I suspect the staff is pretty happy with their OL and DL guys, and most of the transfers they're getting now seem like depth guys anyway, as you're really late in the cycle. It's why a number of them are multi year eligibility players, so even if you have to build them up you still get another season.
I looked at the QB transfers still out there and I'd take this room over any of them. Harbaugh left so late in the cycle that there weren't a ton of high level QB options left when UM seriously got to looking.
Orji was barely a 50% passer in HS, and hasn't look all that accurate in the brief snapshots we've gotten from him in college. I think there's upside there but he was basically a rawer Joe Milton coming out of HS because he's a bit more of a runner and has a weaker arm (something that is admittedly true of 99% of all passers in college), and so I've never quite gotten the over-the-top framing of him.
I think they're "happy" with the guys they have in part because they know them and recruited them but also because by the time Harbaugh left most of the impact transfers were likely already slotted elsewhere, if not committed. And so you're stuck either taking a flyer on a guy who's probably no better than the ones you have on campus or standing pat and trying to build up one of your own and so I get that the latter feels like a better option.
Feels like another body with some upside you throw into the secondary and hope sticks as a depth piece at least.
Does feel like Moore and co. are trying to raise the floor for the secondary with the losses of Moore and Sabb since the ceiling is also lower, which is a good strategy.
Yeah, everything I've read makes it pretty clear it was an accident with police presence and Scheffler drove over a median despite multiple people telling him to stop. Maybe the cop didn't need to grab onto the car but there's a dead guy 50 yards away and a car is ignoring you and trying to drive around the accident by basically going into incoming traffic (admittedly it probably wasn't too busy at 5 am). I'm generally of the belief that police abuse their power way too often but this sure reads like a egotistical golfer thinking he's above waiting in traffic and ignoring someone telling him to stop.
I sure can't think of anything that happened globally between 2020 and 2022 that would lead to people perhaps temporarily, perhaps permanently, leaving denser areas with lots of people for the (relative) space of suburbs and exurbs. Yep, truly a mystery, as is stopping a chart in 2022 and not looking at, oh I don't know, more recent data.
Yeah, that surprised me but I think it's also because Detroit (the city) is relatively small physically. Detroit is around 143 square miles while Memphis is over 300 square miles, Louisville is 380 square miles, and Portland is 145 square miles. So it's quite a bit more dense than 2 of those 3 cities.
It is weird that people complained loudly about cable companies having games and then seem shocked that non-cable companies now have games on them. All I've heard for years online, including here, is how people hated cable and how streaming and "cutting the cord" was great except as it pertained to sports. Well, now a bunch of those games are heading over to streaming platforms, and I suspect the NBA will also have some games on Netflix or similar streamers as well. This decision, along with the NFL games on Amazon and MLB on Apple, seemingly should be met with approval because it further eliminated the friction of cord cutting.
Congrats to softball on a great turnaround and a BTT title. Hopefully they can make some noise at OKie St. even if they're likely to be on the short end of some games.
I agree to an extent but he also got busted driving drunk in Ann Arbor despite having an important position with, you assume, a lot of support around him from two staffs now.
We've now had two coaches in short succession get busted for DUIs while at UM. I don't think it's necessarily related to UM specifically but maybe stepping away and getting a fresh start elsewhere to go through rehab would be best. Obviously you keep the door open for him to return but temporary breaks aren't always a bad idea.
Wish him the best and I hope he can find some peace outside of football and be happy. He leaves a champion at UM and was integral in the team's success for those years.
It's sort of absurd that the Pistons have had the first pick exactly once in their history. This draft isn't particularly good so maybe not the biggest loss but this team can't catch a break even though they are also incompetently run.
Amazing performance and a great second half of the season by this team. Feels like Softball might be rounding back into shape like they were under Hutch. Congrats.
Mel Tucker seems to expect a lot of things and is then sorely disappointed when they don't go his way. My guess is this lawsuit will continue that trend.
I forget, is Gene Smith the AD who failed to stop Jim Tressel's teams from violating numerous NCAA rules, or is he the AD who got suspended for how egregiously he mishandled Zach Smith's spousal abuse under Urban Meyer?
