Florida Pursuing Horford
Obviously there is a connection there due to his brother but it is interesting Horford is leaving one Elite 8 team for another a Final Four team. If he does land there it would quite a landing spot in terms of basketball and we'll definitely get to see if Horford's family's view of his skill set is realistic (and by definition he was being held back by Beilein's "emphasis on guards / wings") as UF plays a more traditional brand of bball. Morgan seemed to do ok in this system last year as did Mitch but we'll see.
LINK.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:42 PM ^
Elite Eight team to a Final Four team, actually.... Don't know how many people expected him to transfer to a BETTER team, that's crazy.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:47 PM ^
They graduate 4 senior starters. Florida will probably be more young and inexpierienced than Michigan next year.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:56 PM ^
The "better" Florida team that Michigan blew out in the tourney? I would say equal maybe.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:58 PM ^
That was two seasons ago...
And this season will be one year ago next year.
The programs are about equivalent at this point--which (!!!!!) is unbelievable when I think about how sweet it was to see Michigan competitive w/ Oklahoma in a 2nd round game just 5-6 years ago.
And I can see it from Florida's perspective, given this site's analysis of all potential grad transfers available. Horford seems about as good an option as any out there.
Nobody is disputing that.
would have liked Florida's puff cake road to the Final Four.
only two losses on the regular season, both to ranked teams. ESS-EE-SEE overall strength aside, they earned that road by beating whoever was in front of them.
Very possible that he had some inside info ahead of time that he'd have a spot. His brother does carry some weight there right now I'd imagine.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:45 PM ^
Florida graduates their entire starting frontcourt, and his brother played there.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:57 PM ^
But I thought he was transferring for academic reasons because he is so insightful. He is published in HuffPo for cyring out loud. Then I remembered, General Studies. I still think he ends up at Central.
This interest Florida has is probably just Billy Donovan throwing Tito a bone.
Jon has a scholarship offer already.
Horford never said it was academic reasons, that was one reason people guessed before he made a statement...Anyway, seems like Horford wants a chance to play with his back to the basket more, something Beilien's offense doesn't have a lot of. In his shoes, getting that chance to prove himself is probably worth the risk since he's still leaving here with a degree. Good Luck to him.
I know Horford never said it was academic but some posters were saying that they wouldn't be surprised if he ended up at an Ivy League school.
Don't beieve everything you read on the internet.
That was rampant speculation by message board posters who knew as much about it as you or I. Until it came out after the fact his family had wanted him to transfer just about every year he was here, I think most of us didn't realize what pressure he was feeling from home and/or that he felt he was being underutilized to this degree. So the first thought was "zen Jon" wanted to go find himself in an Ivy or Stanford or something.
That's the beauty of internets - we all speculate on things we know little of.
I hear you man. Zen Jon was as much an mgoblog creation as Llyod Brady was.
I'm surprised that even a Michigan fan - who should know better - is trashing General Studies.
He is leaving my basketball team.
How is anything I said personal? General Studies is a major at UM that is widely considered a crutch for athletes. I even mentioned an accomplishment of his outside of athletics. He wrote an article for HuffPo so I believe he has some interest in journalism. CMU has a journalism department.
My comment about his transfereing due to academics was pointed at mgobloggers who seem to think Horford is some super philosophical guy. People were actually perpetuating thoughts that he would transfer to an Ivy League school when the news broke he was leaving.
You could say my post was negatively directed towards the General Studies Department.
Why? A general studies degree seems to have done well for Governor Snyder, despite what anyone may think of his politics.
Thanks for letting me watch your basketball team this year though.
The Governor also has an MBA and a JD so...
And you know what I meant when I used the word my.
Snyder also graduated with his BGS degree when he was 19 years old.
I was mocking somebody but it wasn't Horford.
is that person you see in the mirror. Nasty and petulant--nice combination.
[and, Florida is a pretty decent school--academically]
thanks for proving the petulant part. Too bad you can't go back and neg all my comments twice.
Petulant? You're going to have to break that one down for me, man. I'm from South Brooklyn.
I knew a guy who switched from LSA computer science to general studies. He wanted to do computer games not just corporate coding so he mixed in art and design courses with programming. I have no idea what Horford's academic background is but the stereotype of GS majors is there. Can't help that JMO has 2 engineering degrees either.
I don't know very many computer game companies who will hire a programmer without a computer science degree these days (unless they already have experience).
General studies dept?
WTF R U SRS
Where do you work? Germany?
April 17th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^
I think Michigan should pursue Horford
April 17th, 2014 at 12:57 PM ^
April 17th, 2014 at 12:57 PM ^
Good luck to him, but I'll believe it when I see it.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:58 PM ^
I don't get this. The guy worked hard here for 4 years, and assuming McGary's back, he's only going to be a backup anyway. As for what he said about Beilein's system, everything I heard was entirely accurate. Wasn't Michigan right around the very bottom of the list for most post touches in college ball this past year? You can love Beilein and Michigan and still admit the obvious fact that it's not an offense predicated on feeding the post and letting a guy go to work down low.
That is exaclty what I was thinking... last thing we need is for him to blow up and for other teams to use that as a reason to negatively recruit big men against us... Hope Horford wins the lottery and retires from basketball since I do not want to not wish him success ;-)
April 17th, 2014 at 12:58 PM ^
Frankly I don't care where he ends up.
Thanks for your contributions to the team while you were here, bro, and good luck in the future unless and until we play against you.
April 17th, 2014 at 12:59 PM ^
I think his brother is a Florida alum (I recall him saying last year that he'd cheer for UF over MI in last year's NCAA tournament because MI mistreated Jon by playing McGary so much), so this is not terribly surprising to me.
Best of luck to Jon wherever he ends up.
I'm sure that FL has that Graduate Program not available at Umich ..........not.
Gator wrasslin'?
he has a lot more potential than has generally be recognized. His own thesis was that he never got out there for the kind of extended minutes he needed to establish confidence, etc. I think this is quite possible.
I don't know. He got plenty of opportunity this year. When Mitch went down, the door was wide open. Horford did fine in spurts. But he really got pushed around by top-caliber bigs. And his offense is limited. Also, M's system is ideal for finesse big men: movement, transition, lots of second-chance opportunities. If he thinks Florida is gonna use him as a go-to player, I think he'll be disappointed.
that Beilein's system isn't set up for a traditional big. Big men are the slowest players to develop. Personally, I would love to see him excel.
Well, considering UM was down to Morgan and Donnal at the end of the year and Horford still couldn't grab more than a couple of minutes a game, at some point "I need more time" doesn't jive with "I am an asset on the court." I'm sure Dakich wished he had more time to play as well, but you have to earn it by being better than the other options your coach has on the team. I'm not questioning Horford or his desire to move to a different program, but this idea that he wasn't given 4 years to earn more playing time is silly and just a smokescreen for (what I suspect) is family pressures to make it to the league and the idea that Beilein and his system is holding him back.