More roster tea leaves. Livers made a BTN appearance to talk about his NBA status. What it will take for him to go:

“Honestly, a guaranteed contract,” Livers said Friday. “Just all the right words from the teams, whoever I talk to is basically all I’m going to go off of. The situation right now, I don’t know if they’re going to push stuff back or if I won’t be able to work out with teams or if they’re just going to go off what they think of this player and go off on a whim and draft."

That means the top half of the second round if last year is any indication. The back half of the second is increasingly a place that makes little sense to get drafted. Livers would have to get a guarantee from a team, otherwise he's headed back. Given the current state of draft boards that points to a return. Never say never, Poole, etc.

We're currently monitoring the Isaiah Todd social media deletion spree that this thread sums up ably. Doesn't look great given the extent of the changes. 

[After THE JUMP: it was over when he cut the floppy hair]

Big Ten basketball transfers. A literal big one:

Purdue big man Matt Haarms in the transfer portal.

— Dylan Burkhardt (@umhoops) April 6, 2020

Haarms led the Big Ten in block rate last year and was reasonably efficient from the floor as he split time with Trevion Williams. The two centers are platonic opposites; they were about as efficient as each other but Williams was a 31% usage guy who made all his own shots on the low block. Haarms is a vastly superior defender.

Purdue's offense was desperate to find shot creation last year and projects to be much the same next year so Haarms was going to be in a platoon again, but losing him is going to be a problem for the Boilers. Williams isn't likely to be a 35 MPG horse, that game against Teske nonwithstanding, and the only other post option Purdue has is that giant recruit at IMG who's ranked so low it seems unlikely he'll do anything except turn it over as a freshman.

At OSU Luther Muhammad is the latest OSU basketball player to exit, following Alonzo Gaffney and DJ Carton into the portal. Kaleb Wesson is also expected to keep his name in the NBA draft; with Cal sit-out transfer and NOTY candidate Justice Sueing joined by Harvard grad transfer Seth Towns OSU is going to look a lot different next year despite the fact that the other Wesson was the only senior on the roster.

At Illinois sixth man Alan Griffin transferred to Syracuse. Griffin didn't play against Michigan after getting suspended for stepping on an opponent so you may not have much memory of him, but that's a big loss. Griffin shot 60/42 from the floor and finished the year with the #6 offensive efficiency in college basketball on solid usage. Why was this only good for 17 MPG? I don't know. Illinois was better with him on the floor:

guarantee games excised

Not a ton better but since Giorgi Benzhanishvili was the team's second best three point shooter you'd think he would have gotten 30 MPG just for spacing purposes.

OHL draft comes and goes. Status unchanged for Michigan commits in the aftermath of the OHL draft. Their three eligible commits all went in flier territory. Frank Nazar going to London, which is the Bama of the OHL, was a bit concerning but London's GM is conceding that he'll go to the NTDP:

“He is committed to the USNTP but he could very well be the first overall pick. He is an exceptional player with talent and skill. He makes plays and has explosive speed. One of his favourite players growing up was Patrick Kane and we’re hoping he can one day follow along in that same model and be a London Knight after the program as well.”

Not a Stranges situation. There won't be anything separating Nazar from Michigan after his NTDP stint is over, and by that point Michigan should be loaded with dudes. Stranges getting repeated USA Hockey snubs and seeing his draft stock drop off a cliff probably helps out a bit here.

Meanwhile Adam Fantilli dropped to 18th, with Saginaw nabbing him a pick before London came up. He should be in Chicago next year. The Price is Right horns sounded for MSU as Max Namestinkov, nominally a Spartans commit, went third overall and will report. He was the only Big Ten commit in At Least You Tried territory.

The new NCAA recruiting rules have created a new dynamic in which the OHL draft provides an indication of which players are likely to head to college before they make any commitments. So Gavin Brindley dropping to round 6 means he's likely to follow through with his USHL tender; Spencer Sova going in round one means he's reporting. This was almost immediately relevant for Michigan, as the next section will cover.

Retweets are not endorsements but are they commitments? 2004 hockey players can't announce commitments until August but it's not tough to read between certain lines, like this one:

Pietila was surprisingly excluded from the NTDP and went super late in the OHL draft so a college commit is likely, and if Mel's RTing his tender agreement, well...

— mgoblog (@mgoblog) April 6, 2020

Pietila signed his tender after the OHL draft, further indicating he's going to play in college. Three different Pietilas have played at Tech over the past decade and Pearson recruited two of them to Houghton—Logan Pietila actually had a hat trick against Michigan in the GLI final—so there are some deep connections with the family.

Pietila was a popular pick to make this year's super loaded NTDP but ended up just on the wrong side of the cut line:

Chase Pietila sign a Tender Agreement with Lincoln.

He was the best defender not added the NTDP, imo. I had him firmly inside the top-4.

Fantastic pick up for Lincoln.#USHL #2022NHLDraft https://t.co/zactRiGIIi

— Sam Stern (@SternScouting) April 5, 2020

He led Honeybaked D in scoring, outpacing aforementioned OHL first round pick Spencer Sova by a dozen or so points. Also he is 6'2". Excellent pickup if it is in fact a pickup.

Related, but irrelevant. London picked a couple guys from a team called the "Kanata Lasers" and my mind kept reading it as "Katana Lasers," which would be completely rad. DRC might even sit through a whole Katana Lasers game just in case any katanas or lasers made an appearance.

Etc.: Seven Michigan games make Matt Norlander's compilation of the top 101 tourney games since the 1985 expansion to 64. Major points for including the Oklahoma State first round game. The Kentucky-Michigan Elite Eight game in 2014 was a very late cut, FWIW.

I have never seen Silicon Valley but based on facial hair alone I must report that the "which character are you" test is 100% accurate.