Per Twitters: DDJ to enter the transfer portal
Pretty self-explanatory. I would hate to lose DDJ, but some roster attrition was imminent. Who knows what this, on top of Todd's social media deletions mean for next year.
BREAKING: The Michigan Insider has learned that #Michigan PG David DeJulius intends to enter the transfer portal https://t.co/sz6M0cJzVW pic.twitter.com/QGFf3hFc34
— Josh Henschke (@JoshHenschke) April 6, 2020
Think of it this way.
We could have had one of our bad players transfer to some garbage tier team and basically ruin their life, but he stepped up and proved himself to be valuable on the court and could transfer to plenty of good teams where he could get a good look from the NBA or overseas scouts.
And now we have room for all our shiny stars
I've seen it twice now but don't fully follow what you're saying. Ruin their life? That seems dramatic. But we still retain said bad player and lose a decent one...and we don't for sure know what the hell these highschoolers are doing.
It means Nunez gonna play.
Bummer
Not really. We still could add Christopher and a grad transfer guard. Plus I expect Bajema to progress and pass Nunez in the rotation.
Just saw it....for a guy who was a potential starter next year, this doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Best of luck to him, but damn, it's confusing.
He was definitely in line for a big jump in playing time. Depth at guard was an issue this year, especially when brooks was out. Next year could be rough at guard. Sad to see him go, he was improving as a player and had great energy.
This makes Josh Christopher a must get. It would not surprise me if he is a silent commit. Even so this doesn’t make sense to me.
DDJ next year was going to play starter minutes as a Junior. It also hurts losing him for what likely would have been an All Big Ten type of Senior year.
Smart move by DDJ. He knows his game is better suited elsewhere. Good luck.
Weird that it ended up being him.
I think this is likely good news on the Christopher and Aiken front. Idk why he would be leaving otherwise
Nothing surprises me with Michigan anymore. We just can’t have nice things.
Wow.
That sucks. Hopefully that is because he knows Christopher is coming and he wants to start without competing for a spot.
Sucks to see him go. Hopefully this portends good news on the Josh Christopher and/or Bryce Aiken front.
DDJ year three in the program >>>> Bryce Aiken.
Theres no good news on the Bryce Aiken front that involves DDJ leaving. Michigan fans are always into the shiny new thing. ??♂️
Damn, Juwan Howard leaving to coach the Cavs or something?
Well then Beilein could be back!
If UM gets Bryce Aiken and Christopher, that will be your starting guard combo.
I think Brooks is still a potential starter. He fits well with Christopher and is a solid 3 and D piece.
I think Brooks would start before Aiken. Familiarity with system and personnel, plus he plays off the ball better than Aiken, which is what you need since Christopher should be the primary ball handler no matter who the other starting G is.
Lol this was like the 7th most likely person to open a scholarship for Christopher/Aiken. Couple this with Todd scrubbing his socials of anything Michigan related and Christopher becoming more of a question mark, this would be a massive shift in next seasons outlook.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
MattD just said the other day he wasn't despite all the rumors.
Nobody's perfect
Disappointing, really liked the way his game was coming around and should have definitely had a place on this team. As a starter along side JC or at the very least the backup for Brooks and JC. A solid 20 min a game. Hopefully Zeb Jackson is a dude
From what they were saying on the MGoRoundtable on WTKA last week, Jackson is a very impressive athlete and very underrated in that area.
I watched 3 Mont Verde games this year and Jackson is an interesting prospect. He's a good athlete, fast, and really shifty off the dribble. Has surprisingly good playmaking skills for a 6'4" guy. He can get to the rim pretty well, but definitely needs to bulk up and work on his finishing. His jump shot needs work and he often times plays too quickly and needs to slow down a bit. He's definitely got solid upside though
Well, this sucks. I wish him well wherever he lands, though. Wonder if we'll ever find out why - writing on the wall that others would start in front of him; didn't like the coaching; saw some recruiting over him? All questions we'll never know the answer to!
I dunno, man... Kinda sucks. Was expecting to see Nunez go, even though he already said he was coming back. I can't believe it was a DDJ vs Nunez decision. Bajema vs Nunez is another story - even though that should be Bajema all day long.
What do you mean a "DDJ vs Nunez" decison?
Anyone know if Brandon Wade might get minutes next year if we don't get Aiken?
Word is the kid isn't more than an end of bench guy.
DDJ made huge strides from year 1 to the next, I was expecting big things from him the next 2 years. Pure speculation on my part, with DDJ, Brooks, Zeb and the pursuit of Aiken, maybe DDJ felt like he wasn’t trusted to run this ship.
I feel like the pursuit of Aiken was more as a contingency plan for this happening than the reason why it did.
That's a bummer, but I think it represents a general trend we will see reflected in our roster composition going forward under Juwan. DDJ, while a really good player, doesn't fit a pro-style mode insofar as he's not a superior athlete, nor does he have a specialist cheat code skill like deadly shooting. Now, I think it's unlikely this Aiken kid stays healthy all season given his track record, but he does have deadly shooting. I would have still preferred to keep DDJ all things considered.
That's a huge loss. Maybe we can make another run at D.J. Carton.