Anyway, I know people seem to believe Warde is somehow uniquely bad as an AD but honestly they're all sort of goobers.
Yeah, the jump from UCLA NIL bags to OSU bags will be significant for him, and my guess is guys like Judkins and Henderson aren't going to take too much mess from a guy who fled UCLA before the posse ran him out of town.
I remember hearing at the time he was with Philly and SF that a lot of players really didn't like him, and that the power dynamics in college were better for him since he could, basically, bully young kids more than grown men who made a lot of money.
I continue to contend that while OSU should be the favorite talent-wise to win the title this year, trying to keep everyone on the same page and positive is going to be a huge hurdle for Ryan Day and I'm not sure he's up to it.
Yeah, there's a world where it's just money and everyone kind of squints at it but no strings are attached, but I have my doubts we don't wind up with some 21-year-old SF from Florida giving a kidnapped-victim-reading-a-statement testimonial performance while reading to UAE-approved copy about how it's a great place to visit and invest in.
Not crazy about the UAE sports washing via a college basketball tournament in Vegas. I get this is 2024 and it's the new reality but...just not great vibes.
Anyway, in other news Brian Kelly is a goober and may somehow be the one LSU coach out of Les Miles, Ed Orgeron, and himself to NOT win a title at LSU.
Honestly, this feels the right way to handle it. That was uncomfortable in the moment and his post-event handling wasn't great. You'd never act the way he did toward a male athlete and I think putting that bright line out there is good.
It's insane they basically let a techbros give his investor pitch for graduation, but also someone died DURING THE CEREMONY and they apparently didn't acknowledge it. Just insanity.
I agree their defense seems like the calling card this season but that's so antithetical to what OSU has been under Day that I could see it go sideways if they struggle. They honestly were a defense-first team for a lot of last year and it worked somewhat well but ran into issues against the better teams on the schedule.
Yeah, maybe I'm just a jaded hockey fan but "Michigan Hockey Summer" is pretty consistent and just because Minnesota inexplicably is able to convince all of their stars to come back doesn't mean UM is insulated from it.
They got 2 years out of him and that's about what fans should expect at this point.
They made the playoffs during the weird 2020 season if I rememeber correctly, but 2021 was the year where they finished 5th in the regular season and would have likely gotten in over Cincy or UM had either suffered a late-season loss. That year they went 11-1 in the regular season and beat some big-name teams like FSU, Purdue, Wisconsin, USC, and UNC while losing to Cincy, but digging in you see that:
FSU went 5-7 (2022 they went 10-3)
Purdue went 9-4
Wisconsin went 9-4 before the wheels came off for Chryst
USC went 4-8 (next year they went 11-3 with Lincoln Riley taking over)
UNC went 6-7 (sandwiched in between 8-4 and 9-4 seasons).
So yeah, just sort of a meh season where they looked...fine on paper but I think only Cincy finished ranked and that was their one loss. They've had this ability to play "helmet" teams when they're sort of down, and the casual fan doesn't realize it.
Oh look, an article written by an OSU beat writer about how OSU did something well. Truly amazing journalism coming from The Athletic and a testament to what low interest rates and tech bros "lose money until a sucker comes by to buy you out for half a billion dollars" mindset can get you.
I don't quite get why Harbaugh and co. continue to bash certain aspects of UM and the people who are still working there. I get that his players and coaches really liked him - he seems like a good boss for football people. But I can also see how he'd be exhausting as an employee, and how he's mix it up with employers. But he left UM months ago for the NFL and AFAIK UM hasn't been taking swipes at him in the media or elsewhere.
And yet Tom Mars dragged UM a bit ago, now John is taking swipes, etc. It just seems unnecessary now; both UM and Harbaugh got a lot of good out of their relationship and now it's done, and so I don't see the value in this public jostling anymore.
