Cole Bajema in the Transfer Portal
Wow. What is going on? This is another shocker within the basketball program. No spin zone here, this is not good.
Coldwater in first, making me proud!
Coaches should've played him more.
I still will never understand how Adrien Nunez got playing time over him. Boggles the mind. Can’t blame Bajema for wanting to transfer when the guy playing over him was more likely to hit the back of the backboard than make a basket.
This is going to be the new normal in college basketball and football. The new transfer rule assures it.
Actually they could have played Bajema more, particularly when Nunez was so completely ineffective at all aspects of the game.
I knew when they continued to use him only in deepest mop up duty, despite him draining damn near every shot he took there was a personality conflict or other issue.
This is a MISTAKE!
Nothing against Cole Bajema who I am sure is a fine human being but exactly about his game warrants his upcoming transfer being a MISTAKE? Maybe a mistake. But not a MISTAKE.
Yeah, I can blame him. Why is everyone upvoting you? He was a freshman, and not super highly recruited and was probable redshirt when signed. Either the coaches ran him off or he can't handle even the smallest amount of criticism and growth to become a better player. Dude projected to be upperclassmen starter but if he wasn't willing to put in the work then maybe he would have washed out.
But, we'll probably get zero explanation from the blog either in writing or podcast just like DDJ and Castleton.
The only way we get an explanation is if the players or coaches give one. If the don't, any discussion is pure speculation. Not really sure what you expect the blog to do about that.
What "explanation" from "the blog" is there supposed to be? Do you think this page is affiliated with the athletic program, somehow? It's not. It's a bunch of alum that really like Michigan sports. That's all it is. You think they have some kind of inside track to learn every detail of what goes on with each team? They don't. No player or coach is running to them to blab about what happened with DDJ, or anyone else.
BTW, Bajema was the #112 player nationally, according to 24/7. To say he wasn't "super highly recruited" is bullshit, nor was he redshirted. He was brought in Beilein, and for whatever reason didn't seem to mesh with Howard's staff. But here you are, trashing him. For what reason?
"Either the coaches ran him off or he can't handle even the smallest amount of criticism and growth to become a better player."
Other than to be a straight up asshole, what's the point in this statement? Grow the fuck up.
What is Juwan hiding!? Why won’t Brian tell us!?
Howard brings in the #1 recruiting class in the B1G, but missed out on having a Top 4 class in the country.
He was left with a class of players that would've been a great haul by any other standard.
People are freaking out because they might have to rely on upperclass Beilein recruits.
People are freaking out because Howard came in to replace a very successful coach. It wasnt Beilein coming in after the Ellerbe and Amaker years. Howard is learning on the job. His whole coaching tenure is in the NBA, not college. He also has never been a head coach before. The college game has changed quite a bit even in the last few years. Beilein was getting frustrated with it as well. Howard is getting used to things like recruiting, roster management, etc and hes shown some early ups and downs with those things. People will be ecstatic when he lands a 5 star and be pissed when he misses on 20 others. The reality right now is these are the trial and errors of a new head coach but nobody has the patience to deal with any of it because we had a successful coach already here. You take roster losses, misses on the recruiting trail, the unknown of the upcoming season and combine that with what I stated above with the rookie head coach and that is why people are tore up. Some of it reasonable, some of it not so much.
Howard missed on two 5-stars but still signed some nice 4-stars.
Beilein had no chance at 5-stars, missed on and signed some nice 4-stars, and signed some players he wouldn't even put in for mop up duty.
Beilein got swept by MSU with a more talented team his last year here. Howard split with them in his first year.
The players that played minutes in those successful years are gone, besides Livers. Can't blame Howard because you don't have faith in the best of the players Beilein left.
Nah, I'm confident Juwan can recruit. He did amazingly even without a full year. Also, whether it was true or not, there were reports that Cole looked -- not great -- in practices and scrimmages.
He kind of looked like a spaz when he was in.
I can balance two opposing truths in my head at once:
1. It was grossly unfair and exploitative that players were once forced to choose one college basketball program for a four-year commitment, with a punitive transfer system, before going on to earn a paycheck professionally.
2. The sport was far more interesting and compelling and fun to follow under that system.
A huge part of the interest, at least for me, is watching young players develop over time, seeing teams build chemistry, and hopefully building into a championship caliber TEAM. This is quickly devolving into a AAU-style look-at-me beauty contest that I have little use for.
The only reason college football hasn't gone the same route is that the NFL has no competition and they don't want 19 year-olds because they would be killed.
The death of "amateurism" is the actual death of amateurism.
Whats going on? Every fan with at least half a brain was saying all season it was the wrong move to play Nunez over Bajema. Bajema showed he has a good shot yet Howard still chose to play the brick layer Nunez over him
Howard has a lot to learn
I take it you attended every practice and you are still confused about who got what playing time? Sounds like you have a lot to learn.
