It's not your imagination. That was the biggest basketball recruiting nut punch of ALL TIME (alllll time):

At a 91 percent favorite, Michigan just had the biggest miss on a top-10 recruit in the history of 24/7Sports' Crystal Ball. pic.twitter.com/r8VtAQFWNi

— Eli Boettger (@boettger_eli) April 14, 2020

Michigan manages to appear twice on this list despite almost never recruiting top ten talents during the existence of the crystal ball, and this doesn't even cover the Tyus Battle/Josh Langford double whammy. If you've obliterated this from your memory: when Battle committed, Beilein dropped Langford because he refused to oversign by one, Langford committed to MSU, and Battle flipped to Syracuse.

At least this debacle had a silver lining:

Michigan scrambled for Ibi Watson in the aftermath. Watson was indisputably the best of the three in 2019-20, because Langford sat out with injury (again) and Battle was in the G-League after leaving Syracuse to go undrafted.* You could argue that he's actually the best player of the three after a 20% usage, 121 ORTG season with Dayton. Even if that's… uh… aggressive, Watson would have been a heck of a consolation prize if Michigan had stuck it out with him.

So let's survey potential consolation prizes? Michigan's options follow.

*[Battle is a classic example of a guy who probably would have stayed in college if he had his name and image rights since "Syracuse star senior" is probably more lucrative than "Iowa Wolves rookie".]

[After THE JUMP: screw it get the Dutchman?]

Stand pat

[Campredon]

A hypothetical option but a dubious one. Michigan players shorter than 6'5": Mike Smith, Eli Brooks, and Zeb Jackson.

In wing shoehorn options, Adrien Nunez is Just A Shooter who shot 26% last year. Cole Bajema and Franz Wagner are more viable options. Bajema has a long road back from being clearly behind Nunez. Yes, even if he finished the season with a 92% eFG on 13 shots. (Free Bajema.) Meanwhile the giant lineup with Wagner at the two seemed intriguing after a test-drive midseason but when it got an extended rollout against Wisconsin it got torched on defense.

There are universes in which 2020-21 basketball team relies heavily on one or both of Bajema/Wagner to fill the two spot and it goes well. I'm not going to write off the big lineup based on one game where it was a hastily-assembled stopgap, especially since Wagner wasn't actually the problem. But if you've got the spot this is not a situation where you don't use it.

There's little value in banking a scholarship. Without additions to this class Michigan already has five slots for 2021 even if you assume Jace Howard is on scholarship. Austin Davis, Isaiah Livers, Eli Brooks, and Mike Smith are seniors. Isaiah Todd is a one and done whether it's in Ann Arbor or with the Canberra Echidnas. Add in inevitable attrition (Wagner to the NBA, playing time transfers from Nunez and/or Bajema) and Michigan's already looking at a giant 2021 class.

Grad transfer number two

Zach Shaw has scoured the portal for names and returned with basketball persons. I can confidently say these are humans.  Do you remember Payton Willis? You probably do not. Willis transferred to Minnesota from Vanderbilt, shot a bunch of threes at a 35% clip, and did nothing else. He's on Shaw's list.

It's a grim list. Literally everyone on is on the Just A Shooter spectrum, which is a poor fit for Michigan's surrounding talent. Both point guards are excellent spot up shooters who don't project to create a ton of good shots for themselves—Smith created a ton of meh shots for himself at the Ivy level, and we've seen Brooks.

Extract David DeJulius from the portal

[Campredon]

This is a longshot. But when DeJulius decided to leave Michigan had not yet suffered the grandest of all recruiting nut punches. DDJ may be more amenable to staying at Michigan now that he knows there isn't going to be a 30% usage guy sucking up 35 of the 80 minutes he can hypothetically be on the court for.

While adding Smith complicates things, if Michigan isn't going to play a large person at the two DeJulius is far better than any of the grad transfers available. Michigan can now sell him on the fact that he's going to have a larger role than last year.

DDJ named a top four of Marquette, Cincinnati, Missouri, and Iowa State recently and probably isn't far off from a decision. It's probably not happening, but this section is necessary for completeness.

[UPDATE: DDJ just tweeted out a goodbye statement so cross this one off.]

Find a sit-out transfer and cross your fingers

It's the waiver era so you could just grab a guy who's not a grad transfer and sic a lawyer on the NCAA. Notable names on the market include:

• DJ Carton, another recent recruiting nut punch. Carton left OSU after having mental health issues mid-year. He'd probably get a waiver, and he was a near five-star recruit who is familiar with what Michigan has to offer.
• Michael Flowers, who you may remember as the WMU guard who lit Michigan up (31 points on 21 shot equivalents) at Crisler last year. Flowers shot 47/36 on 28% usage for a bad WMU team last year; he's an excellent FT shooter and had ok assist and TO numbers.
• Landers Nolley, who bolted after one year at VT. Nolley's efficiency is horrendous (42/32 shooting) on absurd usage (34% in ACC play). He's tough to project: he's 6'7" and thinks of himself as a shooting guard. Kenpom asserts he was the center on a horrendously undersized VT team.
• Jamal Bieniemy, who left Oklahoma despite being a 32 MPG starter. Bieniemy's usage was in Vogrich territory and he shot 45/25 from the floor.
• Jarred Hyder, another freshman starter who left his team. Hyder shot 44/30 and had a ton of turnovers en route to a 95 ORTG.

Carton is obviously worth a shot if he's interested and Flowers projects as a useful piece either this year or next. I don't think the other guys are obviously better than a random recruit. Speaking of:

Ask John Beilein if there are any guys with freaky arms in Ohio

Worked out with Caris Levert and Watson (sort of!). At this point in the year the croots are well and truly picked over, so any name I could throw out there would be a wild guess. There are guys out there who could help. If you remember Nah'Shon "Bones" Hyland last year, he ended up at VCU and hit 43% of 145 threes. There is a Hyland or a Stu Douglass or a Spike Albrecht somewhere out there.

Someone might bubble up through Howard's many and sundry connections. One fairly obvious connection: Zaire Wade is Dwyane Wade's son, and is ranked 139th by 24/7.

Screw it, go get Matt Haarms

[Campredon]

This is another version of Grad Transfer Number Two but instead of grabbing a low major chucker Michigan goes for Haarms, who is the best immediately-eligible uncommitted player in the transfer portal by a mile. He would also fill a Castleton-shaped hole on the roster. Without Castleton, Michigan's center options are:

• Austin Davis, whose defensive limitations make him a situational player only.
• Hunter Dickinson, a true freshman who is probably going to take a year to translate.
• Small ball with either Brandon Johns or Isaiah Todd, again situational.

Haarms had a top ten block rate last year and while his offense collapsed without Carsen Edwards he was stuck in a situation where Purdue had no one to generate roll opportunities he was very efficient on last year. Sophomore Haarms as a guy who feeds off shots generated by other guys:

Haarms in an offense with no alpha—or even beta, really—last year:

Michigan isn't going to have Carsen Edwards next year but they shouldn't be anywhere near what Purdue threw out there.

If Haarms says he wants to play 30 minutes a game I'm saying "sure" and rolling with the giant lineup. Michigan was not in Haarms recent top ten but Michigan didn't think it had a spot.