Exit Kam Chatman
According to a report from ESPN's Jeff Goodman, junior forward Kam Chatman is expected to transfer out of the program.
Barring a last-minute change of heart, source told ESPN that Michigan sophomore Kameron Chatman will transfer.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) May 3, 2016
Chatman was ranked as a top-30 prospect coming out of high school, but other than that one moment of glory against Indiana, he never made the expected impact.
That doesn't mean Chatman's departure won't hurt, though. Michigan now has two open scholarship spots for 2016-17 and no obvious candidates among either grad transfers or late-rising 2016 recruits to fill them. Barring a late addition, this puts a lot of pressure on DJ Wilson to become a viable backup at the four, where Zak Irvin is once again going to have to log the vast majority of his minutes.
UPDATE: Multiple outlets have confirmed Chatman has been granted his release and will transfer.
UPDATE 2: It's officially official.
"Kam is a wonderful young man with the potential to mature into a fine college player," said Beilein. "We have enjoyed coaching him over the past two years and wish him nothing but the best."
"I honestly don't think I could have had a more quality life experience than I did in Ann Arbor," said Chatman. "I am incredibly grateful for my two years at Michigan. I would like to thank Coach Beilein and his entire staff for taking a chance on a small town kid out of Portland. I know my experience has inspired others as I will take all of my lessons learned to continue my pursuit of becoming the best man and player I can. Go Blue!"
But Chatman was never going to play big minutes ever. He was a body. Games was way to fast for him.
I think Beilein has something up his sleeve for this year. But even if he does not it opens up a scholarship for next year and that is good.
I'll just say that Beilein is obviously aware of the scholarship situation. It is foolish to assume nothing is happening just because nothing is being reported (yet).
for the 2016 recruiting class.
OK, I resorted to sarcasm.
Still waiting for that National Championship game recruiting bump.
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Which of course begs the question, "Is Beilein good at recruiting?"
Burke, Stauskas, and McGary were home runs, but he has had a lot of strikeouts since then.
That's not what begs the question means...
Beilein is not good at recruiting because he doesnt pay players.
JB is a year late on all his roster fixes. We got Doyle, Donnel and the new pack of middling bigs because he finally realized you need size in the B1G. In doing so, he forgot you also need athletes AND bigs (whose hands aren't coated with oil).
Time for Hibbits to get some minutes next year!!!
I was never a huge Chatman fan, even as a recruit, but we really need Wilson to step up or find a grad transfer or find a freshman capable of playing right away.
MAAR
Robinson
Wilson
Dawkins
Doyle
Chatman
Hatch
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This is a program thats in complete disarray. Only one person to blame. Beilein needs to pull a rabbit out of his hat or the grumbles are going to turn into real heat mighty fast.
Is there no pleasing this board in regards to the basketball team? Beilein certainly is "damned if you do, damned if you don't" with a large percentage of this crowd.
There is an awful lot of phony butt hurt over the loss of a player that was entering his 3 year in the program that looked completely lost from the start and made little progress. Yes, it doesn’t' help the depth of the team, but it's not like he was a key contributor (end of the Indiana game being the exception). I think the team will be able to replace his 3 points per game.
Again, with what? Depth was already a problem, and now we're short 2 scholarship players. That just means that our starters are gonna get stretched even farther (which was an issue last year), or guys like Dakich and Lonergan are gonna get key minutes. Neither option is a good one. So again, unless Beilein has a plan to bring in a couple of grad transfers (which we haven't heard of outside of Mullins), then this hurts us next year.
Exactly. A kid who hasn't developed as expected, transferring somewhere else so he can play more is a non-event at any program. We can't force a kid who wants to go somewhere else for more minutes to stay here because he provides a few minutes of rest for the starters.
Of course the 'Blame Beilein for everything' crowd will claim it's proof he's ruining the program.
He wasn't going to see minutes this next year? Seems like we have almost no depth so how would he NOT have seen minutes?
There is something else going on here and no obvious answers. Seems like we are cleaning house of players and coaches and that is not a good luck no matter what.
but that issue is seperate from the impact to the team. They don't just have to replace Chatman - but Chatman, Dawkins, and Doyle. For a team that already suffered from a lack of depth last year.
Beilein will add someone undoubtedly, but right now, as is, this team will have to play a a sub 6' backcourt (massive problem defensively) or DJ Wilson at the 4 (massive problem offensively) just to fill out the rotation.