Dont need to attend practice to see Nunez deserved 0 minutes. Bajema made shots at a good rate. Both are bad on defense. Might as well have played the one who made shots
Sample size was so small Cole might have sucked with more time. We don't know. Lot's more sample in practice. The fact that he left after one year shows that he's weak and couldn't hack it. This isn't some top 25 recruit that didn't get playing time, this is a guy who clearly needed to put on weight to compete at the college level.
WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?
This is making ZERO sense.
Bajema, Castleton and DeJulius all were going to see more time next year.
Bajema transfers when we currently don't have a true, pure SG ahead of him (if you consider Wagner a SF/SG like I do).
Can't lose these guys AND not bring in the 5* top 10 guys.
Losing Bajema for Christopher is one thing, losing him for air is another.
Bajema seemed to have a sweet stroke and I really wanted him on the team, despite being a turnstile on D... But my gosh, if he wants to leave now? So be it... Hope the door doesn't hit him on way out. Same goes for DDJ and,C to lesser extent, Castleton.
Yep, this is the unfortunate adult take on all of this. Don said it below too but...fragile egos these days?! Who the bleep knows but without ever knowing what goes on during this type of stuff the mind can only wonder and deductive reason.
These guys who were recruited by a different coach and don't really fit the new system that well and not getting playing time are looking for better opportunities elsewhere!? When are these guys going to start thinking about ME and what I want?
Yeah on one hand I get it cause Juwan has been trying to recruit over you for a year now. But on the other hand are these guys really afraid of some freshman taking their minutes? Or next years freshman when you have 2-3 years on them?
Bajema played a grand total of 37 minutes in 8 games. He averaged 2.6 PPG, with a nifty 4-7 on 3's and 10-13 on non-3's..
The percentages are nice but it's hard for me to see how a kid that only got into 3 games after 1/1/2020 could reasonably expect to be a big cog in the system in the upcoming year or 2.
Then again, who knows? This kid is most probably no Duncan Robinson but DR suggests that even a defensive liability can be useful in a program as long as he shoots well enough to offset the negative.
I wish the kid luck.
Actually I can see the sense in it. From his perspective there’s likely to be a one time transfer waiver coming down from the NCAA this summer. He didnt get minutes this year ahead of Nunez, everyone on the blog assumes he would have this coming season but who knows. Juwan has at least been attempting to recruit over you (Christopher) and is about to take a large class, with at least a shot at an immediate impact freshman. If you’re uncertain on your future best to get out now and preserve eligibility.
I will be really interested to see where he goes.
3 Beilein guys. 2 of which spent the season in Juwans doghouse stapled to the bench.
I CAN’T FUCKIN BELIEVE IT!
Crazy, it’s like he committed to one coach and then the situation changed and that coach was no longer coaching him. Weird. I guess we’ll never know why he transferred
did i miss something? i don't think JB ever coached bajema. pretty sure JH re-recruited him to stay with his commitment.
I was really hoping he'd stick around, seemed like he could really be a great contributor. But next year is going to be very telling about Juwan and his ability to develop and game plan.
Cool cool cool. Even less depth. Now we're thin at PG, SG, and SF
I guess our depth chart is now:
Smith/Brooks/Zeb
Brooks/Nunez/Zeb
Wagner/Livers/Williams?
Livers/Johns/Williams
Dickinson/Davis
ha ha ha I'm in danger
When your starting center gives opponents a 75FG% i think we can say we are thin at center too.
Fuckkkkkkkk
Juwan better be hitting the recruiting trail hard because about half of our scholarships will be available after this next year.
We're now likely going to have a class of 7 guys in 2021
Move over Fab Five... Here come the Superb Seven...
Isn't there a limit per class? Thought there was a new-ish rule that only 5 max per class.
No one has answered you question yet so I will. No there is no limit. And it’s precisely for this situation, when a new coach comes in you’re likely to have a lot of departures, you can’t make him take small classes and play with a limited bench for 1-2 years. Memphis, Oregon, and Georgia all toon 7 man classes in 2019.
And while it’s early, we don’t lead for any of the top offered guys in the ‘21 class.
More likely that we will have a class of 5 and end up with 2 open scholarships.
Possibly 8 if Nunez grad transfers.
thanks, i’m sure that didn’t cross his mind.
To be honest, I'm not sure it has. I know it's early, but Juwan has only put out like ~15 offers for a class of now 7 guys and we have an even ok chance with maybe 4-5 of them right now? I believe Juwan is a good recruiter, but I honestly think he has no idea what he's doing in regards to how many kids he should be offering and who he should be offering. He'll learn eventually that offering the top 20 kids that he keeps drooling over and focusing too much on are not worth his time
It wasn’t that long ago that we were concerned about him offering too many guys
When were we ever concerned about that?
When Todd was in the class and we thought we would get Christopher and we were wondering how our roster would work with so many commitments. Can you not remember less than a month ago?
That's not a case of offering too many people, that's a case of having too many players already on the roster that deserve minutes
Dont bring up yesterday's laments, join in with today's hand-wringing!