Wow, damn!
So this plus DDJ plus Jace being a PWO=Todd plus Christopher plus ??? ?
Mike Smith
Who is that? Not doubting you just haven’t heard that name before.
Potential Columbia Grad Transfer.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/4066806/mike-smith
Question for anyone that has seen him play, is he any better than DDJ? His shooting stats arent that stellar for IVY League ball and hes not any bigger than DDJ is. What's the upside here?
His Columbia team was a disgusting rectum stench. He was 84th nationally in Bart Torvik's individual metric. His shooting numbers weren't pretty because none of his teammates could score.
I think this is the first time in 12 years I have double posted. an outrage. a travesty
really a travesty of an outrage and a very bad stench, too.
Execrable! You deserve our social opprobrium.
How many of us thought DDJ and Castleton would be transferring from the 2018 class but Nunez would be staying? So weird.
Yep. I'm very surprised.
In order to transfer you need a scholarship offer from another school. Nunez did not start for his high school and is a 20% shooting forward with no rebounding stats at Michigan. In the end, he is smart to stay put and hope that like in prep school he is a late bloomer in college.
I don't think that's true at all. That would imply other schools are going around offering players on various teams to incite them to transfer
I think he just means that Nunez is not likely to enter the transfer portal, knowing that his performance thus far would probably not lead to a scholarship offer from another school.
Well that may be true, but that's the decision every high major player riding pine has to make. Continue to ride the pine or try to move to a lower D1 team. I'm sure Nunez could land at any number of lower D1 schools and find some playing time if he wanted to
I imagine his performance thus far weighs on him. At least his he's smart enough to recognize the road his basketball is on doesn't lead anywhere and he can get a Michagan degree by staying put.
For whatever it's worth my observation of him at games, to include pregame warm-ups, and on the bench is that he really likes his teammates and they like him, he may be content with being a bench guy. Or if not content exactly, he doesn't hate it, like some do.
That's cool to know. Plus if he's working hard on his school during this quarantine maybe he's planning to get his M degree in a year.
That sucks. Castleton is a good player with a lot of potential. So is DDJ for that matter. Maybe they can both grad transfer back after the one and dones leave.
So now that means Michigan has room for Christopher, a potential transfer, and Livers coming back.
I really hope Livers comes back and Christopher commits. A rotation of the following in any fashion is top-5 team caliber.
Brooks, Christopher, Franz, Livers, Todd, Johns, Dickinson, Davis, Bajema, Williams.
I stopped because that’s at 10, but you could also throw in Jackson and Howard potentially.
Obviously have to land Christopher, but if they don’t and/or Livers leaves, I truly wonder how they’ll fill out the remaining scholarship spots.
My hope is that Jace announcing he’ll be walking on tonight is a sign that this is all figured out behind the scenes and Christopher + a transfer will be coming
If we can land Christopher, Aiken, and have Livers return, this roster may be better than the 2012-13 team. It may not have a NPOY level player, but it will be much deeper
Yeah and my 10-man rotation didn’t include a potential grad transfer guard.
so it could be
PG: Brooks, Aiken/Smith, Jackson
SG: Christopher, Bajema
Wings: Wagner, Livers, Todd, Johns, Williams
Center: Dickinson, Davis, Johns
The depth and versatility of that team would be close to or would be the best in the country. So many of those players can play multiple positions.
Does anyone not want Christopher to commit and Livers to return?
I think you might be alone! Hopefully we don’t have to choose
Guess Castleton won't be starting here next year as some have said below in other threads. I just didn't see his fit in Howard's offense going forward.
Guess we won't see him fail to fit in Howard's system as some here said he wouldn't.
Honestly thought he fit better in this offense than Davis. If Howard is rolling out a modern offense, a guy that can hit a 15-footer and roll hard to the rim for lob opportunities is a perfect fit. This is more of a crowded room transfer than a positional fit transfer.
Sad to see him go.
Now with only 2 bigs should we pursue Matt Haarms as a grad transfer who has entered the portal?
