Basketball Searchbits: Commitment Ho?
THING HAPPENING
2024 G Justin Pippen is announcing tomorrow. With several crystal ball picks for Michigan coming off Pippen's official and a very brief window between said visit and a commitment, this is almost certainly Michigan. None of the other schools in his final five (the others are GT, Stanford, Cal, and Texas A&M) are particularly known for basketball bags, and it's unlikely that the son of Scotty Pippen is prioritizing NIL in his decision.
THE LIMINAL SPACE BETWEEN HAPPENING AND NOT
FAU G Johnell Davis is the biggest name on the board for Michigan, and there's been general optimism about Davis eventually landing at Michigan. That ticked down yesterday after 247's Travis Branham posted something vague and negative about Michigan's chance to land Davis.
A couple hours later a youthful reporter covering FAU asserted that Davis would be on campus this weekend, which was subsequently confirmed by a couple other Michigan recruiting reporters. Then Sam Webb said that Davis was not going to be on campus this weekend, and the original tweet that set off the confirmations was deleted. Davis's absence from campus has now been confirmed, and there's widespread speculation that Davis is looking for bag first and foremost. On the roundtable this morning Webb asserted that Davis to Michigan was "fizzling," as Michigan's NIL efforts won't compare to places like Arkansas or Kentucky.
FWIW, Davis signed with Jay Z's agency.
[After THE JUMP: would you like a Ben Wallace]
VISITS PENDING
In addition to the guards expected to come in over the next few days (Auburn's Tre Donaldson and Aden Holloway plus OSU's Roddy Gayle and Wisconsin's Connor Essegian), Appalachian State sophomore C Justin Abson is also going to be in town this Saturday. Abson is a low-usage C who is a dunks-and-putbacks guy on offense; his main asset is a combo of block rate (8th and 21st nationally his first two years) and foul avoidance (2.2 fouls per 40) at 6'9". That is Ben Wallace-esque. Also reminiscent of Ben Wallace: career 41% FT shooter.
Abson is coming off visits to Georgia and Miami and will be at Xavier tomorrow.
Meanwhile it's unclear that Essegian will actually make his visit. Maryland 247 reports that he will go to Nebraska after seeing Maryland and Indiana but the Michigan visit is a "maybe."
MISCELLANEOUS
SDSU wing Micah Parrish (111 ORTG on 18% usage, 50/30/73 shooting, Beilein-esque TO rate, some steals and blocks), a Detroit native who spent his first two years at Oakland, lists Michigan as one of six schools to get in contact.
St Mary's SG Aidan Mahaney has Michigan on his long list, which also features the likes of Duke, UConn, and Kentucky. It seems like the entire world called about him as soon as he hit the portal.
Item on UNC's portal pursuits mentions that they're after Tennessee's Jonas Aidoo and Rutgers's Cliff Omoruyi at C; Danny Wolf is a notable omission.
SPECULATIVE PERCENTAGES BIT
- Vlad Goldin: 95%.
- Justin Pippen: 60% –> 90%. This was low before because there was not a definite commitment date.
- Tre Donaldson: 80%.
- Danny Wolf: 70%.
- Roddy Gayle Jr: 70%.
- Lorenzo Cason: 60%.
- Khani Rooths: 50%.
- Johnell Davis: 70% –> 40%. See above. Out-bagged, most likely.
- Connor Essegian: 40%.
- Aden Holloway: 40%.
- Aiden Mahaney: 40%. Leaving this where it is despite the Davis drop because the entire world contacted him.
- Terrance Williams: 30%.
- Joshua Jefferson: 20%.
- Dante Maddox/Kolby King: 5%.
- Alijah Martin/Elijah Elliott: 5%.
- Trey Townsend: 5%.
- Liam McNeeley: 1%.
SPECULATIVE ROSTER
Bold: locked in. Italics: new. Given the surfeit of guard prospects Michigan is in on and a relative lack of forwards we're shifting the projection to a three-guard lineup:
PG: Tre Donaldson (Jr), Durral Brooks (Fr), Lorenzo Cason (Fr)
SG: Jonnell Davis (Sr*), Aiden Mahaney (Jr), George Washington III (So), Justin Pippen (Fr)
Also SG: Roddy Gayle (Jr), Nimari Burnett (Jr*), Jace Howard (Sr*)
PF: Khani Rooths (Fr), Will Tschetter (Jr)
C: Vlad Goldin(Sr*), Danny Wolf (Jr)
So, it's come down to this, has it? A fight to the death. Mano a mano, man to man. Just you, and me, and my GUUUAAAAAAARRRRDS!!!
-Vlad Goldin, probably
"unlikely that the son of Scotty Pippen..."
Scottie, Brian.
I was gonna say that!
might be a subtle dig from a Detroit fan tho :)
I just hope he doesn’t suffer from migraines like his dad.
/not so subtle dig
I was looking at his wiki page the other day because I was curious about the spelling since his son’s name is spelled with a Y. Apparently his birth name is Scotty but he “goes by” Scottie. Maybe just got tired of correcting people and decided to go with it?
aka No-Tippin' Pippen. I'm not so sure he's not NIL-focused after all. :)
Scottie didn't get a bunch of big contracts (one of the reasons he was so disgruntled with the Bulls) and he got taken to the cleaners by a fraudtastic financial advisor. He's almost certainly got a lot less money than you'd expect someone of his fame as a player to have. But I'm sure he's still made enough (continued TV work, for instance) to be in a better financial position than a lot of these guys' families are.
