MBB Targeting Rutgers G Paul Mulcahy
The only thing you care about: yes, he is a grad transfer.
M probably targets lots of guys but I thought this one was interesting because we know his game a bit playing Rutgers/watching big ten basketball.
Tidbits:
- Late portal entry, somewhat surprising as he took his name out of the NBA draft back at the end of May deadline. So a week+ from that, he decides to find a new school
- 6'6
- 8.3ppg, 4.9ast, 3.6reb, 37% 3PT
- Better than 2:1 assist:turnover
- Per @AdamZagoria on Twitter: Kentucky, WVU, Kansas St, Michigan are some of the early teams reaching out
With a couple roster spots to go, this would be an incredibly strong get for this roster. I do wonder if he'll be after more potential for success/change of scenery in his last college ride, but who knows.
h/t umhoops.com
I've been a pretty big fan of the kid for years now. Would love to see him wearing maize and blue!
He's a fun player to watch for sure.
Fun and tough. Get Mulcahy and then find a way to poach Keisei Tominaga from Nebraska and this might be the most fun team to watch in a long, long time.
Wait that Nebraska kid is available? Yes please make him our microwave/Jamaal Crawford while other teams are sending in meh players we can send in instant offense.
Very gritty. Brings his lunch pail. Real blue collar ethic. Intelligent.
Coach's son, gym rat, fundamentally sound...
Fingers crossed.
It'd be weird seeing him without his red headband but I'm willing to make allowances.
Sounds like Notre Dame may be his destination. I was never a fan, and I come from New Jersey. That must say something, though I'm not sure what. Oh, yeah, seemed to shrink like a post-Halloween pumpkin at crunch time in games down the stretch last year.
Juwan is going all in on trying to build a defensive juggernaut in the portal. If we land Mulcahy, we have an elite defensive team and almost every rotation player shoots ~35% from 3. Dug will have to have a pretty high usage. Burnett and Nkamhoua seem like they have some offensive upside and hopefully Tarris takes that next step. While I don't think this team will be able to compete with the MSUs, Purdues, and IUs of the conference, I think this could be tourney team if all goes well
Dug will be high usage for sure, but adding a dude like Mulcahy would give us a backup at 1-3 depending on matchups on D. I do think he floated around in most of his games against us in the last couple years, so I wonder if the impact wouldn't be as profound as it seems on paper. But yeah, we need a guard and a 3 and this guy can do both on both ends. Preparing my sacrifice to the portal gods.
I'm not sold IU will be all that good this year; they lost Jackson-Davis and Hood-Schifino to the draft and Bates transferred to Mizzou. We'll see how Woodson handles a younger team; he seems like a decent recruiter and a solid coach but I wasn't particularly impressed by IU as a team when they ran into a squad that had similar talent.
MSU and Purdue seem like the two best teams in the conference next year, with Illinois a step below them along with IU and Iowa/Wisconsin. But if UM can add Mulcahy I agree this team becomes a defensive nightmare and a more "NBA" style team that maybe matches more of what Howard wants to do.
I like this focus on defense for next year. Seems like a better way to build in this era as offenses can take time to build and gel, and certain styles may be difficult to integrate.
We shall see how this works out for this season, but I'd love to see us get back to being a strong defensive team.
Rutgers is on the upswing... wonder if this is us offering big NIL.
I think this report is just that we reached out. Quite a leap given everything else to assume we're going to win it with $$ vs. Kentucky, etc.
But we may win it with minutes!
Kentucky has more open spots than we do for next year. They’ve had a mass exodus this off-season.
Fire Calipari. (For realz)
When you hear from Hunter $80k and from Purdue Eddy got around $800k it doesnt instill confidence.
Or we may win it with the potential of a graduate degree from Michigan. Mulcahy may not be NBA material.
Yeah, this is basically a lot of mgobloggers with nothing better to do on June 9 getting psyched about a guy who's not coming here.
Given the way the Olivier Nkamhoua situation played out, it seems like Michigan has already searched deep in the couch cushions to find all the NIL $$ people are willing to give for basketball.
Sam Webb said on the Roundtable that if it were an NIL only thing M would not have gotten OK. So I wouldn't get my hopes up on the MBB NIL thing.
Well, he's not going to be that bucket-getter I wanted, but I'm not sure how many of those guys are left out there - the Kentucky player maybe, not sure who else.
But he would be a solid pick up and we absolutely need to get somebody for that spot, so I'd be ok with this.
Not a fan of that. He's not very good on offense without the ball in his hands and I rather him. I don't think he'd fit well at the 3.
We're going full Rutgers with no desire to have an offense and just play defense.
He's a decent ballhandler who shot basically as many FTs as Jett Howard did last year and is a better defender. He's not a star but a multi-year P5 player who has shown he can score in this league is better than what they currently have on the roster.
Michigan undoubtedly wants to score points but the past couple of years they've field an offense-first team and struggled defensively for stretches. I don't think this is the type of team Howard always wants to field but I also think he realizes he needs to right the ship and an experienced team with solid defenders and competent outside shooting is a good recipe to making it back to the tournament while also giving your young guys a chance to develop.