We have Dickinson, Davis, Johns and Todd who can all play the 5. PG is a much bigger need where all we have is Brooks and Jackson as of now. Obviously Christopher is probably coming, but even then all of those guys are more 2s than 1s. PG is the focus.
Also I doubt Haarms would have interest. He's leaving Purdue where he was already a pseudo starter, wherever he goes he'll probably want a guaranteed starting spot and 25-30 minutes a game. That won't happen here.
I would also add walk on PG Brandon Wade who transferred from Duquesne
Unsolicited opinion on Brandon Wade: He's the Bo Dever of basketball.
Remember how much hype the walk-on WR Bo Dever got? Maybe you don't. He was a good player but not in the Kovacs / Glasgow tier.
Wade was good enough to play at Duquesne, so Michigan is fortunate to have him, but he doesn't seem like a guy who's going to play ten minutes a game this year.
Ant Wright is really high on him. Thinks he could potentially see minutes
Ant also has a personal connection to him and has claimed he's the same level of recruit as DDJ/Johns, even when Wade was going to Duquesne out of HS. I doubt Wade will play outside of the most garbage of garbage time.
Bambi thank goodness someone has said it about Wade! Everyone in the state his senior year tried to claim he deserved a better offer than Duquesne. It never came. Did the exact same with his brother the next year. The dad is a great guy that people respect but if Wade is getting major minutes next year at a guard position Michigan is in a bit of trouble.
Could he be like a Spike Albrecht? A nice ball handler and someone who can be an emergency in case of foul trouble guard?
What would his comp be?
Spike would give Brandon Wade fits at the same age. Wade is a good shooter but he lacks everything else a legit B1G pg needs especially if we are talking about trying to win the B1G or a national championship
People have to quit with Todd playing the 5 in any traditional capacity.
HE IS NOT AND WILL NOT PLAY CENTER.
Maybe, actually it is likely he would for Beilein. That era is over.
Todd views himself and was recruited to develop his game into LeBron (I know that's not happening, but that's what he's discussed with Howard. He even has talked about playing some point forward and bringing the ball up and starting the offense. He's not a 5).
Howard needed to let Castleton play C and quit with trying to make him a 4. Especially with a glut of guys already at the 3/4 spot.
Anyway...we need a true 5, won't be Harms, but relying on a freshman center and a guy EVERYONE thought would transfer after this year (this time last year), isn't ideal.
We probably play some 5 out and just go small ball like the Warriors did with their "Death Lineup." To me that is far more likely.
Draymond was the "5" in that lineup but not really. He brought the ball up, started the offense ran the break, and pick and popped for 3's. He wasn't posting up.
So there's Todd's role if you're going to play him without a center.
Draymond - Todd, Iggy - Livers, KD - Wagner, Thompson - Brooks, Steph - Christopher.
Anyway, I think we're looking at...
Davis or Dickinson
Todd backed up by Johns
Livers backed up by Wagner
Wagner backed up by Christopher
Christopher backed up by Brooks
...you'll have 4 guys who can bring the ball up and start the offense. Against pressure, Brooks and/or Aiken comes in to handle the ball and you lose the Center and go with the "Death Lineup."
My biggest concern next year is depth at C, but I think that will be mitigated. Which actually makes my biggest concern...defense. I think we're going to try to outscore people like vintage Carolina and that concerns me.
I'd love to have Yaklich on this staff. If these guys guard someone they'll be in the Final Four. If not, they're an easy team to beat in the tournament...just have to get lucky and get the game where shots don't fall.
See that Duke team from last year with Zion. They were great, but that offense wasn't going to get a National Championship on it's own. Todd and Christopher being the Williamson and Barrett are no different.
Have to guard someone and be able to win games in the 60's. Instead I see a 2-seed, with a lot of wins in the 80's but a loss in the 2nd weekend of the tournament next year.
...unless they play some D.
