Basketball

Things Discussed:

• Draft Takeaways: Nice that Saban kept being like "I love this dude!" Brian: Michigan and Iowa are the best two teams at developing talent; Michigan also recruits in an area where you win a national title if you outperform like that.
• Seth: Harbaugh recruited at the same level as previous Michigan coaches but where they were getting 20% to 33% of their players to the NFL, Harbaugh is putting *60 Percent* of his players in the League:
• JJ McCarthy: Threw as many passes in the first three Qs as the other guys. Would I trade Goff for JJ, Neil? Can't break up a team on a Super Bowl run, but JJ is more valuable than Goff by far; he's gonna be under team control for a long time.
• Junior Colson: Sam shares that Minter told him to go pro after the championship because he and Harbaugh were going to the league and they're gonna come get him.
• Amorion Walker: If he'd stayed at receiver he'd be the breakout player of the year, but he burned his redshirts both years and then was at cornerback and Ole Miss—that is a hard position to play, and it's probably gonna need to be next year before he's a breakout player.
• CJ Charleston: He's here to be a veteran presence. Sinagosa brought him over from YSU. Tough sell getting receivers.
• DT? Looks like PT wasn't there for their top prospect CJ West so they're moving on to the GVSU guy (Suggs).
• Jaden Mangham? Seth: YES TAKE ALL THE FALCONS! Brian: I don't want anybody who thought it was a good idea to play for Mel Tucker. He's also against taking anyone from Belleville.
• Break: Basketball recruits.
• Post-break: NCAA has an opportunity with House negotiations to sit across the table from *somebody* and create a sustainable future. Brian: Pendulum swung too far, single transfer rule was correct. Seth: Best thing would be to create an incentive formula that gets small schools out of a huge tax bill and makes players want to stay put.

[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]

The end of amateurism. Ol' Jeff Kessler's finally going to put a stake in the heart of the NCAA, it seems, with his latest lawsuit. This one is seeking vast amounts of damages for players who were denied their NIL opportunities. The prospect of a four billion dollar judgment has finally caused the administrator class to throw in the towel. Details are still scanty, but the general shape of it:

With the settlement expected to cost billions in back pay for former athletes, it would likely also require the NCAA and conferences to agree to a system for sharing more revenue with some of the players moving forward.

Sources indicated the top-end revenue share number per school -- once it's determined -- would be in the neighborhood of $20 million annually, although that's yet to be settled. Whatever number is set by the settlement, individual schools will be able to opt in to share revenue up to that number with their student athletes at their discretion.

This is being portrayed as "revenue sharing," as the NCAA hopes to dodge the fact that their athletes are employees. That might also let them dance around Title IX issues that will arise once football and men's basketball players are raking in money that few female athletes are.

As far as the local angle: the faster athletic departments are directly paying players the better. Michigan obviously has the capability to hit the max here, and I can't imagine that anyone has any illusions about the fact that they'll have to. I have no doubt that schools will continue to bring in outside money in an effort to win, and that Michigan won't be on the Kentucky/Memphis/OSU level there, but choosing between 200k and 250k is a lot different than nothing and 50k; the relative gaps will be smaller.

Speaking of NIL. Champions Circle has various autographed objects up for auction to support their NIL objectives:

Check it out as long as you do not bid on the thing I bid on.

[After THE JUMP: basketball speculation CONTINUES]

Dusty May continued his portal invasion last Monday, when Alabama transfer Sam Walters committed to Michigan.

SCOUTING (Offense)

Sam Walters' primary role on offense is quite simple, make perimeter shots. And that he does. The raw numbers are impressive, as the 6'10 PF knocked down 39.4% of his triples as a freshman. The catch + shoot numbers are terrific given the competition level, as 1.18pps places him in the 82nd percentile nationally per Synergy.  

The raw numbers are great, but a deeper-dive under the hood makes it relatively easy to project Sam as a great (perhaps elite) shooter for Dusty May. At 6'10 with some lift on his shot, Walters is nearly immune to contests at the college level as seen in the film below. And the numbers back it up. Dropping 1.29pps on 57 guarded catch + shoot jumpers doesn't seem possible. For context, that is 94th percentile in the country.

In addition to being contest-immune in college, Sam also has NBA range that comfortably extends to 27 feet.Walters can increase defender closeout distance by setting up a few feet behind the line and has shown that his size makes it functionally impossible to bother him? Sign me up for that. This can be a real defense-bender at the college level. 

And while he's primarily a stationary shooter, Sam flashed some ability to be a movement shooter during his freshman campaign. The first possession in the clip below is a standard Delay set where the big sets a pindown for a curling shooter at the top of the key (Michigan used this often under Juwan Howard). In other words this is a designed action, which means Nate Oats saw some things in practice that warrant this shot type. The remainder of the clip sees Walters relocating before hitting triples. This has a a lot of functional utility. As being able to hit relocation threes translates to maximizing passing windows and not being reliant on perfect passes from teammates. It is an undervalued facet for shooters in your author's opinion. 

[After THE JUMP: just a shooter now, but probably more down the road]