I've watched pretty much every game he's played in, he's not bad, but I don't think he's a plus on offense. He's a good passer and setting up teammates, but he's a scared shooter and not a good one.
Yes his 3pt % is higher, but that's off like 2 shots a game, and he's pretty bad at the rim and driving. He's not really a catch and shoot type of player and he'd only be there to play defense on some bigger guards. If our team had more shooting I think he'd be a better fit, but we'll be a bad shooting team next year so I feel like he doesn't help the team except play defense. I don't think playing nothing but defense and no offense makes Michigan a good team either. They're just a different type of bad since even Rutgers has struggled with that but they're a borderline elite defense every year.
I'll admit to only watching Rutgers 4-5 times last year so I'll defer to your overall experience but I remember the crew spoke highly of him during the first game preview as a guy who would take bad shots if necessary but was also a good facilitator, and there was a stretch in January where he was averaging 10-ish shots a game and also getting 5-6 assists a game. It sounds like he hurt his shoulder at some point and played through it but it messed with his game.
And to be honest, I don't expect him to be a stud offensively but this roster also has a lot of unknowns and so a high floor guy absolutely is better than nothing. Rutgers was bad offensively last year but that's a stylistic one; Pikiell makes that the focus of his team. Howard likes a fluid offense and runs some intricate sets; he's not a guy who's going to completely abandon that and become sludgeball. But the team lost 3 key offensive guys and the alternative to being a defense-first team is a squad that still can't stop anyone but also can't win a shootout. My guess is that UM finishes with a top-55-65 offense this year but a top-30 defense and that's basically Illinois's profile from last year.
During that month he shot around 41% and that's including a game he went 6/6 from the field. He's a competent player on offense from facilitating standpoint but he's not a good player on offense in general.
I just don't see the fit since I feel like we already have a couple guys that are mostly there to place defense and do pretty much nothing else (Jackson/Burnett/Reed somewhat). This roster is just a Rutgers team from like 2 or 3 years ago to me. I think they'll play worse defense and maybe be the level of offense of their Geo/Ron years. You're way more positive on the team than me though. I would personally be shocked if they don't finish in the bottom 5.
I think him and Reeves from Kentucky are exactly what we need to finish out the roster. You could argue a true 5 but we may not be heading that direction at this point.
Recruiting quality backups in the portal is very difficult. Either the players are interested in a bigger role, or they are just warm bodies.
I think it will be a struggle to find a backup 5 for that reason.
I believe Olivier (i do not have that last name memorized) will be our starting 4 and backup 5 with Jackson getting perhaps the majority of the 4 minutes.
Then find a starter, 😉.
In all seriousness, for and additonal $2M, Reed was going to be the backup this year anyway.
It's too late to find a starter, but it would be nice to let him be a defacto "starter" ala the 6th OL for one more year.
Get a starter in and let's El-Hadi him!
Thumbs up here. Strong headband game with him and Dug. (In all seriousness, seems like net positive, if it happened).
Maybe NIL incentives involve outfitting him with a new headband wardrobe?
Tough & gritty kid, coming from Rutgers you know he will play stingy defense (which we desperately need). Portal is slim pickens at this point, so given that we have open scholarships (and he already knows the dynamics of the B10) I would happily take him
Not Caleb Love thanks admissions... But a take IMO to round things out. Solid defender and someone who can make shots. Hopefully he doesn't have to be the creator with Dugie coming into year two. I was hoping for one more playmaking bucket getter but doesn't seem out there currently. Sign him up and lets go.
I would take him in a heartbeat.
I ought to see the man Mulcahy.
I'll upvote this since there are apparently no other Phish fans on here.
Pssh, yes there are.
Maize Rage will need to add some membership if we get Mulcahy.
Get these spray-tanned guys and gals some Maize Rage T-shirts!
yep. not a fan of headbands and still a yep.
also glad to hear about the anarchy at the UK. Like to see them stuck in the lose and suffer cycle along with UofhelL.
Anarchy in the UK, IMO.
Grit level...rising.
I approve this message.
This dude always seemed like kind of a chump but when you watch him closely you realize he can play and is really effective. Does a little bit of everything. I wouldn't be mad if he ended up at U of M. Would add another nice veteran piece.
I wonder if Juwan got fed up with all the youth on the roster the last two seasons and now he's just like "Give me every veteran out there."
Would be an awesome addition. He appears to have Zack Novackian levels of grit.
Mulcahy is a guy I always cheered against when we played Rutgers. I guess he's probly got a little Mo Wagner in him, so we can always use that on our team.
I recall alot of his defense is flopping, body banging down low and reaching after the defender drives by him. So I'm not sold on him being a plus defender, but he definitely shows effort.
Positional versatility I think is his best attribute, running offense and passing ability. But I wouldn't want he & Cheddar out there together very much.
Is that the headband guy?
Love his game and his headband. The two-man game with him and TWill would be devastating
We could have used headband last year. Someone who gives a shit.