Frankie Collins entered portal 3/26
Up late and decided to see if there were any new projections on players coming to Michigan when I noticed that Frankie Collins entered the portal again on 3/26.
Here is an article about it. 4 high schools and 3 colleges so far. Whoo boy.
Looked up ASU and I was surprised by how bad they’ve been for the past 4-5 seasons. I swear people were talking about Bobby Hurley being a great coach but his record is meh at best.
Also, Frankie needs to get to 5 schools for the new record apparently. I’m rooting for him.
If he gets to 5 punches, the next pizza is half off.
March 27th, 2024 at 12:41 PM ^
Maybe it's just lazy people confusing Bobby with Dan?
Maybe people are confusing Bobby with Dan?
Hey, let he who didn't go to a different school each year of eligibility throw the first stone.
*I'm throwing the first stone*
To his credit, he managed to stay at ASU for two straight years. Longest he's stuck around at one location since his Freshman/Sophomore year in high school, as he's been on the move constantly since.
On a more serious note, it just looks like he never developed the efficiency needed to be a viable player for a serious team. ASU scuffled with him as their lead player, and his already bleh efficiency took another backwards step when his usage increased this season. Combo that with his shot never coming around (terrible FT% and poor from 3) and he's on the move again, I'm guessing as a down transfer barring something that I'm missing.
Michigan definitely had a bunch of roster management blunders in the late Howard era, but this turned out to be one of the less destructive ones, at least from a what the player turned into standpoint. Obviously I'm skeptical of his career choices, but no need for sour grapes, best wishes towards a kid who's figuring things out.
It wasn't the most impactful mistake, but it is a good vignette of the recruiting philosophy differences between JB and Howard. Beilein never would have recruited Frankie in the first place. Dusty appears to be a return to that philosophy which is probably the best thing for Michigan.
I believe Beilein told his assistants to never bring him a guard who can’t shoot. Darius Morris and Zavier Simpson are the worst shooters he had at PG, if memory serves me well.
Okay, but Zavier was like...really bad at shooting. And he ended up being pretty darn good for Beilein.
Yeah but that hook shot though.
March 27th, 2024 at 10:33 PM ^
Alex's piece on the sad state of Michigan basketball under Juwan was mostly stuff we knew if you read this blog, but one thing I hadn't really thought about was how even the guys we lost out on never really did much. Frankie left and floundered at ASU. Josh Christopher and Isiah Todd haven't done anything impressive apparently. Diabate barely playing. Houstan appears to be getting a little run at least. Jett Howard. Still early for those guys of course but given all that talent no one appears to be tracking towards a good NBA career yet. Before that piece I had been thinking, "Well if they could just bring in some more of these guys or get them to stay...". I'd rather have someone who can find diamonds in the rough who are going to stick around.
I didn't realize Orlando has 4 former Michigan players: Jett, Caleb, and the Wagners.
I wish Frankie the best as well. The article makes it sound like he was wanted at ASU. Assuming he's not going to make it to the NBA, testing the NIL/transfer waters is probably a smart move. It just gets a little ridiculous to be on your 7th school in [8] years. I get basketball is a business, but you can't be getting a great education or making life long friends if you're making huge moves every year.
He's his own worse enemy, can't shoot, has an attitude problem and doesn't stick it out and try to endure adversity and come out the other side the better for it.
I wish him well but not the kind of player I want on my team, sorry.
lol...an attitude problem.
He's definitely not playing school..
In the mass transfer era there will be a LOT more guys finishing their eligibility without coming close to graduating. The long-term implications are not good.
That was also true before the mass transfer era.
I'm sure plenty will "graduate" in the sense that they have degrees, but the quality of the education will be necessarily limited by the lack of continuity. I agree with something Seth has said a few times, which is that the NCAA needs to die on THIS hill. Forget trying to preserve amateurism, that ship has sailed. Instead make a real effort to make rules that encourage people to finish their degrees with minimal disruption from transfers. IOW, make transferring super easy if you have a degree in hand, but make it challenging if not.