No one was projecting any of those 3 guys to be starters but all had the distinct possibility of being a role player off the bench (Doyle maybe not as much as Chatman and Dawkins). With the exception of the Donnal/Wagner rotation at the 5, the rest of the subs off the bench will have little to no college experience.
Chatman could have started (with improvement, given that Robinson might be better against 2nd units)
Doyle could have started (if he made the same leap that Donnal did into his junior year) as he was the only C with legit Big Ten size.
Yeah, if we're going to play the 'what if' game any of those guys could have started, but I'm guessing a month ago if asked to give their starting 5 for next year, 99% of people would say Walton, MAAR, Robinson, Irvin and Donnal/Wagner.
I do like Robinson coming off the bench.
all the time--it's called competition for playing time.
Seriously degrading that competition is a very bad thing.
He was also our best defender at the 3/4 position and showed flashes of being a very good passer and was shooting pretty well to end the season. You'd think with extra attention hopefully going toward defense next year, he could have developed a bigger role without having to shoot 40%+ from 3. I won't be remotely surprised if Kam develops nicely for another team.
Regardless of what he does for someone else, where is our depth? You're so certain we won't miss him but we just lost Dawkins too lest you forget. There are all of the sudden a lot of eggs in DJ Wilson's basket, and he's shown very little to get excited about.
It takes some pretty severely maize and blue tinted lenses to write off 3 transfers, losing Spike and two assistants as "phony butt hurt."
False, Irvin was our best defender at 3/4 and it's not even close.
Folks on this board have been complaining all year about how bad Doyle, Dawkins and Kam suck. Now they are all off of the roster AND NOW YOU'RE DISSAPOINTED!?!
Make up your fucking minds. Was Kam going to be a key peice of this team moving forward or not? He's been horrible his first two years in the program, while not being heavily utilized. Are you suddenly expecting a great leap this summer from him? I don't recall anyone praising him while he was on the fucking team. And now we're some how fucked with him gone?
I'm sorry it didn't work out for him here. I hope he finds a good landing place. I wish him the best of luck in the future.
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man. i understand the other three...this one hurts, tho.
2014 recruiting class, coming off a national championship game appearance:
Dawkins (gone)
Chatman (gone)
Doyle (gone)
Hatch (done)
Wilson (very limited contributions so far)
Rahkman
That's actually the class after the Elite Eight year. After back-to-back tourney runs of that magnitude, that class and the one before it (Irvin, Walton, Donnal, Dakich) needed to fuel the continued success of the program.
By the time that elite 8 season ended Wilson, Chatman, Doyle, and Hatch had already committed. Only Rahkman and Dawkins committed after that Kentucky game.
Chatman was a big recruit. Doyle LOOKED like a good fit in the Beilein mold of bigs.
Wilson was added late in the cycle after Plans A-J didn't pan out.
Dawkins and Rahkman were Extremely late adds intended to replace early NBA departures.
to that class, as he joined the team with the listed 2014 class.
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I really wish things would've turned out better in a UM uniform. The future is still bright with this one - he's so damned young for his class. I hope everything clicks at the next stop.
Interesting roster management. Will be interested to know how the next several weeks shake down.
So glad he doesn't go for the "1 and done" guys.....
IMO he started to show development of his potential down the stretch this year. Yes, it was frustrating that he did not look like a D1 player before then, but he still had time. I really expected him to make very strong progress next year.
This leaves us even thinner on the wings, but as JB hinted recently, stay posted.
Best of luck, Kam!
Silver lining: Beilein can sell immediate playing time to an undecided impact recruit or maybe flip someone who's looking at a longer road to playing time.
I don't follow basketball recruiting that closely but how many undecided impact recruits are still out there in early May?
None that Michigan is in on.
Anyone they get will either be a multi-year project or a low-upside role player. The examples of similar late adds by Beilein are:
- Rhakman (role player)
- Dawkins (project that panned out early in terms of making 3s but not much else)
- Levert (project that developed way faster than anyone expected)
- Albrecht (role player)
- Bielfeldt (role player & project)
- Horford (role player & project)
Wilson and Wagner were pretty late in the cycle too (recruiting began in Fall) but there's a significant difference between that and late Spring (which is extremely late).
All in all Beilein has had great success and production from his late season adds. I'd rather get a grad transfer but respect to the track record.
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