Exit: Hunter Dickinson and Kobe Bufkin
We didn't post the Dickinson news on Friday because at first it was not immediately clear that his entrance into the portal was indeed a final exit. Since then, the response from the program indicates the finality and warranted a post and as I was planning to make one up, we got news of Kobe Bufkin's departure. So, let's do them together. From Friday:
Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson has hit the transfer portal, he told @stadium.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 31, 2023
HUGE NEWS!!!
And from a few minutes ago:
🚨 Roster News 🚨
— Michigan Men's Basketball (@umichbball) April 2, 2023
G Kobe Bufkin has elected to forgo his remaining eligibility and enter the 2023 NBA Draft.#GoBlue ➡️ #ProBlue pic.twitter.com/Iayy9tghyl
The insiders were reporting a couple weeks ago that Juwan Howard was trying to push his players for earlier decisions this season after Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate took their NBA conundrum down to the wire last season. It appears the players responded, but none of them gave him the answer he likely wanted. These two players join Jett Howard in departing Michigan Men's Basketball and in the process, it deprives the team of the three main engines of offense throughout the season.
The Dickinson exit is the most surprising, something that insiders (presumably from coaching sources) were vehemently dismissing the possibility of basically up until it happened. That it leaked out to a reporter and not from a player who has let the world know what he thinks about just about everything is doubly surprising. Over three seasons at Michigan, Dickinson was All-B1G every year, B1G Freshman of the Year in 2021, and a consensus All-American once. He was the face of the program over the past two seasons and never missed the opportunity to play the villain to opposing fans. Where Dickinson lands is unknown right now but presumably it will be a place that can offer a hefty NIL package and the chance to win big.
[Marc-Gregor Campredon]
Bufkin's departure had been suspected for some time. A highly touted recruit in the 2021 class, Bufkin struggled his first season in Ann Arbor, rarely seeing the floor for more than a few minutes at a time due to atrocious defense, something he acknowledged in the offseason. Bufkin put in plenty of work and made a sizable sophomore leap, all the way up to All-B1G honors. His MPG clip went from 10.8 to 34.0, his three point clip from 22.2% to 35.5%, and points per game from 3.0 to 14.0. As the season rolled along, Bufkin became a larger piece of the offense and while he did have some tough moments here and there, he was making his case to be recognized as the team's best player. This rapid improvement gained interest from NBA scouts, which left Bufkin with a choice: stay and go for the top 10 of the draft in 2024, or leave now and be a first rounder somewhere in the 20s. He has evidently opted for the latter.
In losing Howard, Dickinson, and Bufkin, Michigan has officially lost 60.3% of its points from last season. Joey Baker continues to pursue a waiver from the NCAA to play another season but the current reporting is that it is an uphill battle ($). If that is the case, Michigan could be looking at replacing 68% of its scoring. The true impact to the offense is even larger, though, as anyone who watched the team knows that the outputs of Baker and everyone else, be it Dug McDaniel or Terrance Williams II, revolved around the three departing players, who were the team's most important offensive pieces. Returning McDaniel and Tarris Reed Jr. gives Michigan a couple useful cogs in building a future defense, but with these three departures, they are essentially starting over on offense.
Michigan has now lost those three players, plus Isaiah Barnes, off the team. They added Nimari Burnett this week, an upgrade if viewed as a Barnes replacement, but much more portal hunting will be required. Michigan plans to bring in two recruits, George Washington III and Papa Kante, and then will fill the rest of the slots on the roster from the portal. It will not be the easiest endeavor in the world, both landing quality players out of the portal and then ensuring that those quality players fit together to produce a winning roster next season. It's going to be a fascinating next few weeks, a series of roster decisions and recruiting battles out of the portal that may well decide whether Juwan Howard survives as Michigan Men's Basketball coach. Stay tuned.
It's okay.
A shake up was needed, and either Michigan hits the reset button or the reset button hits Michigan.
Turns out the latter.
This is where I'm at. Obviously this group didn't work this season, for whatever reason. There's little reason to think that running it back would have gotten a different result. Hopefully Howard has some introspection and makes some changes to roster construction and culture. Despite the hashtag, this team did not embody the whole "for competitors only" mantra.
It almost worked. While using true freshmen we beat MSU and they went quite far. Jetts lack of D seemed.to be the issue because when he went out we went on a tear.
Don't forget Beileins bad years were far worse than this. Yes, he had to build the program back, and Juwan came in on third base, brut making point where the team was this year.
I think the salt in the wounds is MSU losing only Hauser and then adding Carr and Booker who appears to be an absolute monster.
It worked until the last 5 minutes of to many games.
Make that the last minute.
A lot of very bad takes/insinuations here-and in the responses. This "off" year was the convergence of a variety of matters. The worst of the takes in this regard is the notion that Juwan was born on third base-this could not be further from the truth.
Sadly, this forum brings out the worst, in every way, of Michigan basketball fans.
