MBB Still Looking For Transfers; UCF's Ithiel Horton a Possibility
The basketball team held its first summer practice this week (all three of our transfers were there), and Phil Martelli confirmed that they're still looking to add more players.
One name that entered the portal this week - who has been getting some Michigan buzz - is UCF's Ithiel Horton. He's an intriguing prospect. He's already on his third college team; Michigan would be the fourth. He's a grad transfer, so he's immediately eligible. He spent a year at Delaware, then two years at Pitt, then one year at UCF. He's a 6-5 pure shooter. Averaged 12.3 PPG last year and shot 37.6% from three. Also had some legal problems at Pitt (assault charges and more), but all the charges were dropped.
This article in MLive also says they're looking overseas, hoping to maybe add another Franz or YoYo.
They're clearly trying, but the situation gets more desperate with each passing day. I really hope the team can make a turnaround this year. Juwan is a good coach but he's made some very poor roster management decisions that have burned him and continue to make his job a living hell.
Also can we recruit a guard over six feet tall? What's a guy gotta do to get a six foot guard?
How much is it roster management and how much is it injuries? Though we understandably focus on the players who are playing, that makes it easy to forget who, but for an injury, would add to the team's effort.
Sorta like getting someone out of the portal.
BTW, I'm 6' tall and still have all my college eligibility. And in high school, I scored a point a minute. (I played 4 minutes, and scored 4 points. Per season, not per game.)
We need that offense, Blue Vet. I'm willing to overlook whatever shortcomings you might have on the defensive end.
As for me, Glen Rce and I scored a combined 2,442 points at Michigan.
before we offer blue vet the position, i'd like to know more about his injury history and whether or not he's a candidate to transfer. i can see him doing a hunter dickinson move and leaving us for more NIL $
Well, lately I've been keeping the medical profession in business.
But otherwise I'm true Blue all the way.
(Though I always keep my options open. Which is why I still have eligibility.)
excitement level baseline 5: +1, blue; +1 very blue; -1 injury history not looking so great; +1 is a vet; +1 point-a-minute; -1 only 4 minutes/year.
variability: very high
upshot for the rest of the class: proven 4 pt monster, may not have the athleticism we need though. back to the salt mines...
BTW, XM, isn't it about time for a new Diary entry? I ask not only for the entry's own sake, as it will undoubtedly be interesting or challenging.
In addiiton, I seek another Diary entry because right now the 3 that show combine for a nagative vibe. Every time I sign on, I see "Problems," "Aggression," "Shark," "Scary."
We need not revert to "Lollipops" or "Rainbows," but at least something neutral.
If someone could teach me how to embed photos from my phone, I could put something together. I have a couple diary ideas rattling around my pea-sized brain.
trying one now. preview looks like its simply a tiny square though, no picture...
IMPRESSIVE!
I’d say that the fact we’re so reliant on lower level transfers not getting hurt is a roster management problem.
While the injuries definitely hurt, if an injury destroys your season because you have no one available to step up, that's poor roster management...
Howard's guard recruiting has been iffy but also, like a lot of coaches, he's gotten bitten by the transfers out as much as the transfers in. Llewellyn getting hurt obviously sucks and wasn't expected but Frankie Collins left (somewhat) unexpectedly and Zeb Jackson left which further hurt whatever depth they had at guard. And at least with Frankie he was absolutely given an opportunity to start; this wasn't a situation where he should have felt like he wasn't given a good shot at starting.
It would be nice if he recruited taller guards. That just seems to be a thing with him.
Does Juwan get any blame for not being able to retain guards?
I think he gets the normal amount of blame for guys transferring out but Jackson wasn't as much of a surprise (he struggled to see the court for 2 years and then didn't do much as a junior at VCU. He might just not be a high-level P5 player.
Collins probably was just a bad guy to recruit in the first place. He bounced around a bunch in HS and then balked both when UM recruited Dug and then when he brought in Llewellyn as a combo guard. At some point if a guy is annoyed with you bringing in other players shaped like him that's not on the coach, since he has to plan for life beyond one player's temperment.
Roster construction has been a consistent issue for Howard, so he does deserve some blame. But this place also loves to have the knives out for him when there is something like 1200+ players in the portal each year, so clearly player movement isn't unique to a particular coach.
There's a good month to go, Dylan at UMHoops says; pull your hair out now, if you want to. My bet is that they'll reel in another guy or two. If so, they'll have recovered nicely, adroitly, from a very difficult situation.
How I see it that Juwan is still par for the course up to now. We have had some good tourney runs and BIG title.
We had both Diabate and Houstan leave after one year. Perhaps the expectation was one of them stays more than one year.
Bufkin left and perhaps the expectation was he stayed another year.
Jett here a year. I'd guess that was the expectation... but maybe not.
Seems like we had guys go pro a year earlier than expected.
Guys like Shannon and Love, were to cover for these early departures, and they got blocked.
The things I have issue with.
-Not retaining Austin Davis and Mike Smith each another year.
-getting Jones from Coastal Carolina which pushed out Collins. (this one is dubious)
-not benching Jett until he played D.
And these aren't complaints, either. Just questionable.
"-getting Jones from Coastal Carolina which pushed out Collins."
Story is that it was recruiting Dug McDaniel that pushed out Collins.
... and Collins as a sophomore was barely any better than freshman Dug McDaniel.
There you have it. Thanks. It's why it was questionable and that cleared it up. So it's down to two for me.
I agree with almost everything -- particularly the Jett and defense thing.
Perhaps the Davis and Smith departures were due to Juwan keeping PT promises to recruits and younger teammates -- (though even that is debatable decision making also if actually the case.)
