So You're Saying There's A Chance? Per 247, Dickinson *Could* Return To Michigan
Not likely, and doesn't happen often (although Kofi Cockburn did it), but multiple outlets are reporting that we shouldn't rule out a return to Michigan.
Maryland (due to his former HS coach joining their staff as an assistant and his favorite team growing up), Georgetown (other hometown team), and "highest NIL bidder" (I haven't heard of any teams that are rumored) seem to be the other teams in the equation.
There is a thought that despite his talent, Hunter may look around to find out...there aren't that many schools that play a style that fits his skillset, and many of the schools who do, already have a big - and the schools willing to adjust their system for him might not be schools he is interested in.
That said, the portal is fluid and all it takes is one. Especially as more kids enter. For everyone talking about "roster management" and blaming coaches for retention...as of this moment, over 20% of D1 college basketball players are in the transfer portal. Over 20%...1 in 5...3 per team. There are 358 teams in D1 college basketball.
Out here on the Great Plains of Kansas there are "insiders" who are all over Hunter-believing he would remedy every woe of their roster. Maybe???
Howdy, Kansas!
I got lotsa Kansas connections. There are cousins in Olathe and Lawrence; my best friend from forest fire fighting days is from Wichita; and my mom went to Baker University, plus I lived across the river in KC, Mo.
Hard pass.
He snuck out without telling any of his teammates or coaches. I don’t think there is any coming back from that.
Didn’t he also trash Juwan on his podcast claiming the entire offense was set up to showcase Jett?
Yeah, he’s not coming back.
EDIT-What I posted below is a fake April Fools joke. Sorry all. 😔
Dang. I'm speculating but I wouldn't be surprised if more players thought the team was coddling Jett. At least that problem resolved itself.
This is fake. It's an April Fool's
Appears to be an APRIL FOOLs joke as the clip you posted has no sound to it and was an older interview.
Well that’ll teach me to post things without actually, you know, listening to them.
Thanks for the heads-up/correction. I’ll take my beating now.
Juwan's farewell note sounded like a very final farewell. I'd be surprised.
Not happening
So Michigan has 2 players in the portal, 1 less than the national average of 3.
That's somethin'
Is that a real stat? It seems like every school has at least a couple of guys transferring in the 247 database. If there are 13 scholarship players having 23%(3) of your roster transfer in addition to [20-25%] graduating every year is absolutely crazy.
Is his girlfriend staying? At 21 I might have followed one or two upstanding females even to a Jud Heathcoate coached team.
They've deleted each other from their Instagram accounts, so I don't think she factors into his decision making anymore.
How do people know this much information? I barely know this much about my close friends. I'm sometimes surprised when they show up with the same woman from 5 years ago. I had no clue they were still dating, haha.
Bill went into underwater welding & is doing well, & Dave got married & has 8 kids.
It’s Putin, he knows all
No thanks. Time for both sides to move on.
Hard pass. Do not want.
I can understand Maryland and highest bidder, but Georgetown is a headscratcher. Just canned Patrick Ewing after multiple awful seasons. Roster has even less coming back than Michigan. And, frankly, there is probably going to be tougher competition in the Big East next year than in the B1G.
Other than "going home" I don't see the attraction.
I wouldn't rule out a return but the way the portal entry was handled and with Juwan's response I'd be very surprised if it happened. Both sides appear ready to try something else.
Let's move on.
i don't recall who the writer was... but i read an article saying St. Johns was a darkhorse that could become his landing spot. Satan needs to make a roster splash, Hunter averaging 18.5 pts and 9 rb is a solid big man. No doubt Satan can summons filthy money to offer a big NIL package.....
It made me throw up in my mouth when I read it...
HD has the attitude Pitino is looking for but not the game.
I'm still trying to figure out what Juwan meant by calling Hunter's portal entrance "bittersweet." What would be sweet about losing your top scorer for the last few years? Then Will Tschetter made some cryptic remarks about team chemistry and hinted about how it would improve with Hunter gone.
Methinks there's more to this than meets the eye.
I doubt Juwan meant it was a good thing for the team/program. I'm guessing he was referring to Hunter moving on to what he thinks is a better situation for him personally.
If I had to guess.
I believe I read that Dickinson was on pace to graduate this spring (3 years). If your player graduates in 3 years, earns All-American honors, multiple all-conference honors and helps you get to back-to-back sweet 16s, there is a lot of sweet to celebrate. After his freshman year, most UM fans would have signed up for 3 years in a heartbeat. It's hard to begrudge him wanting to look for greener (at least different) pastures. In a way, he lived up to (probably exceeded) his original commitment. Good for him for wanting a new challenge; on the court, in the class room and, socially.
I thought the same thing. This year’s basketball team reminded me a lot of the 2020 football team in that it sure seemed like something was amiss behind the scenes.
And if memory serves a lot of posters here (including me) wanted Jim canned that year just like a lot of posters (NOT including me) want to see Juwan get the boot now.
It really seemed to me that Jett was playing for the draft, not for the team. Lots of hero ball antics, maybe that was just a freshman being a freshman.... but that could have very well been the lockerroom problem as well.
I was wrong about a lot of things in 2020 (even though I was down on Milton as a starting QB I sort of assumed they'd be better than 2-4) but it felt like there were a ton warning signs that year was going to be tire fire, starting with the fact that the Bob Shoop was the safeties coach but wasn't on campus and was instead trying to conduct coaching via Zoom.
