A Bramos blurb from
http://blog.mlive.com/highschoolbasketball/2008/11/roads_les s_traveled.html
Roads less traveled
So, Tom Izzo wouldn't know you from the bag boy at the Meijer on Lake Lansing Rd. You're so far down in the MAC coaches' database they haven't invented the Acrobat Reader that will dig your name up. Yes, you're one of the thousands of high school basketball players in Michigan who isn't signing a college letter of intent this week.
But don't despair. There's more than one way to skin a cat, and you never know where an opportunity will arise. Here are five college seniors who grew up in Michigan and found success at some out-of state colleges. And better yet, they grew up along the way.
Michael Bramos 6-5 Sr Miami-OH (Grosse Pointe North)
The Big Ten coaches, the hapless Tommy Amaker in particular, had their heads firmly lodged in their nether regions during Bramos' recruitment. It's unfathomable that someone who finishes No. 2 in Michigan's Mr. Basketball voting would end up at a mid-major school. But it's worked out for Bramos, as he's found the perfect coach in Charlie Coles. Coles is the only working college coach who has sent two white alumni to the NBA All-Star game. Bramos isn't the next Wally Szczerbiak or Dan Majerle, but he could be headed for the league with his strength and athleticism, not to mentioned his much-improved shooting, on the wing. The Bramos Bull had four 30-point games last season, finishing with averages of 16.3 points, 4 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 1.3 steals a game. He's scoring 17.5 through two games this year.
J'Nathan Bullock 6-5 Sr Cleveland State (Flint Northern)
Bullock has a chance to pull off a rare feat in leading his college team in scoring for four straight seasons. Last year the 240-pounder with an increasingly versatile game was a first-team Horizon League pick after averaging 14.6 points and 6.5 rebounds a game. Better still, with mid-major magician Gary Waters as his head coach, Bullock will go out a winner. The Vikings were a 20-win team a year ago, and could repeat that success, and even earn an NCAA bid, in J'Nathan's final college campaign. He opened this season with a double-double in a win over Oakland.
Scott Friske 6-7 Sr Brown (Charlevoix)
Friske has played a lot of ball, and for a lot of coaches, all the way back to when he was a varsity eighth-grader. Since then, he's had six coaches. Along with way he played in a state championship game for Charlevoix, did a year of New England prep school, and found himself stymied in the Princeton offense of Obama's brother-in-law, Craig Robinson. Friske is now playing for his third coach at Brown, Jesse Agel. A four-year starter, Friske flashed his old Harbor Light point guard skills in Brown's opening game this year, with seven assists in a loss to Rhode Island.
John Grotberg 6-2 Sr Grinnell (Cranbrook/Pioneer)
Grotberg was a legit prospect back as an 11th-grader at Cranbrook. But he was hurt as a senior, and graduated without playing back in his hometown at AA Pioneer. Then you put a talented kid in an extreme offense like Grinnell's, and you get some big numbers Grotberg led DIII in scoring his junior year at 28.1 points a game, making a nation-best 5.83 three-pointers per game, and already has over 2,000 points for his career. When all is said and done, he can say he had a helluva a good time playing college ball, at one of the best schools in the country.
Kevin Tiggs 6-4 Sr East Tennessee State (Flint Northern)
This really is a country of opportunity, where a kid who didn't play high school basketball can go on to be a college star. He found his future at Mott CC, where in his second year he was DII tournament MVP for the national champion Bears. In his first year at ETSU, Tiggs was a second-team Atlantic Sun pick, as the offensive rebounder deluxe averaged 14.6 points a game. This season he's at 15.3 points and 5 boards through three games.
