Jon Horford To Transfer
underneath the Banyan tree, wherever he goes
Uh…
University of Michigan men's basketball head coach John Beileinannounced today (Thursday, April 10) that senior forward Jon Horford (Grand Ledge, Mich./Grand Ledge HS) will not return to the Wolverine program in 2014-15, planning to transfer for his final season of eligibility.
That is not good. With Jordan Morgan graduating, Michigan's only other post is Mitch McGary. Even if he comes back next year, Horford figured to get a significant amount of playing time when McGary was tired or in foul trouble.
While Horford struggled badly down the stretch, you could say the same for Jordan Morgan last year and that worked out okay. Fifth-year senior bigs tend to be better than you'd expect. Horford's departure opens up time for Mark Donnal and likely means a redshirt for Ricky Doyle is no longer an option. That latter is unfortunate; again, see Jordan Morgan.
The one possible silver lining here is that the reason Horford is moving on is that he feels he'll get more playing time elsewhere, a decision that implies McGary's return and maybe even Robinson's since that would increase competition for minutes everywhere. It's hard to believe he would skip town with 30 minutes a night staring him in the face. But Horford was always a bit of a different guy.
Wow. Now who saw this coming?? Even IF McGary decided to come back, Horford would still be #2. He'd still be seeing 10-15 mins/game. And IF McGary leaves, he'd be the #1 option at the 5.
Wow
Well good luck to Horford as he continues his journey elsewhere.
His sister tweeted something about how he should switch to Florida 2 or 3 years ago. Brian never thought it was anything, but I've been worried lately. If McGary and Robinson come back, he's not a starter next year, and that's not good enough for a guy with NBA aspirations.
Silver lining: at least McGary must be coming back.
ETA: Here is the tweet:
I want to see Jon become a Florida Gator.
to crash for spring break. . .
perhaps she should have changed her profile pic before she made that tweet.
April 10th, 2014 at 10:07 PM ^
Some of you follow the tweets of relatives of athletes?! Are you people sick in the head?
April 11th, 2014 at 12:25 AM ^
I don't even have a Twitter account that I use, but I tend to click around for a little while whenever I check out anybody's tweets. That means I end up reading recent tweets by people who've been mentioned by the account I was originally reading. (I only managed to find it again now because it was in my outbox, as I'd sent Brian a link to find out if he'd heard any related rumblings.)
Anyway, I'm surprised more people don't protect their tweets from the public. I guess they expect more privacy than there actually is.
What if this makes GRIII's departure more likely, since this virtually guarantees that he'll be seeing significant time at the 4 and we know that's an issue for him?
Just trying to find the tar lining on a silver cloud.
I was thinking the same damn thing and I don't like it. I imagine that GRIII's decision will weigh heavily on if he keeps having to play as an underized 4 or if he can finally make a move to his potential pro position. I was thinking that if McGary comes back, and Donnal coming off the RS, there's minimal time when GRIII would have to play the 4. But now...ugh, he's still probably heavily in the rotation if theoretical McGary has to spend more time at the 5. Unless Beifeldt, like, grew two inches in the last couple of weeks and we don't know about it.
...Horford would play too much into that. I can't see Horford and McGary playing a lot together, because that would have left Michigan with little back-up for McGary.
I think Donnal at the four is what would allow GRIII to move to the three.
Except that relies on Bielfeldt/Wilson/Doyle taking the majority of back-up minutes at the 4 and 5. That might work depending on Wilson and/or Doyle being able to come in and play the majority of those backup minutes at the 4. But if I'm GRIII, I'd like the probability of McGary/Donnal/Horford taking more 4 and 5 minutes than McGary/Donnal/Some combination of the other 3.
I could see something like:
5: McGary 30, Donnal 5, ??? 5
4: Donnal 25, Glenn 10, Biefeldt 5
3: Glenn 25, Irvin 15
2: Caris 30, Irvin 10
1: Walton/Spike 40
working if the Donnal hype is to be believed. Requires 30 minutes/game from a redshirt freshman though.
I know he is a RS fresh and not true fresh but outside of Randle types first year big men dont play 30 minutes. Look at Mitch for example...again its 1 year difference but this is asking the sun and moon. They also tend to get into foul trouble a lot as they play older guys and get no respect from refs. They also tend to sorta suck on defense which leads to more fouls. If we get a good 22 minutes out of him a night in his first year that would be something to be happy about.
Bielfeldt Doyle and Wilson now all are in play - would have liked to redshirt both Doyle and Wilson but if Mitch doesnt come back that is literally our "4 big men". And Bielfdelt...well is Bielfeldt. Even if Mitch comes back you take the RS off one and maybe both.
he's going to get 10-15 min somewhere
Michigan is going to be thin somewhere, though, unless Stauskas, McGary and GRIII all come back. So I think it's realistic enough to imagine Wilson, Chatman, Doyle, and Bielfeldt eating up the back-up minutes at the four and five.
this season at the 4? While Zak Irvin is obviously not a prototype PF, that won't stop Beilein from continuing to use him there. If GRIII is playing the 3, that's the main way to get Irvin on the floor. I can't imagine Doyle or Bielfeldt taking significant minutes away from Zak.
Just ridiculous. McGary, Donnal and a little bit of Doyle/Biefeldt can man the 4-5 positions through most of the games. Hell, Chatman probably can moonlight there too.