This year's team had some weird vibes at times but I was honestly a bit surprised it turned as quickly as it did especially since last year's team seemed way jankier but you didn't hear a ton about guys being unhappy.
Is there a link/source for these cryptic remarks?
The Wolverine did an interview with Tschetter that was published yesterday.
I read bittersweet to mean celebrating HD's successes at Michigan, but sad to see him go earlier than expected. (In the statement, Juwan referred to the BIG Championship, Sweet 16, and Elite Eight).
The bittersweet stuff with Hunter read more as they had some great accomplishments together and probably hoped they could have finished up 4 years with some more.
As for Tschetter's comments I guess I always thought that was in reference to Jett Howard leaving more than Dickinson, even if the timing seemed off (I don't know how often reporters get to talk to guys on the team, especially backup-types). Dickinson struggled to start the year but midway through he was working hard on both ends of the court and absolutely played like a guy who gave a shit on defense. Jett was a true freshman and so I'll forgive a lot but there were defensive lapses and effort lapses all year up to (and including) the BTT game. So if Tschetter really is referring to a particular player's effort and defense that felt like more of a sub-tweet directed at him than Dickinson. Might be wrong but that was my take.
Hasn't Hunter hated on Maryland for years now since his perceived snub by them? It's like that one girl you really want and even though she's treated you like crap, the moment she says yes, you run to her, haha.
After a few years in Ann Arbor - I don't think there's a priority on being "close to home", near where Hunter grew up.
But, what do I know...
I believe his animosity was directed towards Turgeon for not recruiting him and Turgeon is now gone.
This would be quite the development. As far as I can tell, HD has not himself spoken publically about the move, but then again Juwan came out with his statement which seemed to suggest there was closure here.
It's hard to make any concrete statements from the Will Tschetter tweet (as well as the walk on, who had similiar cryptic remarks).
All in all, I think it's hard to say the team would be better WITHOUT Hunter, so him coming back should be seen as a positive. However, I am not going to get my hopes up.
There's nothing of substance in that "article" to believe there is even the remotest chance of Hunter returning and the referenced tweet is from a Maryland 247 "writer" who basically vomits every thought he's ever had into written form and then publishes it.
Two things.
First, what number of players in the portal don't get an offer and transfer to another school. IIRC, the figures I've heard is that a fair percentage of those who enter the portal, don't receive an offer to continue playing.
Second, if Hunter were to say - "I've explored the portal and want to return to Michigan." Would you welcome him back. As a fan, I would.
Guys who don't get offers are mid-major bench guys who think they're going to up transfer to the P5 only to find out D2 doesn't want them either. Hunter is not that.
Don't forget the NIL wild card. Hunter may be wanted somewhere else but he's making more money at Michigan. I think a lot of guys are exploring the portal for that reason.
I don't put much credence into the article but at the same time Dickinson is a really good college player but one who has a particular style and strengths/limitations that aren't going to appeal to every team. I know during the podcast this week they said any team in America should be coming after him but (a) there are lots of teams that don't run offensive or defensive systems that need a ball-dominant, limited-switchability defender, (b) aren't going to change up their systems up for a 1-year rental of said player, and (c) have a role that Dickinson will want to step into. He's not going to go to, I don't know, Baylor to be the 3rd offensive option and get switched out offense-for-defense late in games. The reference to UNC's center saying he wants Dickinson didn't make a ton of sense to me even though Dickinson could probably be a 4 with his shooting; that's a team that bombed out harder than UM did this year and has a lot of roles in flux. A center saying basically he wants a skilled backup doesn't seem like one that would work for anyone.
So I think he's gone but as we saw with Cockburn guys sometimes go out to the market and find it wanting and then figure it's worth heading back for 1 more year. So we'll see.
Skeeps and Ricks are putting together a NIL package to keep Hunter and preserve their revenue stream
lol...
It blows my mind that people blame Juwan for "losing Hunter" and use it to make a case for why he sucks as a coach.
And then there's news that Hunter hasn't ruled out a return and it's, "do not want" "hard pass" "time to move on."
I stopped trying to figure this place out a long time ago, but this is a prime example as to why.
The more MGoBlog changes, the more it remains the same.
Especially when it was Juwan who got him to Michigan, and got him to stay longer than probably normal.
Maryland (due to his former HS coach joining their staff…
Thanks for this tidbit. I was previously scratching my head on that choice.
Where the hell is the One More Year fund that got back Johnson, Corum, Keegan, and Zinter?!
I get that they're not going to bat 100%, but I imagine a coordinated push could have made Jett, Kobe, and Dickinson's decisions a little more interesting. Especially Dickinson.
I get there's a difference between a Big Ten winning football team and NIT basketball team, but it would be great to see a little more NIL support in retaining star players.
You’re not matching top half of the first round with NIL.
First off, the Michigan fanbase cares way more about football and that will never change.
Second, Kobe and Jett are going to make way more next year from their first round contracts, which also starts the clock on getting to their second contract and a huge payday (assuming their play warrants it). As for Dickinson, I think it's clear that he saw that Michigan would be mediocre again and decided he wanted to play for a winner. Can't fault him there.
Not sure I would enjoy another year of watching the offense run through Hunter again. Thanks, but that ship has sailed.
Let coach form a new identity to the team, next few seasons will show if he can prove he's a long term solution.