That would be 1 thing the NCAA could still do to provide some value to student athletes.
Interested what other ideas are out there to discourage transferring?
March 27th, 2024 at 10:35 PM ^
Contracts
Didn't the NCAA just try to restrict multiple transfers by undergrads? And they were forced to abandon it by various state lawmakers? Maybe I misunderstood what happened, but I don't see how the NCAA can limit transfers any more than with the minimal rules they have now..
I thought the restrictions that the states jumped on were for NIL inducements in recruiting. I don't recall any state suing the NCAA around undergrad transfer rules, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.
I don't know how you'd enforce it either, to be honest. It's not like the NCAA had meaningful enforcement powers even before state AGs starting tearting them apart in court. Punishments have always hinged on voluntary compliance; WTF would the NCAA really have been able to REALLY do if Harbaugh had coached those games for us last year?
I think their best bet would be to do something to make transferring WITH a degree somehow preferable or more incentivized - using a carrot rather than stick model would be less likely to get nuked in court.
I agree with what I think your intention is but in reality a degree is an accomplishment no matter how it is achieved. In the meantime, some people change their minds and move around a lot. They change schools, switch jobs, move to different cities, etc. Of course this disrupts continuity and the building of a coherent resume, ie. it's sub-optimal in general terms, but individuals have their reasons and shouldn't be dissuaded IMHO. They are adults and are free to choose if they see fit, even if some of us on the outside think it's not a great idea.
Isn't that a bit presumptuous? It may not be the way you or I received a degree, but conceptually, so long as the student takes the required classes and gains from those classes the required knowledge to earn a degree, why should it matter how many schools the student attended?
It certainly can take longer to meet the requirements, but that's a semi-normal occurrence as well.
Lots of people don't have the privilege of attending college for four years at one school, whether from financial limitations or simply life getting in the way. I think your argument that we should prevent transfers so that their education is not lessened disparages in some way the achievments of those people that persevere to obtain a college degree in non-traditional pathways.
It's somewhat presumptuous, I won't argue with that, but I think it's also generally right. I don't mean to disparage non-traditional pathways, but to your point it IS more difficult to go that route. Traditional is traditional for a reason, right? And more power to the people who manage the non-traditional pathway successfully - that is playing the game on hard mode.
But I think that when you add the difficulty of cobbling together degree requirements from different institutions on top of the difficulty of being a D1 athlete, the result is not likely to be an educational outcome equivalent to someone who went straight through at 1 school.
I don't think it's impossible, but I do think that it adds such a degree of difficulty that in practice it will degrade the educational outcome in the great majority of cases. I think it would behoove the NCAA (if it wants to pretend to support education) to try to encourage some educational continuity.
March 27th, 2024 at 10:18 AM ^
With respect to athletes, I think this is pearl clutching. A good deal of college athletes, especially football and basketball players are not being pushed to take advantage of college degrees in the same way as the average college student. They're taking online classes, they're pushed to degrees that mesh well with being a high level college athlete, etc. Yes, there is an administrative inefficiency in changing schools where some of your credits may no longer apply to the degree at a new school. But, between summer school and a potential redshirt year, they often have the extra time.
For those athletes that are there to "play school" they probably aren't all that interested in transferring and don't need "protection" from themselves and a decision to transfer.
Adding restrictions is to protect the sanctity of the college athlete education is unnecessary and pretends that NCAA schools haven't been ignoring the educational aspect for years now.
Universal credits and/or universally recognized skills are something that needs to happen even outside of athletics. Once you are enrolled, colleges are essentially monopolies. Sure you can transfer, but it is going to cost you a semester or more which is a big hurdle when you're paying $50-$75k a year. With online learning and MOOCs, college costs should be dropping like a stone, but they keep going up because administrators are building empires, predatory lending companies have made more funds available or whatever pet theory floats your boat.
