adrien nunez

Caleb Houstan's long arms are going to pay dividends [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

2021-22 B1G Basketball Season Preview... previously: Season preview podcastPower Rankings Lower HalfPower Rankings Upper Half, Guards

Earlier today we kicked off the positional preview portion of this season preview by looking at guards. Now we pivot to the wing position, encompassing a range of SG to PF and totaling five names. It begins with a lanky shooter who is poised to be Michigan basketball's next great Canadian star: 

 

Caleb Houstan

Year: Freshman

Height/Weight: 6’8/205

Recruiting Profile: Five-star, #10 overall, #3 PF, Hello post

After the tease that was the 2020 recruiting class, Juwan Howard’s first five star to officially commit and arrive in Ann Arbor is Caleb Houstan. Houstan is a native of Mississauga, ON, the third notable Michigan player in the last decade to hail from the Greater Toronto Area (following Iggy Brazdeikis and Nik Stauskas). Houstan left his Ontario roots for high school, moving to attend Montverde Academy in Florida, where he played alongside future top five NBA draft picks Cade Cunningham and Scottie Barnes. As a junior, he played a mostly off-ball shooting role and shot 52% from beyond the arc. That number dipped to 39% as Houstan was asked to play a more central role in the offense as a senior, following the graduation of many of Montverde’s heavy hitters, but both of those percentages indicate a very good shooting talent.

Pretty much everyone agrees that Caleb Houstan can shoot the basketball. Here’s some of Matt’s scouting report (emphasis mine):

Houstan is one of the premier perimeter shotmakers in America. He’s at his best as a catch and shoot threat coming off screens or from a stationary position on the wing/corners. His mechanics are remarkably consistent, with a high release point, good arch and nice rotation. The sheer volume of his makes that don’t touch the rim is almost unbelievable. While Caleb has more of a set-shot, his combination of size/length will make that largely irrelevant at the college level, where closeouts aren’t likely to bother his shot. He also excels at relocating to give his guard optimal passing windows that maximize spacing.

While he was primarily an off-ball shooter for a loaded Montverde team during his junior season, Houstan was more of an on-ball option in the half-court for Canada at the 2019 FIBA U16s. He did display some ability to create plays for himself and others in that setting, but he’s not a shifty prospect that changes direction with a live dribble very often. He’s more adept at attacking in a straight line after getting off-ball screens, while flashing the occasional pull-up from midrange and isolation drive from the wing.

As a finisher, I really like Caleb’s willingness to use his body to negate shotblocking. He consistently gets into the chest of the defender to create space and convert or draw fouls. He shot nearly 9 free throws per contest during the 2019 FIBAs because of this exact approach. That is extremely impressive for a prospect whose best weapon is a catch-and-shoot jumper. While he’s not a great athlete, his size/length and physicality as a finisher probably means he’ll be solid at drawing free throws for the Wolverines when attacking closeouts.”

Houstan’s role in Michigan’s offense as a freshman will more closely resemble his junior year at Montverde, likely receiving passes from Devante’ Jones, Hunter Dickinson, and Eli Brooks, and being asked to get up his shot. There’s a lot of reason to believe that will go well. Athleticism is not considered one of the top components of Houstan’s profile, but his shooting ability and length will make him a dangerous offensive player at Michigan, and it finds him in the lottery of preseason NBA Draft projections.

Defensively, no one expects Houstan to be a 1:1 replacement for Franz Wagner at the SF position, but Matt didn’t seem too worried in his hello post about Houstan’s ability to at least be playable defensively:

Defensively, Houstan is solid at jumping passing lanes on the wing where his length aids him in getting deflections and steals. He doesn’t move well enough to defend legitimate guards, but his size/length will allow him to defend pure wings as a freshman and he’ll likely add enough muscle mass/strength to defend bully-ball power forwards down the line.

If Houstan can be a solid defender, shoot 38-40% from three on solid volume, and occasionally put the ball on the floor to get fouls at the rack, he will be a great B1G player who Michigan will gladly start at the three.