Man, if Todd bolts and Christopher doesn’t come, next year will have gone from “exciting” to “rebuild” awfully fast. Hopefully Wagner and Livers both come back.
I'll still be just as excited to see what Juwan can do with a full recruiting cycle
“What the hell is going on here?”
—Vince Lombardi
Everybody grabbing? Nobody tackling?
What’s the scoop on Todd changing his profile?
I don't really think this should be too surprising. DeJulius played enough this past year to show he'll probably be a viable P5 starter next year. At the same time, he also hasn't played enough to show he's going to be a good starter on a top 25 or better team.
If Michigan gets Christopher (likely), and especially if Michigan gets Aiken as well (possible), DDJ most likely isn't going to start. He probably won't even be in line for a major minutes bump. That would mean he would have 1 year left as a senior to be a starter/play major minutes and build his stock in order to make a pro career out of this. That probably doesn't seem to appealing to him, especially since there would be nothing preventing Michigan from taking a different grad transfer or 5 star in 2021 and relegating DDJ to the bench again.
Like I said above, he's in a weird spot. He showed enough last year so that other P5 teams would like to have him as a starter, but he hasn't shown enough for a team with the potential roster options and high level goals Michigan will have to for him to be entrenched as a starter here. In that case, going to another school where he can RS for a year and then have 1-2 years to play as an entrenched starter before going pro makes a ton of sense for him. So I wish him good luck.
For Michigan it sucks to lose a guy who flashed so much talent this year, but we should be fine. I would assume this means good things on the Christopher/Aiken front, and if we get both of those guys our guard depth will be better than last year. Brooks/Christopher/Aiken as a too 3 with Jackson/Bajema off the bench to play 2 spots, instead of X/DDJ/Brooks to play 2 (or sometimes 3 spots) is a much better situation. The only way this becomes an issue is if we miss out on Christopher and Aiken. But DDJ leaving makes me think we have to feel good about Christopher. And even if we miss on Aiken, Jackson and Bajema are there and I'd assume we go after another grad transfer guard for depth.
And to add one to an already too long post: this is just college basketball now. Even in the B1G you see it now with DDJ, with Muhammad at OSU, Haarms at Purdue, Griffin at Illinois, etc. Guys who played solid bench/pseudo starter roles (sometimes even full on starters), guys fans liked and wanted back, but guys who want confirmed major minutes.
And before anyone asks: the reason this hasn't happened at MSU yet (besides Izzo kidnapping grandparents) is 2 fold. One is that it may still happen at the 4/5 for them once Tillman makes a decision. If he leaves as expected then a spot is open, but if he stays then they have Hasuer and Tillman starting with Bingham, Kithier, Marble, Hall and Sissoko all available off the bench. One or two of those guys might transfer on that scenario, and one might even if Tillman leaves.
The second reason is none of their key bench guys are really good enough for major teams to want right now. At this point their options at the 1-3 for next year are Watts, Henry, Brown, Hoggard and Loyer. The first three are the likely starters, Hoggard is an incoming freshman, and Loyer is garbage. I already went over the guys at the 4/5 but looking at that group who there would other teams want? Marble and Hall just finished their freshmen years so their probably not ready to jump yet, and Marble wasn't that good. Kithier and Bingham finished their sophomore years and neither of them was that good either. Bingham and Hall have the most potential of that group, but there's also an open starting spot as long as Tillman leaves. So if Bingham feels he isn't gonna get that he may leave, but there's not the same obvious roster blockage that DDJ has so it makes sense that he feels he could stick around and win that job.
What?
The?
Hell?
Really only makes sense if Christopher is a silent commit. Simpson is vacating 34 mpg and DDJ was already getting 21 mpg. Could have easily expanded his role on next years team. With no Christopher he's playing 30+ easily. Even with Christopher he's still probably playing over 25 mpg. But instead he's gambling on sitting out a year? Seems odd. Zeb, Nunez, and Bajema werent going to steal any of his minutes. Three guards for 2 spots left plenty for Brooks, DDJ, and Christopher. Its probably why we are even interested in the Harvard transfer, can't go into next season with only two guards.
I think the rumor is that DDJ wants to be *the guy* on the court. ball dominant guard that takes a bunch of shots and uses 20%+ of possessions, like a Carsen Edwards type. Even with all the minutes I think he could have gotten, that was never happening on next years team, nor should it. Only way he would get that is if the doomsday scenario of no Franz, Livers, Todd, or Christopher happens.
Very shocking and saddened to hear this.
Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit inhaling bath salts.
Doesn't seem like a big deal to me. He never seemed to quite fit the program and seemed out of control a lot of the time. I'm not sure why people saw him as next year's starter.
We will be fine!!! Some of these players came in before Juwan Howard got there and sometimes you have players that feel that if they aren’t the man and foresee lots and lots and lots of more talent in front of them. This creates a sense of displacement and they look intelligently for another possibility that may enhance their abilities and also create the ultimate goal,”playing time!” Gonna miss you DDJ, Godspeed and Go Blue! Ibi did the same thing and things worked out for him. It isn’t an indictment against Michigan it’s just we are now a Basketball School! Too much talent!!! Just joking, however it is good to be a Michigan Wolverine!!!