colin castleton

sometimes the big gives up on you [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

As the basketball roster turns. Columbia grad transfer PG Mike Smith committed earlier today; Ace covered the departures and Jace Howard taking a walk-on year yesterday. Meanwhile a previous edition of UV mentioned that Isaiah Todd had removed various mentions of Michigan from his social media accounts. These items are in conflict: Michigan's created scholarship room they suddenly don't seem to need.

Howard can always pick up a scholarship later, of course, but at some point the thought inside the program was that they had more bodies than spots. Brendan Quinn confirms that neither transfer out was planned:

DeJulius and Castleton are somewhat curious departures. Both were in line to compete for larger roles as juniors. Juwan Howard and his coaching staff were not planning for either departure and were somewhat surprised by the decisions, according to those close to the situation. Both contacted coaches and teammates before their transfer decisions were made public. It wasn’t known internally that Castleton was leaving until late Tuesday night.

DDJ averaged over 20 MPG last year and was going to have a shot at being the starting point guard, but there had to be some talk about a potential departure there for Michigan to go after two Ivy grad transfers. Those processes started weeks ago, particularly since Ivy grad transfers know for a fact they're leaving after the season.

Meanwhile, as the Never Give Up On A Big guy I'm obviously hurt by Castleton's departure. I half expect Castleton to take a redshirt year wherever he goes and then becomes Future Ibi Watson. Watson, who did little other than jump really high at Michigan, was the sixth man on the #4 team in college basketball this year, shooting 62/39 on solid usage. The grim Michigan fan sitting on my right shoulder projects him to have a top ten block rate on a mid-major darling in 2022.

Losing those two guys quickly turns Michigan's 2020-21 roster from a clown car into a reasonably full sedan. Further departures (or failures to arrive) leave open spots. So it's nice that Andrew Kahn tracked down Isaiah Todd's coach for some reassurance on that front:

Byron Williams wouldn't predict exactly when Todd would send his national letter of intent to Ann Arbor, but has no doubt that he will.

"Absolutely," Williams told MLive on Thursday when asked if Todd will end up a Wolverine. "He loves Juwan (Howard)."

Todd's foreign options have always loomed but it seems like those would be off the table now since foreign leagues are just as shut down as the US is. Hard to imagine they'd be able to negotiate deals with one-and-dones right now.

[After THE JUMP: Smith comparables.]

Colin Castleton will fulfill his stretch five potential somewhere else [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Jace Howard to Walk On

The first bit of major roster news to break last night was TMI's Josh Henschke reporting that Jace Howard will join the program as a walk-on. This isn't a major surprise—his dad is the head coach and once signed the then-biggest contract in NBA history—and it opens up a scholarship while Michigan pursues Josh Christopher and grad transfers.

That news got superceded in the witching hour, however.

Colin Castleton Enters Transfer Portal

Castleton had a hard time getting off the bench as the season went on [Campredon]

Michigan's offseason approach foreshadowed unexpected attrition and that describes Colin Castleton's decision to put his name in the transfer portal, news that broke after midnight. Castleton's departure leaves two traditional centers, redshirt senior Austin Davis and blue chip freshman Hunter Dickinson, on scholarship for next year's team.

Castleton's transfer didn't come entirely out of left field. After beginning last season as Jon Teske's primary backup, Castleton fell behind Davis not long after Michigan's early-season schedule got difficult; the skinny sophomore needed another year before he'd be ready to match up with the bigger and stronger competition. Relegated to garbage time and the occasional two-big lineup, he cracked double-digit minutes only once after the calendar flipped to 2020, and that came in a Rutgers game Isaiah Livers missed to injury.

While our maxim of never giving up on big men applies to Castleton, between the declining minutes, playing for a coach that didn't recruit him, Davis's return for a redshirt senior year, and the addition of Dickinson, it's understandable why he'd seek another opportunity.

While Castleton's departure leaves Michigan with two true bigs, they have plenty of flexibility with the current projected roster. Brandon Johns ended up playing more at center than Castleton by the end of the season and should only be better suited for that role with another season of experience. Isaiah Livers, should he take his name out of the draft, played a little small-ball center under Beilein. Incoming freshman Isaiah Todd, should he remain in the class, has the potential to be a switchable nightmare against certain lineups.