I'm curious if you'd be willing to expand on what insinuations you think are off. This roster had two potential first round early entry players and a multi time all B1G player, but had almost nothing else. Roster construction / talent evaluation were clearly sub par.
I guess the one insinuation that I can be more explicit about is that this team seemed to have bad body language. Jett not being pulled after the BTT boxout incident and the team getting immediately boat raced did not seem like a coincidence to me.
Michigan went to the ncaa Finals in 2018 - what base did the coach following that start on, if not 3rd?
For my part, the disorganized coaching in crunch time, and - whether you think this is "fair" or not - the suboptimal level of effort put in by Juwan"s own son have caused me to move on from Juwan. And clearly much of the team feels the same - again including his own son.
I could name 10 coaches whose teams looked far better prepared & exhibited more effort In the tournament - I'll start with the coach of FAU! Grab him!
College basketball tournament is too fluky to say past tournament success is an indicator of future success. What’s the over/under on the amount of yesterdays final four teams that you’re taking to the sweet sixteen next year?
Howard is a big ten champ who has since had two underperforming years (one of which he still made a sweet 16. To the prior point, the tournament is fluky). I’m not going to pretend everything is fine - he’s definitely on the clock - but to pretend he’s some garbage coach or the next Ewing is to ignore any context around the program.
Let me say, I loved Juwan as a player. I think he got WAY more support than say a Rich Rod did. I think Michigan fans wanted/want him to succeed. I know I did/do. I think he has done some very good things, Personally I would have fired him for the Wisconsin fiasco last year. I would have lost my job for that. As a Juwan fan that broke me. No excuses.
That being said he is at a Harbaugh 2020 moment. This is the year. What he is doing isn't working. Jim realized that, Juwan's turn.
Dickinson to the portal makes the most sense for the player. He probably knew Jett and Kobe were exiting. What he has elected to do gives him the most freedom to find a competitive situation.
He looked very discouraged by the end of the season and had a difficult time keeping his head up in press meetings after the games where late leads were lost.
I would not count out Juwan Howard in this situation since he has certainly lived through more dire circumstances. He can use all of his get out of jail free cards as he attempts to rebuild his roster using the portal.
Dickinson to the portal makes sense to me, too. I lost my respect for him when he went on the road to Wisconsin wearing a ski mask, one day after the MSU shooting tragedies. He "stole" nothing but his own dignity, making the team, his coaches, and UM laughing stocks amidst another loss. Head held down? Rightfully so. Take that *show somewhere else.
Sound harsh? Not really. He's a paid athlete making almost a $mil per season, and a poor ambassador for the sport and UM.
Ouch!
Pondering the future of Howard implies the competency of Manuel (or the willingness of Santa to stick his nose further into the AD's bailiwick.)
Now let's hope we see a Hello Edey post...
I have to admit that this causes me something of a "now our pets' heads are falling off" feeling, but the coaching staff must have been preparing for this possibility. They can certainly pitch the opportunity to play a lot to potential transfers and recruits. This offseason and the coming season will be interesting, if nothing else.
This feels like a defining moment for the Howard regime, at the risk of stating the obvious. Hopefully their hard luck has taught them some valuable lessons in the way that the Tyus Battle debacle caused John Beilein to recalibrate his approach to recruiting.
Losing Kobe is the price you pay for taking an unplayable freshman and developing him into a 1st round draft pick. Yes much of that credit goes to Kobe who reportedly has a terrific work ethic. A loss but an expected loss.
Hunter? Maybe addition by subtraction? Our offense seemed very slow and bogged down with much of it simply dumping it into Hunter. Almost zero transition points for the team as HD, for all his reputation as a good passer, seemed unable to make that initial transition pass. I always remember that OSU game from two seasons ago when Hunter was sick and didn't play. The team seemed so much more cohesive and focused without him. And it will be nice watching a game with my10 year old and not having to watch Hunter play with himself after a made shot.
Next year? Well the base will be two 4* players and a 5* player so there is some talent there. Add the right pieces for the other spots from the portal and some hoped for development from players like Chedder and YoYo and the future may not be as dark as so many think.
Who is the five star?
Burnett, once upon a time
Not to 247 or the composite. Very high four star though.
Classic Patrick Ewing theory argument. Can’t say that I disagree.
Very discouraging for the basketball program. First year of Howard appears to be an aberration, as the program is heading steadily downward. The roster turnover has become intolerable and the recruiting is not going well either. I don't see this ending well for Howard, but hopefully he surprises me.
Howard was an Isaiah Livers injury away from the final four and maybe more. It is clear he knows how to coach. Having the right players to coach may be the problem but…
This isn’t a Michigan problem. Tramon Mark (of Houston) is in the portal. Guy was starting on the number 1 team in the country and he is looking for greener pastures…this sport is breaking before our eyes.
I always loved college sports because you could root for the players AND the jersey they wore. It is now like the pros where you only root for the jersey because everyone is a mercenary. I am sure things can find their level but it may take a while.
Yeah same on college sports as a whole. We are benefiting from it in football to some degree but certainly not in bball.