Wimsatt was always a project but he maybe picked the worst spot for him at Rutgers, who basically started him as soon as he walked in the front door but then seemingly didn't do anything to help him develop. He's likely not an upgrade over anyone in the roster; if UM is going to go with an athletic, moderately accurate passer I'd stick with Orji.
The BYU guys basically having permanent COVID shirts because of their missions, and then usually being dads with 2 kids as juniors, is always surreal. It's also why I'm a bit dubious about their coaches being elsewhere, as they're used to having physically developed guys in bulk by means that aren't reproducible elsewhere.
Yeah, if UM was running OSU's offense that would be a scary depth chart (in a bad way) but given Moore's offensive proclivities that's a roster you can live with especially in a transition season.
That said, if they could shake someone else loose that would be nice. Not sure there are a lot of reasonable options still out there but even a couple of depth guys would be nice.
He's a depth guy but averages 15.2 ypc on 33 catches this year, which shows some bigger play potential. He also tore his ACL in 2022 so he was likely returning from injury last season a bit. And he's got 2 years of he wants a COVID shirt, apparently, so that's nice.
I'll save the relitigation of admissions because basically nobody totally understands it or has insights into specific cases. But I will say that it's not UM's job to make an exception for a guy who's been in college for 4 years and apparently isn't all that close to graduating. He's in the same class as Cade Cunningham and Caleb Love, amongst others, and while I'm sure there are factors involved here I don't blame an admissions office for saying they aren't going to make an exception for a 1-year player.
Yeah, that's the NCAA's rule and seemingly has been a big reason why guys don't come over to UM because of the lack of credit parity during a transfer.
It is sort of weird that a guy who's been in college for 4 years would still be a not-insignificant number of credits away from graduation at this point.
I don't really get the context of you repeatedly complaining to a cable company's CS rep about a service you keep paying them for, but to each his own.
Honestly, I am interested to know why you keep using a service you clearly don't like. Is it just there isn't another option out there for you?
Kentucky is the definition of a temporary landing spot for a lot of these guys and I fully expect he'll either decommit at some point or transfer after a year.
I suspect BJM is liked enough by players - he's a crack recruiter and has gotten kudos at UM and UT from former players as a good guy. But I do suspect some of these young guys don't see basically anyone left on the staff they know and probably want a chance to play somewhere else. I also have a sense that UM wasn't super happy with some of these guys given who they've targeted in the portal, and while that sucks it's better now that guys can move on instead of being buried for 3-4 years.
I do think recruiting at UM is in a weird spot with the staff turnover and they'll need to figure out what they're looking for under Wink and target those guys in this cycle or they're going to have a hole in the roster in a year or two.
I suspect BJM is liked enough by players - he's a crack recruiter and has gotten kudos at UM and UT from former players as a good guy. But I do suspect some of these young guys don't see basically anyone left on the staff they know and probably want a chance to play somewhere else. I also have a sense that UM wasn't super happy with some of these guys given who they've targeted in the portal, and while that sucks it's better now that guys can move on instead of being buried for 3-4 years.
I do think recruiting at UM is in a weird spot with the staff turnover and they'll need to figure out what they're looking for under Wink and target those guys in this cycle or they're going to have a hole in the roster in a year or two.
Not wholly unexpected but glad he's back. I think with a more coherent roster and role he could flourish. A big weakness IMO was his handle late in the shot clock, and if he's asked to be more of an off ball shooter and cutter he's got the athleticism to pull that off as well as be a good defender.
I've been accused numerous times of being way too optimistic abut UM sports generally and, weirdly, MBB in particular, to the point that I was rather graphically described as performing sexual acts to multiple individuals at the same time due to my zealotry, and even I think 1 7/8 seed might be a bit too high in year 1. It's not that these guys aren't talented (they are) but they are mostly players in a new system and with relatively limited experience playing together even with an offseason to prepare.
There will be hiccups, missteps, guys in the wrong place at the wrong time or not being on the same page. And a lot of them are up-transferring to one extent or another. Yes, Donaldson, Gayle, and Walters are coming from similar programs but Goldin, Wolf, and Jones are going to run into a different level of competition than they're used to, while Pippen, Brooks, and Cason are all HS kids making that transition to college ball. There are 5 guys (if you count GW III) on this roster who've played some level of P5 basketball, and even that's got caveats about playing time and effectiveness. That's actually worse than last season's roster on paper, which is sort of insane to think about.