The Daily ran an article on Donnal earlier this week that was pretty glowing where Morgan says he became really hard to guard lately. Hopefully that's real.
are really high on him too. Ithink he saw his minutes shrinking because of Donnal, Doyle, McGary and GRII competing for time.
If not it's time to run around and panic.
no, bad, bad, bad. take it back. you just said you were coming back and you missed april fools by 9 days.
it makes me think that there have been some behind the scene developments about who is leaving for the nba and who is staying. .. It's useless to speculate, but it makes me wonder. . .
behind his zen-like countenance in all of the recent team photos...?
Was thinking the same thing. Maybe he was just unhappy?
seems strange for an unhappy fella to be talking openly about his role as a leader next year 2 weeks ago.
Too much Adidas. Not enough Birkenstock.
Godspeed Jon. Cure the world.
Technically, if all the underclassmen stay we were going to be over the schollarship limit for 14/15 (allbeit for a day once Austin Hatch was turned into a medical)...
...
maybe??
...
just maybe??
...
April 10th, 2014 at 11:48 PM ^
I mean, he (seemingly) doesn't need the scholarship money...
Let's go a step further...Walk-back-on to stack the deck with another ace or two?
If any of the current guys could think it though that far, it's Horford...
Aaaaand now back to reality...
Best of luck to him in the next journey. His maturity and leadership is going to be sorely missed. I'm surprised along with everyone and was looking forward to seeing him be a valuable piece next season.
Is he strictly a 5 or can he also be a stretch 4? Thanks.
Donnal playing center will mean an under-sized Michigan team.
Uhh, he's 6'9" dude. Plenty of guys that size play the 5 in college basketball these days.
Michigan will be undersized if Donnal is at the five because it will leave Wilson, Chatman, and Bielfeldt (and GRIII if he comes back) at the four. Wilson and Chatman have some length, but they're really skinny...I'm assuming Doyle is a five all the way, btw.
I wouldn't like it as a full-time thing. I'm assuming McGary comes back and in that case, I have no problem with Donnal getting 10 minutes a game at the 5.
There are 6'9 guys that play SG...how tall is Wiggins? He's not a C, is he?
Donnal doesn't have the weight, muscle, or girth to play C. Where Morgan and even Horford to some extent could hold their own...Donnal is a CLASSIC Beilein stretch 4.
Is like Smotrycz playing the 5...and we al see how that worked out. (I'm not complaining, because I thought the kid was a little full of himself...but I mean on the floor. It was a huge mismatch).
can definitely be a stretch four. This should put an end to any consideration of Ricky Doyle (who is more of a 5) getting a RS next year though.
So if Mitch & GRIII stay we could have Donnal at 4 & GRIII at the 3 spot.Without Mitch we're very thin at the 5 (Doyle-Max-transfer)
Not to rain on the "this probably means McGary is coming back" parade, but Horford seems like a guy pretty serious about education and his future endeavors....what if UM didn't offer the best option for grad school for him and that's why he's transferring, not playing time?
I do think this is the most likely reason. The guy reads crazy books and writes guest articles for the Huffington Post. It's highly likely he's just executing his plan for post-basketball.
Based on the graduate transfer rule in order to be immediately eligible, he has to transfer to a new school that has a graduate program that Michigan does not offer and Horford wants to enroll in. If Horford was looking for a graduate program that Michigan does not already offer, I think we would have known about this a long time ago.
It's pretty easy to do if you are transferring from a small school that does not offer many graduate programs. It is a little harder to do transferring from Michigan that has a wealth of them.
I don't see why we would have known about this a long time ago. I mean, what business is it of the media/fans to know that he has decided to fully focus on zen and inner peace in a grad program? Beilein may have known, but I don't see why anyone outside the program would know.
1. If Horford and the staff knew he was leaving, he probably would have participated in Senior Day.
2. Horford himself stated to the media he was planning on coming back.
Obviously, Horford may have not wanted to go public to the media, but the Senior Day item is a big deal.
Just because the guy is into Taoism doesn't mean his transfer is related to that. If he just wanted a different academic experience, he wouldn't be transferring; he'd just attend grad school somewhere else. But transferring implies that he's switching basketball programs. And, if the guy wants to play -- or play pro ball -- the potential for dimished playing time would be a motivating force. McGary's return, plus an ascendant Donnal, suggests he'd get less PT this year. Not to mention that Horford recently said he'd be back.
I guess, but then what program is out there that is so much better than one offered by UM AND has a basketball program that he'd want to play for? If it was all about education, then either take part in Senior Day or spend one more year at UM getting some type of graduate degree and then just become a regular grad student at your preferred institution. Not saying he can't find a better program, but this seems like a really weird way of getting to that end point.
Good luck to you Jon, in whatever you do!
this makes me sad. though I'm not really all that surprised. I thought his article posted during the tournament signaled a guy who wasn't really where he wanted to be (something about the overall tone more than the specific words).
I am going to take an educated guess and say that Beilein had some sort of say in this. I would imagine he may have initiated that talk with Horford in regards to playing time next year. If Mitch is coming back and Donnel is as advertised, there may not be much more than ten minutes or so a game next year. I doubt that Horford simply decided to transfer on his own.
Donnal is a four, and Michigan is going to be thin at the five now even if McGary does come back.
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