that's 8 to 10 possessions on each end of the court. Even if he doesn't score a basket, if Dortch prevents 2 baskets per game (he had a block and forced 2 NW traveling calls), that's potentially 6 extra points for NW.....or just 2 to 4 points.
You cannot fix the efficiency or the ratings with stuff like NET, KenPom and other things, unless you get more stops on defense. I won't comment about the woeful looking FT stroke, but other than Ace and Grant, who else elevates for the potential lob dunk he almost got??
Grant with a 1st half tip in basket in the 1st half and dunk, Dortch preventing 2 to 3 extra attempts in the game, that's probably 6 PTS on offense and preventing another 2 to 6 PTS on defense, just by playing Grant and Dortch the combined 40 minutes last night on the road. (Grant logged 26, Dortch 13 minutes).
Ace gets the headlines, he earned every bit of praise, but Ace Bailey's post game comments to Stephen Bardo about Bryce coming in and giving the team a boost......I'm 100% all in on these potential 200 or so minutes the rest of the year, against B1G competition as a steep learning curve for Dortch, Grant, Lathan etc.
There's a path to winning with Dortch playing off the bench and preventing points or shot attempts. I'll worry about 2026 and 2027 when we get there.