They'll likely show growth during the year and I like the pieces they have, but I've contended that .500 in conference and on the bubble is the floor for this team, and being on the bubble would be the expectation. This year the conference was really down so .500 gets you in the 5-6 range but next year there are 4 new teams in the conference and, in theory, they'll mostly be solid teams. But a 7/8 seed this year were teams like Texas, Wazzou, FAU, etc. Not great teams but ones that had coherent approaches with more experienced (at this level) rosters. Thats what "scares" me about this team - they're are a lot of unknowns and even the floor requires them to really hit on a bunch of these transfers and signings in a way that would be great if they happened but aren't statistically a given.
I hope he finds a home in the NFL. He still has a cannon of an arm and that's something, but I remember this year thinking they really didn't trust him throwing beyond a couple yards downfield or just launching 9 routes, so he'll need a lot of development in the NFL to get on the field.
I'm surprised McGregor didn't get drafted; he seems like a guy who has the tools to be a contributor in the NFL. Same with Jones. I'm sure they'll land somewhere but a bit of a surprise.
I would love for people to explain how retaining basically everyone of note outside of Sabb and Waller is "embarrassing", but my guess is that level of discourse isn't on the docket. Kentucky has portalled something like 25% of their team this offseason and are coming off a 7-6 season. Michigan's barely lost anyone and is coming off a national title. Feels like UM is maybe a tier or two higher than the doomsayers want them to be.
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UM had their starting QB drafted in the first round literally this year.
I suspect the staff is pretty happy with their OL and DL guys, and most of the transfers they're getting now seem like depth guys anyway, as you're really late in the cycle. It's why a number of them are multi year eligibility players, so even if you have to build them up you still get another season.
I looked at the QB transfers still out there and I'd take this room over any of them. Harbaugh left so late in the cycle that there weren't a ton of high level QB options left when UM seriously got to looking.
Orji was barely a 50% passer in HS, and hasn't look all that accurate in the brief snapshots we've gotten from him in college. I think there's upside there but he was basically a rawer Joe Milton coming out of HS because he's a bit more of a runner and has a weaker arm (something that is admittedly true of 99% of all passers in college), and so I've never quite gotten the over-the-top framing of him.
I think they're "happy" with the guys they have in part because they know them and recruited them but also because by the time Harbaugh left most of the impact transfers were likely already slotted elsewhere, if not committed. And so you're stuck either taking a flyer on a guy who's probably no better than the ones you have on campus or standing pat and trying to build up one of your own and so I get that the latter feels like a better option.
Feels like another body with some upside you throw into the secondary and hope sticks as a depth piece at least.
Does feel like Moore and co. are trying to raise the floor for the secondary with the losses of Moore and Sabb since the ceiling is also lower, which is a good strategy.
Seems like a depth piece but never hurts to have a former P5 contributor. Still expect a couple more transfers.
Yeah, everything I've read makes it pretty clear it was an accident with police presence and Scheffler drove over a median despite multiple people telling him to stop. Maybe the cop didn't need to grab onto the car but there's a dead guy 50 yards away and a car is ignoring you and trying to drive around the accident by basically going into incoming traffic (admittedly it probably wasn't too busy at 5 am). I'm generally of the belief that police abuse their power way too often but this sure reads like a egotistical golfer thinking he's above waiting in traffic and ignoring someone telling him to stop.
I seriously thought this was some Xtreme offset of frisbee golfing aka Frolf.
I sure can't think of anything that happened globally between 2020 and 2022 that would lead to people perhaps temporarily, perhaps permanently, leaving denser areas with lots of people for the (relative) space of suburbs and exurbs. Yep, truly a mystery, as is stopping a chart in 2022 and not looking at, oh I don't know, more recent data.
