Swing and a miss. William and Mary grad transfer Justin Pierce is going to UNC.

So what's next? On WTKA this morning, Sam brought up Oakland grad transfer Jaevin Cumberland. Cumberland is a straight-up sniper SG and is thus a cleaner fit than Pierce, but until this year he'd been stuck playing deep bench minutes at a Horizon League school. His bust out this year was an alpaca out of nowhere experience, as he suddenly played 37 minutes a game and hit 40% of his 263 threes. Here are some highlights that will make you think it's 2005 again:

Mmm. Grainy.

Cumberland did get about a third of his shots inside the line last year and made most of those shots by attacking closeouts, but a 56% conversion rate at the rim against mostly low-major opponents is a strong indicator Cumberland would be Just A Shooter. This is fine for a lot of schools: he visited Oregon and Purdue and has NC State after him. FWIW, Purdue just landed High Point transfer Jahaad Proctor and is probably going to bank their last scholarship for 2020.

Cumberland's cousin is Cincinnati star Jarron Cumberland and the other Cumberland was rumored to have some Michigan fans in the family when he was briefly recruited by M a few years back. Hopefully that carries over.

Michigan's other shooting guard prospect, Bones Hyland, may need a prep year to get his grades in order after the ordeal that the last year of his life has been. That was briefly alluded to in this 24/7 article…

For now, Hyland is leaving all options open. Because he missed so much time and was off the radar, there was some thought of going to prep school, but for now that appears to not be the case.

“The plan right now is definitely to go in the class of 2019, but whatever happens, happens,” said Hyland.

…and Sam said something along those lines on WTKA today.

As far as the potential Iggy replacement goes, it looks like it's Franz or bust.

[After THE JUMP: basketball recruiting on trial! also just plain ol' basketball recruiting. And Tru Wilson]

Did he pay taxes though? One of the funniest/most depressing counter-arguments to assertions that players should be paid is "BUT WILL THEY PAY TAXES ON THEIR EARNINGS?!?!" Uh. Yes? We have a system that handles this.

Anyway, did DeAndre Ayton give Sean Miller a W2 or what?

While talking about Ayton, Richardson told Dawkins, "Sean's got to get the [expletive] out of the way and let us work."

"We'll see how Sean plays it out," Dawkins said.

"You know what he bought per month?" Richardson asked.

"What he do?" Dawkins asked.

"I told you -- 10," Richardson replied.

"He's putting up some real money for them [expletive]," Dawkins responded. "He told me he's getting killed."

That's a wiretap with Book Richardson, at the time an Arizona assistant coach, complaining that he couldn't get DeAndre Ayton to sign up with Dawkins's agency-type substance because THE HEAD COACH OF ARIZONA BASKETBALL WAS DIRECTLY PAYING A KID 10K PER MONTH. Book later asserted that Miller was taking care of Rawle Atkins, another player. Arizona subsequently released the usual statement promising to investigate and did nothing else.

Ironically, Miller is doing the exact thing I want the NCAA to do: transfer money from the coaches and administrators to the players. But seriously though if Ayton got 80k… was that in cash? Does anyone notice someone taking out 80k in cash? And, like, that's taxable income, right? I have questions.

If the axe doesn't fall here it's a declaration of open season, as long as everything is under the table and skeezy. Quite a system.

Other trial updates! Dan Wetzel on Christian Dawkins's appearance on the stand is a must:

“By the time the players get to the college campus they already have a deal [with an agent],” Dawkins said. “... I could be mistaken, but there is no one signing players that isn’t paying people … Basically anybody who was in charge of the kid’s recruiting process was being paid.” …

Essentially, everyone is getting money. Everyone. And usually by more than one entity of agents, financial planners or business managers, all desperate to get a future multimillionaire NBA client. And then there are the college coaches, boosters and others throwing money around too — on Wednesday an Arizona assistant coach said on a recorded phone call that head coach Sean Miller was paying star player DeAndre Ayton $10,000 a month.

That’s how valuable the players are and the wheels of capitalism are never going to stop because of the NCAA rulebook. …

“The NCAA rules restrict [pay] and they can’t even work,” Dawkins testified. “Because the players can’t receive [pay] from obvious reasons such as ticket sales or their name, there has to be a third [party].”

At some point the dam is going to break.

Basketball recruiting a little further down the road. Endless Motor catches up with Jabri Abdur-Rahim, a five star in their opinion, and one with significant interest in Michigan:

The 6’7 wing put on an absolute show on Saturday in front of Michigan head coach John Beilein, exploding for 41 points in a morning game against the Texas Titans before dropping 44 points in his encore performance of the day versus Mac Irvin.

“I feel I’ve played well but we just have to finish some of those games out and get the win.”