Every year every player is a free agent in pro sports terms. It's wacky.
A difference is that since football has so many more players, it doesn't feel as drastic when there are transfers in and out. 3-4 transfers in basketball feels like the whole team changes
Hunter to the portal proves to me that one and done doesn't work with the transfer portal.
If you don't grade out, then all you have to do is transfer.
It is not at all clear as to whether Howard knows how to coach. Coaches typically don't start scrapes in the handshake line. They also know how to not blow 8 point leads in the last 90 seconds of a game.
The recruiting of late is really the downer for me. Howard was supposed to bring his NBA cred and such to be lighting it up. Anyhow at least we have football and hockey.
NBA street cred was great for recruiting in an era that is gone. In the current era, you (or your proxies) need to offer upfront $$$ to be a great recruiter.
Rutgers doesn't do that for example, they're notoriously cheap, and they have a better class coming in this year and next year will most likely have 2 top 5 players.
The recruiting might get worse. There are rumors one of the two current commits for next season might not qualify academically. yay.
Keep hearing this but it’s not getting a whole lot of traction anywhere else so far
man, a shake up was going to happen, but I really hoped that Kobe would stay... I mean, if he is a top 20 pick, its a no brainer...even a 1st rounder, I get it, and its hard to fault a kid with a winning lottery ticket wanting to cash it in.
That said, I was hoping he'd pull a Trace Jackson and come back, even with getting drafted pretty much on lock.
Michigan really needs to be smart about upcoming roster building this time around, as major issues were the cause of them missing the tournament this year imo.
It’s hard to be a college basketball fan right now. You watch the players with the most potential to do incredible things and they leave before it’s realized.
Trying to piece together a team in this environment must be an agonizing process as a coach.
I agree. I also think the NBA product is rotten right now and it’s sadly taking college basketball down with it.
Lmao what!?
This is a clown take. The NBA product has never been better. Every team has talent especially on offense. Yeah the NBA has to tweak some defensive rules, but never in history of the league has there been so many gifted players.
To each their own I guess. Most everyone I personally know (myself included) can’t stand no defense / hero ball offense basketball. I don’t disagree there are talented players in the league but that doesn’t change the fact most games are just three point shooting contests - which assumes the best players actually play and don’t need to rest. The NBA has also ruined college basketball by drafting players that haven’t proven much of anything at college. If that’s a clown take then so be it. Maybe the 04 Pistons didn’t have the most “gifted” players ever but I’d watch that team 6 nights a week and 2x on Sunday over the NBA today.
Right there with you on all points. Increased accumulation of talent doesn’t necessarily equate to increased quality of game. Haven’t really enjoyed the NBA much over the past few years, outside of pulling for the guys from UM on an individual player level.
Bruh this is just wrong. The offensive sets in basketball are ubiquitous. ISO-basketball died by 2014.
The 1990s and early 2000s had ISO permeating through the league.
This is a great take! And I absolutely agree. Remember how much fun it was to watch the 2004 Piston? The NBA sucks.
Maybe if you like players like Poole getting to take 6 steps and two hops before putting up a shot and not having it called a travel. I’m sure we’ve all seen that clip here. The regular season product is boring and just a mess.
Now I understand why these college kids want to get to the pros. Big paydays are what they’re striving for, just like all of us regular working joes. But the college product is suffering for open transfers and one-and-done ability to go to the pros. The only thing holding football together is that players can’t go to the league until 3 seasons.
College sports are not what they used to be 15 years ago and that’s fine. TV stations are making billion dollar deals. Players should get their share but it’s ruining the basic enjoyment of the sport and I don’t think it’s returning.
The NBA blows. It’s more a cinematic showcase than an actual competition.
I would follow the NBA more if the Pistons would ever get good again! I agree watching a few games it is almost a 3 point shooting contest!
I loved watching Kobe play this season, and it sucks to lose him when he could have really shone bright next season, but I'm fine with all the other departures.
I'm not sure Howard's seat is as warm as everyone thinks it is. Warde surely realizes that it's a new era of college basketball, and you can't really fault Juwan for the record when there's so much turnover every year.
I think it's more important that Juwan get some new assistants for next season. This group has grown stale.
Yeah, we can argue about Coach Howard all we want, but I doubt that firing him has even crossed Warde Manuel's mind.
It makes me giggle inside that the fanbase thinks Warde would fire JH.
Well, I'll bet ya if enough people, and the right people, say it it'll cross Warde's mind!
I am all for one more season with Juwan and see how it goes. The seat may be a little warm at this time but is far from hot. Things can heat up if the 2023-24 season starts out flat and loses more close games. We won't know until we see the future roster and how they gel.
Losing close games may feel like the good old days next season.
Stating the obvious at this point, but it sure seems like the trajectory of this season, and by extension the program, swung on just a couple decisions. What would things look like right now if (1) Frankie doesn't lose his mind, and (2) Terrence Shannon was successfully admitted?
Losing Frankie was a blow. But he's not exactly world-beater, and also had an established record as a program-hopper.
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