Yeah, that surprised me but I think it's also because Detroit (the city) is relatively small physically. Detroit is around 143 square miles while Memphis is over 300 square miles, Louisville is 380 square miles, and Portland is 145 square miles. So it's quite a bit more dense than 2 of those 3 cities.
It is weird that people complained loudly about cable companies having games and then seem shocked that non-cable companies now have games on them. All I've heard for years online, including here, is how people hated cable and how streaming and "cutting the cord" was great except as it pertained to sports. Well, now a bunch of those games are heading over to streaming platforms, and I suspect the NBA will also have some games on Netflix or similar streamers as well. This decision, along with the NFL games on Amazon and MLB on Apple, seemingly should be met with approval because it further eliminated the friction of cord cutting.
Congrats to softball on a great turnaround and a BTT title. Hopefully they can make some noise at OKie St. even if they're likely to be on the short end of some games.
Also, baseball looks competent, and I'll take it.
I agree to an extent but he also got busted driving drunk in Ann Arbor despite having an important position with, you assume, a lot of support around him from two staffs now.
We've now had two coaches in short succession get busted for DUIs while at UM. I don't think it's necessarily related to UM specifically but maybe stepping away and getting a fresh start elsewhere to go through rehab would be best. Obviously you keep the door open for him to return but temporary breaks aren't always a bad idea.
Probably the right decision even though it sucks. I hope he can land back on his feet and maybe come back to UM in a different capacity in the future.
It's a lot of money but also seemingly the going rate for QBs in the league.
Wish him the best and I hope he can find some peace outside of football and be happy. He leaves a champion at UM and was integral in the team's success for those years.
It's sort of absurd that the Pistons have had the first pick exactly once in their history. This draft isn't particularly good so maybe not the biggest loss but this team can't catch a break even though they are also incompetently run.
Finebaum being an asshole to a team I don't like doesn't absolve him of being an asshole.
I despise Urban Meyer so I'm always happy to see him dragged but old Pete is just a cynical hack who'll say whatever to get attention.
Amazing performance and a great second half of the season by this team. Feels like Softball might be rounding back into shape like they were under Hutch. Congrats.
Mel Tucker seems to expect a lot of things and is then sorely disappointed when they don't go his way. My guess is this lawsuit will continue that trend.
I forget, is Gene Smith the AD who failed to stop Jim Tressel's teams from violating numerous NCAA rules, or is he the AD who got suspended for how egregiously he mishandled Zach Smith's spousal abuse under Urban Meyer?
Anyway, I know people seem to believe Warde is somehow uniquely bad as an AD but honestly they're all sort of goobers.
Yeah, I was following online and thought the app was broke because it was just a series of rbi singles.
Yeah, the jump from UCLA NIL bags to OSU bags will be significant for him, and my guess is guys like Judkins and Henderson aren't going to take too much mess from a guy who fled UCLA before the posse ran him out of town.
I remember hearing at the time he was with Philly and SF that a lot of players really didn't like him, and that the power dynamics in college were better for him since he could, basically, bully young kids more than grown men who made a lot of money.
I continue to contend that while OSU should be the favorite talent-wise to win the title this year, trying to keep everyone on the same page and positive is going to be a huge hurdle for Ryan Day and I'm not sure he's up to it.
Yeah, there's a world where it's just money and everyone kind of squints at it but no strings are attached, but I have my doubts we don't wind up with some 21-year-old SF from Florida giving a kidnapped-victim-reading-a-statement testimonial performance while reading to UAE-approved copy about how it's a great place to visit and invest in.
Not crazy about the UAE sports washing via a college basketball tournament in Vegas. I get this is 2024 and it's the new reality but...just not great vibes.
Anyway, in other news Brian Kelly is a goober and may somehow be the one LSU coach out of Les Miles, Ed Orgeron, and himself to NOT win a title at LSU.
Honestly, this feels the right way to handle it. That was uncomfortable in the moment and his post-event handling wasn't great. You'd never act the way he did toward a male athlete and I think putting that bright line out there is good.
It's insane they basically let a techbros give his investor pitch for graduation, but also someone died DURING THE CEREMONY and they apparently didn't acknowledge it. Just insanity.
