mohamed bamba



Pondering. [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

The pipe dream is dead. Five-star center Mo Bamba committed to Texas via a post on The Players' Tribune:

Everybody’s recruiting process is unique in some way, and mine was no different. Watching my family grow and solidify its bond was by far my favorite part of the experience. The world is bigger than 94 by 50 feet, and we all agreed that Texas offers me an exceptional opportunity to blaze my own trail on the basketball front with the comfort of knowing that no matter what happens, I’ve got an unrivaled support network to lean on for whenever the ball stops bouncing.

Happy trails. /wipes away single tear

Simmons withdraws. The NBA combine and draft lottery are complete, so we have a new wave of mock drafts to look over. First, MLive's Brendan Quinn broke a bit of news last night that was probably a formaility but is a relief nonetheless: Ohio grad transfar Jaaron Simmons, who'll likely start at point guard, will withdraw his name from the draft and join the Wolverines.

Now, Simmons says, he's ready to come to Michigan.

"I'm gonna pull my name out of the draft," Simmons told MLive on Wednesday. "I haven't officially done it yet, but that's definitely the way I'm going."

Quinn reports Simmons is "in the process" of getting his name withdrawn. A strong player in both pick-and-roll and isolation situations, he fills a significant need and takes considerable pressure off of Xavier Simpson. More on Simmons and his fit on the roster here and here.

Mock draft updates. While we have more clarity after the combine, the status of DJ Wilson and Moe Wagner is still up in the air as we near the May 24th withdrawal deadline. Both players have said they won't stay in the draft unless they're first-round picks. That looks unlikely for Wagner; Wilson's situation is murkier.

Wilson sat out the combine with a nagging quad injury, and while missing the five-on-five portion of the combine may have been beneficial to his draft stock—he didn't have to bang bodies in the post with guys like Jordan Bell—the same cannot be said for missing the athletic testing portion, as his biggest draw right now is his size/athleticism combo. If Wilson's quad isn't healed up enough to fully participate in individual team workouts this week, he'll be in a tough spot, operating with far less feedback than he'd hoped to get when he began the process.

Wagner's combine performance showed it's probably in his best interest to come back to school, as the five-on-five portion mostly highlighted his shortcomings as a defender and rebounder:

Center Moritz Wagner was arguably the worst player in the five-on-five portion this week. In his first game, he posted 13 points, but his team was much better when he was off the floor as he posted a minus-25 plus/minus while struggling against big men like Omer Yurtseven. Then, in the second game, he went 3 of 15 from the field as he posted a 1 for 8 mark from 3 over the two games. Every time he left the floor, his team went on a run. He also didn’t measure well, and none of his athletic testing stood out. Sometimes kids just want to be done with school, and I respect that. But if Wagner was to enter the draft, he would run the risk of going undrafted given the obvious defensive and athletic limitations he showcased not just here, but also during the entire college basketball season.

Wagner is mostly absent from updated mock drafts, even the full two-round mocks. If those same projections hold, Wilson is going to have a difficult decision. Here's a rundown:

SBNation (one round): Wilson #17

Fox Sports
(one round): Wilson #24

The Ringer
* (two rounds): Wilson #25, Wagner #60

SI (one round + top five out): Wilson #28

DraftExpress (two rounds): Wilson #30 // (Wagner #59 for 2018)

ESPN (one round): Wagner #30, no Wilson

Bleacher Report (two rounds): Wilson #38

NBADraftNet (two rounds): none // (Wilson #21, Matthews #29, Wagner #38 for 2018)

HoopsHype (one round): none

Sporting News (one round): none

CBS Sports (one round): none

Save the rather odd suggestion from ESPN's Chad Ford that Utah could draft Wagner with the final pick of the first round and stash him in Germany, a route Wagner hasn't even hinted at considering, all indications are Wagner will either go in the mid-to-late second round or not at all. He's working out today for Milwaukee, which owns the #17 pick in the first round—far earlier than even the rosiest projections have Wagner going.

Wilson, meanwhile, is right on the borderline for his decision. Of the eleven mocks listed above, five have him going in the first round. With Bamba off to Texas, Wilson's decision will have a huge impact on the outlook of next year's rotation:

Perhaps Michigan could get in late on a grad-transfer wing if Wilson declares, but options are limited at this point.