Yeah, Pippen was criminally underpaid while he was with Chicago, partially due to poor advice and partially due to not understanding his worth until later. He still cashed out well with the Rockets and Blazers, but his career earnings are a lot lower than they could/should have been.
As long as we're misspelling names, can we call him Pippin and then sing Pippin songs at the games?
"We've got magic to do, just for you..."
My name.is S.D. Jones and I am a commitment ho.
What’s crazy to me is how we still get out-bagged for Davis (who is a proven player). Like what the fuck. So pathetic on many levels. Handicapping the new coach already with this garbage.
Fire Warde.
I would bet a dollar that May is working within the NIL budget and would rather get someone else cheaper at the position and use the excess funds on other positions... Surely we could meet Davis' market price, but I would think May is going at it as above.
i hope that dollar you're betting isn't coming out of the NIL budget
Like Sam said on the Roundtable you can only offer the NIL $'s that you have available. I took that to mean that there aren't enough donations at this point on the basketball side to entice him... yet.
Can't really blame Warde for that... but I do wish he was more forward thinking on the employment front.
I'd love to get Davis, but given the alleged NIL issues we have I think I'd rather we go get some younger, less expensive players instead.
Davis is only gonna be here a year, and next year is not gonna have a title run. Build for the future if this kid just wants a big bag.
Younger guys are more difficult to get credits to transfer tho.
So.. we should fire the athletic director for.. not breaking NCAA rules?
I hope to hell I am never as unhappy in my day-to-day life as you seem to be.
I get not offering him a million dollars or whatever but come on, there aren't NIL rules.
It's not that we can't afford Davis, it's that with the roster situation we need 5+ other transfers as well. Davis is really good, but we are probably better off spreading the NIL money around to have a deeper roster.
We have to buy 10+ players. These other programs only need to buy 5 or 6.
We will never match UK bags.
Arkansas bags are the Tyson guy who just took Calipari and promised him bags.
The whole system is dysfunctional anyhow. Everyone is a free agent every moment.
Arkansas bags are also literally Jerry Jones
Davis reportedly is pricing himself out of other p5 schools with his NIL demands. Unless he comes down on the price demand, he'll have trouble getting what he wants from NIL money.
I was curious about Justin Pippen, so....
https://247sports.com/Player/justin-pippen-46144706/
No. 139 player on the 247 Composite. Definitely a player Beilein could possibly turn into a draft pick. Maybe May can do the same magic if Pippen commits.
You didn't mention that Michigan's not getting John L. Smith either.
[For those who didn't listen to today's Roundtable, that's a joke based on a flub there.]
Holding steady at 7.41 expected additions, for a total roster size of 14.41.
Would like to get some of these out of the "expected" column and into the "actual" column.
Hmm I think Foster Loyer is out of eligibility, we might come up just short of your model
I will gladly take any reasonable facsimile of Ben Wallace...
Also maybe an unpopular opinion, but when we seem to be in the drivers seat for someone like Johnell Davis (who has a natural reason to come over with May) and it fades at the end, I am as quick to blame academic issues with admissions as I am to blame insufficient NIL money available. Maybe even moreso... I feel like the NIL problem is more solvable than the transfer academic requirements.
Isn't he a grad transfer though? Seems very unlikely that admissions is the problem here.
There is a rumor he in fact is not yet a graduate. Not sure if that has been clarified yet or not.
Regardless, he should be close enough to graduate over the summer like Nimari Burnett last year if he so desires.
Absolutely loving these quick little updates.
The University of Michigan can't compare to s place like Arkansas????
Michigan is officially a minor league team for the top basketball schools. No good players will stay at Michigan under these conditions.
Remember, kids: Anytime any player chooses another school over ours, for whatever reason, it means we have "officially become a minor league team." If we don't get everybody we want, we are "officially" a minor league team.
Arkansas is being fronted by a family member of the Tyson family. You know - nearly every damn chicken eaten in the US. Those guys,.
Where is Sam’s double secret recruit on the big board?
It's probably Rueben Jones, G from North Texas. Can shoot defend and play from 1-3 with his size at 6'5"
Not sure now is the time I would want tied to anything Jay Z 😬😬😬
Sounds like Scottie's son is a gentleman AND a scholar. That's neat. And he has his father's smile. Will be fun to have him in A2!
Will his mom be attending the games?
Sounds like Scottie's son is a gentleman AND a scholar. That's neat. And he has his father's smile. Will be fun to have him in A2!
EDIT: And hey! If we can double him up, all the better!
Now that the coaching staff is officially onboard, I'm hoping we'll see a little bit more action on the recruiting front. But I'm assuming we're still a ways away from the portal closing, so will stand-by for my free Michigan mgoblog info. Thanks guys
Will Larsa be attending Pippen's announcement?
Asking for one Gattis, Josh.
Who are UConn's bag people?
Serious question
When all this NIL unfolded we were shouted from the heavens about biggest alumni network ... and money cannons. And finally we would be on an even playing field. Meanwhile the massive alumni base of UConn can keep and recruit their kids.
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