You have many valid points/opinions. This roster appears to be shaping up to be quite position-less. The concerns being voiced about defense are valid but I like/agree with Juwan's apparent belief that "We may struggle a bit to defend some of your power options but you are going to struggle mightily with our athleticism and skill level". And for those of you who have these concerns, please advise me how any team not named Kentucky or Duke is going run with and defend a 5-some of Christopher, Livers, Wagner, Todd and Johns??? And the kids Michigan would have coming off the bench would not be chopped liver as well...and there are options to mitigate a situation that is not turning in Michigan's favor. And if Bajema turns out to be the shooter he has flashed himself to be...this could be a most dynamic team where the opponent's must figure out what the "best" poison is.
Your username definitely checks out. And also you are absolutely right about the position-less basketball. If anyone has watched any pro games in the last 10 or so years should know that their is no such thing as a True Big. There are only maybe two in the whole entire NBA. Nobody is coming to Michigan to play with their back to the basket. We will have that aspect but unless you’re blind we will be pushing the ball and scoring mostly without a big before the other team has an opportunity to set up their defense! The days of Robert Tractor Traylor(Rip) are back. Run the court Big fella.
I agree with most of your takes but I don't see Todd starting over Livers/Wagner. He has a ton of natural ability....buy is really, really raw. I think coming off the bench with his energy and athleticism will be an ideal role because he will get some favorable matchups and they can adjust the lineups around him given the flexibility of the other forwards.
I know Todd is a five star with NBA dreams, but Livers and Wagner also have NBA dreams. Todd will have some games where he plays 30 minutes and looks like a lottery pick and some where he plays 15 and looks like a freshman. I think a GR3 role for him next year would be perfect.
100 percent agree with this. He's got gobs of potential but he still needs to put it all together. He may earn a starting spot mid-way through the season if he does.
I used to be on the "Todd isn't a center train," and I still mostly think he's a PF, but I think he will se spot minutes there just out of necessity
You are clueless.
So you start by screaming in all caps: "Todd is not and will not play Center"
Then later reference the fact that you think we'll play a "death lineup" where Todd plays the 5. I never said Todd will play traditional center, I said he will play minutes at the 5. The assumption there is in a perimeter oriented offense where Todd can handle the ball. So this was a very angry and wordy way to basically agree with what I said.
I understand defense being a concern, at points this year it was worse than we expected and we're losing X and Teske. But that being said we're returning Brooks who was our best perimeter defender (shut down Cassius in the win against MSU), Wagner who grew into a very good defender by years end who would flash elite, and Johns who was a very good defender as well. Livers is also a solid defender. Really the only spot on defense that's a question is defending the 5, but luckily a big chunk of the Big Ten's elite post scorers are leaving. Then having Dickinson for 20-25 minutes a game, Davis for 10-15, and one of Todd or Johns for 5 minutes a game (or both for 5) becomes a viable plan at the 5, and that seems plenty fine to me.
We also saw points last year where Johns played the 5 for extended periods (end of Oregon and Wisconsin games come to mind) and we played at our best in this stretches in those games. And like the Warriors, or 2017-2018 Nova showed, it's possible to have an elite defense with a small 5. So that's another option for mitigating our defensive concerns where we would struggle with a true post Center, but the opposition struggles more trying to guard our perimeter oriented lineup and can't even play a true Center.
Finally I doubt Brooks comes off the bench and Todd starts. Todd is a great prospect but when he committed even Matt D said he thinks a realistic expectations for him is to maybe become a starter part way through the year. We're not gonna bench a senior guard who played the 2nd most minutes last year and is our best perimeter defender.
Maybe if they miss on their potential guard transfer targets.
Between the two traditional bigs in Davis and Dickinson combined with the athletes of Todd and Johns, they could probably make it work.
In my opinion, there is a bigger need for a backup PG than anything else
a starting point guard would be better
Eww, please no.
7'3" guys require 1.2 scholarships, so there's no room for him.
Lol, cmon WD, not Matt Haarms. You cannot be serious.