Congratulations to the UConn Huskies, they were by far the best team in Houston. Michigan's Basketball program had a down year and have lost a number of players in the last two weeks.
The problem has not been recruiting as Juwan and the Michigan coaches have done a great job of recruiting talented players, the issue has been, they didn't stay to develop their skills and basically Ann Arbor got their basement vs. their ceilings. The NBA draft has also changed, they used to draft players that were ready to play in the NBA. Now the NBA drafts on potential talent with the hope they develop like Jordan Poole did. They might make a few million but will end up playing mostly in the G-League with hopes to get called up to the NBA franchise.
That is a huge problem for college coaches, as you recruit good players but they leave way too early. Kobe Buffin made solid improvement this year and instead of taking another year in Ann Arbor left for the NBA. Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate who both played poorly in their freshman year, left for the NBA and both got drafted in the 2nd round.
Caleb is averaging 15 minutes a night in 48 games for the Orlando Magic and 3.5 points per.
Moussa is averaging 9 minutes in 21 games and scoring 2.7 per.
Jett has an NBA frame and averaged over 14 points per game, but struggled on defense and shooting consistenacy. He is gone.
Hunter who isn't an NBA prospect, doesn't want to rebuild in his senior year and jumped in the transfer portal. The progam that Hunter hated because they didn't recruit him out of high school Maryland, just hired his former HS head coach as an assitant.
Joey Baker is trying to get another year, but that will be an uphill climb.
Barnes left in the portal but wasn't a contributor.
Llewellyn is trying to get a medical waiver but struggled this season before getting injuried. So next season he will be coming off an ACL and a starter in the Big Ten?
Juwan has already gotten one guy in the portal in Nimari Burnett that has struggled to find the floor at Texas Tech and Alabama. He has 2 players coming in as freshman in Guard George Washington III and Big Man Papa Kante.
By my count, Michigan has 3 open scholarships and a ton of playing time to offer kids in the portal. As the Wolverines lost 64% of thier offense to the portal or the NBA. The good news is the portal can flip the fortunes of a team very quickly but since his first year, Juwan's portal additions have not worked out very well. This will be the first transfer portal class under Santa's oversight and hopefully that will benefit the basketball program like it has the football program.
On a side note, the Michigan Basketball Managers won the College Managers National Championship and the entire squad then left to become NBA Managers. 😃
- Moore, Herbert, and Minter all get raises and new contracts.
2 comments:
How much are a raise did Ben Herbert get does anybody know?
So much to unpack. First, yes the college basketball landscape has changed. I think that's why you've seen a lot of high profile coaches retire, don't want to deal with the BS. It's too bad the NBA couldn't work something out with the NCAA. Where they can be drafted but stay with their college team and develop. Sort of like the NHL does. Be the 1st to admit, not sure how all the legalities would work out. In absence of that, I think you're going to have to see coaches recruit different. Either bring in the one and dones, and let them just ball and hope it works out, or do more of what Beilein did and recruit to your system. Might not get any 5 star ballers, maybe not many 4 stars either. Then supplement with the TP. That's really going to put an onus on the coaches, and lets face it, Juwan's Xs and Os leave a lot to be desired!!
Some can say both Houstan and Diabate made bad decisions going pro but both were foreign born players and there for precluded from NIL. So while lesser players were getting some NIL money, they wouldn't get a penny. There are going to be the "Stay-off-My-Grass" guys that are going to moan "they're getting a free education. STOP! Please stop, kids of that caliber are not coming to Michigan or Duke or UConn for a degree. They're coming to play basketball for 1 year till they can declare for the NBA draft. Is that a great plan? Not my call, not my son!
Post a Comment