As the basketball roster turns. Columbia grad transfer PG Mike Smith committed earlier today; Ace covered the departures and Jace Howard taking a walk-on year yesterday. Meanwhile a previous edition of UV mentioned that Isaiah Todd had removed various mentions of Michigan from his social media accounts. These items are in conflict: Michigan's created scholarship room they suddenly don't seem to need.
Howard can always pick up a scholarship later, of course, but at some point the thought inside the program was that they had more bodies than spots. Brendan Quinn confirms that neither transfer out was planned:
DeJulius and Castleton are somewhat curious departures. Both were in line to compete for larger roles as juniors. Juwan Howard and his coaching staff were not planning for either departure and were somewhat surprised by the decisions, according to those close to the situation. Both contacted coaches and teammates before their transfer decisions were made public. It wasn’t known internally that Castleton was leaving until late Tuesday night.
DDJ averaged over 20 MPG last year and was going to have a shot at being the starting point guard, but there had to be some talk about a potential departure there for Michigan to go after two Ivy grad transfers. Those processes started weeks ago, particularly since Ivy grad transfers know for a fact they're leaving after the season.
Meanwhile, as the Never Give Up On A Big guy I'm obviously hurt by Castleton's departure. I half expect Castleton to take a redshirt year wherever he goes and then becomes Future Ibi Watson. Watson, who did little other than jump really high at Michigan, was the sixth man on the #4 team in college basketball this year, shooting 62/39 on solid usage. The grim Michigan fan sitting on my right shoulder projects him to have a top ten block rate on a mid-major darling in 2022.
Losing those two guys quickly turns Michigan's 2020-21 roster from a clown car into a reasonably full sedan. Further departures (or failures to arrive) leave open spots. So it's nice that Andrew Kahn tracked down Isaiah Todd's coach for some reassurance on that front:
Byron Williams wouldn't predict exactly when Todd would send his national letter of intent to Ann Arbor, but has no doubt that he will.
"Absolutely," Williams told MLive on Thursday when asked if Todd will end up a Wolverine. "He loves Juwan (Howard)."
Todd's foreign options have always loomed but it seems like those would be off the table now since foreign leagues are just as shut down as the US is. Hard to imagine they'd be able to negotiate deals with one-and-dones right now.
[After THE JUMP: Smith comparables.]
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