Pretty amazing talking to some of the inside, first hand sources I know on how much Don Brown was literally ignoring his other coaches on personnel and schematic information the past two years. Just goes to my thought that Harbaugh for whatever reason has been disconnected from day-to-day operations of the team post 2018. 

I've long believed that Harbaugh installs a DC and expects him to run it without supervision or oversight.  This has worked out fairly well over his years as a coach, but seems to have caught him hard last year.  There were cracks showing in 2019, but Brown's very recent defenses were pretty good (an understatement) so he had some built in confidence reserves left over.  

I do believe there's a good amount of talent on the defense, but it's going to need some game action to start understanding this new defense...

Ha. What does that matter? Michigan hasn't recruited a starting QB that graduated here since...Devin?  

We know how Chaundee fit in to last year's team, that doesn't mean the fit is the same in next year's team.

Last year's team had 2 good starting guards, plus Franz who could handle the ball as well. That meant Chaundee's ball-handling ability, or lack there of, was able to be hidden for the most part. He could focus on doing the the two things he did very well, which is make jump shots and play intense, energetic defense.

Next year's team's biggest weakness is going to be the backcourt. We currently have 0 proven ballhandlers or guards of any kind on next year's roster. Eli coming back helps immensely, because he's a proven quality secondary ball handler, he's a proven perimeter shooter and a proven perimeter defender. Chaundee gives us another source of perimeter shooting and perimeter defending, but does nothing to solve the ball handling issues. At that point we go into next year with a potential massive issue of no proven on ball creators, ie someone who can create for themselves or teammates.

Jacob Young is a great fit there. He played in the B1G last year, took 240 two's of which 131 were at the rim, made 60% of those at the rim, and did so with only ~25% of them being assisted. Meaning he got to the rim frequently, finished at a high level, and was able to do so while creating for himself. For reference Chaundee and Eli didn't hit 240 two's combined last year, each of them took more "other two's" than at the rim two's, and were assisted on 50% of their at the rim two's. And even looking at those other two's, Young hit a higher percentage of his (39.4%) than Brooks (21.7%) or Brown (39%), and once again on significantly harder shot quality (11% of his other two's were assisted compared to 31% for Brooks and 63% for Brown).

So Young is a significantly better at getting his own shot than Brooks or Brown, and actually legitimately good at it. And as we saw against UCLA, we were missing someone like that mightily on the perimeter this past season. And none of this takes into account that Young had a very good AST rate of 23 last year (would have been 2nd highest on Michigan last year by about 6 points, only behind Smith) and hit 37% of his 3's, of which only 61% were assisted (compared to Brooks and Brown who had 97% of theirs assisted). According to Dylan at UMHoops, Young also shot ~60% at the rim in the half court and created the 7th most points out of the P&R last year in the B1G. Those are two good stats that would provide needed qualities that our roster next year doesn't currently have.

Young isn't without his warts. His 3 point shooting may have been a little lucky last year (career 29% shooter), but him hitting 37% on a similar number of attempts to Brown and Brooks last year on a much harder shot difficulty implies some upside there. His USG was higher last year than it would be at Michigan, but that was mostly a function of his TO rate being too high. Putting him in a better, more balanced offense with better coaching where he's not expected to shoulder the biggest load on offense or sprint up and down the court every 5 seconds would cut down on those significantly. There's quality upside with him.

I love what Chaundee did for us last year. But him and Brooks are redundant, and Brooks brings the secondary ball handling aspect Chaundee doesn't. Adding Young would give us a primary ball handler who can score and create for others at a high major level, and also provide the high energy defensive effort Chaundee brought himself.

Yeah, exactly what transfers (and what can be waived) is always a local issue.  I suppose in your case, your department could have argued to have degree requirements waived.  (We do this routinely for our Pre-Calculus class requirement if a student comes in with AP credit in Calculus).  My broader point is that grad transfers seem like they would be far easier to swing than undergrad transfers because most grad students (athletes and non-athletes alike) in a program like the ones at Michigan didn't do their undergrad degrees at Michigan too.  

I agree.  Athletes generally take academics seriously, they need us to stay eligible and most of them aren't going pro in sports.  It is almost universal that athletes graduate in 4 years (or less) at a higher rate than their non-athlete peers.  To be fair, athletes are also supported differently than non-athletes, a factor which drives that success.  

My comment about the "grad transfer thing for sports" was that I don't see the NCAA tracking graduate program progress like they do undergrad program progress. So I have no idea how retention rates track for athletes vs. non-athletes in graduate programs, and I don't know that the NCAA does either.  (But I'd be happy to see that data.)