I agree their defense seems like the calling card this season but that's so antithetical to what OSU has been under Day that I could see it go sideways if they struggle. They honestly were a defense-first team for a lot of last year and it worked somewhat well but ran into issues against the better teams on the schedule.
Yeah, maybe I'm just a jaded hockey fan but "Michigan Hockey Summer" is pretty consistent and just because Minnesota inexplicably is able to convince all of their stars to come back doesn't mean UM is insulated from it.
They got 2 years out of him and that's about what fans should expect at this point.
Another tragedy. Condolences to his family.
A tragedy whenever someone this young dies. Condolences to his family.
They made the playoffs during the weird 2020 season if I rememeber correctly, but 2021 was the year where they finished 5th in the regular season and would have likely gotten in over Cincy or UM had either suffered a late-season loss. That year they went 11-1 in the regular season and beat some big-name teams like FSU, Purdue, Wisconsin, USC, and UNC while losing to Cincy, but digging in you see that:
So yeah, just sort of a meh season where they looked...fine on paper but I think only Cincy finished ranked and that was their one loss. They've had this ability to play "helmet" teams when they're sort of down, and the casual fan doesn't realize it.
Oh look, an article written by an OSU beat writer about how OSU did something well. Truly amazing journalism coming from The Athletic and a testament to what low interest rates and tech bros "lose money until a sucker comes by to buy you out for half a billion dollars" mindset can get you.
I don't quite get why Harbaugh and co. continue to bash certain aspects of UM and the people who are still working there. I get that his players and coaches really liked him - he seems like a good boss for football people. But I can also see how he'd be exhausting as an employee, and how he's mix it up with employers. But he left UM months ago for the NFL and AFAIK UM hasn't been taking swipes at him in the media or elsewhere.
And yet Tom Mars dragged UM a bit ago, now John is taking swipes, etc. It just seems unnecessary now; both UM and Harbaugh got a lot of good out of their relationship and now it's done, and so I don't see the value in this public jostling anymore.
Wimsatt was always a project but he maybe picked the worst spot for him at Rutgers, who basically started him as soon as he walked in the front door but then seemingly didn't do anything to help him develop. He's likely not an upgrade over anyone in the roster; if UM is going to go with an athletic, moderately accurate passer I'd stick with Orji.
The BYU guys basically having permanent COVID shirts because of their missions, and then usually being dads with 2 kids as juniors, is always surreal. It's also why I'm a bit dubious about their coaches being elsewhere, as they're used to having physically developed guys in bulk by means that aren't reproducible elsewhere.
Yeah, if UM was running OSU's offense that would be a scary depth chart (in a bad way) but given Moore's offensive proclivities that's a roster you can live with especially in a transition season.
That said, if they could shake someone else loose that would be nice. Not sure there are a lot of reasonable options still out there but even a couple of depth guys would be nice.
He's a depth guy but averages 15.2 ypc on 33 catches this year, which shows some bigger play potential. He also tore his ACL in 2022 so he was likely returning from injury last season a bit. And he's got 2 years of he wants a COVID shirt, apparently, so that's nice.
Welcome aboard.
I'll save the relitigation of admissions because basically nobody totally understands it or has insights into specific cases. But I will say that it's not UM's job to make an exception for a guy who's been in college for 4 years and apparently isn't all that close to graduating. He's in the same class as Cade Cunningham and Caleb Love, amongst others, and while I'm sure there are factors involved here I don't blame an admissions office for saying they aren't going to make an exception for a 1-year player.
UM basketball will survive without Davis anyway.
Yeah, that's the NCAA's rule and seemingly has been a big reason why guys don't come over to UM because of the lack of credit parity during a transfer.
It is sort of weird that a guy who's been in college for 4 years would still be a not-insignificant number of credits away from graduation at this point.
I don't really get the context of you repeatedly complaining to a cable company's CS rep about a service you keep paying them for, but to each his own.
Honestly, I am interested to know why you keep using a service you clearly don't like. Is it just there isn't another option out there for you?