Wilson told Quinn that his quad injury is going to impact his individual team workouts, though one team has stood out as a potential landing spot:

Wilson said the Spurs have requested that he reschedule a new workout and that he also plans to visit with the Orlando Magic. He added that there are "a few teams in the mix."

How many of those he'll be able to perform in front of remains to be seen. Wilson noted: "My window is going to be shorter."

That said, one team that will likely remain interested is Utah.

"They thought I was a pretty decent athlete for my size and I shot the ball well there, so that was something they were impressed by," Wilson said.

Those teams all hold selections in Wilson's projected range: Utah at #24 and #30, Orlando at #25, San Antonio at #29. If Wilson can get a guarantee from one of those teams, he's probably gone. If he doesn't, he may be uncomfortable enough with the uncertainty to head back to school for another year.

*Highly recommended for the scouting reports

The Post Defense Was... Good?



Michigan put up a surprisingly strong fight in the post. [Patrick Barron]

I don't think I was alone in thinking Wisconsin, boasting two strong post scorers in Ethan Happ and Nigel Hayes, would crush Michigan in the paint on Tuesday night. Instead, Michigan limited the Happ/Hayes duo to shooting a combined 8-for-20 on two-pointers with six assists and four turnovers; they were the two least-efficient players among Badgers to play at least 12 minutes.

I went back through the game and pulled clips of every Wisconsin possession that went through the post. While Happ missed a couple makeable shots, Michigan generally played strong post defense, with both DJ Wilson and Moe Wagner standing out for the good:

Given how Michigan has played defense this year, the first thing that jumps out is their effort; they scrapped for post position, didn't give up on plays, and hit the deck for rebounds.

Wilson gave up an easy bucket to Hayes early when he got caught napping on a cut (0:29 mark) and couldn't recover in time to deny prime post position. He otherwise did quite well; he blocked Happ twice and forced a Hayes miss shortly after the aforementioned bucket by establishing good position and forcing him to spin for a tough left-handed attempt.

While Wagner wasn't quite as strong in the post, which allowed Happ to get good position on him multiple times, he used his hands quite well to disrupt Happ on the way up and pulled off the subtle "step in and bump the guy with your chest" thing that often throws off shots and rarely draws a whistle (0:39, 2:23). A couple paint baskets weren't on the bigs, either; I didn't include Vitto Brown getting isolated on Duncan Robinson, which ended in a layup (surprise!), and on the final clip Robinson rotates over to the open big way too late.

The notable exception to M's strong interior defense: Mark Donnal, who gave up an and-one and fouled Happ on the floor just before he could give up another on his two post defense possessions before getting yanked.

In his lone opportunity, Jon Teske gave up a second-chance bucket when he lost contact with Happ after an offensive rebound. I'd still like to see more of him out there; Donnal was physically overwhelmed on defense and once again a non-factor on offense, so Beilein might as well let his behomoth freshman big man work through his mistakes—Teske is much more likely to display significant in-season improvement than a guy in his fourth year in the program.

Michigan still had their fair share of defensive breakdowns, which I'll get to momentarily. That said, this was an encouraging performance on that end of the floor, especially in the paint. If the Wolverines can replicate that level of effort on defense while getting offensive outputs like they have in their non-Wisconsin Big Ten games, they can make a late tourney push. It's a huge if, of course, but it's hard not to feel better about this team after Tuesday night despite the loss.

[Hit THE JUMP for the aforementioned breakdowns, highlights of a couple 2017 commits, and more.]

Goodbye: Antwuan Johnson and Carter Dunaway

While early commitments are more like declaring a current leader these days, I had some hope four-star 2018 OH LB Antwuan Johnson would stick based on his comments after Leonard Taylor's decommitment. Nope.

Johnson gave the reason for his decommitment to Maize n Brew's Evan Petzold:

Johnson set up a long slate of visits before the season; this looks like another case of a player committing as more of a placeholder than anything else. Michigan is now down to one commit in the 2018 class, Georgia safety Otis Reese. It's far too early in the cycle to get worked up about this stuff.

And, when I was just about done with this post, this broke:

Dunaway's rankings haven't budged from low-three-star despite being a long-time Michigan commit. The only reason this comes as even a slight surprise is his dad played for Bo.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]