Universal credits make institutions compete for dollars. Why pay $15k for calculus I when you could take it online from the same professor for $50/month?
Transfer rule changes didn’t completely change eligibility requirements. You still have to progress towards a degree to be eligible. If after two years you only have 40 random credits, you aren’t playing.
That kid is a mess
March 27th, 2024 at 11:18 AM ^
Could be. Or he could be way ahead of his time. Maybe he's jumping ship every year, or maybe he's maximizing the opportunity to travel the country on basketball scholarships and NIL deals. Either way, I don't know the kid personally, and I wish him the best.
What's that song? "Did you ever have to make up your mind..."
But maybe I shouldn't comment. 5 schools since high school, a dozen full-time jobs, and double that many in part-time work. Not counting volunteer part-time stuff.
Yeah, but you’re 60 with 4 grad degrees
March 27th, 2024 at 10:49 AM ^
I believe the song you were looking for was “I’ve been everywhere”.
"Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind," by the Lovin' Spoonful.
Been going on since HS... definitely a parent issue.
Maybe it is, perhaps it isn't, but it's horrible to assume you know his life.
March 27th, 2024 at 12:37 PM ^
Horrible is hyperbolic, don't you think? Everyone here speculates all the time about everything.
And as a classroom teacher of 26 years what I've experienced is that 99% of the time it is, in fact, the parents.
Where is he going next, Hollywood? Tell him to Relax, Don't do it.
some odd decison making. Not sure who is advising him, but at a certain point, people start to think wonder if problem is the result of the player and not the school.
Remember that some faulted Howard for Collins leaving, and that must have been a factor. Still, sometimes it takes time to get a full perspective.
I faulted Howard for bringing him in in the first place, or hoped he'd learn a lesson about recruiting red flags. 4 high schools just didn't read right to me. This isn't a more typical situation where someone went to IMG or Montverde (or a similar factory) for their last 1-2 years of HS.
March 27th, 2024 at 12:59 PM ^
I think there's a lot of hindsight vision going on here. I don't think there was anyone complaining about Howard's recruiting when he brought in Frankie and the rest of his top 5 class.
Edit - as expected, his hello post is overwhelmingly positive with nary a mention in the post itself or the comments about attending multiple high schools
https://mgoblog.com/content/hoops-hello-frankie-collins
Somebody really needs to take Frankie aside and talk about the word “commitment.”
He probably never should have been at Michigan. I know it's a business but to have it work at Michigan you have to be into school on some kind of serious level. You can't be worrying about academic suspensions and constant transfers.
What obligation, if any, should a player have to the school that offers him. / her a four year scholarship?
Best of luck, Frankie. I hope you get or have gotten a degree and have taken school seriously.
March 27th, 2024 at 10:51 AM ^
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
March 27th, 2024 at 11:06 AM ^
The old saying "addition by subtraction" (subtracting a negative is like adding a positive) may apply here. I did hope he'd find a place and learn his trade, but it looks like he is simply sucking oxygen out of the room.
His team got smoked by 33 in the final PAC12 tourney, while he scored 20 of the 57 points. Seems like a guy playing 1 on 5. Opponents are more than willing to let him isolate himself on the court from his teammates.
He really did have a solid SOPH year as a transfer. 2:1 ASST/TO ratio. "improved" FT% from 44 to 62. Team made NCAA and advanced to round of 32.
Meanwhile, I'd be happy if GWIII comes back, even if just to be a role player helping spell the guards in Dusty's 3-G offense.
March 27th, 2024 at 12:33 PM ^
He's The Wanderer!
March 27th, 2024 at 12:38 PM ^
Transferring that many times from high school to now, just sounds exhausting.
New routines, new place to get used to, new people to meet/build relationships, new housing..etc
Im tired just typing that out.
March 27th, 2024 at 12:55 PM ^
It’s not, where you live or where is home?
its, Where you stay at???