Jabri has one of the most complete offensive skillsets we’ve viewed in the 2020 class. A three level scorer, Abdur-Rahim has a lethal stroke from distance, a nice handle that allows him to get to his spots off the bounce and the combination of size/strength/athleticism to finish at the rim. …

“Michigan has been recruiting me the hardest. I have a good relationship with Coach B and the staff, glad they got to see me over the weekend.”

Abdur-Rahim took a tumble on 24/7's rankings after he missed most of the previous AAU season with an injury. Four things Michigan has going in their favor:

• Jabri's dad is Shareef Abdur-Rahim, and NBA dads tend to dig Beilein's style.
• Jabri's dad is Shareef Abdur-Rahim, so bag is pretty irrelevant.
• The younger Abdur-Rahim goes to the same school David Ojabo does and he's apparently selling him hard; also Blair Academy is a serious academic school. Abdur-Rahim has Harvard on his list.
• Michigan has recent success with guys whose last name starts with "Abdur". Just sayin'!

He has an official scheduled over the summer and sounds like a guy who might be a commit candidate on that visit.

In 2021 news, CHET HOLMGREN.

 

There is no indication that Michigan is pursuing Holmgren yet, but he's a 6'11" stretch five and looks recruitable. 1: "Chet Holmgren." 2: that hair. We can get this kid. He's from Minneapolis.

Also in that article, Zeb Jackson's performance at the same AAU event:

A smooth scorer, Jackson at times put his team on his back this weekend. He has long arms, can finish going left or going right, and is also a very good athlete. One he adds strength to his frame, he should be even more impressive finishing in the lane. His outside shot has gotten a lot better, and Jackson is consistently one of the better performers in the Midwest. He isn't a true point guard, but his decision making has definitely improved.

"Outside shot has improved" is sort of an ominous bit of praise. But he did land on this list of top performers.

It's not just us. Someone else found the play where Tru Wilson ended two different dudes.

Michigan RB Tru Wilson doesn't have much production but the dude keeps catching my eye in pass protection. What an effort play. Walked onto UM, will be a senior this year. pic.twitter.com/JEnUot3ENR

— Alex Kozora (@Alex_Kozora) April 28, 2019

That guy runs a Steelers blog so he's probably watching Bush/Gentry film, and Wilson pops out all the same.

More transfer consternation. A proposal from football coaches to end immediate waivers:

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — After the NCAA approved a rash of transfer waivers for prominent college football players, college football coaches are advocating for all undergraduate transfers to have to sit out a year, but gain it back upon graduation, and for the NCAA to review its waiver process to only be for “documented and proven” circumstances. …

“What we’ve advocated is the fact that everybody sits a year, all the undergraduate students, they sit a year regardless of the situation with the idea or concept that when they graduate from the university that they transferred to that they get that year back."

That's… not bad, actually? I still think guys in Patterson's situation where the university gets nailed for violations should be able to jet and play immediately, because that's a punishment for the program but not the player. But a year of eligibility contingent on a degree isn't the worst idea. It at least gives players something in exchange for their mobility being restricted.

The story of the suit. The Athletic does a deep dive on Devin Bush's suit:

By early April, Grier was back in Ann Arbor, completed outfits in tow. Nice as that might’ve been, he couldn’t use them as a down payment on a hotel room.

“I had to call family and friends to get more money for a hotel. It was rough,” he said. “I slept in the car one night because I couldn’t get money fast enough to get a hotel, and my account was overdrafted.”

The next step was finding a spot for the final fitting. Grier called the aesthetics of the tailor shop “a no-go.” Hotels with the right sort of complimentary spaces weren’t interested in lending them to a guy staying at a Hampton Inn. So, Grier went for broke. He called the University of Michigan Museum of Art — and they said yes. After operating hours, the doors would open. They told Grier they’d never hosted anything like that, but they were game.

“Sometimes I don’t have the practical, logical steps, but I go from A to Z,” Grier said. “I’ll skip the rest of the alphabet.”

An hour on the second-floor mezzanine of one the country’s largest university art museums turned into three. Grier put speakers and full-length mirrors next to Picassos. Everyone danced along the corridors. This time, the aesthetics were right — and it was time to make a choice.

Devin Jr.’s options were a “classic, clean, simple” tan look with an extended lapel; a light gray jacket with a satin sash across the chest; and, then, Door No. 3.

Bush looked at the rack. “What is that?” Grier told him to keep an open mind: “I’m open,” Bush said. “Let’s go. This is the one.”

And thus launched a million memes.

Etc.: Bruno Fernando makes his departure official. Baseball outfielder Jordan Nwogu goes from walk-on to .350. Will Leitch on replay's ever-extending tentacles.