Collins leaving was WEAK sauce on his end. He was going to be the #1 PG even with Jones coming in. I think it was more of a problem with Hunter's return. I am guessing a Hunter-less M team would have be seen as a springboard straight to the NBA draft for Frankie while a Hunter-led team was not....
You are mixing up Jones and Llewyllen in the Frankie debacle.
You're right. I mentioned it being g dubious because I wasn't certain about it.
Austin Davis and Mike Smith didn't want to be back so there's nothing Juwan can do to bring them back. He didn't push him out.
I heard that about Smith, but I don't think with Davis, it was correct. I hope you're right. I remember it being there wasn't space due to the incoming recruits, and I was massively bummed because I adored Davis's game and style of play, ans thought we really needed him.
August 3rd, 2023 at 12:48 PM ^
Sorry for bringing this back up but it was quoted on the Michigan Daily
In the spring of 2021, the first decision Davis had to make concerned his own eligibility. With an additional COVID year being granted by the NCAA, Davis had to choose whether or not he would be returning to the Wolverines for a sixth year of play. The answer had less of a reasoning and more of a gut feeling.
“To be honest, it was just kind of my time,” Davis told The Daily. “ … It was just kind of a point in my life that myself and my family, I was ready to move on.”
The Michigan MBB program concerns me.
Indeed, did you?
Howard recruited this last incoming class on a "best case scenario" with only taking 2 players. I hope he has learned his lesson. There are 2-3 players he couldve given a firm handshake to if needed this off season. Nobody is mentioning this but this was unacceptable.
Is that actually what he did though?
Basketball recruiting is usually wrapped up at the beginning of the season. So the 2023 recruits were signed by Dec 2022. In Dec 2022 he figured Dickinson wouldn't go pro, and he didn't. At that time did any of us think Kobe was a 1st rounder? Did he think Kante wouldn't qualify? Did he think Barnes or Glenn would leave? Especially Glenn after only 1 season. That is like 5 more scholarship guys that had the potential to be around. I think expecting to keep 3/5 of them was reasonable (Glenn, Kante, Dickinson). Instead it was 0/5.
2 recruits and 2 transfers seems like a reasonable plan for improving the 2023 roster when looking at it from Dec 2022. Instead it is 1 recruit and 3-5 transfers.
Barnes appears to be a recruiting miss, and regarding Glenn, while being recruited, many here insisted he couldn't play, and it also seems he didn't develop.
Wow, THAT is how you mismanage a roster…
I love the implication - hey lets just go overseas and grab another Franz from the Franz store.
The Franz store called and they are running out of you.
To Brasky!!
4th school and assault charges?
Red Flag....
That said, I think Pitt is a decent school and everyone deserves a second chance.
"I'm a dancer . . ."
upvote for GIF and Kristen Wiig
Horton was charged with aggravated assault, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.
Horton was suspended indefinitely, the school announced Monday. Pitt is scheduled to open the season on Tuesday night against The Citadel.
According to public safety records, Pittsburgh Police responded to reports of an altercation just after 1 a.m. ET Saturday, after a tow truck driver called police. Horton was angry his car was being towed. Following a conversation with police, Horton "punched a responding officer in the face, causing a laceration to his lip," records show.
Court documents obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette specify that Horton allegedly hit the officer with his cellphone. Horton ran from the officer before being arrested and taken to Allegheny County Jail.
The charges were dropped as part of a plea deal, however, he did plead guilty to misdemeanors and received 80 hours of community service, plus ordered to go to anger management classes.
Misdemeanors, served his sentence, then graduated: seems OK. Good shooter? Yes, pls.
Anger management classes? Hitting people in the face? How is this kid not already on the team?
How did Izzo miss out on him?
Doesn't Jalen still have a year left? And he's got some free time now.
Now THAT, would be cool, to see Jalen play again.
I have no idea who is currently on the MBB roster. Ill see what the team is looking like around January when its conference play. Easily the least excited ive been for MBB since pre-Beilein.
Sometimes having low expectations heading into a season is fine. There’s only upside. If they make the tourney that’s a good season. Last year the team was incredibly hyped. For many reasons it didn’t work out that way. As we saw with football things can change pretty quickly. We’ll see how players like Yo-Yo and Dug progress this year. I think Jaelin can be good. Lots of time.
I'm looking forward to seeing Yo Yo play. I thought I noticed a big flash the last few games, and wondered aloud why he didn't play more.
I know they can't really be picky at this point, but Horton gets a giant Meh from me. He is not going to move the needle much at all other than providing a little depth. And the Euro route can be great, but none of those guys are going to be ready to play big minutes next year.
It is NIT at best IMO, which is beyond disappointing this far into Juwan's tenure.
what about Carlos "Scooby" Johnson? He's not doing anything...The charges against him were all dropped, pretty much seeming to be completely fabricated.
He isn’t a B1G level player. Never was
Doesn't seem worth of its own thread, but John Bol has decommitted from Florida. The buzz around the decommitment is a bit weird, even some rumors that maybe Florida was backing away from him.
John Bol decommits from Florida
Bol, who is ranked No. 23 overall and No. 3 among centers in his recruiting cycle on the industry-generated 247Sports Composite, picked the Gators over six other finalist schools: Connecticut, Michigan, Missouri, Texas, USC, and Wake Forest.
I looked back and evidently there was some thought that he was originally a Michigan lean before Florida got involved.
Juwan Howard offers 2024 C John Bol
7-foot-2 John Bol, a 2024 recruit originally from South Sudan, didn't know anything about Juwan Howard or Michigan until the day before his offer — which he called "the best thing that's ever happened to me" — came in.
Closing Time for Hoops Recruiting
If this recruitment ended now, it would end in favor of Michigan. But Bol is a 2024 and things are a long way from settled.