Houstan highlights, for those interested: 

Role: Houstan enters the season as the projected starting SF (he started the exhibition against WSU). The maturity he brings to his game and the polished skillset as a plug and play shooter make him nearly impossible to keep out of the lineup so long as the threes are going down at a reasonable rate. When we talk about Michigan needing to replace perimeter shooting talent that exited after last season, we’re really turning to Caleb Houstan and quoting Rick Blaine by saying “here’s looking at you, kid”. Houstan enters the season as a frontrunner for B1G Freshman of the Year, and if he clicks, it’s quite possible he sees close to 30 minutes per game at the SF position. Houstan is the most crucial freshman on Michigan’s roster because of that sizable projected role.

[AFTER THE JUMP: The junkyard dog has slimmed down]

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Name and image is here. The floodgates have opened and now Jordan Bohannon can help sell fireworks. Lo, it is a new era. A couple of Michigan players have signed on with a company that will pair you with athletes so you can play games with them, and Adrien Nunez—who has 1.6 million TikTok followers—launched some merch. Social media!

…as Nuñez received cupping therapy in a training room, he pulled out his phone and filmed his legs. “People on TikTok go viral for literally the dumbest reasons possible,” a voice says in the published clip, which has since been played 116,000 times.

There was a brief Michigan-related kerfuffle when human-type object Darren Rovell tweeted out that Michigan's policy is that athletes have to file their deals with the AD a week before they're actually signed, causing 1) a bunch of people saying that's bad and dumb and 2) an even larger number of people pointing out that Michigan is aligning their policy with state law:

It's possible the state will revisit the NIL bill they passed if that actually turns out to be a problem.

Note that the version of NIL that passed is the most permissive, and opens virtually all the doors:

the Council rejected another proposal that — while largely similar — also included the proviso that schools’ NIL policies not allow payments from “any booster, or any person or entity acting on behalf” of the school.

This indicates that the Council was concerned that virtually any restriction in a temporary policy would draw a legal challenge based on the Supreme Court’s ruling last week in the Alston antitrust case.

So the doors are all the way open. Guy Who Sells Cars can give people loaners above-board now. Handshakes are probably going to continue but their relative importance will plummet. 

[After THE JUMP: 420 games!]

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

A series looking at Michigan's 2021-22 basketball outlook. Previously: center, power forward, small forward.

ROSTER

Eli Brooks (Sr.+): Ultimate glue guy shot 45/40 last year and hit 91% of his FTs while providing secondary playmaking and taking opposition's best perimeter offensive option. COVID bonus year is massive for program.

Zeb Jackson (So.): Pops physically as a 6'5" guard with a lot of lift but limited playing time as HS senior and last year. Bit of a mystery man. Crucial year for him as he'll either establish himself a rotation piece or get wiped out by freshmen.

Kobe Bufkin (Fr.): Willowy 6'4" combo guard steadily rose in rankings over cycle, landing at #42 in the composite, despite wrist injury that cost him much of his senior year. Three-level scorer but might need Camp Sanderson to bust out.

Adrien Nunez (Sr.): Deep bench option unlikely to break through in year four.

I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS

Uh… do I?

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TVLand, the player [Campredon]

Brooks's return means this spot is going to be the most stable and predictable on the roster. Dickinson might look pretty different next year; we don't really know what to expect from Johns; there will be new starters at SF and PG. Eli Brooks is going to be Eli Brooks. I probably don't have to explain what the last two years of Brooks looks like to anyone who stops by this blog, but for the record:

  • 36-40% three point shooting, with virtually all of those threes catch and shoot attempts.
  • Pull-ups in the midrange that are reasonably good late clock options.
  • Missed floaters and questionable finishing at the rim because of a lack of size and bounce.
  • Plus defense that isn't quite lockdown against bigger guards who can get to the basket and finish over him. (EG: Duane Washington roasted him.)
  • Ineffable sense that things work well with him and do not work well without him.

[After THE JUMP: splits splits splits splits]

[cues 'Ride of the Valkyries']

can we run this back, we know how to win it now

upside is upside 

stop scheduling men's and women's game that overlap, jerks

Any win is a good win. Later is later. 

hopefully the injury scare doesn't mar the kenpom-exceeding blowout

someone please score the basketball

searching for shooters, really searching for attackers

we're talking about practice 

[final countdown] Franz! Franz Franz Franz! NU NUH NU NUHHHHHH [/final countdown]