Castleton never seemed to mesh with what Juwan Howard wanted out of his center. I still like Castleton's talent but it makes sense that he'd look to utilize it in another system. Michigan, meanwhile, should be able to absorb the hit if they don't have too many more departures, and we'll see if Castleton's exit spurs them to look at a grad transfer big man.

[Hit THE JUMP for the current scholarship situation and the potential roster developments.]

post-call reactions: excellent [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Let's dive back in to more of your questions, starting with what makes for a successful coach.

Hi Ace,

Curious on your thoughts on what the most important aspects to being a great college coach are (e.g. 40% recruiting/roster management, 30% team management, 20% PR/face of program, 10% scheme/Xs-and-Os, etc), and how you'd grade Howard's first season along those lines, as well as a prognosis going forward.

Best,

Mike

I'll preface with this: there's a lot more than one way to be a highly successful college coach. Recruiting at a high level can cover for shortcomings as a strategist. A strong player development program can make up for recruiting lesser talent than your peers. John Beilein and Larry Brown have (officially) made the same number of Final Fours. Same goes for Bill Self and Jay Wright. These coaches aren't similar in on- or off-court approach but they've fit at their respective schools, which is arguably the most important factor.

If I had to break it down into categories, they'd be: fit with school/administration, recruiting/image, roster management, player development, scheme, and game management. While an elite college coach doesn't have to be great at every one of these factors, they usually check off most of the boxes.

It's early yet to be able to judge Juwan Howard on some of these. A quick stab at grades:

Fit with school/administration: A. I'm assuming the readers of this post are familiar with Juwan Howard, former All-American at Michigan, basketball lifer, and universally regarded good dude. It's hard to overstate how fortunate the program was that such a tight fit was available despite the late timing of John Beilein's departure.

Recruiting/image: A. Howard is the face of the program, his first recruiting class ranks fourth in the country, and he could still add a second five-star to that group. This moves up to an A+ if Josh Christopher commits—it'd be difficult to imagine a better start after Howard had to hit the ground running with a 2020 class that needed more commits than usual.

Roster management: Incomplete. We'll learn more about Howard's ability to juggle a roster this offseason. He appears prepared for unexpected attrition with Michigan's pursuit of multiple grad transfer point guards even though the team is full for the moment after scratching Austin Davis and Adrien Nunez off the potential attrition list.

Beilein learned the hard way that great programs lose players at a steady rate to both the NBA and programs where even established rotation players can find more playing time; it took him a while to adjust and he still got caught off-guard by last year's early entry decisions by Jordan Poole and Iggy Brazdeikis. Howard seems to know how the game is played and his experience as both a former elite player and the father of high-level prospects should serve him well.

Player development: Incomplete. The unexpected breakout of Austin Davis indicates Howard at least should be good at getting the most out of his big men. That said, it's way too early to put a grade on his player development. This is something to revisit a year or three down the road.

Scheme: B+. I really like the framework. Howard didn't stand pat with John Beilein's offense despite having his pick-and-roll duo as seniors, instead building around the ball screen offense with plenty of NBA sets and added wrinkles. The defensive philosophy was also clear: play man defense with the occasional zone changeup (almost always after a timeout), use drop pick-and-roll coverage when possible, run shooters off the arc, and force players to beat you one-on-one.

I need to see more to move the grade any higher, especially since he could build so much off the Simpson/Teske pick-and-roll—we'll get a clearer view of how Howard wants to operate as he molds the roster to his preference instead of working with another coach's players.

Game management: B-. The area I most want to see improvement. Howard made some strange lineup decisions during the season that were usually borne of his strong adherence to the hated autobench policy. His best schematic adjustments often came either between games against the same opponent (see: hedging Cassius Winston and leaving Xavier Tillman to shoot in the second MSU game) or too late in the game to alter the outcome (see: playing Brandon Johns at center against Wisconsin).

I wouldn't say Howard was bad at game management by any stretch. He had to work within some serious limitations when Franz Wagner and Isaiah Livers were absent for significant stretches of time. He utilized timeouts well on both ends, drawing up effective plays and using that zone changeup to flummox offenses running a set to beat man. I would've loved to see him in a postseason tournament setting this year. Alas.

[Hit THE JUMP for what I'm missing most about the tournament, what next year's offense could look like, and more.]

still extremely good at this, thankfully

not like 80s music, like putting weird things together and having it work... okay like 80s music 

two bigs ftw

causing mass hysteria

upside is upside 

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

struggling without a functional Livers

a decisive win for winston

their hockey team is good though

espn

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha