Former Wolverines--Basketball
For those wondering how the transfers are doing, and for those of you who completely forgot about Cole Bajema...
Imagine DeJulius on this year's Michigan team...
Brandon Johns, VCU: 12.3 ppg, 5.1 reb, .8 blocks, 52.4%, 21.9% from 3
Zeb Jackson, VCU: 5.6 ppg, 1.9 assists, 40.4%, 20% from 3
David DeJulius, Cincinnatti: 14.5 ppg, 4.8 assists, 45%, 40.4% from 3
Colin Castleton, Florida: 15.6 ppg, 7.7 reb, 2.7 assists, 1.0 steals, 3.1 blocks, 50%, 14.3% from 3
Frankie Collins, ASU: 11.1 ppg, 4.4 reb, 4.7 assists, 1.4 steals, 40.8%, 34.4% from 3
Cole Bajema, Washington: 9.9 ppg, 4.5 reb, 41.9%, 37.6% from 3
February 6th, 2023 at 7:20 PM ^
Would all these guys have eligibility for this season if they had stayed?
February 6th, 2023 at 7:20 PM ^
Castleton is still in college?
February 6th, 2023 at 7:28 PM ^
Give the guy credit--he was buried on the depth chart behind Jordan Morgan, Jon Horford, and Mitch McGary but didn't give up.
February 6th, 2023 at 7:50 PM ^
In correct. He was buried behind Courtney Simms and Graham Brown
February 6th, 2023 at 7:55 PM ^
And Chris Hunter... pretty sure he came in the same year as Josh Asselin...
February 6th, 2023 at 8:30 PM ^
I remember Castleton being behind Bill Buntin and Oliver Darden on the rotation for bigs…
February 7th, 2023 at 12:26 PM ^
February 6th, 2023 at 9:09 PM ^
Don't forget Tractor Trailer and Butch Wade.
February 6th, 2023 at 9:27 PM ^
Didn't he have a Florida link? Father?
February 7th, 2023 at 12:24 PM ^
At this point, Colin Castleton has a better chance of making it to the NBA than Hunter. He is as good a college player as Hunter, and his game translates better to NBA. Who would've thought?
February 6th, 2023 at 7:21 PM ^
DDJ would be nice to have on the team right now.
I always thought Bajema wasn't given enough minutes his freshman season.
February 7th, 2023 at 9:02 AM ^
Bajema hasn’t been getting productive minutes on a trash Washington team until this year. He didn’t get minutes because he wasn’t good enough.
Also DDJ isn’t really very good either. Obviously given our guard depth a warm body is helpful but none of these guys are missing pieces
February 6th, 2023 at 7:21 PM ^
Even Zeb would be nice to have with the depth chart the way it is.
Nice to see Bajema and Dejulius doing well. Coach B could really find good shooters.
February 6th, 2023 at 7:30 PM ^
DDJ and Bajema screamed great Beilein level players. Would love to have both around last few years. Imagine the stability and shooting the last two year's teams lacked that would be had with these two.
February 7th, 2023 at 8:46 AM ^
DDJ is having a nice season, I will grant you that. He's also got some dog in him and can go get a bucket. However, his 3pt stats from the previous two seasons were pretty bad, so I'm not sure how much he would have improved Michigan in that realm.
I was a pretty big "give more minutes to Bajema" guy back in 2020, but I'm pretty meh on him now at Washington. He was a total non-factor the past two seasons, shooting 35% overall. He's a starter now in his fourth season of CBB and his shooting numbers are improved, but does he give you anything different than Joey Baker? I don't think so.
February 6th, 2023 at 7:36 PM ^
Crazy thing is I bet this starting 5 competes with our current starting 5.
Castleton
John's
Bajema
Jeb
DDJ / frankie
February 6th, 2023 at 7:40 PM ^
IMO, Johns, Zeb, and DDJ all found their level in conferences that are a step down from the Big Ten. Even Bajema went to a lesser P6 conference and a program that's been generally mediocre-to-bad under Mike Hopkins.
Only Castleton has continued to produce in a league of similar caliber to the Big Ten.
February 6th, 2023 at 7:59 PM ^
Honestly JB ruined Johns in his freshman year... as soon as he missed a shot or made a mistake JB yanked him from the game and then you never saw him again... by the time his sophomore year rolled around he was so afraid to be aggressive early in games because he didn't want to benched...
Every now and then you saw glimpses of the potential but it was usually in games where someone was hurt or in foul trouble and he didn't have to worry about getting benched...
February 6th, 2023 at 8:04 PM ^
So that is all on Beilein? It's not up to the player to adapt and overcome?
February 6th, 2023 at 8:17 PM ^
The point is, JB didn't give him a lot of leash unless he had to...
You are right it's on the player to figure it out but at the same time you as a coach you have to be able to put your players in the right spots to succeed, and parking their ass on the bench when they make a mistake is not the way to do it...
February 6th, 2023 at 10:15 PM ^
...A stark contrast to the leash on Caleb Houstan last year that was non existent through many games of no production.
February 7th, 2023 at 8:24 AM ^
so basically both approaches suck
February 7th, 2023 at 8:43 AM ^
How does one adapt to getting two minutes and, if not perfect, getting benched?
Truth is, Johns is like Terry Williams. His PPG at VCU are a product of the size of players he's going against night in, night out. VCU plays teams that are small ball mid-majors. You'd hope his stats improve. Zeb hitting 20% from 3 on the same team?!?
February 7th, 2023 at 8:54 AM ^
How does one adapt to getting two minutes and, if not perfect, getting benched?
We're talking about Johns' freshman year when Michigan had a pretty strong roster on their way to a #2 seed, right? I just don't see the argument for him getting a bunch of minutes, regardless of playing perfectly or not. It's not like he was a 5* guy that you couldn't keep off the court due to his skill. I also don't understand the the consternation of him being pulled after making a mistake. Isn't that pretty standard for a freshman? Make a mistake, get pulled, then an assistant coaches you up on what you did wrong?
February 6th, 2023 at 10:33 PM ^
Hunter would kill Castleton but his minutes would be nice.
DDJ or Frankie would both likely be starting. Shit 40% from 3 and 34% for Frankie? Is Frankie shooting often?
Bajema would be an interesting case on this team. We miss to many 3s when Hunter gets double teamed. Ultimately I would take one of the PGs.
February 7th, 2023 at 7:03 AM ^
Hunter struggles against active guys his size. I think Castleton would give Dickinson fits to be honest. HD dominates teams like OSU with no bigs.
February 7th, 2023 at 9:03 AM ^
That starting 5 would get worked by our starting 5. This is an atrocious take
February 7th, 2023 at 2:32 PM ^
Our starting 5 lost to an 8-15 Central team, beat Ohio by just 4, and Eastern by just 5. Frankie had a weak game but did start for a team that beat Michigan by 25.
Saying this is an atrocious take is and atrocious take.
February 6th, 2023 at 8:04 PM ^
Give me DDJ. The rest wouldn't help much. They only would've caused other transfers.
February 6th, 2023 at 8:41 PM ^
It's crazy to think we replaced Brandon Johns with Brandon Johns
February 6th, 2023 at 9:01 PM ^
I'm glad to see that DDJ is doing well.
February 6th, 2023 at 9:58 PM ^
Keeping DDJ and Cole would have been great. A veteran wing who could shoot and a PG for Dug to learn under who could also space the floor.
February 7th, 2023 at 8:52 AM ^
Bring back Frankie and Cole, with Castleton replacing Terry, and this team would be a top seed.
It would be nice to know what Juwan said or did to make Frankie and Cole leave--or not stay.
Jett and Hunter were going to be the stars of the team, no matter what, which is likely one reason those guys left. Frankie, though, seems like a hurt dawg with whatever Juwan probably told him he needed to work on if he wanted to be a starter this year. Rather than taking that criticism, he decided to show Juwan up by leaving and proving himself.
Now, how about we do this same futile exercise with the stats of our ex-girlfriends/boyfriends against our current significant others?
February 7th, 2023 at 9:08 AM ^
The fascination with Cole bajema in this thread is wild. The guy isn’t good and hasn’t been for any of his years. He’s a worse version of Joey baker. Pretty much all these guys are playing just ok in worse leagues. The only ones who could legitimately have helped this team are ddj and Frankie and even that is mostly because of the Llewelyn injury and not because they are impact players
February 7th, 2023 at 9:24 AM ^
Yeah, this is a pretty uninformed thread overall. DDJ shot 20% from three his junior year, and 29% from three, on high volume, his senior year and doesn’t take care of the ball. Michigan fans would’ve (rightly) been complaining up a storm if he was on the team with that type of production, which would’ve caused him to leave, so we wouldn’t have gotten his pretty good fifth year senior year that he’s having right now.
It’s just not how rosters work. You don’t get to airdrop people in, when they’re finally ready. It’s not a fantasy football league where you just claim someone off waivers when you need them.
February 7th, 2023 at 3:18 PM ^
Michigan fans complaining up a storm....
that's pretty common
February 7th, 2023 at 10:52 AM ^
Castleton didn't think he'd overtake Thad Garner so he transferred.
February 7th, 2023 at 12:11 PM ^
I almost posted something like this a few weeks ago when out of curiosity I checked out all of those teams on basketball reference. I was impressed that all of them (almost all) were in the top 2 scorers on their new teams. Bajema isn't exactly blowing up but he's on my all-time 'what could've been' Michigan players list. Same with Zeb. I feel like Zeb lit it up in the few appearances I saw him make.
And I really liked Castleton and was bummed he transferred. And I thought DeJulius had a lot of ability and was surprised he left. It sure would be nice to have a strong senior PG right about now.