Kentucky is the definition of a temporary landing spot for a lot of these guys and I fully expect he'll either decommit at some point or transfer after a year.
I suspect BJM is liked enough by players - he's a crack recruiter and has gotten kudos at UM and UT from former players as a good guy. But I do suspect some of these young guys don't see basically anyone left on the staff they know and probably want a chance to play somewhere else. I also have a sense that UM wasn't super happy with some of these guys given who they've targeted in the portal, and while that sucks it's better now that guys can move on instead of being buried for 3-4 years.
I do think recruiting at UM is in a weird spot with the staff turnover and they'll need to figure out what they're looking for under Wink and target those guys in this cycle or they're going to have a hole in the roster in a year or two.
I suspect BJM is liked enough by players - he's a crack recruiter and has gotten kudos at UM and UT from former players as a good guy. But I do suspect some of these young guys don't see basically anyone left on the staff they know and probably want a chance to play somewhere else. I also have a sense that UM wasn't super happy with some of these guys given who they've targeted in the portal, and while that sucks it's better now that guys can move on instead of being buried for 3-4 years.
I do think recruiting at UM is in a weird spot with the staff turnover and they'll need to figure out what they're looking for under Wink and target those guys in this cycle or they're going to have a hole in the roster in a year or two.
Wish him luck; it's weird to say but he's going to be on the conference slate so he'll see his old team at least once this year.
Not wholly unexpected but glad he's back. I think with a more coherent roster and role he could flourish. A big weakness IMO was his handle late in the shot clock, and if he's asked to be more of an off ball shooter and cutter he's got the athleticism to pull that off as well as be a good defender.
We only sorta knew you...again.
I've been accused numerous times of being way too optimistic abut UM sports generally and, weirdly, MBB in particular, to the point that I was rather graphically described as performing sexual acts to multiple individuals at the same time due to my zealotry, and even I think 1 7/8 seed might be a bit too high in year 1. It's not that these guys aren't talented (they are) but they are mostly players in a new system and with relatively limited experience playing together even with an offseason to prepare.
There will be hiccups, missteps, guys in the wrong place at the wrong time or not being on the same page. And a lot of them are up-transferring to one extent or another. Yes, Donaldson, Gayle, and Walters are coming from similar programs but Goldin, Wolf, and Jones are going to run into a different level of competition than they're used to, while Pippen, Brooks, and Cason are all HS kids making that transition to college ball. There are 5 guys (if you count GW III) on this roster who've played some level of P5 basketball, and even that's got caveats about playing time and effectiveness. That's actually worse than last season's roster on paper, which is sort of insane to think about.
They'll likely show growth during the year and I like the pieces they have, but I've contended that .500 in conference and on the bubble is the floor for this team, and being on the bubble would be the expectation. This year the conference was really down so .500 gets you in the 5-6 range but next year there are 4 new teams in the conference and, in theory, they'll mostly be solid teams. But a 7/8 seed this year were teams like Texas, Wazzou, FAU, etc. Not great teams but ones that had coherent approaches with more experienced (at this level) rosters. Thats what "scares" me about this team - they're are a lot of unknowns and even the floor requires them to really hit on a bunch of these transfers and signings in a way that would be great if they happened but aren't statistically a given.
I hope he finds a home in the NFL. He still has a cannon of an arm and that's something, but I remember this year thinking they really didn't trust him throwing beyond a couple yards downfield or just launching 9 routes, so he'll need a lot of development in the NFL to get on the field.
I'm surprised McGregor didn't get drafted; he seems like a guy who has the tools to be a contributor in the NFL. Same with Jones. I'm sure they'll land somewhere but a bit of a surprise.
I would love for people to explain how retaining basically everyone of note outside of Sabb and Waller is "embarrassing", but my guess is that level of discourse isn't on the docket. Kentucky has portalled something like 25% of their team this offseason and are coming off a 7-6 season. Michigan's barely lost anyone and is coming off a national title. Feels like UM is maybe a tier or two higher than the doomsayers want them to be.